Happy Thanksgiving!

There will be some serious knitting as we drive to our Thanksgiving dinner plans. I will update tomorrow.

An Update

Thanks for all the concern about RJ. She is feeling a lot better, although she's still massively clingy. Some days I feel like I've grown a new appendage, one that's really cute and babbles a lot. I'm glad she finds me comforting, and I hope that being home together over Thanksgiving break will give her time to fully recover. We will have family visiting as well. My brother-in-law and niece will be arriving late tonight and will stay until Sunday. We are quite excited about their visit, particularly because my husband's family lives so far away we hardly see them (they are from a Carribean island).

I apologize for the lack of craft content. I am behind on blogging about my latest crafting adventures (it's difficult to do these things with the appendage), but I hope to catch up the next couple days. First, I need to show off all the fun crafting from the truly off-the-hook Hogwart's party we attended. Second, there's the sewing from last weekend's get together with Theresa of Knitting Underway. So this won't be a completely boring post, here is RJ's post for her 8 month birthday. I can't believe she's so much bigger than the bear now!

Pumpkin Day Hat

OK, so most might define my lack of posting for the past few days a failure for NaBloPoMo, but I would argue that I'm just making those who are posting every day feel better about their accomplishment. Are you buying that? Probably not.

On Tuesday, RJ screamed and cried when I put her in the car to go to daycare. This is very strange behavior for her, particularly in the morning. She usually coos and laughs all the way there, then reaches for her favorite caregiver when we arrive (no separation anxiety there). That day she just clung to my arm and cried before we even left the garage. She had been sick for several days, so I suspected she had an infection. Sure enough she has another ear infection (her third in three months, poor thing). I also noticed that one of her bottom teeth was finally poking through. So she had the double whammy of the ear infection and teething. :( She is finally starting to feel better, so I am back to posting.

I will leave with the crocheted pumpkin hat I made for RJ for Halloween and Thanksgiving. I made up the pattern myself based on a couple different ones I found and a leaf pattern I looked up in a crochet book. I used cheap Red Heart Soft Yarn in Tangerine and Leaf. What do you think? (In the bottom picture she has stolen daddy's wand; he dressed as a Hogwart's student for Halloween.)

The Cold, Such As It Is

Obviously I'm not following the NaBloPoMo creed to the letter, as I have been unable to post every single day. However, I have been posting more often, so I'd argue that I am following in the spirit of NaBloPoMo. Anyway, I will recap my very busy weekend tomorrow for you. It was a doozy, with nearby fires and a huge party inspired by Harry Potter.

Lately, we've finally been getting some "cold" weather here is SoCal. Maybe not so much this past weekend, but the week or two before. It's been just chilly enough in the mornings that I've finally been able to let RJ wear a bunch of her cute handknit hats. This is one of the cutest, made by Zona of Twirl Girl Fibers (ravelry link). I'm not certain, but I would guess that the yarn was spun and died by Zona as well.



Isn't that adorable? She usually doesn't pull it off, which must mean that it is pretty comfy too. At daycare they wait each day to see which hat she is wearing, since she has so many cute ones. Sadly, the weather is warm again, so no more hats for now. What we really need is some good rain, to put out all these fires!

When It Rains, It Pours

Sigh. Yesterday was one of those days where you think to yourself, "gosh, it couldn't get any worse," after which it promptly gets much worse. I don't want to rehash all the gory details, but it included such fun things as a crashed office computer (still broken and awaiting campus tech support), a broken copier (discovered 15 minutes before class), a missing TA (who could have made the copies for me) due to an emergency, a lab that was too complicated for the students, and disappearing quizzes (they were eventually found after several minutes of panic). No knitting was done yesterday, for fear of the dire consequences. Prior to the day of horror, I was able to finish one pocket of Anouk, and start on the second pocket. Soon there will be duplicate stitched flowers on these:

Gifts in the Making

My knitting has really taken a backseat since RJ was born, but now that she is a bit older I'm hoping to get back into it. Before she was born I actually had planned out several Christmas gifts to make and even completed a couple. I made a hat for my youngest brother and a scarf for a friend in England. I have decided to allow myself to be off the hook for all but one more holiday gift. I want to make the four-in-one gaiter (Ravelry link) from One Skein Wonders for my middle brother. It wouldn't be fair to make something for one brother and not the other and this project should be fast and easy, since it's just a ribbed tube. I am using some easy wash Wool-Ease Worsted in a heathered forest green. Here it is so far:


I may make a couple more simple things, but probably I will just work on things for next year. What I really need to do before Christmas is make RJ a stocking for our fireplace. I may actually make use of my sewing machine for that.

