knittingirl

The yarn is here...

*click click*

It's time to cast on!

Yarn: Superwash Merino Wool in Poppies colourway

from:  laughingrat studio on Etsy

When in Texas...

A Texas spring is not truly experienced until you force your children to sit in a field of bluebonnets to have their pictures taken... but isn't it adorable?!  Now, the moment behind the picture... Although it looks as both of my sweet girls are gazing at the beauty of the flowers, the real story is that big sis is looking at the bluebonnet that lil sis just tore from the stem and is about to devour.  Don't believe me, you say?!

God I love them!!

Type B

And I'm not talking about my personality.  I have the dreaded flu - influenza type B to be exact - and it completely sucks.  Fever, chills, massive headache, aches... not fun.  I'm pretty sure it was given to me by my beautiful girls seeing as they too were febrile, whiny, snotty last week.  *sigh*  Thank God for Motrin and Tamiflu!

I've decided on a pattern for my ISE6 scarf - the Lace Ribbon Scarf from Knitty.  (BTW, if you haven't seen the new edition of knitty yet, go check it out!  Love, love, love the aforementioned scarf, Emma's Unmentionables, and Talia.  Good knits!)  Anyhoo, now I've got to find the perfect yarn, which will begin tonight as I peruse the handpainted yarns on Etsy.  There's not much time to finish this bad boy, so I've got to get an early start...

I'm still working on the shorties - I finally gave up on finding my mini measuring tape that is just perfect for knitting projects and used dh's big 'ole measuring tape to check my progress.  Just a couple more inches before I start working on the gusset.  Pics to follow, of course!

Secret knitter

I just sent my International Scarf Exchange secret pal my "hello" email, and thus it begins!  I must, must, must find time this weekend to search out the perfect pattern and yarn for my giftee.  What fun!  My "spoiler" also sent me an email, so I know that he/she is out there and ready to make a delicious handknit for me too!  Woohoo!

Still working on Lil' Sis' shorties... I can't seem to find my darn measuring tape to check my rise!!  Argh!

god bless the carry-out guy

Today was one of those days where being a mom wasn't all it's cracked up to be.  First, big sis whined incessantly about not getting to eat candy before her breakfast.  Then she whined incessantly about not getting to eat candy after her breakfast, and "uhh-uhhh-I-wanna-watch-a-noovie!" drove me bananas until I finally turned on Elmo.  Later, no matter how hard I tried to keep her up just a little big longer, lil sis decided she need to nap NOW (before lunch and way before big sis was ready) so I surrendered and laid her down.  She woke up beyond pissed and then continued to be fussy/whiny unless she was attached to my hipbone.  By then it was time for big sis to take a nap, and more whining and a little sassy mouth ensued "I don't want to take a nap.  Go away, you're not my mommy anymore."  So she got a time out and then a nap.  Ugh.  In the meantime, lil sis stayed attached to me (bicep beyond burning now) and let out a wail as soon as I even acted like I was setting her down.  'Come on G, mama needs to go pee-pee for just a sec..."  *waaaaaahhhh*  *%$@!!!  Then once big sis awakened from her short slumber, she insisted again on getting candy "I want a wollipop", saying it over and over and over and over like maybe she thought she'd get me to give in.  Think again girl.  Then she decided to throw a god-awful "i want candy now" fit which ended her right back in, you guessed it, time out.  Lil sis, at this point, is still fussy and crying and doesn't know what she wants so she continues to freak at the slightest inkling that she was about to be out of my arms.  (bicep on friggin fire)  Then big sis finally chilled and we loaded up to go to the grocery store, because apparently I was smoking crack today and lost my mind.  Pushing the "child friendly" car-like basket that's as long as a bus up and down every aisle "I want that!  Uh-uhhhh I want it!!  I don't want the bunny yogurt I want the Dora yogurt!!"  Lil sis actually did decent here riding in the cart right up until the very end, where she completely freaked out and I had to pick her up out of the cart.  Then big sis started... "I want out too.  I want you to hold me too... I want out I want out I want ooouuuuuttt!!"  She then began to cry loudly, lil sis began her sympathetic crying.  I just stood there helpless, watching the checkout guy probably break some kind of grocery scan record, thinking get them the hell outta here!  Without even asking me, he said "carry out to 6" and out of nowhere appeared a young man in his traffic vest, my knight in shining armor, who faithfully pushed that bus-of-a-cart to my truck with a smile on his face, all while big sis is screaming "I don't want the big boy to push me!!!"  I turned to put her in her carseat and before I could buckle her in and blow her boogies, the bags were all unloaded and he was turning to go...  "Have a nice day ma'am".

My one moment of sanity for the entire day.

Carryout is sooo not over-rated.

going green (neopolitan-style)

I've been meaning to post this for a while, but given my crazy life lately, I'm just now getting to it.  I've been trying to do things a little at a time to help decrease my carbon footprint on the world in which my children and grandchildren and all those after them will live.  We built a very efficient home, so as to decrease our use of electrical energy.  We installed long-life fluorescent bulbs in most of our fixtures for the same reason.  I purchased reusable shopping bags to cut down on the amount of plastic ones we take home (and those I do get recycled into dirty clothes bags, lunch bags, dirty diap bags, etc.).  And for about four or five months, I've been doing this as well...

That is a cloth diaper on that there bum.  Mind you, these are not your grandma's nor even your mom's cloth diapers.  They're very cool, user friendly "pocket-diapers", and they're my small effort to keep mounds of disposable diapers out of landfills.  (They also save me money too!)  Granted, we don't CD 100% since our little one goes to daycare and they don't do cloth (dh doesn't either) - but nights and weekends, it's all about the cloth. 

Now why is this important on a knitting blog, you may be wondering?  Well... because of the wool longies/shorties to be made! 

That is the start of some shorties for my girl in my neopolitan Vesper merino.  Now traditionally, wool covers are used as an absorbent outer for cloth diaps without a waterproof cover, but even though mine come with that waterproof outer, they're not 100% leak-free.  That is where these shorties will come in handy.  Plus, they'll be darn handy for that fluffy bum!

More progress to come!

Things are crazy at work right now due to some major change going on, so be patient with my posts and progress.  They will show up eventually!