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Archives for August 2008

Monday thoughts and Monday plans

August 25, 2008 by Susanne 6 Comments

Today I’m having Monday thoughts and Monday plans again.

Kindergarten started again after three weeks of being closed, but school (and my teaching) is still out until the midst of September. Of course this is the time I have been waiting for for weeks now. Home with my husband sans child.

And now I find myself having Monday thoughts. You surely know them. The plans of cleaning the whole house, and losing about ten pounds ’till the end of the week, and get everything done that you haven’t done for the past months. The “Today I won’t eat any sugar”-promises, and the mental list that involves grocery shopping, and making calls, and crafting, and making music, and taking a shovel and clean out my son’s room, and spend quality time with my husband, and write another novel, and two blog posts until four in the afternoon.

The “today’s the day I get a grip on my life” thoughts. That kind of thoughts and plans that I have every Monday. And somedays on Saturdays too. And on days in between.

And if I’m not careful with these thoughts and plans I may be end up where I mostly end up on Mondays, I sit in front of the computer, telling me that the windows need cleaning too, and that I can’t do it all today, and that I need a little time to relax, and then I turn around, and it is four, and I scramble to pick up my son, and then I wait for the day to end, and then I get frustrated, and spend the evening eating too much while drinking beer in front of the TV.

So, I have called the chimney sweeper, and meditated, and written morning pages, and done the kitchen twice, and cooked lunch (For the first time in month I might add, many thanks to my patient husband for cooking for me all that time.), and bought a present for my nephew’s upcoming birthday, and thought about the story I want to write for the next meeting of my writing group, and changed the covers on the guest bed, and read 36 blog posts, and have written comments, and thought about what to spin next, and which spindle to use, and whether I should ply the singles I already spun, and talked with my husband a bit, and ordered some things online, and looked on itunes whether I can re-load the four songs that I bought but didn’t back up before my hard drive crashed, and made a note of two ideas for blog posts, and mailed the letter to m friend, and bought two more stamps for the next two letters to her (because she lives in Austria and that requires more postage than sending letters to Germany).

If that’s the only things I get done today I’ll feel rotten for sure.

Now I have exactly 70 minutes left before I have to pick up my son. I think I might go for a walk. At least that’s a bit of exercise, isn’t it?

How was the beginning of your week? I bet it was more interesting than mine.

Filed Under: life

And the crazy continues

August 22, 2008 by Susanne 1 Comment

Not major craziness, mind you.

Usually this would be the point where I publish my “Story of the Month” because it has been the only thing I have written this week. But it’s not really a story just the beginning of one, and so you’ll have to wait for that one.

So, I’m just popping in here to say that I’m still alive, that I have read through all of your blog posts, my laptop is still not back, and the house is looking awful.

Next week kindergarten will start again but teaching will not and I have high hopes of getting my life back then.

See you, and have a nice weekend.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Coming back from vacation

August 17, 2008 by Susanne 5 Comments

Numbers of phone calls on the machine: 5
Numbers of invitations to barbecues for next week: 4
Numbers of friends who live elsewhere and are in town just this week: 1
Loads of laundry: 3
Loads of laundry before washing machine started acting weird: 2 1/2
Numbers of repaired computers waiting for me in the shop: 0
Numbers of e-mails and phone calls regarding said computer: 3
Numbers of blogs not available for a day: 1 (my husband’s not mine)
Numbers of letters to friends that I still didn’t write: 1
Money spent on re-stocking pantry and fridge after vacation: 170 €
Numbers of e-mails waiting to be answered: 7
Numbers of bags I planned to make last summer, and finally did today: 2
Ounces of roving spun today while waiting for my husband to get up: 1
Number of Legos in my office to keep son occupied: about half a million

Number of unread posts in my feed reader as of now:
crazymumma: 17
liv: 8
meno: 8
nomotherearth: 14
oneplustwo: 5
De: 2
Hel: 9
Mad: 3

Bea: 7
Chani: 1
Flutter: 15
Beck: 14
Her Bad Mother: 15
Rae: 1
Julie: 1
KC: 7
Denguy: 3
Mir: 16

Number of minutes that I spent making music since I came back: 0
Number of gummy bears that I ate since coming back: 5
Numbers of beers that I drank since coming back: 7
Number of short stories that I have to have written until Thursday: 1
Number of blog posts that I had wanted to write the last week, and didn’t: 5
Number of minutes until I have to go to sleep: -40

So, now you know why I didn’t stop by your blogs. I hope you’ll have a fabulous week.

Filed Under: blogging about blogging, life, lists

Summer break to-do-list

August 12, 2008 by Susanne 3 Comments

I wrote this a few days before summer break actually started. Now, more than a week has gone by and somehow I don’t seem to get much done. So I’m posting this as a reminder to myself. Also, because it’s always fun to see what other people are doing on their vacation.

