Progress

I'm so glad to report that I've made Christmas knitting progress! I just finished kitchner stitching the toe for Little Girl's stocking. I still have to weave in the ends, and put on Little Girl's name, but it feels good to be done with the knitting! (I actually can't remember which side of the stocking I put Big Boy's name on last year, so I won't do that until we unpack the Christmas decorations).

I have a wedding to coordinate at church this weekend, so I'll be casting on for my sister's-in-law socks. I would really rather do my brother's sock, since one is already done, but I still haven't managed to wind the second skein of yarn that I need.

On the mommy side of life, things are...challenging. Hopefully, I'm growing through this process, but right now, I would rather stamp my feet, hide under my covers, and eat ice cream. Nobody ever said being a mature grown-up would be easy, or fun. I'm praying that an attitude of perseverance will carry us through this time.

Happy knitting!

Christmas To-Do List

Okay, here's what I hope to have done by December 23rd (because I don't want to feel stressed on the 24th, and I REALLY don't want to be knitting Christmas gifts AFTER Christmas).

1. Stocking for Little Girl (already started)
2. Stocking for Little Boy
3. Olympic Hat for my aunt
4. Celtic Knot Stole for BFF (started a couple of years ago. Really getting ridiculous that it's not done yet)
5. Socks for my brother (one sock is already finished)
6. Socks for my sister-in-law
7. Ridiculous flip-flop socks for our babysitter
   
8. Scarf for someone (I have the pattern and the yarn. It might be a teacher gift, or an in-law gift)
9. A bunch of korkinesse for random people
10. Slippers for the kids

Okay, honestly, 9 and 10 are not as important as 1-7. I think that it's an ambitious list, but not impossible. I'll keep you updated.

What's on your Christmas knitting list?

On blogging

I know that I've been neglecting this blog lately. I know that my posts are written quickly, without a lot of thought, and seem half-hearted at best. I don't know what to say. My posts are rarely as polished as I want them to be. Once upon a time, in a former life, I wrote really well, and I wrote things that other people actually enjoyed reading.

I want this blog to be well written, and I want to document my knitting progress, and my parenting struggles, and the lessons that I learn from both.

That being said, life is pretty stinkin' busy around here. Kindergarten drop-off, preschool drop-off, laundry, dishes, preschool pick-up, lunch, naps, time with the kids, kindergarten pick-up, homework, after-school snacks, more laundry, more dishes, cleaning up the house - it all cuts into my knitting time, and it doesn't leave me a lot of energy for maintaining a well-written blog, not that I have a lot of knitting to report on anyway.

So, I guess, this is an apology for writing a half-hearted, not very interesting blog. I'll try to do better, but I make no promises.

I have done a little knitting here and there the last two weeks. First, some Christmas knitting (a list of Christmas to-do to follow later this week):

A stocking for little girl.

I've also worked a bit on phase two of my secret knitting project:

I hope to have a finished object soon.

Perfect Day

A week ago, I was sitting here:


listening to these:

knitting on a Christmas gift.

The kids played in my parents' backyard, enjoying the sunshine and the light breeze.

We all slept really well that night.

Montego Bay

I know, I've been a bad blogger. The end of summer, the start of school, and life in general has not left much time for knitting or blogging or much of anything not related to the kids and the house.

Thankfully, the Montego Bay Scarf is a pretty mindless knit and travels well. It took a couple of weeks to finish, but it's the perfect warm weather scarf, knit out of the bamboo yarn I bought on vacation.


I've also finally gotten around to practicing with my spindle. I've been told if I practice 15 minutes a day, eventually there will be some consistency in my tension.
(Sorry for the awful picture). I haven't found 15 minutes on a daily basis yet, but I'll get there.

I'm leaving for Buffalo right after school gets out today. I have a retirement dinner to go to on Saturday. I'll explain more about that later.

Happy knitting!

1st Day of Kindergarten

It's hard to believe that we've gone from this:
to this:

so soon.

Painted Skirts

Dollar Store crafts posted this project for making skirts out of flour sack towels. I know two little girls who love to be crafty and love to wear skirts, so I had to try it out. Basically, you cut a flour sack towel in half, seam the halves together in the other direction, paint, decorate, seam into a tube and add some elastic. Couldn't be easier!

To be on the safe side, I did a sample one for baby girl:

I did use permanent markers from the dollar store, but they ran when I painted over them. Also, I used tempra paint instead of acrylic by mistake. So, the colors really ran when I soaked the skirt. I bought fabric markers for little girl and her little friend to use, and we had fabric paint on hand that I watered down. That worked much better. Here are the finished results:


The girls are SO proud of their pretty skirts! Little boy was also around. Since he doesn't wear skirts, he painted a shirt:


I've been knitting here and there on the Montego Bay Scarf with my bamboo. School starts this week, so hopefully I'll be able to schedule some consistent knitting time.

Happy Labor Day and Happy knitting!