Little Bunny

The Gaming One has not one, but two, coworkers that are expecting babies soon (and they are both having boys! I just want to knit some baby girl cuteness). Of course, he asked me to make a little something for both of them. To his credit, he did give me plenty of advance warning so I would have time to knit them each a blanket. In all honesty, I just wasn't feeling it this time around. I almost decided not to make anything for either of them- I just could not decide on anything to knit. Ultimately, I decided to knit each of them wee rabbits and give them each a copy of one of my favorite kid books of all time- Guess How Much I Love You. I have been reading that book for over 12 years and I still get teary-eyed each time I read it.I originally crocheted the head and body (crochet is so much faster for me) but did not like the ears. I decided to knit the ears (increasing and decreasing when it looked right, making sure to slip the first stitch of each row), but did not like the knit ears with the crochet bodies. After thinking it over, I decided to use the head/body directions for the Middle-sized Monster pattern that I had knit for the Super Twins last year. Perfect. The body to ears ratio was just what I was aiming for. I knew the ears needed to be lined so they would not curl and honestly, it took more time to figure out how to line the ears than it did to knit the entire bunny. Eventually, I took a piece of cotton batting and a piece of cotton fabric and traced the outline of the ears on each of them. I sewed the fabric to the batting (right sides facing) using almost a quarter inch seam allowance leaving the top of the ear open. I cut away the fabric outside the seam then turned the ear lining right side out. I was then able to easily hand sew the fabric lining to the inside of the ear.

The tail was also made up as I went along and stuffed when I was finished. Although I considered the bunny finished based on my original plans- he does not seem complete. Any suggestions?

Also, My Father in Law is home and doing very well after his surgery. Thanks so much for all your prayers and good wishes!

So little time, so much to do.

Things have been crazy busy around here lately. The kiddos new homeschool year officially started which means tons of work for me- The Boy Wonder is in the 2nd grade and The Girl Wonder is in the 7th. It is worth every second to see all they are learning and to be able to give them a little extra understanding when certain subjects are difficult. It seems most of my personal computer time is devoted to checking resources, printing worksheets and general curriculum planning. This year both the kiddos wanted to move away from the unschooling approach we have taken in years past and use a more structured curriculum. The Girl Wonder especially thinks it is important since she is not too far from high school level classes and thinks the extra structure will help her get into a better college. Gah, my baby girl sure is growing up!

There has also been this very interesting reality show on TV that has been consuming many hours of my life. Perhaps you have caught an episode or two- it may be hard to find since it is only on every couple of years...I think it is called The Olympics. The Gaming One has been picking on me about having a crush on the swimmers. I keep telling him it is just their stamina I have a crush on...but now that I am thinking about it, the longest they go at it is 7 minutes, and that is just not enough...

I did not join the Knitting Olympics this year, because I knew that I would be out of town for a weekend family reunion and knitting time would be limited. I have two large projects on the needles (the Lovely Lacy Shawl and the Feather and Fan blanket) neither of which were suitable for knitting during family gatherings. The very lovely and sweet Andrea sent me (3 skeins of Schoeller and Stahl Socktina Cotton) sock yarn and a knitting pouch (that really makes me wish I had her sewing skills) as part of a blog contest prize- the perfect combo for on the go knitting. So right before I left, I decided to cast on a pair of socks to take with me. I divided the skein into two balls and started each sock on the same color repeat so I would have matching socks. I also wanted to make sure I would not lose a needle or leave one at home (like I have done in the past) so I decided to learn how to knit two socks on one circular needle. I feel like a genius! Look Ma, No Ladders! Matching Socks! No Second Sock Syndrome!

Finally, if you have read this far, there has been a little health scare over the past few weeks in my extended family and it turns out my father in law has to have heart by-pass surgery this Friday. So if you have a minute, say a prayer and send some good vibes his way.

I am hoping to be able to carve out an hour or so to catch up (and comment) on all your blogs. I have been a very bad blog friend, but hope to read you all soon!

All is not lost!

Thanks so much for all the kindness and hugs regarding my pity party. All the good vibes must have had a great effect because The Gaming One was able to recover EVERYTHING! That man is a genius! Oh, happy day!

I was able to finish the Swallowtail Shawl I started for my Grandmother. I can't believe it, but I gifted it to her before taking pictures of it. I don't know what I was thinking... She was very touched and started telling me about all the fall clothes she has that she can wear it with. I made a few mods to the shawl to make it longer. I was trying to use all the yarn- I hate having 20 or 30 yards leftover that is basically useless. I will be at Grandma's house in a few weeks and I will try to remember to take a picture then.

I go over a couple of times a month to do the cleaning that she and my Grandfather cannot do any longer. I don't think I ever mentioned it, but she was hit by a truck a few years ago while crossing the street to get her mail. She was thrown about 30 feet and broke her collarbone (in two places), leg and arm. She was in the hospital and in a nursing home for months and I really did not think she would survive, but she is one tough cookie! Understandably, now it is very difficult for her to do things like mopping, scrubbing tubs, and cleaning cobwebs. It is really hard for her to ask for help doing things she has been able to do all her life. I keep telling her I didn't ask her to take such good care of me when I was a little girl- she did it out of the goodness of her heart and I plan to take care of her now. I feel very fortunate to still have my favorite Grandparents around and want them to know how much they are appreciated and loved.

The Kiddos are gone for the weekend and The Gaming One is working, so I have two days of quiet to knit and spin and plenty of cold beers in the fridge! I hope your weekend is as good as mine is going to be!

pity party for one...

My main computer has been attacked by spyware/malware/viruses (I really don't fucking know, as I don't know shit about computers). In order to banish it for good, my darling husband has used a lovely recovery disk to return our system to our original pre-infected status. In doing so I think we have lost over 5 years of pictures OF MY CHILDREN saved only on our hard drive, all our bookmarked internet pages, and all of the knitting pattern/design ideas I have had in the works. Of course, this could not have happened at a better time, as I am so pms-ing even commercials make me cry very rational at this time. To cope, I am drinking and crying as there is nothing else I can do except break shit and yell at my husband for his oversight because I did nothing to prevent it either.

I cannot believe all the pictures I have taken of my kids are gone. Our first trip to Disneyland- GONE. Birthdays-GONE. Holidays-GONE. I am kicking my own ass now, because I thought only yesterday, "I should copy all our pictures to my flickr account in case something happens and we have to reboot our system." I decided to wait and do it today and guess what? Today all cookies were disabled on my computer and I could not even fucking log into flickr. Fuck, Fuck Fuck!!!!!

Did I mention all my bookmarks/internet favorites are gone as well? This is huge considering I homeschool my children and 98% of our materials are taken from online sources which I oh-so-smartly renamed "2nd grade spelling" "7th grade math" "science" "history" so they would be easy to find. Now, I would not recognize the actual names in a search even if I tried to find them all again. (Did I mention that I am crying to cope.) What the fuck am I going to do.

If you are reading this stop now and go back up all the files on your computer. Especially your pictures! Yes, right now. I hope you never need it, but if my shitty situation ever happens to you, you will thank me.

To make a bad situation worse, now I am stressing about the whole shebang (which I can do NOTHING about) and will not be able to sleep tonight. Thank you stress induced insomnia. It should make my eczema flare up nicely as well, leaving me unable to knit as I only get flare-ups on my hands. I should be a lovely person to be around tomorrow. yeah.right.