:Knit:

Crime & Punishment

Nicky13 Comments

It’s time for me to come clean y’all!  I mean really clean.  Don’t know what I’m talking about?  Let me tell y’all what has happened to me.  😳

A few weeks ago, I had the audacity to respond to Andi’s post “Thoughts on Finishing Things” and stated that I’m now a monogamous crafter.   I even went on to say that my “Mood Blanket” project was keeping me on the straight and narrow and that I didn’t suffer from cast-on-itis anymore.  I absolutely didn’t plan to tell such lies!   I was so proud of myself with my  … errrr … alleged …. one Mood Blanket project.  But then my W.I.P (work in progress) basket started to mock me.  I mean — it showed absolutely no respect!  Called me a liar!  Had projects all up and through my apt — on my work table, on my couch, on my night stand and even in my bed!   Taunting me like “monogamy, what is that m’lady”?

Then exposed me it did:

Laurie's beanie

It showed me the beanie I need to add 1 inch of stockinette too, then decrease for my friend Laurie.  Plus it reminded me of the purple pom-pom I need to finish it off with.

Socks

Then I got slammed with two at a time socks that’s been sitting in my yarn bowl for the last three months.  I’ve been promising to make socks since last year. 😳

Mood Blanket Progress

I tried to hide, but was accosted by my mood blanket that’s stuck at 2.5 rounds behind.  Oye vey!!!!   She’s a demanding beauty that one.  Le sigh!

Julian's Blanket

Then I got blasted with the fact that I started Julian’s blanket last week after the Tax Office tried to sandbag me with a crazy bill, but I don’t like garter stitch in Stylecraft’s DK yarn so I hauled out some worsted in sea blue colours, only to have them sit there waiting for a start date.    This blanket was supposed to be done since last year; he’s going to be 1 in August, in a mere few weeks.  Bigger Le Sigh!

By this time, I was whimpering, asking my WIP basket not to charge me with treasonous lying behavior, to give me another chance and I got one.  I got my sentence lessened based on the fact that I actually finished a project  this week.  It was my HPKCHC project for my Defense of Dark Arts class.   This project is the “Big Lace Scarf” which was perfect for newbie lace knitters, but let me not digress.

HPKCHC DADA Spring 14

Although I had that project to help me out a little, the fact that I had a mojito then cast on my first colourwork hat on Monday night and worked on it up to midnight ended any graciousness my WIP basket had for me.   An alcohol induced cast-on!  Treason!!!!!   In my defense, I had tried to start this project on the train earlier in the day, but my needles separated while I was doing the ribbing so I waited until later.  What?!!!! That’s the truth!  With all that drama and the fact that I had the nerve to cast on yet another project — woooo Nellie — not even the sweetness of the colourwork gave me favor.

First Colourwork Hat

My sentence: Finish all these (except for the mood blanket) and make progress on my sweater before Stitches East (October 9th 2014).   Finish them or be sentenced to the Monogamy Tower with no chance of parole or leniency.  Without opportunity to start new projects or practice new techniques .  Finish them and showcase each of them in their own F.O. post by or before the deadline or be forever known as a starter, never a finisher!

That’s too heavy a price for me to pay for not being monogamous.  I have a day off on Friday; I intend to get up early, put on pretty pjs and designate the long weekend as time served for these projects.  Will any of you be in the cells above, below or next to me?  I know I’m not the only one.  Maybe we can commiserate through the walls?  😦

$3882.90

Nicky11 Comments

…. that’s what I came home to yesterday.   A bill from the NYS Office of Taxation and Finance.

I tried to be good.  I really did.  But when I looked at my return, I lost it!  I filed late (as usual) and was happy to see that I didn’t owe.  As a matter of fact, they owed me $175.00.  But in the typical scare tactic way they operate, they ignored $3421. of the $5700 I paid in taxes, slapped me with a penalty and interest to say that I owed them close to $4000.00.  Then on top of that gave me two weeks to pay the total or incur more charges.  They ignored my total taxes paid on my return and on my filing application.  So now it’s time for me to do the song and dance with them to get them to reverse the charges and pay what they owe me.  That should be interesting.

I’m not going to lie, I wanted to cry.  So badly, I got a headache.  But I was more angry than my need to shed tears.  Especially since I felt singled out for no reason.  A mistake they made turned around to be a tax liability with a fight I don’t need for me.  On top of all the shenanigans I have going on at work already.

I remembered part of Kate’s comment on this week’s selection for Music Monday — “a simple message and hard to follow!”  Yes indeed.  I felt crushed and just all around ticked off.  My first thought really was — where would I get $4000 to pay them in two weeks?  I felt that despite my efforts to maintain a positive attitude it seems like life is determined to keep relentlessly sucker punching me.  Then I was gently reminded of  — Phillipians 4:6 – “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;”   Well okay then … I got told.  😀

So I asked for forgiveness for the not so nice words I said aloud and in my mind, then I sat down to do what I know would calm me down — knit.  Me on the couch, still in my work-clothes, 160 stitches of garter, adding to the rows I already done on the train ride home.

388290

This is the beginning of the Purl Soho Easy Baby blanket I’m doing for my coworker’s son.

I breathe deeply, then felt God telling me that everything is going to be okay.  Because a tax bill of $3882.90 that I don’t owe ain’t nothing for God to handle.  Shoot, even if I did owe it, He’d find a way to help me pay.  So there NYS Office of Taxation and Finance!    Take that, you dirty rat!  😛