Best Quote I Heard All Day
"My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it."
--Mark Twain

I'm not sure that with 45 years of hindsight, Elly would agree with him...about the enjoyment.

Ma Goes to the Hospital, Confounds And Irritates the Medical Experts
So Elly does have malignancies in both breasts and is headed for a double mastectomy on Friday. The good news: They'll get it all, no chemo, no radiation. Elly, who will be 80 in August, is perhaps the most remarkable woman I've ever met. She was off in the car today, buying TV dinners, juice and milk, getting her pre-op work done, picking up last minute stuff--in short, ran around like a 25 year old all day.

And is bringing her knitting with her "just in case." She's just started a sweater, so she figures it will be light and easy to work on.

I'll be with her on Friday, as will my brother Rich. She's a very rare mother...I'm going to gift her with "Folk Vests" when she gets home if she behaves for the doctor. Every curmudgeonly bone in my body, and the ability to knit, I owe to her. And so much more.

Put a Sock In It
And stop with the posts about "will this yarn wear OK for socks?" Jeez. If it doesn't wear, you can knit another fucking pair. Nothing lasts forever. Except perhaps my Perry Ellis bolero jacket made in Manos that came from an early '80s Vague.

I mean, I don't plan on being buried in my socks. If they last a year, I'm happy. And I make more.

List Projects I Don't Give a Shit About
The Einstein coat
Fuzzy Feet (although I understand the appeal)
Felted clogs
Warshcloths of any kind
The Wee Fair Isle
Knitted pillows
Argyle socks (because I've never met a pair on man, woman or beast that I liked)

I do want the directions to QueerJoe's willy warmer.

Now that's a rare and (dare I say it?) handy item.

Link du Francais
Carol Sulcoski sent me a link to a French knitter's site that is truly awe-inspiring. She's incredibly prolific AND good. Lots of Fair Isle (AS), Norwegian (Dale), Arans...although she didn't quite get the history of Arans right. Traipse around. It's incredible.

2 Weeks, 2 Much Waiting
Achim will be home in little more than two weeks and I'm cranking away on the gansey. Finished the back yoke, half done on the front yoke. And he keeps asking me, "What is it?"

Do you think it would be too too tacky to have only one sleeve done? Can I get this finished in time and work a full-time job and take care of Elly? Yeah, sure. We'll see.

Right now, I'm living for the 28th. "Love stinks, yeah, yeah." It stinks when your lover gets to go to the opening Formula 1 race in Melbourne without you. It stinks when there's a war about to happen and you worry about him on a plane coming home. It stinks when you talk to him cellphone a cellphone over thousands of miles and neither of you can hear much. It stinks when his security key for his laptop doesn't work and he can't do e-mail.

But it's ever so rare when you pick him up at Philadelphia International Airport.
Oh yeah.