Oh, my goodness - meditations on bumps in the road!
Seems that this is the House o' Drama lately. Remember Sea Socks '08? That little cruise up to Ketchikan, Alaska that I was going to be doing with Mama-E and Amy Singer? Well, Princess up and canceled the sailing that we were booked on. Yup, canceled, out of the blue, no substitutes or consolation gifts to those who had already booked. Poor Patricia nearly burst a blood vessel, but after a flurry of e-mails, things calmed down a bit and we found a worthy substitute. Better than worthy, in fact - it's now a 7-day cruise and goes up to Hubbard Glacier and Juneau as well as Ketchikan (we get to stop in Victoria again, too - there was a shop downtown that advertised authentic Cowichan sweaters, but we didn't have time to stop). The other cruise just barely got us into Alaska, but this one will give us the whole shbang!
Not only that, but the longer cruise allowed us to snag another knitting celebrity. I just about peed my pants when I heard who was joining us, although when I spilled the beans to Katrina and Donna last night at our guild board meeting, they both said "who's that?" Philistines! This person to whom I'm referring is none other than the legendary Brenda Dayne of Cast-On, mother of all knitting podcasts. If you've never listened to Cast-On, get thee to thy iPod, quick! Or if you've lost your iPod (which was Katrina's excuse), you can listen via iTunes on any computer with sound.
I am shaking in my boots at the thought of being on the roster with Brenda & Amy - how did this happen? It's very delightful and humbling. Thank you, Erin, for getting me involved in all this! Details of how to go on the new and improved cruise are on the Sea Socks blog. Keep your fingers crossed for us that Celebrity is a little more reliable with their sailings than Princess proved to be!
But that wasn't the only crisis affecting the Gardiner household this week - oh, no! I mentioned a little while back that Bill was quitting his job. Well, I can't get into too many details here since there are and will continue to be lawyers involved (and that should key you into why I use the word "crisis"), but we've been on an emotional roller-coaster that is threatening to drag on ad infinitum. Nobody's getting sued (at least, not yet), but there is some serious disagreement as to what Bill can be doing for the next two years. There's nothing like a situation where lawyers get involved to make your stomach curl up into knots!
I've been knitting to help myself chill out. Remember that little sleeve cuff from the other day? Well, it turned into a full-blown sleeve, and it has a little friend!
Amazing how much sleeve you can knit in a few days when you put your mind to it. Do you think this had anything to do with it?
Um, maybe not (at least he didn't pull the needles all the way out this time).
I really should be swatching for a May 29th deadline, but this is so much more fun. I'm a little bit swatched out right now, to be completely honest. I get nervous during these downtimes when I have a bunch of designs that have been accepted, but I'm waiting for the yarn and really don't have much I can do to get them going. I know that as soon as the yarn arrives on the porch, frenzied knitting and pattern writing will ensue. I should enjoy the calm before the storm, but it's hard! I'm always waiting for the day when I just won't be able to get it all done. It's a really tough balance between submitting enough so that you always have plenty of work, and not submitting too much that you get completely overwhelmed. The difficulty is compounded by the fact that you never know what's going to get accepted. You can submit 20 swatches that all turn out to be duds, or you can submit three and have them all accepted. You just never know.
At least sibling rivalry seems to be a bit on the downturn. The other morning, Bill left early in the morning to play golf and put Sydney in bed with Owen. I went downstairs to check my e-mail, and when I came back up I found them like this:
Just when I'm ready to give them away, they prove themselves to be the sweetest kids on earth. Lucky for them!
Not only that, but the longer cruise allowed us to snag another knitting celebrity. I just about peed my pants when I heard who was joining us, although when I spilled the beans to Katrina and Donna last night at our guild board meeting, they both said "who's that?" Philistines! This person to whom I'm referring is none other than the legendary Brenda Dayne of Cast-On, mother of all knitting podcasts. If you've never listened to Cast-On, get thee to thy iPod, quick! Or if you've lost your iPod (which was Katrina's excuse), you can listen via iTunes on any computer with sound.
I am shaking in my boots at the thought of being on the roster with Brenda & Amy - how did this happen? It's very delightful and humbling. Thank you, Erin, for getting me involved in all this! Details of how to go on the new and improved cruise are on the Sea Socks blog. Keep your fingers crossed for us that Celebrity is a little more reliable with their sailings than Princess proved to be!
But that wasn't the only crisis affecting the Gardiner household this week - oh, no! I mentioned a little while back that Bill was quitting his job. Well, I can't get into too many details here since there are and will continue to be lawyers involved (and that should key you into why I use the word "crisis"), but we've been on an emotional roller-coaster that is threatening to drag on ad infinitum. Nobody's getting sued (at least, not yet), but there is some serious disagreement as to what Bill can be doing for the next two years. There's nothing like a situation where lawyers get involved to make your stomach curl up into knots!
I've been knitting to help myself chill out. Remember that little sleeve cuff from the other day? Well, it turned into a full-blown sleeve, and it has a little friend!
Amazing how much sleeve you can knit in a few days when you put your mind to it. Do you think this had anything to do with it?
Um, maybe not (at least he didn't pull the needles all the way out this time).
I really should be swatching for a May 29th deadline, but this is so much more fun. I'm a little bit swatched out right now, to be completely honest. I get nervous during these downtimes when I have a bunch of designs that have been accepted, but I'm waiting for the yarn and really don't have much I can do to get them going. I know that as soon as the yarn arrives on the porch, frenzied knitting and pattern writing will ensue. I should enjoy the calm before the storm, but it's hard! I'm always waiting for the day when I just won't be able to get it all done. It's a really tough balance between submitting enough so that you always have plenty of work, and not submitting too much that you get completely overwhelmed. The difficulty is compounded by the fact that you never know what's going to get accepted. You can submit 20 swatches that all turn out to be duds, or you can submit three and have them all accepted. You just never know.
At least sibling rivalry seems to be a bit on the downturn. The other morning, Bill left early in the morning to play golf and put Sydney in bed with Owen. I went downstairs to check my e-mail, and when I came back up I found them like this:
Just when I'm ready to give them away, they prove themselves to be the sweetest kids on earth. Lucky for them!
posted by knittinmom at 12:36 PM
2 Comments:
I am so excited about the new cruise--and brenda dayne? i swooned! Hope that the crisis lets up soon, but glad that you are at least getting some good stress knitting in!
Gaack! Sorry about the lawyers. The thought of getting lawyers involved in anything makes me itch--and I am one!
I wish I could sneak away on that cruise. I wonder if I could talk my husband into it and just forget to mention there would be knitting?
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