And I feel like I'm a bit "on my own." I've been standing up for myself for a long time, and maybe it's created the notion that I don't "need" anyone. But I do. We all do.
Someone on social media accused me of "hubris." Hubris, in case you don't know, is defined as "excessive pride or self-confidence." And I find that accusation almost laughable.
If I could laugh.
And it's a person who really only tangentially intersects with my posts. Who then proceeded to tell me that my posts were "inane" and "stupid" and a few other things...
Am I proud of what I've done in life? Yep. I have 2 fantastic kids. I have an education that I worked hard to get - as an adult student, with nobody paying my way, and while working full-time. I have skills and abilities that have taken time to develop. Time and persistence. And hard work.
That's hubris? Nope. That's celebrating what you've done with your life. That's being a human being. That's nothing to sneeze at. That's what I was being made fun of for, by someone who thought it was "cool" to do that. The person felt like a success because of this exchange.
And it hurts my feelings. And it hurts that nobody else stepped in.
I'll get over it. I actually blocked the person. The energy I'm expending on this is ridiculous. But still. Words matter. And they're sharper than knives, sometimes.
The Blue Bowl...
So once upon a time, a long long time ago, I got a gift. It was a blue glass bowl. Circa late 1970s or so.
For a while, my mother took custody of it. She had the "perfect" place for it and for years - no, decades - it belonged in my mother's house. Till my mother got a bug in her rear end that she needed to "massively" de-clutter. She doesn't have clutter. Really. Seriously.
So she says she's returning "my" blue bowl. Maybe I can give it to the church for our twice-annual Rummage Sale.
I stuck it on the kitchen table and said, "Self, take this to church sometime soon." And then I came home one day, to this...
Hubby has adopted The Blue Bowl. It is now his. His staging place. His "spot" for whatever he needs to place in a certain location so that he remembers where it is.
It's an ugly blue bowl. And apparently, it's ours. Again.
The Knitting...
As I geared up with the sock knitting, happy to be back at it again, I got a phone call. Yep. Another baby on the way, and this time, it's family. Soooooooo - I was all jazzed because I actually have a whole outfit's worth of a beautiful apple green which will be great, because they're not revealing the gender.
There are so few surprises these days... I think that's cool. Mom (great-grandma) doesn't think so. I have no idea why she's this way - but she'll get over it.
Then it hit me... It's FAMILY. Family gets an afghan, as a tribute to MY maternal grandma, who did it for all of us for our weddings and our babies. I heaved a sigh and headed off to Betsy's in Lockport. It's a yarn and tea shop, and I'd provide you with a link, except there isn't one.
It's a decent-enough shop with a fair bit of yarn, though not my favorite place. I just didn't have time to drive 50 miles to where I prefer to go.
My brain was spinning. I was ripping my house apart for the "8 Hour Afghan" booklet, which I never did find. See - the shower's in MAY even though the baby's coming in JULY (long, LONG story, not worth repeating). So an 8-hour afghan (which in MY knitting timezone is about 2 - 3 weeks) it was going to be.
I actually made the couple an adult version of the 8-hour baby afghan for their wedding, in a nice basketweave pattern.
Now... the color... I looked for a nice complement to the apple green and I couldn't find one. Nope. Nada. Nothing. Lime green. Electric green. Dark green. "Baby" green. Blue-green. Emerald green. Dusty green. Nothing was hitting me, and the few things that DID hit me? Then there wasn't enough for what I needed.
The pattern is extremely simple, and that's a challenge. Your tension has to be spot-on with this much "plain" knitting. This is knit with doubled yarn, so it does go fast-ish. It's 10 rows of straight knit and then you have a stockinette center, with 7 stitches of knitting per row up each side. Knit for about 30" and then do 10 rows of the top border and you're all done. As you can see, I ended up with a nice sage-like green, heathered. And I added a cream heather, almost "oatmeal" in appearance. This seems to knit up nicely, and the way the colors lay out is kind of interesting. The yarn is Encore Worsted, and it's 75% acrylic, 25% wool. Washable. Barf-proof. Sturdy.
Size 10 circular needles. And I'm zipping along, knitting as much as I can each day. This past weekend, it was "knit-a-palooza" on Saturday afternoon and Sunday evening. And tonight, my one night I don't teach, I should be knitting, but I'm visiting with y'all. I did do a few rows before I started. Knitting is calming, of course. Which, heaven knows, I need -- a lot of, lately. I figure that if I can get this done by the weekend (which is looking possible, since I'm already past 15" on this and I've started the second set of yarn balls (4 balls total, knitting with 2 at a time), I can start the sweater next, and take about a month there.
As usual, no fringe, no fussy stuff. It's really nice to do a few rows before bedtime, with the TV off and the computer shut down for the night.
The hat and booties will take about 3 weeks total.
What do you think? I don't know what buttons I'll be using for the sweater -- maybe bright yellow? Definitely a washable button, of course, so I'll also look at the wood-like ones, too. We'll see what's in the button-bag.
Random Picture...
This is our Yogi-baby! One of our teachers is leaving - she's the one I knitted that wild zebra-print ensemble for... He was 11 weeks early, and look at him now! She held her last studio class this past weekend, and he was our "special guest" afterwards.
He couldn't decide whether crawling was a good idea or not. But he's a good roller. Funny enough, he's a chunky little stinker. And I found that my reflexes for "glasses-grabbing" babies? Well, they're still there.
No, I don't have baby fever. But if I did? This little guy sure helped!
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