2014

Happy New Year, everyone.

I really love today.  I love that people are making resolutions.  I love resolutions because it is basically making a challenging to-do list.  I love challenges, I love lists.  This is one of the greatest convergences of things I love.  For one day, people are thinking a bit like me.

How did I spend my first day in 2014 so far?  Watching the Rose Parade and then the NHL's Winter Classic (hockey on the free channels y'all, this is exciting). Kniting.  Crocheting.  Cuddling with my kids. Spending time with my husband.  A pretty fantastic day on top of the whole resolution thing.

On the Today show this morning they stated that only 8% of people keep their resolutions. I try to make resolutions that are not immediately reached, things that cannot be "broken." I like to think that I can always start over and have a new New Year.  Every day is a day that I can start working harder on improving my life or doing something new and different.  Every day, but especially today, is a good day to make some goals.

I am going to make my resolutions public so I can be held accountable.

For my resolutions:

1. I am going to get back to running.  I will be in 5k running shape by spring.  My mom is taking a running 101 class at her fitness center.  If she is going to be in 5k shape by spring then I am too.

2. I am going to learn something new.  I am taking a college class this spring semester.  It is a marketing class.  I am excited to take this class because I think it will really enhance my job as outreach librarian. I haven't be in class as a student since 2009.

3. I am going to de-clutter my life.  I have already started in my kitchen.  I have filled two big boxes for a garage sale or to donate.  I also have 5 bags of books to donate (can you believe it, I am parting with books, you know I am business when I am parting with books). Soon I will have a pile of out-grown kids clothes and toys to get rid of.

I like having new goals for the day, week, month and year. I am just happy that today is a day that many people are thinking like this too.   

Do you have any resolutions you would like to make public?

The Cute Things in Life

I make cute things. It is the truth.  Cute things are made by me; it is an undeniable fact.

And when those cute things combine you get this:

And you thought I was lying. Cute kid, cute hat.  It makes life good.

I bought this yarn to make Stormy a hat when I was pregnant.  I am so glad I finally got around to making it.  I used KnitCol yarn and the pattern Basic Baby Hat. I really love a basic beanie and I hope to be able to make the next sizes up for little Stormy as he needs them. 

I have never used self-patterning yarn like this before.  I am not sure why I haven't, but this will certainty not be the last time.  The results make it look like I put in much more effort than I really did. I am all for making things look complicated when they are not.  It makes me look like a better knitter. Beginner knitters, this is my tip for you, let the yarn do the work.  Buy pretty yarn and everything you make will look amazing.  Tip for parents, your kid will look cute in just about anything (Stormy would be cute wearing a sack), but they will look especially cute in things handmade with love. There are a lot of babies being born into my life right now and they should all be expecting cute little hats for Christmas next year.

It is the first day of winter and we have a winter storm advisory in Central Illinois.  We should be getting an ice storm right now, but currently it is just overcast (thankfully!).  Tomorrow we should get snow, and even more snow in Iowa at my parent's house (Yay for sledding!).  On Monday, we will see negative temperatures (Boo for sledding). On days like this and coming this week, it is nice to have a warm, wool hat and now every person in my family has one handmade by me.

How are you braving the winter?

Stockings

Do you have Christmas traditions?  Well of course you do, if you celebrate Christmas.  Even if you don't celebrate Christmas, there is probably something you do on every Christmas. We all have our little traditions.

One of my family's traditions is to have knitted stockings.  My grandma knit all her grandchildren stockings.  I also have an afghan from her. She was a very crafty lady.  Besides knitting she also painted a vast number of canvases and other objects.  I have two paintings in my house and a clock.

Grandma knit a stocking for my nephew eight years ago, but now in her 80s she no longer knits.

My stocking, made by Grandma, still lives at my mom and dad's house.  Along with the stockings my grandma made for my sister, brother and nephew.  The collection is rounded out with the stockings my mom has crocheted for her children-in-law and grandchildren.

It is quite a collection. Two on the end are for my sister's pets.  I guess they don't get crocheted stockings.

I have been a knitter for about four and a half years.  That means I was not a knitter when D was born, hence she has a store bought stocking. Even though I have been able to make her a stocking for the past four Christmases, I have not.  She already had a stocking and so I never really focused on making her one.  Yet, in the back of my mind I have always thought about making her a stocking.

Last year, my cousin had twins and she called on me to make stockings for them since grandma no longer can.  I accepted the challenge and made the twins stockings, my first ever.  A lady at work heard that I could knit and asked me to make stockings for her nephews and I did.  Yet, I didn't make one for Miss D.

This year we became a family of four and Stormy needed a stocking.  He was born to a knitter and so he gets a knitted stocking right away and this was the prefect offportunity to finally make one for D. She even helped design them.

I am pleased to report that I have stockings knit for both kids.

Please disregard that Stormy is wearing a vampire sleeper.  We enjoy Halloween themed items as long as they fit.  

I have two more stockings to knit so that the whole family can have matching stockings, but that may be a next Christmas goal.  I still have 1.5 blocks to make to finish my block-a-month afghan for 2013.

What holiday traditions are you working on? 
  

December Already?

I did not mean to neglect you blog.  Sometimes life gets in the way of writing about life.  And so it was for the month of November.  What happened last month?  Too much for me to remember but we drove to two out of state weddings.  We all got violently ill. D was first, then my husband, then me and my father-in-law, then my mother-in-law, then the babysitter, then the babysitter's son and finally my mom. All of us were super sick, except little Stormy.  He must have a super immune system.  A tornado hit the town over from us shocking the entire area and leaving many people homeless, including one of my immediate coworkers.  The next week, we had a lovely Thanksgiving and trip to South Dakota.  It was my our first trip to see my extended family in four years.  Luke got to meet his great-grandma. Everything else is a blur.

