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tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12341348296150962652014-11-25T10:37:36.703-06:00Green Woman Comes KnockingKPiephttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1234134829615096265.post-62928303086906466082014-11-17T19:59:00.001-06:002014-11-17T19:59:55.161-06:00Living On The Edge

I love it when I get to take my scissors to my knitting!
Thought you all would like to see some pictures of the steek process.

Soooo much fun!
KPiephttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1234134829615096265.post-89304566242502485002014-11-11T11:33:00.000-06:002014-11-11T11:33:05.731-06:00The Agony and the Ecstasy of Fall...an Allergy TaleAhhh Autumn...the most beautiful season of the year....the crisp weather, the lovely colors, soups and stews, Halloween, extra blankets on the beds, weather that alternates between glorious sunshine and quiet rain, back to school, apple season, big mugs of hot tea, watching my husband and kids go a bit nuts, Thanksgiving, layers, that fine place between air conditioning and the heater....so many things to love!

I would go so far as to say that fall is THE perfect season!

But.

Autumn doesn't love me.

Sigh. That's not a fair way to put it.

The fact of the matter is that for this complicated, allergy-prone body, fall is THE peak allergy season, and so everything is just tougher for me from mid-August until the we've had a couple of hard frosts. My heart, mind and soul love this season...but there is a major disconnect with my body.

Why is autumn so tough? Well...although it is true that spring is a big, bad for allergy sufferers (pollen, pollen everywhere!!!), there are a couple of factors that make the fall more difficult for some of us. Those include some nasty plants (hello ragweed!!!) that wreak havoc at this time of year, lots of mold created by fall rains, the dust thrown into the air by the harvest, and the decay of leaves on the ground.

Allergies are a load issue. The more you are dealing with, the worse it is. You can improve things by taking steps to lower the amount of allergens you are exposed to. Primarily, this is accomplished by:
 - eliminating offensive foods from your diet
 - using immunotherapy drops
 - keeping your environment clean
 - keeping the windows shut during peak seasons
 - avoiding, when at possible, your allergens
 - make sure to understand what foods are cross-reactive, so that you can avoid them  during peak allergy times
 - using a saline wash to clean out your nose

The problem is that in the case of inhalant allergies, there's no way to completely protect yourself, and when Mother Nature is providing a veritable smorgasbord of allergens which assault you on a near daily basis...well, that's when life gets tough.

Which would explain why:
 - it's more difficult for me to resist toxic foods at certain times of the year
 - I have trouble in the fall with some emotional stuff
 - my introverted nature really asserts itself in the fall
 - I tend to be cranky a lot at this time of year
 - even on my drops I still need to use some OTC meds to control symptoms
 - I'm blasted tired all of the time

So, things tend to go sideways for me in the fall, which totally stinks because I would really love to be able to enjoy it to the fullest.

The good news is that despite my fall challenges I'm in a much better place this year than I've been in the past, thanks in large part to the work I've put into improving my health over the last four-five months. Yes, it's been frustrating because just about the time I would have expected to start seeing major results from all of my efforts I instead find myself struggling to get through each day. Forward movement has ground to a halt, and things that I thought I had moved past - such as food cravings - have come roaring back with a force.

Yep, frustrating is a good word to describe where I've been for the past couple of months.

And yet...I would be remiss if I didn't point out the good. Fatigue and a low emotional state are tough, but they are miles better than the month plus of severe bronchitis I used to fight (pre allergy drops) at this point every year. I may not have been able to maintain a perfect diet through this (and my allergist assures me this isn't all my fault) but my cheats have been mostly contained to just a few things which are lower on the impact scale for me. None of them have lead to the sort of massive nosedive off of the cliff they once would have led to, and as a result my weight has remained stable. I've kept on running, and I am able to enjoy tap class. I've mostly been able to protect the quality of my sleep. I've been faithful to the few supplements that I KNOW help me out.

Mostly, I'm being kind to myself. I don't expect perfection because I know it's just not possible right now, and I don't beat myself up for doing what I have to do to get through the day...even if what I have to do is to eat some chocolate.

I did have an appointment with my allergist a few weeks ago, and she was VERY pleased with how well I've been doing lately. In fact, despite my current challenges it was the best allergy appointment that I've had in years. Things are starting to come together, and that needs to be celebrated.

At the same time, I do need to learn to honor and accept the cycles that my body will follow each and every year for the rest of my life. Fall will always be both the best of the year and the worst of the year. I'm working to accept that..and maybe, just maybe, this year that's getting a little bit easier.KPiephttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1234134829615096265.post-6940791015248092592014-11-10T11:38:00.002-06:002014-11-10T11:39:07.665-06:00When Messing Up Becomes Making RightI started this post three weeks ago, and it's taken me this long to work up the guts to share it with you. Funny...I'm ordinarily an open book. Some things are just really that big of a deal.

I stunk up the dance floor in my tap class last night.

My feet were sluggish during the warm-up routine, and I struggled to shift my weight and keep my balance during each component.

I totally forgot the break during the paradiddles, and I'm pretty sure I wasn't quite on the beat anyway.

I could not get off of the ground for the Irishes or the Buffaloes.

There are at least two of our regular time steps that I haven't quite mastered yet, and I lost ground on both last night.

Let's not even get started on the last dance sequence. Our teacher gave very brief instructions that everyone else seemed to understand, but which to me were gibberish. As we were doing these two at a time back and forth across the floor it was VERY obvious that I didn't know what I was doing. Even after four passes across the floor I still had only figured out the first half.

On the way home, as I mentally reviewed the evening, I found myself welling up. The tears broke free with a sob or two, and I had to take a little moment to pull myself together when I got home.

Believe it or not, this was a good thing.

You see, I wasn't crying because I had failed or because everyone else was so much better than me or because I was frustrated or angry or any other such thing.

I was crying because realized that I had given myself permission to fail....that it was ok - for the first time in my life - for me to not be perfect...that even if I wasn't the best of the best I could still love it and enjoy it with every beat of my heart.

My friends, for me this was profound.

I was very, very young when I figured out that I had to be perfect. I want to be perfectly clear that this was really no one's fault. My parents aren't mean, I'm not crazy, and there was never some traumatic event that would have triggered a negative emotional spiral. Rather, it was caused by the perfect storm of my own idiosyncratic personality traits combined with normal familial expectations. (OK, maybe slightly higher than normal family expectations...I do, after all, come from a long line of ministers.) What my parents SAID was, "We expect you to do your best." What I HEARD was, "You absolutely must make straight A's, take all of the most difficult classes, win in every extracurricular you do, and hold yourself to a moral standard that would make most grown adults weep."

You see the problem?

It shouldn't surprised anyone that the perfectionism I developed at such a young age has crippled me, and I don't use that word lightly. I don't really want to go into great detail (Goodness, no one wants to read that.), but for the sake of this post I think you should know about the two big issues that perfectionism has created. First, I live in fear. I'm terrified of failing, and so I'd rather not try. Second, I'm really, really mean to myself. My self-critic is the size of Everest, and she's nasty. Like I said...crippling.

Which leads me back to that drive home, and my realization that I had given myself permission to fail. Can you see now what a huge, amazing gift that was? It's something that I've needed for more than 20 years....and now that it's arrived it's potentially a life-changer.

As this is such a big deal for me, I've given some thought to the curious question of why it's ok for me to not be perfect in tap class. What about this particular experience makes it ok for the first time?

I have a few ideas which might explain it.

1. During the second class I was able to look around and realize that others are having as much trouble as I am...at least one person even more. There are ladies in this group who've been in the class for a while, and who performed beautifully during the recital last spring. They are all perfectly human, though, and have good and bad days and different levels of accomplishment. There's not a single soul in that classroom who gets everything right.

2. It's a no judgement space. The teacher has said it, the other students have said it, and I feel it. Perhaps that's enabling me to let go of the judgement of myself.

3. Ditto that it's a no competition space.

4. It's also a happy spot. Everyone wants to be there...including me. I've NEVER felt this way in an exercise class before, even though they've all been voluntary classes.

5. Just as importantly, it's a welcoming spot. Those are some really, really nice women. They immediately threw their arms open and welcomed me in...many of them making sure to take the time to either help me or share their own experiences when they joined the class. (And there is a comforting uniformity to those stories!)

6. I know I'll get better. The fact of the matter is that it's been 20 YEARS since I had a tap class, and while the body retains memory - enabling me to jump into this more advanced class instead of starting over with a beginner class - it does take time to fully pull those skills back out again.

7. Along with that, I know exactly what I need to work on, and that helps.

8. This class is allowing me to reconnect to a part of myself that I thought was lost years and years ago...and that part of myself lives in an entirely positive heartspace.

Then again, maybe there isn't a reason at all. Maybe it was just time. Maybe I was just finally ready and open enough for the lesson to come into my life. Maybe I just needed to loosen the heck up. Who knows!

The only thing I can say for sure is that my future now feels open in an entirely new way.

Possibility, my friends.

Possibility is what happens when you learn that it's ok to fail.

KPiephttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1234134829615096265.post-24182074089750259672014-11-07T07:17:00.001-06:002014-11-07T07:17:38.122-06:00Mandala
Mandala by Renee Leverington

Jaggerspun Zephyr Wool-Silk 2/18 Cone

7 oz, pale gray

Addi Turbo US 5, 3.75 mm/36 inch circular

Knit Picks Harmony 6 inch DPN's - US 5, 3.75 mm

July 5, 2013 - November 5, 2014

Pattern Selections: 1D, 2D, 3A, 4B, 2D

Modifications: Dropped edging and did crochet chain bind-off

Finished size: 64 inch diameter

The fact that this took over a year to finish is indicative of the fact that it was yet another troubled project. I had trouble figuring out what I really wanted to do with each section, and dithered way more than I thought I would. I spilled coffee on it. I grew bored with the yarn. (Face it, Zephyr is an awesome workhorse of a lace yarn, but it's nothing special.) The edging became a serious issue. Despite my protestations a couple of days ago that the crochet bind off was the right choice because I needed to get it done, I was honestly concerned that aesthetically I'd just made a drastic mistake. The fact that my knee - which had been perfectly fine - went out while I was blocking it didn't exactly endear me to anything either.

But.

As with the Spider Queen, all was forgiven when I took it off of the floor this morning. Now that I look at it, the patterns flow into each other with more harmony than I had thought. (Good job designer!) Zephyr is lovely when blocked, as it becomes both softer and crisper. It's also much lighter and more airy than the other zephyr shawl I have in my collection. I'm glad I didn't do an edging because without it the entire piece actually looks more like a true mandala.

Happy to be in love again.

KPiephttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1234134829615096265.post-13277493431206454482014-11-06T12:35:00.000-06:002014-11-06T17:35:05.245-06:00The Spider Queen
The Spider Queen*, by Hazel Carter

Blackberry Ridge Thistledown

3 skeins, natural

Addi Turbo, 3.0 mm - 36 inch circulars

April 27 - November 3, 2014

Modifications: border done in the round to eliminate seams, number of repeats in edging increased, and edging knit on.

I believe I've already done a fairly thorough job of documenting the trials and tribulations of this project, so for now I will let the pictures speak for themselves and I'll simply say....

All is forgiven, I'm in love.

*Many of the eliments found in this piece are drawn from the story that accompanies the pattern. Carter does not say if it's an original story or if it's of Shetland origin. As it's uncredited, I am uncomfortable sharing it with you here. However, in the closeup photos you will see spiders, webs, necklaces, crowns and trios of flowers that are all important parts of that story!KPiephttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1234134829615096265.post-46297500242185450502014-11-05T09:54:00.000-06:002014-11-05T12:22:39.553-06:00Getting It DoneHaving at long last finished the Spider Queen, I turned my attention this morning to the also long-neglected Mandala.

Truthfully, this has been a weird project from day one. The current incarnation is actually my third attempt at this pattern - the first two having both wound up in the frog pond. I had intended to use it as a way to loosen me up a bit....by choosing each element I included from the limited options preselected by the designer, I felt it would be a very gentle way to ease me into designing my own projects. Sadly, I think it had the exact opposite effect.

Ah well...it was still beautiful.

Unfortunately, it fell apart when I hit the outside edging. I hated the edging included in the pattern (and how weird is it that this is a choose-your-own-adventure pattern, with four options for every section...but a single, fixed pattern for the edging?!), and so took it upon myself to find a replacement. After a few repeats, and with the assistance of my handy digital postal scale, I did some math and realized I didn't have enough yarn to complete the edging that I had chosen. Back into the WIP basket it went while I contemplated what to do about that. (Go buy more yarn? pick a different pattern?)

It's been sitting for months and months and months.

This morning I stuffed it into my knitting bag on a whim before I headed out to Starbucks. Once I was settled with my tea I rather ruthlessly ripped out the edging I had already completed, and began the quick process of a crochet chain bind off. I didn't give myself time to think or to second guess or to try to figure out another solution. It's not the fanciest of edgings, and it may not be entirely the right match for this project....but I can finish it today and then move on to other projects without this particular albatross continuing to weigh me down.

Sometimes you just need to get it done.

KPiephttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1234134829615096265.post-81029482070320333932014-11-04T08:46:00.002-06:002014-11-04T08:46:39.589-06:00A Sigh of Relief

Nothing bad happened.

KPiephttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1234134829615096265.post-28810442928798607632014-11-03T16:54:00.000-06:002014-11-03T16:54:01.222-06:00The Moment Of Truth

 Well folks, this is it. Tonight after my tap class I shall block out the Spider Queen shawl, and we shall see if it will live up to it's potential or if it will become a disaster of epic proportions.

Never in my knitting life have I been so nervous about a finished project.

You might remember that this particular shawl has been plagued from the beginning with a series of frustrating problems.

Primarily, the yarn (Thistledown singles from Blackberry Woolen Mill, purchased with the pattern as a kit) proved to be highly problematic. In a nutshell - while the first skein knitted up like a dream, I ran into crazy problems with the yarn snapping and breaking when I got into the second skein. I've worked with laceweight singles before, and I've worked with finer yarns before as well. NEVER, have I had yarn fall apart so easily. When I contacted Blackberry Woolen Mill about the problem, they first wanted to blame me for moths in my stash. After I assured them that I had ordered the yarn less than a month prior to my email, and had started knitting it immediately without it ever having been with the rest of the yarn (and oh, by the way, I am a very experienced lace knitter who knows what she's doing) they replaced one skein. The new skein was mostly fine...but by this time I'd lost confidence in the integrity of the yarn. Even worse, I should have frogged the 10ish rows of that bad skein that got left in the shawl, but I was so frustrated with the days and days already lost to the breaking problem that I left them in. I sincerely regret that now. Towards the end of the edging, I ran into another weak section of yarn, further eroding my confidence.

Beyond that, there were problems with the pattern - some of which I was able to fix - others, not so much.

The fixes included doing the wide outer border in the round and altering the edging so that it was knit on. Those two things effectively eliminated the need for ugly and difficult and completely unnecessary seams.

The thing I could fix was that the outer border had increases on every single round, instead of every other round as is usual. The result of that is that there is a lot of extra fabric in the corners. (You can see this in the picture below. In an ordinary square shawl, that corner would lie flat as a nice, square corner.) Even a non-knitting friend of mine noticed that problem when I showed her the shawl a few days ago. "Are the corners supposed to look like that?" she said. I sighed. Sadly, the only way to keep the integrity of the lace design was to keep the weird increases.

And, drat it, there was a snap in the border that I had to patch before I threw it in to be blocked. I am ordinarily quite good at fixing mistakes and problems...but given everything else this piece has been through, I'm feeling queasy over the patch job I did.

So yes...blocking it tonight could possibly be a disaster. In my worst moments I imagine the thing falling apart as soon as I lift it out of the bath....or snapping into a million pieces even with gentle blocking. At the very least, the corners are going to look funky because they won't block to the same gauge as the rest of the silly thing.

Sigh.

Here's hoping I'm completely wrong!

KPiephttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1234134829615096265.post-79880471900386237352014-10-30T20:24:00.000-05:002014-10-30T20:24:51.068-05:00Halloween Reading1. The Accursed, Joyce Carol Oats - I picked this up on the iBooks sale page some time ago, being very intrigued by the description...which was absolutely up my alley. It's a loooong book, and it took a while to get into it. Normally, I'm not daunted by either of those...but.... yeah, I put it down about 25% of the way into it. Life is just too short sometimes.

2. The Replacement, Brenna Yovanof - Oh my...I loved this book more than I can possibly say. When I was in college, one of the first papers I ever wrote for my first ever English (Honors Section) Lit Class was entitled,"Crying For the Monsters." I based it on Frankenstein and The Phantom of the Opera, using them to illustrate how authors used often sympathetic monsters to make powerful statements about humanity. My teacher said it was a potentially publishable paper. It's been years and years since I read it...but that whole experience of early critical reading of classic horror novels came flooding back when I read The Replacement. Simply put, this is the story about a fairy changeling child...one who survived against the odds when he was left in place of a human child as part of a horrible history of child abductions in a small town. Not going to lie....in the passage when he realizes why he lived all of those years I cried. Really, I wouldn't call this a horror/scary book so much as it's a fairy tale which touches on the darker side of the fey.

3. White is for Witching, Helen Oyeyemi - I really should have loved this book. The language is amazing, and there were phrases that made my heart sing. Once or twice there was even a scene that thrilled me for its originality. The problem was that it was perhaps too literary for my liking. When I read a genre book, usually I just want to be entertained. If I'm having to work too hard to follow the story because the language is so complicated...well, that's just not fun. I consider myself to be an intelligent and experienced reader...when I struggle, perhaps there's a problem.

4. The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, Holly Black - A unique twist on the vampire plague sort of novel. I really enjoyed the concept of a Coldtown! (A bit surprised at the YA tag, but then I was a super innocent kid when I was in the target YA demographic.) There was a really nice balance between the horrors of the monsters and the horrors that can be caused by stinky humans.

5. House of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski - Truth. This book was recommended to me years and years ago. I bought it, and then gave it away when it sat around for a really long time without being read. It kept popping up on best of lists, though so I decided to give it another go. I tried getting a copy from the library - but it stunk so bad of cigarette smoke that I had to return it in a ziploc bag the next day. So I bought my own...and WOW! I'm glad I did! It was a slow read...the sort of thing I worked on all month long...and that was necessary given the format. First and foremost, you should know that this is an 'experimental' novel, with a very non-standard format. Yes, it takes a long time to read, and sometimes the structure can be maddening...but then, that's the point. Every crazy page lends to the overall insanity of the book. It was awesome. (And my goodness, how much work was it to write this beast?!)

7. Bellman and Black, Diane Setterfield (audio) - I love Diane Setterfield, and I loved this book. It was the story of a man who makes one single mistake in his childhood that effects the rest of his life. Truthfully, this isn't a scary book...but it is a heartbreaker. Given that it's a period piece, the real tragedy within seems all the more read because you know that it's exactly the sort of thing that actually happened. It haunts me...far more so than any scary book ever could.

