Marie Grace Designs

Oops, I did it again.

Yes, I had planned on stopping by the LYS but it was only because I needed to drop something off. I’m not really sure how I managed to leave with a bag of goodies but I’m blaming the yarnball sprites. As you can see, they do exist.

The orange project and I are actually getting along rather well. I’m adjusting to the squinting and at least the yarn is pleasing to knit with. The only real problem so far is that it is impossible for me to take a picture of this stuff anywhere in the house. I’ve tried all my usual yarnography places where the natural lighting is decent but no matter what I do the pictures are horrible. Outside is the only place to get a half decent pic. (If you click on the little pic to make it bigger it does look a little better.)

You may have noticed that I’ve done a lot of stocking up and started several new projects. Not that there is anything really out of the ordinary about that but there is an underlying reason. Mac Daddy is heading out for another 2 week trip. That’s right, he’s abandoning me to go play techno super hero again. Off to Canada he goes to run cables, install routers and do major network upgrades. While he’s away I’ll be sitting here pitying myself and knitting. I do best when I have an assortment of things to keep me busy and give me something to think about other than how many days I have to wait til he comes home.

The kids get all weird when he’s away, too. We rent a lot of cheesy movies and hang out together. We eat breakfast food for dinner. We jump every time the cell phone rings.

2 weeks is a long time when you miss somebody.

Its orange.

The Big Guy was thrilled yesterday when the mail lady dropped a box outside the door. While I was opening the box he reminded me that he wanted orange, not melon, not peachy-orange, not pumpkin....orange. I had promised that if he didn’t approve of the orange I had chosen for him I would exchange it for something else.

He was definitely not disappointed. I, however, am blind.

The orange glow that sprang from the opened end of the box reminded me of one of those Sci-Fi movies when curious kids are bent over an ominous hole and light suddenly bursts forth. Blinding light that makes you want to back away.
Trying to overcome my fear of the orange-ness I did a swatch last night. Orange twist.

Consider this a free PC monitor color check up. If this swatch isn’t glaringly orange your monitor needs the color adjusted.

I go in circles

Now that The Little Lady’s pullover is to the point of just needing sleeves I started thinking about what to do next. There’s orange yarn coming in the mail for The Big Guy’s I-must-have-something-orange project so I know I’m going to need something to help me keep my color-phobic brain from melting. I was thinking about a simple cotton gansey so I did some swatching over the weekend.

Cotton in hand, I fiddled. Maybe just a single panel repeat with some cables.....hmmmmm....let me see. How about a leafy panel in the center.......oh, with a trailing vine panel too....well that doesn’t look like a gansey.....looks like something that needs moss stitch.....I’ll add this basket weave....like a spring theme....leaves and vines and basket weave, hey that looks good....maybe I’ll throw in this diamond. Wait. That doesn’t look right together. Maybe a cable......oh, I like this diamond even better......let’s dump the leaves for now. Well, without the leaves the trailing vine looks a little silly and the basket weave is all out of place. Oh, I see.

How about this! A simple gansey with just one main panel repeat and some cables! Perfect! Too bad I didn’t think of that in the first place.

I really do have a hard time with warm weather knitting. I feel like I’m supposed to be knitting little tank tops and other summer apparel but I just don’t dig it. I’ve seen some awesome hip/cute/trendy/sexy little get-ups and just for a moment I think I’ll give it try but as soon as I pick up the needles I just want something else. I’m not sure if that means I’m limiting myself or if it means I just like certain things and don’t really like others. The closest I seem to get to summer knitting is cotton. The way I see it we still need light sweaters in the summer. Summer evenings can still be cool and honestly I love wearing denim shorts and my favorite beat-to-hell leather sandals with a loose cotton sweater. The kids will spend all day in the pool and by the time the sun starts to go down they are water logged and their teeth are chattering. Something soft and dry is just what they need.

So I doubt you’ll ever call me trendy or hip which is fine because I’ve never been trendy or hip. Being trendy sounds like it comes with a lot of pressure. I just want to knit.

Blog tune-up and free patterns.

Maybe its my desire to do some of that heavy duty spring cleaning . Maybe its my quest to regain control after eating too much cheesecake over the long weekend. Either way I decided to revamp the look of the blog to something a bit lighter and cleaner. I’ve also been known to rearrange the furniture just for something to do.

Now that the holiday is over and things are back to normal I have some things I need to finish up, knitting-wise and otherwise.

Yes, I know. Judging by my email you think I’m never going to get those patterns up like I promised. Oh, ye of little faith.

They are here as promised, just click on the patterns link in my left sidebar. Both of these patterns are free for you in PDF form. I have tried my best to make sure the patterns are complete and correct. If you do have a question or find a problem please email me. Don’t send hate mail, just let me know and I’ll be happy to help.

I thought about posting pictures and tips for some of the details like the embroidered daisies on the alpaca sweater and the raglan seam on the cotton cardi. I may still do it but thought I would wait and see if there are any specific questions about either pattern.

