I May Be Crazy But I'm Not Stupid

Best Quote I Heard All Day

I thought she was a Method Actress. Afterwards somebody informed me that she was merely a manic-depressive.--Elsa Lanchester

Slip-sliding away. That's what's been going on. I've not been in a good place lately but I'm battling it with all the stubborness that a typical Taurean hefts with authority. Work is doing a number on me, and as I wrote this morning in Swing Time, that's going to destroy me if I don't take care of me. I've been sucked into the workaholic vortex and I don't like it.

Yes, I've been knitting and spinning, the knitting mostly on the train, in airports, and on the plane. It's not enough.

Years ago, when I worked as a psychiatric technician on the short-term, crisis-intervention ward(yeah, the blind leading the blind), I had a wonderful patient, a manic depressive sculptor named Mark. Mark would become so agitated that he was a human Mexican jumping bean. The only time I ever saw him sit down was when he was eating. I dearly loved Mark, though, because he was funnier than shit and we'd laugh our asses off every day, usually at the absurd.

But Mark put me in my place one day, when we were decorating the ward for Christmas. He was so bouncy that he couldn't get the crepe paper up with tape so that it was straight. When I offered some suggestions as to how to drape the stuff, he turned to me and said, "I may be crazy but I'm NOT stupid." That shut my mouth. And I never forgot it, either.

So I'm slamming my foot down on the work insanity. I too may be crazy but I'm not stupid either. This blog, my design work, my friends and family, music, and so many other things, are being neglected because of the job. The things I love the most. And which have been tossed to the wayside for the freneticism of a dumb job. As of this coming week, I'm going to be having a serious discussion with my boss. Because she's my friend too and is well aware of my disorder, she'll listen. And hopefully work with me to make my life more palatable.

A Bloomin' Miracle

Not bad for a Home Depot orchid. This is my first one, which I bought several months ago, with only one blossom that has since died, and I know absolutely nothing about the care of orchids. But I'm publishing this picture because the orchid gives me so much pleasure. How I managed to grow six blossoms, I'm sure I don't know.

Cobweb Crepe Shawl
This has become one of my travel projects, along with socks from the book (working on the Purple Haze prototype now). There are, in the directions, three 24-round repeats of this Old Shale pattern. I will do an extra repeat because I like larger shawls.

The tiers of the Old Shale border remind me of a cake, for some weird reason. I do wish I had added a pattern stitch to the center diamond, as the garter stitch looks juvenile with the lace border and upcoming lace edging. Lesson learned for the next shawl.

It dawned on me the other day that for the past two years, I've been doing lace almost exclusively. I'm tellin' ya, I have an addictive personality and making those fucking holes is addictive. One of these days I'm really going to start Sharon Miller's Wedding Ring shawl. In fact, that might be a good thing to mess around with this Memorial Day weekend. I did a swatch in the past but it would be smart to redo it now.

It's strange, sure it's strange. You've got to pick up every stitch.
Come on, all Chuck's Children. Singer and author of this chorus lyric.

Love this song and used to be able to play it on the guitar. I think there may be a Martin in my future. I need to get back into music.

Anyway, Loopy the Enabler (character from Chaucer, perhaps?) got me interested in KnitPick's $25 deal for six of their laceweights grouped into a color family. Yeah, I bit on that one, price notwithstanding. Bought the Sea View sampler and ordered the Wine Tasting sampler earlier today, along with Carol's new book (which, if you haven't yet bought it, get off yer ass, please, and support my dear Sissyboo Deux fine design efforts).

From the left, skeins 1, 2, and 4 will be grouped into one shawl, with the brighter aquas into another. I prefer the first colorway to the second, and may in fact gift Mumsy with those three.

I'm not much for bright aquas, unless they're blended with tonalities of purple. Violet, royal purple, that sort of thing, some of which come in the Wine Tasting sampler. They also have two other sampler collections, one of which is Riverside Cafe, neutrals, and the other Sunset Picnic, which has reds and orange-reds, very pretty both.

Saturday Continues with Mr. Bonehead
While Neal is napping, having just gotten back from a week-long job in DC last night totally exhausted, I may sit and do a bit of spinning before we head out to do our weekly grocery shopping. And let people assume that we're an old married couple, while we argue over which toilet paper brand has the most sheets for the cheapest price. That's Neal, not me. He takes comparison shopping from the sublime to the truly ridiculous. And then after I've told him how absurd he is, we end up buying his choice anyway.

However, he is a rare and handy friend, my bestest, bestest friend, as we say. And if Neal's reading this (he's not much of a reader of anything, being a visual person), thanks for being my support, Mr. Bonehead. Love you muchly.