Because someone grumbled...

Today was Steve’s family Christmas get-together. It was the first chance his aunts got to meet Mara. She was definitely the belle of the ball - at no point was I forced to take her, which is my favorite way to spend a day.

I finished Steve’s mom’s pillow last night (when she opened it, I’m pretty sure there were tears...), and I made her a pair of socks in 2 weeks as a surprise. She sent us a pre-Christmas package almost a month ago with stockings and a nativity set for the kids, some candy, and enough sock yarn to make 2 pairs of socks. She asked if I would use one set of yarn to make her a pair of socks, though she said after the new year would be fine. I finished the second sock at the party - I wanted to make sure they were long enough before finishing off the second sock.

 

While there, I mentioned that we had about 7 Christmas ornaments, in response to Steve opening an ornament. So after the white elephant swap, Tim (Steve’s mom’s husband) gave us the gift he got: 3 handmade ornaments in a decorated tin. Then, as we were getting ready to leave, Kim (Steve’s aunt) offered us some ornaments that she had bought a while ago on clearance. She said if we wanted them, we could have them, if not, she wouldn’t be offended. I took them, because... well, why not?

Gabriel decorated the tree all by himself. All of the ornaments are hung on the bead garlands.

I put up the stockings with only a little help.

Tomorrow is the s&b Christmas party. We are doing a yarn swap. I am nervous that the person I got won’t like the yarn I bought. Not for any particular reason, just because I am always nervous about things like that. She said green and purple, so hopefully she likes it. Also, the questionnaire was LOTR-themed. I’m hoping the name tag looks kinda like an elf-y leaf, and the packaging looks suitably elf-y. I am also going to make a set of stitch markers to go in the package.

Still working on the quilts. Figured out what to make Bryan. Need to finish up the cook books, now that I (finally) got the recipes to finish them up. I think that is all that is left...

Seri’s afghan is done. Bane’s beanie is done.

MARA HAS NOT NURSED IN 40 HOURS!!!! Can you tell I am excited? I told her grammy, so hopefully babies will begin to be stolen for weekends. ALSO!!!! Gabriel went 8 hours without an accident. Yay!

Steve hasn’t found out about his foot, because he won’t personally go pick up his test results.

I got my stuff from my recipe swap partner! Yay! I love the wash cloth - it is a penguin! I plan on making the cookies with Mandi’s kids. (I’m trying to figure out things for them to do on their visit, so I don’t have to endure much whining. Not that her kids are particularly whiny, but bored kids generally are.) I’m also going to force the kids to help me stuff cat toys.

Also, I sent a very nice woman a 500 word story in exchange for 3 skeins of hand spun/hand dyed yarn. She sent me TWELVE skeins! Plus a hand sewn plush, and a plastic bag holder. Be jealous.

ADD brain... GO!

Progress on the Christmas countdown:

Melissa's scarf:

Thanks for the inspiration, Dollar Store Crafts.

Rox: All squares are embroidered. Need to piece everything together.

Mer: Finished another square.

Pooks: Another row added.

So. Steve asked what I wanted for Christmas. I sent him a short list via text, at his request. Then he asked me if I had sent the list to anyone else. Really? I gave you a list of 5 things... no, I did not ask someone else for the same things. What am I supposed to do with 2 tea kettles?

Onto scarier news... Steve went to the podiatrist yesterday because his foot has been bothering him for weeks. The doc gave him a narcotic and some steroids to help. (Steve on narcotics = me back in high school all over again... ugh.) The doc also wrote him a script to get blood work done because he might have gout. Great... I hope it's not gout for completely selfish reasons: I don't want to listen to him complain every time he has a flare up.

Tomorrow I plan on editing a washcloth pattern drastically. I need to add 20 rows (it is only 54 rows). I want it to be the same size as the chick washcloth. It will be the first time I really edit a knitting pattern, but I have faith. I edit crochet patterns all the time, so this should be fine. Right?

I have started Mara on the road to being less of a slob than, say... her dad. She picks up dirty clothes off the bathroom floor and puts them in the laundry basket. I taught her yesterday. And today, she picked up a dirty sock that fell short of the laundry basket in my room, and put it in. I appreciate that both of my children are willing to help clean. Though, Gabriel is going through the obnoxious phase where he rebels all the time, but occasionally forgets he is in the middle of pushing boundaries and just does what I want. I try to take advantage of his lapses.

