muses of a dragon mad knitter: toil & trouble

whew. mark's been put on limited duty at work, and can't walk around at all. his foot's gone wonky again, and the doctor wants him to stay off it, as the wound is in a high pressure area of his foot, and since he's so damned tall, there's lots of downward pressure. so i've done the dishes twice at his house, and run for the laundry, and hauled lawnmowers back & forth (yes, i bought a new one, but it gets locked up the moment it's not in use!), and generally had an exhausting weekend, preceded by a fight over eating out friday night. he felt he should stay home, even though i offered to drive, and to drop him off at the door (we went to applebee's, cuz i had a $25 gift card). i guess he would have been on his feet for a sum total of about, hmmmm, 10 minutes? but no, he wouldn't go, so we went without him. i was pissed. i'm not now, but sheesh. i tried to talk to him after we got home (he sent me an email asking if i was ready to talk), but he wasn't in the mood to hear my side, and i was in misery because of my mouth and migraine (the weather, on top of being hot on friday, was up & down because 3 fronts went through) so the conversation went no where. i hate fights like that. we ended up apologizing to each other in the morning ( as we always do).

anyway, so here's what i've been doing:

This is a kitty eggroll from knitty. i figure this yarn looks like it was cooked very badly, lol, raw in bits & burnt in others. i'm working on a second (just have to stuff & sew it up) in the same yarn. my intent, as this month's AC4C project is for an animal shelter in the oregon (i hope!) area, is to do one for her and one for the local shelter. i've gotten the proportions, so i'm whizzing away at it. i'm also planning on doing the wonton portion of the pattern as well. you will note that this is in a ziploc bag. it's the only way to keep jimi out of it! (yes, i'll make one for him & joplin, after the month is up). i got the second one completely knitted while i waited at baxter for what i was told would be a 2 hour project (the protection package, you know undercoat, rustproofing, etc, etc, ad nauseum). i got there at 10. at 2:25, i finally got my van back. UGH! not only did i finish one egg roll, but 2 books! the one was Song of Susannah by Stephen King (the dark tower series, i'm almost done!) and the other was Paths Not Taken by Simon Green (tales of the nightside, actually quite good, if a bit smutty for my 13 year old. i may let him read them in a few years). granted, i didn't start either book there, but i finished a good 100 pages of each book. oy. the lady who was secretary for the service department apologized sincerely several times, so i'm not terribly perturbed with her. what pisses me off is that it took much longer than they told me it would, and didn't tell me until i actually asked. and since i was in the waiting area, my cell didn't get reception, so mark couldn't call me. i had to walk out of the building to call him, and when i finally left, there was no answer. on top of his foot, they called him into work, and he had to take the boys with him. fortunately, they allowed the boys to sit in the lobby while he took care of business. however, no note, and it was extremely obvious that they'd left abruptly. had me worried.
whew! ok, then, here's what else i've been working on:

I finally decided what to do with that delicious cone of cotton that Yvonne(whew, woman, you've got quite the url!) sent me as a secret pal gift. i decided to copy her. she'd bought some for herself, and was doing the t-twist from knitty (gee, is there a trend here?), so i decided that imitation was the sincerest form of flattery. this is designed for us busty gals, and i liked it. however, in order to get gauge, i had to drop from the recommended size 8, to a 4. damn my loose knitting! however, it doesn't seem terribly uncomfortable (the egg roll is done with worsted yarn, done on 3's!), and the fabric is relatively drapey. and, unfortunately, even in a sunlit picture, this isn't nearly so purple. more fuscia than this.

This bit of handspun loveliness is something that i received as a KR secret pal gift over a year ago. i started to spin it up, then abandoned it for a while. with the recent spate of spinning, i was inspired to finally finish it up. this varies wildly from worsted to sockweight, but i gave it to erin as a belated birthday gift (her birthday was in march), and she loved it. the interesting bit is that she wound it into a ball at SoP, and sarah (who is due may 27th with her second child, so we'll excuse it, lol) asked if it was NORO! i am suitably humbled, indeed! it is pretty, though, isn't it? i've started spinning up the easter egg dyed wools, but since i forgot to get a picture today in the sun (they are very subtlely colored), i'll try again tomorrow. they are turning out quite lovely!
and since everyone else is posting flowers, i thought i would as well:

I love peonies. and these are the only flowers that i have in my yard. it was neglected for a number of years, and i'm still trying to just keep it contained. these are a little early (they are supposed to bloom around memorial day) but there are enough buds that i think i will take some to put on my dad's, sister's & grandparents' graves. i may even call the cemetary, and find out their policy about planting at gravesites. i want to plant tulips at grandma's grave. i've always associated red tulips with her, she always had them.