I really cleaned up

For a person who tried to ignore Christmas, I've done quite well this year! Since I meet most of my clients at Starbucks, they've all contributed to my habit!! I have a wallet full of Starbucks cards! I think there's one of every kind they have.


The Techie Boys have been laughing at me since I bought a Creative MP3 player instead of one of the iPods they have. They also had iPhones while I stayed with my Motorola. I told them I refused to pay for the brand name. They got even with me! On Christmas Eve, my tech buddy Steve arrived at my door bearing a cute little box with a surprise inside - an iPod mini!! I like the mini's size - I think it weighs TWO GRAMS - but that damned Apple wants to convert all my books & what music I have to iPod only data!! I still have other devices I want to use. And the mini doesn't hold as much as my Creative device, that's for sure. So, if you get one, beware! It will attempt to take over everything. But, it sure is cute!


I made a big pile of washcloths! I think it's good therapy for my wrist. I even managed to keep 4 for myself in the end. On Christmas Day, I went to Starbucks for tea & Sushi Line for Sushi. I gave out washcloths to everyone who was working! I missed one person who came in later but saved one for her. After giving out washcloths to all my buddies, I actually have 4 left in both colors for myself!! I thought the second ball was cocoa/tan/cream when I bought it but when I got it out of the bag & into daylight, it turned out to be a pale mauve instead of cocoa! Either I'm getting old or florescent lights do strange things to color!!

So this is Christmas

Here we are again. No parking at the Mall if you should need to go there - thank gawd I don't!! Everyone's begging for Money! Some have enough toys to run a Third World Country & still want more. Some aren't paying their bills this month but are out there buying electronics. Some can't buy enough groceries to feed their kids but the liquor cabinet is full. Some of us pander to our family's every want to get some peace on that one day a year. And some of us will still be paying off the bills from This Year at this time Next Year. I know people who work a second job to pay for all the STUFF they buy at Christmas & others who take their Holiday Pay early to buy for offspring who think money grows on trees. What is it about Social, Media & Commercial pressure to buy, buy, buy that creates the Mob Mentality to go into debt at this time of year???

Thanksgiving is a family holiday too but we don't go into spending frenzy mode. Has Television created this Monster? TV talks about Christmas & all the things we should be doing to Make it Bright even though the Politically Correct Police won't actually let us SAY Christmas in print fer gawd's sake !! Christmas Holiday is now Winter Holiday or Season's Holiday or Winter Break. Why aren't we calling it RED HOLIDAY?? Tis the Season to go deep, deeper, deepest into debt! No payments for 16 months!! Get it TODAY, Pay Later. Take it home, we'll work it out Next Year! No Money Down! Boxing WEEK Sales!!


Have you SEEN the oldie, It's a Wonderful Life?? Remember the tree?? And the decorations?? The Bonhomie?? I remember Christmas almost like that. We looked forward to it. We made a lot of the decorations, some were made in school - gasp, the horror of it!!! Mom made the wreath on the front door out of cedar branches. Dad put lights in the trees in the front yard. We got out decorations my mother inherited from HER mother & grandmother. We made snow decorations if we had snow. We made a lot of the gifts & we stuffed stockings with little things, special candy & toys. We baked. We packed tins with cookies, sausage rolls & tarts as gifts. We even made root beer. Families didn't go broke trying to satisfy every kid's wishes - although they tried hard to give us one special gift in with all the socks & pajamas. We looked forward to a week off, visiting family or friends & had a huge turkey dinner. It was a social time for whole neighborhoods. If we had enough snow & it was cold enough, our whole neighborhood would block off the steep hill & spend Christmas & Boxing Day sledding. One year, we had a huge dump of snow so we built IGLOOs. One of the parents sprinkled them inside & out with water so they'd freeze solid overnight. We played in them till spring!

The Silly Season has become an obligation to some. Loneliness & depression to others. Some people dread it. And it's Out of Control spending to still others. Instead of a Family, Community & Religious celebration - hey, no one said Santa is religious & we aren't even going into that - Christmas has become a Commercial Feeding Frenzy. The Media rules our desires, our wants & our needs right now & most of us don't even realize it. I say DOWN with MEDIA. Let's go back to a simple celebration. A simple celebration of all things good & giving for a change. Simple Human-ness. In the last 4000 years, we've morphed from celebrating the return of the Sun God out of the dark, the Winter Solstice to the Roman god Saturn in Saturnalia to Christianity to the New Gods of Desire & Debt. We never lost the green boughs, burning log, food & gifts from the earliest days but somehow they've taken over the celebration. It seems to me that Shopping has become the Celebration.

