5 things I have been up to lately

I can’t believe how little time I have had lately.  So, this will probably be a long post.  There is a lot going on in my life.

1. CB’s testing and such: We had CB’s EEG last week.  The neurologist was really surprised by the results. We suspected that CB was having absence seizures a couple times a week. It turns out that it is more like a couple times a day (and when he is tired or stressed, a couple times an hour).  He is now on meds. We have already noticed a difference after one week. He is more focused. He is also sleeping a lot more (and really well).  We have an MRI in December.  That will determine if there is any neurological cause for all his right side weakness. In the meantime, we will be starting physical therapy on Friday.  Everyone has expected me to be very upset about the results. So far, I just feel a real sense of peace.  CB is happy and healthy. He has absence epilepsy, but no delays as a result and it seems like the meds will work. He is growing and is cute as a bug. I couldn’t ask for a better kid. We are just trusting in God that this is all part of the plan.  On a very positive note, CB has started calling me “mama”!!  Until last week, he called me “this” if he was talking to me or “that” if he was talking about me.  He called his pacifier “mama”.  It was a little strange to hear him say, “Love you, This.”  Last week, he started calling me “moi moi” (think French pronunciation). Just last night, he finally converted that to “mama” (so now it is confusing…sometimes he wants me and sometimes he is asking for his paci).  It is so nice to hear, “Love you, mama” at night!

2. On the knitting front, I have been working like crazy on Christmas gifts (when I get a chance). I have done some more afghan squares (all are pictured in my projects on Ravelry).  I am currently waiting on the final Knitpicks order for the yarn. Once I get that, I should be able to blaze through the squares to get caught up (I hope)!

3. I got a great package from my pal in the Flat Rate Box Swap!  It had two skeins of Classic Lite Alpaca yarn, two skeins of Palette, a skein of Sockotta, and a skein of Baby Cashmerino.  She also included a pumpkin dishcloth (which CB loves, and keeps him from whining about having his face washed). I also received cocoa, two kinds of coffee, cinnamon bears, and Good n’ Plenty.  My pal, Shannon, included things for the kids too. There was some ribbon for their scrapbooks, a little book for CB, an activity book for LB, and stickers for their scrapbooks.  She also included honey from her local market (that is my littlest one’s hand reaching for the bear), soap from her local market, candles (that smell so good!), a circular needle perfect for two at a time socks, stitch markers (the kind I was going to buy myself, but could never justify it), stationary, and a calendar!  It was a very full box!!  Here is a link to a post about it with pictures.

4. I have also been very busy with church.  We are putting on a Kid’s ministry program the first Sunday of every month. I am the team leader for the greeters. I am also the contact person for the volunteers for our church (we are doing the ministry with three other churches).  That hasn’t been too bad.  I am also in charge of the planning for our annual Halloween carnival, Halloweenival (clever, huh).  It has been hectic planning, but it is all starting to come together.

5. Lately, I have really been focused on the homeless.  As some of you know, during law school, I worked in the Homeless Legal Rights Unit in Miami and Ft. Lauderdale legal aid.  Homelessness is a big issue for me (my pet issue if you will).  When I moved north and took this job, it kind of went on the back burner.  Lately, every conversation, every new person I meet, everything I do seems to put me into contact with the issue again.  Our community no longer has an emergency shelter.  Right now, I am working with some other members of the community to see what can be done about that.  In knitting related news, I decided to open a chapter of Warming Families here.  The North Florida Chapter is officially open and accepting donations! I am really excited to be doing this small thing to help the community!

Well, that is what I have been doing with my time!  I will try to be better at posting as things slow down (which I hope is really soon!)!!

 

Monkey See

I have two FOs. The first is the scarf for my niece.  It is double stranded sock yarn knit on size 8s.  It was very easy and went very fast. I love this pattern!  I have started a second of the same pattern for my niece, Marcie.  I am nearly half way done with it even though I started less than a week ago.

I also finished the monkey for CB’s birthday!  It came out really, really cute.  He is so cuddly. I think that CB is going to love him.  I am going to do another for my nephew for Christmas.  They are easy. If I wasn’t working on other projects, I could have gotten it done very quickly.  Here is a side view that gives you a view of the tail:

I also received my Loopy Ewe Sock Club installment for September. Here is the yarn:

It is Wollmeise in Guide to the Galaxy. It is really pretty.  Of course, it came with a pattern and goodies too.  The goodies are sheep notecards, a clear case for supplies, and a pattern.

 

Vacation and the aftermath

I just got back from a really wonderful vacation in Wyoming.  Every other year, my family has a family reunion in Wyoming.  The first week was spent at that reunion.  The second week was spent just hanging out with my parents, siblings, nieces, and nephew.  We had a great time.  This is a picture of my boys on our hike to Lake Sherd.

