Nov 30, 2016 | DIY, Family, Knitting, Yarn Along |
Joining Ginny and Nicole.
Yesterday was hard. I screwed up. A lot. Both as a mother and a friend. Sam woke up in the middle of the night with a runny nose and I couldn’t go back to sleep for hours. I slept through my alarm. There was tantrum after tantrum, and instead of handling the situation with patience and grace, I yelled. A lot. My mother had car trouble and I rushed to pick her up, forgetting to cancel my knitting date at my house with a friend who I hadn’t seen in a while. Something I had been looking forward to for weeks. It took multiple texts from her (while she waited in my driveway) before I realized what I had done. I was late picking Sam up from school. I missed the window for Caleb’s nap and when I tried to lay him down he was so frantic and over tired he refused to sleep for the rest of the day. I accidentally fed Eddie sour milk. I ran out of diapers. Caleb scooted/zombie crawled over to a pile of folding chairs we had leaning against the wall and pulled one down on himself. He’s fine, but it scared the shit out of me. I gave up on cooking and ordered Dominos. For lunch. I mopped the floor and while I was putting the mop away, Eddie threw up on the floor.
As the day progressed, the family cold that I had managed to avoid the past two weeks seemed to finally catch up with me and my head began to pound and my throat started to ache. More tantrums. More yelling. More tears. It was like I couldn’t stop screwing up. It’s incredibly rare that I go to bed at night feeling like a failure in all aspects of my life but yesterday was one of those days. The house was in total disarray. After the kids went to bed, I cleaned up and took a hot shower and cried into a large cup of tea (okay, fine, half tea, half whiskey). I decided not to knit, and instead curled up on the couch in front of the fire with a blanket and watched trashy television for two hours.
Yesterday was rough, but I’m determined that today will be better. Gabe is out of town for the next few days and I refuse to spend those days wallowing in self pity. As I type this, Eddie is screaming on the floor because her favorite dress is dirty and I won’t let her wear it. My optimism is already waning.
Yesterday was bad. Today will be better. If I say it enough, perhaps it will become true.
This post was supposed to be about my knitting but I ended up whining instead. Let’s focus on happy stuff now. Yarn makes everything better.
I finished my test knit for sam lamb. She will make the pattern available shorty and I highly recommend trying it out, especially if you are relatively new to colorowork. It’s not too complex and it’s so fun to see little lambs appear before your eyes as the pattern progresses. Although I knit the adult size, Sam is modeling it for me because I’m terrible at selfies. Must be a generational thing. This was my first attempt at knitting continental. I think I did an okay job. I didn’t catch my floats either, and even after blocking there is a spot where it pulls a bit because my tension is off. I’m not sure if that’s because I’m a novice at continental or because I didn’t catch my floats.
I’m still working on my Hollows shawl. I’m nearly half way through. Once I finish, I will start on Chanukah gifts. In the meantime, I’m enjoying making something just for me.
Nov 23, 2016 | DIY, Family, Homeschool, Knitting, Yarn Along |
Joining Ginny and Nicole.
I started the Hollows shawl a few days ago. While it’s slow going (as most lace projects are), I am enjoying this pattern immensely. The yarn is so soft and I just love my color choice. I did a quick test knit this weekend for sam lamb. It’s blocking right now and I’ll show off the finished product when it’s done, but I couldn’t resist giving you a sneak peek because, well, lambs.
This is the second week of Sam attending a “real” preschool. I enrolled him at the local Montessori school and he wuvva it. Our current co-op is just a little below his level and he was getting bored. The only other co-op in our area that has a pre-school class doesn’t allow you to bring other children unless they are enrolled and since I’m not a fan of leaving my two year old and 6 month old home alone for four hours a day, I figured I needed to enroll Sam in a different pre-school.
It’s only four days a week for a few hours. Just enough time for me to get home and get a few chores done with one less child. Even better, I’ve been spending more quality time with Eddie, which she is loving. Mostly we read books but sometimes she likes to serve me tea or watch a Disney movie together. She is obsessed with Cinderella and insists that she has a fairy godmother somewhere out there. Wouldn’t that be nice if it were true?
Happy Thanksgiving, my friends.
Nov 16, 2016 | DIY, Family, Farm, Knitting, Yarn Along |
Joining Ginny and Nicole.
I’ve included photos of the finished Odila pullover cape. Eddie loves it and she decided to let me add the pocket. I’m glad. It looks so much better with one. You might notice her eyes are a tad red-rimmed in the photos. She threw one of her epic tantrums ten minutes prior to us walking outside and thus the worse-for-wear look about her.
My chipped manicure, on the other hand, for that I have no excuse.
I received my Quince and Co Tern in Dusk for my Hollows shawl and I had to knit up a few swatches before figuring out the needles size required to get as close to gauge as possible. I was going to start on it yesterday but on Sunday I volunteered to knit up a quick test knit for one of my favorite designers, Sam Lamb, so I’ll most likely start the shawl later in the week. Her designs are simple, cozy and always include the perfect amount of color work: just enough to make the design interesting and fun but not so much that you feel intimidated or feel like you’re committing to a project that is going to take FOR-EV-ER. Naturally, I had to purchase some new worsted weight yarn for said project so I stopped by my LYS and picked up Dream In Color Classy in Prince William. I am in love. It’s soft. It’s squishy. It has a funny name. All the important characteristics of a good yarn.
Yes, I cover my couch in blankets everyday, all day because little children have little grubby hands and if they ruined my perfect, beautifully crafted Pottery Barn couch I don’t know if I would have it in me to continue loving them.
Temperatures have dropped considerably this past week and every afternoon around 4:00PM, just before sunset, a heavy fog rolls in and blankets the property. It’s eerie and beautiful all at once and one of the many reasons why I love this time of year.
