Friday, November 30, 2007

Oh, How the Day Got Better!

After my whining yesterday, my day improved quite a bit!

I had to meet a client in the afternoon, and the meeting went smoothly. I also VERY MUCH enjoyed the quiet 30 minute car ride there and back. (Can I tell you what it's like to listen to the radio without hearing, "No Mommy, my song! The Sunshine Song!" I like the Sunshine song, but there's only so many times I can listen to it!)

I came home from work, had dinner, and then left again to meet up with my friend Kim. Our city was having it's annual "Jingle Bell Festival" - a nice excuse to block off the streets, have the shops open late, and eat free cookies and ice cream. And get this - I won a raffle! I bought a ticket to support our local family network and won a basket. I don't know what's in it because I never looked, but I'm excited just the same. I should be getting it sometime this weekend. I do feel a little badly that the whole family didn't get to go. But with DH sick and little girl looking rather peaked, it just seemed better to leave them at home. Maybe next year...

Can I tell you how nice it was to have some adult conversation without kids interrupting? SO NICE!

Today, the little ones seem in good spirits. Hopefully, it will last. We're taking my MIL to do some Christmas shopping.

Oh yeah, and the knitting. Here's a picture of the small child hat I'm working on. I'd like to have it done by Monday, but I don't think it's going to happen.


After this, I have a spa set to do, and then hopefully a shawl. But, Christmas decorating and baking also have to get done!

Happy Knitting Everyone!

Thursday, November 29, 2007

One of those Days

WARNING: THIS POST IS ONE BIG WHINE

I'm having one of those days, and it's only 10:00 a.m.

DH is home sick, and the little ones are exceptionally whiny. I took them out to do errands, and we came home after one store. ONE STORE! We went to A.C. Moore where little girls ignored everything I said, little boy refused to sit and he broke two terra cotta pots. I just wasn't having it - we came home. I feel like I have so much to get done, and I don't know how it's going to happen!

I should be knitting or something, but I feel like the minute I sit down, the kids are into something.

I'm sorry, I know I'm whining. I'm hoping some of you are mothers and can relate.

I should point out that Big Boy had a great morning, and was actually cuddly after breakfast. Big Boy is RARELY in the mood to be cuddled.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Belated Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I was hoping to post on Wednesday, but it turned into kind of a screwy day, and we traveled to Buffalo for the holiday. But, I wanted to wax on a little bit about the things I'm thankful for.

I'm so thankful the I have Jesus in my life, and that He has given me the gift of salvation. (Curious about this? Ask me more!) I'm so thankful that He has his hand on my life and that I know that ultimately, God is in control.

I'm also thankful for my family. My husband is so the perfect man for me, and my kids are full of fun and blessing every day! Also, my parents, my brother and sister-in-law, and my husband's family are wonderful people, and it's great to have them in our lives.

I'm thankful that I got to play football in the rain on Thursday morning with my hubby, Dad, and church family.

I'm thankful that I get to work just enough during the week, at a job I genuinely like. And, I'm thankful for the lessons that I learn through working with people.

I'm thankful that I live in a city that offers so much to families, and for all the mom friends I've met!

We have a great Bible study with wonderful people, and I love the community that we have.

Of course, I'm thankful that I can knit, and for the Internet that lets us all share our knitting and our lives with each other.

And, at this moment, I'm thankful that I've won a prize at A day in the life's blog!

Oh, and I'm thankful for early bird shopping on Friday. I went with my girlfriend, and we had TWO HOURS to stand in line and visit. I know, it sounds crazy. But, to carry on a conversation without children interrupting AND getting great bargains - you just can't beat it!

With all the time in the car this weekend, you would think I would have a ton of knitting done! I finished a dishcloth and one small child's hat. One more hat to go, and then I'll evaluate time and decide who else is getting knitterly goodness for Christmas.

I'm looking for a free pattern for cable mittens to make with the malabrigo Anne sent me. Any ideas?