I wore my shawl a lot because the weather was cold.  I also got a lot of crafting done.  I got quite a bit done on my CNE (Christmas n Easter) Scarf for my niece.  I also made three bath puffs while there. I taught my mom how to make them (she taught me to crochet, but I had to teach her all the stitches as she had forgotten).  There are not pictures of the knitting or crochet because I was too busy to get out the camera.

When we got home, DH, both kids and I all had a cold that we got from my brother and his kids.  The kids have a very mild sore throat and cough (although Vicks on their feet one night seems to have gotten rid of their cough). DH and I have serious sore throats, runny noses, terrible coughs, chills, aches, ear aches, etc.  I also got pink eye. CB had it while we were in Wyoming. He got better immediately.  My eye doctor has warned me that I will likely be fighting it for at least a month.

As a result, my return home was not happy.  Fortunately, two things greeted me to make me feel better. First, MIL cleaned our whole house for our anniversary (we celebrated our 9th while in Wyoming…where we were married).  She didn’t just clean…she CLEANED (in all caps).  She washed my windows, washed and put away every stitch of clothing in the house, mopped all the floors, washed the bathrooms, cleaned out the fridge and freezer, took out all the trash, washed the baseboards, vacuumed all carpets, washed all throw rugs, etc.  She is really, really awesome. It was better than any gift she could have bought.

The second thing that greeted me and cheered me was my second Flat Rate Box Swap box.  My swap pal is really, really awesome.  The theme this time was a project for you. The idea was to get everything needed for a single project in your pal’s queue.  My pal chose the Chinook Shawl in mine. She got me the Riverstone colorway.  She also got size 8 harmony needle tips.  Also included was the Mason-Dixon Knitting Book (which I have been really, really wanting) and some Louet Euroflax so that I could make something from it.   There are also several mini-skeins for my sock blankie, a crocheted project bag, mini-highlighter, pencils, mini-post-its, a small pen, a mini clip-on calculator, a magnetic tape measure, a mini-digital camera, an album, a stress ball, Goon n Plenty, hand lotion, and a little sheep.  This is truely a remarkable swap package!!  I was so excited.  I love absolutely everything in it.

 

Crabbiness and the cure for it!

I have been very crabby lately.  I have had a lot of stress at work.  The Florida legislature has decided that all state employees making more than $45,000 will face a 2% pay cut in July.  It is rather insulting.  We have gone several years without a pay raise. Our budget has been cut so that each attorney is doing the job of more than one attorney (I carry almost two full caseloads). We have been asked to do more work with fewer resources. Now we are rewarded for all of that with a pay cut.  It has made me very angry. I won’t leave my job. I have faith that my boss will insure that my pay is restored as soon as it is possible under our budget. That being said, it is still unfair.

Fortunately, I got yarn in the mail the day that the pay cut was announced!  It is Twisted in Crabby McCrabbypants!  I love it!  I have been obsessed with the Shawl that Jazz pattern by Samantha Roshak since it was announced on the Lime & Violet Daily Chum.  I had been searching for the perfect yarn.  Yarn Harlot showed pictures of hers done in Twisted.  As soon as I saw it, I knew that was the yarn I had been looking for. I didn’t want to do it in the same colorway (too dark), so I spent hours looking at the little circles on the Blue Moon Fiber Arts site.  I finally decided on the Crabby McCrabbypants colorway. It is not at all what I expected. I love it so much more than I thought that I would. It is knitting up so beautifully too.  Fortunately, I had that project to cast on when I had such a bad day. Who knew that something called Crabby McCrabbypants would kill my crabby mood!

 

Oh so Wicked!

DH took me to see Wicked on Friday night!  I loved the book, and I loved the music.  I have wanted to see it on stage for years!  It was so amazing to be there! The performances were amazing. I have always identified with Elphaba, and so it is no surprise that the actress playing her was my favorite (she truly did have an amazing voice aside from my personal bias). I sang along for the whole play. Even DH enjoyed it! He is worried about what this says about his manhood. I told him no one will question it since he hated Mama Mia!

I finished my shawl earlier last week, so I got to wear it to the play! It came out beautiful, but small. I wanted to do a few more repeats, but just ran out of time. If I were to make the shawl again, I would use bigger yarn and would make it bigger (the pattern calls for sport weight yarn). It was just barely big enough to pin around my shoulders even with 5 extra repeats. I do like the pattern.  It is easy to memorize.

I would probably not choose this colorway in laceweight again (it is Moutain Colors Wild Horses). I love the colors, but the yarn is so dark. I found it hard to distinguish stitches.  I have never understood why people curse black yarn, but now I know! It is hard on the eyes. I used the lifeline a lot because I couldn’t fix mistakes. I just couldn’t see well enough. I had to pull back every time.