8. Penpal, Dathan Auerbach - The writing is actually quite beautiful. But. I only read through half of it, and then after a quick skim of the rest I discarded it. I have small children. I don't really care for scary books that are realistic and very, very possible.

Annnnndddd....that's when I gave up on my month of scary books.

With one of my Halloween books turning into a very slow (but pleasurable) month-long read, and three others turning into reading fails I decided I didn't want to force the rest of the month into a theme that really wasn't doing it for me this year like it did last year.

SO!

9. Silverskin, Tina Connelly - With this book Connelly competes an amazing trilogy that I absolutely adored. The first was a steampunk/fairy/Victorian take on Jane Eyre...the second, well truthfully I forget that at the moment...this one, well this one wound up using Tam Lin, which is a much-beloved tale in this reader's heart. I absolutely love Connelly's female characters, and I adore the world she's created. This was a real treat!

10. Dragon Haven, Robin Hobb (audio) - So I went ahead and picked up the second book in the Rainwild series! Truthfully, there are some things that bug me about loooong epic fantasy series....and those things are a tad more noticeable when reading them in audio format. (You really pick up on the repetition and the wasted time and the emotional dithering that can happen.) Still love Hobb, though. Even with the flaws I was anxious listening the entire time to find out what happened next! The reader - Anne Flosnik - is really good, too.

11. Bird Box, Josh Malerman - Could. Not. Put. It. Down! Bird Box got a major recommendation from Books on the Nightstand a couple of months ago, and I was saving it for this month. The fact that you never actually see the monsters....well, let's just say it was terrifying in a way that books aren't usually for me. Reminded me in some ways of the movie The Mist. Shudders.

12. Ex-Heroes, Peter Clines - Yeah, this one wound up in my unfinished folder as well. The concept is fun - a band of survivors living on a movie lot after the zombie apocalypse with real live superheros! - but it didn't really do it for me.

13. The Pierced Heart, Lynn Shepard - I had completely forgotten that I had preordered this book, and to my great delight it turned out to be a perfect October read. This is Shepard's third book in a series of Victorian gothic/detective novels that turn on actual writers/books of the time. (Her last book sent me on a grand explorations of biographies of Mary Shelley!) This time around, Shepard takes on Dracula....which you all know is my favorite of all classic horror novels. It was perfect. It was so perfect that it left me a bit dazed. (And darn it! Would it have killed her to have given us an epilogue!!!!)

14. Interview With A Vampire, Anne Rice - File this under, "I can't believe I read this." Sigh. It was on sale for a couple of bucks. I thought why not?! Answer me this, Anne Rice fans, why the heck to do you like this dreck?

15. Dragon City, Robin Hobb (audio) - With the third installment, Hobb pulls her lens away from the small group that she focused on in the first two books and expands back to a larger view of her world. This was a very good thing. That small group had started to feel somewhat claustrophobic.

16. Blood of Dragons, Robin Hobb (audio) - (Fun fact, when the reader is this slow, you can speed up the audio to 1.5x the normal speed with no problem. This allows you to listen to a 70+ hr saga in about 50 hours. yay!) I hadn't intended to listen to the whole thing straight through, but I was so caught up in the story that I HAD to. I honestly don't think this series is Hobb's best work (or maybe now that I'm older and have expanded my reading I'm noticing the errors more?), but that aside it was still a whole lot of fun!

17. Lucky Us, Amy Bloom - I put a bunch of books on hold with my library's digital services, and when they become available, it's either read them or wait another couple of months! Thus...this book, which is completely unlike anything else I read this month. (Books on the Nightstand recommendation) It's a new book that I've really wanted to read for a while, and to my delight it turned out to be just as much fun as I'd hoped!

KPiephttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1234134829615096265.post-42430978044433328172014-10-24T13:17:00.001-05:002014-10-24T13:17:49.264-05:00Satisfaction

With the body officially done, it's time to take a break and move to another project for a while.

And so I go home...to lace, which always fills my heart with joy.
KPiephttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1234134829615096265.post-71061435858710296132014-10-17T15:29:00.003-05:002014-10-17T15:29:51.969-05:00Back In The Saddle Again

You'll be happy to know that I figured out what I need to do.

After perusing a few of my reference books and taking some measurements from a few of Sean's old sweaters, this morning I ripped out the top two bands of color (about a day and a half of work...but not too bad, all things considered) and got everything back on track with the corrected pattern.

Yay me!

KPiephttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1234134829615096265.post-71251205699249865672014-10-15T13:55:00.000-05:002014-10-15T14:09:30.652-05:00Step Away From The Knitting....

It's gorgeous.

In fact, it's quite possibly one of the most beautiful things I've ever knit....and given my portfolio, that's saying something. For sure, it's the best sweater I've ever knit.

I've been so focused on this particular project that just about everything else in my life has gone by the wayside lately. I'm not spinning...or knitting anything else...or reading as much... or blogging...or fill-in-the-blank. (While this is certainly productive for me, it doesn't exactly make for the most entertaining blog for you. There's only so many times I could say, "I knit x # of rows today," before your eyes would glaze over.) But that's ok, because - honestly - it's been a pleasure.

The thing is...

I knew from day one that the pattern was problematic. It was written in the 80's during a time when the popularity of knitting led designers to try to honor traditional styles. Unfortunately, in their attempts to modernize the patterns they managed to mangle the traditional methods of construction. Ultimately this was misguided. The old methods existed for a reason, serving to make a much nicer finished product. The new pattern instructions - intended to "simplify" the process for a modern knitter who hadn't been taught the hows and whys of traditional knitting - actually complicate things and create multiple potential problems.

So I knew from day one that I was going to have to take this poorly written pattern and return it to it's roots in order to get the sweater I wanted. Really, this wasn't THAT difficult. All I thought I had to do was to add in steeks for the sleeves so that I could knit the whole thing in the round. I consulted a couple of Fair Isle reference books, and that was that.

Crazy how the rows can build up without you even realizing how much you've accomplished....but that's exactly what happened. After weeks of work, I laid it out a few days ago to check some measurements and fully realized just how big it had become. Today was going to be important. Given how much I've been able to accomplish over the last few days, I thought I'd be able to finish the body today. With that done, I'd be on the downhill slide with just the sleeves left!

The problem became evident when I pulled out the pattern to figure out the shoulder shaping. I read through it once. It didn't make sense. I read through it a second time....it still wasn't coming together. I tried a third time, and that's when I realized that the pattern was completely, hopelessly messed up. I've done this before. I always assume the published pattern is written correctly, so if there's a problem with the pattern I go into this weird confused state until I am able to see that yes, in fact, I was right and the pattern is wrong.

In this particular example, there are multiple errors. For starters, there *should* be instructions for neck shaping incorporated in there somewhere. Next up, the shoulder shaping is completely off, part of the instructions are repeated, and the stitch numbers don't match up anywhere. There are several choice words I use about this bad of a muck up in private.

Now, I'm a smart knitter, and I have a big personal library of amazing reference books. I can and will be able to figure this out...although I freely admit that it may not be much fun to do so, and that I'm nervous about how much I'm going to have to alter. Ordinarily I roll with mistakes without too much of a problem. They happen. I can fix it. It's just what happens.

But.

I'm not real happy right now.

I'm annoyed that my plan for today has now been thrown away. I'm irritated by potential lost time. I'm angry with myself for not having done a better job of reading the pattern/planning from the get go. I know better than to trust a pattern too blindly.

So for now I'm going to set the sweater aside. I think I'll take some time to work on some lace or a nice, simple sock until I'm in a better frame of mind to tackle this.

Sigh.

KPiephttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1234134829615096265.post-54174402740814729742014-09-30T07:00:00.000-05:002014-09-30T07:07:22.444-05:00Fall Into Reading. Yes, that's a supremely bad post title....I was channelling my inner elementary librarian.

1. Burn Me Deadly, Alex Bledsoe (audio) - ok, so I didn't wait to read more of the Eddie Lacrosse books. It helps that they are all short (less than 10 hours, with a slow reader that allows me to speed them up to listen at 1.25x speed). They remind me quite a bit of Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse books....short, lighthearted, fun reads that are well written enough to make you feel like you aren't reading junk. (I mean that as a big compliment.) I found that once I got started with them, I just couldn't stop! This may be a series that I eventually have to buy for myself.

2. Sweet Grace: A Weight Loss Memoir, How I Lost 250 Pounds and Stopped Trying to Earn God's Favor, Teresa Sheilds Parker - Full disclosure, Parker and I see the same allergist, which is how I first heard about her book. In fact, Parker has the exact same yeast allergy that is the bane of my existence. So here's the thing...I am a Christian. In fact, I'm an ordained member of the priesthood in my denomination. But. I do not enjoy overtly Christian literature/art/music/etc, as my own faith is a much quieter, more personal faith. I find more of religious truth in secular works because to me they feel more honest. I say all of this because Parker very much is someone who does live her faith in a much more open way, and so the focus of her book is more on her faith than on her health. (She also has a very long history of writing and publishing various Christian publications...this is her calling, and I admire and respect that.) While on the one hand its awesome to read about someone who understands food like I do, and who really gets the addiction thing (and a special shout out to my allergist, who plays a key part in the book!), I really wish there had been less of an emphasis on the religious side of things. I really, really dislike being preached to in such a way. She did reference a couple of health books in there that I will be looking up, though, and that's always good.

