"Do you hear that sound? That is the sound of ultimate suffering. My heart made that sound the day Count so-and-so murdered my father. The Man in Black makes it now."

"How do you know it's him?"

"His true love marries another today, who else has the cause for ultimate suffering"

-something like that from The Princess Bride...

Well- did you hear it? The sound of my ultimate suffering? The sound of my groaning when I ran out of thread without finishing a single skirt for my girls... who knew that 12 little tiered skirts could use so much thread? Well, I woulda known had I taken a moment to think about it. The funny thing is, I was being all organized and assembly line about it, so I sewed all the side seams and then got to work with those 2 rows of basting stitches to gather the tiers... on every tier... and then ran out of thread after attaching 2 tiers of the first three-tiered skirt I was approaching completion on... If I'da been all non-organized and assembly line about it and just worked one skirt at a time, I'da had several done. But no, I've got nothing.

My mom had a good suggestion- for next time, sigh- to use some extra contrasting thread in a weird color leftover from something. You just waste those stitches anyway; they get pulled out after attaching the tiers... That is years of experience speaking. I've been sewing a while, but that woman has been sewing since before I was born, and that's getting to be quite a few years now...

My main point is that I have no cute finished skirts to show- a shortfall I hope to remedy very soon. Perhaps I can get one or two done tomorrow in between the reading and the writing and the math, science, and history that should be going on here between the violin and piano practicing and the petty little things like dishes and laundry. Or perhaps I can get one or two done instead of some (or all) of those other things... Maybe I can sew and answer math questions at the same time- this could be one of those silver linings on the cloud that is the fact that I do not have the wonderful sanctuary sewing room that is in the dream house in my head. That's it, the upside of having the sewing machine out on my dining room table is being right there with my kids while they toil over their schoolwork and color masterpieces while I toil over my textile creations which I then force them to wear, with a smile for the camera... I mean, hey, if I have to hang all their pictures on all of the flat vertical surfaces of my house, it's only right that they should have to wear my works of art on all the surfaces that are themselves, right?! (Back me up here...)

I did finish the Baby Shrug, but neglected to have a memory card in my camera on the day my daughter wore it on our field trip to the Bell Museum of Natural History. Ugh. I stopped at Best Buy on the way home remedy that situation and I now have a spare memory card for the times when I remember to bring my camera but forget to take the memory card out of my laptop... My friend got some great pictures, even one of me holding an African Giant Centipede, if you can believe it. That thing was huge, freaking, crazy, huge- the stuff of bug nightmares. In fact, I think those were the featured bug in a nightmare I had as a kid... I digress. No pics of the shrug either. I am so bad.

Made some cute little cabled baby socks. Guess what? No pics yet. Hehe, now I'm just being mean.

Okay, I do have some pics- these are the artistic action shots my husband took on Saturday while I spent a little time working on my Cable Rib Sock, as I am being a good girl and working on my list of Spring Knitting Goals, despite all the extra knitting ideas that float through my head every day, especially now that the pesky ADDknitter had to go and mention that friends' activity page on Ravelry... oh my... oh man, I just checked, they've added more...

Hey, it's almost a sock!

Dizzying, isn't it?

How many sts per hour is that?

Well, that was fun...

Yep, I know I hold the yarn wrong. If you're a purist, anyway. I'm not. Whatever works for you... whatever works for me... what doesn't work for me is having the yarn wrapped around fingers sliding by giving almost a fingernail on chalkboard or fork on plate type of sensation- I guess I have sensory issues... anyhoo- sock number one is nearing completion. If I neglect all of my other responsibilities tomorrow, I could get it done. I'll probably get another inch or two further down the foot and nearer to the toe. Then it's cast on another time, because I haven't yet attempted 2 at a time. Way behind the times, I know. But I did get a book (visual learner, no time for a class, not to mention no yarn shops within 30 miles) and have that on my summer list...

Oh, and in other book distraction, I recently acquired a copy of "Knitting for Baby" by Melanie Falick and Kristin Nicholas and have added far too many projects to my must knit list. oi. Need. More. Time.

Happy knitting-

ali

*If you haven't watched the Yarnery Family Singers clips yet, scroll down, push the play button, enjoy- that's an order.

**Would you believe that I just noticed the spellcheck feature on Blogger? Hehe, this will come as no surprise to my sister... I also just noticed why Melanie Falick's name is kinda funny, in a junior high humor sorta way... it was highlighted in spellcheck, and suddenly, it was so obvious. So sorry Melanie. I really do love your work. Love it.