officially exhausted

yes, it’s 12:40am and yes, here i am once again on the computer rather than snoozing…

i’ve been working my little booty off on these patterns which is good.  i needed to just bite the bullet and get some of that tackled.  i started alizah’s elf hat she requested for the holiday program at her school this year.  it’s only a few rounds in, but HEY!  it’s on the needles!

PLUS, dun dun duh-DUN!!!  the stockings are finished!  WHOOOT!  i’ll be taking proper pics tomorrow and listing them!

phew!  it’s good to be finished with that.  i got a possible special order today that calls for custom dyed wool - of course… but it’s just a little earflap hat.  no probs.

oh!  and i almost forgot!  another one of my treasuries made it to the front page of etsy today!  how cool!  i had just finished putting it together the other night and was SOOO proud of it.  then today while i was (throat clearing) at work… i hopped on etsy and TA-DA!  there it was!  i have the craft cult widget posted on the side bar.

the hubs left with the chopper shop friday afternoon for the easy rider’s show in louiville, ky and i just don’t know if he’s ever coming back!  last night was a disaster.  mae was perfectly fine until maybe 8 or 9.  then the crying started.  she was just sobbing and wailing, “i want DADDDYYYY!”  ugh.  poor mommy.  i snuggled with her and tried playing with her - we even watched narnia back to back earlier, but she was not pleased.  she woke up chipper this morning ‘cause she knew she was going to laura’s house.  mae absolutely LOVES laura!  once again, it’s a friend of ours (like Kevin… have i mentioned kevin before???) who has children, but mae is only interested in the parent.  she never says she wants to see colton or kenleigh, just laura.  in fact, half the time she says, “what are laura’s kid’s names?  you know, my friend and the girl?”  so, i drop her off at laura’s this morning because laura is a SAINT and every time we’ve been in a pinch for a sitter she swoops in to rescue us.  mae is perfectly happy and i head off to work without a peep from her.

tonight, i finally get out of work after a very long, busy, question-filled day (partly because we hosted a Golden Acrylics Lecture!) just to get stuck in a horrendous traffic jam (and it’s already getting dark!? and raining!?).  i get to laura’s and mae flips.  she wants daddy again.  ugh.  she screamed and cried and hit and kicked until i finally just had to drag her out of there.  she hadn’t napped and was at her little wit’s end!  she fell asleep in the car after a good 15 minutes of screaming for daddy.  i was truly hoping she’d stay asleep when i carried her into the house but it just wasn’t my luck.  she whined and moaned and flailed…. nothing i did could calm the storm.  after we ate she was still having a fit and WHINING and kicking, and acting like a wild thing!  so i knelt down beside her and explained, “mommy is nice to you and loves you.  right now i’m going upstairs.  when you’re ready to be nice to mommy, i’ll come back down to play and snuggle.”  i swear, i wasn’t upstairs for more than a minute and the house went quiet.  a moment later i hear a tiny voice saying, “mommy, i’m not bein’ mean any more!  you can come down now!”  so i made my way back down and we had a wonderful time together!

i was working on this ribbed kerchief pattern and decided i should make a video demo for these crazy increases i’m doing - mae helped.  she set up the camera for me and told me all about the little tripod’s “bumps” and talked about wookies right in the middle of recording.  SO CUTE!  i really wanted to get her in on the demo and asked her if she could say, “knit one and purl one.”  she did, but before i could begin recording she decided it was time for sleep instead.  good thinking little girl!  i know she was exhausted!  i finished the videos without her (sadly).  maybe next time i can get her to narrate! 

all i know is, the hubs better make it back by tomorrow afternoon.  i don’t know if i can handle another one of these nights without turning into a whining, flailing, wild thing myself!

my dear friend carrie is coming over with her gorgeous children tomorrow so i can take lots of pics of her little gus in some of my baby hats!  that should be fun for mae and me - and keep our minds off the missing man of the house! LOL

good morning, saturday!

good morning!  it’s one of the (two???) saturdays a year i know i’m not going into work and i stayed in bed til 10.  there.  i said it.  mae doesn’t mind wasting away the morning with mama!  we both had birthdays recently… do we look older?

NAH!  not really.  alizah came in to crash our mid morning snuggle session, but she wasn’t too keen on getting in on the photo fun

oh well!  i finally made my way downstairs to get back to work.  mae and the hubs went birthday present shopping for her little friend colton’s 4th birthday party today and picked up some starbucks on the way back mmmmmmm yum which let mama get back on the needles - at least for a little while without interruptions.  i DID get two stockings completed yesterday - YAY

and only got this far on the 4th (and final) stocking

meh.  i need to dye a bit more red to button it up.  THAT will have to wait until tomorrow night.

of course, i can’t just tidy up the house, wrap birthday gifts, and pack for our crazy trip to chicago tonight, i had to start another project.

our dear friend trevor is expecting a little girl so i thought i’d knit them an elf-ish hat from the brown and blue yarn i dyed and spun this week.  so far so good!

i don’t think they’re the pink and purple types… i hope they LOVE it!

i can’t believe it’s almost time for me to go back to work.  BOO!  at least i’ve gotten nearly everything checked off my list for the week.  i’ll bring the opera bonnet with me to chicago and get some needle time in while the hubs is at the wheel.

back to packing….

thursday already???? eek

i didn’t get nearly as much done yesterday as i had hoped… and after our morning play date/knitting date with mare and her boys, getting alizah from school, and rearranging the entire downstairs!!! i didn’t get much done today, either.  

i only have two more repeats of cable on the opera bonnet, eyelet round, and seed stitch trim.  then the back piece (which will be cake), the i-cord, and finishing.  i just have the second blue strip of the scarf to do and that beast is complete!  

so, i think i’m going to put the opera stuff aside for the time being and hit the stockings hard!

i stopped right at where i would join the white and begin the heel shaping on the first red stocking and never got back to it.  that stocking WILL be done tomorrow (and hopefully one more, too).

i did take some time “off” to watch tv with the hubs last night and got the rest of that blue and brown roving spun.  i LOVE it.  i think the color change is actually going to look nicer that i thought when i was spinning singles.  i’ve never tackled color change yarn like that so i was pleasantly surprised by the result.

phew!  it’s now… 1 am and time for me to collapse.

completion

i soaked, twisted, and blocked my way through the morning

and i ended up downloading the spinning app after reading wind rose’s review.  it’s super fun and i can’t wait to dedicate some time to really checking it out.

one stocking DONE!!! WHOOT!  somehow i managed to scale it to (or pretty darn close to) the buyer’s measurements.  i think i’m closer to 8” diameter (she asked for 9”) and exactly 20” from cast on to toe tip.  the 9” diameter looked off kilter… out of proportion to the length.  just ignore all of the crazy yarn hanging down in the background… :D