3. Dark Jenny, Alex Bledsoe (audio) - Can't stop! Too much fun! Dark Jenny is Bledsoe's take on King Arthur, and my oh my was it ever fun! I'm not generally a fan of satire or spoof books, and so I'm kind of surprised I enjoyed it...even in the framework of Bledsoe's Eddie LaCrosse genre-mixing books.

4. Wake of the Bloody Angel, Alex Bledsoe (audio) - Eddie LaCrosse takes on pirates. Honestly...not my favorite. The grand problem of fantasy books that take place on the sea is that sea travel of that sort necessitates a lot of down time.

5. Written In My Own Heart's Blood, Diana Gabaldon - Confession, I only read about 1/3 of the book when it first came out...even though I went ahead and listed it as a finished book that month. (Whoops!) I had intended to get it done that month, but it just didn't happen. As I believe I said at the time, Gabaldon doesn't waste time coddling readers with a lot of reminders about who and what is going on in her books. While I commend her for this (too much exposition being a huge annoyance of mine with certain writers of giant, multi-book epics), I did find it pretty tough to become fully invested in this one. (When I read the series originally, I read through straight through all seven books in less than 2 months...which makes it kind of like reading one gigantic, almost 7,000 page book.) All of the press on the Outlander TV show - which I'm sadly not watching as I don't get that station - led me to pick this up again. This time it sucked me in, and I found myself enjoying it immensely....maybe not as much as the earlier books (did it feel like a string of random to anyone else, too? like there wasn't a central plot tying it all together?) My only complaint...the book really bogged down for me with Roger and Brianna. Usually I like them every bit as much as I like Jamie and Clair, but this time around their portions of the book were a bit of a slog.

6. He Drank, and Saw the Spider, Alex Bledsoe (audio) - The last one. Sad. (Because there are no more.) This might have actually been my favorite of all of them - even though I saw the conclusion coming from a mile away. I love that the female characters in these books are so amazing, and don't tend to fall into horrid fantasy stereotypes. I love that this book made me laugh out loud and was so much fun I had trouble putting it down. I already loved Bledsoe because of his brilliant Tufa books...now I just love him as a writer.

7. Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel - Every once in a while both hosts on Books on the Nightstand recommend the same book in the final section of their podcast...and when they do I take notice because those books tend to be something special. I almost never buy books as soon as they are released...but this one I read within 24 hours of it hitting the shelves. It's got a fairly simple premise...a pandemic flu basically wipes out most of humanity in the blink of an eye, and this is what happens afterwords. I find myself at a bit of a loss as to what to say about Station Eleven. Yes, I enjoyed it. The language is beautiful and as a character study it's exquisite. The plot perhaps takes second fiddle, and it's actually quite different from the usual post-apocalyptic novel. I was left perhaps wanting a little bit more....more plot, more intensity...but I still recommend it highly.

8. The Bone Clocks, David Mitchell - OK, so the Bledsoe books are super-fun and super-quick and tend to be popcorn filler. That's kind of awesome in a way because it leaves me free to devote some of my reading time to weightier tomes. At 600 some odd pages, this fits the bill nicely. Besides, it's one of two books long-listed for the Booker prize that cross over into the fantasy genre. I'm writing this up the morning after I finished The Bone Clocks, and I find that I could write pages and pages about my reading experience with this book. I'll try to be brief. First, I will be buying a hard cover copy asap...I enjoyed it that much. (As you know, I buy hard cover copies only of the books I love most...of those that impact me.) Second, I was having trouble sleeping last night, and the last section scared me so badly that it made it worse. Mitchell's vision of the future is chillingly possible. I don't remember ever being that frightened by a book. Third, I absolutely loved the characters. Every. Single One. Fourth, the time and perspective jumps were amazingly well done. While I disagree with others' assessment that it's basically a collection of different novels strung together, I applaud Mitchell's ability to so completely capture such wildly different voices. It was a lot of fun to see the connections between each section, to start to put them together as the book progressed. Fifth, Mitchell is very clever and his 'in jokes' really made me laugh, even not having read any of his other work. Sixth, I now want to read everything he ever wrote. The Bone Clocks is going to sit with me for a long, long while. I'm glad I really took my time with this book...and I plan on reading it again in a few years.

9. Dragon Keeper, Robin Hobb (audio) - Robin Hobb is one of my favorite epic fantasy writers, and this partiuclar book is the first in a series of four books that are a follow-up to her Live Ship series. I do really enjoy Hobb's work. Surprisingly enough, it translates well into audio.

10. My Real Children, Jo Walton - I had preordered this book, and yet when it came out this summer I was so busy reading other stuff that I put it off for a long while. To be honest, the first chapter kind of threw me a little bit. I was expecting something other than what I got. (Silly me, Jo Walton has rapidly become one of my favorites. I should have known she wouldn't disappoint!) Truth be told, it rather quickly became apparent that what I was reading was basically the same type of story told by the Gwenyth Paltrow movie, Sliding Doors. What are the possibilities in life if a split second decision/action had happened differently? In that way, it felt a bit derivative...but Walton made up for that in the fact that she made her two different lifetimes considerably longer and more complex than they are in the movie. The end is also more ambiguous. (Which curiously enough doesn't bother me this time.) Brilliant book!

11. The Yellow Birds, Kevin Powers - I bought this book from a sale table because it wound up on a gazillion best of lists for last year, despite the fact that (as I've said frequently) I am NOT someone who is into books about modern warfare. That last little tidbit is why it's been sitting in my queue all year long. I decided to finally try it, though, and to my surprise I discovered that it was the rare case of a book about war that had been written by a poet. (Yes, I looked Powers up, and he did hold a fellowship in poetry...which didn't even remotely surprise me.) The language is beautiful, and I think this is probably an important subject. Even then, I only made it about a third of the way through the book before setting it aside. It's just not my cup of tea. I have a super hard time relating to or understanding our modern military machine, and I just couldn't get into it. KPiephttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1234134829615096265.post-55232844165312488942014-09-23T16:16:00.000-05:002014-09-23T16:16:06.434-05:00Scrumptious
As promised, here she is in all of her glory!

 I'm glad I decided against following the pattern instructions to make this shawl any bigger than intended. As it is, it stretches about 8 foot across and 22 inches deep. That's fantastic!

 I love blocking lace. There's something so magical about seeing it come to its full potential...and the crispness of the finished shawl when you first take the pins out is amazing.

 The colors make me happy.

They actually make my mouth water!

 The stripes make me happy...as does the picot edge.

 The fact that it's so versitile in how it can be worn makes me happy!

The model makes me really happy....of course!

 Taygete by Rosemary Hill

from 7 Small Shawls; Year One: The Pleiades

Madelintosh Tosh Sock

1 skein Norway Spruce (the blue-green)

1 skein Oak A (the yellow-green)

(Drat the luck...I actually forgot to record the needle size! Whoops!)

August 11-29, 2014
KPiephttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1234134829615096265.post-2020028177420990642014-09-10T10:24:00.001-05:002014-09-10T10:24:57.326-05:00There Is A Metaphor In There Somewhere

I've had this pothos for 15-20 years. It's a beautiful, healthy plant that's never once faltered.

But it does have a tendency to get leggy. Every few years I'll take it down from it's counter and untangle the vines to check it out.

Then, for the overall health and well-being of the plant I whack off the ugly vines.

And use them to start a new plant.

New life.

Rebirth.

Possibility.
KPiephttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1234134829615096265.post-91288577105781558752014-09-09T11:38:00.000-05:002014-09-09T11:38:05.613-05:00Starting the ConversationDear Green Woman,

My dear, whatever shall we do with each other!

We seem to have been blessed for the first time in a very long while with the twin gifts of time and ability....not to mention the fact that due to my efforts in controlling my allergies I've been gifted with a type of mental clarity that I haven't felt in years. (We're not kidding anyone...there's still work to be done in THAT department...but that's a story for another day.) So now that we've had some a few weeks to adjust to the new school year schedule, we could really get some stuff done!

That is not, however, what seems to be happening. I think at this point you and I are both feeling rather perplexed.

So here's the situation as I see it:

Things have changed this year big time. My new running schedule takes precedence - and before you gripe about that, let's take a breath and remember that running is part of why I'm feeling so much better now. No way am I giving that up! The challenge is that it does take up a large portion of my morning three times/week. By the time I get home and get cleaned up it's really too late to go to a coffee shop with any hope of getting a table. So we stay home, and...

Crickets.

I can almost hear them as I sit in the quiet of my empty home, trying to figure out what to do.

True, as usual I'm also overwhelmed by the general household things that need to be done. Yes, my dear, I'm referring to the things you usually lead me away from with nary a though as to how that effects the rest of my family. In addition to the laundry and the dishes and the rest, there is also a fairly decent list of projects that I really do need to work on. (Might I remind you, you wanted that flower bed as much as I did!) I've always struggled with the perfectionist tendency to be overwhelmed to the point of inaction when faced with so many things to do. I'm not proud of that...but it is part and parcel of who I am.

And it's so blasted quiet!

You can stop laughing now.

The quiet of an empty house at midday is quite different from the sort of quiet that you know I need in rather large quantities. Its uncomfortable, and empty, and it makes me a little bit crazy. I haven't figured out yet if this is just a matter of making my environment more suitable for our needs and comfort...or if it's triggering some uncomfortable emotional junk. Either way, the quiet of that house can be uncomfortable.

