Marie Grace Designs

A mitten, a blanket and a kitchen faucet...

Here’s my piddly attempt at knitting the past few days. One lonely wanna-be mitten. The plan is to make mittens for all the squabs now that it’s cold enough to warrant wool mittens. We had a vague dusting of snow last night but really its the temperature (a toasty 10 degrees this morning) thats got everybody reaching for outerwear.

Tater is on the mend...sort of. Her temperature is down and she’s functional but tires out pretty quick. Her pillow and a blanket have moved from her bed to the sofa in the den near my desk. That blanket...let me tell ya about that blanket. Of all the beautiful blankets in this house, several of which are quilts my sister made, Tater wants this one when she doesn’t feel well. Its all Red Heart baby yarn and I crocheted it while I was pregnant with squab #2 and on bed rest which would make it about 12 years old now. Tater is the 3rd kid to use it and I didn’t realize its become some sort of household heirloom. I tried to get rid of it once and was practically attacked by angry children. So there it is...still going strong.

Its sort of neat to look at the perspective of things like this. To me its just an old blanket I made before I learned to knit but to the kids its a blanket they've had forever and just can't imagine throwing away.

(This would also make a really nice segue if I were to say something about knit alpaca baby blankets and that gray mystery lump, a corner of which can be seen in the new banner at the top of the blog page.)

So that’s the mitten and the blanket...what about the kitchen faucet? You don’t really want to hear about the new kitchen faucet Mac Daddy installed last night so why am I even bringing it up? Well the only reason I brought it up was so I could tell you, just in case you've ever wondered, that plumber’s putty will throw sparks if you put it in the microwave.

A little news...

Things are a bit icky on the home-front at the moment. Some sort of head cold has worked its way through the ranks from Mac Daddy right down the line to Tater. Everybody managed alright except for her. Its looking like today will be trip #2 to the pediatrician as she has had a fever for almost 3 days now and still sounds like she’s going to drown in her own fluids.

I’ll pass you on to the One Planet Yarn and Fiber blog where there’s lots of good news to read and tons of awesome yarn to ogle. You’ll also find a quick announcement about some of my new patterns, Llamajama yarn news and a new pattern from Wendy.

On the knitting side...

So here it is, the latter parts of January fast approaching and I’ve already fallen behind on my new year goal of blogging more often. Can I get a “Get Out of Blogging Free” card just for a little while longer?

I promise you it isn’t because I’m not knitting because believe me I’ve been knitting and writing and charting and blocking. My hand is cramped, my elbow is stiff and my brain is dribbling out my ear...and I couldn’t be happier.

The gray mystery lump is now much larger (and therefore not a bra cup...not one that would fit me anyway) and off the needles. It needs soaked, pinned and beat into submission so that it can reach its full potential.

The thing with this sort of knitting is that it is so much more complicated to write than to knit. These lengthy explanations always irritate me and I find I’m stuck between trying to keep it short (which I’m afraid may leave some less experienced knitters baffled) and just speaking plain english, rather than knit-speak, to explain it all.

On the lighter side...

(You can skip this part if you don’t like dogs or don’t want to hear about my furry little heathen.)

This is not a staged picture. Poor Darwin just doesn’t understand why we hang out in the house all day doing all this school work when the weather has been so mild and there are balls to chase and sticks to chew. He’s very attached to The Big Guy and will sit in a chair in the classroom staring at him for so long it gives us all the creeps. I find it very odd that he won't just sit on the floor near somebody's feet like a normal dog.

Just a heads up...

I’m planning to rearrange the blog furniture so things will look a little different sometime in the very near future.

Confession...

I bought sock yarn (again).

I was weak and stressed and somebody said “you only need one skein to make a pair of socks” and the only thing I heard was “you only need one” so there it is. Sock yarn. It was so much easier to smuggle in the door under my coat than my usual purchases. The new needles were a bonus, sort of a prize to myself for admitting out loud that I want to make a sock. They were easy to smuggle in too.

