Oh sister mercy

Someone has a wild hair...

Apologies for the long absences. Mostly I knit slow and have nothing to show. Also, last week I was hit with strep (went to the ER and TOLD them it was strep but they didn't believe me until the culture came back positive TWO DAYS LATER no I'm not bitter why do you ask?) and had a miserable week. Friday I was feeling pretty good, and since it was Friday and the breezes were cool and the children were compliant, we went ouside, where they played and I flipped through the Keepsake Quilting catalog.

Oops.

It may have stirred a long-dormant feeling of bed-linen-dissatisfaction.  Namely, I have no topper and shams that I love.  I don't even have one that I like much.  T was not much use in this department when he moved in, being a boy and therefore in possession of exactly one blanket and one set of sheets, the pattern of which he described ones as "slug-shaped".  (They're paisleys.)  So, here we are.  We have a day off, we have settled on a basic pattern and color scheme that is neither too girly nor too boy, and we have tossed the stash.  (You understand that I'm referring to the Royal We, here.  T is at work and blissfully unaware of my new project.)  

I had a scrap of something that would have been perfect, so I toddled off to JoAnn's in an effort to find something in a similar tone.  As luck would have it, I found the exact fabric (plus a couple others I will use instead of those from the above photo).  And (ahem) a few other little things.

I'm off to enjoy lunch with my aunts shortly, and when I return there will be ironing and cutting and arranging of fabrics, and possibly even sewing of same.  I ALWAYS underestimate how long it takes to cut perfectly good fabric and reassemble it into a blanket.  This is evidenced by the fact that I am already thinking about hand-quilting motifs in my head...

Anyway, whilst you chuckle at my startitis and my craft-fickleness, I will leave you with a couple photos of paperwhites I forced in a vase in my kitchen  Courtesy of T's mom at Christmas-time. 

Progress

Halloween has come and gone. This weekend is our (likely) final trip to Tucson for my remaining stuff. There will be furniture shifting at the house and boxes moving and appliances exchanging, but I think we've broken the back of it and we're well on our way to having a nice, functioning home again. (I'm consistently surprised when I remember that "nice, functioning home" requires LESS stuff, not more, but that is probably something most of us struggle with, and I'm not yet willing to sell it all and live in a caravan or a 200 sq ft apartment under someone's stairs.)
This weekend I managed to clean the kitchen - REALLY REALLY clean the kitchen - and it's wonderful. T came in and saw it (he was volunteering at the Autism walk) and said, "WOW! Now what's our plan for keeping it like this?" lol He liked it so well he actually cleaned up after dinner and left nothing out! (We both have the habit of not quite finishing the tidying, so each night it gets a little more cluttered, until finally there is no room on any countertop and we are forced to eat out for a week. Forced!)
Anyway, in the course of cleaning and tidying and shifting, I have been knitting AND sewing. The shawl is a loooong slog (enjoyable, still, but a slog). I was berating myself over the weekend for being unable to finish it, since I only had 20 rows left. Then I did a little math, upon the realization that one row is averaging 15-20 minutes. Yeah, not this weekend. I'm nearly to the edging (perhaps there, by the time I publish this). I feel good about that.
(See the Christmas counter, people? It's bearing down. It's coming. It's already November, y'all. For those who knit for Christmas, get on it.)
The sewing is my FIL's quilt. Started in 2004, when my MIL fell and broke her neck. When she woke up in the hospital, one of the first things she asked for was the quilt Gramma had made her. I realized FIL didn't have a blankie of his own, so I set out to make one. As per usual, I petered out when it came to the quilting of the thing. I have made a couple stabs at it in the past, but this time I'm finishing the puppy and sending it for Christmas. Assuming I can find the fabric I'd planned to use for the binding, or indeed, if I can even remember what that fabric IS, I'll be in good shape.
Next up, a (nominally) twin sized blankie for Bug, based on his beloved Green Blankie. Said Green Blankie is minkee on one side, satin on the other, and he's carried it with him since Day One. I have four colors of satin for one side, one color minkee (in that same mint green as Green Blankie) for the other side, Big Alice's tutorials, and I'm going to get Joan on speed dial. Save me. (Sitting here typing this it occurs to me that I should make one for Smacky, who has few blankies of his own, given the crazy number Bug received as gifts. It's starting to get a little crazy around the edges of Christmas already...)
T tweeted before trick-or-treating that this was his first Halloween dressed as a "dad". It was excellent. My neighborhood seems dead most of the time (in fact, it's so rare as to be notable when we see someone walking about in the complex) so we went to my dad's, where my sister, her kids, my other sister and husband and a couple friends had gathered. Dad's neighborhood has TONS of kids so we had high hopes. It took a bit for Bug to get into the groove of the thing, and truly, the nardos who leave their outside lights on but don't answer the door? SUCK. We must have been the first out in the neighborhood, and went around the corner and fell in with a large family, which was fun for a bit. We parted ways and wandered up the next street, and when we turned the corner to go back to dad's street, it was a sea of humanity. HUGE groups of people wandering the streets. One family had a fire pit, some were sitting outside waiting - one tween boy was nice enough to remove his scary mask so Bug could go up and receive candy without fear. Smacky toddled along in his giraffe costume - I really thought he'd fight it but in fact refused to take it off for some time after we were finished. (It was a little short in the torso so the hood pulled down over his eyes a bit, but he still wanted to wear it all night.) He had a great time, Bug had a great time. When Bug got tired, he said, "Can we go back to Grampa's now?" and he ate a bit of candy and some dinner and passed out candy with his uncle while the rest of us ate pizza and drank beer and wine and chatted on the back patio.
(Clicketty Biggity)