I love Pintrest. I keep trying to find things to pin, so my boards can be more awesome. I need to get more people to follow... Also, I am totally baffled as to how people are repinning from me. How are they finding my stuff?

P.S., the snowflake square went over very well.

"Roar"

Swaps and Christmas Prep

I got my first swap package! My partner sent me the requisite squares and post card, and also a handmade coin purse, a swiffer cover, a little word search book and a small stationary set.

Here is my Christmas work list. First, the completed projects:
Steve's socks, see older posts. 
Becka's hat, no picture right now. Same with Thommy's. (They are the same pattern)
Mara:

Cecilia:

Robert:

Kenny:

Mom:

Jas and Kim - pot scrubbers:

Now the works-in-progress:

Mandi's blanket has 7/15 rows together. These are the 2 outside edges; I'm working my way in.

MariLee's quilt - 7 patches left to embroider. To see patches in detail, go here. (Titles will be added tomorrow.)

Dianna: It's going to be a pillow. I just have to figure out what to do for the back and buy/make an interior.

Rox - forgot to take pictures before it got dark. 2 patches left to embroider, then putting it all together.

Seri - afghan. Also didn't take pics of that before it got dark. In the piecing stage.

Presents to start:

Melissa's Scarf

Recipe books for Jasmine, Kim, Phil

Bane's beanie

Need to figure out something for dad... and Gabriel. And Dennis. Am I forgetting someone? I think so.

Probably just going to buy candles for Bryan, because I am lame. Not as lame as he is, though...

Also, when Gabriel is leaving someone he says "Bye, take care". He picked it up from our server at Sunday Breakfast. She always says it. I always feel like I have more to say, but then I wait until I am too tired to actually write. Maybe next time...

The ramblings of the sleep deprived

I hope maintenance remembered to put in the order for the furnace on Monday. I'm sure they did, but they didn't install it today. The guy said either this afternoon or tomorrow morning. You know which one I was hoping for. Not that it is actually a big deal; the temps have been pretty nice. We didn't even use space heaters today. Mostly I just hate waiting for people to do things. When I want things done, I want them done NOW.

I'm such a slacker. I'm probably not going to be able to get all of my Christmas projects done on time. Not such a tragedy, as I am not traveling for Christmas, and can blame the delay on my inability to get to a post office in a timely fashion. I just keep finding other things to occupy my time. The important ones will get done on time, though.

Mara slept 14 hours straight - from noon until 2am yesterday. On a semi-shocking note, I didn't have to stay up with her the whole time. Stephen took the first hour, because he got up to use the restroom when she got up. I went to sleep at 7pm, when it was apparent that she wasn't going to wake up, so getting up at 3am wasn't so bad. And she passed out from 4 to 5, so I did too. I'm hoping she finally sleeps through the night instead of waking up for a 2am feeding. Maybe she will even sleep in a little later... A girl can hope.

Two of the ladies in my knitting group are trying to start an animal rescue. To help financially, they are going to be selling cat toys at vet hospitals, etc. The two of them are making the toys, plus another lady. I volunteered to make some, too. I don't know when I'm going to find time, but I will. I'll just put off cleaning, or something :)

Onto things I've made this week...

Homemade baby wipes They were really simple, since I had everything I needed already. Also, they are more convenient than wipes packages because the babies get into them and leave them open, so they dry out and are not effective.

The cotton square I mentioned last post (I have 2 now)

Granny squares for my swap

Clockwise from top left: Little Dahlia, Garden Granny Square (slightly modified from the pattern), Linda's snowflake potholder (made with a size D hook to be the right size square), Raspberry Medallion Square, Friend Family Square

Spring Chicken Washcloth

For my recipe swap partner. I hope she likes it. I know the lighting is fail, put it is a pale yellow. I will finish it tomorrow.

Both babies are asleep and neither sigot is home... What am I still doing up?!?!? Good night

Of Yarn and other things

I joined Ravelry just over a month ago, and I'm pretty much obsessed with it. Currently I am a part of 3 swaps - a sock yarn shawl swap, a granny square swap, and a holiday recipe swap. Of course, it couldn't be as simple as that. The sign up for the shawl group is until Nov 15. The lady in charge pairs people up shortly after they sign up, though, because a shawl can be a big task. I signed up early October. I messaged my partner. No answer after 9 days, so I sent another message. Still no answer. The tenth day, I messaged the moderator. She gave me a new partner. I messaged the new partner. No answer for a week. Sent another message. No response. Day 9, I messaged the mod again. She assigned me a different partner, but told me that she would have the newest partner message me, that I shouldn't make first contact.

