Stuff

Yes, it looks like a big pile of generic stuff.  It's actually mostly hand-spun, all hand-woven or hand-knit pieces I need to label for an exhibit at the local library for the month of November.  I *should* have gotten together a bunch of new pieces available for sale, because they off-the-record-allow that.  But the way things are going I'm lucky I even have things in a heap.

Things are status quo, which means more or less lousy.  The school situation for Feivel is exactly what I feared and tried to avoid--he has no way to succeed in his classes, and comes home mad at me that he's not doing so.  The school simply redefines "success" to include "failure and misery" and insists this is indeed successful so why would I think he needs a change.  It's not like it's the goal here for him to actually learn or improve in any areas, right?

As for Tirtze, well, I hired an advocate/case manager.  Almost $1000 later, said person has had many meetings between herself and us or her staff and us.  She hasn't done anything or helped us with anything mind you, and her understanding of what certain social agencies have available turns out to be completely wrong.  So after paying her all this money, I'm still the one sorting everything out, making all the phone calls, arranging and going to every meeting and appointment, following up on all the paperwork, and trying to find services.  T apparently is now eligible for services through St. Luke's, but now they say they don't have the paperwork from her doctor and the doctor and his office don't return my calls even when they say directly that they will.  She's approved for some vocational interest testing through TLC, but we're not allowed to call them to get it underway, we have to wait until they call us.  Why would I be frustrated here, just because I have a seriously mentally ill young adult sitting at home 20+ hours a day, basically rotting, with no support, no help, no services, and no hope?

Do I sound bitter?  That's pretty much how I feel.  However, I can admit that in the last 6 weeks or so while I've been invisible, I did get a few things made, including my wonderful Imbas socks from a kit from the Tsarina of Tsocks (after a brief interlude when I somehow ran out of yarn while working the second sock's cuff):

And I learned how to do some basic beaded jewelry knitting and really hope to do a lot more and expand beyond the seed beads:

And I got a little jumper knit for Miss Sillybug, who posed like this when I said I wanted to take a picture of her in her new dress:

I also did a little needlepoint, finishing this piece through a email class from Laura J. Perin designs:
Now I'm working on a hand-spun Estonian lace shawl which is something like a 6 week project, and I started another needlepoint, this one a wool pillow top.  I'm really antsy to knit Kayla some stranded Norwegian socks she wants, and then I want to knit a Dragonboat sweater (Swedish) and a Marius sweater (Norwegian).  Somehow winter just seems to bring on Scandinavian designs.