Mac joined me this AM & was kneading on the sheet over my arm. (His claws need to be trimmed!) I wasn't much awake & so just i was just lying there. After about 5 minutes he moved in & was staring in my face. "You have hands. PET ME ! ! ! "
I'm trying an experiment. I've someone in my life i dearly love.
I call her mom & i have since i was 18 years old. Think i've mentioned her before. We used to spend a lot of time on the phone visiting when i moved away. I mean, for years i had huge phone bills. Now that i've the cell phone where i don't pay per minute it seems we never talk anymore. In fact, i tried to reach her by phone for about 6 weeks & never once found her home. (Or answering the phone. I started wondering if she was avoiding me.) 
She's one of those folks who will
send on cutesy or religious or 
political email but never add even a "thinking of you; hope you're well" 
kind of note. She was sending me lots of these (especially rabidly political) about a year ago. She sent them open - everyone could see everyone else who was on her list. 
And she never removed previous forwards, either. They could arrive with a list of 200 or more email addresses in the body of the email. On a rare occasion i would pass one of these (cute or thoughtful, not political) on after cleaning them up. I'm not someone who passes things on, however, unless i think it is something very special.Ok, here's 3rd rail, Rosemary: I don't like our current political process. I strongly believe that the media has hijacked the process & that had Ron Paul been given fair coverage in the media in the last election, he would have won. And, i wrote him in at that election, even tho i knew it
was a useless exercise. BOTH the candidates running for the major parties made me very nervous. I'm not an Obama supporter, but neither did i support McCain. And, to be honest, i think McCain made me more nervous. Nevertheless, i despise the ugly email i've gotten about Obama before the election & since he's been in office.
Last June i received one of these ugly email claiming that Obama had required all religious artifacts to be covered when he spoke at some organization that is religious-based. It was false, & ugly. Without thinking, i hit "reply all" when i countered this email. It went out to 33 folks, most of whom i don't know. I received a couple of responses & they were not pretty. One of them wanted to know how i "intercepted private email between friends." Honestly, it made my point since i didn't like my email being sent out open, & i don't like previous ones showing up in the body.
Since that time i rarely get these forwards, & i note they are clean & come blind. So, some progress has been made. I think mom is thinking more before she sends them out anyway, but i so miss the connection we had some years ago. And the last phone conversation we had about a month ago wasn't very pleasant either.
I wanted to point this out to her, but i didn't think it would come thru. So i set out an (a la "How to Win Friends & Influence People") email along the lines of what i'd like. I decided once a week for a month i'd send a letter like i'd want to receive. It was mostly pics of
Sugarbear & then our fall weather. The notes have been pretty short. It was "this is what we've been up to, how are you?" I've just sent the 3rd one, pics of our cats.I have not received ONE WORD acknowledging the first two. I'm hurt & discouraged. I'm going to continue my month of going at it. But i'm wondering if next week, the final week in my trial, i should finish with some recognition/realization that she doesn't want to be friends, that she doesn't want to be my mom anymore. Not to be manipulative. Not to hurt her. Not to try to close doors. Just simply accepting, conceding that she doesn't want to be bothered.
I took these pics of Jazz a few days ago. He loves to sit on top of his cat pole (i made it!) getting white fur all over it & having us toss his toys up to him. He is quite good at batting them back.
The knitting is coming along well. I've not taken any more pics. The 1x1 blue twisted rib hat is done. It wasn't as big (long) as i wanted when i finished, so i picked up at the bottom & did about 5 more inches so that the hat has a cuff. And i followed directions from a book & did "invisible bind off." I like it. I'm not finished with the scarf yet.
The new pattern i got is a chevron pattern. I'd seen a scarf done like this at the yarn shop & i fell in love with it. They have lots & lots of free patterns there, as well as books you can buy. I inquired about where to get the pattern a few weeks ago & was informed the only way to get it was to purchase the yarn from which it was made. The problem is that it is a wool yarn & i'm allergic to wool. But when Sis #3 & i were there Saturday, i still loved the pattern & so bit the bullet & bought the yarn. The yarn i gave to Sis, but i kept the pattern. (I did buy 2 balls of yarn, only one required for the pattern, so if she wants it ethically i bought 2 patterns, she can have a copy.)