I’d like to say somebody twisted my arm and told me there was a new knitting law passed in ’07 and that if I was going to knit it had to be a sock but honestly I’ve been poking and fondling the sock yarn at the LYS for a while. I think, for me, its more the yarn than the idea of the sock. The fact that I can buy just one is a real kick. The fact that somebody else chose the colors is almost as good as somebody else making dinner.

You may remember that I did , in fact, begin my first sock a few months ago. “ What happened to that sock” you ask? Well...its brown...and boring. Every time I went to the LYS I looked at the wall of stripey sock yarn and thought real hard about why I had chosen a more or less solid brown for my first sock. Since I couldn’t really come up with a good answer I’m just going to chalk it up to a moment of complete yarn delirium and toss it back in the yarn cabinet and start over.

In a moment of adventurous doodling armed with only a pencil and a sheet of graph paper I had a quirky idea. It looks like this right now:

It has a wee bitty bit of lacey-sort-a-kinda happening.

I’d tell you what its supposed to be but I don’t really need people laughing at me right now so I’ll keep it to myself for a little while longer.

Too far gone...

I do believe I have entered a level of knitting obsession that even I didn’t know existed.

The children have been forced out of the classroom and back into the dining room (funny....it took us 2 years to get the classroom remodeled and functional so that we could get out of the dining room) because my projects in progress pile has scared them completely out of the room. There’s just nowhere to put a book down without me yelling “Get off the yarn!”

They are tip-toeing around me, ate pizza twice yesterday and have given up hope of me speaking in coherent sentences.

I’ve been staying up late and getting up early.

I’m telling you I have entered a delirium so deep not even the Harlot herself can pull me back.

This morning I woke up before my alarm went off (first time for everything huh?). I was up so early that the programmed coffee pot hadn’t even kicked on yet (bummer). So I pushed the magic button on the coffee machine and wandered around muttering to myself while I tracked down one more ball of alpaca until I could smell coffee.

Ball of alpaca in hand, I contemplated the proportional differences between the circumference of a child’s head horizontally (ya know...around) and the circumference of said child’s head vertically (from top of head to under chin) and all at the same time realized with a glance and a huff that there were no coffee cups in the cabinet (one of the dangers of leaving dishwasher duty to a 13 year old and a 11 year old is you never know where the clean stuff will end up if it ever gets put away at all).

Figuring that with some figuring I could certainly come up with some sort of formula to get a usable measurement for heads measured vertically (yes I’m a geek) I fished a coffee cup out of the dishwasher, filled it with glorious life giving java and plopped down at the dining room table.

After some undetermined amount of time passed children of various shapes and sizes began to wander through to the kitchen in search of cereal. I pretty much ignored them (though I did glance at their heads and make a mental note of some disturbing characteristics) and slurped my coffee until I heard this:

“I need a bowl...will you get me a bowl...I can’t reach...”

“just get one out the dishwasher...”

(unmistakable sound of dishwasher opening)

“this stuff’s still dirty”

“I thought you ran it last night...”

“no...I thought you ran it....”

“no...Mom told you to”

“It wasn’t my turn....”

Note to self...get more sleep.

Note to self #2....check to see if the dishwasher has actually been run before fishing out a coffee cup.

Just checking in...

Knitting content:

The cabling continues. Hoping to finish up some sleeves this afternoon. Lots of blocking to do. And seaming. And more knitting.

Sort of knitting content but not really:

Can you believe I ordered something that has nothing to do with knitting? Well, that’s not true. They are sewing patterns but one of them actually is related to knitting...

Favorite Things is a terrific pattern company. Their designs are simple and classy and the patterns themselves are easy to follow and turn out nice. I’ve done several Little Jackets and Vintage Jumpers.

I was considering planning some jumpers for the girls for spring but saw this new pattern called Prairie Girl and decided to get it instead. I had to order the child’s version for Tater but the adult version for The Little Lady so if they turn out nice I may even make one for myself.

I’ve been wanting to get this one for a long time and just never got around to it. If they aren’t too difficult and turn out nice I may just make a few extra...

Ya know this means I need to go fabric shopping.