I knit a bib sometime in there.  I feel I have been neglecting my baby knitting.  I made a lot more bibs for other babies, but not my own.  This is my go to pattern for bib knitting.  It is from Mason Dixon Knitting.  It is simple back and forth knitting, great for watching TV or any other multitasking activity.

Stormy wasn't in the mood to model.

One thing about November is that Stormy is getting so big.  He is 4 months old now and he loves to smile, laugh and play with toys.  He wants to eat big people food too.  He just doesn't want to sleep through the night.

He is very interested in what we big people do.  He basically demands to sit in his high chair while we eat dinner.  We like to have the whole family together and he likes to be the center of attention. D is actually very good with sharing the spotlight.

Now, in the season of Advent, we are anxiously awaiting Christmas and with Christmas comes Christmas knitting and shopping.  I hope I can get it all done.

Did your November fly by too?

30 Day Sweater: Update 4

Today is the 30th and my 30 Day Sweater should be done, but alas it is not.

I am not ashamed at all.  Look at how much I got done with two kids and a career!  I didn't even try to make time for knitting.  I am so very happy with my progress.  I am almost done with the cables on the body.  I think I just have 2-3 more repeats to go.  Then I have sleeves and a ribbed portion that goes around the neck, sides and bottom. This challenge was the lick I needed to get this beautiful sweater on the needles.

Do you create little challenges for yourself just to get you going?  I am finding this is great motivation in almost every aspect of my life.  But, I am sure this is because of my competitive nature.  I am a little crazy like that.

30 Day Sweater: Update 3

I am well over half way into the challenge, but not half way through the sweater. I am okay with this, I know I will get it done, maybe not in the 30 day window, but this challenge got me to start a project I had been putting off.  I think that is a victory in itself.

I did complete my goal for last week of  finishing the raglan sleeve increases.

October has been a crazier month than predicted.  I am still getting used to have two kids (when will I get the hang of it?). D's swim lessons, though only 30 minutes, seem to take up the entire evening on Tuesday and Thursdays.  Stormy is a very laid-back baby and I am so thankful, but the feeding schedule has me exhausted.  We had a great family day at an orchard and picked out our pumpkins on Monday.  I took  the dogs to the vet (they were less than excited and so was my wallet). I went to the dentist on Wednesday and scheduled my first (and hopefully only) root canal in two weeks. We have 3 month pictures for Stormy tonight. And on and on it goes.

It has been very good that this week has also been a reflective week.  At work, I took the DiSC assessment, again.  This is a behavior* assessment that categorizes people into four categories.  I had to think about what describes me most and least.  Then I learned about my category (which was different from my past results), what makes me tick and how to work with others like and unlike me.  Then at church on Wednesday night, I attended a very reflective mid-week service. I am trying to learn to be more satisfied, even though it is against my very nature.  I like the challenge.  I like pressing onward, but I have to stop and reflect.  I am enough.  I have enough.  So maybe I will just keep the insanity at the current level and not add anything for a while. You, Reader, as my witness, I will not volunteer for anything extra for the rest of the year (we'll see how that goes).  

My sweater is starting to look like a sweater.  I have the 8 row pattern memorized.  I am a master of cabling without a cable needle.  I am satisfied, well, satisfied enough.

*I first spelled this the British/Canadian way.  That BBC watching is certainly rubbing off.  Except watching isn't related to spelling.  I will chalk it up to me feeling more British in general (though I have Scottish and Welsh heritage)

30 Day Sweater: Update 2

October 11 is " I Love Yarn Day" and so, today is one of the best made-up, unnecessary "holidays" ever. Yes, I do love yarn and I am so glad that others do too.  They love yarn so much as to make it a "holiday." I like this kind of folk.

Sadly, this week I have had little time to celebrate yarn.  I haven't knit in days.  Sometimes life just goes a bit crazy and you are just happy everyone makes it to bed at a decent time at night, only to wake up and have another crazy day.

The craziness is my own fault.  I am the one who scheduled D's swim lessons.  I am the one who scheduled the library's first community program.  I am the one who scheduled the tour for the college course I am teaching.  I am the one who signed D up for Daisy Girl Scouts.  I am the one who has volunteered and over-committed myself at work.  All these things are my doing and I am so paying for it, but it is worth every second.

There is nothing quite like watching your child learn something new and finally pick up on a skill after sitting through many sessions of swim lessons wondering if she'll ever get it. (In this photo D is standing on the pool bottom while her other classmates have to stand on boxes.)

There is nothing like planning an event for the library (for over a year with the writing of the grant application) and have it well attended.  It is beyond my dreams.  I really though no one would come.

There is nothing like watching your students learn on a tour.  I love watching their hands take furious notes, not wanting to miss a fact.

There is nothing like watching your daughter do what you did when you were her age, making new friends and learning the Girl Scout way.  

There is nothing like loving your job and the community you get to work with every day.  I know I make a difference every day.

Because I have all these wonderful things happening in my life.  I've had approximately 5 minutes to myself each day after getting home late and then washing bottles, laundry, etc.  So my sweater remains small, but mighty.  I am happy with the project and I am happy with my busy life.  I am happy my husband has been so helpful this week.

My plan is to finish the shoulder/arm increases by the end of the week.  I am pretty close, just a few more pattern repeats.  I probably can get to that point by the end of Saturday.  We are visiting my in-laws and my parents this weekend, so I figure I won't be holding a baby too much.

Who can resist holding this guy?

I sure can't.