Ok. So the wait. Not bad, the next day. But I had TWO messages in my inbox. 2nd and 3rd partner both messaged me. So I messaged the mod to let her know. I told her I was fine to partner with both of them, but she told me that a new person was in need of a partner, so she took away 3rd partner. I'm kinda sad, because 3rd partner is from Farmington Hills, MI. Even though I know it doesn't matter, really, I liked the idea of having a partner sort of from home. Now I'm waiting for 2nd partner to get back to me on some specifics...

My other two swaps' partners are on top of things, though. My recipe partner and I message each other once a day, which is nice. She is a 20-something, married, in Georgia. I feel that if we lived nearby, we'd hang out and knit/crochet together (she does both, too). Ok, so I have a bit of an e-crush on her. Not like creepy, or anything, but I get a little spark of happy when I see that she wrote me back. My squares partner is in Texas. I picked up yarn yesterday to make her squares, so I'll be starting on that shortly. I don't have to send anything out until December, but I'm too excited to wait!

Finished a couple of projects in the last couple days. I know you are dying to see them.
Stephen's socks. I'm pretty proud of them. I figure if I keep pushing the complexity of pattern in each sock I do, I will be able to make the socks I want for myself at about pair 7. So... who would like some socks? :P

Swiffer cover. I followed the pattern, but it seems a little big. I'm going to make another one using smaller needles and see how that works out.

I really want to make a sock yarn blanket. It takes a lot of sock yarn, though. I don't want to buy yarn specifically for it, though. I want to use leftovers from other projects. Which means I need to make a TON of socks. Rox is going to send me her leftover scraps of sock yarn, so that will help. I know she makes several pairs a year.

I made a square out of cotton, too. I'm thinking of making a cotton blanket using the sock yarn pattern so I can have a summer weight blanket for sitting on my back porch.


Onto other things...

I'm about halfway through my paper journal! How exciting! I'll be sad when this one is full, but I've got about 10 waiting to be started. Of course.

Mara figured out straws over the weekend. Yay! She hasn't quite gotten down swallowing the last mouthful before letting the straw go, though...

I'm sure there was more non-yarn stuff... Oh, well. I'll just put it in later.

Opening Night

The first blog post is almost as exciting as writing an entry in a new journal. Almost. Except I am less excited about typing than choosing which pen to use in my journal.

Today was busy in a good way. Mara woke up waaaaay too early, then went back to sleep. Then she woke up only kind of too early, and we stayed up. Family breakfast, then home. Instead of cleaning, I chose to knit. It seemed like a better idea. Oh, I did laundry - that is sort of like cleaning. 

1pm - the exciting part of the day started. Children dressed, self dressed, Stephen awake. Everyone in the car (except Bex, who was already gone at dag) and on our way! Stephen dropped me at BN and took the kids to the library. I went to the Starbucks, got a chai latte, and: Knitting meeting! It's the third weekend I've gone to the NKY S&B group, and I love it. It is so nice to get out of the house and have non-baby time. I worked on Stephen's sock - it's almost done. I definitely won't have it at next week's meeting. It was a quiet meeting; more knitting than talking. That is not a bad thing, just different from the previous meetings I've attended.

On the way home we stopped by Dollar Tree - they had Peaches & Creme yarn. I've been wanting to make reusable cloths for my swiffer for a while, and this gave me the excuse. (As if I need an excuse to indulge my compulsion to create...) I worked on the cloth while attending an online book club. It was the first meeting of the book club, and I personally am pleased with the conversation that went on. It wasn't very organized, but it was fun. We've decided to meet once a month, and we are gathering ideas for our first book. I voted The Pillow Book of Cordelia Kenn, but other people in the group read sci fi and alterna-history books, so we will probably not go with that one.

After months of wanting people to hang out with, I've found two groups in a matter of weeks.

I need to go to bed now. Stephen's work is having a meeting tomorrow, and employees are supposed to bring their families, so I need to have the kids ready for that. Also, I need to finish Gabriel's costume so we can Trick or Treat tomorrow night. I will leave you with a picture of my partially completed cloth: