Yarn Thoughts

The Christmas Blizzard

I don't even know how much snow has fallen.  6 inches? 12?  Hard to say as it's all been blown around in 30-50 mph gusts, but it's a cold mess out there.  Therefore I extended my long weekend by another day and stayed hunkered down, venturing out to shovel and to let the littles play till the snow froze their little fingers.  It was so cold and windy even playing wasn't that much fun.

I would have baked something but we are still working through Christmas cookies, Christmas ham and I'm waiting to see who is going to finish off the last of the eggnog.  Onward and ahead is the new year with it's new slate, new promises, new potential for doing and being different.

Last year my resolution was to care less.  To give a fuck less.  To look at nit-picky situations and say "fuck it".  Which I worked on all year and got better at, a little.  I'm still frustrated by a messy house, still ticked off at stupid petty problems, but I would say less so than before.  It's too hard to spend all that energy in frustration and anger.  So I let go a little, tried to be a little more mindful about what's really going on and just really focused on enjoying my family.  I fall in love with my children every day and it's wonderful.

This year, looking ahead I would like to marry my mindfulness, my somewhat laissez-faire attitude with a little more discipline.  I would like this year to be a year where I work hard at the goals that are important while continuing to let the small stuff go.  My goals however are mixed and kind of interdependent on one another so I'm going to have to take life as it comes, but pay more attention to life, work harder at living life and stay focused in the moments while keeping my eyes ahead.  Sounds confusing.  Even to me.  I'm just going to drill it down to disclpline.  I'd like to be a relaxed type A personality.  If that could even work.  Detail oriented and accomplished, but not petty, overwhelmed and out of touch with reality. 

The children are snugged and slumbering, the wind is howling and hubbo is probably scoping out some quality television programming which I will knit to.  If I don't make it back here this week, Happy New Year!

Christmas quiet

7 am on Christmas Eve and there's a lull in the house, the inhale before the big exhale.  There's plenty left to be done in the cooking, wrapping and cleaning departments.  And I have to run out to get a few last things.  And my family of 14 is coming over this afternoon and I really don't think I have any clean pants.

But the morning quiet is a moment that I'm enjoying.  I have the sunrise to my left out the window and I can hear my kids sleeping in the room to my right.  My 10 year old niece is here to learn how to cook and bake.  It makes me so happy to share what I love to do with her. But more than that I'm hoping to make a memory for her that she will look back on as she gets older and draw comfort knowing that I love her. And for me, that's what Christmas is.

I might be grumpy, frustrated and overwhelmed by 2 o'clock today, but by 5 when everyone is here and we're eating, drinking and being merry I know I will take another moment and let that happiness of my family fill me up.

Merry Christmas

A Christmas Craft

It came to my attention recently that not all Christmas-celebrators know what an Advent Calendar is.  I was very surprised.  I had just gotten an advent calendar from the Christmas Tree shop.  It's a wall hanging with 25 little pockets and you move an ornament one day closer to 25 each day until you arrive at Christmas.  I had to explain to my boss that each day you move space to space the kids get a little treat.

Now I have two kids and having 25 days of treats gets a little ridiculous.  Usually I just leave a piece of candy so my house doesn't get filled up with crap.

My sister has four kids.  She has 2 girls, aged 10 years and 9 months.  Her two boys are 2 and 4 and making them all take turns for an advent gift is what they call "logistically difficult" which is a euphemism for "wailing and moaning which grinds the household to a halt cause a two year old didn't get a treat".  It's also expensive in a time of year when everything seems expansive.

This is Brody, her two year old.  Who happens to look like Paul Newman when he isn't being goofy with stuffing smeared on his face.  But look at that face.  Could you deny him a special treat?

So his mother, smart lady that she is, decided she would do a 12 days of Christmas countdown, thereby cutting advent in half.  She also decided that she would do a sharing present like a book or art supplies.  She mentioned that she wanted a festive bag to hang on a door knob.

I asked.  Or begged.  Or insisted...it's hazy now, that she let me make the bag.  I knew right away what I wanted to make and I asked her what she needed.  She said she wanted something about 12"x12" inches with a handle.  I wanted to give her something homey and homemade that maybe over the years would become special to her and her family.

I had some scrap felt, some floss and a burst of energy and made her and her kids this:

 

Simple.  Cute. Effective.  I found a clip art graphic of a tree I liked and cut it out.  I made a basic tote bag, embroidered the tree and glued it to the bag.  Voila!  I would have embellished it a lot more but I had about 5 hours to do the whole thing over two days so it had to be quick.

She likes it, I like it and the kids will like it.  A perfect ending to a Christmas story :)

 

Slow Going- live blogging my commute

This morning me and the family pull into the train station where I get dropped off everyday. As we pull into the lot I say to my husband, Why is there a city bus in the parking lot? Then I read it's little electronic sign and I realize it's to replace our train today. Phooey!
This means that 1) instead of having ample room to spread out and knit I'm on a crowded seat. 2) instead of having a smooth ride I'm bouncing around and sitting in traffic and 3) the traffic is bad enough that I'm going to miss my connecting train thereby making me late for a day of work I was hoping to leave early from.
Oh! He just turned a different way. I might make make my train.
Excellent work bus driver! Thanks!

Well I crapped out at the end

8 days have whizzed by in a moment.  I totally blew Nanoblopomo.  Maybe next year.  Maybe January.

I have been knitting, knitting, knitting where I can.  Baking, craft making, traveling and avoiding the dust bunnies like they're rabid.

This is my older son modeling the last hat I designed.  This hat will be on my soon-to-be-adopted cousin from Russia.  This is my older son with the why-am-i-modeling-a-hat face.  He's five and already knows when mom is being ridiculous.

Now someone who can't tell mom is bizarre, here's Eli:

The hat is knit top down which makes it ideal for a knitter like me who often errs on the side of short hats.  No one wants a short hat.  The toned stripes are great for kids or adults.

Here are the stripes:

And just to even it out so each boy gets 2 photos:

I'm going to make another one and then write out the pattern.  It's a clever little construction if I do say so myself and I'm very happy with the results!