I feel weird apologizing on my own blog for the lack of fiber-y things, but still. I’m apologizing. Maybe because that’s why some of you started coming in the first place.

I’ve been doing other things. And my son is getting more and more demanding, both in things he demands of me, and requiring more of my attention to keep my house intact and his-self alive and undamaged.

I’m not quite sure when the fiber arts will be constant and abundant on the blog again, and I do miss them. I still love blogging, so I’m going to prattle on about things, many of which will undoubtedly be the antics of my son, because that’s a huge part of my world right now… (I say as he reaches for my mouse. And I push it out of reach. And he yells at me and pushes my leg. And my elbow, making it hard to type).

So, my arms are killing me again. I can barely pick up anything with my left hand. I’d kind of ignored my arms while I was sick, because I didn’t really want restrictive braces on while I was overly sensitive, you know how being sick is. And I’m still on the road to recovery. My arms have had enough. So I’m wearing ONE brace.

And I’m still playing the guitar. Which is why I think I’m hurting as much as I am. It’s so frustrating. I don’t want to stop.

I spent much of this morning writing a song at the request/demand of my friend Sara, who hosts our little guitar group that gets together on Wednesday afternoons. We’re all supposed to write one before next week, and hers is already done.

Anyway, my song is unbelievably sad. As in, depressing, not lame. Tho’ it might be that, too. It’s hard to tell when you’re writing something yourself. I’m still hoping to be able to post songs here relatively soon. Maybe you could offer some constructive criticism or suggestions when the time comes? That could be fun.

I’ve been asked to play guitar on the 3 day field trip Abby’s class is taking to Eastern Washington next week. (I get to sleep in a tent. All by myself. I’m incredibly excited. I didn’t marry a camper, so any chance I get is glorious). I told her teacher that I’m very much a “student”, and there are probably going to be others there more qualified than me, but I remain asked. So I’ll do it. I figure, if 70+ people are singing “Roll On, Columbia Roll On”, they aren’t going to be too aware of my little flubbs.

Right?

They won’t hear.

I’m trying to overcome fear of performing anyway.

And even if I mess up every chord, they’ll still love me.

Yeah. So, I borrowed my brother’s guitar to take, because it’s easier to play than my mom’s, which I have on semi-permanent loan.

I don’t think I could swing my electric (I bought the groovy Fender Strat) and battery powered amp. I think they’re looking for “traditional”. But man, it’d be fun.

I have some cute pictures, though. Veronica loves to cook. I wish I was a better mom and gave her more opportunity. But on Wednesday last week, the older two went off to softball practice, and I thought I’d let Veronica make biscuits.

She’s such a little shrimp. She’s almost 7 and weighs 38 pounds. She uses the stepladder a lot. It permanently resides in the kitchen, to the right of the stove and she pulls it out frequently.

While she was making biscuits, my brother Sam was playing music for us.

Anytime Sam is over, it’s like having a mini concert in the house. He just walks around with it and plays while we’re doing stuff, while we’re talking. It’s fun.

I’m still not knitting. It feels strange, like things aren’t quite right when I can’t knit. My guitar lesson is this afternoon, so I’ll talk to my instructor and see what he thinks. Am I building strength or damaging myself? Is it related to or aggravated by the guitar playing? Is it normal?

KT Tunstall, who is my musical idol, is coming to the Moore Theater in early May. My brother told me about it and we got tickets. I’m so very excited!!! I’m prepared to spend the day in line for good seats so I can get as close as possible and watch her hands. She’s such a great guitar player. She also does the coolest stuff with loop stations.

I want to be her. (Or at least be able to play like that).

I don’t know what is causing it, but my right elbow has hurt for days, and this morning, it was rather extreme and physically limiting. I don’t know if it’s the guitar playing, if it’s the lace knitting… I know that something (I can’t remember what) was aching while I was knitting recently, and I ignored it.

So, in looking online, it seems that it might be Tennis elbow or Lateral epicondyle. Though, it hurts more when I make a fist than when I open my fingers up, which sounds more like Golfer’s Elbow, or Medial epicondyle. Either way, it sucks. And what sucks the most is that aside from possibly having to go to the doctor, I have to stop the activity that caused it. Not knowing if it’s guitar or knitting, I should probably quit both, which I REALLY don’t want to do. I’m supposed to quit for weeks.

