A new cardigan for Lili

Back when I started knitting about 2 1/2 years ago, my best friend was pregnant. I got all excited about all the knitterly baby things I was going to make her and went out and bought a whole messload of super soft baby acrylic. In white.

Now I know what you're thinking. Yes, I have 2 kids and I know white is not the best color for a spitting up, messy, poop machine so I ended up buying baby blue (she was having a boy). Also in my defense, I had only been knitting for about 4 months and had no clue there were other places to get yarn besides Hobby Lobby, Wal-Mart or Michael's so I had no idea and I have never bought acrylic since.

Anyway, so I have this whole mess of snow white acrylic taking up valuble space in my stash that could be otherwise dedicated to wool I'm thinking I might have to aquire to knit up this cute little fair isle hoodie for this winter. I'm supervising Lili as she is rumaging through my stash looking for "something to knit" even though she has 3 other things on needles (How can that start so early?) when she spots all this white stuff and says, "you know mom, I could use a new sweater for school. My other one (store bought piece of c$#p) is falling apart." So bingo, new project which doesn't count because it's a necessity item and I don't have to buy anything but a pattern for it and maybe not even that b/c I could probably just wing a simple sweater.

Of course being my child, she doesn't want a normal straight stitch cardigan with a little ribbing trim. No, my child wants a freakin' mini Aran cardigan with 25 different cables and twists. I can't wing that. Anyway I found at Hobby Lobby (I bought no yarn, I was just checking to see if they had any needles or notions on sale. No such luck, I used to get dpn's for like $2 now they are almost $4!!) a really cute adult cardigan that is seed stitched with a simple cable on either side of the button bands and a Celtic braid next to that. Not to complex, just enough to keep it interesting.

Here is my delima: it is in a woman sz and the sz small is a 38 inch chest.
Here is my solution: I am a pretty tight knitter and usually have to go up a needle sz or two to get gauge. If I knitted it on the sz needles it calls for or even go down a sz, it should make it smaller, right? That is my theory and what I'm going with. I'm casting on for the back and knitting up a bit and see how it goes.

Keep you fingers crossed, please comment and I'll try to keep you posted if I haven't pulled my hair out by then.

Back to School and New Haircuts

I always dread the whole back to school thing for 2 reasons: I HATE waking up early, and I hate shopping with my children.

You see, if it coud be a simple get in, get what you need, get out, I would have no problem. And really, I ordinarily love to shop, after all, I am a woman, but shopping with my kids is something akin to what I think a root canal would be should I ever have to have one.

I'm not really sure if it's the indifference of my son in all decisions from what kind of back pack to what kind of shoes he wants or if it's the "needing to have the most expensive things out there because everything else is just crap" attitude of my daughter. Really, the difference between the two is like night and day.

Lili is 9 years old and going into 4th grade this year. Why a 9 year old child thinks she needs a $50 back pack and a $25 binder for school is totally beyond me. I just thank God everyday she has to wear uniforms for 2 more years. I'm dreading that battle. Apparently it's also not fair that her brother got brand new tennis shoes for school and she has to wear the Chuck Taylor's she got for her birthday a month and a half ago that she "just had to have" and now are apparently "too old" for school. Are you kidding me? I have shoes older than her that I still wear! Oh and let's not forget all the other "I want... I want... I want..." chants that go on throughout the rest of the day in between shopping for school necessaties. I must have a money tree somewhere in my back yard I'm not aware of.

On the total opposite end of the spectrum is Edward. He's 6 and starting 1st grade. After shopping with the tornado whirlwind that is my daughter, you would think he would be a breeze to shop with. Not so. He will pick one thing and then give no opinion for the rest of the day. Today, we picked out his back pack and after that he didn't care what we bought as long as we had the back pack. Seriously, the kid could be going to school in hot pink, glitter ballerina flats and would probably not care. In fact this brings me to the second part of this blog.

His hair. As part of his vast indifference to pretty much anything, he hasn't had a hair cut in about a year. I haven't really pushed for it too much because well, he looked really cute and I just hate running errands. (I can't wait until I can afford an assisstant one day.) So needless to say his hair was really long. I think I was harboring some secret wish that he would let me play with his hair and fix it like I can't do with Lili's. (She has unfortunately inherited her daddy's baby fine, thin hair where as Edward's is thick and full like mine.) No such luck and since he's been getting mistaken for a little girl a bit too much lately, we decided it needed to be cut. So here is the before:

















And here is the same kid an hour later and looking mighty handsome I must say and not at all like a girl:

So new back packs, new tennis shoes and new haircuts aside, although I'm ready for back to school, I'm not quite ready that it signals another year my babies are no longer my babies.

So much:

I have so much going on the last month, I have no idea where to begin. I helped Lili start a fashion blog and taking after her mother, she has only posted once.

I finished the pastel colored socks which I totally love and started on the Jitterbug socks. I finished one and am about half way on the other when I decided to weigh my yarns and realize I'm going to run way short on the second sock. I'll have to buy a new skein next week and maybe make one of the kids a pair with the left overs.

I finished a great lace sweater that I was working on and then ripped most of it out when it was just too big. (I really don't understand the reasoning behind knitting a swatch and getting gauge if later on it doesn't help and whatever I'm knitting is still the wrong size.) Anyway, it's lace rib on the bottom and stockinette from the boobage area up into a scoop neck tank. I frogged the boobage part and am knitting it back up on a sz smaller needle which should "take it in" just enough (1 1/2 stiches per 4 inches) to fit right when I'm done. We'll see.

I have one more repeat of my yellow shawl before I pick up the middle panel. I haven't done any work on my mom's Christmas shawl.

I did attend a wedding in Georgia last weekend for a really good friend and did almost no knitting for 5 days. I was suffering from withdrawls and barely knew what to do with myself. Ahh, it's good to be home. If only I can get the kids to stop fighting long enough to get something done.