I should point out that I AM getting things done, creatively speaking, on the days when I can start my morning at Starbucks...precious few as those have been. I tend to come home from those mornings with a clarity of purpose that allows me to actually get some of those household things done in the time remaining before the girls come home from school. As much as I appreciate that, I don't want to go back to that being my everyday existence.....for a lot of reasons that you already know about.

The trick, therefor, is to figure out how to work with the way things are now.

So what are we going to do?

Better yet, what do we WANT to do?

I don't have any brilliant ideas, but I did want to pose the questions so that we can start to think about them. Perhaps we'll talk soon and see if we can figure this out!

Love,
Kristin

PS. I was not amused when you spilled that box of beads. That most certainly is NOT the way to get my attention with something you want to try.

PPS. I love you anyway. KPiephttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1234134829615096265.post-9487171036456251132014-09-04T07:01:00.000-05:002014-09-11T07:04:08.212-05:00In Which I'm Easily Amused....

Forget the knitting part, I could stare at this for hours.

Or the back...it's pretty too.
KPiephttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1234134829615096265.post-4186808390043778452014-08-31T09:00:00.000-05:002014-08-31T09:24:32.017-05:00Summer Reading, Part 3 - August!AKA, the month I decided that I WANTED to do several rereads but also NEEDED to work my way through the pile of books that I've already bought but hadn't yet touched. Seriously...the queue in iBooks was getting out of control, and I have several preorders coming this fall!

1. Tam Lin, Pamela Dean - I have a special place in my heart for Tam Lin as it was my official gateway into the world of fantasy literature. (Caveat, OF COURSE I grew up on Narnia, Tolkein, L'Engle, and fairy tales. Given how much I've always loved those books, I'm not sure why I didn't travel the fantasy path earlier. Instead, I grew up on a steady diet of classics and Victoria Holt romances, sometimes struggling to find reading material because the books at the time that were marketed to my age group were so horrendous.) I was a freshman in college, and was developing an interesting circle of friends that included fellow alums from Missouri Scholars Academy and the fencing club. In some instances I can remember who recommended what. This, sadly, is not one of those cases. I do remember falling hopelessly in love with Tam Lin, and that love propelled me to chase down the rest of the excellent fairy tale series it belonged to. (Also starting my love affair with the work of Terri Windling.) In short, Tam Lin is a modern retelling of an old Scottish ballad set in a 1970's liberal arts college. It's been years and years since I last read it, and to be honest I'd forgotten how strange the pacing is. Lots and lots of nothing happens for a very long time, but every single detail is focused on as if it's of immense importance....which is just exactly what it feels like when you first go to college. The end then happens with a breathless rush. Incidentally, this is exactly how the pacing of the original Scottish ballad feels. I'd forgotten how many similarities I felt between myself and the book - English, classics, fencing, the focus on my campus, the importance of all of that reading. True, I rolled my eyes a bit over the crazy details. I think perhaps if I hadn't read Tam Lin during college I might not have enjoyed it quite so much. Timing, sometimes, is everything. It was a delight to reread!

2. The Quick, Lauren Owen - This was a BOTNS recommendation, and the thing that made me perk up my ears when it was first mentioned a month or so ago was the fact that Kate Atkinson loved it. (Recommendations by authors sometimes go a very long way with me...but only of a few select writers.) Darn it, I loved it....but I soooo wish I'd read it in October, when I start to yearn for stories about monsters. I'm not sure I want to say too much about it, because I don't want to give away any details in case you'd like to read it. For sure, this is a book for you if you like Victorian Gothic and/or more classical style horror novels. As a special bonus, it had one of the most satisfying endings I've read in a really, really long time in this genre.

3. The Magician's Land, Lev Grossman - Oh my, the first of those preorders came through! Going to admit, I wasn't too excited about reading this final entry in Grossman's Magician's trilogy because the second book wasn't so much fun for me. (To be completely honest, the teen antics in the first left me a bit cold, too...I was so NOT that kind of teen.) Buuuuutttt....yeah, I had to finish the series. I'm so, so glad I chose to read the final installment, because it was amazing. In fact, it was probably the best of the three books. The really awesome thing is that Grossman allowed his characters to truly gain maturity throughout the series, while staying true to his irreverent tone. In fact, I kind of wish that I had waited until they were all published so that I could read them back to back as it truly would have felt like one big book. It's a pretty incredible thing to wind up a series in such a satisfactory manner, having seen the writer improve throughout. Now...I need to reread my Narnia books....

4. Enchantment, Orson Scott Card (audio) - I honestly don't remember the when I first read this book. I'm guessing it was in the few years prior to my marriage. I remembered the details only faintly....Russian folklore, a woman lying on a bier in the woods...ah yes, I didn't remember much, but I remembered it was lovely. When I found it on hoopla, I immediately borrowed it and began reading it even though it wasn't on my list of rereads I'd planned for the month.. (To my delight, it uses both male and female readers, and they are among my favorite Blackstone readers.) Truth - Card is a little bit problematic because of his personal politics/beliefs, and on rereading I can see how some of that crept into the book, particularly in gender roles. Having said that, I still really enjoy this book even if it's not quite as perfect as I remember it. For me, one of the biggest delights is Baba Yaga (and if I remember correctly, this book was my very first introductions to her), who is delightfully wicked. Plus, Card's take on her house with chicken legs is hysterical!

5. The Uninvited Guests, Sadie Jones - I can't remember where I first heard about this book, but it does have rather stellar reviews all over the place. It took me forever to get into it...not going to lie....but wow, the payoff for sticking with it was huge! It's kind of an old-fashioned, gentle ghost story on top of book of manners. As I look back, the thing that really sticks out is how funny the book was in places. I'm going to have to ponder this book for a while..it's the sort that sticks with you, with more and more details emerging the longer you think about it.

6. Her Fearful Symmetry, Audry Niffenegger - I loved the Time Traveler's Wife, and because of that this book has been on my wish list for a long while. Sadly, I was disappointed. Oh, I loved the characters....most especially some of the lesser characters like Martin. (What would I give for an entire book about Martin?!) I hated the plot, though. Ultimately, the book left me feeling cold. You know...I do like books about unlikeable protagonists, but the writer has to make me care about them in some way. The younger twins I just couldn't connect with. The older twins...well, Niffenegger managed to pull off the trick of having me love them in the beginning and despise them by the end.

7. Tea With A Black Dragon, R.A. MacAvoy- This was recommended to me quite some time ago by my fairy godmother, and I'm embarrassed to admit that I'm only just getting to it! First off, I'm wondering if the print version is easier to read. There were some editing issues which I am guessing were caused when the book was transferred to a digital format. Most noticeably, there were odd transitions between paragraphs where there should be a break in the page. I got lost a few times in trying to figure out what was going on until I figured out this would be an ongoing problem, and I will admit that it dropped my enjoyment of this book down a few notches.

8. The Sword-Edged Blonde, Alex Bledsoe (audio) - I admit to being curious about Bledsoe. I absolutely adore his Tufa books, which are some of the best modern fairy tales I've found in a long while, so I thought it would be worthwhile to try one of his other books. At less than 10 hours, this is a quick audio book...and it was so much fun. Bledsoe's Lacross books are a mash up between fantasy and the hard-boiled detective novel. It's a curious combination that sounds like it shouldn't work...but in this case it really does. Of course, another awesome narrator really added to the experience. (I actually had to double check because I thought at first it was James Naughton, one of my favorite Broadway actors.) There are more books in this series, and I believe I'm going to use them as some lighthearted quick reads between weightier tomes.

9. The Call, Yannick Murphy - Pretty cool to fall in love with a book/character on the very first page. Given the slow warm up I felt for so many other new books this month, that was big for me. Of course, it helps that my dad is a veterinarian, and that I spent my childhood going on call with him, so it all felt very, very familiar. The book is written as though it's our narrator's notes for his veterinary practice...with lots of other comments added in. It could have been an annoying format, but instead it was utterly charming. This is absolutely going on my list of top 10 books for this year!

10. The Poppet and the Lune, Madeline Claire Franklin - I have very few FB friends who I don't know in person. The few I have come from very trusted sources, and are a delight to me. One of my friends designs covers for indie publishers, and as she has tastes similar to mine I tend to rush to any recommendations she gives me. A few days ago I accepted the FB challenge of listing 10 books that were important to me, and she suggested this book based on that list. She said "the Poppet is probably one of the most exquisite faerie tales I've ever read." I immediately downloaded it, and could not agree more. It is a lovely, lovely book...and this is exactly the sort of thing I love most to read. Now...I'm not entirely finished with it right now, but as I'm planning on burying my nose in it this afternoon I'm including it in August anyway.

Special Project: The Call of Chaos, by Sean Frazier - Yep, my husband has written a book, and so a lot of my reading time this month was devoted to a read through (with editing/notes...making it a slow process for me) of his work. I'm very proud of my husband for returning to his writing in the last year as it's a passion of his that he put on hold while our children were young. He's much happier now that he's back to a regular writing schedule, and I'm absolutely delighted to be witness to his creative process.KPiephttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1234134829615096265.post-88408991466609202742014-08-29T09:52:00.001-05:002014-08-29T09:52:42.957-05:00Hello...and Good Bye.

I really, really needed to see something through from start to finish as quickly as possible. I also really need to work through the stash. Happily, those two needs were satisfied by this wee shawl, which I shall formally present as soon as it's been blocked.

