Land o’ Sunshine

Sunshine Daddy and I just finished watching “Bridge to Terebithiah” and it reminded me of a poem.    It is one in which keeps resurfacing in my life.    In honor of Silent Poetry Reading, I’d like to share it with you. 

Right now, as a mother of young children, it seems something to instill in them.   As we adults worry about money, life, and the future, the kids are living in their world of imagination.   I hope they continue to hold fast to a dream, no matter how small. 

Hold Fast Your Dreams

Louise Driscoll

Although Driscoll’s poem isn’t the first one I think of when someone asks for a favorite poem, it is (as all “good” writing should) striking that resonance in my life right now.    May you hold fast your dreams. 

Happy St. Brigid Day!  Only six more weeks of winter. 

Wow, November 1st was the last time I even looked at WordPress.   There are reasons, most of them not worth the time to write out.   All is forgiven, move on!

Completed objects since last blog:

• Gave Dad his felted slippers.  He says he wears them all the time.   I do believe him.  Gifts of the wearalbe type have been known to languish for YEARS in this man’s closet.   Never one to use a gift before its time, Dad is making me feel good about making this gift. 

• Hats for the men in the family.   ALL OF THEM are too big.   I won’t bore you with the pictures, but here are the deets: variation of the Seaman’s Cap but for giants or least giant sized heads!   Sunshine Dad’s hat has been frogged.   He is coveting one of Mandy’s hats, but he better pray the Giants go to the superbowl in 2009, because there won’t be a Giants hat for him in 2008 (unless he can bribe/beg/plead/pay Mandy to do it!). 
• Angelina Ballerina was completed and given to Sunshine daughter.   Her clothes are a little wacky looking and the slippers are missing, but I love Angelina and hopefully, so does SD.   I used the mouse pattern from Knit2Together and then made the clothes, tutu, and shoes myself. 

• Sunshine son #1’s Wallaby was completed.  It is big, the yarn is pilling and looking particularly craptastic, but he likes it and wears it.   Considering the abuse it gets, the price tag for the yarn–$7.47 for the whole sweater, one big hat, and two mittens with LOTS of yarn leftover–is perfect.  

• My cousin’s baby is due in the next month or so and the Baby Yoda sweater is complete for little Master F. to arrive.   I hope she likes it, because I LOVE it.   Is it normal to be SO enamored of ones handknits???
• Pair of Saarjte’s are finished.   Confession, there are THREE done.  bootie #1 and #2 were not the same size.  Too many garter ridges.   Bootie #3 matches #1, so there is a matched set.  
• The Quinn purse is finally lined.   I used an old pair of jeans and some pick striped fabric for a cell phone and pen pocket.   The handles are bamboo attached with chocolate velvet ribbon.   I love it.   The handles look a bit big, but I don’t care.   The cables came out awesome.   The lining was a witch to get in and no you can’t see the inside (does that say something).   A fellow PTAer said she like the purse, so I’ll take that as a compliment of the highest order.  
• I made another crown for a princess birthday.   Anyone need a crown?  I LOVE making those things.   SO QUICK!!!
• Mini sweaters for the christmas tree.   They were fun and I did each one a little different, but three was enough.   I used my sock yarn samples from Cider Moon and my sockapolooza pal.  The hangers were pipe cleaners chenille stems.  These are my kind of sweaters!!!   :) 

More regular posting, because really, what else have I been doing?   See ya!

My kiddos have been counting down the days to Halloween.    Last night they headed out to beg for candy like a homeless child  Trick or Treat.   Here are the pcitures to prove it.   I should have taken pictures of their haul.  It was amazing.   Sunshine Hubby went to work today armed with a LARGE bowl filled with the peanuty treats (allergies). 

Firefighter, princess, and cowboy all pose for the obligatory Halloween shot.  

I made the costumes. Here’s a breakdown:

Firefighter:  Goodwill ROCKS!   Pants & shirt from there.  Yellow felt from Hobby Lob.   The neck was fiddly, but I love the pants.   The jacket needs something, and I realize today, it needs little fake buckles down the center.  Oh well.   Hat and gloves we own.

Cowboy:  Goodwill for shirt and hat.   Felt from Hobby Lob.  I’m not a fan of the rick rack or the medallion doodads, but hey, he likes it.  Bandana and jeans we own.   

Princess:  Fairy dress from Christmas last year.  Tights and shirt we own.  The wand came from the mother’s morning out dress up box.   The crown, I KNIT!!!   It was a cute and quick freebie from Interweave Knits.   There is a boy and girl version and I don’t remember how I found it.  I started it Monday night and it was finished the next morning.   We added some bling and there it is.  I love it and am tempted to knit more just because they were so fun and quick.  I held my yarn double and knit of US 8s & 6s .  It looks more substantial than the pattern. 

