Chickenlips Knitting

Behold, I give you a Sunday Swing Sock from Knitty. I seldom knit lace patterns into my socks, but this one is so easy even a short attention span knitter like me can fairly cruise. I'm using Misti Alpaca handpainted sock yarn, which has quite a nice feel and is beautifully dyed. Last night I finished dyeing an order of 40-plus skeins, so I'm going to take a brief Christmas break from Stitchjones and focus on finishing some things in my huge pile of WIPs, which can make me feel bad about myself if I let them.

This week tried its best to drive me insane. Very early Monday morning, Mr. Stitchjones and Michelle left for L.A. The night before, at 1:00 am, there was a knock at the door, and it was a police officer. Fortunately I was still awake. The officer told me that they'd had an anonymous tip that either our house or the one across the street was targeted for a burglary. Oh, goody. Pleasant dreams, Stitch! As it turned out, it was our neighbors' house, and the officer came by again Monday night at a more humane hour to let me know that the two creeps individuals planning the break-in had been arrested for some other dirty deed. All morning long on Monday, there was a police car parked close to the intersection--our house is on a corner--and that did help me to feel considerably safer.

Want the flip side? Of course you do. My road warriors came home late Wednesday night, both sick. He has a bad cold; she was feeling strep-ish but it didn't keep her from having fun shopping on Melrose Ave. So on Thursday I juggled dye work, running some yarn to a LYS, taking Michelle to a new doctor because she's outgrown pediatric care, making homemade chicken orzo soup, and oh yeah! I started Christmas shopping this week, too. There will be an iPod under the tree for Jason. We also got good news about our financial situation, and he got a sweet commission check yesterday. J has been a salesperson since before we even met, so that's going back some 25 years, but in his current job he doesn't receive commission until the company has been paid on the orders. Although that makes things dicey from time to time, today it's all good.

Remember the nefarious pile of WIP's I alluded to earlier? I usually have half the coffee table loaded up with yarn, books, patterns, needles and whatnot so everything's within easy reach. I've barely had time to catch my breath since bringing the puppy home, but this weekend I've got to put dedicated effort into rearranging all my knitting paraphernalia. Toki has been able to reach things I didn't think he could reach. He chewed the tip off one of my size 7 dpns and trashed a nice ball of soft chunky weight acrylic/wool blend in pale pink, which I had planned to use for a hat. Then the little ass monkey rascal got hold of a ball of my Noro and before I could get it away from him, he had spread it all over two rooms. Fortunately my patient daughter was able to wind it all back up for me, so I can salvage my beautiful scarf which is more than half finished!

Just wanted to get in a blog post before too much time gets away from me. Until next time...Amen, Shalom, and Blessed Be!