What’s in the workbox? February 2012

I know it’s been a while - I wasn’t even sure I was going to keep going with this series until yesterday. But I’ve been knitting and thus have some progress to show, so here we are…

Please also note that it’s grey and rainy again, so any and all photographic crappiness is completely beyond my control.

First up, Finished Objects:

Hop, Skyp Socks: I grafted the toes of these last Friday, and they have been blocking ever since. As previously mentioned, it’s kinda wet here. Should the sun ever come out, I will take some proper F.O. pics (including my patented socks-in-a-tree, because I know a certain person who likes that). Anyway, the pattern is Skyp Rib Socks by Adrienne Ku, the yarn is Socks That Rock MW in the Froggin’ colourway, and they are squishy and snuggly and I suspect they will be very useful this coming winter, which is predicted to be a particularly long and cold one in our part of the world.

Now, on to current Works In Progress:

Blackberry Jam Socks: Ripped back to the heel flaps after I discovered they were too tight in the foot, these spent some serious time in the Naughty Corner, but are now back in my good graces. Now I have my sock mojo back, I’m fairly sure they’ll be finished soon. Like other socks before them, they get 50-ish minutes of love every weekday evening, while I watch Doctor Who (speaking of which; Kate, I get the David Tennant thing now. I risk the wrath of my husband here, but I’m going to take a stand and say he is the Best Doctor Ever).

And newly cast on:

Cloud Chaser: In line with the Trinny and Susannah guidelines, I have picked a new cardi-vest. A dramatic drapey collar and lots of vertical lines will work well for me, and the cables are making me happy. Also, some interesting construction techniques are keeping me on the hop. I’m knitting it out of some pale green Cleckheaton Natural Cotton 8ply that I’ve had floating around in stash for a couple of years. I think this is going to look really cute with jeans and a t-shirt or over a light cotton dress.

…and, finally, in the Ikea pile (some assembly required):

Undercurrent Cardigan:

Still waiting for the combination of sufficient table space, quality lighting and free time to seam this. Besides, it’s been too warm for the wearing of cardis anyway.

***

Oh, I almost forgot - the Crazy Zauberball socks have been returned to string, de-kinked and wound back into balls, and a new pattern has been chosen: Erica Alexander’s Cable Rib Socks from Favorite Socks. I’ll cast them on once I’ve finished the Blackberry Jam socks (and thus freed up the 2.25mm needles).

And that’s everything on the knitting front.

Tune in next month, same Bat-time, same Bat-channel.

How to spoil a twelve-year-old.

Give him Lego.

Give him more Lego.

Give him a digital camera so he can take pictures of his Lego.

Feed him pizza and chocolate cake.

Invite his best friend to “sleep over” (which of course means ”stay up talking half the night”).

Get up at six o’clock on a Monday morning to bake 32 chocolate cupcakes for him to share with his classmates.

Happy birthday, my beautiful Boyo. I hope 12 is the best year ever.

Midnight hilarity.

Like much of NSW, we had a storm last night. No property damage, just lots of rain and thunder and lightning. Sasquatch (who I will admit is genuinely frightened by sudden loud noises, but who is also an 8yo boy, and therefore always on the make) took this opportunity to break with his usual routine of getting up for 15 drinks of water and forty-’leven trips to the toilet, and instead came out to tell us that he was too scared to sleep in his own bed. Since Tech Support was heading to bed anyway, it was agreed he could sleep in ours until I came to bed, at which point I would take him back to his own.

It was nearly midnight by the time I came to bed, and Sasquatch is a heavy sleeper (in fact, he’s just plain heavy – he may not be big for his age, but his little body is solid muscle, and I can’t carry him anymore, which is the reason I have a story to tell at all). I shook him a couple of times, to no avail, then slid an arm under him and levered him into a sitting position, all the time talking to him, trying to wake him without waking T.S. (a restless or broken night’s sleep messes with his blood sugar, and he feels really crap for half the day afterwards, hence my concern). I didn’t wake anybody, so that’s half a success, right?

Now, Sasquatch has been known to sleepwalk, so I thought I could maybe get him moving even if he wouldn’t wake up. I pulled him into a standing position, and tried to get him walking, but his knees kept buckling. It was at this point that I got the giggles, because he looked like one of the Thunderbirds puppets. Suddenly, it dawned on me that although I couldn’t lift him in my arms, I could piggy-back him to bed. Genius! I quickly swung around and crouched down, pulling his arms around my neck, whereupon he cuddled into my shoulder with a contented little sigh. Cue more giggling. I tucked his bear under my arm, hoisted his legs around my waist, and off we went.

That was when I felt the drool hit my neck, and completely lost it. We are talking full-on Muttley wheeze, punctuated by occasional pig-snorts. I had to stop three times before I even got out of the bedroom (and our bedroom isn’t that big), to try and pull myself back together so as not to wake Tech Support.

