Well, I can barely believe this but my cat chewed shawl took 2nd place in the State Fair. Really. Can't believe it. I will have to see it with my own eyes because there is always stiff competition in the shawl catagory. Lots of shawls and lots of well knitted shawls. Holy Cow!

I took my laptop to work yesterday because I just had to know if I had won anything. I'm impatient like that. At the state fair one can check for winners and losers online after 8 a.m. on opening day. Oh, I was on pins and needles. Around 10 I trotted down to the coffee shop on the corner and hooked up to their Wi-fi. I was sharing a couch with another gal on her laptop and I believe I startled her quite a bit when I yelped after seeing my name in the winner catagory. I yelped again when I saw that my socks had also taken a second. I don't know what noise I made when I saw that my beloved gloves had taken first place. At that point the gal shut her laptop and moved away.

I was astounded and thrilled that I placed in all three catagories I had entered. Gobsmacked. I've never won above a 5th place at the state fair and my little heart was pounding away as I scanned back to see if I had actully won or was having some kind of weird knitting hallucination. No. It was right. I won. I won. I won. I did a little happy dance and skipped back to work.

The knitting at the state fair is so competitive and so beautiful that I am very proud to be in the winner's circle. I feel as though I have been looking for a long time and have finally found the key. I have to pick better catagories, choose yarn that is correct for the pattern and then do my best job. I also have to plan ahead. I'm thrilled as hell to have done just that. 

There is such a thing as thinking one knows everything. And then there is the realization that you don't. The phrase 'oh, I can do that' has been in my vocabulary since I learned how to talk. It makes getting old a real pain in the ass because one realizes that no...everything can't be done anymore because the hip might dislocate. I might get dizzy. I might fall over. I might be too tired. The older one gets the less 'I can do that' moments there are. I miss that feeling.

I decided to try my hand at the Master's Knitting Program because I can do that. I've been looking at the program on the TKGA website for over a year now. I read the whole thing and think 'I can do that' and then I don't. Well, this time I'm going to do it. After all my Christmas knitting is done and all my hats for the homeless knitting is done I am going to plunge into the Masters. Sometimes I think I can knit pretty darn good. And then sometimes I want to throw what I am knitting into the back yard and set it on fire. This just might help me become a more thoughtful knitter. And a better knitter. A less wasteful knitter. I know I am a sloppy knitter at times and I know I don't know everything about knitting. I think I am just skimming the surface and skipping along with my limited knowledge thinking I am the cat's pajamas. Shocking though it may seem....most of the time I don't care about gauge at all. Sad but true. This is probably why there are two or three sweaters jammed in the closet that aren't completed and a couple more that I never wear. I could be because they are ugly but I really think it's because they don't fit like they should. And I can only knit so many socks.

This will be a test of my patience as well. As I understand it, you send your knitting off into the blue beyond and after awhile it comes back with either good grades or bad. You have to correct the bad in order to move on. I think I like this. It will help with the second thought in my head after I try something new...'oh, I guess that looks okay'.

I am a computer doofus. I read what I need to do, take copious notes and then sweat and swear over trying to get a Rav button on my website. It didn't work. I'm sure I missed one important thing when my eyeballs turned red and my forehead felt like it was about to explode. I am in awe of my daughter who clicks through things and gets them to work in what seems to be 20 seconds. I feel as though I still should be using a rotary phone and only have 4 channels on my TV.

I got so frustrated last night with trying to get my rss feed ( and who really knows what that is?) to show up on my Ravelry page that, through my tears, I finally read the Help section. Huh. Who knew? I typed in a plea for help and this morning I had an answer and a fix. Kudos to the two gals who figured this all out for me. Evidentally they hang around their computer answering questions from idiots like me and then sit down to fix the problem no matter how long it takes. They are angels. Knitting angels who know computers. I love them.

OMG! THIS is the shawl I have been working on so hard. THIS is the shawl where I ran out of yarn, some kind soul sent me a skein, I had to bleach it to match, and then finish it up quick like a bunny so that I could block it and get it off to the Fair. Seriously, Mr. Cat? THIS is what you do in the middle of the night instead of catching mice? You torturous beast! I left the shawl pinned to the library rug overnight to dry and this is what I woke up to in the morning. ARGHHHH! I couldn't even look at the cat. I couldn't even look at the shawl. I just wanted to cry and go back to bed.

