And Awayyyy We Go!

I've always wanted to say that.

So, after a week of light blogging, I've got a lot to catch up on. Let's start with our Saturday Sky.

It looked like this most of the day, so Cody and I put our zoo trip on hold. We will go, though. The butterfly exhibit opened today, and I want to see it.

So, what did I do all day? I'll get to that in a minute, but first, I have to show you what came in the mail. Yesterday, I received a box from Knit Picks, and this was in it:

Two sets of Options cables, in 24" and 32" and a set of size 5 tips.

Two sets of DPNs--one in size 5 and one it 2.75 mm, which is my preferred sock needle size.

Gray sock yarn

and orange sock yarn. The actual yarn is a burnt orange. I took this with a flash, so the color is off.

And three hanks of baby alpaca lace weight yarn. This is Alpaca Cloud in Autumn Heather color. The actual color of the yarn is closer to my picture--though darker--than their picture. What am I going to do with this? I'll tell ya in a minute.

Today's mail brought a big honking priority mail box which contained this:

So much for my destashing goals, huh? It's not too bad. Several of these skeins have already been marked for charity knitting, which doesn't count as stash. Besides it was free. Well, it was almost free. I traded it for approximately 9 skeins of Patons Classic Merino, which I wasn't likely to use up any time soon. I'd bought it to knit a sweater, then realized I was out of my mind! It was one of those "What was I thinking?" moments. There's no way it's ever cold enough here, especially as hot natured as I am, for me to ever wear wool. I don't even own a coat, and last winter, I think I put on my jacket maybe twice. So when I bought the stuff, I'd had a brief lapse of common sense.

I worry about my sister. She was always the girly one. I was always the tom boy. I didn't care about clothes or jewelry. I didn't even start wearing makeup until I was 17. I got my ears pierced at 19. And I still only have one hole in each.

But she was the one who spent hours in front of the mirror, fussing over her hair and makeup. She was the one who had to have all of the stylish clothes. She had multiple ear piercings and even a tattoo. When she came to visit me in Italy, a man in the enlisted club came over, kissed her hand and told her she was the most beautiful woman he'd seen in six months. I was always insanely jealous of her. She seemed to have it all.


Her husband has changed her. He no longer allows her to fix her hair. It hangs, straight and flat. He no longer allows her to wear jewelry, except for her wedding ring. He no longer allows her to wear nice clothes. She must wear shapeless ankle length dresses--even at home. He no longer allows her to wear makeup, not even for family portraits.

I know these are all signs of an abusive husband. I know, because I went through the same thing. I don't know that there is any physical abuse going on, but there are other types of abuse. At the very least, he is far too controlling of her.

Of course, he's got her way up there in Alaska, where she has no family to look out for her. I worry about her. I worry even more about my nephews, who are growing up thinking that this is normal.

When I can, I like to slip her pretty things. Her husband can't very well object to a hand knit shawl from her older sister, now can he? Ok, maybe he can, but tough nuts fella.

This is what I'm knitting for my sister now:

It is the Rona Lace shawl pattern from Knit Picks. That's what the Alpaca Cloud yarn and all the new needles are for. This is my first attempt at knitting with lace weight yarn. Wish me luck.