Happy and Playful

Thanks for the suggestions for things to do with my scraps of yarn. I am anxious to start something new actually, so I will likely be casting on with some of this yarn soon.

Anyway, I have clearly fallen off the NaBloPoMo wagon, but hope to keep up for the rest of the month. The weekend was extremely busy and RJ really keeps us on our toes (in a good way). She really is quite delightful to be around. Usually on her daycare sheets under "today I was feeling" she usually has circled "happy" and "playful." Can you see why?


She doesn't get her easygoing personality from me. According to my mom, if I had been in daycare they would have circled "sensitive" and "tearful." Thankfully, I outgrew that. I try to keep the crying to a minimum, even during faculty meetings.

The Stash Groweth In Unusual Ways

This past week I attempted to organize the craft closet. The craft closet might already be organized if it weren't also the crap-that-has-no-place-else-to-go closet. Actually, we have another closet dedicated to crap and this one is just overflow crap. The dedicated crap closet REALLY needs to be organized, but neither the hubby nor I are brave enough to tackle that without a large chunk of time and some really good reward waiting when we're done.

In the course of organizing I realized that compared to my Ravelry stash, my real life stash had grown substantially, but not in a way that I can easily add to Ravelry. What do I mean? Well, just take a look at this:



Various friends have donated leftover yarn for baby socks, baby hats, baby sweaters (are you sensing a theme?). I absolutely cannot pass up free stuff (one of my many faults), so I have accumulated all these tidbits. I really do think most of it will work up into cute stuff, and the challenge of using it all appeals to my frugal side.

A Behavior Pattern

If you haven't already guessed, I am trying my darnedest to participate in NaBloPoMo by posting every day this month. This will hopefully get me in the habit of posting more frequently again. It's easy to get out of the habit and let the blog languish, and I'd rather not let that happen.

I am working on organizing my craft supplies now that we plan to stay in our house for a very long time. Today I put all my sewing patterns in one place:



Can you believe that pile? There have to be at least 20 individual patterns. I'm embarrassed to admit that most have never been used. At least I've usually only paid $1-2 each and I've gotten a few for free. Even so, I really should do some more sewing. The three huge boxes of fabric also indicate that I should get around to doing some more sewing. Of course, I also have three huge boxes of yarn, two big boxes of embroidery floss, rubber stamp supplies, beading supplies, and one big box of miscellaneous craft stuff. Yes, organizing is an eye-opening experience.

Not Like Me

Unlike me, my daughter is black. In my mind she is German/Caribbean, or multi-ethnic, but because her father is black the world will see her as black.

Unlike me, my daughter will grow up in a neighborhood where people from different countries, ethnic backgrounds and races all live together.

Unlike me, my daughter will grow up in world where a black man was elected President. It is no longer just a possibility, it is a reality.

Thinking about the possibilities open to her and the new world we live in brings tears to my eyes.

Exercising My Rights

I hope everyone plans to vote today! The hubby and both voted just after the polls opened this morning. We even took RJ, who got her very own "I Voted" sticker. We want to teach her early that it is her duty and privilege to exercise her right to vote.

On a related note, have you seen these finger puppets?




You can find the pattern for each one at Lion Brand. I wish I'd had time to crochet them so I could have mock debates (they would always end in thumb wars). Perhaps tonight one puppet will concede to the other. The question is, will the candidates follow suit?

A Swimmingly Good Halloween

I don't know about all of you, but we had a wonderful Halloween. The hubby and I spent the whole week scrambling at work, and I was doing tons of work in the evenings as well. Ugh! By Friday we needed the break. Thankfully, the wonderful people in our neighborhood had organized a bounce house, snacks, and pizza for everyone. RJ had a blast watching all the other kids play. We got her dressed up in her costume and even took her trick-or-treating to a few houses. (She kindly gave all her candy to me ;) Here she is as the cutest guppy on the block:



As for the crafting content of the blog, I am thinking I may frog these pants:


The proportions aren't coming out right (too big in the butt, probably because they are meant to be worn with cloth diapers), and I think I may run short of yarn. Sadly, I think this yarn needs to be something else. Instead of working on my knitting projects, last week I designed a small fall-themed item for RJ. It is a project using the "C" word rather than knitting (that's crochet for all you non-crafters). That project may show up here soon, once I had a few more finishing touches.