Eventually, I got Sasquatch back to bed, where he immediately snuggled up with Bear-Bear, after which I went back to the family room to have a good old laugh before I went to bed.

Damn you, Murphy!

I have recently been having troubles with my little car. The battery has been piking out on me on a fairly regular basis (sometimes thanks to the Door-Leaving-Open Fairy, but sometimes for no good reason). Luckily, our mechanic is just across the road, and always happy to send the apprentice over with the jump-start thingy, so it doesn’t slow me down too much.

The car is only 5 years old, and we replaced the battery a couple of years ago, so when the other day it tried its little heart out to no avail, only a week after it’s last recharge, I thought the worst: alternator. Optimistically, I chose to wait a few days before running across to get the lads to look at it for me. I’ve tried it every day for the last three days, with no better luck. So this morning I bit the bullet, and just a few minutes ago, the charming young lad came over.

Apprentice: So it’s not starting at all?

Me: It’s trying, but nothing happens. [Puts key in ignition: car starts first go] Oh, you cheating little scumbag!

Apprentice: [Laughs, reaches in ands turns car off, then on again. It starts again, and the next three times.] Well, it seems to be working now. [Picks up his gear and heads back to the workshop, leaving our stalwart heroine shaking her fist impotently at the sky and cursing Murphy for the perfidious trickster that he is]

Le sigh.

Business as usual.

• Sasquatch went back to school this morning. He still has a bit of a cough (which can turn into a full on hack-’til-you-gag extravaganza if he overdoes it), but the doctor assures me that this is normal, and the ‘post-Whooping Cough cough’ can go on for a couple of months after the infection is cleared up (oh, joy).
• You have never seen a kid so eager to go to school. He was completely ready, backpack on, standing by the door by 8.30am. Then he had to wait (more or less patiently) while Boyo dragged his feet and generally wasted time until 8.55, when I lost my cool and started shouting.
• After that, I had a nice quiet day, pottering about the house, and the TV did not go on at all.
• I even got to use the new iPod dock I got for Christmas, which has barely seen any use because school holidays + rain + boys = what’s the point in even trying to listen to music?
• The Hop, Skyp socks are up to the heel flap. I do love knitting with the STR yarn – it’s just so sproingy and round. It makes my fingers happy.
• The Crazy Zauberball socks will have to be ripped back, because the all-over cable pattern has no elasticity at all, and they won’t go over my heel. I even gave them a good hard blocking to see if that would loosen things up. It did, but not enough.
• Tech Support got home from his business trip just in time to go and pick the boys up from school, so this evening everybody is back where they belong.
• Sasquatch has announced that he wants to be in the school band. He wants to play the saxophone. He promises to practice every day.
• This weekend I will be buying noise-cancelling headphones.

Pizza Pizza.

Since time out of mind, Friday night has been pizza night here at the House of Frog. We used to buy take-away pizza, usually from one or another of the franchise places in Orange. Then, about a year ago, I started making them myself, because I have all the equipment and ingredients, everybody can choose their own toppings, and home-baked is just… better.

Tech Support’s diabetes has meant changes, most notably having to eliminate almost all carbs from his diet: he has a low GI cereal for breakfast every day, and once a week he has a small serve of pasta (al dente = low GI), and that’s about it. We’ve tried a few different so-called diabetic and/or low GI crust recipes, but they weren’t very nice, and still pushed his morning sugar way too high, so he reluctantly gave up pizza. I think that sacrifice has been the hardest for him, even more so than potato (and he lurves potato).

Every other night of the week, I eat the same as T.S., but he insists that the rest of us still have pizza of a Friday night. I feel really guilty sitting beside him, eating one of his very favourite foods while he has frittata (we’ve found that eggs work for him – high protein, NO carbs at all, and he doesn’t have a cholesterol problem, so there’s no issues with the yolks). It’s almost impossible to eat pizza without making happy noises, and how can I do that while my darling is sitting right there, not eating pizza?

So, when T.S. announced he was going to be away for a couple of nights on business, I changed Friday pizza night to Sunday, and tonight the boys and I made and ate our pizzas with all appropriate happy noises and no guilt at all.

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Good news, bad news.

The good news is, school went back on Monday.

The bad news is, Sasquatch has whooping cough.

The good news is, he has been fully immunised, so it’s only a mild dose.

The bad news is, he’s off school until Tuesday next week.

The good news is, he likes the taste of his antibiotics.

The bad news is, said medication is doing unspeakable things to his digestion.

The good news is, the rest of us are okay, so Boyo can go back to school tomorrow (he had today off while we waited for the test results).

The bad news is, Sasquatch and I are pretty much confined to the house, because while he’s feeling okay (apart from the cough), he’s still contagious and thus has to stay well away from pretty much everyone, but especially babies and pregnant women.

Oh, and it’s been raining.

The good news is, that means enforced couch time, which of course means lots of lovely knitting time.

There’s no down side to that.