The costumes are now permenant residents of the “dress up box”.   I love how they came out.   I love how they turned out.  Everyone was happy, which is always important.   Now the trick is to keep myself from raiding their Halloween bags!  

Happy Halloween!  

I didn’t go to Rhinebeck. 

Other than knowing that Rhinebeck is in lower NY somewhere, I do not know where Rhinebeck is located.  

So…what’s going on you ask?   Its a contest.   Isn’t it always about a contest?   Take a picture of your stash and GET EXCITED about what you have and all the great things you can knit!    Once you’ve done that, head on over to Girl on the Rocks and let her know all about it. 

Here’s the inventory (yes, this is all I have not included my scraps from completed projects):  

• Essential Tweed from KnitPicks (1)
• Patons self-striping sock yarn (2 + a few little mini balls)
• Cascade Fixation (2)
• Berroco Pure Merino (6)
• Second Time Cotton (1)
• Memories from Knitpicks (2)
• Wool of the Andes Bulky (1)
• A Peice of Vermont sock yarn (1)

So here’s the plan:   The merino is going to become a scarf and I need some of it to finish the Feb. sweater.   Socks, socks, socks, and another pair of socks.   

I saw a cute pattern for a dishcloth set for the second time cotton, but I think I could find something better.  Any suggestions?  

The only one that is giving me trouble is the WOTA bulky.  Is the one sken enough for a hat (110 yds)?  

I have to say I didn’t really “get” Elizabeth Zimmerman the first time I checked Knitting without Tears out from the library.   Ok, before you click away and unsubscribe me from bloglines, let me explain.    The book has no pretty color pictures and neatly placed information about yarn, needles, guage.   EZ requires you to THINK and COMPREHEND your knitting.   Think?   Huh?   I just wanted to knit.   So the book went back to the library with a bewildered shake of the head to why SO MANY PEOPLE were so in awe of her.  

Despite not understanding her placement on the knitting pedestal, I purchased, Knitter’s Almanac.   (Most likely it pushed me over the $25 amount for free shipping.)   The book arrives and I begin to read it.   I GET IT!  

A whole new knitting world was opened.    The first thing I wanted to knit from the book was the February sweater, however, there were no babies due to arrive, so I just longly looked at the pages, wondering who I convince to have a child so I could knit a child a February sweater.   

Then I saw Jenny Check’s Giant Baby Sweater and I knew I had to attempt one for myself.   Well, yarn for the sweater has fallen into my lap and I read, read, and re-read what Jenny wrote.   Read and re-read what EZ said about the original.  Did some knitterly math and I cast on for the grown-up February sweater.  

Isn’t size misleading???   It doesn’t look very large does it?  It is though.   Try this one….

I’m almost where I need to be to divide for the sleeves, however, there is a pattern mistake which will mean doing some ripping back.  

I officially became an EZ fan with the completion of the Hot Ticket sweater.  It was empowering to do such a unique and special sweater.   Would EZ approve of an adult February sweater?    I don’t know, but I am pretty sure she would approve of taking a pattern and yarn and making it my own. 

KNIT ON!

So I did some work on the Leisel scarf last night.   I was “getting it” a little…ok, maybe just the purl side. 

So I do need some help.  The pattern is vague on how long to knit.  Here’s the pattern.  I’ll wait.   (I hate it when bloggers do that.)

So, of course I’m not following the pattern the way it is written.   Here are my modifications:  

                                              pattern                                               my version

• Yarn:              Worsted weight medium yarn               Fingering weight
• Needles:        US 8s                                                          US 5s
• Gauge:           6.5″                                                             5.5″  (unblocked)

I am currently at 26″ in length.   This is unblocked.   It will have to be blocked.  The pattern is unrecognizable in the unblocked state. 

1. Where do I stop?  I have another skein of the yarn–about another 200 yds.  
2. How much will the width increase and my length decrease with blocking? 
3. Is there a “standard” length for lacey scarves?  
4. What to do?   Help a knitter out. 

I love to knit (thanks M for teaching me!), but (there’s always a but ya know) honestly it seems like just one more thing to do.    I feel guilty for having bought the yarn, started something and not finished what I started.  Even worse is having the yarn and nothing to do with it.  

I really need to finish this sock I have been working on since JULY (3 1/2 months for a pair of socks?).   I’m sick of my other socks.  They are good socks, warm socks, but they are so 2006 :) .   I’ve turned the heel and heading down the leg, so it won’t be long now.

The Leisal scarf…I just don’t even know what to say about that.   There are no directions for how long it should be, so, I guess I’ll knit on it until I run out of yarn (?).  I have another skein of the stuff, so that is at least another 200+ yards….  

Pity party, table for one?  Right here!  

