Likely Story

FOs and Works In Progress

Typepad has been making me crazy lately and I'm looking in switching over to another platform, but in the mean time I've been extremely busy!  Yes, with work and school and the ridiculous number of dental appointments I am currently entertaining, it's been hectic.  But I have managed to squeeze out a bit of progress on the knit and sew front.

J's Norwegian Star Ear Flap Hat is finished!  I forgot how much I liked color work that's not in a teeny tiny gauge.  SO much so that I learned how to make these:

Christmas Tree Ornaments!  Fast and easy and more of them to come.
The color work thing made me so happy that I spent a whole night planning my own color work hat.  It will be beret or tam style in charcoal with variegated pink octopi!  See?

If parties are interested, I can publish the chart for others.  Right now it's just for one other color, but it would be very easy to make it for multiple colors.  FUN!  What kid doesn't need an octopus on their sweater, I ask you?  Also, there has been quilting....

and more quilting (sorry for the blurry pic but I am both lazy and busy and that doesn't bode well for a re-shoot).

This just needs some hand stitching on the applique and then it too will be finished.
Finally, on a more somber note, a Jemima update:

Oh Jemima.  not only are you STILL missing a sleeve but you are enormous!!
What have you been eating?  Can sweaters eat yardage and gain sizes?
Has Jemima been neglected for so long that, like SkyNet, she has gained consciousness and awakened?
Oh Jey-Jey, what will we do with you?  I don't want to put you in the failure bin with Tree Jacket (though she patiently sits there and waits) but I don't see many other options.

Sigh.....

And that's what's up.

Its Amazing What A Little Haircut Can Do

So, the real reason I have been AWOL for so long has been a sneaky, creeping, mild depression.  I just didn't have it in me to write, knit, sew, etc.  It just wasn't there.  The whole ugliness has been rounded off by my having to leave the bakery.  I don't get to professionally make pretty cupcakes, fruit tarts or eclairs anymore. 
    Why did I quit?  Well, at the time I made the decision, I had convinced myself it was b/c the bakery job was awful.  And honestly, it wasn't great.  I did spend most of my time asking people if they wanted their loaves "sliced or whole" which is only one step up from asking "do you want fries with that?". 
    But really, I had to quit b/c after working 8-9 hours at the bakery, I could barely move my legs anymore.  My hips would scream and bite at me all night long.  You should see the Mt. Rushmore of pillows I have at my hip-propping disposal!  And not just the "too mild to consider surgery at this juncture" hip, but my "fixed through the miracle of surgery" hip as well.  Double teamed by my own joints!  The nerve of them.
    Anyhoo, so all of these things, and the questions they raise (ie:  what do you do when you figured out your passion in life and are too bloody crippled to pursue it?)  have been seriously bumming me out lately.
All of that, and I hated my hair.  OOH, have I been hating my hair.  I made the mistake of growing it out, b/c I wanted to feel French (long story) and it was just heavy and long and I am CONVINCED it made my ass look fat.  That's how much I hated my hair.
    Well, NO MORE! 

Which would you prefer, the out of focus but you get the idea photo or the dying of ennui with great hair photo?  Well, ok, you get both:

Look at that hair, man! I feel freakin' fantastic (despite my expression in the second photo).  Its amazing what a haircut can do!

The Only Proof He Needed For The Existence Of God Was Music

Kurt Vonnegut, Writer of Classics of the American Counterculture, Dies at 84

Kurt Vonnegut whose dark comic talent and urgent moral vision in novels like “Slaughterhouse-Five,” “Cat’s Cradle” and “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater” caught the temper of his times and the imagination of a generation, died Wednesday night in Manhattan. He was 84 and had homes in Manhattan and in Sagaponack on Long Island.

There was a time in high school when Vonnegut was all I read.  I was even Mr. Vonnegut for the ubiquitous "be a historic literary figure" day in 10th grade.  It was great.  I wore an old wrinkled suit, threatened to smoke in class, was grouchy, got to loudly express my liberal political views and cursed all day long (and this was catholic school so it was twice as sweet).  Cats Cradle, Slaughter House Five, Player Piano, Sirens of Titan, Galapagos, Breakfast of Champions and all of his short stories - these were my armor, they carried me through what was probably the most formitive and horrendous years of my life. 

Thanks, Mr. Vonnegut.