Today, Wednesday, will be the pinnacle of the awful of this week, I hope, I hope.
It's just been a crappy week already. I'm sick, Rocket's sick, Honey's out of town all week, the weather is crazy and so is my arthritis. The stress meter is, as we say around here, "fit to bust" from real estate drama with the house that just won't sell and oh-my-God-could-they-just-approve-the-barn-loan already!!
On Monday, I had to clean the house from top to bottom so the appraiser could make snide comments and take pictures for all of 5 minutes. The appraiser also took pictures outside of our building-less farm and our animals inside their pasture fences and said "You know, these pictures might make it look like you have a working farm--as in profit-making instead of the money pit that we actually have--and banks DON'T like to give loans to build barns to WORKING farms" and I'm thinking "... because ... a farm with no animals would put a new barn to better use?!?" I also had to take Rocket to the doctor because she has allergies, a cold, and maybe strep throat because it turns out she's a "carrier" for strep. In layman's terms, as I understand it, that means that she always has the strep virus present in her body and can, at any time, make all the rest of us sick, even if she, herself, presents no symptoms. I feel like crap. That was Monday.
Tuesday was finish-the-last-sleeve day for the (formerly) gorgeous fingering weight cabled sweater that I have been killing myself to finish before a submission deadline over the last two weeks because a finished product always goes over better than a pencil sketch. I finished it and I blocked all the pieces to standard body measurements for the size I knit. Which was just dumb (D-U-M-B) on my part because the yarn, formerly elastic merino that didn't need to be stretched to standard body measurements--yes, I neglected to think about ease when I blocked it, yes I did--lost ALL elasticity about 10 seconds after I got it wet. It did not return once the pieces were dry. That was Tuesday.
Wednesday rolled around and the weather had cleared so it was time to clean animal pens and steam clean the carpet and run cough drops to school because Rocket forgot them and make the regular trip to Walmart. And, since it was all blocked up and ready for seaming (which I hate, hate, hate doing), I thought that I would seam my (WOW that looks big!) sweater pieces together and that might tighten things up. The seams turned out nicely for a change. The sweater, however, is about 3 sizes too big for me and who knew that you could knit a 40-inch bust size and end up with a 54-inch bust size after adding a little water? So I wet it again. I put it in the dryer. (Yes, I said it. I put pure merino wool in the dryer!) Now we're down to 2 sizes too big and not even felted-looking. I've wet it again and tried to scrunch it together to be the realistic measurements that I knit it to be and it's laying there, taunting me, and threatening not to shrink down any further. The neck is a bit wonky now, so that throws the hole neck edging plan that I had out the window. The deadline is in 5 days. I'm right there on the edge. Right there. And I have no plan to finish the neckline.
I tweeted this picture earlier today when I was thinking that this sweater probably just looks bigger than it is because it's the first time the pieces have met one another other than on the mannequin. I was so proud of my perfect seaming of a purl stitch seam that I was sure that things would work out fine.
I was so naive then.
And then, to make matters worse, I upgraded my iPhone and what the heck I automatically get an app to keep track of my fitness, nutrition, vital signs, and sleep habits? There's a few more invasive apps. You can't delete them. I have tried. I have a possibly ruined sweater AND Big Brother on my iPhone. Great. That's just great. (Please let the rest of this week be more blue skies and butterflied and less mudslide.)
It's just been a crappy week already. I'm sick, Rocket's sick, Honey's out of town all week, the weather is crazy and so is my arthritis. The stress meter is, as we say around here, "fit to bust" from real estate drama with the house that just won't sell and oh-my-God-could-they-just-approve-the-barn-loan already!!
On Monday, I had to clean the house from top to bottom so the appraiser could make snide comments and take pictures for all of 5 minutes. The appraiser also took pictures outside of our building-less farm and our animals inside their pasture fences and said "You know, these pictures might make it look like you have a working farm--as in profit-making instead of the money pit that we actually have--and banks DON'T like to give loans to build barns to WORKING farms" and I'm thinking "... because ... a farm with no animals would put a new barn to better use?!?" I also had to take Rocket to the doctor because she has allergies, a cold, and maybe strep throat because it turns out she's a "carrier" for strep. In layman's terms, as I understand it, that means that she always has the strep virus present in her body and can, at any time, make all the rest of us sick, even if she, herself, presents no symptoms. I feel like crap. That was Monday.
Tuesday was finish-the-last-sleeve day for the (formerly) gorgeous fingering weight cabled sweater that I have been killing myself to finish before a submission deadline over the last two weeks because a finished product always goes over better than a pencil sketch. I finished it and I blocked all the pieces to standard body measurements for the size I knit. Which was just dumb (D-U-M-B) on my part because the yarn, formerly elastic merino that didn't need to be stretched to standard body measurements--yes, I neglected to think about ease when I blocked it, yes I did--lost ALL elasticity about 10 seconds after I got it wet. It did not return once the pieces were dry. That was Tuesday.
Wednesday rolled around and the weather had cleared so it was time to clean animal pens and steam clean the carpet and run cough drops to school because Rocket forgot them and make the regular trip to Walmart. And, since it was all blocked up and ready for seaming (which I hate, hate, hate doing), I thought that I would seam my (WOW that looks big!) sweater pieces together and that might tighten things up. The seams turned out nicely for a change. The sweater, however, is about 3 sizes too big for me and who knew that you could knit a 40-inch bust size and end up with a 54-inch bust size after adding a little water? So I wet it again. I put it in the dryer. (Yes, I said it. I put pure merino wool in the dryer!) Now we're down to 2 sizes too big and not even felted-looking. I've wet it again and tried to scrunch it together to be the realistic measurements that I knit it to be and it's laying there, taunting me, and threatening not to shrink down any further. The neck is a bit wonky now, so that throws the hole neck edging plan that I had out the window. The deadline is in 5 days. I'm right there on the edge. Right there. And I have no plan to finish the neckline.
I tweeted this picture earlier today when I was thinking that this sweater probably just looks bigger than it is because it's the first time the pieces have met one another other than on the mannequin. I was so proud of my perfect seaming of a purl stitch seam that I was sure that things would work out fine.
I was so naive then.
And then, to make matters worse, I upgraded my iPhone and what the heck I automatically get an app to keep track of my fitness, nutrition, vital signs, and sleep habits? There's a few more invasive apps. You can't delete them. I have tried. I have a possibly ruined sweater AND Big Brother on my iPhone. Great. That's just great. (Please let the rest of this week be more blue skies and butterflied and less mudslide.)
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