Yay me!

I'm nearly finished with my second puzzle ball of the set of them for the twids. Twids? you say. Yes, twids. My niece and nephew are fraternal twins and for the longest time they were known as the twinfants. Now that they are bigger however it no longer applies, so they have graduated to twids. I can hardly wait to get their presents in the mail to those little cuties! Thinking about it just makes me want to say, "Yay!"

And speaking of which, I'm working on socks for son #4 and they are going along quite well. Helps that he only has little preschooler sized feet, but still I seem to get better and better at socks with each sock I make. Though it does not however make me dread making them any less, go figure.

Then it is on to my mega project of the year: the wedding blanket for our friend Brian and his blushing bride Shelly. All prayers and good luck accepted, the wedding is a month. Still yay for the small victories!

Some things were never meant to be

Or at least not the way we meant them to be. Events, even objects have a life of their own it seems and trying to make them into something they aren't or trying to mold them to our expectations isn't a recipe for success. They are like people that way.

Take them as they come, look at them honestly for what they are and then see how they will or won't work in your life. And no matter how much you think something ought to be just how you want it to be, trust your instincts. If they are screaming at you don't go there, don't do it... listen, really truly listen. It may save you a lot of grief down the road.

And I'm not just talking about that slinky dress I wanted to knit myself which called for a bulky yarn, which in all honestly isn't that bulky, because if it truly was, using sport weight yarn wouldn't have made it feel like it weighed a ton. We'll shelve that till I either can spring the big bucks for the right yarn or find an incredible sale.

But it is really useful advice in knitting, too. As evidenced by the toddler sweater that was mostly finished, but due to all the special modifications I made, didn't turn out the way I wanted it to. Those modifications just weren't meant to exist in the same article of clothing, at least not without starting from scratch with a pattern of its own rather that patching together pieces of different patterns. I knew in my heart of hearts that I should really put together a brand new pattern, I was just in too much of a hurry to get started and get done to do what my gut told me I should. At least now I can take that sweater and evaluate where it went wrong and give me a good idea of where to do things differently.

All of this has not discouraged me on my quest for the right matching (or complimentary, if I have to resort to it) yarn to finish the prayer shawl for a friend, however. Sometimes I think making prayer shawls do more good for me than the people I make them for, until I give the next one away. Then I remember just how much simple prayer and loving thought and action can do for others, which leads me to starting the next prayer shawl.

Slacking at its best...

Wow, I'd say it, but its fairly obvious. So, what have I been doing? That's a good question. Mostly avoiding finishing my Christmas knitting. What I DID finish though was two Jayne hats, another "I do" shrug, and nearly finished with a toddler sweater that I'm sure is sadly a size or two too small now as well as a shrug for myself from Mal (purple mystery) that I bought about 2 yrs ago. So happy to finally find a project that spoke the name of this yarn!

Life has taken all sorts of interesting twists and turns which have led us to the much anticipated move back to our house on Merritt Island come the end of Oct/beginning of Nov later this year, unless we win the lottery, which we don't play, or find, adopt and benefit from the passing of an extrememly wealthy and unhealthy relative or "relative".

I've found myself spending more and more time outside in the evenings enjoying the beauty, silence, and darkness that will be much harder to come by once we move back, so that's a good thing. Always nice to take time to appreciate the little things that bring so much joy and happiness to our lives.

Where has the time gone?

How can it be the end of August already? Doesn't seem possible! But I found myself in need of saying this and didn't necessarily want to create a forum post on Rav that would go on and on with people feeling similarly, even though it might be all sorts of comforting.

Am I the only one who is on a tight budget right now and knows all too well how much yarn they can't afford, but desperately wants to go to the LYS, pick out each and every yarn they want to get and give it all a group hug, shed a few tears (not on the yarn, obviously) and then slowly and carefully back out of the LYS? Just the thought of it evokes images of an illicit rendezvous with a lover who you know you can never really leave your significant other for no matter how much you long to throw caution to the wind and run off with them.

I'm sure the workers at my LYS would start to think I'm even more a little off than I already am for A)having 5 kids and B)homeschooling them, but hey variety is the spice of life, right? LOL

Yay!

Ok, so "it" really, really is done and looks good and has started its journey with all the other goodies to Michigan. I'm now on pins and needles waiting to see if I did good or not. I've had a lot of fun with the Hogwart's swap, but I'm ready for a break from swaps for a little bit.

Meantime, I gifted my remaining lovely blue variegated bamboo to someone wishing to try out some bamboo which leaves me much relieved because I no longer need to figure out what to do with it! Yay! I SO love the RAK group on Ravelry!

And while I haven't had much time to devote to the dh birthday socks, I have been plugging along at them here and there and I took a new picture just to remind myself how much further along I am that I used to be.


Before


Currently

Speaking too soon...

::sigh::

Ok, I got a little ahead of myself with the "hat is finished" happy dance. After doing a little blocking I realized its WAY too big. Back to the drawing board... Ok, the knitting needles, but you get the picture! Well, maybe you don't.

Picture if you will... The exuberance turning to despair, the sulking for days until ready to pull myself up by the bootstraps, I start taking the hat back apart. At least I've got the join already done! :) I'm basically knitting off of the other one as I am nearing the end of my patience with this project and if I have to do anything else with it besides just finish it, I may cry and that would be bad.

I'm nearly halfway through, which is good! Also, I can mail my package out after I'm finished with it and I have my coachella/fusion concoction to finish, which I'm very much looking forward to... so yay me (in a few days anyway)! Meantime, back to knitting...

Perhaps there ought to be a Ravatar that says "I knit so I do not pull my hair out".

::sigh::

Look what I did!!!

After nearly two months worth of dust collecting on it, I finally set up my ball winder and used it! Here's my first two...

Can you tell I'm just a little proud of myself? LOL Winding yarn is so fun!