Almost the weekend…

1.  It’s Snowing.  Again.

2.  I went to book club tonight.  We met at the new hospital and got a tour.  I heard more details of the Northern Illinois University shooting victims as one of the book club members works in the surgical unit.  Depressing.

3.  I have a cold and am entering that chest suffocating stage with a scratchy throat.

4.  The guys are practicing again, but tonight it’s acoustic.  Jer just came upstairs and took a mouse out into the snow!  Somehow we have mice that end up in our window well.

4.  Pictures for me, but also for you!

Furniture shopping this past fall:

At the pumpkin patch with the kids:

Archie out in the snow:

These make me smile.

Ravelry

Well, folks…..I attempted posting pictures into my Ravelry profile tonight.  I am exhausted!  And I only got 3 pictures posted!  To be fair, I am taking pictures of “stash yarn”.  And I took 32 pictures (which means taking it out of the bin, artfully arranging it, taking the picture, putting it back in the bin), but it’s all the editing that’s done me in!  Just 2 months ago, I didn’t even have a blog.  Now, in addition to a blog I have a profile in ravelry and opened a flickr account and am doing something in picnik and trying to upload stash yarn photos. This is a lot of change in a short amount of time for a technologically challenged gal! I’m sure once I know what I am doing, I will breeze through it like nobody’s business.  Until then….major time suck.

I noticed that my last three posts contained “emoticons” (barf).  Actually, they were supposed to be a smile to let everyone know how I’m only joking or that I’m a happy, cheery person.  Well, three posts in a row is too much.  The emoticons have been banned.  For a while, at least.  You all will have to guess that I’m joking.  Let’s hope you get my sense of humor.

One final note:  the barbie doll seen below….still facedown on the floor and it’s Tuesday night.  I’m hoping Lainie will move it soon. 

Sunday night at the Swafford household

Even when the house is picked up, there always seem to be a few stray items….

…which I continually step over, with no thought that it should be put away.  I don’t think I even SAW it until I sat down to knit after the kids had gone to bed.

Progress on the knitting front!  Very exciting stuff:

I am already decreasing on the front left of Lainie’s cardigan! Though I’m doubtful she’s going to be able to wear this until she’s 12 (it’s supposed to be a size 4).  But the cardigan is flying along!

On a side note:  my husband just reminded me tonight that baseball season is starting tomorrow.  He is the junior varsity coach for the Sycamore High School baseball team.  That means he has to work at his regular job from 7:00 – 3:30 (he’s not a teacher) and then coach baseball from 3:30 – 5:30 until the season starts.  5 days a week plus Saturday.  Plus Sunday night open practice.  And once games start, he won’t be home until 7:00 at the earliest.  And so I begin the single parent lifestyle for the next 2 1/2 months!  Drill sargeant, here I come!!!

Knitting update & some Etsy love

…in that order!

I started working on Lainie’s cardigan some time ago.  I freaked out when I hit the top of the back, thinking that perhaps I was making it waaaaay too big and that Lainie wouldn’t be able to wear it until she’s 12 (I did a gauge swatch before beginning, too!).  My crafty buddy, Kristin, talked me off the ledge and said that the pattern “looked big”.  So, I blindly continued on and now find myself working on the left front:

See little Miss Attitude in the yellow cardigan?  That’s the pattern.  I sure hope Lainie doesn’t look like that when she puts this on (whether she’s 4 or 12).  I’m using Peter Pan yarn (made by Wendy, out of England), which I absolutely love.  I bought this from the yarn shop I re-learned to knit (continental, I might add!) a good 6 years ago.  Stash busting:  check!  Sadly, the Village Yarn Shoppe went out of business last summer.  Couldn’t keep up with Wool & Co. who moved from the next town over to inhabit a shop just one street away.  I hate Wool & Co.

But I digress.  The button band is ribbed, which is different for me, but fun.  This yarn is so soft, it’s yummy to knit.  Archie shredded a couple of the balls of this yarn, so I have some detangling ahead of me.

Now, for some Etsy love (to borrow a phrase from Bea).  I found out about Etsy through my crafty buddy, Kristin, who runs Craft Leftovers  and Green Prairie Fibers.  I have become addicted to Etsy and buy way too much stuff off of it.  But how can you not?  There’s some seriously cute stuff on Etsy and I love the fact that I’m supporting independent crafters.  And I’ve met some really, really nice people through it.  These are my latest (excessive) purchases:

This is made from vintage fabric and is big enough to tote knitting around in!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE the print and colors! This came from Danielle Bags.

My next bag is a bit smaller than I imagined when I purchased it, but I love buying from Nancy Gamon on Etsy:

Nancy is a very nice seller, who has some very cool headbands and bookmarks.