So much better . . .

Splints are a pain in the Ass. Even removable ones. Especially removable ones because they have Velcro to which everything sticks - especially my favorite purple house sweater which I wear constantly indoors all winter!! I've had to roll the sleeve up beyond the elbow - so much for keeping me warm - to keep it from sticking to the splint. I now have a fuzzy edge to the sleeve! But this splint keeps me relatively pain free as long as I don't try to do something too heavy. And it totally gets in the way when I want to type, make left hand turns or knit. I have to take it off to knit. Then my arm & wrist hurt. And now I've developed a sore left shoulder from using my forearm to lift things that my wrist & hand can't yet - hahaha - like I said, you just can't win!!

And speaking of all things Purple, my Secret Santa sent me a Purple Christmas gift. You can see Him smirking at me from the photo at the top of this page! A face only a mother could love & he's still got straw in his hair . . . The contents of my 'Purple' box can be seen in the photo - a Purple Llama, a Purple Angel, a felted Teddy & even a Topknot to make a scarf or pair of socks - in Purple, of course!!


I've increased my pile of colorful washcloths & hopefully, will make it to the cocoa, white & beige ball before Christmas too. When I can knit, it's pathetically slow - I'll have to make up for it next year!! But, there's still a small pile growing even though a couple have gone to new homes already. Before I fell, I'd managed to knit another pair of Mitts in the Spirogyra pattern from Knitty. I'd made three pairs in this pattern & love them all. The pattern is extremely stretchy so you almost need to make them a little small if you want a snug fit! Unfortunately for me, this pair is way too big & may be going to a new home. I have half of another mitt made in a smaller size but can't manage to work with DPs yet so it remains unfinished. And that's also why the Ex's third pair of socks aren't finished. I got both heels turned & am halfway down the foot but there they remain until I can handle DPs again with my left hand. I suppose it gives me an excuse to knit something else on circs instead??? LOL I guess I have no choice but to wait until the left wing co-operates fully with the right one to make any new socks or finish the old.

Knitting Night

I finally went to Knitting Night after missing two weeks. I was working on something viral the first week & didn't want to share. The second week, I'd fallen on the ice, was too damned sore to drive & couldn't knit anyhow. So, this week, well, I had to go. The Girls ganged up on me when they found out I hadn't seen the doctor & was still really sore. I was ordered to show up at the Hospital the next day for an x-ray of my wrist. This is the problem when you knit with people who are used to bossing other people around in their OTHER lives. This is also what happens when you hang out with the same people all the time, they become Family & TAKE LIBERTIES. So, as ordered, I showed up at the hospital. I was escorted to Emergency, ID'd, Temp'd, BP'd & told to wait. 5 x-rays later it turned out I'm only bruised - probably jammed small bones against large bones in the fall - & then encased in a removable splint. No fractures, no breaks! Lucky?? Maybe. But maybe I just have good bones from all that yogurt, milk, cheese, green veggies - did you say chicken & broccoli??? - & salmon that I've eaten all my life. I supplement with calcium citrate a couple times a week too. It still hurts but a hellova lot less when I wear the splint. So, hopefully, I'll be back knitting in a couple of weeks or so . . .

In the meantime, I've been working on washcloths. I can hear the laughter from here!! Hey, I found a couple of really NICE color ways in the Crafter Cotton, the Yellow below & a Beige in the same style. This is number 5 of a series . . They're so useful!! I love them in the shower with my home made soap. They lather up beautifully & are just rough enough to scrub your face & neck without taking off more than the dead cells on the surface. I make mine about twice a big as most patterns call for so they're nice for the guys in my life too. Most of them LOVE the big washcloth! And they're almost all I can manage to knit right now anyway.

Can't spin & working anything heavy is out but I am going to make ELEANOR, the lacy cowl in the Deep Fall issue of knitty. It's a lovely little funnel shaped cowl that should look good on a friend. Since it's made with only 200 yards of yarn, it's so worth it to buy something scrumptious & airy so I can ENJOY the slow knit!!! And while I was there, I also fell in love with the Ringwood gloves. I'm not sure if I can knit them with the splint on but I'm gonna try really really hard!!