Stash Buster

I'm almost half way done with this baby blanket. It's the Diagonal Box Stitch, is really fast to do and eats up yarn like crazy. This is about 16 oz of ww acrylic. The pattern lends itself to stripes very nicely as you can see from these two I made several years ago. The top one lives with 3rd Son and his family, and was made with two strands of yarn and fits a twin bed. The bottom one is in progress in this picture but ended up almost the same size, if I remember correctly, and lives with 3rd Grandson.
We haven't managed to get into the groove since we got back. Youngest Daughter's client went on vacation while we were on vacation and consequently YD has basically been out of work since we got back. A few hours here and there with a couple different clients, but.... So with her home during the day, our, Youngest Granddaughter and my, routine has been higgledy piggledy.

When the stress hits, I become even more of a recluse than I already am. Yes, I post daily and generally answer e-mails, but I leave the house less and less and if I leave the house, try not to leave the car. IOW, I go in for what one of my autistic friends calls, radio silence. I've lost a lot of friends over the years, both virtual and in reality because of this. It's hard, but I just am too old to force myself to be conversational and all that when I'm stressed out. Sometimes it lasts for days or weeks, sometimes for years. It just depends on how high maintenance the relationship is.

Thinking back over my life up until now, I am amazed by the sheer amount of effort those with AS must make just to get through each day, by the amount of coping techniques we must intuitively come up with and practice. We are bombarded every day with so much overwhelming sensory information. Our clothes are too tight, making eye contact can literally hurt, the sounds of everyday conversation, of a clock ticking or someone tapping a pencil against the desk can drive us out of our minds. Certain smells can overwhelm us, the lights are too dim or too bright, we just don’t feel comfortable in our bodies. It’s very hard for us to actually relax, because there always seems to be a threat lurking somewhere.

Every interaction we have is like solving a five hundred piece puzzle before the time is up. When we see a person we would like to interact with, first we must decide if we have enough energy to go through with the interaction. Whereas a large segment of the population gets energy from interaction with others, for us it can be sometimes dangerously overwhelming and depleting. It is like a forbidden fruit that we would like to enjoy but must weigh the consequences. Then we have to figure out, often in just a few seconds, what we’re going to say and how we’re going to say it and try to double check it before we say it to make sure, to the best of our knowledge, that it might be something that could flow reasonably into the conversation. We have to call up old scripts and decide which is most appropriate for the situation. And on top of all that,we have to make it sound as natural as we can. -Kate Goldfield

I've been watching the progress on this Aran Wrap Cardigan that Sally has been making. The pattern is from Vogue Knitting, Fall 2008. (Apologies to non-Ravelry members. The Vogue link is currently broken.) It's a really neat concept, but it'd be like knitting an afghan for a full sized bed to fit me.... Way too much time and yarn!

Look at this variation on Grandma's Favorite Dishcloth. It looks like there is a horizontal section in the center of the diagonal work. And it should be easily expanded out for a blanket or afghan! I like it!

Three new Harry Potter based sock patterns. Really neat!