All that being said, I love how the shawl turned out.  I really enjoyed wearing it. It made the evening even more special.

 

A little of this and that

This is sort of a catch up post. I have had a lot of things on my mind and have done a lot of things, but haven’t had time to post it all. I am just going to put it all in one post.

1. The Sock-it-to-me scarf for my niece is completed. This will be a Christmas present and has gone into the Christmas Present Box.  I got the yarn (Trekking XXL) in a swap. It is not exactly my kind of colorway, but it is perfect for my niece. She is going to go crazy over the scarf!  The yarn was scratchy to knit with, but it softened nicely after blocking.  The pattern is a really easy pattern (from 101 Designer One Skein Wonders). The only thing that I don’t like is that you kitchener the two pieces together. I love doing kitchener stitch. That isn’t the problem. I just don’t like how it looks with this patterned yarn.  I think I should have gone a little farther into the yarn to a solid color. I might have liked it a bit better.

2. DH’s Panopticon Monkeymen socks are coming along.  The pattern is so similar to the Monkey socks, that I had it totally memorized before I finished the first repeat (I am doing the version with purls).  The only difference is yarn overs are replaced by make ones.  I really love the colorway too! It is amazing. The striping is my favorite part. The photo was taken indoors with no flash, so it is blurry.  That is what happens when it gets cold and rainy here…no outdoor photos.  Despite the really bad photo, you can see the cool stripe effect!  The Lorna’s is so soft too.  I really, really love this yarn.  By the way, these socks are knitting up super fast despite being really big!  DH will never get plain, vanilla socks again. Patterned socks are so much more fun and so much quicker!

3. I got to go on a Girl’s Night Out this weekend!!  I went to a bridal shower. Afterwards, several of the girls were going to the movies.  I haven’t seen a movie in a theater since LB was 2 months old. I haven’t been on a girl’s night out since law school (at least 6 1/2 years ago).  I had a blast. We saw Bride Wars.  It was cute.  The best part was hanging out with some girl friends.  I really, really need to do more of that. I have been fairly isolated since moving here after law school. All of my friends have been male or “work friends”.  I didn’t realize how much I missed having girl friends until recently.

4. It is cold.  Admittedly, not the kind of cold that I experienced growing up in Wyoming.  That kind of cold is intolerable!  However, it is cold for Florida.  There was frost on the ground this morning.  Things were frozen (fortunately not our pipes as we ran a tiny bit of water last night).  I hate cold.  That is why I moved to Florida!  I miss it at Christmas time. This weather would have been welcome then (instead it was 80 degrees on Christmas day). I am seriously thinking I need a scarf and some mittens, but I want them now.  Unfortunately, by the time they would be knit, I wouldn’t need them. I am putting knitting a scarf and mittens (or maybe some handwarmers) on my calendar this fall so that I will have them for the next time it gets cold.  Today, I am wearing my first monkey socks.  They are warm. I am sure it is a horrible fashion faux pas as they don’t really match what I am wearing, but I don’t care.  I wanted warm feet. Only handknit wool socks will do when it is cold!

5. My shawl is coming along (although I don’t have new pictures). I finished another repeat last night (7 repeats are done).  The pattern calls for 10, but I am thinking I may want around 15 repeats.  It is so wonderful to work with. The silk content makes the yarn so soft!  The only thing I wish is that my needles were sharper (I am dying for the Harmony options).

6. I am not going to talk about yesterday, other than to say that it was a really terrible day in court.  I really dislike being in front of a certain judge.  Court drags and this judge treats me very badly.  I had court with that judge yesterday.  It sucked.  I couldn’t wait to get home and knit. I handle stress so much better with knitting.  I think I am going to claim a medical necessity and ask to knit in court. If all else fails, I could stab myself in the eye with my needle to make the day less painful (just kidding…although I really think that might be less painful sometimes).

 

WIP update

I have several works in progress right now.  The first is Shay’s scarf for next Christmas.  I finished the knitting, kitchnered the two pieces, and wove in the ends.  It is blocking right now.  The picture above is unblocked. The picture below is while being blocked.

I have made some progress on my shawl too. I have completed 6 repeats. I am thinking that I will need around 15 pattern repeats to get the size that I want.  Here are a couple pictures. Lace doesn’t look like much in progress (mostly it looks like a blob of string). It is still pretty cool. I love the yarn colors.  I wish I could really get a good picture. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to get a really true picture.

I am also making progress on dishcloths. I have half of another one done. I haven’t taken any pictures of that. I also cast on for DH’s socks.  There isn’t really anything to photograph…yet.  I will post pictures soon. DH and I are both excited. I love the yarn. The color transitions are so beautiful.

