knitting librarian

I went to knit with Aunt Marilyn tonight. We sat and talked a bit about the house and knitting. Nothing too exciting, just a break from the mundane at home. I need to get this sweater done for Zoe so I can get going on AJ’s sweater for fall. I’m actually looking forward to that one because I haven’t knit one for him in a while and I know he’ll like the Wonderful Wallaby I’ve got planned for him.

with surprisingly little problems from the kids. We started with AJ last week on looking at the clock and telling him that bedtime is 7pm, go check the time. He reported the time to us diligently each time we had him check. Once it said 7-0-0 or something after that, he knew it was time to head up to bed. It made the transition last night pretty easy even though it was still light out. He was in bed by 7:15 tonight and I was on my way out the door to my knitting group! I don’t know how long this will last, but I’m hoping that since we started it early we won’t have too many problems.

Saturday night we took dinner and a computer to a friend’s house. On the way home (late!) at 8:15, we had NPR on—not sure exactly what, but it sounded like Irish pipe music of some sort. AJ asked about it, we said, yes isn’t it nice? He agreed it was, and in the less than 10 minutes home, he fell asleep!

I suspect on Friday when I take him to see Seussical! (our school musical) he’ll fall asleep on the way home too. I just hope he manages to stay awake during the show.

On the needles: a top-down raglan sleeved cardi for Miss Zoe. It’s going pretty quickly. I’ve had a few stitch issues but I think I’ve figured out how to resolve them. I need to take a picture!

We’re supposed to get snow tomorrow—8 inches during the day tomorrow changing over to sleet and freezing rain by Wednesday morning. By evening commute Tuesday, they say we need to watch out for bad roads and traffic snags. We didn’t get a delay this morning as I suspected, although ours was one of only three in the area who didn’t delay. Most made the decision last night and I was hopeful that ours was just holding out for morning to see what it really was like, but no such luck!

Today I did manage to schedule an appointment for myself for next Monday afternoon. I’ll be glad to sit and talk about my concerns and see what med-changes can be made to make things better for me health-wise. I’ve got the beginning of one of those rotten colds that’s starting with a drippy nose that feels like there’s a huge log jam behind it. I usually avoid orange juice, and while I haven’t broken down and gotten some, I did pick up some grapefruit juice in hopes of getting a good vitamin C infusion.

I got home today to two packages waiting for me! One was my pink and brown swaparooni package (thanks NCBelle!) and the other was a purse I bought online. I was really excited about both of them. I need to take pictures of the swap package contents, so they’ll be forthcoming tomorrow—there were several beautiful yarns, two headbands, notepads and postit notes, and best of all: dark chocolate!
I was invited to a neighborhood knitting group tonight by my aunt. We were there for about 2 hours and I made some good progress on my french market bag. I haven’t touched this since John had his surgery in September 2006, so the first row of knitting tonight is kind of obvious, but since it’ll be felted, I don’t expect it will be much of a problem. I’m pleased with the progress and probably will need to knit about 2 more inches vertically before I can start binding off for the handles. I’m glad I picked this back up because it’s been sitting idle for way too long!

And for our scare of the day, Zoe was chewing on a teething biscuit while we were waiting for the boys to get home tonight—it was keeping her content while I made dinner. John got home and brought her out to the kitchen. At that point, she didn’t seem to have anything left of it and she started eating some potato at the table, but there must have been a phantom chunk of it left somewhere because before long she was choking. I was sitting off to the side and didn’t realize it until John got up to grab her. He’s always afraid to try to deal with choking kids so he handed her over to me for some back thumping. It took three attempts to really get her back to clear but she didn’t even seem upset after the fact—she left that to John and I to worry about!

Christmas today was amazing. AJ has really gotten into the joy and excitement of Christmas and was beside himself this morning. We told him that we were going to wait for Nonna and Pop to come before we opened presents. They went to see Ryan open his presents at 8am and got here by 10am. Last night, AJ got some gifts from my cousins and aunt and uncle. One was a game where you try to collect the fewest monkeys from a tree while pulling picks out of the tree. The monkeys remind me of miniature cocktail monkeys. We played the game this morning in bed until about 9:45 when we got up to get ready for the grandparents arrival. I won the first time and lost the second game. AJ won the second and then gave me the requisite “I won! You lost! HA HA!”

Despite planning to do very little for Christmas this year in the spirit of staying on budget, our tree was bursting with gifts. I got some lovely earrings from John and another set from the kids. John got a DVD he’s been requesting for years, in addition to a few other requested gifts. At least the movie was a surprise. AJ got the Green Ranger he was hoping for and a hat that I knit for him and embroidered with a Spider-man spider. He also got a long note from Santa which he was very excited about hearing.

We’re so fortunate to have all that we need and more. I count my blessings every day for my wonderful husband, children, and our extended families. Thank you Lord for the blessings you’ve bestowed on me and for the greatest gift of all, Your Son. Merry Christmas everyone.

I’ve finally photographed my gift for Steph’s baby shower and can get them to the mommy-to-be tomorrow. (With a month to spare before the baby’s due.) I used Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted Superwash Wool in River, a gorgeous mix of blue, aqua and plum.
I used the Ear Cozies pattern from FiberTrends and the thumbless mitten pattern from Adorable Knits for Tiny Tots by Zoe Mellor. I absolutely love that book! There are so many great sweaters in it that I keep saying I’m going to make. Someday I may even follow through! I had to adapt the mitten pattern as it was intended for 3-6 months, but I hope they came out so they’ll fit Wyatt for a little bit at least!

So, here’s the picture of the hat (with a link to the set). I can’t believe how tiny they are. I can’t believe that Zoe and AJ were that tiny, but of course they were. I do hope that Steph likes them (and if she doesn’t that she spares my feelings!)