Alas, it's time to say good bye to two much-loved pair of socks. They are beyond repair, and in any case have served me well for the last 10 years or so. (Yep, my opal socks last - with heavy use - for 8-10 years, making them well worth the investment!). It's a bit sad to lose them, especially the pair on the left which was the first pair I made for myself. It's a good thing I have a drawer full of other hand knit socks to comfort myself!
KPiephttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1234134829615096265.post-4840617075480604372014-08-13T11:12:00.005-05:002014-08-13T11:12:59.421-05:00The Bug Is Back
My knitting life has been pretty dismal this year. We could spend hours talking about why...and even then I'm not sure we could come up with a good explanation. It's just been strange.

However, as of two days ago, my passion has returned - to my immense relief!

So let's just take a little look-see into the workbasket....

 Yes, I'm still working on the Spider Queen edging. This has been such a troubled project for so long that I've honestly not got a huge interest in finishing it. I work on it a bit here and a bit there. It is what it is!

 I also started my husband's sweater last week. This is the ribbing, which is always the slowest part of a fair isle project for me. I did have to order a longer 2.5mm needle for the body, and it arrived yesterday. It will be getting most of my attention in the coming few months.

But while I was waiting for that new needle to arrive, something funny happened. What was that? Well, I came down with a major case of 'startitis' on Monday.....

 I started a two color, fingering-weight shawl. I had originally intended these two colors to be used together in a pair of socks, but there isn't quite enough contrast between them to make the pattern really pop. (I tried twice.) Soooo....striped shawl it is! This will be my fifth small shawl from Rosemary Hill's original 7 Small Shawls subscription/book, and I'm sure I will love it as much as I love all of the rest.

 I cast on my next pair of Opal socks. I always need more. Don't laugh.

 Then I cast on a second pair of socks, which will be gifted to my Fairy Godmother. As luck would have it, I had the perfect skein of yarn in my stash for this gift!

 Then, just for kicks, I cast on a second fingering weight shawl. This is a bamboo blend, purchased because it was in an 1,100 yard skein specifically for a shawl at some point. (I had long since decided that bamboo was a horrible fiber for socks.) This is also a Rosemary Hill design, and is one I had tried with another yarn a few years ago. That pairing didn't work, but I think this one might. Besides, I really wanted a new fingering-weight, 'everyday' shawl for this winter.

Before I can continue, I need to figure out if I want to add beads...opinions? (Thought I also had some peachy-pink beads, but I guess not.)

So yes, the knitting bug is back, and it is back with a vengeance. Casting on four new projects in a single day - while waiting for the needle to continue with a major project that needs a lot of attention - is actually a bit strange for me, but we're just going to go with it!
KPiephttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1234134829615096265.post-44238805675535646172014-08-10T08:50:00.000-05:002014-08-10T08:50:07.262-05:00In the Nick of Time!

I finished up a new pair of socks for myself just as two older pair decided to die. Can't be short on wool socks this winter...that would be a disaster!

Basic Socks:

 a la Ann Budd in the Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns

Opal Sparkles

Knit Picks Harmony DPN's in 2.0 mm

May 26 - Aug. 5, 2014
KPiephttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1234134829615096265.post-43138971955040488282014-08-07T10:14:00.001-05:002014-08-07T10:17:35.124-05:00I Ate Some Chocolate...and the World Didn't End.This is directly from a journal entry that I wrote yesterday morning. I really wanted to share it with you all, and I decided that I would just go ahead and post it mostly as is with little to no editing.

I ate some chocolate yesterday, and the world didn't end.

I had bought a bar of Patrick 75% dark the day before in a fit of pique over the fact that I had been feeling so horrible. It was kind of one of those 'if I'm still feeling like crap over a month into this, than what's the point?!' moments. I'm not proud of it, but that's honest. Oddly enough, I didn't eat it immediately when I got home. It sat in my purse for more than a day.

And the weird thing is, I'm not all that sure I wanted to eat it yesterday. Actually, I know I was ambivalent about it. I had thought about it on and off all day, and could really take it or leave it. When it came right down to it, I ate it because it was there...not because I actually wanted the chocolate.

But eat it, I did.

And....

I didn't enjoy it all that much...Surprise!

True, the first smell was almost overwhelmingly intoxicating. A girl could get drunk off that smell. The first taste was good...but no where near the amazing experience I remembered. It was a bit of a letdown, actually. I ate it slowly over the course of 30-45 minutes. By half way through, it had lost it's magic. By 2/3 the way, I wondered if I really wanted to finish it. All the way, and huh? Why had I eaten it? What was so special about that? It had done practically nothing for me on a nutritional level and wasn't that much fun anyway. A little while later, the taste still lingering in my mouth, I was actually rather turned off. Yuck.

Absolutely, I paid for it. Chocolate has always been a 'lower consequence' cheat, and so it's not near as bad as many other foods are. I had trouble sleeping last night, which seems to be the main consequence. I wouldn't be at all surprised if my face broke out and/or if I had a headache later on. I'm a bit gassy this AM, which could be the chocolate or it could be the leftover from being sick. (In fact, I had trouble sleeping two nights in a row, had a sour belly most of yesterday, and I do have a headache.)

The bigger result, though, seems to be that I'm glad I did it because I learned that I'd really rather not do it. I'd rather eat real food, as boring as it is, that nourishes my body and makes me feel better. At the end of the day, the taste and experience of chocolate just wasn't worth it...and it wasn't even remotely all that it was cracked up to be.

Now, I'm not stupid. One of the biggest dangers about chocolate has always been that it's a bit of a gateway drug for me. Usually one bar triggers an avalanche, and so I know I'm going to have to be on gaurd for cravings for the next couple of days. In fact, just yesterday in my allergist's office I told Alyssa, the nurse-practitioner, that I just didn't think even 100% dark chocolate was a good idea for me for that very reason. You don't tempt an addict. Period, end of story. For that reason alone, yesterday was pretty damn stupid of me. I shouldn't have bought the bar in the first place, and given that I did I should have turned it over to Sean immediately.

The more I think about it, the happier I am that I did eat that chocolate bar. I'm not going to count it against myself at all because I think it was a valuable lesson. The trick is to make sure that I remember what I learned, and that I use that information to keep myself moving forward in a positive, health-affirming direction.

(The great news is that the whole experience was so overwhelmingly negative that I've had no further temptaions or cravings. I feel like I am just done. Talk to me again about that in the future when I've holidays or celbrations to attend with no 'fun' foods...but for now, I'm quite happy to say that I am perfectly content to remain in compliance and it no longer bothers me that I had to give up chocolate. As that lesson was VERY valuable to me, I am still considering myself to be in full compliance...38 days and gowing strong!) KPiephttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1234134829615096265.post-54707950735172485392014-08-06T19:20:00.002-05:002014-08-06T19:20:26.455-05:00Something new...Two weeks ago my daughter's dance studio held their early registration day for returning students. I freely admit, I was rather harried that day. I was late getting on the road for a trip, and just about everything that could go wrong already had. By the time we got to the studio, I was in a pretty foul mood, and was NOT happy about the fact that I had to go in to that blasted place to sign my daughter up. If you'd seen me coming towards you on the street, you probably would have turned around and run away. Nevertheless, it had to be done. The kid loves dancing, and while she has no intention of taking it to the competition or professional level we are happy to support her.

While I was there, something curious happened. My ugly mood faded away as the studio manager and I looked up the notes from last year's teachers so that we could place Gillian this fall. While we were doing that, I found myself picking up the schedule and looking at it again and again. It didn't take too long to pay the enrollment fee, but even with Gillian taken care of, we didn't just walk out the door and head on our merry way.

I lingered. I asked a few questions. My heart called. A wistful need filled up my chest. I found I couldn't go just yet. Hesitation and desire started a small whirlwind. I was caught.

So I did it.

Friends, I signed myself up for the adult tap class....and not just the beginner class. I signed up for the full-on, grown-up performance class. After speaking to the manager for a bit, we agreed that even though it'd been 20 years my body would remember.

I'm tearing up right now just thinking about it.

In September, I'll start taking tap lessons again...something that's been in the back of my mind for at least the last five years. I've thought and thought and thought about it, going so far as to look up the schedules for two different studios in town...but never quite making the step to actually call because I was simply too afraid.

Or I felt I didn't deserve it.

Or I felt I was too fat.

Or I thought I was too old.

Or I was too worried about finances.

Or I didn't want to put myself out there.

Or I was doing the mom thing and was putting myself last.

Pick the excuse. There were many.

I don't know what pushed me beyond the fear. Perhaps it was the shear delight and joy I felt watching those women perform at the recitals in the spring...tears running down my face for how beautiful they were, in all of their diversity of age and size...tears for the fact that they all looked like they were having the time of their life....tears for the fact that they brought down the house, that they were so fully supported by everyone there. Perhaps I'd just hit the point where the contemplation had to become action before the desire withered and died. Perhaps I just didn't let myself think. Who knows. The point is, I stepped beyond the fear for just a wee moment and took the leap.

And signed up for those classes.

One of the greatest regrets I have in life is that I stopped dancing when I went to college. Truly, that was an instance where my introverted nature ruined things for me. I was just too shy to seek out a dance studio on my own. I've spent 20 years tapping rhythms with my feet under the table and going over my last solo step by step in private.

The might have beens are gone, though, and now I'm looking forward to the what still could be's.

On another level - and certainly the thought that's been the most prevalent when I consider what I've done - is the fact that damn it, I've been forced to give up so much pleasure because of my stupid food allergies, and I'm someone who had precious little pleasure to begin with. Life needs balance. If you're going to take something away, you darn well better add something back in if you have any hope of succeeding. (The risk being if you don't balance it out, you will eventually go back to the old pleasures, no matter how harmful they are.) For me, this is going to be a pleasure. This is a big, fat replacement - one that is healthful to body and soul, let's me live out some creativity, and won't leave me feeling sick, guilty and depressed. I say that's a big, fat win.

