Aqua, aqua, everywhere

I jump started myself out of my rut. With what? Socks of course! I made a lacy-cabley-ribish cuff and stockinette on the foot. These are a little wide for my fat feet, Mark has them on right now and says "comfortable, very comfortable" PeeWee pulled one off and is fighting him for the other. She snagged them and brought them to me, saying "that Mommy's" Good girl. Oh wait, she has them on now. And she's skating down the hall trailing them off her feet...



Colinette Jitterbug yarn. I like it. I didn't even pay attention to that pooling. The knitting gods like me and pooling I guess. And there is a right and left foot with this pair, so I really lucked out.

So I got out the books (of which I have quite a collection) and was looking through my much depleted yarn stash and decided on the poncho on the cover of Vogue Knitting on the go series Ponchos. I'm using up the Classic Elite Two.Two yarn I bought on sale a few weeks ago. I know I don't have enough of any one color to finish in solid so it's going to be a striped huge cable poncho. Uh... we'll see. I like it so far, but when the white runs out and I start with the purple... well...

Reason 8, 492 I love Big Brother

"Mom, do we have any string or something like it I could use around here?"

May as well start young...

I've got nothing on the needles right now, and no idea what to start, so I decided I would wind some yarn and see if I could get inspired. PeeWee was watching the swift spin like crazy and decided she wanted to give the ball winder a whirl. I figured that untangling the yarn would be well worth the smile on her face so I let her. And she did really well! After two balls though, she decided she was over it and went to take a nap...



My kids make me laugh. She was up there "hawshew, hawshew, hawshew". It made my day.

So, any ideas what to knit? Maybe I need to keep with the preemie hats for a while. I've finished 3 so far. I'm just not feeling the love. I need to get inspired. I need a trip to the yarn store. Or maybe I just need a day off.

Only a mother...

At about 6:30 this morning Big Brother, at the perfect age of 13, which should explain a lot, announced he needed an Elizabethan costume for tomorrow's Elizabethan feast at school. And it's being graded. Well.

I had to get on the internet and google Elizabethan clothing. (Should I admit that? And, what did we do before the internet?) I realized nothing in this house, which is very full of costumes was going to even begin to cut it. He wanted blue pants rolled to his knees and tights because all his friends are wearing that, but it seemed too Colonial to me, so I thought I would stop by the fabric store and at the least check the costume patterns. I was thinking a tunic would be fairly simple to crank out, but was hoping for a pattern for those poofy shorts they wore with tights. I grabbed a pattern on sale for one whole dollar and ran out the door to an appointment. As soon as I got a chance I ran to another fabric store (this kid is lucky I know how to sew) and grabbed what I needed and raced home for a two hour sewing marathon.

And the results?



Not bad for someone with just the vest pattern and thankfully some knowledge of how pants are made. I actually had bought a diffferent material but when digging out the sewing machine the striped fabric was right there on the top of the machine. Just waiting to be Elizabethan poof pants. I mean really- what else was I planning on using that wide striped shiny green and blue fabric for? I guess I could have made the legs a little tighter, they are too loose to stay up on Big Brother's skinny legs, but all in all I am happy with the whole ensemble. And man oh man is he a good sport. We like dressing up in this house. (He better get an A.)

Can you see the inverted pleats taking advantage of those fabulous stripes?



All this AND knitting? Why yes, I am Supermom today. I made a preemie hat last night and part of one today. I am writing the patterns out as I go since I just make them up. I am still trying to get it all down for the knitting guild. I do aspire to greatness (or foolishness, or way-too-much-to-do-ness, or serious delusions)



And here are the socks I made the other day. Man are they comfy.

next?

Wow, those socks were super speedy. I finished them last night.

I'm figuring out what to start now, since I have mended my whore-ish knitting ways and am faithful to only one project at a time these days. I will admit it's weird to not have a doen things lying around the house waiting to be picked up and worked on. But it feels so good to complete projects that are actually being used!

I think after all the selfish knitting (me me me!) I'm going to do some knitting for others. It's been a long while since I sent hats to the NICU and I think I am overdue for some.

I'll update later with sock pictures and my idea for the preemies!

Busy busy bee!

The skirt is finished and I am very happy with it. I am phtotographing an outdoor wedding in June and it's going to be hotter than you-know-what and I am hoping I am not going to be a bucket of sweat and the skirt may be perfect for staying cool. It's cool and breezy and not clingy at all, just the way I like it.



Want to knit it yourself? Here's the the pattern!

