Random Wednesday Friday

1. Clapotis is cruising along at a good clip, and even though it's an easy knit I have learned a new skill: the Norwegian purl. This is a purl stitch where you wrap the yarn and insert the needle from the back. Why would anyone need to do this? Well, I am a continental knitter, and I hate switching between knit and purl stitches (as in doing ribbing) because it messes up the way I hold the yarn in my left hand.

You may note that there is no switching between knit and purl stitches in the Clapotis pattern, and you would be correct. But--instead of using stitch markers to set off the "drop stitch" columns, I took the Yarn Harlot's suggestion and I am purling those stitches. The result is that there are no annoying markers to slide along. But the other result is that I need to switch from knit to purl every few stitches. Hence--the Norwegian purl. It's a bit convoluted, and my gauge needs work, but it keeps my interest. It doesn't take much to entertain me.

2. The reason that I am suddenly finding lots of knitting time is that my life is Out Of Control, and I am a control freak. (I am the worst kind of control freak, as I like to think of myself as laid-back and spontaneous, even though I am rigid and compulsive. Control freak without insight: don't you wish you lived with me?) When my life is out of control, I find myself needing to do something that I have control over, as in knitting. (But not cleaning.)

3. The reason that my life is out of control is that we have several trips coming up, all in a row, and one of them involves multiple airplane flights and extended time with people that make me crazy. Good people, but crazy-making people. Another involves a long car ride and the requirement that I bring enough groceries for an army (and some picky toddlers). So I am busy with planning and making lists and repackaging new keep-the-kids-entertained-on-the-plane Polly Pockets into Ziplock bags (why do they insist on packaging toys in the largest pieces of plastic that will fit on the shelf?).

4. Sometimes I really question whether having a part-time job is worth the time and energy.
Enough said.

5. Did you know that you can stop your mail delivery by filling out an online form? Last night at 11 p.m. I was cheering the fact that the Internet will save me from yet another errand that would have involved unbuckling two children from carseats, ushering them through an office where they would invariably find something to spill, and then negotiating with them for three minutes about why they need to get back in their carseats before screaming "GET IN YOUR SEATS NOW BEFORE MY HEAD EXPLODES!".
I am a better mother because I did not have to go the Post Office today.

6. My almost-six-year-old starts kindergarten on September 11th.
She knows where babies come from, but last night she asked me how they get there in the first place.
With a little help from this book I made it through unscathed.
But now I'm a little freaked out.

7. There are not many things that melt my heart as much as looking out my kitchen window to see this: the man that I love--still in his sweaty gear after cycling home from work--sitting up in the playfort that he built for our children, playing My Little Ponies with our two year old daughter.

I am a lucky woman.