Listen To The Yarn

When last I left you, I'd cast on a second beret after finishing the first one.  Same yarn, same pattern.  Magic Loop technique.  I got a few rounds in, and realized I'd messed something up.  I tried to fix it, but me being me, I ended up just making things worse.  After fiddling with the hat for a few minutes, I decided, "Eh, I'm only a few rounds in.  I'll rip the whole thing and start over."  

Off to the frog pond we went.  I started over, and just a few rounds in, I messed up again.  I frogged the hat.  Again, and started over.  Again....By this time, I was getting pretty frustrated and couldn't figure out why I couldn't knit this stupid hat.  After all, I'd just knit the exact same hat with absolutely no problem whatsoever.  Why was I having such trouble this time?  

By the seventh time I'd ripped and started over,  I sat there a moment, and just listened.  Softly, I hear the yarn whispering.  I leaned in close, and realized the yarn was telling me it didn't want to be that hat.  Again.  It wants to be something else, and was not going to let me knit it into something it didn't want to be.  That's why nothing was working right. 

Sometimes, you just have to listen to the yarn.  

Thus, the pattern is put away, the needles have been put away, and the yarn sits patiently waiting for me to find a pattern it wants to be.  In the meantime, I'm adding a few more rounds to this hat:

which this yarn is perfectly OK with being. 

Oh, and I think I know why I stopped wearing hand knit socks.  They never stay up.  I wore a pair yesterday to work, and spent the entire day pulling them up.  Otherwise, they stayed bunched up around my toes.  I might try going down a needle size and seeing if that helps.  It should, because it'll yield a firmer fabric.  

Other than that, and a bunch of rain, not much exciting has been going on, unless you want to hear about me sorting out my canned goods.  I looked through them all, and amazingly enough, only found two cans of soup that were out of date.  I opened one, and it passed the sniff test.  I went ahead and cooked it, and it passed the taste test.  I went ahead and ate some, and haven't gotten food poisoning yet, so I'll finish it off probably tomorrow.

The only other out of date thing I found was this, but I didn't buy it:

Just in case you can't see it, it's a can of tuna that expired in 2013.  When they brought Mr. Clark's cat over, they'd also brought all the cat food he had.  This was mixed in with those cans of cat food, so I'm guessing they didn't realize it was not, in fact, cat food.  The ends aren't puffed out, but I'll probably feed it to the dog anyway.  I'm not a big fan of tuna.  

Oh, and I found Pumpkin Spice latte on clearance at Walmart!  I started to get all they had, but I restrained myself and only got 4 boxes. 

I left the last two for someone else...he he he. 

In piano talk, I've decided when I finish the two Schaum books I've already bought, I'm not going to continue with that course.  

I'm just not enjoying it.  Honestly, I think if my childhood piano teacher had used this course, I wouldn't have stuck with piano, even if my mother had let me.  

I will continue through the Aaron and the Alfred's courses, though.  I've already bought the entire Alfred's course, and I am enjoying it, so I might as well.  I'm also really enjoying going through the Aaron's course.  I'm not sure if it's that feeling of nostalgia, or just that the songs are more fun to play.  There is one song my piano teacher had me learning that I wish I could find again.  It wasn't in any of the books, but was a separate sheet music.  It was called Stop Lights, and I loved that song.  I've looked online, but haven't found it.  I wonder if it's still at my brother's house.  I'll have to ask him to look for it. 

Well, I've got good news and bad news.  The good news is, Texas, LSU, and Navy all play at different times tomorrow, so I'll be able to watch all three games.  The bad news is, the first game starts at 11:00 AM, so I won't be able to run up to Batesville in the morning.  I may go Sunday after church.  If I can pry my butt out of the house, that is.  But I probably won't.  I'll probably just stay home and order what I need online. 

My friend and I were talking about it yesterday at work, how the older we get, the less we want to leave our houses.  My dad was the same way.  He used to sit at home with the doors locked, and peep out through the window blinds.  I thought it was sad and weird.  Now I'm the one sitting at home with the doors locked peeping out through the window blinds.  And I like it that way.  

The worse news, I still didn't call the guy to come fix my washing machine, nor did I call the plumber.  I don't know why I have such problems making simple phone calls.  I do know part of the problem is that to do the jobs I need them to do, they'll have to come inside my house and be there for a couple of hours at least.  I don't like people in my house.  Plus, I don't know who to trust.  Around here, contractors will rip off a single woman as fast as they'll kiss their mamas.  

And finally, the spider lilies are in full bloom.

It's fall every which way you look at it!