More Baby Pictures

This is what I am thankful for:

I kind of got a smile here.....

I love the surprised "what the heck is that flash" face.

And I took the flash off to get a better laughing smiling picture (she almost always stops smiling when she sees the flash).

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yes, I can craft things other than yarn

Flower wanted to make a "Christmas Tree" the other day. So I pulled out some glue, sissors, and construction paper and we did some crafty stuff. Lovey did them too, but he wasn't hanging around for pictures.

This is Mama Mary and Baby Jesus. Violet is very proud of her gluing skillz. :)
And here she is with her Christmas Tree. (Yes, I just started a sentence with "and". I know it's not proper grammer and I don't care.)

She arranged all those ornaments herself too.

I added this last picture because it made me laugh! It's the "I am smiling so hard it hurts" face!! Hee Hee!

Please don't think it's all crafts all the time around here. It's not. Although lately I have been trying to not give in to the "it's going to be way too much work and be way too messy and it won't be perfect" voice in my head that tells me not to even bother trying to do fun things with the toddlers. Really, if I just jump in and KISS (keep it simple, stupid) everything is fine. I am realizing that my toddlers don't want (or need) some long, drawn out, over explained lesson about what we're doing. They don't need it to be perfect either (and they don't have to be perfect). They just want some simple, creative fun.

As much as I would love 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep....

I cherish this time spent alone with my child, where I am the only one who can meet her needs as she roots around with her face, in the dark, totally trusting I will be there to comfort and reassure her.

I imagine this is how God wishes we would reach for him in times of need - with total, unfailing Trust that He will be there to meet all our needs. There is so much to be learned from the love of a child.

I am eternally thankful for these moments in time - not just because the delicious smell of my baby is intoxicating (it *is*), but also because God has given me the perfect example of His expansive and never ending love for me (wow, *me*) by allowing me to have this wonderful child to love who depends on me for everything.

Watching her sleep in the peaceful dark while and after she nurses are the most rewarding moments of my day.

WIP Wednesday....er Tuesday(?)

This is Wobber's sweater. The sun was still hiding the day I took this, so squint to see the pocket covering the front. This is the Wonderful Wallaby, which I have knit before. It's a nice pattern. His sweater is now about 1/2 way done! I am very happy about this. Both sleeves are also done and waiting to be added to the sweater.

Yesterday, I went thrifting with my mom. My mom is awesome when we go to the second hand store because she graciously pays for everything (thanks Ma!!). The kids got a bunch of new long sleeve shirts for winter and Wobbers got a new suit jacket for Mass.

I picked up a yarn bag. Well, I am sure it is meant for something else, but I am using it for yarn. I have been carrying my projects around in a bright red bag I got from the Veteran's Association in the mail as a "gift" for my donation a few years ago. The bag is not a very good yarn bag, but it's been what I have. No pockets. No closure. Nada.

This pretty black and white bag was $1.69. It has a zipper closure and a velcro closure, an outside pocket on each side (big enough to hold a pattern, or a notebook)(one velcro, one zippered), and two inside zippered pockets. And it's *pretty*.

I was going to buy some velcro strips at the store to put over the scratchy velcro side of the velcro (velcro + yarn = not good) - but the velcro was easily removed with my seam ripper. Now I have a very useful bag and it didn't cost me a thing!

And not only is this a WIP post, it's a "the sun came out and I got a better picture of the color of the most recent longies" post.

The Whales Road colorway is sooooo beautiful! I know I keep saying this, and you're probably tired of hearing it, but whatever. It's just that awesome. In my knitting geekiness I want everyone to know. (Or maybe I should be keeping it to myself so it doesn't sell out everywhere?)

I also got a sunshine picture of the Little Lovely longies. My girl is wearing them all the time. They are warm and pretty and soft. I sit around and pet them. Not really. Ok, maybe sometimes.

[Insert Clever Title Here]

I started another pair of longies on Friday. Actually, as you can see, they are almost done.

This is the "Whales Road" colorway from Malabrigo. I think this is my favorite colorway EVER!! The pictures aren't great because the sun is missing (again, thanks a lot sun).