When I put away the skirt I felt the need to start something new right away! It's been about 2 weeks of tiny needles and cotton so I decided some house socks are the ticket. Nice cozy bulky socks in fact. I have almost finished the first one. Started in the afternoon and talked to the painter (yes, I gave up getting it done myself and called in help) for a bit before I realized I was done with the cuff already! What a difference just a few stitches and larger needles makes! Even though these are bulky socks the color shouts spring! Not that I wear socks much between now and November though...

Check one off the list

No, not the skirt, although it's coming along nicely. I decided not to start socks, or rather work on socks, because all I could think with each stitch was I could be getting closer to finished with the skirt and put them down. I am at that point where you want to be finished, but every time you measure it somehow comes up the same. Or worse, smaller. But, I am more than halfway there and very pleased with it. The miles of stockinette are so mindless I am enjoying just cruising along. I can pick it up and do a few stitches or a few rounds depending on the time on hand.

Lately not much free time, fun time or knitting time. I have around 50 ladies coming by for a lunch meeting next week and quite a list to finish by then. Like maybe I ought to find the forks.

Yesterday and today, de-cluttering everything. I am a paper magnet. The mail comes and goes to the table where it sits until I sort it, then someone's coming over and I pile it up again to move it out of the way. Then I re-sort it and it sits there for entirely too long. Yesterday I went through it all, made a box for filing, threw out a bunch of junk, paid all the bills and found both a diningroom table and sideboard. Imagine that! Today I hope to find the kitchen counters- oooo!

Tomorrow is painting day. I have a few people coming by to help. Mark will drop PeeWee off for me and we'll get cracking. Almost every room in this house has touchup. Almost none of the baseboards are painted. They are all primed and some are finished, but when you're married to a handyman, you really can't hire it out so you have to wait. And wait. And the week before a huge thing you rush and get it all done yourself.

There are handy household things he does for me though, so I really can't complain too much. I ordered doors last week (that's right, last week, can you say procrastinate?) They were delivered yesterday morning and Mark had the old ones out and the new ones in before lunch. He started demo about 10:00, the doors came about 10:30, and we ate an early lunch about 11:30. Not bad for free labor!

You all know how much I love before and after shots so here they are! (Never mind the clouded up side windows, those haven't even been ordered yet. I have no idea who to order from so I am just ignoring the fogged up look.)

Spring has Sprung!

We've had the prettiest weather this week. I have been outside as much as possible. The garden is coming along nicely. I have a few more plants to get in the ground and all I'll have to do is water. I know that before long we're going to be looking at long hot humid days so I like to take advantage of March. It'll be awful enough to have to go outside to water by the end of May.

The skirt has progressed about 6 more inches. Nothing too exciting there. The yarn shop's sock club is meeting Saturday afternoon and I am hoping to hop over there. (I don't feel like it's cheating on the skirt to start some socks.) They are having a 'bring your favorite original pattern to share' swap. Exciting! I'm going to have to write up a few patterns I have used for some of my socks! I hope there are a few I would like to try. Actually I really hope nothing comes up to keep me from getting there.



Big Brother has been crazy busy the last few weeks and I feel like Madam Chauffeur. I think that's why the skirt has grown. I grab the bag whenever I run out the door. I know from now until the end of the school year it will be just one event after another. It seems like the second half of the school year there's nothing but breaks and days off from actual school. We had last Friday off, this Friday off then we're off the 6th as well. Then Spring Break. After that it's all down hill. The kids and the teachers just don't have their minds on the classroom and before you know it it's the end of May and exams and they are off for the summer. (I'm having enough trouble wrapping my brain around the end of March already.)

A Day Outside

March in New Orleans is truly one of the prettiest places to be. The weather is dry and 60's to 70's, sunny and breezy and just stunning. I spent the day outside working on the garden a bit, since I have the Garden Club coming in two weeks. I figured it would probably be worth my while to at the very least have the junk thrown out. I went to the garden center, a place kind of out of the way, next to some railroad tracks down a dirt road, right smack in the middle of the city. It was a great new find (thanks Mom!) and I came home with some treasures i hope to keep alive- at least for the next two weeks!

I cleaned out a bunch of plants I am not too crazy about having right outside my kitchen window and replaced them with some things I hope will be better at making me happy. Dont worry- the plants were all either moved or potted up for another yard. Whoa- just ignore the garbage bags- I didn't realize how lovely they look!!



Instead of some type of bedding plant I decided our bed should be filled with peppermint, alowed to just grow and spread itself out in the bed. If you have any experience with the stuff, it's pretty hard to kill- all it really needs is regualr water, and it'll spread out and thrive by early summer. We'll have peppermint for years if we do it right.