I managed to pull myself together by the afternoon and worked on all the snags. That wasn't so bad but it took me a good long time to get the yarn all back to where it was supposed to be and the stitches evened out. I pissed and moaned the whole time though. I had to wait until yesterday to try to mend the hole. I just coulnd't take looking at it. I growled at the cat every time I saw him. Damn cat. Oh, he's been a very nice kitty up til now. I have no idea what came over him.

With white towel in hand and a mess of needles and crochet hooks I set to work. I wanted to lay the hole over the white towel so that I could see better. It worked. I took off my glasses, bent my head over the achingly big hole and began to work. It took me all day. All damn day but I think I got it. I had to go find tiny dpns so that I could knit some of the stitches back up. I had to do yarn overs with such tiny pieces of yarn that I thought my eyes would bleed. I managed SSKs with a knitting needle and a darning needle. I got it all knit up to where the yarn was broken and saw that I had missed something crucial. I took it all back out and started over. And then I started over again. It was exhausting. And...I saw nothing of the cat all day. He must have put himself in a time out because there was not a whisker to be seen.

Finally, right before dinner, I saw it, I had it, I executed it! I mended the hole! It wasn't easy to hide those two tiny pieces of broken yarn but I think I did okay. It looks good. It's not good enough for the Fair though. Sigh. I'm going to enter it anyway because today's the day for that. I thought I had a perfect piece of knitting. I did. No mistakes. I might have had a ribbon. Not this time. Oh, it's okay. I still have my socks and gloves to enter and when I dig the shawl out of my bag at the entrant's table I'm going to ask if there is a special catagory for ripped up and mended knitting. Maybe there is.

This is not the shawl I have been slaving over but it's a picture! Hooray! I kind of figured out how to do this. Now, If I could just figure out where the pictures are that I just downloaded I'd be set. I need the help of a computer savvy daughter.

There were 2 first place ribbons waiting for me at the Dakota County fair. I was stunned. I had entered a pair of gloves and a pair of socks. I found my socks right away but the gloves needed to be searched for. I was puzzled as to where they would be. Not with the knitting? I wandered around a bit and then discovered that they were in the 'special' case. Under glass. Oh my stars! I had won a big old fancy pink ribbon. It was a reserve champion ribbon and it was so big that it looked as though it should be hanging off of a horse's rump. This pleased me no end and now, along with the shawl with no picture, the gloves and socks will be going to the State Fair competition.

I never won anything as a kid for anything that I did. My daughters have many trophies and awards from their years in soccer and gymnastics. My husband has bowling trophies and soccer trophies. I had nothing. No trophies. No ribbons. No nothing. Then I started, for some crazy reason, to enter my knitting in the fair. I don't know what made me do it but now I am hooked. I love winning a few ribbons. I even love not winning any ribbons and then looking at the items that did win. I get a little crabby about it but it makes me want to knit better, finish better and then block better. It's been interesting to have things I've made entered into competition. There are a variety of feelings that go along with the process and it's a big thrill to see something I've made receive a giant ribbon. It's a fabulous validation....I'm using the word but I'm hating myself for it....that, yes, I am trophy worthy.

I realized there is no picture to help garner applause but I am DONE knitting the everlasting shawl! Hooray! Now what do I do?

The yarn it got from the lovely Ravelry gal was a tad too dark to finish the shawl so I wound some of it off and washed it. A little of the dye came out but not enough. I washed it again with the same result. I had a scary idea that I could use a little bleach and since I had plenty of yarn I tried it. I dunked the yarn in the sink again....think Groundhog Day....and a little more color came out in the water. I had a beautiful shade of the palest of blue water in my sink. I carefully dropped bleach in a little at a time fully expecting to see the whole thing turn blotchy but it didn't. The water immediatly changed from the pretty blue to clear but the yarn stayed the same. I let it sit for awhile and went to clean my bedroom. I came back and the yarn was still the same color. Rats. I used a little more bleach and left that to sit for a bit longer. I had major dust bunnies to deal with. I checked again....no change. I just couldn't figure it out so I gave up thinking about it and dumped more bleach into the water. I swished and swirled the yarn. I talked to it. I smushed it up and down but there was still no change. I finally gave up after I had finished cleaning my bedroom. I was sad because I needed to finish that damn shawl.