Wow. That picture really sucks. *shameful feeling*

This last one is probably the best, but still not as wonderfully awesome as the longies themselves are. I am so totally going to make a sweater some time in the future out of this - FOR ME. It's crazy beautiful for a blue/purple/green lover like myself.

In other news:

My 4 year old daughter has been desparately asking to make "Christmas cookies", which apparently is any sugar cookie cut into shapes, be it a heart even. So I finally gave in and made up a triple batch of dough. I *cut* corners (hahahaha) by just rolling the dough into balls and then rolling it in colored sugar crystals I had in the cupboard. Then I flattened them with a spoon and baked them. She thought it was awesome and had lots of fun rolling them in the sugar.

I like my cookies soft and chewy. So naturally, I did not bake them for very long to acheive this goal. My husband thought they were awful. Really. He would not even take the "extra" to work because he didn't want anyone to think I was a bad cook. Sometimes my husband can be very silly.

The kids like them. I think they're kind of ho-hum but that's because I would prefer chocolate chip, which is what the next batch will be.

And in other, other news:

1 week till Advent starts. I am taking the time (I hope) this week to prepare maybe 1 activity per week for us to do this year. Advent is historically a big FAIL around here as far as my wanting to celebrate the season/prepare with the kids/do activities to it actually happening.

November 19th, November 19th!!

Do you know what today is?

I do! I do!

Too bad I have to wait until next week (at least). I have small children which would not lend itself to the experience.
But I will participate as soon as I can, baby in tow of course. I might even let me husband come.

To all of you who go today - enjoy!! I am sure it will be awesome!!

Ask A Question, Get An Answer

Can I vent for a minute? Well, of course I can. It's my blog.
In regards to men:

I love my husband dearly. He is a wonderful man who has a very strong sense of duty and honor. He wakes at the wee hours of morning when I am far too scared to brave the day and leaves to work to provide for this family.

He fathers our children, provides me with friendship and companionship, and is an all-around good guy.

Here's my beef (a temporary one, mind you) - I tell him, "I will do whatever you want about (fill in situation here). Just tell me the plan and I'll do it."

He says, "Well, what would *you* like? What would be better for you?" And he proceeds to present two options.

I tell him which one I like, the one that works better for me (because he asked).

He doesn't want to go with that plan.

*Why did you ask me then?* (*hands up in air*)

Men.

Where have all the bloggers gone?

Is it just me? Or does it seem like all your (my) favorite bloggers are not blogging? My go-to bloggy buddies have been unable to post and my back-up blogs are without frequent updates as well. *sigh* Makes it a little lonely here in cyberland.

Now before I go all preachin' about the importance of updating and make anyone feel all guilty I should mention that I know some of these "lack of updates" are for very good reasons (reasons that have affected me as well).

One of my bloggy buddies is expecting a new wee little one. Those first few months of trying to make a physical person from scratch to go with the soul God created for them are very, very draining. Making people is hard work.

Another bloggy friend I believe no longer has internet access, or at least not high speed. I tried to catch her on Ravelry and it says she hasn't been there in about a month too. *sigh*

Yet another friend I think is just as super busy trying to homeschool and live life as the rest of us.

And the blog that got me interested in blogging hasn't been updated in months (months!, I tell you!). Bonus there is we hooked up on Facebook (which led me to hook up with another blogger on FB....). It's almost as good, as "seeing" her blog. So that's nice.

My point here is: I miss you guys. Just know that I am gonna keep checking in and I am gonna try to blog when I can. I hope to see you all again soon. It's weird how you become "friends" with and feel so close to people you've never met in person (I'd say "real life", but really, it *is* real life because, hey, we're all real people somewhere).

LYS Haul

A few months back, my mom picked up some gift certificates to three LYS on the television PBS auction. She loves that auction. I got $20 to spend at each store. This isn't enough for much, but I finally made the very, very long drive (over 2 hours) to the LYS on the other side of the big city. At least all 3 were within 1/2 hour of each other.

I got a skein of Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in Lupis. It's really a very beautiful purpley blue color. This particular purchase was one where I had to chip in $8 on top of the gift cert. Totally worth it.

I picked up these two skeins of Cascade 220 Superwash Paints at another store......

.......where I also got this skein of Cascade 220 Superwash Paints. This picture is awful (blame the sun). The yarn is blue, purpley-blue, turquoise, green, and yellow. Very Boy. My mom (thanks Ma!) kicked in the extra $$ for this purchase.