Home-front content:

We all survived date night including Grandma who came to sit with the kids. Tater did fine and even went to bed on time without a fuss. Mac Daddy and I had a great evening. The food was terrific and there was wine to spare.

Counting down and going out...

So its Thursday already which means there’s only 2 more days until Mac Daddy and I leave the house alone. That’s right...we are going on a date! Not a play date or a trip to somewhere kid-friendly but a real date with other adults and cocktails.

I’m really not sure I remember the last time we went out alone. For that matter I don’t know when the last time was that I left the house intending to go anywhere other than the LYS or the grocery store.

I never was very good at handling the guilt that comes along with peeling a crying toddler off my leg while I try to explain that I’ll be back later and Grandma has your Cheerios.

But I’ve noticed lately that when my night to go out to the LYS rolls around I’m the only one feeling weird about it. I plan an easy dinner, get Tater’s jammies laid out so Daddy doesn’t have to look for them and remind all the kids of anything that needs done that evening. When its time to go all I get is a smacky kiss on the cheek from Tater (I’m lucky if anybody else even notices I’m leaving) and that’s it. No crying. No whining. I guess I should be relieved but really I’m not sure I am.

What the hell is wrong with me? I should be running for the hills and singing from the mountain tops.... I’m free....I’m freeeeeee.....

Anyway. So I’m counting down to date night. We’ll have a good time and there won’t be anyone there named Dora or Maisy and I’ll be just fine. I’m sure the cocktails will help.

BTW... the picture from the last post of the cably-doo stuff is...well...at the risk of sounding like I’m playing CIA I can’t really tell you all the details just yet. I’ve been working somewhat feverishly on a few things and I’m counting down the time I have left to get them finished. I really can’t wait until I can explain it all.

I know it looks like Tater has hit the jack-pot lately when it comes to being the recipient of knitted items but really there are other things going on. The older kids are going to get theirs in turn and, just so you know, all of them are destined to be patterns and all of them are going to be sized for toddlers to big kids anyway.

BTW (again)....you guys are the best. I really don’t know if I’d have the guts to do half the things I’ve been doing if it wasn’t for all the positive mojo you guys dish out.

’07 in like a lamb...errrr...an alpaca...

So our break is over and its time to return to a routine of sorts. Mac Daddy has gone to work and the kids are preparing to get back to studying (which means they are getting a Lego fix now before I call them downstairs to do math).

So here we are... new year and all. Like I said before I don’t do resolutions but I can’t help but think that a few personal goals for the year aren’t a bad idea. Like maybe not being such a pessimist or maybe just being a bit more true to myself.

I can never quite figure out how I come across here on the blog and just how much mishy-mushy stuff people will read before they move on. I also realize that because this is technically a knitting blog the mishy-mushy stuff may just be flat-out unwelcome. On the other hand, and this is where the being true to myself comes in, its my blog and there is more to me than knitting.

Truth be told I’m not a very confident person. I always second guess myself. I tend to worry about what other people think. I also don’t handle confrontation well (aka...quick temper....tends to throw things....) so I try to avoid it.

I don’t join secret pal gift giving things (because I’m afraid whoever gets my gift will hate it). I’ve never done a meme (and really didn’t even know what they were until recently.) I tend to not be very internet-social because I feel like I don’t fit in ...even online.

I need to learn to be a more balanced person. This year I would like to take a little time to stop and think about the way I see things and react to things and feel about things. If some of that lands here, fine.

This really does apply to knitting so keep reading...

Ever since I started designing in public I have been terrified of what sort of feedback I would receive. I’m slowly learning that no-one can please everyone and some will blame everyone but themselves and I need to not take it personally. The world is a big, big place full of people with their own minds and temperaments and all I can do, if I want to continue to function as a whole person, is be true to myself.

So, this year, I’m going to knit what I want to knit. I’m going to do it the way I like. I will share with you along the way. I will buy pretty stitch markers! I will purge myself of uneasy feelings, rants, tears (well, maybe not tears) and other mishy-mushy stuff!

If you don’t like it please don’t send hate mail just come back tomorrow.

BTW... here’s Tater in that wooly winter pullover I finished a while ago.