Well, anyway. I know I've been knitting at the speed of dark on our KAL sweater, and I think I've figured out the problem. You know how middle-aged people have eye problems, and their close-up vision starts to crap out? GUESS WHAT! I saw my eye doctor, and I'm officially middle aged. (Joy. Truly. Although it sure as hell beats the alternative.) So after forty-two years of being nearsighted like crazy, I now can't see things up close. Which would explain why knitting has not been fun.
I've got an order in to Zinni Optical for some close-up glasses, the little half-lenses that we always called 'cheaters'. Once they get here I expect the knitting to pick up speed. (I also got sunglasses, so I guess I'll do some kind of fashion show when they get here.) Three pairs of glasses for $35 dollars. Granted, they were all single-vision, and I got cheap frames for the cheaters until I'm sure what kind I like, but, dude. THIRTY FIVE DOLLARS. I now want to go order outrageous glasses for the Goober to wear for holidays and dressup. If ever a kid needed rhinestones, it's this one:
In the mean time, I have a new pair of progressive lenses. I haven't QUITE walked into any walls, and I haven't fallen off any curbs or down the stairs, so I guess I'm doing okay. I guess.
This also explains why I was still enjoying spinning - I don't need good vision for that and can nearly do it with my eyes shut. The latest:
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So. With nothing else to really blog, let's take a tour of the photos I've taken recently.
The Goober got new glasses, too. She was more interested in playing with the toys at the eye doctor's, so I picked the glasses out for her.
Oh, and the doors and roof are back on my Jeep. I find this hideously depressing, but the husbeast cooked the engine in his Suburban, and until he buys a new one ($$$$), we're a single vehicle family. And he can't really wait until it quits raining to do stuff like GO TO WORK. So, doors back on. I has a sad.
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Last weekend was... THE COUNTY FAIR! Instead of doing demolition derbies every Wednesday like last year, they arranged to do several while the fair was running, instead. So the grandstands were packed. We invited the in-laws to come along, and they did. So my tres chic MIL went to a demolition derby. (Photo by Goobie.)
Um. Yeah.
While we were there, I made a run through the "home arts" building and found the knitting prizes. There was an acrylic blanket knit with the giant wash cloth pattern (knit two, yarn over, knit to end, turn) that won the blue ribbon.
The best in show for knitted garments was a really nice red gansey-type cable-knit. There were some other things that looked nice that didn't even place, and I told the hub that they really should display these things inside out so we can see the finishing (which probably decides that sort of thing.)
But the best part? The "unlimited" category. (Read "doilies and other insane lace projcets".) Guess what?
We saw a badass llama:
And the Goob oinked at some pigs.
8 comments:
Yeah-- I have progressive lenses. I've been wearing my old ones for a YEAR because I don't want to drive with them. Or watch television. Or anything. And... wtf on that blanket. Seriously. For real. You SO need to enter something-- is there, what, another, secret county fair, where the hardcore knitters enter their stuff? I mean, you should enter THAT one too, but I can't believe we've got more hardcore in Cali! (Last year, there was a knitted DRAGON--LIFESIZED, original pattern, at the State Fair. *happy sigh*) Anyway-- yeah. Sometimes the glasses DO make the difference in the knitting.
Enter!! When we lived in a county that *had* a county fair, I used to enter about 100 items a year. The blue ribbons were never worth over $5 but I usually won about $150 a year. Nice when I was a full time mom.
Enter! Let's all do it and give them some competition! Make it a county fair blogger's challenge or something.
I did enter in my county fair this year, and last. Last year, with a perfectly matched striped pair of socks, I lost out to an acrylic mess of a sweater with gaping holes at the neck, and loose uneven tension. This year I lost champion to some other mess of acrylic with my shawl made from handspun by someone else. They displayed this shawl all folded up. AAARRRRGGGHHH. I don't know if I am going to bother to enter next year.
I entered a major national show this year with my knitting (which is kind of odd, because crafts is the only area where you don't need to win at least one district show with the entry in the preceding year), and I had experienced knitters tell me that my entry was crocheted. The problem with that being that I can't crochet :-P
i remember when you used to post pics of the Goob in a pram at the show! Wow.
I'm very nearsighted so even though I have the progressive lenses, I move them to the top of my head to do close work. My eye doctor tells me that "you nearsighted people" all do that and that I should try to leave them on and use the bifocal but I can't get used to it.
In what universe is a garter stitch square worth a blue ribbon? Seriously. No, SERIOUSLY. I am confounded.
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