Like I said, I took out some things I really didn't want to look at all day long. Here's the artesia (sp?) I potted up. The berries ARE pretty spectacular, but the plants are long and leggy and otherwise unimoressive to me. At least close up- I like them en masse at the back of a property.



And knitting... I couldn't resist taking the skirt out into the sun and letting it lie in the grass for a few minutes. I think it likes the sun!



And I like the way the edge came out. Kind of sassy and silly and entirely too young for someone my age. Now just 27 inches of stockinette! Remind me I said I wanted a project that would take more than a week to work on in about 8 months when all I see is pale pink and I still have 26 inches left to go...

Oh Good Gracious!

I am boring. I do apologize for that.

I am working on my skirt and I must say right now it's going to be a while before it's finished. So I will try to avoid pictures of an inch of progress here and there. Not much knitting time either- all my free time is so limited right now. And I am dying of exhaustion. PeeWee has taken over my bed and it's baaad. She has the wonderful habit of tucking her feet in under you. Her favorite spot is to slip them in the back of your PJs and if you even think of moving them brace yourself for a bit of a breakdown. We've had two nights of 1-4am fits. Hopefully with Mark back it'll be a smoother ride tonight. Or at least she'll be digging her feet into his back instead of mine.

Mark's been out of town dealing with the other flooded house. He brings back reports of not too bad damage. I haven't seen the camera yet, but tomorow morning I will upload them and see what we're dealing with. I just can't believe I have to deal with another flood. It's just unreal.

I missed both the knitting guild meeting and the knit at night at the yarn shop. Kind of disappointed. I am going to stop by there and drop off my NICU guidelines, which I DID get written out. Hard to believe, but they are sitting on the counter, waiting. I was headed out the door Monday night and as I was gathering myself together PeeWee decided that an entire container of sliced mango was just too much for her simple belly. So, cleaning the rug and the blanket and PeeWee became a bit more important than dragging her out into the night to drop off sheets of paper. Oh well. I am getting used to this mothering thing. It has been 13 years. For some reason I keep thinking I'll be able to do what I want. Hahahahaha. Yes, I hear you laughing.

One More for the List

I said this shell was a quick knit!

I think it is a great beginner's project. I may introduce my new knitting friends to it. Well, the female ones, that is. It's comfy and flattering and I just love Rowan All Seasons Cotton. It's pretty much perfect for New Orleans knitting.



I like the way this neckline works for me. I will definately refer to it down the line with other projects. Regular crew necks don't do much for my body and I am bored with the regular old V-necks I usually crank out. A wide neck is a nice change.



I am going through my stitch library for a fun stitch for a skirt. Since I would have to wear a slip under a cottton knitted skirt anyway to keep it from sticking to my rear end in the ultra humid days coming soon, I decided I may as well do something fun that will keep my interest for the bottom half of the skirt. Being girly girl these days with my clothing choices I picked up a bunch of Patons Grace cotton yarn in shades of pink. I am actually looking forward to a project that will most likely take a bit of time to complete.

Once I finish my painting for the museum (or completely back out of this crazy thing) I will be busy writing up some patterns and guidelines for knitting preemie hats for the NICU. I have a whole bunch of random acrylic and cotton yarns for the hats and I think I may figure out how much I use then ball it into little kits for the knitting guild. In all my free time. The meeting is tomorrow night. And I will have PeeWee with me. I am not exactly holding myself to this one- it may be just a dream to get anything together other than some of PeeWee's old hats and her my-sized doll. But a girl can dream.

Organizing Myself

The last few days have been fairly slow around here. All sorts of daily life has gotten in the way of much creativity. In organizing my photos on the computer, readying them for a big back up on the external hard-drive, I realized I rarely take pictures of things I have finished knitting. So that's this week's project.

I am almost finished the shell I started the other day. I was surprized at how much knitting time I was able to find. This week I spent a lot of time waiting in the car for Big Brother. It is a quick knit, too, and that helps a lot! The neckline is fabulous.

I am seriously procrastinating on the project for the Museum show. Oh yeah, am I procrastinating. I have a painting sketched out but have been avoiding the whole actual painting part. Brain block. I WILL finish it. Just need to sneak the time out of my day somehow. Actually I just need to start the darn thing!

It's been just PeeWee and me this weekend. Big Brother went to his grandparents' house for the weekend. Mark left Friday morning to head up and deal with the house. (He got a call from the handyman up there who told him to wait a few more days to let things dry out a bit more.) He said the damage is much less than we had anticipated. That this happened while the house is on the market is really rotten. We're not sure how much repair work to actually do since whoever purchses the place is likely to do some fancying up around the place. There's nothing really wrong with it, it just needs some updating and a little polish. I hope the realtor gives Mark some direction with this one so we don't over fix the place.