Monday, November 19, 2007

Time for Blogging

The problem with this time of year is that blogging takes away from valuable gift knitting time. So, I apologize if I don't seem to pop around that often. I finished up my knitted something for the Christmas Swap (a nice break from hats for small children.). It's not a big something, but my downstream partner doesn't seem to be on-line all that much, so I haven't really gotten to know anything about her. This is a huge contrast to my upstream partner - we exchange emails a couple times a week, and it's been so much fun getting to know her! I'm in the middle of a small child hat. It's for a VERY small child, and baby yarn makes everything last forever. I also have some other crafty things going on, and sadly, I can't post them or it would give away the surprise.

I'm super relieved that there's an extra week this year between Thanksgiving and Christmas (Advent starts NEXT Sunday, not the one coming up), and I'm trying to be reasonable about what I'll be able to accomplish.

Now, the little ones are napping, and I'm off to knit on a baby hat!

Happy knitting!

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Another Hat Completed!

I finished another hat for a small child. This one for a REALLY small child - he'll be 5 months old at Christmas. His big brother is getting a hat in the same colorway, but with a ribbed bottom and a pompom.



Two more hats to do, but this morning I cast on for my Christmas Swap project. I think I needed a hat break.

In non-knitting news - Little boy has been having temper tantrums because I won't let him play with the vacuum. He drags a chair from the kitchen to the hallway, unlocks the closet door, and takes out the vacuum. Then, mean mommy comes and undoes all his hard work. Life is rough!

Happy knitting!

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Random Stuff Meme

I found this on Lynne's blog and thought it seemed like a good post since I have no knitting to report.

1. Name one person who made you laugh last night? Big boy and DH

2. What were you doing at 0800? I was moving laundry

3. What were you doing 30 minutes ago? Making eggs for breakfast

4. What happened to you in 2006? I gave birth to little boy, moved to our current apartment, and worked as a behavioral consultant in a school (not in that order)

5. What was the last thing you said out loud? "You can't sit on me and move around while I'm trying to type. You have to sit still or get off of me."

6. How many beverages did you have today? Diet Coke, Diet Coke

7. What color is your hairbrush? Black and silver

8. What was the last thing you paid for? Groceries

9. Where were you last night? What did you do? Announced to the cranky family that we were "dressing for dinner". Put on slacks and a blouse, put little girl in a ridiculous dress. Cooked with Big boy and little girl, and spent the night talking in a British accent and calling the family Bartholomew, Jerome, Minnie, and Giles.

10. What color is your front door? It's stained, something of a honey color

11. Where do you keep your change? On my dresser in a dish, in the change part of my wallet, and in a tupperware waiting to go through the coinstar machine.

12. What’s the weather like today? It's kind of gray and cold

13. What’s the best ice-cream flavor? Chocolate with more chocolate. (Although, I once had toasted marshmallow chocolate with a scoop of chocolate next to it, and that was pretty stinkin' good!)

14. What excites you? Random fun, DH, holidays

15. Do you want to cut your hair? SO BADLY!

16. Are you over the age of 25? I am.

17. Do you talk a lot? Yes. DH doesn't talk much, so we think we're a perfect match!

18. Do you watch the O.C.? I watched the first two seasons, but then it got too far-fetched for me. Although, I just realized - is the Grandfather from the O.C. the magazine mogul in "Ugly Betty"?

19. Do you know anyone named Steven? I had a student named Steven a few years ago.

21. Are you a jealous person? Not usually, but it does happen.
22. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter ‘A’. Andrea

23. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter ‘K’. Kathy

24. Who’s the first person on your received call list? DH's ex-wife

25. What does the last text message you received say? It was something from my brother, but it came about a year and a half ago.

26. Do you chew on your straw? No.

27. Do you have curly hair? Pretty straight with just enough wave to be annoying

28. Where’s the next place you’re going to? To Buffalo for Thanksgiving

29. Who’s the rudest person in your life? It would be rude of me to say. (Thanks Lynne for supplying the answer to that one!)

