Christmas was over months ago...

But I'm still working on those pesky Christmas gifts.

I started the Juno Regina before Christmas, but chose a sock yarn, so it's taking forever. There are a few places where I've messed up majorly, but I doubt my mother in law will notice. She's not a knitter. I'm not frogging back. I refuse.

I do love the shape and feel of it, though. It is a beautiful pattern. I am using Berroco Comfort Sock in red for it. Lovely.

I started on the Star Blanket last night for my Aunt Betty. I am already ten percent through. The pattern is a nostalgic feeling, considering I was on the pinwheel for six months and this is similar in its own design. I am using Caron Simply Soft Eco in Wine Country for this blanket. I can't wait to see the finished result.

I never did update on the Gryffindor. My neice loved it. The monogram came out perfectly. It was a beautiful scarf, and I was very pleased with myself. I had fun doing the tassles, too. I will knit another scarf in the round for someone as soon as I get some things off of my needles.

I started my first pair of socks for my husband. I am using Red Heart Soft Yarns in dark green. I am knitting the Guitar Socks. They look big so far, but my husband has baseballs for calf muscles so I think I'll be fine:) I am only about fifteen percent through with the first one, but I have to get these Christmas presents out!

As far as knitting anything for myself, the Evangelines are sleeping and the Mosey's are waiting patiently on my eager fingers.

I started a butterfly hat for my daughter, who told me she wanted a pink butterfly hat, mommy, and I imagined I had enough left over of the Bernat Haven in Ballerina to make one for her, wrong. I ran out. And unfortunately, it is now a discontinued yarn that I have to buy on Ebay (just to finish the last twently or so rows on a toddler hat...) Might as well buy enough for a child's scarf, too.

I knit some beautiful Whimsey fingerless gloves for my sister in law's coworker. That is such a lovely pattern, if you've never knit it, I suggest it. You start off with provisional cast on and knit the cuff, which is slip stitched edging and cabled and lace, then you graft it together, and pick up stitches along the opening in the cufflet and continue knitting the glove. It's fun and simple once you learn how to do everything. The designer has made a whole ensemble out of this pattern, hat, scarf, gloves, and maybe something else... Fun knit, and beautiful.

In other news, my son crawls now!! He's new at it so he's still scooting with his head down and pushing with his legs, but I can't knit around him without him crawling/scooting for my yarn and eating at it before I can get to a point to take it away from him:) He chews up everything in his sight, always going for the no no's first i.e. phones, remotes, knitting, bills.... I forgot how grabby babies were. And he never sleeps anymore. Ever.... man. I'm tired:)

My daughter is cute as ever. The other day I told her that whenever I had to discipline her it broke my heart and to please be better for Mommy. I notice her doing something with her fingers, and I'm looking, and she's then handing me whatever it was in her hands, holding it up to me going "I fixed your heart, Mommy."
How can you discipline her after that?? Wow. And her and the baby play together now. My kids are growing up, which is a sign I'm getting old.... Oh well. I'm just happy I have healthy, happy, smart children and that I can provide for them like they need.

My dog is getting better. She has only chewed up one toy in the past week. But she loves stuffed animals. She attacked my son's giraffe. I was so sad I cried. Boo hoo. I'm still crying over that one. But she's a good doggie, and she's good with my daughter. She's a good watch dog, too.

I started working at Tom Murphy Realty by pure chance. My friend Bonnie called me and said that a few people had quit, and she needed some help. I came up here, and kept coming back. She mentioned permenancy and pushed for a position for me from her boss, so now I'm her assistant! And we have so much fun everyday:) It was just in time, too, because my unemployment had just ran out. I have my resume in at the temp agency but haven't gotten a job offer from there, yet.

It is a great balance for me, and I feel like getting out of the house everyday makes me a better person, more balanced.

I haven't been taking my zoloft. I am going to get my prescriptions filled just incase I have another melt down and decide to go back on it, but I haven't been taking it for the past six weeks. It's been a struggle, but it's been okay.

I am also sad because I have dried up. I think I may still be able to just make it come back, I can still get some milk out, and my son will nurse when he's tired, but if he's awake, you can forget it. He wants to be "crawling." I stopped being able to get anything out with a pump, trying to pump frequently and coming up with nothing but sore nipples... Well, it was a good six months, and six months is better than nothing. I could expect this with starting back to work. He still passifies himself on them sometimes, and that's the only thing that will passify him at times. But, with him being a little boy (and his Daddy's boy at that) that will change soon, too, on my watch, not his.

My husband and I are doing good. We just passed our one year of marriage:) It has been a lot easier since then. We just meld together. I am happy with him in my life, I just wish we had more time together to do things. I work days and he goes to class at night, so it gets hard and we miss each other a lot, but it will be better in a year and a half when he's out of school.