 

What happens when you have mulitple WIPs?

You need something to hold them all!!!!

I have a big knitting bag (a tote that I got on clearance). I have a sock project bag (which currently houses my shawl since I don’t have a sock on the needles now).  The other projects are all just mixed up in my knitting bag. My scarf kept getting tangled with my dishcloth.  I decided I had to have a few more small project bags to stop that.

I found some fabric scraps (although none matched, so I had to find a big enough piece to do a whole bag in one fabric instead of coordinating fabrics).  I then went hunting for a pattern I liked.  I found a great tutorial for making a drawstring bag from Yarnmonster.  I love it!! I made the smaller size.

It took about 2 hours to make from cutting to finishing. I need to get a nicer cord and a drawstring stopper (can’t think of what they are really called). I also could have done a neater sewing job (it has been a long time…I haven’t gotten the sewing machine out for the last two and half years when I made some diapers).

Here are a few more pictures, including one which shows my scarf in progress in it.  That is a ball of Trekking XXL, half of a scarf, and circulars (size 7).

Next time I go to Wal-Mart, I am picking up some of the fabric scraps and making a few more!  I love this little bag!

 

Of yarny goodness and lacy lessons

 Mmmm….new yarn!! I went to Hanks on Saturday. I intended to go on Friday, but CB was with me. He got very grouchy in Target. I decided I didn’t want to bring a screaming baby into Hanks (I am sure that everyone there that day is grateful…or would be if they knew what they had been spared).  I knew I was getting yarn for DH. I thought I would get this yarn, but decided to look around. I nearly ditched the idea of yarn for DH and bought myself some Malagbrigo sock yarn.  After looking, I decided to buy DH’s yarn, and this was still my favorite!

Since then, I have been looking for a pattern to knit these up in.  DH is a little nervous about the way Lorna’s Laces can pool a bit. I hate the thought of giant stockinette socks.  I finally found the Monkeyman pattern.  I love my monkeys.  DH does too, but didn’t fancy the idea of holes in his socks (not lacy is a big requirement for men’s socks, apparently).  I am pretty excited. It is taking all of my willpower not to cast on tonight.  I have promised myself that I will finish Shay’s scarf first (it is about 50% done).

Speaking of works in progress, my shawl is at the same point it was during my last post despite lots of knitting on it.  How does that happen?  Well, I decided I didn’t need to do lifelines because the lace pattern is easy and easily memorized.  Why would I need a lifeline?  Well, it turns out the silk content in the yarn makes it slippery.  I dropped a stitch. When trying to fix it, I dropped several (they just flew off the end of the needle and then pulled all the way down to the garter stitch border).  It was beyond my ablility to fix.  I ended up frogging and beginning again. I was halfway through the third repeat when that happened. I am once again halfway through the third repeat, but the difference is my very cool dental floss lifeline!  If I don’t have to keep reknitting the first couple of repeats, I might make some significant progress!

 

New Years = New Projects

For some reason, I have a terrible case of startitis.  Something about the New Year. I have been doing more tribbles and garterlac dishcloths.

I have another of the pink/blue (Winterberry) garterlac cloths on the needles. Michael’s was having a sale on all yarn. I got even more dishcloth yarn on sale today.  They were 2 skeins for $5 (that means I can get 2 cloths and 2 tribbles for $5!!).

I also did a tribble for myself (I really needed one…actually, I need several).

I also started a scarf for my niece Shay.  It will be for Christmas next year.  I got the sock yarn for it from the Sock Yarn from Stash Swap.  It is neat, but I don’t wear many of the colors in it. I had been looking for a pattern that would really speak to me for the yarn.  DH got me 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders for Christmas. I am doing the Sock It To Me Scarf. I really like how it is turning out.  It really looks like something my niece would buy for herself!

I had planned to go to Hanks today, but CB was with me. He was in a foul mood, so I decided to wait. I plan to buy some skeins of Lorna’s Laces in the Panopticon colorway (3 skeins).  I am going to start socks for DH. He has been wearing the big socks I made for him very frequently.  I have been dreading doing another pair because they are huge and take forever. They are also a bit boring.  I love the colorway, so I am hoping it will help me speed along.  They will be for DH’s birthday (in May, although I hope to finish them long before that).

I still have my shawl on the needles. I have done a few repeats. It is growing faster than I could have anticipated!  I love how it is looking.  I know it will grow more slowly the bigger it gets, but it is still surprising given the skinniness of the yarn.

It is really unusual for me to have so many projects going on at one time!  I normally have only one or two at the most. Right now, I have several. I keep thinking of other things I want to start.  I have been trying to use my queue on Ravelry instead of casting on, but I can’t seem to help myself! If only I could do nothing but knit! I might be able to get it out of my system!