I'm back. The trip went well. Mom's health is improving, the surgery has been postponed and she will be re-evaluated in 6 months to see if she needs it. So that's all good news.
On the knitting front. I finished two washcloths while I was there and the summer footies. I did decide that I need something hard to tackle. Possibly another lace project. Not too hard just mentally consuming. I'll have some pictures of finished projects in the next day or so.
While I was in Gatlinburg, I found the coolest Spinnery shop. She had EVERYTHING you can imagine. The down side was she wasn't there. Her mom had passed away and had someone else running the shop, that didn't know a thing about the wool, spinning, or knitting. Of course it gives me another reason to go back there. ;-)
Now that everything is getting back to normal I'm jumping on the newsletter. Goal: to have it out to everyone on Friday! If you have any stories about knitting and giving, please email them to me. I still have some room.
Monday, July 31, 2006
Saturday, July 22, 2006
It's left me in a weird state
You all know that I rarely post non-knitting stuff on here. But, because of this situation I want to share it with you all.
Thursday, I was sitting at the computer working when the kids and I heard a car slam their brakes on and skid. Then we heard a horn blowing and a woman screaming non stop in front of our house. My first thoughts were that someone had hit one of the dogs that run loose in the neighborhood. So I headed out the door. When I got about half down the driveway I could see through the trees a man beating a woman in the SUV. I immediately turned back to the house and had the kids call 911. When the guy saw me he took off running, tell me that the woman was "fuc**** crazy." That gave me enough time (and GT enough time) to get a good look at him. By the time I got down to the SUV, the woman, a 23 year old girl, came crawling out. She was beat pretty badly. Come to find out this was her husband and she had called the police several times on him in the past for the same thing. Well I waited till the police came, gave them my information, signed it, and watched while she agreed to press charges against him, and gave full description about him and the guys that he was with. Come to find out, that she was visiting her father who lives down on the other side of the subdivision, and her husband and these guys had followed her there and he wanted to talk to her and when she left, he got in the SUV with her. So while she was giving her info they called it in and had the guys picked up within minutes.
I don't know if you or someone you know has ever been stalked, but it's indescribable. It's like every bad horror movie you have ever seen wrapped up in one. I have been stalked and the confrontation with my stalker was similar to this, except I didn't let him get his hands on me, and he carried a gun with him at all times. In stead of hitting me, he had a loaded gun on me. At that time in spite of restraining orders, and all the legal things you can do, you know you just can't be protected until the dumbass does something physical to you. (now there are stalking laws that depending on how strick, will protect you. If you don't know your states stalking laws, find out, you may need them or another woman in your family might). Anyway, the situation Thursday, I may have kept that girl from getting hurt worse by coming out there and yelling back to the kids to call 911, but where were my other neighbors? I seen their curtains moving. NO ONE, came out to help this girl NO ONE. Ok, she hasn't made some great decisions in her life, (who the hell hasn't made a series of bad decisions and had to pay for them?)and she may be a nut case, BUT, that didn't give that guy any right to lay a hand on her. It's almost like their decision to stay in was approving of him hitting her. What are these people thinking?
So during all of this I was calm and able to think on my feet. About an hour later I fell apart. The "what if's" hit, what if he had a gun, what if this was gang related and I pissed him off to send someone back here, what if... what if... what if... Finally I got my act together enough to stop that crap, put it in perspective and kind of deal with it and everything it's brought up from my situation. I have to admit, I'm still a little nervous about going out the front door of my house, and when I have to drive by her father's house to leave the subdivision my stomach gets a little tight. There have been several lessons come out of this, but one of the big ones, is how your decisions effect people that you don't even know. It may not be immediately, but at some point a decision you make will. Let's hope it effects them in a good way.
Thursday, I was sitting at the computer working when the kids and I heard a car slam their brakes on and skid. Then we heard a horn blowing and a woman screaming non stop in front of our house. My first thoughts were that someone had hit one of the dogs that run loose in the neighborhood. So I headed out the door. When I got about half down the driveway I could see through the trees a man beating a woman in the SUV. I immediately turned back to the house and had the kids call 911. When the guy saw me he took off running, tell me that the woman was "fuc**** crazy." That gave me enough time (and GT enough time) to get a good look at him. By the time I got down to the SUV, the woman, a 23 year old girl, came crawling out. She was beat pretty badly. Come to find out this was her husband and she had called the police several times on him in the past for the same thing. Well I waited till the police came, gave them my information, signed it, and watched while she agreed to press charges against him, and gave full description about him and the guys that he was with. Come to find out, that she was visiting her father who lives down on the other side of the subdivision, and her husband and these guys had followed her there and he wanted to talk to her and when she left, he got in the SUV with her. So while she was giving her info they called it in and had the guys picked up within minutes.
I don't know if you or someone you know has ever been stalked, but it's indescribable. It's like every bad horror movie you have ever seen wrapped up in one. I have been stalked and the confrontation with my stalker was similar to this, except I didn't let him get his hands on me, and he carried a gun with him at all times. In stead of hitting me, he had a loaded gun on me. At that time in spite of restraining orders, and all the legal things you can do, you know you just can't be protected until the dumbass does something physical to you. (now there are stalking laws that depending on how strick, will protect you. If you don't know your states stalking laws, find out, you may need them or another woman in your family might). Anyway, the situation Thursday, I may have kept that girl from getting hurt worse by coming out there and yelling back to the kids to call 911, but where were my other neighbors? I seen their curtains moving. NO ONE, came out to help this girl NO ONE. Ok, she hasn't made some great decisions in her life, (who the hell hasn't made a series of bad decisions and had to pay for them?)and she may be a nut case, BUT, that didn't give that guy any right to lay a hand on her. It's almost like their decision to stay in was approving of him hitting her. What are these people thinking?