And when I don't have so many unfinished projects I'm constantly working on:)

,,,

I have been so depressed lately.

I have been taking my medicine like prescribed, and I've been trying to get a healthy dose of me time, but, I am so overwhelmed...

i can't even remember how to breathe...

Must calculate in mistakes for a more accurate E.T.C.

If only I had more than a month until Christmas....

I was so excited about the Gryffindor scarf and the Juno Regina. They are special gifts to me for my niece and my MIL. The Gryffindor was requested by my SIL.

I decided to make it special for her. You know, Monogram and all:) Well, I've never made a monogram before, and after thinking it through in my head on "one of those days" I decided I would try it. I did no research, just dove right in.

So, measuring my slack roughly, trying not to pull deep holes in the stitches from the color changing... etc... and after I determinedly finished the letters, I took a step back, and marveled at my creation. I wish I had a picture for such laughs:)

Needless to say I frogged it....

So... after knit night with girlfriends who are more experienced than me, I was given advice by my personal tutor to "carry" the yarn across the back. Sounded cool. So, I went home and readily started "carrying" the yarn across the back.

Lookin good, lookin good.

Now, I'm finished with the first stripe and it looks like I changed needles four gauges too big... oh well, at least I'm just starting the second stripe.

Now.... here are my plans on the matter, let's see if I can follow through with them.

I would like to just cast on the number of stitches I need on straight needles, not joining in the round. With this method, I only have to carry the yarn for the length of the monogram. Where as before it was around the complete round....
It has it's positive points.
1. I won't be using unnecessary large amounts of yarn.
2. I won't have to "Carry" the yarn around the whole round, so quicker knit.
3. It will only looked "bubbled" between the spaces and possibly not noticeable at all to someone who's not over critical bc it's not their work.

My plan is that, and then to join in the round on the beginning of the next stripe, and just seaming up the one side when it's time.

So.... must go get started if I'm going to have this thing finished by Christmas:)
I have confidence in myself now that I have an experienced, or um.. educated plan:)


Wish me luck!

Uh-oh. Mrs. Indecisive Procrastinator, We have another difficult decision to make......

I know I said I'd be done by the 28th... birthday pinwheel for Alayna... but it just wouldn't finish itself. I knitted and knitted but this thing has erupted into too large of a monster to try and complete while rushing around the house haphazardly setting up for a party unbeknownst to the nosiest two year old in the world, all while breastfeeding full time and diapering, and juggling everyone's schedule on top of the never ending sleep deprived state I'm perpetually finding myself in.

But it is over 700 stitches around, increasing ten stitches every two rounds, and then with the lace ruffle I want to add to the edging, that will be over 1600 stitches at the end.

Now that her birthday has come and almost gone I'm trying to decide whether or not to make this thing bigger than it is and making Christmas my new deadline, but that would just be too much. Already the finished project will be (by my ragged calculations) fifty inches across. If I add more stripes to it then it will be over six feet across. I think part of me is sad to watch it end... and this is me stretching it out. It's already so big that I can't really take it out of the house to knit, and I must end it on pink, because it started on pink and I'm just anal that way, and that will be three more stripes or so before it's back on pink, because it's a specific pattern... and well, you know. The way it is now is perfect because of the stripe coloring and it's a palindrome as it is so I'd kinda like to leave it that way because I just like things even like that... that's just how I am.

So I think in a rambling sorta way I just made up my mind!!! Go blogging!!

Okay, so today we had a small (and by small I mean my husband, my son, Birthday Princess, and I) party. Last weekend was the big party, but today, it was small.

I started the day by dressing Alayna for church and scooting her out the door for church with the grandparents, and then kissing Hubby g'bye for work. Finally, just me and Mr. Sleepybaby... time to get this party started.

I though, what better way than to start a pot of coffee, that will make my two hour deadline more productive. So while the coffee is broiling I go clean up the backyard, and then the bathroom, and while I"m cleaning the bathroom all I can think is "wow, that coffee smells wonderful. I love Irish Creme!" So, off to the kitchen to make a cup. Somehow I didn't close the top and there was coffee and coffee grounds all over the counter... Let's try this again.

Finally, got my coffee in me, and in two hours I had successfully cleaned the living room, front porch, kitchen, Alayna's room, and cooked brownie cupcakes (which seemed like a better idea in my head) and a chicken and shrimp white wine alfredo sauce spaghetti bake. Which was delicious. Oh, and wrapped and ribboned presents. I was rattling off whole conversations with everything I touched. Coffee is great... I can see how people become addicted to this stuff!!!