This yarn is from a kit I bought at the last store, which is also a wool mill. It was hard not to leave with an armload of wool from this place. There were piles and piles of yarn everywhere in all different colors, widths, and textures.

I settled on the kit as it gave a wonderful variety of colors for a reasonable price. (I have $2 left to spend there after buying the kit.) It is intended to make a scarf....but I bet it ends up as a little person's sweater. In the picture above there is a skein of purple yarn (second from the right) that refuses to look purple and is masquerading as another skein of blue. Bad yarn. I think each of the mini-skeins is about 20 grams.

Oh. And I'm 30 today! Cool.

New Yarn, New Toys

My aunt asked me exactly what a "yarn swift" was. I'll show you. First up: a ball winder. The ball winder looks like this in action (and the order of these picutres is the random way blogger loaded them, sorry if it doesn't make sense). This contraption takes your skeins and makes them into pretty "cakes" that pull from the center for knitting.

In the past, I've had to ask/beg for one of the boys (Wobbers or The Man) to hold the skein while I wind it. No more!! I now have a swift:

See Wobbers doing the "thumbs up"? He thinks the swift is much, much better than him holding the yarn. As you wind it onto the ball winder, the swift spins. Magic!

This is the "Whales Road" Malabrigo yarn (in skein form). Pretty and soft. Blues, purples, and a little teal.

This is the "Velvet Grapes" Malabrigo. Sooooo pretty. Very purple, reminds me of the womb from a baby's perspective.

I wish I had better pictures for you - but again, the sun is not cooperating.

This is a sideways picture of all the Malabrigo I got last month in "cakes" (also know as "center pull balls"). I love this yarn.

Up next.....my LYS trip with gift certificates.....

Happy to have internet "friends'

I am just throwing this extra little "mini" post out to say "Thank you".

It is sooo nice to have internet friends to share my knitting and yarn with. I don't have anyone close by. It's hard when you really want to take the yarn to your friend(s) and say "Look! Look! Look at all this pretty new yarn!!" and there is no one to show.

So, thanks for stopping by!

FO: Lovely Pants

I finished another pair of longies. These are lovely. I *heart* them. They turned out really, really beautiful.

Of course, you wouldn't know it looking at the pictures. It's a rainy, rainy day here and there is no good light to take pictures in. I tried. I really did.

Got some cute action shots on these though.....

These picutres just don't do the yarn justice. It's a beautiful cherry red, perfectly varigated.
I knit a size large - 8 inch inseam, 18 inch rise (front to back, 10 inches back, 8 inches front). I almost got them out of 1 skein. I had 3 more rows to knit on the second leg when I ran out of yarn! Three rows! And then there's the whole i-cord drawstring....but still. Three rows.

Now I need to decide what size to knit the other two skeins (whales road and velvet grapes.....picture in the next post) in to. I could try to do a large again, with even shorter legs. Or I could just go for a medium and have leftovers to knit some scrappies with.

New Toys

I got me a yarn swift! It is awesome. The best thing since sliced bread, imo. I can't believe I waited so long to get this.

Now I can wind yarn, by meself, whenever I want. It is sooooooo nice to be able to knit without having to wait (and beg) for someone to help me wind my skeins up.

This is a present to myself for my (BIG) birthday this month. I am hitting one of those "milestone" birthdays. It is a weird age to be. I feel like I have been well into my 40's for about the last 20 years...............and now I am turning 30.

It seems very young to me. I am sure that seems very young to some of you. I feel old.

Crap.....baby is crying. I gotta run. More on this later....and pics of my swift in action!

Yes, I can spell....

I even know poper grammer. And I homeschool my kis. Scary.

In that last post, made from my phone at 6am, there is a misspelling that is *bugging* me. Yeah, it's bugging me ebough that I'm posting about it. I'd fix it if I could, but I can't - not without getting online and taking lots of time which I don't have.

So instead I am going to passify my OCD brain and use this post to alert you to it and explain why. M'kay? (Yes, I am a little crazy.)