This is so unfair.

And it hurts so much that I can’t just do something else, like clean out the garage, which I’ve wanted to get done. And I’d imagine that I shouldn’t do it anyway.

So what do I DO for 3 weeks? Assuming that I’m going to rest it like I’m probably supposed to.

I absolutely loathe being unproductive. I hate feeling like I’m wasting time. That’s why I knit. I learn. I create. I make things.

Ooooooh. Wait a minute.

I’ve been wanting to do some serious catch-up in the family scrapbook/photo albums. (Yeah, I’m YEARS behind). I suppose I could do that for a few weeks. I could possibly spin, too. Fortunately, I’m ahead of the game with my deadline knits. The only problem is that I’m in guitar lessons, and I can’t exactly go to lessons if I’m not playing. And I REALLY don’t want to stop playing! I enjoy it so much, and I’m making such good progress…

Dangit, dangit, dangit.

So, my brother has lent me his new guitar to play around with.

It’s an auditorium, or concert bodied guitar, meaning it’s smaller than the standard dreadnaught I’ve been playing which is my mom’s guitar, also on loan. I think a concert body will help my elbow, if my injury is guitar related, because having as much in front as I do, and with my freaky small shoulders and such, sometimes it’s difficult to get around the guitar to play it.

Ooh, ooh, and check out this incredibly cool guitar strap I found.

It’s a velvety corduroy pink/brown paisley and I love it.

So, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’ll take a couple days off of knitting and guitar (pout), ice it, Advil, rub eucalyptus oil into it to increase blood circulation, do some stretches I found online, and we’ll see what happens.

This is SO lame.

Continuing thoughts that were added later-

Maybe it’s my weight lifting? It really hurt the last couple times I did my biceps. I could go 3 weeks without weight lifting.

1. Sam’s Scarf

I’m finally to a color change. This scarf is extremely long, at his request, and it’s all been black Donegal Tweed until last night, when I finally reached a stripe.

Sam asked for 4 red stripes on one end. The stripes will be 3 1/2 inches of red, flanked by 3 inches of black. I’m 2 1/2 inches into the first stripe, so that leaves….. 23 inches of scarf left to knit. Sigh. I’ll be done with this sucker eventually.

2. Talent Show

Liv sang with a friend in the school talent show on Friday night. She was stiff as a board, but sounded great. She was really cute with her little hand balled into a fist at her side the whole. time.

3. Guitar

I was really excited this past week. I was playing around in my Simon and Garfunkel book (Roger, my teacher is amazing. I love him. I’ve learned so much, and he’s really warmed up. I love my lessons) and Abby asked about “Hazy Shade of Winter”.

A side note- she has only just recently discovered the song. The Bangles version, of course, because it completely rocks. As I was playing it for her, I noticed that a lot of the the chords are chords that Abby knows on her Ukulele, so I copied the music for her and she’s going to play around with it. I’m excited for her. She was disappointed to have missed the cut off for talent show entries, because she wanted to get up there and play her Uke. I never would have guessed. She’s a little shy, like me. I’m hoping she’ll still want to do it next year.

Anyway, to speed up the story, I was playing around and Abby asked about “Hazy Shade of Winter”, and I looked it up and played the chords. Then, as I was looking at the notes for the beginning guitar bit, I realized that I’d been reading and playing most of those notes in the music Roger has written out for me in my workbook. (Ode to Joy, Dueling Banjos, and a little “guitar boogie”, or so he calls it). So I figured it out! I can play the opening bit to “Hazy Shade of Winter”, and I did it by myself! And I’ve told practically everyone I’ve seen since, I’m so excited, and I’ve played it 500 times!!!

I’m giddy.

4. Miscellaneous silliness

I have many playlists on iTunes. The biggest is called “La Likes”, and it has 494 songs on it. According to the computer, it’d take 1.3 days to get through the whole list. So there are songs I don’t hear very often on La Likes. Well, at 9:30 this morning, Guns N Roses came on. Hee hee. I don’t have a lot of GNR, and I don’t hear it very often, but when it pops up, it makes me smile. We’re rockin’ out to GNR and I’m not even out of my pajamas yet.

It’s going to be a good day.