1:01 a.m.!  Wow, how time flies when children are asleep and your husband is off with his buddies!  Earlier this evening I was treated to him and “the band” practicing in the basement.  Before we had kids it was a routine 2-3 days a week (more if they had a show).  Now it’s mostly recording at Mark’s house and occasional wanking at our house.  There’s nothing like feeling your floor vibrate from the music!

Happy weekend, everyone!

Being Good

A quick post tonight as it’s late….pictures to follow tomorrow.

I was good and finished the other fingerless glove.  Stash busting:  check!  I also began the left front on a cardigan that I started for Lainie ages ago.  Keeping my resolve to finish projects and bust some stash:  check! 

I also found some hand dyed yarn on etsy today that I purchased to knit a scarf for my friend Christina.  I think she’ll love it because it’s her two favorite colors:  pink and green.  Swell!

We won’t go into my attempt at making a stitch marker tonight.  I still have a gouge on my thumb from the needle nosed pliers.  Clumsiness:  check! 

Hello, dahhling….

Hello, dahhling….love the new glove!  Yes, fingerless, dahling, all the rage now….and so quick to knit.  First one done in only 1 day.  Remember the tangled mess of yarn I posted before?  This came from that!

Yesterday, Craig and I took the kids to the Kohl’s Children’s Museum in Glenview, to a hotel for an overnight (with a pool) and then to a play in Chicago today (except we had the wrong day and so we didn’t get to see the play).  But all that car time gave me lots of time to wind that tangled mess into a ball and knit this!

And….Friday night I went to a knit-in at my LYS where I finished the scarf! Here’s another (badly taken) picture:

 

Believe it or not, I am childless for the evening and most of tomorrow.  I think I’m still trying to convince myself!  After we got home today, my mother-in-law took my kids and her other 2 grandchildren up to Rockford to an indoor waterpark and an overnight stay.  Craig is off playing basketball (or, ahem:  drinking beer) right now.

On a side note:  I am still shocked and so very saddened over the events at NIU on Thursday.  I live in DeKalb.  I went to school at NIU.  I still can’t believe that this shooting occurred and that young students were killed, so randomly.

I had gone to Cole’s valentine’s day party at school and after school got out, we went and picked up Lainie.  Driving home, I saw 2 helicopters sitting in the air over the park that is next to our subdivision.  We never have helicopters in our area, and certainly not 2 sitting in the air.  I thought to myself:  did someone drown in the Kishwaukee River?  (it runs through the park).  Then, I got home and saw that there were actually 3 helicopters and I could clearly hear the sound of their blades whirring.  Turns out they were news helicopters and were filming Cole Hall and the surrounding area (we live just south of NIU). Craig and I went out for dinner and on the way we listened to the news conference from the president of NIU was talking about the wounded, so I thought:  well, they’ll be okay.  We got home, turned on the 9:00 p.m. news and found out that there were 5 people dead, 4 at the scene. That whole time we were out eating, trying to think the best and there were people dead – young people who had so much potential, lives cut short way too soon.  Just horribly sad.  It sounds so cliche to say that things like that just don’t happen here in DeKalb, but really, they don’t.  What would drive a person to do such a thing?  The shooter picked one of the largest lecture halls on campus, filled with a freshman class.  It’s still unknown why he picked our campus (because he wasn’t attending NIU) or that class.  And now, the campus, students, families and community all have to try and come to terms with it.  The poor family of the shooter.  The families of the students who were killed.  The grad assistant teaching that class.  The students in that class.  The rest of the student body/university.  The entire community of DeKalb.  So much hurt and so much pain.

I’ve often said that I want to keep this blog upbeat and happy, because that’s the way crafting makes me feel.  But I just had to bring this up, because it is just an incredible loss and still so unbelievable.

I’m Blah, it’s cold, how are you?

I’d like to be able to show you a picture of a finished scarf.  I am almost done with it.  But it’s cold.  And snowy.  This endless winter seems to be sucking all of the energy right out of me and I am unable to do anything but sit under 2 warm blankets and watch “Project Runway”.  So, instead, here is a trip down memory lane, especially for you:

Remember me writing about that mean teacher I had in the 3rd grade?  This is what I looked like when I was in her class:

Thank goodness I never had to stand up on a desk because I got into trouble.  I would have been mortified.

But then came the 80’s and I wanted to look “different”:

ACK!  That’s not my natural color…oh wait, you already noticed?  I’m wearing a lot more makeup in this picture than I do now, at almost 39. (Side note:  Bea, I lived in Texas at this time)

But these days, this seems more my M.O.:

Here’s hoping for more energy in the coming days.

Time to….BUST THAT STASH!