My phone "helps" with grammar/spelling/punctuation to making typing easier and faster. For instance, if you press the space bar twice (instead of once) it will add a period to the end of the last thing you typed. Cool, right? Well, it also adds apostrophes to words. If you type "h" "e" "s" it automatically changes it to "he's". Every. Single. Time.

So, when I typed "lets" it assumed I meant "let's". I didn't do that on purpose, and it changes the meaning of my sentence which I don't like.

"Milk lets down again"

vs

"Milk *Let Us* down again"

The milk NEVER lets us down! Ever!!

Ok. I feel better now.

Cast-Off Haiku

The Yarn Harlot asked readers to leave a comment with a haiku about casting-off in order to have a chance to win a book. Here's mine:

Such a joy to end
But bittersweet to finish
I cast-off again

I forgot how fun to write they are. In our homeschooling plans this week: Haikus.

Does it continue
This complaining without end?
He'll move out one day

Baby at my breast
Smiling, cooing at me
Blessings at their best

Children in my bed
We cram in here together
A foot in my face

Not even my kid
Is the one whose cries I hear
Milk let's down again

I could go on and
On with these little poems
But I will stop now

Gloves, Mittens, and Glittens

Here are two more finished objects.

First up are some "glittens", or whatever you call them, for the Wobbers. He loves these gloves. Loves them.

He specifically asked me to knit these for him. He wants to be able to wear them for hunting so the fingers had to be accessable. They also had to be warm. I knit these out of Patons. They turned out pretty nice. They were a PITA to knit, and I won't be doing any gloves again any time soon. ;)

These are my toddler mittens. I really love this pattern. I have decided that they turned out good enough (and I know I said this before, but I mean it this time) that I am going to write up the pattern and make it available on Ravelry. It will be a free pattern. The pictures even turned out nice!

I really loved knitting these. They knit up fast, use about 30 grams of yarn (oh yeah, I got a yarn scale), and are easy for my toddler(s) to put on.
These are also knit in Patons. I think I am going to get some washable wool, either Cascade or Malabrigo (yes! did you know they have a washable wool now??), and knit some more. It might be nice to have a few pairs that can go in the dryer for those days when we play in the snow a lot.

Finally, Really FO

Today, I "officially" finished my Baby Surprise Jacket. I sewed on the buttons and took gorgeous pictures outside!!

I actually knit this in Jan/Feb 2010, right after I took my positive pregnancy test for Rose. (Baby blog name....other daughter is Flower, so this one is Rose.)

The yarn is Malabrigo Worsted in Amarosa. I knit it on US size 5 (3.75mm) needles. I love, love, love this yarn.

The buttons were purchased at a (not-too) LYS. They are little wooden buttons. I love them too.

I am very glad to have knit this pattern. It was a little boring at times because of all the "knit, knit, knit". Garter stitch is generally not my favorite. But the yarn made it worth it.

My overall impression: Cute, but I'd rather have a Tomten Jacket for all the time put in knitting garter stitch and all the yarn. This particular jacket fits about 6-12 months. It is too big for my baby right now at 7 weeks, but still looks cute on her if I put it on. I don't love the proportions of this jacket. The Tomten, however, fits about 6 months to 2 years (I have a friend that has knit 2 of them, we've been doing a LOT of talking about sizing, fit, etc, in regards to these two designs). For all the time and effort the Tomten seems a more versitile jacket/coat and is waaaaaay cuter.

Now I have to decide if I want to keep this little beauty or not. I have a bunch of mama friends having babies right now that would probably love a hand-knit gift. And I just don't *love* it.

Dropping The Ball

Crap. I believe I said "every day or every other day.". Well, it's been 4 days. :P

I am realizing I haven't posted because the week started out kinda crappy. Since I didn't post for the week, how about a recap, crap and all?

Monday - My husband's ex-wife somehow managed to convince a judge to award her child support after 8 years of 50/50 placement. She under-reported her income (yes, we (our lawyer) pointed this out to the court, yes we asked that documentation be shown, no they didn't care) and the court "evened-out" the households based on this. Never mind *my* four children who need their father's income. Or the fact that her kids wear designer clothes and we shop at goodwill/st vincent's.

I am trying to keep Faith. Faith that God will not let my family go hungry, that He will not make us choose between electricity and food or gas in the car. Maybe that is the humble lesson for me to take in all this. Maybe He just wants me to let go and Believe.