Weekends are settling down, and we're enjoying some relaxing time. Knitting in the afternoons while the breezes waft in through the windows, bike riding on the local path, baking muffins with the boys (Smacky on the chair on one side, Bug on the chair on the other, each taking a turn stirring and tasting...) Almost don't mind the mountains of laundry and sticky spots that appear on the floors 12 seconds after I've mopped... Happy Fall, y'all.

Christmas is in the bag

I am totally cruising on my shawl, have plenty of time to finish it and the other (already well in progress) projects I want to gift - the scarf, the hat, the slippers... I have a plan for baking cookies and freezing them to frost later. I have the Flylady to organize my Thanksgiving dinner, and I sit in my car at lunch with the windows open, feeling the beautiful soft breezes and knitting away.

I'm totally going to get there this Christmas.



Oh. Damn mail.

Get in, sit down, shut up and hold on.

Cuz it's fall, and that means it's time for the crazy bidness of life to resume. I have said before that our fall is like the spring after a long, nasty winter. Everyone wants to get outside, to plan things, to be active. You snow-dwellers come out of icy hibernation in the spring; we desert rats emerge from heat-induced torpor to crisp fall days. (Note: not yet - we have another week of 100+ at least.) Add to that school, lessons, activities, friends, and the impending holidays (denial will only get you so far, people) and I can't actually think of a single weekend between now and November that doesn't have SOMETHING going on. Of course, if we recognize that we're really only about five weeks out from November, my busyness seems less worrisome, but more worrisome is the question of WHERE THE HELL DID THE YEAR GO?

Ahem.

This weekend T emptied his old place and we're officially combining residences. He kinda stayed here when I moved in and never left, which is rather how we liked it, but we've had the other place to pay bills on as well. His lease is up Oct 1, so last weekend we haule arse all his stuff out. We have lots of duplicates, so storage-unit sales and Craigslistings will be forthcoming. (BTW, you know how I hate shopping? I hate garage sales and such even more. DE. SPISE.) Especially since there are still things left in my house in Tucson that need to be removed and dealt with. (I hate "dealing with".) Yeah, I know, big problems, I have too much stuff. (I've been assaulted by the juxtaposition of headlines lately: obesity on the rise in America, children in flood-ravaged Pakistan starving to death. The observation of drowning in "too much" while so many have too little is coloring my attitude these days. I feel spoiled and bloated and disgusted by the fact that I'm complaining about it. That doesn't stop the complaining, though - it's what I do.)