We had a wonderful day, though. Alayna had a blast, the food was good, and the house isn't a wreck quite yet... neither am I, so I guess it was great:)

Now... off to work on the everlasting pinwheel blanket:)

birthday pinwheel

I started on my daughter's pinwheel blanket over a month ago. June 29th to be exact.
I am only 25 percent into it.
I want to make it big enough for her because she's three, but I fear there aren't big enough circular needles to do so with, so off to ebay I go....
I have to have it finished by her birthday which is at the end of this month. And even though I want to work on my Mosey's I've started, and start another Clapotis, and a shrug for my daughter, and a flirty skirty for me...... I must put those aside and finish this one project.
I used to be a one at a time kinda knitter, but I don't know what happened. Maybe it was Ravelry and the unlimited access to all these wonderful patterns that I just cannot resist! Maybe it's the stir crazy stay at home mom in me, maybe it's the need to finish fifty projects by the end of this year... who knows.
All I know is, if I would've waited on the Evangelines, the Pinwheel Baby Hat, the Mug Cozy, the mittens, the bolero, the Clapotis, the Calorimetry, the Christmas Eve Mitts, the three cabled hats, and all three bookmarks, then maybe I would have this darn blanket at least seventy five percent through....
Or maybe I'd be exactly where I am now and just plain bored with it.

All i know is I've knitted fourteen things and can't seem to get half way through this, and this has a deadline.
If I finished the diaper bag that I don't foresee myself using, have even contemplated giving it to my daughter for her dolls, then I can finish the beautiful pinwheel blanket that is taking me forever.
I cannot wait to show it off when it is done. The colors are so vibrant and eye popping, and the striping is lovely.
I just hope that when I do finish it, it will be big enough for her to enjoy for at least two full years:)
And after that one, it's off to one for my son....

The cycle continues. There will always be one massive project in the background, I suppose.

Purple Mystery Yarn

Funny story.

Yesterday I was going stir crazy from being in the house for almost two weeks with a new baby and just wanted to get some sunshine. If I didn't get out of the house I was going to go mad!!
So, I put on the Baby Bjorn, put my daughter's shoes on, leashed the dog, and said, "let's go!"
We walked around our usual way, and I wasn't sure if I needed to go home yet, or if it was okay for me to take the route that would mark a full mile.
I opted to go the mile.

One point five blocks into the mile I come across a random skein of purple yarn on the sidewalk. Just lying there. No other's, no label, no needles. Just yarn.


It's like it just fell from heaven and was like, Here you go! One more for your overloaded stash!

I'm going to make something for my daughter with it since she carried it the rest of the way home;)

My husband says "see, all you need to do is go for a walk if you want new yarn."
haha, right.

slowly finding my groove

I'm going to start with the brightest news.
My son, Guntram Christian Anderlik was born Wednesday morning August 6, 2008 at 10:33 am. He was 6lbs, 19.5 inches long. head full of black hair, no problems nursing, bundle of joy!!


the really great thing about it is that my almost three year old daughter has adapted very well. She loves him sooo much and isn't jealous or regressing.
I thought judging by this picture she would...

That's her in her little brother's clothes before he was born... that's a 0-3 mo. sleeper:)

but here she is afterwards...

They seem to get along well with each other.
She says things like, "oh, sweet baby brother" and asks for me to help her express milk from her chest when she sees me pump.... "mommy, help me please" while grabbing her nonexistent chest:)
She will run from room to room looking for her brother while going "uh-oh, baby gone" until she finds him.

Since I've had him, I haven't hardly knit. I've done about four rounds of a pinwheel blanket and one cable pattern repeat on the evangelines.

I have found myself bluesy. I don't know why and it's not fun to talk about because I sound like a poor pathetic girl with low self esteem who's always fishing for compliments and attention. It's hard to explain.

I can't wait to get into a groove with my new life. A scheduled day... I can't wait until I can go on walks again. It's hard to find time to shower, I can barely walk around the house unless I'm medicated. It's depressing.

And women who just gave birth should never ever pick up a mirror, especially in the bathroom. That would bring Chuck Norris to tears:(

I don't know what normal is anymore, so my perception of normal is far fetched. I can't say "I just want to be normal" because I haven't been with two kids before... so I have to find a new normal for myself. Something comfortable to me.

I wish I could find a way to tell my husband that I want more attention without sounding clingy or needy. It's not like i can make love to him or anything at the moment.

I just can't wait to feel healed enough to get out of the house. I'm ripped so bad I can't even drive. And I'm going stir crazy lately. My husband is working doubles, and when he's home he watches tv and just wants to relax because he works so hard, so it's hard to say "watch the kids while I take a shower" or "baby, pay attention to me"

I just want to curl up into a ball until I feel right again....