I do need to tell you a little about the alpaca yarn I used for the Alpaca Raglan. I just can’t say enough about this yarn. It was handed over to me to dabble with by a wonderful woman who hand-dyes the blend of alpaca and wool. The colors are lovely and the small amount of wool mixed with the alpaca gives it enough body to hold shaping but still drape wonderfully. Its super soft and just plain snuggly. I wish there were scratch and snuggle patches I could post here so you could feel it!

The yarn will be available under its own label, hopefully by the end of summer, just in time for fall knitting! Until then you can find it by clicking on the Llamajama link in my sidebar. I already have a small stockpile of some of the dyed colors and some naturals in the cabinet.

Now that these patterns are all done and on paper I’m back to working on The Little Lady’s cotton pullover. The back is done and I’m working up the front. It should be a relatively quick knit.

I still haven’t decided on all the details of the next project for the boys. The Big Guy has a major fascination with orange this year (oh, help me) so I’m trying to please him without making my eyes go all buggy. I think I have a solution but it will require a trip to the LYS (oh darn). I’d like to do 1 design for both the boys with different colors and maybe some minor differences. I’ll make a final decision once I do some swatching.

Finding a balance.

Sorry to report I don’t really have anything new to show, however, I have been busy.

We had our yearly homeschool evaluations today. Translate that into: I’ve been sorting and gathering book lists, math assignments and history reports. I’m so glad I have the option to homeschool my kids but get a little queasy ever year when eval time rolls around. Our evaluator is a wonderful woman with 7 kids (and you thought I was nuts) and she is always friendly and supportive so we’ve never had anything questionable come up. Its just the sound of reporting to someone and needing to have the stamp of approval from our school district that irritates me a wee tad.

I’ve finally gotten around to getting patterns for Tater’s Cotton Cardi and the Alpaca Raglan written up. In fact, they’re sitting here on the desk in front of me. So all I have to do now is post them to the blog and you can have them, right?

Here’s where Mac Daddy enters the picture and messes everything up helps me out.

Me: "Honey, what’s the best way to put these on the blog so others can have them?"
MC: "You need a template."
Me: "Huh?"
MC: "A template."
Me: "No, I just want to post them somehow. So other people can print them out."
MC: (shaking his head as if to say “Oh, you silly, silly woman” with that tut-tut-tut like Nanny McPhee) "Yes, you need a template so they will look nice, print nice, and always have the same format."
Me: "Well, how do I do that?"
MC: "Let us go inquire of The Sacred Mac."
Me: "Oh, crap."

So, its me and The Mac again. We’re getting along okay, but really, it has so much of an attitude that it makes me a bit uncomfortable. It smells my fear and I truly believe it revels in it. Staring me down with its well-lit screen and tools menu.

So, that’s where I’ve been and that’s where finding a balance comes into play. I’d rather be knitting than sitting here making friends with The Mac. I do, however, need to get this techno stuff straight in order to make Mac Daddy happy give you proper patterns. I have no choice as far as school stuff and, of course, it always comes first. I still can’t help but sneak a glance at my abandoned knitting on the other side of the table while I’m helping The Big Guy with his Latin root words.

My favorite knitting time is after the kids are in bed and the house is quiet. I park in front of some SciFi movie and knit, usually staying up much later than I should. Mac Daddy hangs out with me or gets a jump on some work of his own. Yes, that means I’m cranky in the morning until the java hits my system. People think the kids are so responsible and polite because they do their chores in the morning without being asked. Truth is they’re all terrified of me for about an hour after I crawl out of bed and they’re just trying to look busy and stay out of my way.

Patterns soon, I promise. The knitting is easy, its the balance that's tough.

Did you ever wake up one morning and wonder where you’ve been?

Maybe its the fact that I’ve been wielding laundry detergent and diapers for 13 years straight. Maybe its because I never did any of that college party, late study night, job interview stuff. I’ve never had the rush/terror that comes with the corporate world. The only multitasking I do involves a crock pot and a school calendar.

I’m certainly don’t mean to imply that my life of motherhood is in any way a raw deal. Its the hardest and most rewarding job there is and I wouldn’t change a thing. But it seems to me I have recently awoke from some sort of Fisher-Price hell and just begun to really look around.
The littlest is 2 and becoming more of a little person and less of a lump attached to my hip. The older kids have friends, sleep-overs, bike rides and activities so I am no longer the center of their universe unless they need a ride somewhere.

The Hubby is a professional and has a college degree. It used to be a big joke that he took a bumpkin outta the patch and moved it to the “real world”. He’s also my biggest fan to a fault. I think if I told him I wanted to be an astronaut he would look up the number for NASA. Its also a little scary because I don’t have any excuses. I say “I want to” and he says “Go ahead”.

So suddenly I don’t feel like I’m drowning in a sea of sleepless nights because of babies. My baby having days are over, four is plenty. I’ve spent the past 13 years either chasing wee little kids or planning for a new one and suddenly its all over. Is this a mid-life crisis or an awakening?

Is it time for me to decide what I want to be when I grow up? Time to move toward something outside my comfort zone? Time to put myself up front and go for something that up until now didn’t even seem like anything based in reality?

