Wednesday, February 25, 2009

GRRRRRRRRRRRR......

Scarf...meet Mardi Gras!


Well, that WAS going to be the title here. Right about the time I WAS going to post the pattern with a picture of the finished scarf. Right about the time I SHOULD have been wrapping the scarf up and mailing it out this week while my son is taking his Bar Exam. (Do you see a theme here?)


See this picture? It's the last one of this scarf. Probably.ever. Barring any REALLY BIG miracles.

Why? 'Cuz stupid people give me a headache. A really big one. Stupid people who CAN'T wait their turn, have a modicum of patience, remember their politeness rules from Kindergarten...

While getting off of the plane the other day, it got left behind. How? Well, I had been sitting in the aisle seat. The little "DING" went off that signals it's time to get up and gather your things. You know the one, that's the one that means it's apparently time for stupid people to think that while they're sitting next to the window - which is the third seat from the aisle and a good seven rows from the front door...they don't have to wait for the path to be clear for them to reach over the top of someone else (that would be me) bending over while putting a computer into a computer bag on the floor, and reach further more to the over head bin above the seat in front of us to grab their stuff, thus knocking more things out of the overhead bin so it all lands on my bad foot. Ya...really stupid.

Oh, but it gets better...the words out of her mouth literally made me drop my mouth open. She goes, and I quote, "Oh, I nearly hit your foot." My answer? "No, ... you did." Whereby I stood there in pain wondering what in tarnation was going through her head to think that she was so important she didn't have to follow any rules of common decent behavior. Her next comment capped off the moment. She followed up her first idiot comment with a very sarcastic, "Well, you must really get hurt a lot." WHAT???????????? are you kidding me? Like I shouldn't have been annoyed, hurt, shocked by her juvenile, careless behavior? I walked off the plane totally amazed at the events that had taken place moments before. Completely amazed once again at the stupidity of people over and over when in public when their Mothers aren't watching them.

About an hour later, I got mad at myself. Apparently while paying attention to the stupid behavior of that woman, I failed to notice that the scarf was no longer in my tote bag. Gone. Lost.Poof! I searched high and low, under seats, in bins, etc...I've spent the past 3 days on the phone calling airlines, airports, lost and found, baggage claims begging, praying and hoping that it would miraculously turn up.

Nope, not at all. At least not yet. So much for the " 'EVERYTHING' gets sent to Lost and Found" comments they are trained to give you when you report that you've left something on a plane. So, here's the lesson for you to all learn from my experience...a) don't let stupid people distract you from what you're doing. Just because they're pushing over top of you...apparently it would have been a much better idea for me to have stood up and told her to sit down and wait her turn. (Heaven knows I've had enough training for little kids to know how that works) b) Double and triple check your knitting bag every time you are out in public before leaving one spot for another to make sure you aren't leaving behind a good 30 hours worth of work designing, planning, knitting, ripping, creating, and re-knitting up exactly what your son is needing to keep him warm in the frozen tundra. Especially when you're within two hours of finishing the project. c) label your knitting as well as your bag with your name, etc.. so if it's left behind, someone will have a clue you're interested in getting it back. d) don't assume that EVERYTHING gets sent to lost and found. It could have been thrown in a trash bag or 'acquired' by someone else/aka...stolen.

You know those flimsy paper tags that airports give you for your luggage? They certainly don't last very long on your bags, but I think they NOW work really well for attaching directly to your knitting. The little bits of elastic work well to put a loop through your stitches and are light weight enough to keep them from distorting your stitches. One little snip from your scissors to remove them (granted they could be cut as well by the 'acquire-er' down the road, but....) if you can't untie them when you're finished.

Ok, so I am naive to think that people are going to be honest and return things that they've found like I do. I dream.big. But, at least you have given your knitting a fighting chance to come home to you. At least it puts a little bug in the back of their heads that what they have in their hands doesn't belong to them. And that you want it back.

It could work.

Right?