So during all of this I was calm and able to think on my feet. About an hour later I fell apart. The "what if's" hit, what if he had a gun, what if this was gang related and I pissed him off to send someone back here, what if... what if... what if... Finally I got my act together enough to stop that crap, put it in perspective and kind of deal with it and everything it's brought up from my situation. I have to admit, I'm still a little nervous about going out the front door of my house, and when I have to drive by her father's house to leave the subdivision my stomach gets a little tight. There have been several lessons come out of this, but one of the big ones, is how your decisions effect people that you don't even know. It may not be immediately, but at some point a decision you make will. Let's hope it effects them in a good way.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Catching Up
First off, big thank you's to everyone who left a comment about GT. I wish all of you could meet him, he is a great guy and is becoming a terrific man.
I am running behind on getting the e-newsletter out. We have had some personal things come up in the family that I'm having to take care of and I will be leaving for TN Tuesday the 25th and will be home on the 30th hopefully. After that life should be in a little better order and I will get the newsletter out. My deepest apologies for the delay. Of course that gives everyone time to send in something on knitting and giving and what you do with your left over yarn! I still have a little room ;-)
I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to getting back into blogging and knitting, and leaving these problems behind. LOL.
Have a wonderful day, and thank you again for the comments and your patience.
I am running behind on getting the e-newsletter out. We have had some personal things come up in the family that I'm having to take care of and I will be leaving for TN Tuesday the 25th and will be home on the 30th hopefully. After that life should be in a little better order and I will get the newsletter out. My deepest apologies for the delay. Of course that gives everyone time to send in something on knitting and giving and what you do with your left over yarn! I still have a little room ;-)
I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to getting back into blogging and knitting, and leaving these problems behind. LOL.
Have a wonderful day, and thank you again for the comments and your patience.
Friday, July 14, 2006
Locks of Love
He did it! Today we got the hair cut. We went to Fantastic Sam's and since they are a sponser of Locks of Love, GT's haircut was free. How cool is that? I'm pretty proud of him. There has been many times when this 17 year old kid has been called a girl, and other names and yet he has remained committed to his cause. He would always tell me that being called names isn't anything compared to what people face daily with cancer and so he was determined to accomplish his goal no matter what. I'm super proud of him.
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Stuff and more stuff
I think I'll start this post by talking about the fun stuff. I went to the movies and seen Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Johnny Depp is such a hottie. Most of the people in the theater were women. LOL. I can't wait to see the next one. If you haven't see it yet I will not spill anything for you, but the movie was wonderful.
Knitting, well, let's see. What should I say about my knitting? I really don't feel like I'm making much progress with any of it. Even though I'm close to finishing one of the summer socks (footie) and I've done a few move pattern repeats on the fluted sock I just can't see the added length.
Ok, I still have two places for articles in the newsletter. I am going to list a few topics and if you would like to write a few paragraphs about the topic and then email it to me I will put it in the newsletter. Remember the newsletter is for all levels of knitters, but right now the majority of the subscribers have been knitting about 1 year. So here are the topics to choose from. By the way, I would like them turned in ASAP.
1. Knitting for charity
2. What to do with left over yarn
3. Your favorite thing to knit and give away
4. Giving, from a knitter's point of view.
I hope to hear from you soon, please remember to add your name and your blog address. I really encourage all my students to get online and read all the blogs I have listed on my sidebar they have learned a lot the ones who have.
Hope your weekend was wonderful!
Knitting, well, let's see. What should I say about my knitting? I really don't feel like I'm making much progress with any of it. Even though I'm close to finishing one of the summer socks (footie) and I've done a few move pattern repeats on the fluted sock I just can't see the added length.
Ok, I still have two places for articles in the newsletter. I am going to list a few topics and if you would like to write a few paragraphs about the topic and then email it to me I will put it in the newsletter. Remember the newsletter is for all levels of knitters, but right now the majority of the subscribers have been knitting about 1 year. So here are the topics to choose from. By the way, I would like them turned in ASAP.
1. Knitting for charity
2. What to do with left over yarn
3. Your favorite thing to knit and give away
4. Giving, from a knitter's point of view.
I hope to hear from you soon, please remember to add your name and your blog address. I really encourage all my students to get online and read all the blogs I have listed on my sidebar they have learned a lot the ones who have.
Hope your weekend was wonderful!
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Creating, Knitting and Stuff
The past few weeks I've been working on getting articles and patterns together for the Satori newsletter. (by the way I still have room for two guest articles if you are interested in writing something please email me, slm2110 ) Anyway, one of the things I've been looking into is taking simple patterns or stitch patterns and making something else with it. The pictures above is a pattern that I started yesterday for a bath rug. It's made with 2 strands of cotton on size 13 circulars. The thing I like about it, is that I have a stack of washclothes in my bathroom made from this same stitch pattern. I just "tweaked" it a little and like magic I have a bath rug. If I can do it anyone can, and that's what I really want beginning knitters to know. It's a wonderful thing to experiment the worse thing that can happen is that you rip it out. The pattern is loose, soft and feels so good. The wrong side of it also looks good, though the picture doesn't reflect it.
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