Simple pleasures

I like to think of myself as a woman who enjoys simple pleasures ...and expensive shoes... but let's focus on the pleasures right now.

I like watching a storm build in the sky. I like the smell of baking cookies. I like holding hands with and getting sticky kisses from any of my children. I like sending hand written notes in the post. I like opening something (anything really) that is brand new and the joy of using it for the first time. I like when my favourite pen runs completely out of ink- just because I know that I write that much stuff down.

One of my favourite simple pleasures right now is winding wool.

This is a swift. It holds wool so that it can be wound.

With the use of a winder it turns this...
(SweetGeorgia Yarns, Tough Sock Love in Big Blue Wave)

... into this.

 Winding is supposed to be a quiet and meditative process. I turn my winder and it pulls the wool off the swift. When done right everyting should spin with a quiet hum.  That is except when cats help.

What's this? asks Howard.
Hmm, something that hits me in the head repeatedly and grabs my tail.
I don't like it. I will stay away.

What's this? asks Riffraff.
I see string.
I like string.
I want to play with string.



It keeps hitting me in the head.
I don't like that. Now I must attack and yowl at the string.
Mom is getting mad now.
I will eat through this to get to the string.



Why are you putting the string away now Mom?
Can I help?
I like string.

Why, indeed.

"My God I've Gotten Fat" and Other Things Edna Whispers in my Head

It is spring time. Time where we dust ourselves off and come out of hibernation. Or at least come out of the basement. Depending on whether you are a bear or a person, I suppose.
The weather is favourable and the world seems quite determined to burst forth in green-ness make as much pollen as possible. This would typically be an issue for me but my new and improved sinus system seems to be dealing well with the season, so far.
The kids are busy with their activities throughout the winter and don't have as much winter downtime as some adults. (Namely me.) They get recess 3 times a day and get bundled up and go outside and play. So the transition to spring means less clothes but no less outdoor activities. Now they have traded their sleds for their bikes.

I recently dug out my summer clothes and while trying on a few items I could hear the nasal voice of Edna Mode (from the Disney-Pixar movie The Incredibles) whispering in my head "My God you've gotten fat!"  and "This is a hobo suit, darling."

Yes, the voice in my head sounds just like her.

So, that leads me back to my bike.  Only this time I get to be outside. You may recall that last year I attempted to establish a plan  to ride through the winter in the comfort of my own home. Yeah, I lasted about 4 weeks before giving into the inevitable. Obviously starting with a  rigid 6 day a week program was too ambitious.  And boring to be riding inside all winter.

This season I am going to be much more relaxed about it. I just need to get myself moving and away from my chair at work and the couch at home. I need to up my activity  levels so... I am just going to ride... without the pressure to chart and graph the miles.  Just ride.  What a concept.

And if all goes well I soon won't be sore while riding around town and will be better suited to tackle training projects that may accompany specific goals. Right now my specific goal is to be able to ride more than 3 days in a row without having to assign my children to help me with my personal hygiene for the next 3 days.

Until then I'll just ride.

Elastagirl is my role model. Mother, crime fighter
and wears spandex without embarrassment.

I gotta do something to keep Edna quiet in my head.

And call me when you get back, darling. I enjoy our visits.

*Quotes and pictures courtesy of Disney-Pixar's The Incredibles. Excellent movie.

Here we go again!

I went back to work today. Although I am still not 100% recovered it is time to go back to work. (I am starting to alphabetize stuff at home.) My doctor says that I still have another 3 to 4 months of healing until I can expect to be headache-free and to be able to tolerate glasses on my nose again. So I can't wear my glasses. And since driving without seeing is really not an option I have purchased contact lenses to get me through.

I don't really like wearing contacts; I prefer glasses. I like looking artificially smarter. It is like an accessory for your face- one you can hide behind.  I don't blink enough and contacts get dry when I stare at my computer. I rub my eyes a lot and accidentally drive my contacts into the back of my eyes. (Maybe the reason I have headaches is because I already have two or three contact lenses back behind my eyes that I have thought I lost otherwise. Hmm.) I forget that I am not wearing my glasses and go to push them up in between my eyes while suddenly remembering that I am NOT in fact wearing glasses I have to casually feign that I meant to fix my hair or eyebrow or something. I hate doing that.

Otherwise I am still not finished my Vergennes sweater. Although I do have the whole body complete and 9" of sleeve #1. And with less than 25% of the project left to finish I am already looking ahead to my next project. This time I am thinking I will make a shawl. I am leaning towards the Colour Affection shawl, by Veera Valimaki. I am also going to make it with lace weight yarn.

Last night I wound up my colours and got them ready. These are Tanis Fiber Arts' Pink Label  Lace Weight, single ply yarn in (starting at top left and going clockwise) Gold, Frost, Grape and Midnight. 

Aren't they pretty?



Twitter Illiterate

Scott started it.

He joined Twitter (@sid748). He says it was partially to satisfy some curiosity and partially to see if there are some ways to lets his clients know when he is available to take their calls. I say this with no judgement but I think he really joined was to get his next-level fanboy badge; so he could follow comic book artists and other geek boy stuff.  Whatevs. And because I have nothing to do right now I joined too. (@JacflashAbel) Knit-girl fanboy badge here I come.

We get on and immediately realize that neither of us speak Twitter. We text each other with our own marital shorthand but this is a more public forum and there seems to be protocol on how to communicate here.  Sounding very much like anthropologist examining a new and foreign culture we ask each other questions sounding puzzled.

• What is this hash tag business that everyone speaks of?
• Is that what the # symbol is called for real? 
• What does RT mean? (re-text,  re-tweet, return, right turn?)
• Do I have to end each tweet with "WOOT!WOOT!"?
• How do I find and talk to other people?

It took a quick google search and less than 3 minutes of reading and we had cracked the code and we ready to  talk, er, I mean tweet. Twitter is all about who you are following and who is following you.  And seeing that we are not politicians, comedians or people with late night talk shows that meant we were following each other. Then he got one follower and then I got one. And just like that our competition was born.

Scott and I are having a friendly competition to see who will be the first to collect 100 followers. Okay, these are not the loftiest of goals but let's be realistic people- we are NOT Ashton Kutcher or Oprah. Unlike some celebrities, which shall remain nameless, neither of us have a staff of writers and 3 interns a piece, smart phones in hand, ready to tweet our collective stream of consciousness.

As of today I am winning in that I have 20 followers (only 5 of them are sex-workers) and Scott has 7. But seeing that he has only tweeted once, so far, statistically he is doing better than I am.

It is honestly kind of amazing to see the variety of people available to follow on Twitter. Some of them are even who they say they are but it's hard to tell. Twitter is awesome for the self-employed as it is a creative and interesting way to market yourself. Explaining, perhaps, the plethora of sex-workers who seem to want to follow me. 

It is also a pretty cool way to find other like minded geeks - whatever your interest. Scott has found lots of artists and comic book stuff. He was thrilled to get a return tweet and thanks for following from @OfficialKeef, Keith Richard's official twitter page apparently. When he mentioned the return tweet to a colleague she knocked him down a peg and said that unless Keith was coming to our house for dinner she wasn't inclined to be impressed by him getting a return email from someone working for Mr. Richards. Funny but just so that it is said out-loud: Keith Richards is welcome for dinner at our house anytime. Open invitation.

You can see to the right that I have updated this blog to have a link to both of ours Twitter feeds. We're having fun with it. Join the fun and follow us, or at least one of us. Not only am I now Knitwit but I am also Twitwit too.