Fraternal twins

Okay- it was pointed out to me that I am bad about following up an earlier thought. Not a big surprize to me. Here are my socks I finished last week in action. I love them.



For those of you wondered (out loud even), PeeWee's VQ scan went well. We are not on any calendar for surgery any time soon. We go back to the cardiologist in June, do another total work-up, including a cardiac catheter, and go from there. Sorry I was so slow updating the good news when we heard it. Seems she's plowing ahead on her own schedule with this one. I don't think there is very much information available about the length of time between repeat surgeries with truncus arteriosus. The type of repair she had has only been happening a relatively short time frame, and not too many of the repairs have been on such tiny hearts as hers. We're in uncharted waters with this one. It looks like if things progress like they have been and she keeps doing as well as she is we're in the clear until at least this summer.

I made some progress on the shell I started Friday. It's going along nicely so far. I love the periwinkle blue color. It's very summery to me. I have white yarn for finishing the neck and arm holes to give it a little something sassy. We got another blast of cold air this morning so it feels like I may never get to wear it. Remind me of that when it's August and I sweat just thinking about going out into the un-air-conditioned 15 feet between my front door and my air-conditioned car.



I have no idea how much knitting time I will have this week. Mark's going off to deal with the house and I have to finish a piece for the New Orleans Museum of Art. More precisely I have to start the piece, which isn't really even an idea in my head yet. A few vague thoughts but nothing set in stone. I double checked the requirements of the show and it's supposed to be preferably either a painting or metal or clay. The one thing I know is it'll be a collage. I hope that somehow falls into the painted catagory. I got the shadow box to put it in to finish it and that's as far as I have gotten. Nothing like the last minute!

In case you just want something luscious to check out here is some yarn I am going to make myself some yummy thick house socks out of. It was part of my giant splurge on Friday. Imagine if I had gotten the flooded house news while still in the yarn shop! I may have broken the bank comforting myself. As it is, I did massive damage- but all luxurious goodies that are in line to become well worn knitting. In keeping with my resolutions to plan things better, I bought things with a project in mind. In fact, projects that can actually be completed so I can then return to replenish the stash.

I am an Aquarius...

I had my yarn shop play-date yesterday. I did some great big damage. Lots of goodies. The owners of the yarn shop are really fun ladies, they are chatty and helpful and I enjoy their company. They know PeeWee's whole up and down story, early start and rough beginning. I get my cotton yarn for the hats I bring in to the NICU from them and they always ask if that's what the bright cheery yarns are for. Yep. I got a ball of bright varigated yarn for them yesterday.



Our knitting guild is looking for a charity project and they have decided they are going to make preemie hats. I am excited about it and they asked me to write up a few patterns and give them the yarn guidelines- cotton or acrylic, soft, washable, all that. They also asked me if I would be the 'wash them and drop them off' liason. Coincidentally my schedule rearranged itself so I can now make the meetings. I have never been able to go before! I've been talking about going for 18 months now.

The yarn shop is starting a Knit at Night. Looking forward to that one too. I hope I can do all these things this month though. We got a call from our realtor in North Carolina with disturbing news. My brother in law misunderstood Mark's instructions and did not shut the water off at the main back in November. The house is fairly well insulated but with weather in the teens for several days in a row and a power outage... well... bad combination. We had a burst pipe and since the water was left on, we had four feet of it in the basement. It had been running over a week. There was an inch all over the house, the floorboards buckled up and finally allowed the water to drain out into the basement. Why did it have to be water!!!! What IS it with me and all this water? Anyway, the realtor arranged for someone to come wet-vac it all up and put an industrial dehumidifier in the house. So, Mark's going to go up there in the next few days to deal with it. And I got all excited when I saw it was the realtor calling. I thought we finally had an offer. Boy was I wrong.

Since it is all 600 miles away, I am living in denial. I can just ignore it since the water is now off and the house has been somewhat taken care of, at least as much as we can do until it's dried out and we can really see the extent of the damage. Like I said, Mark is dealing with this one, not me, so I am ignoring it. Now that I have new yarn I started a summer shell out of Rowan all seasons cotton. I chose a pattern this time too! I'm being so practical. Of course I had a tough time getting gauge since I was using a different yarn than the Berroco pattern Marijke calls for... only small adjustments had to be made. I am knitting it in XS to have it turn out my sized.



The yarn shop has a little room off to the side where they have their sale stuff. It is usually a few random things, some discontinued goodies and a lot of fluffy novelty yarns. Well, they just went to market so all the yarns that have been discontinued by the manufacturers are now in there, 50% off. Dangerous stuff.

