Something wicked this way comes

Warning - rant of a frustrated woman approaching. The monster-in-law is STILL here. Yes, she was supposed to be leaving Monday morning(at least that's what DH told me) but I find out after she arrived on Saturday that she's here until Wednesday ~ gasp, choke, cough! Now, I can manage a grit-your-teeth permagrin for two days but five is downright painful. The worst part is that her sister and her DH dropped her off so I can't even insist that she leave early. I ran out of southern hospitality yesterday. I can no longer stand being in the same room with her. I can feel the karma of my house beginning to take on a dark palor. I'm praying to civilly get through the next 24 hours without saying or doing something I will regret but I'm not sure that I can make it.

Knitting has kept me somewhat sane though it gives M.I.L. an entre into my personal space. Imagine a voice that's a cross between "The Nanny"'s Fran Dresser and Marge Simpson asking "Whatcha making? How do you do that? That looks so complicated, blah, blah, blah." I would prefer that she simply pretend that I'm not here rather than carry on a conversation with me. I know you think that I'm the meanest person on the planet for feeling the way that I do but there really is a long and horrible long story behind all of these feelings. I'm not going to go into any details right now just because the memories are too painful. One day I'll bore you with them. I'm actually thinking about spiritual counseling to get past this because it has been eating me alive for a VERY long time.

Anyway, as far as knitting goes, I finished the baby sweater (photos after MIL leaves)and booties. They came out very sweet and tiny and the mom loved them (the shower was yesterday afternoon).
Lessons learned with this project:
**I CAN knit with needles smaller than size 10
**Acrylic is not so bad once you get used to it
**I CAN handle knitting a sweater (yippie!)
**Once I put my mind to it, complicated patterns are not as hard as they look
**I LOVE learning new techniques and should make an effort to try more instead of telling myself that I CAN'T do something

As far as the last statement, I decided last night to try my hand at knitting cables. I've been intimidated but have been told by everyone that they look more complicated than they really are. Well, they were right! (pictures after MIL leaves)I'm proud to say that I finished my first stab at a plaited cable and a couple of four stitch (right and left leaning)cables. The yarn that I used was Cascade 128 Tweed that has languished in my stash for months. I slept with the swatch on the nightstand by my bed last night. I could have sworn that it whispered to me. Something about "Rogue" and alpaca. Maybe I need to look into what this all means...

I went to the LYS today in order to escape MIL. I needed to be ONE with my yarn friends. I admit that it did help. I fondled some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino (I need to find a project that I like for this one), some Mango Moon recycled sari silk (its so soft and colorful), and some new Artful Yarns wool. Alas, none of them begged to come home with me so I escaped with a tiny three pack of cable needles and nothing more. You know that I'm upset about MIL when I can't even force myself to buy yarn. I'm a little veclempt so talk amongst yourselves for a minute. I think I'm just going to soak the stress of the day away in the Jacuzzi tub. Tomorrow is another day...