30. What was the last thing you ate? Scrambled eggs and sausage

31. Will you get married in the future? No, I'm happily married already

32. What’s the best movie you’ve seen in the past 2 weeks? I just watched "The Holiday" last night.

33. Is there anyone you like right now? There's a lot of people I like!

34. When was the last time you did the dishes? Yesterday. I think I do them once an hour.

35. Are you currently depressed? No

36. Did you cry today? No, but it's early yet

37. Why did you answer and post this? Because I have nothing else to put up on the blog today

38. I am not typically a memer, so I would say, if you enjoy sharing the little details of your life, we'd love to read about it! Post a comment here and let us know to look for you!

Not Much Going On

There's just not that much going on around here these days. The little ones had colds at the beginning of last week, just bad enough to keep us home from our activities. Knitting-wise, I've finally finished another hat for a small person for Christmas. Three more to go, and two are for infants! I used the same yarn as I used for little boy's hat (Red, White, and Blue) so I didn't bother to take a picture of it. It looks the same, although the pompom is bigger.

We did have a great day on Thursday. Little boy had his check-up, and healthy he is! And, I have to say, he took his 4 shots really well! Little girl also got a flu shot, and I think she was more mad at not knowing the needle was coming than she was hurting. Later that day we went out to lunch with my in-laws and my husband's aunt (who has the same name as little girl). We went to the Cafe Escadrille, which is on the fancier side. I have to say, little girl charmed the pants off everyone! She was in a pretty dress with a matching purse, and was very pleased to show everyone her two stickers (from the doctor) and small toy. She ate none of her meal, but very daintily poured milk from her little pitcher into her coffee cup and sipped like a little lady (Mommy knows the tricks to keeping her content at restaurants!) Little girl also chatted very nicely with Aunty, who truly got a big kick out of her. Oh, and when she asked the waitress for more milk she said "please" and "thank you". Mommy is VERY proud! Little boy was very happy smiling at every female who passed by, and he wasn't even a giant ketchup stain at the end of the meal.

After lunch, we headed up the street to the mall. I was hoping they would fall asleep in the stroller, and I could get some Christmas shopping done. Believe it or not, Santa is already at the mall! There was no line, and the mall itself wasn't crowded, so we went to talk to him. Last year, little boy was too little and little girl was terrified of Santa. I figured we might need to start early. However, Santa was TERRIFIC! He won the kids over with candy canes, and little girls even managed to tell Santa she wanted a scooter - a blue one. After that, we hit one store, and than DH called to say he was locked out of the house. That was the end of shopping for me! It's alright - I'm about halfway through the Christmas shopping, and I have ideas for most people who are left on the list.

Hopefully, this week will be more exciting! My goal is to start and finish the two infants' hats.

Happy knitting everyone!

Monday, November 5, 2007

The Book Thief

The October book for Knit the Classics was The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. The book takes place in Germany during WWII and is narrated by death. The book thief is Liesel, and she carries her books with her to her neighbor's cellar during air raids. I made her a bag to carry the books in. The gray yarn is Patons Merino Wool, and the red was from my Mom - don't know what kind, sorry. I free-formed the pattern based on bags I've made in the past. The red stripes are placed using the Fibonnacci Sequence, just because it was a way to decide where to put them.


I now have two shorter fingerless gloves, and hope to finish the longer one today. I'm getting a little bit nervous about the Christmas knitting! So much to do and only 49 days to go!

Happy Knitting!

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Pictures for Yesterday's Post

Okay, here are the pictures I was too lazy to take yesterday.

Fingerless gloves, of two different sizes. (They're not blocked yet, but they look really nice when they're on my hands.)


Sock yarn bought at Have Ewe Any Wool?'s Anniversary Celebration. I wanted to do some self-striping yarn, but the Celestial is SO soft, I just want to cuddle with it. Of course, I won't be knitting socks until I finish two more fingerless gloves of different sizes, and 4 more hats for small children. You would think the hats would go fast, but the pattern that I like calls for several inches of K1P1 ribbing, which just isn't a fast process for me.


The Norwegian Hat. I'm using Dolly yarn. My mom is having a bit of trouble with the yarn stretching for her mittens, so I'm a little nervous about the hat. BTW - My mom is SO awesome! She bought me the yarn, and lent me her #3 and #4 circular needles!!