Oh and just for Rhonda ... here's the stove and fridge .

Well, they did ask...

When I was working with the kitchen designer and then the man who came to measure for our counter tops, we got into little details you might not normally get into. Like the overlap of the lip of the counter. In other words how far the counter sticks out from the cabinets. The kitchen designer said one distance, the man who measures said another distance and I said yet another. Of course I won out and got the extra quarter of an inch and this is why:



The swift fits so nicely on the edge of the counter. Not exactly what I had in mind when I got so picky, but it works.

The ball winder does fit onto the edge of the kitchen table, but it shot off at one point and I had to do some quick moving to catch it and stop the swift from spinning all at the same time. Our kitchen table came from my mother's shop, and it's got some age on it. It's an English pub table from the late 1780's or 1790's. The grooves are pretty worn and the edges are pretty uneven. It's got a pegleg, which is why it never really sold. Of course that was the instant appeal when I went looking for things to replace the junk thrown into the pile on the curb.



No knitting pictures today. No knitting. I wound up some balls of sock yarn to have a portable project. We're bringing PeeWee in for some tests today. I think I am going to bring along the gorgeous blue/green yarn. Socks again. Plain old socks this time. A 2x2 rib leg, I think. Simple. The yarn is so luscious it can just speak for itself. Or maybe Big Brother's giant socks. Great big giant socks I keep sticking farther into the back of the bin I keep the needles and tools in. Ugh, I really don't want to work on them but I SO want to get them finished.

I have a playdate at the yarn store Friday. I can't wait. I need a good summer project to start. I am deciding between a skirt or a shell. I guess the yarn will speak to me. And I completely cleared out my stash, sending off all the half balls and things which have sat for entirely too long to Warm Woolies. Of course, as soon as I did that, I had so much fun making PeeWee's top I immediately wanted to make myself a similar sweater. Well, not happening, there's no yarn. It all went off to a better cause.

I'm not saying I have no stash left! There's plenty there. I just want something bought for a specific project, just for me. Something new to play with. Maybe a cotton or cotton blend. So I made a playdate at the yarn shop with a friend I haven't seen in some time. Should be fun, I haven't been to the yarn shop in quite a while, either.

Wrap it up

I would never have thunk it, but this working on one project until it is done thing really works. I have to say I have been pretty darn productive around here with my knitting. I finished the little wrap Saturday night. Finished the ends and added the bottons and button loops yesterday. It should be perfect for dinner tonight.



That's not to say I won't get an incredible urge to start 6 projects this afternoon and not finish a single one. But it's been working well for me so far. I also finished the Blue Hawaii socks. They are so comfy and soft. And crazy silly. I like them. I have enough yarn left to make PeeWee a pair, too. I may wait on those, because I have one project still on the needles needing to get wrapped up. Those giant socks for Big Brother. His darn feet keep growing though. They are 14's now. He should be about seven feet tall at this rate.

There has been massive progress on the unpacking and reorganizing. Turned out almost all the stuff piled in the back room was Big Brother's. Nice to know it wasn't all my mess. He's been sorting through it, good boy that he is. All his long Mardi Gras days landed him a cold and he slept through most of his holiday. I keep running things through the dishwasher and I am down to one container and a few random boxes. It sounds like a lot left, but I am pretty close to the end. Considering it has been almost 18 months, that's not bad! Uh, yes, I know it should never take someone that long to reorganize themselves. I guess if we count from when we moved back in in June it's not quite that bad. Especially when you consider it was August before the kitchen was wrapped up. And we just got doors in December... and cabinets in the laundryroom last month. I guess it's really not so bad that I am still unpacking! I just need to get to the end of it though.

Ta Da!!

Well, PeeWee's sweater turned out adorable. She wore it yesterday but I didn't get a shot of her in it. 8 million ends to weave in, they took me over an hour. My mother said on the phone I had to be exaggerating but when she saw the top she said "it only took an hour!"



She was my original inspiration for knitting a few years ago. She used to knit all the time, and makes a sweater for the grandkids every once in a while. I wore a lot of hand me downs growing up. I think I have told the story of her knitting Argyle socks for her college boyfriend, but it's worth a repeat. It's why she always tells me socks are a waste of time. She spent countless hours knitting one Argyle sock for her boyfriend, started the second sock and got caught up in exams before the semester break and didn't have enough time to finish sock two. She wrapped it up all pretty for her boyfriend and gave it to him with the idea that she would finish the other as quickly as she could. Partway down the leg of sock two, her boyfriend's brother, who was also his roommate, broke his leg. Their mother came down to nurse him as it was a bad break and she dug through the sock drawer to find a lone sock to keep his exposed toes warm. The only lone sock in the place was the one Argyle. My mother said she literally gasped when she saw it stretched all out of shape over the cast and all. She broke up with him because she said his mother didn't know the difference between a store-bought and a hand-knit sock and there was no way that could be her mother in law! Tragic as it is, that story makes me laugh. It hurts just to imagine.



