Still no Yarn Porn

I know, I promised sock yarn porn on Friday and didn't deliver... it's difficult to photograph the stash for three reasons: the husband is always at home, making it difficult to put the stash all in one place for photographs. He does not care that I buy yarn, and he knows that there is a lot of it, but I think that actually seeing the volume of yarn hidden away on my side of the bedroom might just make him start to pay more attention to the fact that every other day I'm knitting something different. Second, the battery-eating camera has sucked down all of the power in the house. Third, the first step is admitting you have a problem and as long as I can't see it all I can't at all see that it is a problem. I will buy batteries this week and face the stash.

So Bean had a little temper tantrum this week at my knitting meeting. Well, it was a tantrum for Bean, anyway. Her dad is moving to a small town just outside our city and while this will not change her visitation schedule overall, the last two Wednesdays he asked me to pick her up so that they could move. So she was upset that he didn't call her and tell her himself. We're sitting in our knitting meeting - which was at my favorite bookstore in the whole world (which means that Bean had three new books to read while I knitted away). I don't even remember what precipitated it, but suddenly she blurts out, "I hate my dad." I thought, in the Margaret Cho voice that is sometimes in my head, "Nobody hate daddy more than mommy hate daddy." I said, "No, you're angry with your dad. You don't hate him." "No," she said, "I hate my dad."

So we went home.
Knitting group and group therapy are very different things.
Though they do have some things in common.

We talked about it and she's ok more or less... she's hormonal and emotional and she's figuring out things about her dad that I have known for awhile. She's seeing his inconsistencies and his bullshit. I told her that I could listen to her talk about her dad and I could sympathize with her and we could talk about anything at all but that I was not going to get into a bitch session about him. My issues with him are totally separate - though just between you and me they're pretty much the same - and they had nothing to do with her. I encouraged her to let her dad know how she feels and to try to tell him what she needs. I also warned her that you can't get mad at a fish for swimming. Sometimes people act a certain way because that's the only way they know how to act.

Then I called him to warn him.

Not so much out of concern for him, but if he has some warning that she is upset he's more likely to respond in a way that will make her feel better.
I hope they're having a good weekend together. He can sort of be an ass from time to time (read: all the time).

I've been knitting away... I turned the heel on my sockapalooza sock. I hope I have the discipline to actually send it them to her. I love these socks. It's this pattern with this yarn:

It's Crystal Palace "Panda Cotton Print" in Seascape. It's 55% bamboo, 24% cotton, 21% elastic nylon. It's the same yarn that I used for the Jelly Bean socks and I must say that those little pink socks did not do justice to this fantastic yarn. I love the way it feels in this pattern.

I have been contacting my pal and I really like her a lot. So much that when I couldn't decide what pattern and yarn to use I briefly thought about knitting a couple of pairs and sending them all to her.

I haven't heard anything from my pal yet... are you out there??

I have also restarted a shawl for my grandmother. I was knitting a bramble stitch shawl using this horrible fuzzy yarn and it was pretty and soft, but such a pain in the ass that I was dreading picking it up again. It's gone now. On the needles is the start of a bramble stitch shawl using purple wool-ease. Much better.

I didn't get as much done as I wanted yesterday. I got home and the husband wasn't there so I thought, "I'll mow the front yard and surprise him!" It was hot and humid and our mower is not a power mower. Also, I am waaaaaaay out of shape. By the time I got done I was red-faced and sweaty. I took a very cool shower and went to bed to knit but my head hurt so bad all I could do was lay on my side under the fan and whimper.

It was worth it. The look on his face when he came home from his mother's house to find that he didn't have to mow was worth the effort and the headache.

Happy Mother's Day! I'm so taking a nap when I get home from work.