And, just because it's so darn cute, here's another look at the Gelato bag Anne made me.



Thank goodness the sun is out today! My little ones need to run around. I think I already mentioned, DH is camping tonight. SO, I'm hoping the kids will go to bed easily, and I can vegetate in front of some ridiculously girly movie with a chicken finger sub. We'll see how it goes!

Happy Knitting!

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Knitterly News

I have actually done some knitting.

I finished my project for The Book Thief for Knit the Classics. I'll be posting about that later today or tomorrow.

I started a hat for a small child at the Sabres game Thursday night. (Sabres lost in overtime. Very sad, but GREAT game!) I also have the Wave Fingerless Gloves from One Skein Wonders on the needles, and a Norwegian hat.

Oh, the hat! Okay, so when I was in Buffalo I took a Norwegian mitten class at Have Ewe Any Wool. After getting the technique down for the colorwork, I realized that my stitches were pulled way too tight. So, I was going to rip out the thing and start over. Then, I realized that the way the pattern is written, I would have had to figure out how to move the thumb over to the other side by myself. I decided it was a little much, and thus, I'm going to make a hat instead. Sadly, I haven't had a chance to work on it since getting home. Colorwork requires concentration, and it's hard to do that when the kids are around. This week has been so crazy with Halloween, I just haven't had the energy after the kids go to bed. But, I am thinking about working on it soon.

Three hours later:

Okay, I finished the fingerless gloves. Sadly, one of them is 8 rows shorter than the other. I must have miscounted the repeats. The good news is, I have enough yarn to make two more. One of them, of course, 8 rows shorter than than the other.

Sorry for the lack of pictures - I'm feeling lazy. I'll try to add pictures tomorrow.

DH is going camping tomorrow night with kids from school. I'm kind of looking forward to an evening by myself, but we'll see how the kids are. They've been really hyper this week (gee, I wonder why? Halloween parties and candy and weird nap times, and all.) Hopefully, the weather will allow us to get outside tomorrow.

Happy knitting!

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Other Life Updates

I know that I promised to update everyone on our trip to Buffalo. But, three Halloween parties in three days has kept us pretty busy!

We had a great time! I got to eat all my favorite WNY foods - I had a great fish fry, tacos from Mighty Taco, and a Wegman's Roast Beef Sub (which is really a D'Bella's sub). If you don't know what Wegmans is - it's the best grocery store in the world! In fact, they just won a Food Network Award. I mis Wegmans.

We had really great weather for most of our trip, and the kids walked just about every day. My parents live in a suburb with sidewalks with a good 10 feet between the sidewalk and the street, and their area isn't very busy, so it's easy to let the kids walk a lot. Little Girl and I went hiking one day with my Dad on Grand Island, and little boy got his first hair cut.

The last weekend we were there, my two aunts and my cousin came to visit. We all had fun, and one aunt, my cousin, and I visited Have Ewe Any Wool to celebrate Linda's 3rd anniversary as a shopowner. I bought some yarn for socks, and I'm trying to get through my Christmas knitting so I can get to the socks!

The trip home was uneventful, especially since the kids slept through Massachusetts.

TONIGHT - the Bruins play the Sabres, and I'm going to the game! (Is it wrong to wear a Bruins jersey but cheer for Buffalo?)

OH! I got my Ravelry invite today. My username is "Dorothy" (well, it wasn't taken yet), and hopefully I'll have something up there soon!

Happy knitting!

October Hat/Scarf Swap

I took part in Crochetoholic Debb's October Hat/Scarf Swap. Look what Debb sent me!

The picture doesn't show everything as nicely as I had hoped! (Kids grabbing at things -had to to take it quickly!) Debb sent some BEAUTIFUL pink alpaca blend yarn. It feels so warm and cozy, and it's going to look beautiful in the pattern that she sent. There's also a GORGEOUS mug, which I realize is hidden in this picture. There's an adorable Halloween cross-stitch, and a pumpkin bath sponge, as well as 2 bath "squishys". There were also buttons and decorative beads, and these beautiful stitch markers:


Thank you, Debb, for such a wonderful package, and for hosting this swap!