Tuesday - Haircut. This always happens after the baby comes. I love my hair long, hate it short. But it is now short. I just don't have time for it to be long. It's ok. I feel like I already have a good hold on "old lady hair". You know, short and curly. That's me. I feel like an old lady with this haircut. But it's easy.

We followed the haircut with a super-huge grocery restock in the Big City.

We finished the evening at the polls. Can I just say I am very pleased at how things turned out here. I had posted on my FB page that day the following:

"Fwd: Make sure to forward to all your voting friends. The new law is: Republicans are to vote on Tuesday. Democrats vote on Wednesday."

In our midwestern state, the democrats got the message!

Wednesday - Stayed home all day to recharge from the busy and long previous day. Baby doesn't like to be out that much and she just needed to be in familiar surroundings and be far from the carseat.

I got into a "debate" with some "pro-choicer" on another friend's FB page. My friend (pro-life) had started with a pro-life status/debate/situation. I commented. I said I call pro-choice what it really is: pro-death. Another midwife (really) called me an idiot. She says pro-choice is not pro-death, blah, blah, blah. 69 comments ensued. I had to leave it alone at about the 17 mark to make dinner/do bedtime. A self-defined "pro-life christian" pulled the rape/incest card and would not drop that there HAD to be this exception. It was pretty interesting to read. I wonder how an abortion would un-rape someone? Anyway - I could go on and on about it here.....but instead you'll probably just get some posts regarding abortion in the next few weeks.

Thursday - Local homeschool group. I think I've been meaning to blog about how awesome this is for a while. It just keeps slipping my mind. A new family moved to the area and sought out other homeschoolers. She united those of us that were already here and we've been meeting every week at the local park on Thursday mornings for about 10 weeks. This week we switched to the gym at a local private Lutheran school (one of the families are parishoners there and the pastor homeschooled his kids so they let us use it FOR FREE!!) It's lovely and warm.

It is so nice to fimally know some families. I have made some local friends and I know my 10 year old is loving having some "guys" to play with.

After that we went to go get the teenager from building school and stopped at the chiropractor. It's been a long time since my last adjustment and it was really nice.

On the way home we stopped by the Amish woodshop and picked up a very, very late birthday present for my toddlers. They are constantly fighting over the only chair that we have with our wooden table. For their birthdays (in August) my aunt sent me the money to purchase another. I finally made it there on Thursday. The kids are very excited to each have their own chair.

Oh! And I got my last installment of the Sunshine Yarns Harry Potter Yarn Club in the mail!! "Unforgivable Curse" was the colorway and it is beautiful. I did not like the last two, so I was very happy to like this one. I am trying to trade them on Ravelry for skiens of the latest one. Wish me luck!

Friday (today) - First Friday Mass with our Catholic homeschool group. Boy did I wa to skip this today!! I finally said the following prayer to God after a shitty morning (and a crappy night of sleep last night):

God....I am getting a cold, the kids are fighting, and First Friday Mass is an hour and a half drive away with a newborn that hates cars and no husband to drive me. Today would be a great day to skip Mass. I implore You: I will drive us to Mass. You take care of the rest. Thank You.

And He did!! My baby slept peacefully all the way to town, even with a stop at the gas station. Her Godmother held her all through Mass and she didn't cry. I was able to *kneel* during the Consecration (it's been ages since I could - always holding someone or too pregnant) and I got to put my older daughter in the sling when we stood which she loved. My 2 year old boy clung to his "godsister" all through Mass and managed to not get into too many things. :) I am going to have to ask for God's direct help more often.

How was your week?

Baby Pictures

I know I love baby pictures.....thought you might like to see them too. Or are baby pictures only super cute when it's your own baby?? Whichever. Here are some.

Ha! Love it!

This is a baby hat I made for here. You can see specifics here on my ravelry project page.

This picture really caught me eye when I was picking out which ones to post. If you can look closely, or somehow enlarge it (I am not tech savvy, so I have no idea) you can see that the baby's eyes are crossed. It's cute. She kind of has that, "What the heck are you doing?" look about her face.

And my little Flower with her baby sling on. She has one kitty in the back and one in the front. Seriously too cute.