Ahem. Again.

Lookie! Finished projects!


(In the interest of full disclosure, it's not totally done, but I had this condo to move...)

Ignore the parts that look like they were done by monkeys on crack, mmmmkay?
Mostly done by hand (the green-and-black border was machine-pieced), and I loved it. Applique soothes me, and hand quilting was loads of fun, even though I felt like I wasn't doing it right. Classes coming soon, once the household stuff is taken care of. I'm still working on finishing a quilt for Rick's father and grandmother, each, that were mostly pieced ages ago. I'm feeling the urge to knit once again, though, so it will be a matter of fitting in all that I want to do. Christmas is coming (yeah, I know, shut my filthy mouth) and I have some scarves to knit. (Someone told me I was not to buy them gifts so I am using the handmade loophole. Oh yes I am.) Suggestions for a manly scarf for a smaller, older gentleman who lives in a damp-but-not-freezing climate are appreciated. Preferably patterns that won't melt my brain from the boring.


So, since I have too much stuff and too much to do, I decided to get some more.



Meet Dream and Sickle (Icicle). Two 4 month old boys, my newest babies. T has never had pets, and I never had indoor cats (and no cats at all for 20 years) so this is an adventure. To say the least.

I'll leave you with a video of Bug, from a recent party for a friend. I lament the loss of the old standard party at the house, with some games and chips and homemade cake - now you have to rent jumping castles or trains or go to a facility with kiddie-sized roller coasters. (I swear, by the time Smacky is ten I'll be sending him on birthday trips to Disneyland for him and his 100 closest friends.) However, we went to Amazing Jake's last weekend, and he is the perfect age for it. He had a blast, and I loved watching him. He's a generally happy kid, for sure, but sometimes he radiates joy and happiness in a way that's palpable. It was the kind of Mommy moment I live for.

Almost up.

The time, that is.
This weekend was all about the Christmas. We got our tree, I baked and baked and cleaned and baked, and STILL only had four batches of goodies. We had friends over for holiday light watching and cookies, though, and we barely made a dent in the goodies, so I suppose that means I just need to have people over again, right? The Bug LOVED the lights, and had a grand time watching the horses and mules pulling wagons and buggies through the streets. We saw about six different Santas (and only one Mrs. Claus - reverse polygamy?), a couple of Marines in full dress (so very handsome) collecting donations for Toys for Tots, and the local food bank collecting money and canned food. The Winterhaven collection gets our food bank quite a chunk of change every year, and I just love it. This means I also participated in BigAlice's food bank contest!
I made a dent in the quilt too, though I am having to revise my original plans yet again in order to have any hope of finishing this thing. Have I mentioned before that I hate machine quilting? I think I might have. Anyway, the lovely and talented Cassie gave me a hint about hand-quilting, so I might try it again on a top I have waiting (and waiting and waiting) to be finished.
I didn't even touch the stole, but I have hopes of grafting it tonight. I'm a little trepidatious about it, though - when I graft socks, I take them off the needles because I can do it without instructions that way. I'm not entirely sure I'll have the fortitude to do it with several inches of laceweight. Maybe I will try only taking a few stitches off the needle at a time... And finish the quilting... And the laundry... And some shopping... Sigh.

Mama's Little Helper

Yesterday I stayed home with a sick Bug. "Sick" is misleading in Bug's case - usually he is just mildly cranky but still going full steam ahead. Such was yesterday, when he also refused to nap and stayed up until 9:30pm. Sigh.
I decided to try to baste FIL's quilt, since the floor was clean, the dogs were outside, the husband was out of town, and the Bug was otherwise occupied. I think he has a sensor for when Mama hits the floor though, because this is how I basted:







Notice the blue highlighter he has in some of those pics. Mama snagged it and chucked it in the sink when he wasn't looking, but not before he managed to get a couple spots on the gold fabrics. Of course. (There may be spots on the other colors, but they're dark enough I can't see them.) If they don't come out, I'll just tell FIL it was Bug's contribution to the effort.