Last night I started a wrap, with stash yarn. No idea the size it will turn out to be, I am working it as I go. I simple little lace pattern which is going along at a nice pace. I started it with 402 stitches which I decreased to 202 right away. I'll keep it this width for two balls of yarn then work shoulder decreases with the third ball I have. It is light enough it should get some actual wear, too. I can't wait to go button shopping for the closure! We have a double date Monday night and I am keeping my fingers crossed I'll get it done to wear out then.



Mardi Gras around here was very busy. For the ball Saturday night I ended up finding the perfect black skirt, and wore it with the lace top from the stained skirt set that may be retired for good. I'll give the cleaners a shot at getting the stain out, but it doesn't look too hopeful.

Mardi Gras day was Tuesday, and I am glad it's over. PeeWee and I stayed home, it looked like rain but never did, then Mark took her in the afternoon to visit his parents and I busied myself trying to get the spare room in order. It finally feels together. One more room and we're all done. If someone had told me my future a few years ago I would never have believed them. Feels like we're getting to the end of the tunnel though. We've certainly waded through our share of muck though. I think we've earned ourselves some easy sailing now.

Big brother has been off from school since Friday. A nice long lazy break for him. Today is his work day though. He's organizing his room today. Tomorrow he's my helper in the garden. We need to weed and plant nasturtium seeds before it gets too late. he is such a character, he wore a basket of fruit on his head for Mardi Gras. (That's him in the first picture) He went with my brother and his cousins. He came home with the hat, but most of the fruit had come off. Surprizingly he had most of it. A good addition to PeeWee's kitchen.

Darn

That's what I'm going to have to do.


My favorite socks and a great big hole. Probably because I wear them at least once a week. Went to put them on and sure enough, the floor felt awfully cold on the bottom of my foot. Darn.

These are PeeWee's newest favorite socks. She loves to pull them up as high as they will go and marvel at her pink socks.



My little runway star tried on the sweater. You might notice it has short sleeves.



Yes... it was pointed out to me by a very intelligent Big Brother that it's only going to be cold a few more weeks at most, why was I making her a sweater. Well, advice taken, I turned it into a short sleeved top! It's coming along nicely. I have about 20 stitches to pick back up before I get back to it. She wiggled quite a bit trying it on and got ahold of the needles as I was pulling it off of her.

I have too much Mardi Gras going on this weekend to worry about it too much. I found a long black skirt to fix my small problem of nothing to wear to the ball. Just call me Cinderella. I found several things in fact and will be returning which ever I don't wear tomorrow. I won't know until I am getting dressed how the outfit will come together.

I also took the kids to Michael's to get costumes together. We're going to wear butterfly wings. A little foam core, a little tissue paper, a little paint... no big deal... Big Brother said no way to that so we got him the makings for a basket of fruit to go on top of his head. He can throw on Mark's overalls from last year and we'll be good to go. It should all be picture worthy. I hope the weather is nice for Tuesday!

Knitting in Action

Some days a quick walk around the block is enough to shake off a funk. Lately it's been difficult for me to stay organized around here and it had been getting to me. Yesterday I wrapped up in my scarf and took a quick walk to the coffee shop for a treat to start the morning.



It was just what I needed to get me started on a day of total organization. It was great. Not only did I do a lot of organizing, I worked on a few things that had been neglected. Mark hung some hooks for me, rehung the cabinet doors (did I mention the cabinets were installed with the doors opening the wrong way? oops) and was generally helpful but out of the way. A good combination for someone who was cranky and wanting to get things DONE.

I worked on PeeWee's sweater. I have a serious problem with sleeves. For whatever reason, there's always an issue. I admit, if I used patterns, I would most likely not keep running into the same problems over and over. This time they are tight. Too tight. I know I will have to rip them out. I hate the idea of doing that. They are just the right size for her doll though so maybe I will put them aside on stitch holders for a sweater for Teetsie. Imagine making sleeves so small they fit her doll instead of PeeWee. Like I said, I have been a little off lately.



