wish me luck

I think I am going to need it!

Last night I swatched for the most difficult thing I have ever knit. Seriously, the pattern is 13 pages!  There are charts, and more charts, a full page of legends for the charts, and Mirrored Double Decreases. What??? I'm not really sure what that is either. I'm in the process of learning as I go. The finished project will be the beautiful Catkin, by Carina Spencer.  

The swatch is about 4" by 4".  It took me 2 hours.  The final shawl measures about 50" by 18"...I'm unwilling to do the math to figure out how long it will take me.  Not only am I not capable of doing math after 9pm (or before 9pm really, who am I kidding, I'm not even sure I know how to add any more), I don't really want to know how long it will take.  Why suck the fun out of it, right?

Anyway, here is my swatch.  It is not perfect, and I am really glad I made it, so I know what to expect as I venture off to knit this crazy beautiful shawl.

My goal is to finish this project by the end of July, wish me luck, I think I will need it!

I have also managed to fold 1 load of laundry this week, it's still in the basket, but it's folded!  Let's not talk about all the other loads though, ok?

sock knitter

because I said this blog would include something about knitting...

I am not a sock knitter. My mom's cousin Maureen (my second cousin, no my first cousin once removed...ack! I just looked this up on Wikipedia and I still don't know the difference!) is a sock knitter.  She can knit socks like the wind.  Seriously.  I'm pretty sure she knit 243 socks one weekend.  Well, maybe it was 242...but who's counting.  Anyway, I'm not a sock knitter.  This is the only sock that I ever knit:

Sad, Lonely, Unfinished Sock

notice it's unfinished state, and lack of a mate.  This poor thing is still sitting in my project basket, 2+years later.

My lack of sock knitting does not prevent me from buying beautiful sock yarn.

Luckily for me there are many things you can knit out of sock yarn, that do not resemble socks in the least. Perhaps the most common would be shawls. There are so many beautiful shawl patterns that it is almost impossible to decide on one. Especially if you are not a shawl person. I have knit 3.1 shawls. None of them have been for me. The first was a fabulously easy scarf/shawl that I made for my mom. If you are a beginning knitter and would like an easy to knit shawl, then check out the Clapotis, by Kate Gilbert. It's from the Fall 2004 edition of Knitty, and has been knit 17,649 times according to Ravelry. Wow! That is insane. I don't have a finished picture of this project, but perhaps I will be able to trick my mom into letting me take one the next time we go visit.

The other 2.1 shawls I've knit were all the same pattern. The Far Away, So Close, by Carina Spencer is such a beautiful shawl. It is also very easy to knit, but looks stunning in a variety of yarns. These were all knit for friends and family going through rough times in there lives.

The last is currently still in progress and is being completed by a group of my knitting friends.  Friends are awesome, especially when we can all work together to make something beautiful.  I'll let you know what the finished product looks like!

I do plan to knit a pair of socks though, some day. Seriously.

In other news, I folded 2 loads of laundry today! yay! I also forgot to clean the kitchen after dinner...boo!

learning to fly

but I ain't got wings...

A few years ago, when I was a mama to just one monkey, I found this website: FlyLady.net.  It is a bit crazy, and has gotten much crazier since I first found it.  I'll admit that I never officially became a "flybaby" but the thought somewhat appeals to me.  She gives you some basic steps to take back your house.  To get it in order and keep it that way.  Oh, this would make my husband so happy!  I just can't seem to do it though.  Every time I accomplish something in one room, another falls apart.  Does this happen to you?  I hope so, it would make me feel much better about myself.

Anyway, I recently stumbled upon the site again, and decided to do her first step, shine your sink.  Well, I mostly really, really cleaned the sink, I did not "shine" it with windex.  I don't really want to spray windex in my sink.  

I also did a little reorganizing and cleaning in the rest of the kitchen.  I threw away 4 bags of cereal, all with less than 1/4 cup of cereal in them.  Why did I keep those in the first place?  I don't know.  Since we are lucky enough to have a lot of counter space in the kitchen, I'm clutter-y enough to fill them up with stuff.  In the long run, it's not a good idea to put a bunch of stuff on your counters.  Turns out you have no space to prep/cook meals that way.  So, I went to work to clear them off.  

This is what I managed to do one day.  Well, maybe it took a day and a half.  Nap time is very short around here.  

Messy Before

Organized After!

I know those side pictures are a little small, but it's just the insides of my cabinets, so it's not really all that exciting.

If you are a closet-clutter-bug-but-you-really-do-love-to-have-things-organized kind of person, I suggest you pick one room in your house to work on.  It will make you feel like you've accomplished some thing great, which you have!  Now, if I can just manage to keep it that way...

oh, and in case you were wondering, I have done 4 loads of laundry so far this week, and haven't folded anything, yikes!

howler monkey

My littlest monkey is a terrible napper. If you are in a moving vehicle of any kind (car, stroller, backhoe...well, probably not a backhoe, but you get the point) after 11am, he will most likely fall asleep. “That sounds lovely,” you say. Yes, in theory. However, if he happens to wake up 10 minutes later, he has only taken a 10 minute nap, and that is it for the day. Then you have a very cranky howler monkey clinging to you for the rest of the day.

How does one knit when there is a howler monkey in the house? Unfortunately, you can not. It is possible to dream about what you would be knitting if you had the time. Today I imagined myself sitting in a big comfy chair, sunlight streaming through an open window, knitting away on an unidentified project. It was lovely. And quiet, oh so quiet.

The dream lasted less than a minute. There was so much noise in the house I couldn't focus on anything, let a lone a lovely daydream. So, I threw the monkeys in the car and took them to their natural habitat, the park(ok, I didn't throw them, just lightly tossed, like a salad). I love taking my monkeys to the park. It is somehow quieter there. Their friends are there and they play. It is very cute. Especially when they play together. It was warm, breezy, sandy, and also lovely.

Also, just so you all know (I have one follower!) I've done 6 loads of laundry this week. I folded 2.5, the other .5 went straight on the bed (clean sheets!), there are two loads in baskets that are getting very, very wrinkly, and one load still in the dryer. That's actually not that bad of a laundry week.

and so it begins.

Jumping into the blogging world.  I have been reassured that at least my sister in law will read it, so I hope she wasn't fibbing!

Like most people out there, I don't feel like there is enough time in the day to do all the things that need to be done.  Namely, the laundry.  No matter what I do, there is always so much laundry.  I sometimes feel like I am catching up, and then, boom, 3 loads of unfolded laundry.  Sitting there, wrinkling up by the minute.  So, I decided to start a blog, so that I have yet another thing I can do other than laundry.  yay!

There are also 3 wip's (or for you non knitters, Works In Progress aka unfinished knitting projects) sitting in my basket.  Well, actually one is sitting in my lap, but you get the idea.  Two of these projects have been sitting around for almost a year.  No! It can't be...but it is.  They are very mistreated projects, and I must try to finish them soon, before I completely forget what they were meant to be.

There is one thing that I manage to do everyday (other than brush my teeth) and that is sweep the kitchen floor.  The crazy monkeys that live with me are very talented in spreading their crumbs all over the place.  We eat at a table like civilized people, but somehow the floor looks like something from the petting zoo.  It's true.

So, join me in my attempt to document this silly life of sweeping, laundry & knitting.