After all, sit for a moment with the knitting you're currently working on and think about the money you have invested in that particular project. Count up the yarn/wool (five skeins), the needles (Addi's), the measuring tape, the stitch markers (one of them) and row counters (eight of them on there) and all my pattern notes for the project in there. Not to mention the pens, paper, etc...that goes along with any of my projects that I'm working on. Add it up. Then go around town to re-purchase them and see what your final bill is to make you think about labeling your knitting. After all...'stuff' happens that will stop you from your normal routine and take your attention off what you so lovingly spent a lot of time working on when you least expect it.

Then ask yourself, if your knitting is worth it?

Ya, not to mention the cost of the time and gas to drive all over tim-buck-two to find just the 'right things' or the things that will get you through until you can get back home to your favorite tools of your trade.

Yep...the most polite response I can think of right now is a big, old, fat....

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR......


I'm labeled and ready to reknit this scarf for my son. After all, it would be nice to get it to him before the snow melts and he no longer needs it. No matter how stupid that woman behaved on the plane last Sunday. But, if you find it, please let me know? I'm running out of Motrin here.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Happy Valentine's Day!

May your heart be cherished by someone very special!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

I ran away...

Last week, my daughter sent me a picture of her Hearts on your Coffee Sleeve in use. She did say that it was a little bit loose on her Starbucks cup, so you may want to drop the needle sizes by one if you find that happening to you as well. I wasn't using that 'brand' of take out cup to test when I was making mine. I'll have to work up a couple soon and see how that works. When I get it done, I'll update the patterns and let you all know.


In the mean time, I've been knitting on what may become the 'never-ending' scarf for my son, also in frozen country. Remember, he wants to wrap it around his neck twice and have it long enough to hang down across his chest. It took a bit of a trip with me...



Scarf -meet a cow...





Scarf - meet the snow and -23*F wind chill!



See? I can dress for the weather up there! (and use my hand knits) Now, where did I go?


mmmmmmmmmmmm.....

I had the opportunity to 'run away' and visit the daughter up in frozen country this past weekend. I'm still trying to absorb the fact that at the last minute I was able to 'run over' for the weekend. She and her friend picked me up at the Buffalo airport .....

and we drove back to Syracuse.


Scarf, meet Up State New York!


The "GIRLS"...hey girls! It was a blast-thanks for letting me crash your movie night! Dinner was at the Dinosaur B-B-Q place we've been wanting to try every time I've been in town. Boy was it good!

(Check this out - did you know that 3 of these ladies are knitters? Ya think it might rub off on the daughter?)


Remember all the pumpkin that we filled her freezer with? Well, let me just say...mmmmmmmmm milk please! (notice the felted oven mitts? Gotta make me some soon!)



Shameless effort to get the daughter to email the better picture of us that she has on her camera.


This is why the daughter needed the care package last week..her favorite Tapitio goes rather quickly. That would be from Stella's! another fabulous place in town.



See where the 'pink heart for big sister' ended up? Too cute - huh? Right next to the picture of the two of them up on her walls.





Valentine's mug from the daughter.


More snow-but starting to melt before I left town.

I finished the last 3 baby washcloths for the AC4C project for January.

The current state of the Blustery Day scarf. At first I thought I was going to go to 84", but when I get there, I'll see if that will be enough. I have a feeling it won't be long enough. We'll see.



Now that I've left the daughter's place, it was time to make some pumpkin bread for me! Thank you Betty Crocker for the recipes! Yummooooooooo!

Then it was onto Apple Crisp-again...yummy and Betty Crocker and I are goooood friends, I tell ya!


I'm off to work on the scarf, so I can get to some of this 'souvenir' yarn from A.C. Moore that Megan took me to pick up while the daughter was at work. I have some plans for this! Can you see the new colors of that Bernat Cotton baby? Must.Knit.Faster.Son.is.still.cold.


*sigh* Today is/was my Grandpa's birthday. I miss him and my other Grandparents a lot.