I'm mindful of the fact that this wouldn't be possible if I hadn't been working so hard for the last six weeks to improve my health. I've been completely compliant with my allergy/autoimmune for 37 days, and have been hitting my exercise goals perfectly this entire time. I was in such horrible shape before that I never would have been able to make it through a tap class. I know it will physically still be a challenge, but by the point I start I'll be capable of running a 5K, and will have 2+ months of greatly improved daily activity and dietary compliance under my belt. All good.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go pull out my old tap shoes and see if they still fit. Probably not, but that's ok....I know where to get new ones!KPiephttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1234134829615096265.post-38430133788950927202014-07-29T08:00:00.000-05:002014-07-29T08:04:00.017-05:00Summer Reading - Part 2, JulyFabulous month for books! Yay!

1. Siege and Storm, Leigh Bardugo - I read Shadow and Bone, Bardugo's debut novel, about a year ago, and I loved it soooo much that I took the rather unusual step of waiting until the trilogy was complete before I continued on. Trust me, the self-control of that action was Herculean. Fortunately, the third book was released at the end of June, and I was able to sit down and read them both!

2. Ruin and Rising, Leigh Bardugo - Which I did in about 3 days. They are amazing books. I believe they fall into the YA category, but that shouldn't be a deterrent for anyone. The tension and emotional depth match that of many of the 'adult' fantasy novels that I've read....maybe even beat them. I was truly surprised by just how quickly Bardugo jumped into the action...but then YA novelists don't tend to waste any time. I was also more than a bit surprised at exactly how emotionally invested I was. Bravo!

3. Human Croquet, Kate Atkinson - I still use the word "Exciting" to describe Atkinson's books. Her writing just thrills me - for the beauty of the language as well as for the cleverness with which she manipulates it. There are descriptions in here that are so lovely that I had to go back and reread them a few times, savouring each word. This particular book had something of a fairy tale feel, which of course was a lot of fun. I love the tangled family webs Atkinson weaves, and I love the way she gives us a glimpse of the future in the end.

4. Lexicon, Max Barry - The ideas behind this book are really incredible, and can be summed up with the simple notion that words are power. In all honesty, this was much more of an action thriller than I really enjoy. (Definitely more than I had expected.) At times, it was a bit much, and I'm horribly confused by the ending. Granted, I'm not someone who actually enjoys an ambiguous ending. Better a definitive ending that I don't like than one that leaves me scratching my head. SO, I'm going to chose to think what I want to think about it.

5. Hyperbole and A Half, Allie Brosh - This book kind of defies categorization. Allie Brosh used her very simple artwork to start a personal blog with entries that were part essay, part comic strip. That blog eventually became this book. I adored it. There are a few tales that are laugh out loud funny, but there are also some pieces that give really good insight into human nature. Of particular importance are the chapters on depression. If you've ever dealt with depression, or if you've got loved ones who are fighting it, you simply must read this book.

Then I went on a bit of a library binge...finding a bunch of books that were on my wish list. I'm having a love affair with my library's digital services! Having said that, my results were rather mixed.

6. The Signature of All Things, Elizabeth Gilbert (audio) - First of all, I have never - nor do I have any intentions of - read Eat, Pray, Love. I was actually prepared to ignore this book BECAUSE of the popularity of Gilbert's breakthrough memoir. Glad I didn't. I happen to really adore historical fiction on a grand scale....even better if it contains interesting female characters...and this book fits that bill beautifully. Love, love, loved it! Was totally emotionally invested, and had trouble setting it aside at times!

7. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, Gabrielle Zevin - A charmer of a book! It was good to read a more lighthearted book after the last, to be perfectly honest. I'd learned about this book on Books on the Nightstand, and one of the things they had admired was the rich collection of literary references that are contained in this story of a bookseller's life. I happen to like pop culture references in books (not always) but usually have trouble catching them because my nose is generally in a book, making me blind and deaf to what others are enjoying. So for me, a book of literary references is genius! I have to say, that even though this was a lighter book it still made me pretty emotional. So much fun, but meaningful too.

8. Boy, Snow, Bird, Helen Oyeyemi - I desperately wanted to read this book. It had come highly recommended, and as a modern retelling of the Snow White tale was right up my alley. (If you want to get me to read a book, promise me a fairy tale.) Sad to say, I'm glad I found it available through the library. Had I paid for it, I would have felt obligated to read until the end. Honestly, I only made it about a quarter of the way in. It left me cold. I just couldn't connect with the characters, and the writing style felt like it valued style over substance. A huge disappointment.

9. The Sandcastle Girls, Chris Bohjalian (audio) - Super glad I found this in the library's digital catalog and didn't waste my money on it. It was another BOTNS recommendation, and had been on my wish list for a while. I just never took to it. Made it about half way before I gave up. The crazy thing is that I adored the voices of both of the female narrators. It was also a subject I knew nothing about - the Armenian genocide - and the historical information was very well done. Despite that, I never really enjoyed listening to it and ultimately decided that I felt a tad like I was being lectured at. The whole experience just felt odd.

10. Geek Love, Katherine Dunn - I get that this is considered by many to be a modern classic. I'm not one of them. Ugh. The writing style was hard to follow and confusing in some areas. Dunn's tendency to drop hints about the history of this family to hook your interest ultimately became annoying. I'll give her that it was an extraordinarily unique book when first published 25ish years ago, and I can only imagine what a splash it made. I didn't care enough to finish it, though.

11. The Book Thief, Marcus Zusak - Sometimes a format is not good for a book. This is the big lesson I learned when I tried to listen to The Book Thief in audio. I listened to roughly a third of it, and hated it. Not wanting to give up, though, I tried again in print (also digital download) and I absolutely loved it. (I considered trying Sandcastle Girls in print as well, but didn't feel as if that particular book would benefit as much.) The language is gorgeous in this book, and the style that it's written in totally speaks to me because it's how I tend to write. Yeah, I'm a sucker for a good WWII book, and that's part of it, too. Super glad I gave it a second chance. (Why yes, my family is somewhat used to walking in on my sobbing uncontrollably over a book....)

12. Love and Treasure, Ayelette Waldman - Speaking of WWII books.... I'd never read Waldman before, although she became a personal hero of mine years ago because of an essay that she wrote about her relationships with her husband and children and how they balance out. (For the record, that essay caused a firestorm, and I totally agreed with Waldman's position.) Honestly, this wasn't even on my wish list. I just saw that it was available and downloaded it. Wow. I could not put it down. One of the things I appreciated is that Waldman chose to tell the story through different points of view and different time periods. I love the fact that some threads of the story had tragic ends, some were happy, and some were merely there. That is, after all, life.

13. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou (audio, read by the author) - Honestly, I don't know how I managed an English degree and then another 20 some odd years without reading Angelou, but I didn't. I'm a little bit ashamed that it took Angelou's death and Janet Mock's memoir to finally draw me in. There are not enough words to describe how marvelous this book is. If you haven't read it yet, I strongly encourage you to do so...and I even more strongly encourage you to listen to Dr. Angelou's reading of it. There is great magic in listening to her voice as she tells her own story.

14. The Children of Men, PD James (audio) - I absolutely love the movie adaptation of this novel, and have been intrigued with the idea of the book for quite some time knowing that the movie was quite a bit different but that James approved and liked it. I'm going to have to start reading more PD James...it's just that simple. I'll admit that dystopian novels are generally not my thing. (Post-apocalyptical, well that's another matter - wink, wink...nudge, nudge.) However, I'm very glad I read this one. The focus on mass-infertility really takes it to an interesting place, and gave me quite a bit to ponder. KPiephttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-1234134829615096265.post-91193272008610811712014-07-14T12:53:00.000-05:002014-07-14T12:53:22.589-05:00What Is Different This Time?
Friends, today is a day to celebrate!

I feel like dancing a jig, screaming out loud, and possibly going on a celebratory tour of the state.

So what am I celebrating?

 When I go to bed this evening, I will have completed two successful weeks on my allergy diet/auto-immune protocol. That's right, 100% compliance in 14 days.

2 weeks? Huh? I can hear you thinking that. 2 weeks, after all, is nothing in the grand scheme of things. Why am I celebrating so early in the game, when the last few years have been so fraught?

Fair enough.

What you have to understand is that I've not managed this since before my surgery a year and a half ago. Prior to that, I'd done fairly well...managing long stretches of clean eating which were enough to give me glimpses of just how great I could feel. Since then, I've struggled. Believe me when I say that the last 19 months have been far more difficult than most of you know.

However, I started working this spring to pull the various pieces together. When it began to look manageable, I gave myself a deadline, to get into full compliance by July 1. To my great delight, this time it's actually working!

It begs the question...what, exactly is different this time around?

 To that, I have some answers.

1. That letter I posted two weeks ago to my family and friends was extremely cathartic. A very large part of why this has all been so difficult is because I haven't had the full support of many, many people who are a daily part of my life. To be honest, some of the people who most need that letter will never read it. BUT, regardless, I feel better for having written it. The kind support of those of you who DID read it, and have reached out to me since has meant the world to me. Thank you. I meant every word, and the power and strength I've gained from standing up for myself, and for giving myself permission to walk away from unhealthy situations is incredible.