Tomorrow I am going to a Mardi Gras ball and am in serious denial. I pulled the dress I was planning on wearing out of the closet and it was covered with MOLD. Argh. I was stunned! I took the skirt and (gasp!) threw it in the washing machine. Yes, the washing machine. I figured it was a lost cause anyway, it's gotten plenty of wear and the mold had left a big yucky stain on the front. I ran it through, figuring it would either be ruined or not (again, the mood) and I was surprized to find it was lovely when it came out. Lovely and stained. I ran it through a second time with the same result. One more try this morning then I am off to the fabric store to get some fabric for a basic black skirt. I haven't sewed anything in a long time. I am a little anxious about trying with PeeWee around. Big Brother is off from school today so maybe he can earn some babysitting money and keep her busy for me.

Hearts Everywhere

It's been a week of hearts here. Mainly PeeWee's heart. We have been seeing some strange behaviour from her circulation the last few weeks and so we brought her in for some pictures of her little heart. We got a good checkup again, with a further in depth scan being done at the end of the month to give her cardiologists some more information. This is good news. I am always an anxious mess when it comes to her, but she is tough as nails.



And she has grown! Wow, Teetsie, her doll, is wearing one of her shirts. And it was BIG on her!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! We went to dinner Monday night and celebrated early at one of our favorite spots, Muriel's. It is in the French Quarter and it was sadly eerily quiet. Businesses are really struggling down there. Makes me so much more aware of the need to shop local here. The horrible press we get is not helping. The French Quarter is as lovely as it ever was, in fact we have a great new clean up contract with the city and it's cleaner than ever.

It is Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Day today. Check it out if you have a minute. So much more common than people realize. When I was pregnant and I found out about PeeWee's not normal heart, I had no idea of any of it. I thought that kids were born with oles in their hearts, and I knew some had to have open heart surgery, but the extent of it? I had no concept. Because I had no reason to.

What happens when you haven't got a knitting plan but you find yourself with time to knit? Insanity.



I am lucky PeeWee is such a little thing because I am not sure how long my momentum might have lasted with this one otherwise. Mark's head is kind of big, huh? He's been such a willing model lately. I am loving this sweater, but I will admit it is a bit rediculous. PeeWee will love it though, so all is good. And just imagine the look on her face when down the line she pulls it out of storage to put on her own kids one day. Oh yeah. Makes me smile just to think of it.

The socks from the stash are almost finished. I like 'em. I took Big Brother to his math tutor last night and sat in the car by the park and knitted away until the sun went down and I couldn't see to knit any more.



Tornadoes blew through town night before last and there was a lack of street lights because the power was not fully restored just yet. Yes, another natural disaster for us to deal with.

Knitting in Action

Well, it's been warm the last few days, so trying to get a good "knitting in action" shot for this week was a bit challenging. It's easy to knit socks for Mark because he loves these little shorty-style socks. These are his Christmas socks in action. Yeah, he's got shorts on. It was almost 75 degrees yesterday afternoon.



The scarf I have been working on is drying right now. It's almost dry so if PeeWee gets up and gets ahold of it things will not be ruined. She was awake most of the night so if I am lucky she'll sleep in this morning. Picture of the scarf tomorrow. I like the way it turned out. The grey color is soft, with an almost blue tone. It is supposed to be cold again tomorrow so I get to wear it this weekend!

Princess Polkadot was out in full force yesterday. She wore her tiara (thanks David!) most of the morning before we got to school. She would have worn it to school but I made her leave it at home. She kept walking around saying she was pretty.



She's a character. She's been a menace lately though. Whew! She's aging me rapidly... She has decided to boycott sleep. All night long she's kicking me in the head. Put her in her bed and she yells for hours. This morning I came down to the couch at 4:30, hoping for a bit of sleep. Big Brother had to be at school early for a field trip- 6:15 early! So I got in an hour before I had to get us all up and moving. Thank goodness Mark was able to sleep in with PeeWee so I didn't have to bring her along so early.

The laundry room studio combo is coming along nicely. Mark needs to do a bit of trim work to pretty it up, install a few shelves above, below and in between the cabinets to make it complete, but I have cabinets! Yay! I hope he'll take pity on me today and go off on an adventure with PeeWee so I can get things better situated in there.



I am really excited. With the cabinets in over the washer and dryer, I have been able to unload many boxes of dishes and doo-dads. Making progress with the little things here at this house is making me feel so much better. It's been a year and a half of rebuilding post-Katrina. I am seriously sick of it. My personal deadline is the end of March to be completely settled. Wish me luck!!

Tulips

I went to a flower arranging class Tuesday and came home with these. I did the wrong thing and just plopped them into a vase instead of arranging them, adding other plant material and all that good stuff, but they are pretty and they make me happy, so I am good with them. Tulips are one of my favorites flowers. They change almost hourly as they open. The colors in these are just unusual enough to keep me looking. Sitting in the window, they are bringing in a bit of spring.

