Knitting & Reading & Unknitting

You won’t believe what happened to me last week.
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We’ve been planning our school fundraiser. We haven’t had a big party like fundraiser in a few years and since it’s the school’s 20th anniversary, we’re even going so far as to call this a ‘gala’. All of us who got suckered onto the planning committee have hit high stress as we’re in the final stages of preparations. I’m in charge of all things design wise. Last week it was the program. I was expecting text to come on Monday, so I sat at my computer waiting…and waiting for the email to come through. Whilst waiting I of course got side-tracked and started reading about capsule wardrobes. My capsule wardrobe has worked so well for me all through fall and winter that I wanted ideas for a good spring and summer collection. And then I read this article about how this writer developed a ‘uniform’ to wear. Huh, interesting idea. To have a uniform. So I went to my closet and looked for what I thought would be a good uniform. Maybe my dark skinny jeans and my favorite Rambler’s Way t-shirt. I would wear that tomorrow and that, along with my newly finished fringe scarf (ravelry notes) would be as my accessory, and that would be my uniform.

Well, the text for this supposedly simple, little event program came through and of course as things go, things went wrong pretty quickly. Within a short window of time about 75 emails went flying around and stress levels got even higher as we scrambled for solutions. I decided we needed chocolate. So I bought a bar of Theo’s for myself and one for my gala program partner, you know, as a coping mechanism.

The next day, I dressed in my ‘uniform’, pictured here. I worked all day long at the computer designing this program and breaking off little pieces of my raspberry dark chocolate bar ‘to get me through it’. Upon time for picking up my children I strolled into the school hallway, feeling quite stylish. I was having a lively chat with some friends when one spoke up rather loudly, ‘So, who’s it going to be, you or I, who tells Kendra that she has chocolate smeared on her rear?’ I turned around and yes, in fact I had a huge square of chocolate melted to the back pocket of my jeans. Uhg! We all started laughed and I immediately ran to the bathroom to wipe it up. I picked up the kids, got back in the car, took them to gymnastics, got out of the car, when a friend from school saw me and called out in her thick Mexican accent, ‘Oh, Kendriux! Not the chocolate again!’ Oh, yes, friends. I sat in it again. I went back to the car to clean up and saw a big puddle of melted chocolate on my car seat. And on the back of my pants, only this time it was worse because I had squatted down to tie my daughters shoe, so it was all over the back of my leg too. I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. Eating chocolate might be a stress relief coping mechanism, but sitting in it twice in front of all your friends provides some solid and much needed comedic relief.

And in addition, now I have solid proof that when I eat chocolate it goes straight to my ass.
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In other news, ever since I’ve heard his interview on the woolful podcast, I’ve been following a gentleman who goes by the name of gridjunkie on instagram. He’s a fiber artist who gets all his yarn from recycling sweaters he’s found at thrift stores. Recently I found a cashmere sweater that Scott put in the donation bag because it had a little moth hole in it. So I tried to take it apart and unravel it. And its working! It may not look it from the photo above, but you wouldn’t believe how soft this yarn is. My kids think I’ve gone a little looney, unraveling this big sweater, but they are also enraptured asking me daily if there is a new sweater that needs to be unraveled in the donation bag.

Currently reading and very much enjoying Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner.

Comments

  1. Jody says

    Kendra, thank you for the laugh. It is nice to know I’m not the only one that that kind of thing would happen to. And, it is even nicer to know that you are able to laugh it off so gracefully. Chocolate…straight to the ass. Perfect!

    Unraveling sweaters, brilliant and thrifty!

  2. Louise Christofferson says

    I loved your story. It reminded me of when I left a chocolate on the pillow in our guest room as a treat for my husband who had volunteered to sleep in that room while I watched over our feverish three year old grandson. Imagine my surprise when he came up for breakfast all covered in brown blotches. Of course, he hadn’t turned on the light, just slipped into bed and never saw the candy. It was all over him and the sheets. Thank you for sharing. Love the shawl. The colors is wonderful.

  3. says

    Ha! Great story. Not so funny that I have a few stories like that myself. Chocolate and I go way back. I love the woolful podcast too, but I’m behind, and need to catch up because I haven’t heard that one yet. It sounds very interesting.

    By the way, I love your blog. It’s my first time stopping by here it’s it’s just a beautiful place.

  4. Candice says

    You would love the Unravelers group on Ravelry. People discuss how to unravel thrift finds and what to look for so that you don’t buy a sweater that will unravel short lengths at a time.

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