Marie Grace Designs

Things to come

With trick-or-treat behind us and the sugar-shock wearing off we've had a relatively quiet, yet productive, weekend so far.

I spent an evening or 2 fiddling with wool scraps and finished up that wool coat. Now you can keep the embroidery or leave it out either way this is a great little coat. I just need to get it on paper and then it will be available at TGB, hopefully by the end of the week.

Yesterday Tater and I went to the local craft store. Toddlers are great for conversation. You just can’t beat talking to a kid that can’t quite pronounce all the consonant blends correctly. As we pulled into the parking lot she clapped her hands and exclaimed “Yea! We at the crap store!”

You just won’t believe me but not only did I leave the crap craft store with the colored tissue paper and glue I went there to buy but I also left with yarn...yes, yarn from a crap craft store. I must admit that it wasn’t really my own find but rather something I heard from another well known knitter and I just had to see it for myself because I haven’t bought yarn from a craft store since I first laid eyes on Debbie Bliss.

I bought a few balls figuring that if all else failed it would end up downstairs in the bag of yarn the kids use for random crap crafts. Turns out I love the stuff! So, if you have a chance check out the Lion Brand Felting Wool. I still haven’t felted anything and honestly don’t really plan to but knitting with this stuff is great and you can’t beat the price. I’m swatching already.

I do still knit...

The kids are getting all wound up about trick or treat and have had me buried in a frenzy of craft paint, fun fur, felt and colored pipe cleaners.

I’ve been thinking about how busy I’ve been. I’ve been thinking about how sometimes, somedays, I take myself too seriously. Halloween makes it totally impossible to take anything seriously. Kids in the dining room with fun fur glued to their upper lips and a Tater yelling she can’t find her antennae will knock the serious right out of just about anything.

Rainy Tuesday

Forgive me for the quick and sloppy post but I suppose its better than complete neglect. I’ve spent relatively little time knitting but miraculously found the time to buy more yarn.

Wonder what that says about my priorities.

Anyway, the 2 on the top right are new Cascade 128. Its all wool and heavier than 220. I got it for the colors.

The top left is new Cascade Jewel. Its 100% Peruvian wool and hand dyed. Its got a thick-and-thin sort of thing going which isn’t really my favorite but the color is nice and so is the feel.

The bag is Jo Sharp classic wool in a rust color. I’m think’in I need to write to Jo Sharp and ask for some sort of frequent buyer program.

Here’s the progress on the wool coat. It has 2 sleeves!

I am delusional

So I see myself surrounded by pools of soft wool with the needles clicking away. The cool autumn breeze blowing gently while I create warm garments my children will be proud to wear.

In reality I’m lucky if I’m wearing a pair of socks that actually match and I’ve forgotten to eat breakfast again. I can’t find my 4.5 mm needles never mind make them click. The cool autumn breeze means I had to order and pay for a heating oil delivery.

I’m so freak’in busy! Trips to the grocery store and the library. Books to read and math assignments to check. Questions to answer and classes to teach. Dinner to cook and phone calls to make. Bills to pay and plans to make.

Having accomplished all that why do I feel so....un-accomplished?

I know why....because there’s been relatively little knitting.

How can it be that I educate my children, help educate a few others, run a household and keep a marriage together but I still feel like a loser because all I really want to do is knit and I just can’t seem to find the time?

I did this time management exercise once where you have to write down everything you feel you need to do in a 24 hour period (including sleep and eat) and how long you figure it takes to do each item. Then you add them all up to see how many hours it will take you to do them all. Mine totaled up to something like 36 hours. I’d say that’s probably not good.

So them you have to decide what is really important and what can be left out. You can shorten things, reorganize things and hopefully make your life more efficient because you have this list.

But seriously....what do you take off the list? You can’t ditch the groceries or the laundry.....you have to sit and do finances.....school takes hours and I won’t cut that back....kids activities are important and there’s nothing I can do about their timeframes...

All I really want to do some days...or maybe just one day...is erase the whole damn list and take a big purple crayon and press real hard and scrawl the word K-N-I-T across the entire page.

Where the buffalo roam...

and the deer and the antelope play.

No, really. We went there. See:

I’m wondering which side of the fence this gaggle belongs on:

There’s a really cool wildlife reserve about an hour from us and we try to go once or twice a year. There are places to walk and animals to pet and feed. There’s also a open-top bus ride up through acres of free roaming critters.

No matter how many times we go I just can’t enough of the elk. They are so big yet so gentle. You just don’t realize how huge they are until they’re this close.

Mr. Elk:

Tater wasn’t too sure about it:

Mrs. Elk:

Mac Daddy made friends with the camel:

Tater really had a good time this year because its the first she’s been big enough to really run around all day and not get tired. Last time we went she was still in the stroller and too young to really enjoy all the animals.

Obligatory knitting content:

I’m down to the armholes on the raglan wool coat. I’d take some pictures to show you but the crew ran off with the camera and some Lego men to make some “stop-action-mini-films”. Sigh.

Scarves and jackets and fall leaves, oh my...

There hasn’t been a whole lot to report on the knitting front lately because so many other things have been taking up my time but finally there’s something to talk about!

The Element scarf and Tater’s Smitten jacket are both available at The Garter Belt now.

Element is also available (or will be really soon) at Yarn Botanika as a kit (aka gift for a knitter friend).

Both are easy knits and perfect for anywhere the autumn breezes blow.

Ya know, it was mentioned to me that a bit of tech on zipper installation would be a nice gesture and honestly I thought about it when I was working on Smitten. Zippers aren’t all that hard to install on knitwear but they are a little tricky to install neatly.

Along the same line is Elizabeth’s suggestion to think about a pocket tutorial for those not-sewn-on-like-a-patch pockets.

I’m thinking that since things are so crazy hectic around here right now that an article or maybe a tutorial would be just the thing.