Or have the kids succeeded in scrambling my brain permanently?

Ok, enough of the rambling. Here’s some knitting.

Apparently I’m on a raglan binge. I think I’ve gotten it out of my system now. This is super yummy alpaca with a little embroidery.

After several false starts the Cascade Luna is finally on its way to being a sweater for The Little Lady. She loves the colors. I think it looks like an Easter egg but at least its the right time of year.

The tea roses are still in one piece. I’m waiting for them to get the first flower buds of the season because that’s when the chipmunks like them best.

2 year olds do not like 3D Grouper fish...

Mac Daddy has been traveling a lot so when he is home we like to go do something fun. Yesterday was an impromptu field trip.

We loaded up the kids and headed to the local science center and Imax theater. The science center is chock full of hands on, educational, kid friendly stuff. No boring educational stuff here, its all button pushing, lever lifting, ball throwing fun. Brains in jars, real live Hissing cockroaches (yes, we all held one and thought it was way cool), and a giant bath tub full of sand and running water so you can build a sand mountain and learn about erosion as it all washing away before your eyes.

There was a special presentation called Shocking! that we had to see. Of course it was all about electricity, static electricity actually. My boys couldn’t wait for the call for volunteers. That’s them, little heathens.

They weren’t content with offering up their own skins for electrocution they had to drag me into it. (That’s me in the tan hoodie with The Big Guy to my right and The Little Guy to his right) And yes, we did get shocked.

After playing in the science center all morning and lunch in the food court we headed to the Imax theater to catch Creatures of the Deep. Now, if you’ve never had an Imax experience let me explain a little; its major league 3D. I don’t mean paper glasses with blue and red cellophane I mean really good 3D. The chairs are on steps just like a movie theater except the chairs are big and comfy and the steps they sit on are higher. This means you can always see over the guy in front of you and there is nothing between you and the giant screen. The screen is also remarkably close and huge. Add big-time surround sound and you’ve got yourself quite the viewing experience.

Just in case you haven’t figured it out already the movie was about all the weird and wonderful creatures that live in the deep, deep ocean. Jellyfish, octopi, squid, corals, all of which seemed to be literally swimming right past your nose. I gotta admit that there was a huge wave in the opening scene that rolled right at us and I actually held my breath. Everybody was having a great time until a giant Grouper fish came on scene. Tater was sitting on my lap with her 3D glasses on (I had to help her hold them because they are not meant to fit the head of a 2 year old). That Grouper fish (really big, ugly fish) came right at us and she yanked those glasses off her face in a hurry.

Note to moms everywhere....when your 2 year old sees a 3D Grouper fish she is afraid. When she takes her 3D glasses off in an effort to get a better look at what’s going on, she will find that the 3D Grouper is now a gray/red/blue/ ghost Grouper fish on the giant wall in front of her. This will make her hysterical.

If you have ever been climbed like a tree by a terrified toddler you know what happened next. Screams of “Get me down!” and the total lost-my-tender-little-mind-because-I’m-about-to-be-eaten-by-a-grouper-fish hysteria could not be calmed. Daddy played the hero and whisked her out of the theater (she had decided that maybe climbing his head would get her a little further away from the fish).
When the movie was over the rest of us found Daddy and Tater happily jaunting around the science center with yet another pencil rubbing of some endangered species no worse for the wear. I don’t think, however, that we’ll be taking Tater into a movie theater again anytime soon. I think fishing is probably out, too.

Lest ye think I have been too busy to knit. Here ya go. It has sleeves!

Swatch fodder

I was going to start out saying something about all the yarn drooling being over but that would be a blatant lie on my part. I would also like to say I have aired all my stash but that would be a lie, too, because I was just at the LYS. Can you believe my LYS is right around the corner from the kids’ dentist? After a morning with 4 kids at a dentist office I felt I had earned a quick pit stop.

The new owner of my LYS is doing a great job bringing in new things and keeping the shop hopp’in. There’s always something to talk about and she’s just as excited as I am when I stop by to chat and poke at yarn. Either that or she knows I’m a sucker. Either way I’m a happy kid.

Here’s the line up of the new swatch fodder....(Don’t make me give you the swatch speech again).

The big natural one on the left is Inca Cotton. Totally organic and way soft and bumpily. I’m think’in something big and long to crawl inside of.

Top-right is Wick from Knit One Crochet Too. Its a soy blend.
Center-right is Berger du Nord’s Belle. 100% silk.

Bottom-right is a 100% bamboo called Eden.

These are all new yarns for me to swatch and play with. If you’ve tried any of them and have an opinion one way or the other I’d love to hear it!

The girls’ sweaters that I started are going very well and not at all. The very well is the yummy alpaca. I’m just about to the underarm. The cotton one just wasn’t doing what I wanted. Actually it just wasn’t doing anything which is why I frogged it. If I get bored, its over.

Now I have to play some catch-up. After a morning at the dentist’s and the LYS we all grabbed some lunch and now its time to get to science and Latin. Also have the never ending laundry pile to battle. The science and Latin are fun but the laundry may never get done. I’d rather be knitting.