Anyway, I need to find something I want to knit for me.  Something.   I don’t know what it is.  I don’t even want suggestions.   I just want to have that feeling of how fun it is to knit this.  More fun than anything else.   So much fun that I don’t read anything.  So much fun that I make dinners consisting of breakfast foods.  So much fun that clean laundry sits unfolded in baskets…wait that happens all the time.   So much fun that I knit instead of reading blogs.   I need that kind of knitting.  

Where did that knitting go?   

I know the ballband dishcloth is…simple.  Why do I knit it?  I like it.   Why do you knit shawls?  Why do you knit the same thing each week?  Why do we knit what we knit?   I like it.   My color choices are boring I know.  I am not a color person.  I don’t get color theory.  Ask me to pick colors for a sweater and honestly I would not be able to pick more than two.   They would be all matchy-matchy (maybe, if I got lucky).  

Sorry.  Once again, I feel all “open mouth, insert body”.    It seems this has been the week of that sort of thing.   I should take my own advice to my children and just keep my mouth shut.   

Maybe I just need to knit something.  

While avoiding hearing any more Yankee baseball rants, I checked out my ever-increasing blog list.    I learned about IVF treatments from Cara, checked out another beautiful Kauni sweater from the Rainey sisters, and read about pay it forward on cloth.paper.string.  As an aside, this is another blog that I stumbled upon and immediately fell in love with the photography and the written word.   Crafty goodness at its best!   

So here is the gist of Pay it forward:

“I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week… LOL… but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.”

So who’s up for sharing the craft love?

Yodel-lay-hee-hooooo!   

I have been knitting.   I have not been blogging and honestly, I don’t feel guilty in the LEAST about it (ok, maybe a litte, but it is just the Irish Catholic, with a side of Jewish mother-in-law).  

So here is what I’ve been working on since school started:

PTA!  Meetings, boring.   Why is it there is always ONE person who has to act all “I understand by-laws, nuclear physics, and can speak in 32 different languages” to make everyone else feel dumb (even the PTA president with Ph.D)?   I don’t like those kind of people.   

Red Scarf Project.   Start knitting your scarf now.  Its due on the 15th!   Mine is done.     I love it so much I am delaying sending it out.   It really isn’t red, but I still love it.   It was great carpool line knitting.  

Carpool line.   It has taken me almost 5 weeks, but I have FINALLY figured out that in order not to wait for the sunshine boys, I need to not arrive early than 2:40.   If I wait, then I knit.   I am currently knitting socks in the carpool line.   It is slightly difficult to juggle size 1 dpns and the steering wheel.   I think, I’ll knit another scarf! 

Hats On!   This is a great book.   I cast on for a hat and completed said hat in one day’s time.   Great huh?  Not so much.  It doesn’t fit.   I am thinking of changing it a little and making yarmlke’s for the in-laws this year for Chanukah.   It is quite comical really.   And yes, I did use someone’s head as a measure, but once again, I fell into the trap that gets me EVERY time, the directions.   I read the diretions, but CHOOSE not to follow them, for surely, I know better than the creator of the pattern.   I have never knit a hat before, but I’m sure I can change several things and have it turn out the same.   Apparently, not. 

There are a pair of socks, the Leisel scarf, and a sweater that is having gauge issues.   More on that later!  

I’m allergic to angora!  Yuck.   I wish I wasn’t, this yarn is SO yummy. 

Today was the first day of school.   I was am unprepared.   Why did someone not tell me what this day would be like?   I feel as if part of me is missing.    I wonder what they are doing right now (oh, and every few minutes).   I am sad at all the things I am missing.    

They have been at home, with me for five years.  Some days were great, others, not so much.   The time went so quickly.   The sleepless nights of infancy turned into the busy days chasing, playing, and disciplining toddlers who like to beat each other up.   Soon they were big borthers, helping with the baby and then morphed into days filled with drawings of dinosaurs, fantastic lego creations and stories of working at the building site of “This Old House”.   

Instead of our days and weeks revolving around storytimes and playdates, instead, it will be school projects and vacations.   After watching, hearing, and being there for five years, there are things I will not see, here, or be there for.   It makes me sad.   I was not ready for this day.   Oh, I joked that I was…”When do these kids go to school?”   Apparently, that is just what a stay at home mother says when she has three children.  I didn’t mean it.     

Transition means change.  They are growing up, changing into the men they will be.  I know this in my head, but my heart is having a hard time with it.   My heart and head have never agreed about this change stuff.  There were always times when the boys could do something before I was ready to let them. 

 They were ready for school today.   We left with our hug, kiss, and a wave goodbye.  No tears, angry looks or sad faces.   Again it seems, I am hurrying to catch up.       

Happy first day of school Sunshines!