Why yes, I AM crazy....

.... thank you for asking!  And yes, that IS another Babette Blanket you see in front of you, thanks for asking again!

Okay, so maybe I've really gone off the deep end or maybe I'm just under the influence of some of those really good pain killers they gave me the other day in the emergency room, but either way I've gone and started another Babette Blanket, and this time with a very thin crochet cotton (DMC Wool/Cotton Senso), with a size D crochet hook, AND in a solid color (ecru) no less!  I can't help it!  The whole time I was working on my first Babette, I kept thinking about how nice it would be to make one in a solid cream color (don't ask me why) and for some crazy reason I did a test swatch using the DMC Senso and totally fell in love with the notion of THIS blanket made with THIS yarn.  Oh I tried falling in love with the notion of THIS blanket made in a THICKER yarn and even swatched with several others too but it was no use.  My mind was made up.  And so it goes....

And while we're talking about pure crochet craziness, I might as well confess that I've started (yet) another Carnival Shawl.  Okay actually, the first one was a Carnival Throw and so technically, this is my first Carnival Shawl so that's all good.  It's also made from the DMC Wool/Cotton Senso in (you guessed it) the same exact color as the Babette Blanket.

Some of you may be asking, "What ever happened to your first Babette Blanket, Jeanie?  it's been sooooo long since we've seen any pictures of it!  Has it ended up in the UFO pile along with so many of your other well-intentioned projects???"  Well, here it is in all its unwoven-ended glory.

 

It's finished and I love it, but AUGH I hate weaving in ends!  I'll take an official FO pic once all the ends are officially woven in and it's officially finished.  And for those of you with really good memories who may be wondering about my first Carnival "throw", I'm still seaming all the motifs together and it will be pulled from the UFO pile as soon as all the ends are woven in from my first Babette.

And for those of you without teenagers, here's what you get when you ask your (now) 17 year old daughter and her boyfriend to go and take some pictures of your crocheting for you:

 

About 20 like this....

About a dozen like this...

(yeah, I don't have a clue)

About 200 that look like this...

And two that look like this...

(note the feet)

In other fiber-related news, I was feeling the need for some color so I started a simple striped afghan out of some super duper soft Hill Country Yarns Country Alpaca yarn.  This afghan is a crocheted a little differently by double crocheting into the space in between each double crochet below it as opposed to into the double crochet stitch  itself.  This is supposed to yield a more "woven" type of appearance.  The difference is subtle, but I like it.  And did I mention it's super duper soft?  Here's the scoop on how long I estimate this afghan will take to make.  I timed myself to see how long it took me to crochet one row of this afghan, and under perfect conditions (i.e., no interruptions), it took me 11 minutes to crochet one row.  So under normal conditions, I estimate it will take me about 15 minutes to crochet one row.  It takes approximately 3 rows to make one linear inch of the afghan, hence it takes about 45 minutes per one linear inch of afghan.  Using these figures, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that it will take me about 9 hours per linear foot of afghan, and about 54 hours to make a decent sized 6 foot (length) afghan.  Sigh..... why do I get myself into these things???  Ah well, I'm not in a hurry and it's a nice change of pace when I grow tired or ecru colored string.

In other news, as some of you may have deduced, Cheerleader Daughter celebrated her 17th birthday!

(Is that a face impression I see in the cake???)

Happy Birthday Darlin'!  You definitely win the "best sport" award!

And finally in medical news, Glamaw is doing well.  Thank you to each and every one of you who sent her well wishes in comments and via email.  After a week of recovery followed by another grueling week of intensive physical therapy, Glamaw gets to go home tomorrow.  Please continue to keep her in your thoughts and prayers, as the next few weeks will most assuredly be quite challenging for her. 

As for me (hey, I figure if you're still here after all this we may as well tell it all), I managed to land myself in the ER last Tuesday morning courtesy of a tiny little kidney stone.  Poor Football Star Son had to rush me there at about 6 in the morning with frequent puke pit stops.  Probably the only thing worse than having to rush your mom to the emergency room is having her yell at you every 3 minutes to pull over ("safely" {yes, I really said, "safely"}) so that I could heave.  Poor baby.  Anyway, they doped me up and sent me back home (with a prescription for pain killers) to deal with this "issue" on my own.  Um, hello.  I've never had one of these things before now but if you ask me, this has got to be about the most inhumane way of dealing with a medical "issue" that I've ever encountered before.  The way I see it, it's like a pregnant woman showing up to the hospital with labor pains, and they hand her a prescription for pain pills and tell her to go home and have the baby!  Or not (as it seems to be with me and this silly stone).  As far as I can tell, it's been 5 days and the stone still has not passed and continues to plague me whenever it so chooses.  (And yes, for those of you who have never had one of these things, the pain IS just as bad as labor pains.)  I just can not believe that with all the advances and breakthroughs in science, technology and SUPPOSEDLY MEDICINE, that SOMEONE can't come up with a better way of dealing with these things!  And I don't "do" pain well.  Unlike my mother and my sister who seem to have extremely high tolerance to pain, I don't.  My sister had both of her children "naturally" and was ready to go home from the hospital within an hour or two after giving birth, but not me.  I was begging for an epidural (all three times) as soon as I hit Labor & Delivery and I figure why not?  Why suffer needlessly when there's medication to help?  So yeah, I'm a bit of a pansie when it comes to pain.  I don't like it.  The worst part of this past week (okay, well maybe not the WORST part but still) is that I haven't even been able to either knit or crochet (or blog, or read blogs, or clean the house, or take the kids to the fair, or....).  Today was better though and I was actually able to crochet a bit.  But listen, if anybody has any sure-fire cures for how to get rid of this stupid thing (preferably painlessly), PLEASE let me know!  They tell me I've got two more of these babies still in my kidneys and I am way too busy (and chicken) for this nonsense! 

So there ya have it -- ten days worth of craziness.  If I disappear for another ten days, you'll probably know why!  (wimper...)

Comments

[Elemmaciltur]

I remembered vaguely reading about Glamaw, but I don't remember saying anything about it (I was not home at the time). Glad to hear that she's feeling better now. All the best wishes for a fast full-recovery!

Belated happy birthday to Cheerleader Daughter!

*LOL* You get your daughter and her bf to go take pictures of your projects? Hahaha, and hilarious results really did turn out! They're really cute together. :-)

I never had kidney stone, so I don't know about it. But hope that it'll pass soon so that you'll feel better.

[Adrienne]

ROFLOL!!!!!!!!! LOVE all the pics, and the blankets are BEAUTIFUL!

[Robin]

Sorry to hear about the kidney stone. Those were such cute pics of your daughter and her boyfriend - she really takes after you!

[Maryanne]

I'm sorry to hear about Glamaw (I wasn't reading your blog then) and I hope she's doing alright. The birthday pics were hilarious! Your daughter is *gorgeous* and she is so cute with her boyfriend :) I made a baby blanket for my best friend's new little girl about 5 years back that looks just like your Carnival shawl! Strange coincidence.... Hope you manage alright with the stone in the upcoming weeks - I'll keep my fingers crossed for you :) Take care!!

[Deeanne]

Goodness, honey. I'm so sorry. I've heard those are the *worst*. I will be praying for you. Glad Mom is back home, safe and sound.

Happy b-day to my niece. So grown up!!

[Sharma]

No advice about the stone! But love your pics and your daugther is gorgeous. I think the babette is absolutely beautiful and i am still trying to get a copy of the pattern - good luck with your second one! It looks great already. I also love the stripey blanket - any ideas where i could get a pattern for that? I am a beginner crocheter and always looking for simple. Love your blog!

[alicia]

Ouch! I hope you and Glamaw recover soon! I LOVE those babettes!!!

[Sherri]

Hey, we had a friend over last night & he is dealing with his 2nd or 3rd bought of stones and he gets them laser zapped ... maybe you could see about that? (((((feel better hugs)))))