So….Cole came home today with a desperate letter from his teacher pleading for antibacterial wipes for the kids desks, pencils, soap and glue sticks.  Being the handy mother that I am (or just a huge clearance buyer), I could respond to some of those concerns immediately.

You see, I had purchased (at the end of the back-to-school season) a classroom’s worth of crayons, pencils and glue sticks.  Literally.  My plan was to make gift bags for the kids to take home after their classroom Christmas party.  However, the room mother did not choose my idea and I was left with…a classroom’s worth of stuff.

Now, I should let you all know that I’m married to a possession nazi.  I’ve fought the good fight for almost 15 years.  If my radar is up, I save things from the garbage can in the garage.  But then there are the times I don’t and end up losing things such as:  savings bonds, gift certificates, a foot spa (not to mention toys).  As we speak, I know that Cole’s hot wheels track that I bought him for Christmas is in the garbage, as is the barbie keyboard that Lainie got for Christmas (not purchased by me).  There was the time that Craig decided that Cole didn’t need to have all the mess that a ball pit brought on — so he decided to get rid of the ball pit approx. 3 days after Cole received it as a birthday present.  He still hasn’t been forgiven by his brother for that one.  Or I could talk about the 20% rule, but we’ll save that for another time. 

BACK TO SCHOOL SUPPLIES…so I knew I had a boatload of supplies and I knew it included pencils and glue sticks.  I just couldn’t find them.  So, I frantically thought back to December, after I found out that my practical gift bag suggestion was dissed by the room mother.  I knew I had to hide them because the Posession Nazi was not going to want to see that much of one item.  But I couldn’t remember what the hell I had done with all of it.  So…I started searching all of my “spots”.  I searched my areas of the closet.  Behind all of my areas in the closet.  I searched Lainie’s closet (the entire right hand side that is my yarn stash).  I searched Cole’s closet.  I looked through my dresser drawers.  I looked under the bed.  I looked through Cole’s dresser.  Nothing.  Damn, I thought, he’s thrown it away. 

I try never to go to Craig and ask if he knows where something of mine is because I never know what the reaction is going to be.  It could be “I don’t know” or “It’s not my turn to look after it” or the dreaded “you’ve got too much sh..”.  But I needed to know what happened to those school supplies.  So, swallowing my pride, I asked.  And lo and behold, he put them in the basement with THE EASTER STUFF.  Well, that’s exactly where I’d put it (roll eyes here).  So, I dug out 54 pencils and one gallon size baggie full of glue sticks and admonished Cole to give them to his teacher FIRST THING so that he gets brownie points for having the best mother ever!!!  Yeah, I’ll admit it!

But looking through all of this crap to find the dumb school supplies, I realized that…..I have too much yarn.  I stash busted from October until the beginning of the year and am happy to report that I managed to use up about a half of a bin’s worth of stash.  But….I’ve continued to buy and managed to fill it back up.  NOW I MUST COMMIT TO STASH BUSTING!  Do you hear this, Kristin?  Do not let me buy any more yarn at the yarn store, even if it’s off of a cone!  The only yarn I am allowed to buy is hand dyed yarn from you and from Bea!

BUST….THAT…STASH!!!!!

Someone give this book a good home!

I was cleaning above the kitchen cabinets the other day and discovered that I have 2 copies of Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier (doesn’t everyone store books above their kitchen cabinets?).  This book was made into a sizzling movie with Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and the chick who married that cowboy dude and then dissed him by divorcing his sorry little self.   Poor man, I think he was blindsided. 

But I digress.  I haven’t seen the movie, but didn’t it win an award or something? I believe both copies were purchased through library sales.  Both are trade size paperbacks.  Is there anyone out there who would like a copy?  If so, leave a comment and it’s yours!  I’ll even include a handmade bookmark  - if they turn out well.  Otherwise, you’ll get a well made one that I purchased from Card Blanc  before the holidays.

The wind is a’howlin in these parts tonight…-25 to -30 degrees with the wind chill.  I need some hot chocolate!

Knitting update:  I dug through the yarn stash and came up with the second skein of black/white yarn so tomorrow I will post an updated picture of the “boring black and white scarf”.  Hopefully it will be finished!

Slacker

Look at me.  I’ve been sitting in a cold oven since Superbowl Sunday.  Forgotten.  But that didn’t stop the person who made me on Sunday eat 3 of me when she opened the door tonight.  After she started heating up the oven.

Hello…..it’s February 6, 2008….didn’t you realize that?  Why can’t you find the time to store me with the rest of my brethren in the dark, spider filled basement? You’re certainly down there enough with your LAUNDRY.

Oh, you think you got it bad?  I used to be a well ordered hank of yarn.  Then SOMEONE left me out and the dog shredded me.   Boy, she’s going to have fun trying to make those fingerless gloves now!  Ever heard of picking up after yourself?