2. My body has finally fully healed up from my last surgery. I can't emphasize this point enough. My body does NOT handle surgery well, and it's taken me at least a year to recover each time I've had to go under the knife. Add to that the fact that this particular surgery (gallbladder) mucked with my digestive system, and you have a big, fat mess. I lost a ton of weight last spring that had nothing to do with healthy living and everything to do with the fact that I was sick all of the time. Not so surprisingly, that weight bounced back with a lot of extra over the winter as my body tried to find balance and readjust to it's new reality. Then too, the surgery also kicked off another round of depression that was - quite frankly - the worst depression I've ever been through. The surgery was necessary, and I don't regret it. I do acknowledge, though, that the recovery process was a million times more difficult than I expected it to be.

3. I realized that my anti-depressants were actually doing more harm than good, so I stopped taking them. I have an old, and very comfortable relationship with Zoloft. This time, though, it didn't do it's job right. Yes, it helped to pull me out of the worst of the quagmire, but in the process it totally flattened out my personality. I had an epiphany to that effect during acupuncture a couple of months ago, and the very next day I stopped taking it. By July it had cleared my system and I was starting to feel myself again. I should also add that there are a couple of side-effects (weight gain being one) that were seriously contributing to what was wrong with me. Thank you zoloft, but we are done.

4. My favorite cheat food is no more. I've relied on a locally made artisan dark chocolate since this all began as my go-to reward/comfort/cheat/celebration/cope/you name it. It's incredible. Best chocolate I've ever tasted, in fact. BUT. This spring the guy that makes the stuff made some questionable business decisions. (He wants to be a chocolate artist, not a business owner.) The resulting price increase to an already expensive product as well as the resulting scarcity were last straws for me. I was happy to support him before for better ingredients, etc. I'm not going to support his life as a snob and/or his return to school. (If I sound bitter, I kind of am. He's kind of an ass.) As nothing else tastes near as good...well, there's no more temptation! (OK, there's still temptation, but it's not near as tough to fight given the circumstances.)

5. I started exercising. I don't have to explain this. Exercise produces endorphins, which make you feel better. It also adds to the motivation to stick with it. Not going to go running in the am and then ruin it by cheating all day! I know, I know. I should have started a long time ago. All I can say to that is that the particular type of depression I was in really made that nearly impossible. Don't judge. (Also, my friend Matt C. was right. Thank you, Matt.)

6. But I started on a program that was slow and gradual and fun for me. I have a tendency to all or nothing it, and any other time I've done an exercise program it's been of the sort that has you jump in and push to the max from day one. Not smart when you are dealing with the type of health issues that I am. Not smart at all. Not only do you run the risk of burning out and giving up, but you also run the risk of making the health problems worse. This time, I committed to two simple things - taking my 10,000 steps daily and doing the couch to 5K program. Slow, gentle, steady. With the 10,000 steps I'm teaching myself that it's ok to take slow and/or short walks - a revelation for me. As to the other...To be honest, I had completely forgotten how much I enjoy running...and I mean truly enjoy. Less than two weeks into the (unfortunately named) training program, I had rediscovered that joy and was looking forward to my morning runs. Now, I also happen to love strength training, yoga, and tap dance. As my health continues to improve, I hope to incorporate all of those!

7. And I found a couple of exercise buddies. So. Very. Important. And it has to be just the right match. Back in the day, I know the reason why I learned to love strength training so much was because of my friend and personal trainer, Meghan. (And if she ever gets back to it, I'll hire her again in a heartbeat.) Other trainers, and attempts to do it by myself failed. Apparently, I need the support/accountability..but I also need it to be with someone who I work well with. My BKB, Jenn, who's been by my side since the diagnosis had already committed to the 10,000 daily steps plan, so I latched on to her and check in with her periodically. Just knowing someone else is also doing it helps me to keep myself on track. I got really lucky when a friend of mine asked me if I'd like to do the couch to 5K with her. Having never exercised together, it could have been a disaster. Instead, Danielle and I are having a blast and have discovered that we work well together. Bonus..our pace and fitness level are pretty darn close. By the end of last week, we were both looking forward to our runs together. We also have planned to run in a couple of 5K's together this fall for fun!

8. I'm rereading/skimming a lot of the health books/information I've gathered over the last few years. Yes, I've done a LOT of research over the last few years...but it's also been a while since I've touched on any of that. A good reminder of the science is very helpful.

9. I'm building my meals in a way that keeps me full and satiated. I learned through trial and error that I'm best on 3 squares/day with maybe a small snack in the afternoon. Mostly, I follow the guidelines set out in the book It Starts With Food as to how to build and balance a plate. I will not bore you with the details, but I will say that I have to be very careful to plan so that I always have what I need with each meal.

10. I'm measuring my water intake daily, to make sure I get enough. The formula that works best for me is the one I learned from my friend Meghan when she was my personal trainer. I drink 1/2 oz water/lb of body weight each day plus 8 oz for each 30 minutes of exercise. You bet, it's a lot right now...but it's what this particular body needs. Incidentally, this is the ONLY thing I measure.

11. The brand new scales I just bought? I stopped using them and put them away. Silly me. This isn't about the number on the scale, and I know that. It's a deeply flawed tool to use to track health, and in truth it really doesn't say much about how healthy you really are. Plus, for me it's totally about anxiety. I only want to know when I'm worried, and I tend to use the information to beat myself up. That's not good. Also not good, in the few weeks I had the darn things I was starting to go back to my old, very-bad weighing habits.

12. I let myself have one good temper tantrum. Ahem. I went to the grocery store on the fourth of July, and came home and let loose all of the horrible feelings that had built up inside. It didn't resolve anything, but it did release it so that I wasn't sitting on so much ugliness. My therapist in college would be so proud. She rightly identified that one of my biggest issues has always been that I stuff my feelings and allow them to eat at me. (Heh. I just realized I used food terms. That might need some unpacking.) It's been much easier since then. Now, when I start to feel anything negative, I acknowledge it. I have a lot of work to do still to make it ok, but this is a start.

13. I accepted that my yeast allergy causes a serious food addiction. So yes, it totally sucks when you've never been a drinker at all but your doctor flat out tells you that you are an alcoholic because your yeast allergy is biochemically identical in many ways to alcoholism. It sucks, but it was true. I went to my parents' farm in June, and decided to eat a piece of the rhubarb pie that my dad made with the girls. It was fantastic. It was also a major problem. I found myself explaining to my mom, my aunt and the girls that although their bodies could enjoy one piece and be done, I didn't have an off switch. I enjoyed one piece, and then wanted to bury my face in the rest and would probably be circling and obsessed until it was gone. It is what it is. Sugar, grains and dairy are my devils. Just as an alcoholic can't safely have a tiny drink, I can't safely eat a tiny bit of any of my allergens. I get that now. As a side note, during some recent research I came across a diagnostic test that counselors use to determine food addiction. Yeah, I score super high. Damn lucky I never started drinking.

14. I'm making peace with the idea that I may never be thin again....but that's ok if I feel better. I've spent the last 28 years worrying about my size and hating my body. I've spent the last 12 years struggling with a lot of extra weight. My allergist has told me repeatedly that if I can become compliant the weight will naturally go away, but I stopped believing her a while back. My body has suffered the harm done by all of these foods for so very long that I'm just not sure it's possible to completely reverse the damage. But. But, I can feel better. Two weeks is just enough time to get a glimpse of that. Already many of my symptoms are gone and/or are fading. (no required daily nap! no pain! better GI function! more motivation to get things done! anxiety and depression fading!)That's enough. I'm ok with never being thin again IF I can get to a place where I actually feel good. It is what it is, and I'm not doing myself any favors by continuing to focus on the quest to be thin. I'm much better served by a quest to find health.

So Happy Two Weeks to me!

Here's to the next two weeks and beyond.

KPiephttp://firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
November 26, 2014
GLENDALE, Wis. (AP) -- Police have arrested a student in a bomb threat that prompted the evacuation of a suburban Milwaukee high school.
WTMJ-TV reports a Nicolet High School student was taken into custody.
About 1,100 students were evacuated from the school in Glendale Wednesday after a student found a handwritten bomb threat inside the boy's bathroom.
School officials say the school went into lockdown after the note was found, then was evacuated after packages were found in a first-floor bathroom and on the second floor.
The bomb squad searched the building but found nothing. The packages were harmless.
School was canceled for the day. Classes will resume Thursday.
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Penis male enlargement 'experts' are terrified that you'll find out exactly what I'm about to tell you in this article. They try and do as much as they can to stop this revelation from coming out. ...
If you're reading this then you're probably unhappy with the size of your erection or at least feel that it if it were bigger you'd be a better lover and more confident as a result. If these two thing...
Advice Getting A Bigger Penis With Hand Routines Is Real - Guys Are Getting Monster Erections Of 9 And 10'
You can make your erect penis bigger thicker and more satisfying and impressive to women by using simple techniques that you can start on today. I went from a meager 5.5 inches long and 5 inches aroun...
In this article we are going to look at whether penis male enlargement exercises really work...or if they are simply just another 'scam' enlargement approach you should avoid. Did you know that over 8...
There are a huge number of penis enhancement pills available in the market today and the Virility Ex pills are just one out of them. Let us look into these Virility Ex pills a bit closer to know them ...
Attention Natural Penis Growth Can Really Happen! Natural Enhancement Can Add 4 Inches To Your Penis Now!
penis male enlargement exercises have a very long history. In some cultures they are even passed down from father to son as a sort of rite of passage. And why not? If you're currently not all that you...
In this modern age where the size of the penis matters many great men have invested hours and sweat in developing risk-free and useful penis male enlargement formula. This has been an obsession of man...