  1. read the books I borrowed from a friend (“Those Left Behind”, and “Quicksilver” by Neal Stephenson)
  2. play my piano
  3. play my guitar
  4. spin (I finally got my two drop spindles and rovings. It’s a bit frustrating but I’ll get back into it eventually.)
  5. sew the dress I have been wanting to make since last summer (I already cut out the pieces, at least.)
  6. sew about 2 or 3 bags
  7. go on vacation (Check! When you’re reading this I’ll be gone for a few days.)
  8. take my son to the zoo
  9. visit the botanical garden (I wanted to see the roses in bloom, in fact I have been wanting to see that for years now but never managed.)
  10. go swimming
  11. have my eyes checked (Already done!)
  12. finish the red and the green cardigan I’m working on
  13. design socks for red cotton yarn and knit them
  14. have dinner at the Osteria Italiana
  15. go and see a movie with my husband in an actual movie theater
  16. go back to exercise three times a week
  17. read my two NaNoWriMo-novels
  18. write a short story
  19. get back into the habit of doing housework and cooking (something my husband would really appreciate, I’m sure)
  20. sing and record some improvisations (as soon as my laptop comes back from the shop)

On my husband’s list there is also:

  1. hike in the mountains with our son
  2. go to the Olympiaturm with our son
  3. harvest our own potatoes (already done)
  4. take a walk to the Andechs monastery with our son (and have some of their delicious beer of which our son doesn’t get any)

Things we had been planning to do over the summer but probably won’t be doing:

  1. renovate kitchen
  2. have all the wiring in the old part of the house replaced

I know that most of you are at the end of summer break, not at the beginning like me. So, how did your plans work out?

Filed Under: life

July Just Posts

August 10, 2008 by Susanne 1 Comment

buttonjuly2008

Welcome again to the Just Posts. This is the July “everybody is on vacation”-edition. Also, all my own nominations got lost in what will be known as the “great computer crash of 2008”. So I’m especially grateful for all the others who nominated posts, and wrote posts of their own.

I didn’t quite know what to write about this month. Not because of a lack of topic but because I couldn’t decide which cause that’s running around in my head I’d rather feature.

Some time ago I received a letter from Open Arms in South Africa. This is an organization that Jen promoted back when the Just Posts celebrated their first anniversary. I gave them a measly amount of money and since then I have been receiving letters and pictures from them. I always feel guilty because I figure they should be spending their money helping children in need instead of paying for postage to Germany.

Open Arms is an organization that cares for children who have lost one or both of their parents to AIDS. They offer a new home to children who don’t have any place to go to. Now they have filled all their space but, of course, there are still children in need, and so Bob Solis is walking 750 miles in order to raise money to build more cottages. You can visit the “A long walk for children“-website for more information or take a look at his blog. He just celebrated his birthday along the way.

The concept of children suffering that much and dying because their parents are ill is something that’s almost incomprehensible to my mind as I’m sitting here, cushioned from a reality like that by a social system that’s still functioning. I know that there are a lot of worthy causes, a lot of people suffering, a lot of places where the kind of money that I spend on books in a month can make a significant difference for the life of somebody.

So. here it is again, the list of posts about social justice that we found in July:

Baha’i Thought with Generation Y on race
Cecilieaux with The beast drops the second shoe, Two boomer final solutions, Le socialisme americaine and Disparity
Chani with homelessness in perspective
Citizen of the world with A time to mourn. A time to heal.
Defiant Muse with like a rolling stone
girlgriot with A Girl Like Me and Oh yeah and we all look alike
Hamguins Hide-Not with OFG VIII peace
Hel with Life truths
Jen with Passing Through
Jill with A penny for your thoughts
Kaliroz with sticker shock
Kittenpie with Down and out in Riverdale
Krista with The melting pot post
Magpie with On Marriage
Mrs. G with Seventies
MYLIBLOG with Uncle Bobby’s Wedding
Practical Spirituality with choosing beauty: where do we go from here and Sacred life Sunday: authentic beauty inspirations
Slouching Mom with For whom city lights glow
The Ascent of Humanity with The red pill
The Blog that Ate Manhattan with Abortion on the Web
Under the Overpasses with Geography of hope

Our lovely readers:
Alejna
Carrie
Chani
Mama Tulip
Mary

Please, make sure to check out Mad’s and Jen’s posts too, especially since they may have even more links because I’m gone on vacation for a few days, and may have missed a post or two.

Filed Under: just post

Third sock syndrome

August 8, 2008 by Susanne 1 Comment

There is a thing called “Second Sock Syndrome”. I hadn’t heard about it until about a year ago. Apparently there are people who, after finishing a sock, procrastinate about knitting the second one. This is a problem since most people come equipped with two feet and appreciate wearing a sock on each of them, preferably matching ones. So there seem to be knitters out there who have a mountain of single socks at home. There are even self-help groups where people send each other single socks and the rest of the yarn and make the second sock for somebody else.

That is not a problem of mine. I’m always happy to find problems that I don’t have in addition to the ones I do have – it makes me feel a bit less, well, problematic.