I rinsed out the yarn and hung the tangled mess over the shower rod. It still looked pretty dark so after awhile I took it outside to bask in the sun. I fully expected it to burst into flames with all the bleach I had poured in the water but it didn't. It seemed to enjoy the afternoon. I left it outside over night and was pleased to see it was still there the next morning. No nasty squirrel had taken it to line her nest and no raccoons had played cat's cradle with it. It stayed outside the whole day. It seemed to enjoy that and didn't ask for any ice tea or snacks so I was pleased to leave it alone. In the evening I brought it inside and held it to my shawl. Oh. It looked pretty good but you know how evening light is so I left it to sit until morning. Wonder of wonders, in the morning it looked so damn good that I jumped up and down a little. I untagled my mess of yarn and commenced knitting. It looked so good that I coulnd't tell where the shawl ended and the new yarn began. Now....I haven't blocked it yet and the blocking might just show where the all consuming yarn begins but I am keeping my fingers crossed that the bleach bath worked.

I'm still trying to figure out the blog deal. I discovered that the way to get pictures posted is to BUY an upgrade to my account. Oh-h-h-h. It's always about money. I'm going to just ride the free train for awhile and see where that goes before I shell out the dough in order to post pictures.

My mom is slowly going downhill mentally and every week it's a little worse. I have to try real hard not to yell at her because she can't help what she does. Or can she? This is a pickle of epic porportion. She's always been a very sarcastic, manipulative, and trying woman. She's always right. I have a mouth on me as well so things often go south when I try to have a serious conversation with her. The good thing is that I am finally in charge of her money. The bad thing is that I am in charge of her money. It's a constant source of agitation for both of us. I don't want her to spend it with reckless abandon and she is mad because she doesn't have access to her checkbook anymore. There is no happy medium. I am the troll who lives under the bridge. She hates the situation she is in and I do too.

I am trying to be more patient. That is lesson number one. Lesson number two is that life goes by at the speed of light and before I know it I will be in the same situation. Try to remember to be more patient when my kids take the checkbook away from me. It will be for my own good. Lesson number three: don't make snotty and snide remarks when someone is trying to help you. Be nice. I know it's a bitch getting so old that you don't care if your hair hasn't been washed for a week but I must remember to be nice when someone offers to wash it for me.
The big lesson to learn? Be patient. Be patient in everyday life. Most people aren't out to get me...they just have their own agenda. Wait patiently in line and don't snort to show your impatience. You will be next. Don't honk your horn and yell at other drivers. You will get there eventually. Wait and listen until the person talking to you has at least finished a sentence. And have the grace to accept help. I must remember all of these lessons and put them to good use.

Oh my goodness! Oh my stars! Oh my knitting fairies! A lovely gal on Ravelry read my plea of not having enough yarn to finish my shawl. She has some yarn left! She is sending to me. Post haste. And does not want anything in return even though I offered her the moon. What an angel.

My gloves have been soaked and blocked and are off to the county fair. I am relieved. I am also in panic mode because I have run out of yarn on the shawl that is going to be entered into the State Fair. ARGGGG!! This kind of crap happens to me more often than not. I either don't buy enough yarn or I decide to make something where the pattern SAYS it will take the amount of yarn I have but it really takes more. It's my knitting cross to bear. Other people can never get gauge....I run out of yarn. I don't know if it's a disease or if I need my house smudged with sage. Perhaps both.

Now I have ground to a halt on the shawl with a little tail of yarn swinging pathetically from the needle. I've posted an SOS on Ravlery for more yarn but who knows if I will get any or any with enough time to finish...never mind thinking about if it's the right color or not. Sigh. I hate not being prepared but find myself floating in that boat a lot of the time.

The good thing? I figured out why the computer wouldn't let me correct anything in the last post without erasing words. I was at the end of the specific paragraph area given to type in. I learn something new every day. Than