The weather here has been crazy, cold one day, warm one day, lots of dreary rainy days. Typical January in New Orleans. I can't wait until march, when we have the most beautiful weather around. Until then, I'll snuggle up with my almost finished scarf.


Very happy with the way it's turning out. I have another ball of this yarn left which will make it the perfect length. I have a feeling this one will get lots of out and about time. I thought it would be finished by now. Life got in the way.

This week has been booked and over booked, with appointments being rescheduled because they were booked on top of each other. Back to back rushing from one place to another. And I have been the one in the driver's seat so there hasn't been a lot of knitting in the car time either. This afternoon Big Brother has a bass lesson and I plan on bringing my knitting and sitting in the car the whole time he learns to play. He's doing really well with it so far. I am happy with that. He's got a band getting together. I wish he'd get back to the trumpet, but hey! anything musical makes me happy. PeeWee claps when he plays. It's a pretty cute thing to watch. Last night while he was practicing, she went and got a drum to play along with him.

Remember these? From last year? I should be embarrassed to bring them out into the open and fess up to them still not being finished. I love the color swirl. It's really fun. They'll be good summer socks. Lorna's Laces Blue Hawaii (I think that's the color name, no ball band, of course...)


I brought them to work on while I was getting my hair cut Monday. The scarf is kind of fuzzy and I didn't want to risk bringing something so large to a place where there's a lot of dye in close proximity. I wanted something a little more portable. I remembered these up in the bedroom, snatched them up and got quite a bit done. Boy are they taking forever. For me, socks that are straight stockinette move so slowly. I need a pattern to jazz them up, keep me interested, make them fly along on the needles. So these are moving slower than I like.

Happy Birthday to ME!

I love my birthday. I make sure everyone knows it's my birthday. If people forget, I call them up and remind them. I like to get the word out.

It is also Groundhog Day. And I did not see my shadow, so we can expect spring. There are no groundhog's around here, so I take the responsibility for the forcast. I can't even say how many times I have been asked if I saw my shadow! Too bad no one pays for that answer.

Mark went to the coffee shop this morning and brought me a mocha and a cinnamon roll for my breakfast before he ran off to work. Today he's working for himself, he went to pick up my cabinets for my studio and the laundry room. I am very excited. I hope there is time to get them installed before the weekend is out so I can get myself a little more organized. It seems as is they might be, I hear the drill working as I type. And the hallway is filled with some things that usually sit on top of my work surface. All good signs.

I usually throw myself some sort of birthday bash, but even though this year it falls on a Friday, I just couldn't muster up the courage to do it. To be honest, the clutter bug has moved in to my house and things are a bit disorganized around here. I retrieved all my loot from my parents' house last weekend and now I am just looking at the containers with my hands on my hips, saying "huh" and ignoring it. That kind of clutter isn't what I want to share with even my closest friends. No company until those cabinets are good and installed and filled with the goodies currently in my dining room. (Damn that Katrina. It is taking me years to get myself back to normal)



I decided that I am going to indulge myself and knit up something quick and easy for my birthday. I restarted this scarf about 50 times yesterday. Seriously. I ripped it back over and over. Now I am satisfied with this zig-zag lace. I like the contrase of the bulky yarn and the holes. This yarn has been in my stash for a long time. it was one of the first yarns I ever bought. I have no ball band but I do remember it is sile, angora and wool. Soft as can be. Wish I had a ball band though.

So, for New Year's I make no resolutions. Instead, I make ready for my birthday resolutions.

First off, I am organizing myself. This might take all year. I am okay with that. organizing myself breaks down into several catagories, mainly keeping on top of the incoming mail, the laundry and my work space. The kitchen needs to be all put away, when that is done, it will fall into place. A year and a half of workers filing through the house makes it hard to stay on top of the mess. I am always moving something out of the way to get the space for what's being worked on.

Second, I am getting back to being in shape. I already started that by joining and going to the gym. It means more cooking at home, which means both eating healthier and saving a bit of money. Added bonuses! I am signed up for a six week class the gym offers for eating and health tips. That starts the end of the month.

Third, I am making more time for myself. Always at the bottom of my list, I hope to actually lose the guilt by indulging in things I want to do.

Which brings me to number four, making time to work in my studio and actually doing it. Having on hand the supplies I need for projects is tops for that. Know what that means? Buying enough yarn for a sweater... hee hee hee... needles and all that stuff too. Kind of goes back to number three doesn't it?