Unexpected Free Moment

Mike had to go back to work for something tonight, so I have an unexpected evening to myself.  I'm watching Moonstruck on cable and knitting Terra.  And stopping in here to say hello.

Things have been pretty hectic this spring.  Without thinking too much about it, I enrolled in three classes.  None of these classes alone are too bad, but together I'm a bit overwhelmed.  If everything went nice and smooth, it would be no problem, but there are all these little hiccups that threaten my equilibrium.  Every assignment finished is a check in the box, though, and I'm slowly getting to the end.  There is a light at the end of this tunnel.

There has been knitting.  When I was looking for a picture of the Shelter yarn I am using for my current project (Terra shawl, Rav link), I found this picture of new yarn:

A LYS in Savannah was going out of business this last month, so all this was purchased on sale.  I have plans for some (the cadet blue Spud and Chloe Sweater is going to be a toddler sweater for Camden) and some was just too pretty to pass up (the burgundy Anzula in the bottom left).  Even though I only visited the store about three times before they announced their closing, I'm really going to miss them.  I had high hopes that they would become my favorite LYS.  (The first time I was there, the manager was telling me about their knit night.  "We have wine!" she said.  How could I not love them?)

But that isn't really knitting.  Some more non-knitting.  This:

is now this:

That is the Garter Stitch Kimono (Rav link).  I started this the day we got our pack-up at this house, in August.  I raced through the body, but it became really clear that I wouldn't have enough yarn for two long sleeves.  Since a cap sleeve baby kimono didn't interest me, it sat and sat.  Now it's frogged and no longer an unfinished sweater.  Now it is back to be potential.  Now I can ponder it and figure out what it really wants to be.  I'm thinking a little vest type thing, or possibly a striped cardigan.  Both for Camden, obviously, since one skein with even the most generous yardage would not make a garment to cover this body.  What color would stripe well with that blue-green?  Cream?  Orange?

But that is still not knitting to show.  It seems that most of my knitting progress photos have been taken with my phone and are on my Instagram account.

So how about cute baby pictures instead?

Look at that hair!  Yikes!  I'm not cutting it, though.  Not yet.  Maybe after his first birthday.  I'm sure that third picture down will be familiar to anyone with a pet (especially little fluffy dogs).  As soon as I get on the floor, the dogs think it is playtime.  There is a snout in the face, in the camera, in Camden's face.  Good thing we all love dogs here!  Camden laughs at them and has started to try and grab wagging tails.  So far he's slow and the dogs are quick.  They love him, and usually give him a few kisses to make up for it.

A new skill

Over the holidays, I decided I was going to learn how to crochet.  I had known how to crochet once upon a time (third grade maybe?) but as far as doing it now, no.  Well, I can crochet the little bit that is needed to knit--for a provisional cast on, to tighten up an edge--but not really Crochet with a capital C skill crochet.  I really want to make granny square blankets.  That is my only reason, honestly.  I've loved Granny Square blankets since I was in first grade.  My friend Andi had a Granny Square blanket in her living room.  I loved that blanket, with the multi-color flowers surrounded by black fronds.  I'm sure it was acrylic.  Everything was in the 80s.  I've wanted a Granny Square blanket ever since.

So I started with a booklet (possibly the one Andi's mom used--look at how dated that is!).

And I ended up with that little squiggle of blue yarn.  Believe it or not, that is a foundation chain of thirty stitches.  Clearly this booklet wasn't going to cut it for me, so I turned to the internet.  How did I learn anything before YouTube?

I had a few problems.  These weren't supposed to be bell-shaped, but for washcloths they will definitely work.  I have a whole bin of Peaches and Cream cotton to work through, and I need a whole bunch of dish cloths.  My sister has already put in a request for some, too.  I've got a good start.

I understand why people prefer crochet to knitting.  It is so much faster.  When you're in a desperate need of a finished object, crochet to the rescue!  I got a little addicted to making these cloths for a while.  Seriously, my wrist was starting to hurt.

Of course, I've also been hanging out with this little one.

Oh my gosh, I love that little face!  He's finally sitting up well enough to sit in one of those jumper toy things.  But he is still such a little nugget that his little feet don't touch the ground at all, even on the lowest setting.

See those feet just dangling?  A lot of times I've got a little pillow or blanket under there so he gets used to putting weight on his legs (it's something we are working on with him in PT), but sometimes I just let him stretch.  Either way he's happy.

Oh yes, classes started again.  I'm trying to figure out how to balance everything.  I think I've got all the assignments written on three different calendars--desk, phone, and wall.  I do love the act of checking things off a list!

{this moment}

Joining Amanda today in the Friday ritual.  Sharing a moment from the week to pause, savor, and remember.

Winter hits the south

Well, it did get cold here.  When I woke up this morning, it was about 10 degrees, which around these parts is Really Cold.  I think the news said this is coldest it has been in about twenty years.  After having a really hot and humid December (humidity in December.  sigh.  I will never get used to it.) I was ready for a break in the weather.  I truly love the brisk air.  It makes me miss where I'm from.

Cold weather is also a fashion opportunity!  I got to pull this:

out of the closet!  I haven't worn this in years.  I love this sweater.  I bought it almost twenty years ago.  I was a waitress in a tourist town (skiing during the winter, boating in the summer) and this sweater was in a shop downtown.  I have no idea why I went into that shop in the first place.  It wasn't somewhere I would have normally shopped.  I certainly couldn't afford anything in there.  I actually visited this sweater several times before I bought it.  When I finally did by it and wore it to the bar where I worked, we all did a toast to my sweater.  

