Forty-Five, Yoko Ono and the Knitting Olympics
Today is my 45th birthday.
It feels like a big birthday to me but I say that about every birthday everyone has ever had so what do I know. (Ana will be 12--almost a teenager--that's huge! Jane is in the last year of single digits! ENORMOUS! Coop is 43...well, okay, that's only significant in that he still looks TWENTY! Puppy Austin just turned ONE--I wonder if we'll let him live until he's TWO? HUGE!)
Anyway, I'm 45.
HOW THE HELL DID I GET HERE??
I'm spending my birthday having a little "Momcation," as one of my readers called it, and it's been pretty blissful. My family spoiled me rotten before they left to go skiing. The pets gave me a Starbucks gift card. (I may indulge in a whole milk latte today! Do I know how to party or what?)
The girls gave me this incredible thing called an Aerogarden which should allow me to grow tomatoes inside during the winter! WOOHOO!
And Coop? Coop did one of his famous Reading Barb's Mind (TM) tricks and gave me a membership to my favorite public radio station up here, WFUV. WFUV is what my favorite radio station in Austin used to be, PLUS, it has NPR news! I love it and I really wanted to become a member during the Winter Membership drive but we sent money for relief in Haiti this winter, so I resolved to become a member next go-around. And then Coop joined for me.
He does that. Somehow he always knows, without me even saying anything.
It's a good trick.
Also for my birthday, Coop and I went to see the Plastic Ono Band, which was quite the experience, especially sober. I must confess that I just don't really GET the whole Yoko Ono obsession. I may be in the minority on this because a lot of music people I really respect LOVE HER. I just...it's...well. At one point, I said, "We could have just stayed home and stepped on the cats."
Coop thinks it speaks to the enormous influence of John Lennon.
(Also, perhaps, LSD.)
Anyway, it was fun. And the woman can still put on a great show...if not exactly a musical one. I hope something similar can be said of me when I'M 77.
In other news, the Knitting Olympics continues. Oh, how I hate my event. I hate this whole project. Still I persevere because I am going for the gold. (After which, I might just take this damn thing out and run it over with my car.)
Pay no attention to that large section where it's clear I reversed the right and wrong side of my lace. Why, no, that's not driving me crazy, not one little bit. The thing is, I can't rip it back because this freaking yarn --thread, really-- doesn't rip out without breaking. So I'm just going forward. I know the judges (in my head) will penalize me.
I actually think I might like lace knitting if I undertook a project with thicker yarn. But I am hating this thin stuff. I have to bribe myself with sock knitting in order to continue and not just crash out of the Olympics and give up.
Today, though, I'm going to turn the heel on this sock for Ana, which seems like a very nice thing to have happen on one's 45th birthday.
(As always, you can click on the pictures to enlarge. I know you're going to want to see that sock yarn.)
It feels like a big birthday to me but I say that about every birthday everyone has ever had so what do I know. (Ana will be 12--almost a teenager--that's huge! Jane is in the last year of single digits! ENORMOUS! Coop is 43...well, okay, that's only significant in that he still looks TWENTY! Puppy Austin just turned ONE--I wonder if we'll let him live until he's TWO? HUGE!)
Anyway, I'm 45.
HOW THE HELL DID I GET HERE??
I'm spending my birthday having a little "Momcation," as one of my readers called it, and it's been pretty blissful. My family spoiled me rotten before they left to go skiing. The pets gave me a Starbucks gift card. (I may indulge in a whole milk latte today! Do I know how to party or what?)
The girls gave me this incredible thing called an Aerogarden which should allow me to grow tomatoes inside during the winter! WOOHOO!
And Coop? Coop did one of his famous Reading Barb's Mind (TM) tricks and gave me a membership to my favorite public radio station up here, WFUV. WFUV is what my favorite radio station in Austin used to be, PLUS, it has NPR news! I love it and I really wanted to become a member during the Winter Membership drive but we sent money for relief in Haiti this winter, so I resolved to become a member next go-around. And then Coop joined for me.
He does that. Somehow he always knows, without me even saying anything.
It's a good trick.
Also for my birthday, Coop and I went to see the Plastic Ono Band, which was quite the experience, especially sober. I must confess that I just don't really GET the whole Yoko Ono obsession. I may be in the minority on this because a lot of music people I really respect LOVE HER. I just...it's...well. At one point, I said, "We could have just stayed home and stepped on the cats."
Coop thinks it speaks to the enormous influence of John Lennon.
(Also, perhaps, LSD.)
Anyway, it was fun. And the woman can still put on a great show...if not exactly a musical one. I hope something similar can be said of me when I'M 77.
In other news, the Knitting Olympics continues. Oh, how I hate my event. I hate this whole project. Still I persevere because I am going for the gold. (After which, I might just take this damn thing out and run it over with my car.)
Pay no attention to that large section where it's clear I reversed the right and wrong side of my lace. Why, no, that's not driving me crazy, not one little bit. The thing is, I can't rip it back because this freaking yarn --thread, really-- doesn't rip out without breaking. So I'm just going forward. I know the judges (in my head) will penalize me.
I actually think I might like lace knitting if I undertook a project with thicker yarn. But I am hating this thin stuff. I have to bribe myself with sock knitting in order to continue and not just crash out of the Olympics and give up.
(As always, you can click on the pictures to enlarge. I know you're going to want to see that sock yarn.)
Comments
Ginny
The lace is really coming along. It
s lovely. Just do the same thing at the other end, and call it a design feature.
Debbie
Happy day and spoil yourself silly. Have a nap with kitties and snuggle a puppy.
I agree on the lace knitting - gotta use yarn thick enough to keep that me from wanting to kill myself.
"You probably get lots of cards on your birthday. But what about after? When the balloons have withered and the cake has crumbled? Who's thinking of you then? Who's looing out for you when the spotlight's off? I am, that's who. Me.
I'm not late. I'm sensitive."
Again, happy birthday, you goof! (I almost called you old goof but then I realized that I am several years older than you so it didn't seem like such a good idea, you know?) (Tempting karma not wise.) (See that, another digression!)
(Boy, is my face red!)
(Oh look, I managed another digression.)
Hau'oli la hanau e Barb!!
Sounds like a wonderful day!
Hang in there, lace does get easier -- and yes, it is easier to start with thicker yarn. And no fair putting the yarn over the sock yarn label so we can't read it Pretty
I guess I've done lace before if you can call it lace when you use thicker yarn. And coincidentally enough, the latest "Interweave Knits" has a whole article on Today's Lace.
Happy Birthday Barb - hugs and kisses.
45 was one of the best years of my life.
Joanna said if first - just do the same thing at the other end of your stole and call it a design feature. Of course, that assumes you know what you did ;)
Also, wow I WISH my cleaning person would clean that top high window thing. Oh no, I have to do that. At least yearly.
Happy Birthday, even though I don't know you. It seems like the friendly thing to say haha!
I've always wanted to knit. Thanks for the inspiration.
- Robson