The problem I do have is something I have decided to call “Third Sock Syndrome”. This problem also had been unknown to me until about a year ago (and I really might be the only knitter suffering from it). It started when I made my first pair of socks following a pattern. Until then all I had knit were socks that we Germans call “Stinos” (when I was a young knitter we didn’t call them Stinos by the way, we called them “Socken”). “Stinos” is short for “stinknormale Socken” which means socks that are so ordinary that they practically reek ordinariness. You don’t need a written pattern for “Stinos” you get shown how to do them by relatives or friends, and they are done following a formula. (Be glad because I just edited that whole formula out of the post so you don’t have to read through it.) That formula-aspect means that you can knit them in all sizes with any ribbing or cabling or colors you like. Since they are so easy to produce there is nothing like this fancy “swatching” and such, you just eye somebody’s feet, go like “It looks like his feet are a bit bigger than mine.” and cast on any number of stitches that feel right. Then you just knit on until you have reached the tip of that person’s little toe (at which point you let that person try on the unfinished sock – you better don’t believe it when people are telling you that you can’t try on a cuff-down sock on double-pointed needles) and make a toe.

But since I like both a challenge and pretty socks I started knitting socks from designer patterns. With different heels and short rows, socks knitted toe-up, with all sorts of lace, and cables, and whatnot. Since then I have developed third sock syndrome which means for every pair of socks that I make I have to knit the equivalent of about three socks. Often more.

Take that sock I’m currently working on right now. The pattern is absolutely gorgeous by Yarnissima, one of my very favorite sock designers. I bought the pattern, pulled out some Wollmeise yarn, wound it into a ball and started knitting, all in a continuous, fluid motion, regardless of the fact that until then I was frantically working on two cardigans and a lace shawl at the same time. I got a bit frustrated by the toe but that’s only to be expected in a toe-up sock, they start out fiddly. Everything went fine, I often stopped to admire my nice, shiny new sock, I managed to turn the heel without much fuss, then I tried on the sock and – it was too short. Ugh. I had to rip back the entire heel and gusset in order to make it longer. I calmed myself by telling me that it was all for the best, I wouldn’t want a sock that’s too short, and the second time I really got the hang of the gusset, and it looks much better. I didn’t like the toe that much though because the cabling started a little later than I would have liked but since I followed the pattern, surely everything would turn out right. I knit on, enjoying myself tremendously.

Oh, and the too short foot? That’s the thing that happens when you decide to knit the sock in the smallest size so that your socks won’t turn out too wide without compensating for the fact that while your foot’s circumference might be small, the length of your foot is not. Duh.

I knit on and on, and didn’t make a lot of mistakes, even when I knit on the train at 11.30 pm after three beers. I had a bit of a trouble with the start of the cuff because I couldn’t figure it out at first, which meant that I knit one round, thought a bit, un-knit it again because I thought it was wrong, thought a bit more, knit half of it in the other direction, finally got it, and knit it again exactly the same way I had done it the first time.

But that’s not a problem. Things like that happen all the time in knitting. Maybe I should put a sign on my knitting bag(s) “Think before ripping.” (And another one that says, “Just do as the pattern tells you to.”) but I was okay with that. Then I saw it: I forgot to cross the cables after the gusset. It looks unpleasant. I really don’t like it.

Could I live with a mistake like that? I looked at the very, very long sock, almost finished, I looked at the missing cable. I thought about how that part will be hidden by my shoes anyway (not to mention that the whole of the sock will be hidden by my shoes and pants but that can’t be helped). I looked at the sock again. I finished it and bound off.

Today I cast on for the second sock. (See, I told you that I don’t have second sock syndrome.) I fiddled with the provisional crocheted cast-on. I did it for the first time in my life, and it will certainly be the last time. Apart from the fact that it takes three times as long as my usual provisional cast-on, it also requires me to find a crochet hook and waste yarn. Nah, I won’t do that again. So, I started the toe, and then I got to the part in the instructions that said “knit row 4 of chart 1” and suddenly it hit me: That didn’t mean knitting row 4 of chart 1 and then starting with row 1 of chart 1 in the following row, no, it probably meant knitting rows 4 to 6 before starting row 1. No wonder the toe of my first sock looked too un-cabled. I had started the crossing of the cables four rows too late.

Even that I could have stomached but now I want to do the second sock the way it should be done. Which means that apart from it being nicer looking, and more cabled, it also will be four rows longer. Which would make it the perfect length since the first sock is still a bit too short. But now, do you see what that means?

I will have to frog the whole first sock from cuff to toe. The whole thing that took three days of dedicated knitting. There is no other way. (No, there isn’t. I mean it.)

For now I’ll just knit the second first sock, formerly known as second sock. I feel a bit of frustration here but I’m almost ready to accept that that is how it goes every single time. In order to get a pair of nice, hand-knit socks, I need to knit not 2 but 3 of them. Third sock syndrome. Meet sock minus one, formerly known as first sock:

And that also is the answer to the question of “How do you manage to knit all these nice things?” It’s easy. I just don’t give up.

Filed Under: knitting

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