This sweater, more than anything else, is why I started knitting.  The owner of the bar was a knitter, or rather, knew how to knit.  She made two pair of slippers every year, one for her and one for her husband.  Nothing else.  The leftover (acrylic) yarn from that year's slippers and a pair of needles in a zipper top bag were taped to my locker one day with a note to "just start."  Another waitress gave me an old how to knit pamphlet.  It took me about two hours to knit the yarn equivalent of an eyebrow.

Of course, I can't put anything yarn-y out without Fred getting into it.

We call this "Fredding."  He does it to new laundry, old laundry, stacks of blankets, piles of yarn, the baby.  Anything that doesn't smell enough like Fred to suit him.  

Otherwise, we spent the day hanging out and keeping out of the cold.

I was even inspired to dig out the Big Brown Blanket I started in 2010.  That is about two inches of knitting there.  As of this writing, I've doubled that amount, but there is no way that a 4' x 5' blanket belongs in a book called Last Minute Knitted Gifts.  It took me a couple of hours to get four inches.  Well, three years and a couple of hours.  At this rate, Camden will take this college.  For his Master's.  Should I set a goal?  Throw down the gauntlet?  By the end of the month?  Hmmmm.... Let's see where I get to by the end of this weekend.

Off to snuggle under a big quilt and flannel sheets!  Ah, the coziness of flannel.  Delicious.  

Happy Winter Solstice!

The Winter Solstice.  A celebration of the balance of the darkness and the light.  I think we have both in all of us, both in all our lives.  This month, we've been concentrating on the light.  We have had such joy this season.  I am loving our Little Duck, who brings us smiles and happiness.

There has been, simultaneously, so much and so little going on here.  We are practicing sitting up and tummy time, and visiting some specialists that have me in a tizzy.  I know just enough to be freaked out, and not enough to be pacified.  Nothing is wrong, but some things are not quite right.  In order to keep our sanity, we are doing what we can around the house.  For me, that means knitting.  For Mike, that means adding some light switches where there were none.  And we are visiting going to holiday parties and visiting Santa.  Because wishes do come true.

Happy Birthday!

Happy 238th Marine Corps Birthday!

The Marine Corps birthday is kind of a big deal in the Marines.  All day long, Mike's phone has been buzzing with wishes of  "happy birthday, Devil Dog!"  Once a Marine, always a Marine, and Mike has been a Marine for 22 years now, so there were a lot of phone calls and texts.

And this year we celebrated with our little Devil Pup!

It's Sunday, so Mike isn't in cammies, but Camden is!  Complete with a little Eagle, Globe, and Anchor embroidered on his onesie.

So, Happy Birthday Marines!  No better friend, no worse enemy.

Still here! And still knitting!

Wow!  Time does certainly get away, doesn't it?  One minute I feel like I've just barely moved in, and the next I've been here for more two months but still have boxes to unpack.  This house is a bit bigger than the one we left, and has a bit different layout, so I've yet to figure out how we "live" in it.  We left a one story house with a FROG (Finished Room Over Garage--how cool is that name?!) and moved into a two story house.  How do you organize that?  Do you keep two sets of cleaning rags, one up and one down?  Et cetera, et cetera.  Terrible problems, right?

This is my season of learning.  Learning how to be a mama, learning how to balance a master's student's reading list, learning how to not do everything, and learning how to not feel bad about it.  Mike's position here is more time consuming, more that he realized it would be I think, and even he is learning how to let go a little.  Everything isn't always put away anymore, and sometimes the dishwasher stays full for a couple of days.  And some things we delegate more than we used to (pizza can be delivered, too, not always made at home).  But we are all fed, all clean, all happy.  Even the four-footed ones.

Despite the nursing theory reading load (and don't get me started on how I feel about nursing theory) I have managed to get some knitting done!

Five pair of socks.  This is kind of cheating, because I had finished up the knitting on these in the spring but left the Kitchener on all of them to the end.  Ten socks to Kitchener all at once.  I don't think I will do that again, but I now have great muscle memory on the Kitchener stitch. 

A pair of fingerless mitts.  The entire pair is completely finished now, so there will be a post on what they are and what mods I made.  Besides, you can't really tell what that pattern is because that yarn is LOUD.  But the color is as per the recipient's request and she loves it.

I started some vintage crewel work.  This is a kit I bought for about eight dollars from Etsy.  It's from the early 80s, I believe.  The pattern is cute, but man!  The colors!  Really atrocious!  The sun is a strange raspberry pink color, and the flower is hot pink.  If those two colors were toned down a bit it might be better.  I've been thinking about raiding another (Etsy-purchased) crewel kit for more appropriate colors. 

These vintage bark cloth kits are not the needlework to have during a great movie.  The needle makes a loud "whoosh" noise when you pierce the bark cloth and drag the yarn through.  "That's a loud craft" is how Mike put it.

Lest you think I have not been knitting little things, get a load of this.

That is a picture of the cutest baby in the world wearing a hand-knit, Mama-made hat.  Could I love him more?  Every day I think no, I could not possibly love him more and then I wake up the next day and he steals my heart again.

It was a great Halloween.