Or not.

• The Raisin did NOT sleep through the night last night, and because of that, neither did I.
  
• I am very tired, which is not conducive to creativity or productivity.
• When I am tired everything bothers me. Normally, I can ignore things like the HUGE pile of dirty laundry or The Monkey leaving Legos everywhere. That will not be the case today.


• I also resent all the WORK I have to do when I’m tired. I do not want to do the laundry, or clean up after breakfast, or do the dishes, or vacuum. I’d much rather be knitting, or spinning, or designing something. Whine!


• I am trying to convince myself to do the chores anyway. A clean house, although very rare, does make me feel very happy.


• Shopping also makes me happy, and is MUCH more pleasant than cleaning.


• There is just enough time while The Monkey is in school to do some major damage at the mall.


• I might have to lock up my credit cards while he’s at school.


• Or not.
  

New apple from last night, Oil Pastels (love them!!)

Creative Energy!

The Raisin slept through the night! This is not the first time, but it might be the third or fourth time since he was born - 14 and a half months ago.

Getting a full night’s sleep must be what I needed, because I am feeling VERY creative and energetic today!! In order to fulfill this burning need to create, I started playing with the Corel Painter that has been installed on my computer forever. I was having a hard time deciding what to draw/paint, so I just decided to learn how to use the tools by drawing the same subject over and over. The first thing that came to mind was apples.

Watercolor Apple

Artist’s Oils Apple

That’s it so far. I need a LOT more practice. I’m going to keep painting and drawing apples until Corel Painter is my friend.

In knitting news, I finished a sample scarf for the shop.

Soon we will be offering spin-to-knit kits for these scarves, in multiple colors. As soon as I write the instructions, that is. I'm on it!

Onward

After wishing the Witches Stockings yarn a fond farewell today, I let the wheel rest and worked on my current knitting project. The Elizabeth Freeman Shawl KAL Group (Ravelry link) is knitting their way through three of Elizabeth's shawls. The KAL was already in progress when I joined, so I jumped in where they are and am knitting the Aeolian shawl (Knitty link). It is a beaded lace shawl with nups. I never thought I would be knitting something with (gasp!) bobbles, but it is soooo pretty I could not resist:



See? Gorgeous!

I am making the smaller version, the shawlette, because it fits the amount of yarn I have. I bought multiple shades of pink beads to go with the slightly variagated Shaefer Anne yarn (do not know the colourway off hand). Here is a progress pic:










I have a looooong way to go! Not sure what is with my current obsession with pink, but it might have something to do with living with three boys... could be!

Was not sure if I would enjoy stopping my knitting to place the beads, but it is a very enjoyable knit. Thank goodness Elizabeth designed the shawl so the beads are put on with a little crochet hook, and not threaded on at the beginning. Imagine threading 850 beads before starting knitting! If you have the patience to do that, you are MUCH more patient than I am.

Witches Stockings

Cheryl dyed the Halloween colorway "Witches Stockings" which looks like this:

I worsted spun it into this:

Then I Navajo plyed it into this:

I have been coveting Cheryl's Halloween colorways since she dyed them, but I've been keeping my hands off - The rovings are for the customers. Then, a wonderful customer decided she had to have the Witches Stockings, and wanted ME to spin it!! WAHOO!! I love how the yarn turned out - long stretches of each color, then a long transition into the next color. Cheryl dyed long stretches of the roving to make just that effect!! Brilliant!!

Feather Cowl

I put the final touches on the Feather Cowl today - I like to block first, weave in ends second. It came out pretty well. I used some yummy hand dyed sock yarn from Tanis Fiber Arts.

80% superwash Merino
20% Nylon
400 yds (365 m)
Seabreeze colourway

A close-up of the lace (running sideways, knit from right to left.)











The cowl is basically a tube, knit in the round using Barbara Walker's Japanese Feather lace stitch. Easy peasy! Here it is folded in half.











And here it is scrunched up.










I think if I knit this one again, I may lose two or three repeats worth of stitches, and one repeat of the lace pattern (could be narrower and shorter). I am thinking of tacking the top and bottom together to make a doughnut with the seam on the inside, so I can just pull it over my head and go, no fussing. I'll let you know how it works out.

Having a bit of a slide lately with my routines. Not getting anywhere with the house. I think the problem is all the clutter. I keep cleaning it up and it gets spread back around. Today is Labor day, and I'm going to take advantage of a bonus day of hubby being home to help with the kids. The clutter had better watch out! I'm gathering up donations for The Salvation Army today, and loading them into the car, to deliver them tomorrow! Baby clothes and old clothes of mine. (hubby's too. Shh! Don't tell. He wants to keep that old tee shirt that hasn't fit him since college. I am sure he won't miss it.)

Next on the needles: I'm designing a poncho for a client's daughter, with matching hat and bag. Yeah! I get to knit with PINK!! That's something that someone with two boys does not get to do very often... :)

Best Laid Plans

Well I had planned to work more on the house today, establishing my routines, decluttering. And then my one year old fell and cut the inside of his mouth. All those plans went right out the window. The poor baby was bleeding and crying. Doctor says he had cut his frenulum (sp?) and did not need stitches. Thank goodness for that! Can you imagine how scary the emergency room would be to a little guy like that? Yipes.

My four year old was a peach through the whole thing, letting Daddy take him to his first day of preschool while I took his bro to the doctor.

The brave little dude even let the doctor check his lip, no tears, no wiggling. What a trooper!

Good to know my kids are good in an emergency!

Before all this excitement, I finished my latest project, one that I designed before I found out that someone else already designed something eerily similar (her version here - Ravelry link) While hers is a wimple, mine is a simple lace cowl. Pattern for mine with pictures to come tomorrow.

Today I cast on a go-to project, another baby bib from the Mason Dixon Knitting book. My sister has a few and RAVES about them, so I'm making bibs my car project for sitting in line at the bank, the preschool, the carwash, wherever I'm stuck in the car for a time. It is nice to have something to fill the gaps between projects, isn't it?

Back from Vacation

We recently returned from vacation (LOVE the Outer Banks) and I am trying to unpack and get my act together around the house. I have been trying to get the house together for a very long time (longer than I am willing to admit) and have been largely unsuccessful. After staying in a clutter-free rental for a week at the beach, coming home to a big mess was very disapointing. Not only am I missing the beach, but the mess is overwhelming. I am VERY motivated to throw everything out of this house. Starting over feels easier than slogging through all the CRAP.

SO, I'm trying to get into a routine. The day to day stuff is first. I swept and vaccumed the public part of the house, just where I could get to. I consolidated the paper clutter into one spot and started a load of laundry. I took the boys out to lunch instead of trying to find the table. Then I unloaded the dishwasher and put the few dirty dishes in, and put the laundry in the dryer. Now I have a few minutes to hang with my boys before starting dinner.

Tonight, I plan on going to the gym and then knitting until bedtime. Hopefully I can get some sleep before Tiny A wakes up. And tomorrow is the first day of preschool, so I should have some "free" time to keep up with these daily things!

I am looking forward to tossing a ton of clutter and finding some peace and room in my life for creating! This fall is going to be very busy, with June Pryce's ads going up on Ravelry and tons of spinning and knitting in my queue. I also have some ideas floating around in my head and I'd love to work them up into patterns!