This pattern called for 33 cast on. I've only done yarn over increases before, which leave a hole & are used for lace patterns. This one is a different increase that i didn't understand, so i went online to try & find directions on how to do it. I learned there are a lot of different ways to increase. The directions only say: "Inc 1" & the first one i came across like that is actually knit two (front & back) into the same stitch. Only then i was 6 stitches short for the pattern. So, i re-cast with 39 stitches & am doing well. But i emailed the yarn shop & told them the problem. They replied that i'm not doing the increases properly, i'm suppose to be doing "Make 1."
The fact is i don't understand many of the increase directions. (Did i explain i'm a self-taught knitter?) So next time i'm there i will have to get them to show me. But my scarf is looking fine with its 39 stitches & my increase (which i have learned elsewhere is also called KFB for "knit front and back."). This increase does have very small holes, but nothing like ones with yarn over. I'm not sure how i'll do a hat from this pattern, however. It might end up looking like something an elf would wear (the zigzag edges of the chevron) but not something i imagine an 11 year old boy would care for. Since his favorite color is green & i found a "camouflage" yarn in black/brown/green, that is what he is getting. However, i was short 1 ball of yarn, & so bought a green that matches. I'm doing 6 rows of green to 14 rows of camouflage & i really like how it is turning out. Will take pics soon.
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4 comments:
Lots here, let me comment on stuff in reverse order of importance:
http://www.knittinghelp.com/ The videos have been a ton of help to another self-taught knitter (me)!
Ask her point blank if she wants to have a relationship and to let you know. Tell her that if you do not hear from her, you'll assume she'd prefer to throw away what you had and while that makes you sad, you will not be locking the door to future connection, but you will no longer look out the window longingly searching for your friend, but rather wait until you hear a knock and visit - perhaps with a good-will coffeecake in hand.
LAST but MOST IMPORTANT.
RON PAUL 2012!!!
I did the same thing with a write in. Politicians benefit by keeping us divided. As long as we're busy with the Us versus Them (dems/repubs) then we can't unite and demand that the government start taking OUR best interest into consideration, rather than THEIRS.
Of course, this is a topic that I can get pretty wound up on, so I'll leave it at that.
Peace out!
Jazz looks cute on his cat pole.
Hope you get in touch with your friend
Hi Kathryn,
I'm not very political, but I appreciate your tenacity in these situations. It must be frustrating. Thanks for speaking up on my blog. Thanks for giving me the benefit of the doubt. I don't have it all figured out, and sometimes I just need to clarify my own thoughts by writing, if you know what I mean.
Good luck on your project.
Lots to comment on. The cat pics are great - love to see snippets of your life. Knitting issues - I hope you have a store in town or at least on the way in your travels down from the mountains to go in and ask a question of - the people who run these stores are great and often want to help encourage knitters - so I'd try that.
About your friend; it may be that she is handling some issues in her life. I know it isn't polite or kind to ignore your emails but I don't know that I'd chalk it up to wanting to end the relationship. However, I agree that you need to get it cleared up for your own peace of mind one way or the other.
Re: politics, yep, that's a third rail type of topic but it's your blog - you have the right to bring up what you like
I have a dear friend who does the same thing with forwarding all kinds of emails going around. Sometimes I open them and other times I just delete. I personally don't forward stuff and keep other email addresses on, it is lazy and can be rightly construed as rude.
Now, about politics. I'm conservative and apparently Liberatarian (based on what I've learned about them) in my views. In the last election, I felt like it was hold your nose and cast a ballot. The email you must have gotten regarding our current Administration and religious icons was not from me. However, at Georgetown University prior to a speech, the Administration did cover up a cross and other religious icons that were visible in frame. I don't know of this happening anywhere else. But that's the least of our national concerns. Polite discourse is possible and should be encouraged in a free society. I'm fine if someone doesn't agree with my POV, but I only share it if the topic is put out there and introduced. I don't bring it up per se. Like the previous poster, I too appreciate your tenacity in standing up for your views. Atta girl!
BTW, thanks for the offer to help me with some natural remedies for this respiratory bug I have. I'm on the mend, I'm taking lots of Vitamin C to try and bolster the forces of healing. Any advice would be great!
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