Where is the break in Spring Break?

I am not sure why they call Spring Break a break. Yes, there is a little time off of school, but boy am I exhausted after the fact. I think I need some time off after my time off!

I loved having some time with my big one, and it was nice to see the Hubby and have some of his family visit to celebrate basketball and Easter (it did happen in that order - basketball started first). I was so worn out after the fact that one night this week, I went to bed after the kids went down. Hubby knew I was tired, because I was not knitting. I was able to get some things accomplished this week though.

Through practice, I have been working diligently on my hat, thinking that I must be crazy making a wool hat for this spring when it was 70 degrees outside, then yesterday hit! Everyone was all bundled up, practices were short, and the wind was whipping, and it was back into the 40s. Oh yeah, spring in Kansas is ever changing. So, I got my hat done last night and am ready to start some wristwarmers. I made the hat out of a superwash wool from Knit Picks so that it can be washed and dried very easily. Easy care and sturdy wear. I made this deliberately to be for work, when it is cold outside! I have also started another sock, of course. Although this is not a good traveling sock, it is working out nicely as a sock while watching basketball. One of the Ravelry groups I am in is March Madknits, and several of us are working on Tournament socks. I have gotten one pair done in the first week, the red mock wave cable socks. So it was time to start a new pair. This is part of the Twist On Your Toes sock of the month club. It is now coming along nicely. I had to start over once, because it just was not working right the first time, so it got frogged (ripped) and started again.

It is definitely looking a lot prettier than my bracket is at this point!

Mock Wave Cable Socks

Spring break has brought lots of adventures! Lots of time with my big one, especially with her out of school, March Madness, company, and upheaval of the computer. At my house, March Madness basketball sees the computer moved out to the family room so that all possible games can be watched, whatever is not on TV gets watched on the computer, thus it has been hard to update the blog. It has however provided a lot of knitting time! Since I spent so much time with the big one, I decided that she needed a new pair of socks. She has been wanting red socks since I first started knitting them. I also let her pick out the pattern. For the Sock Knitters Anonymous March Sock Down, I let her pick from different patterns by Ann Budd out of the Favorite Socks book.

Here is the sock in progress: The first leg

Close up of the mock wave cable pattern

One done!

Yeah, I got them finished!

And they fit beautifully!

Now, what project shall I start next. There is still a lot of basketball to be watched at this house! And I have to see if my bracket will survive!

Rambler socks

Yeah!!!!! I finished my rambler socks! They fit and look so beautiful! The second ball of yarn did not have the same brilliant color changes, and it is much more subtle, but just as beautiful.
It was extra fun because I created them with my own pattern design, and I will definitely use it again. In fact, I have had some other ravelry users tell me they are going to try the same pattern, along with a few people from Twist, and my mom!

This was also my first attempt at a short row heel. It turned out nice, and the second sock was much easier than the first!Now I can start my March socks. Along with that, I have started a basic 3 x 3 rib hat in a superwash wool for easy care for wearing at work! Baseball season is cold once the sun goes down, and then there is the ever present wind! I had my first soccer game this week before spring break, and I was able to work on it, at least until I ran out of yarn on my first ball. That was okay though, I couldn't feel my fingers anymore anyway!

Cows

As some of you may know, I have a great affinity for ... Cows! I know this is all thanks to my grandparents and their dairy farm. There is nothing more beautiful than a black and white Holstein! I had so much fun on the farm every summer when I was growing up. Even when I was 1000 miles away, my grandma allowed me to name the new calves that were born. I will say that was kind of strange when my dad helped Grandpa take the bull they sold that was named after my dad (and he is not a farm boy and will fully admit that!)



As you can see, I have always loved cows! I even had the best slippers when I was younger that were cows named Fred and Ginger (I also loved tap). Hmm, something tells me that I was in to naming things at that time - it seems to me that was also about the time that I named all my animal head covers for my golf clubs.



Well, this past week I was able to reconnect with my love of cows! It came in the form of a bra for one of my customers.

That bra turned out so cool that I had to go buy enough of the fabric for myself for a nightgown, and whatever else I can get out of it! I just have to say... cows are awesome!

Update

Why is it that the age of 3 is such a challenge? Wednesday last week, my little one was in a particularly ornery mood, and we had a battle of both wills, and nightgowns. Well, just a quick update on the subject. She has now worn the nightgown, TWICE, with the undershirt, and twirled and declared herself a beautiful princess. It just goes to show me all of the adventures I have in store with my wild child.

Now if we could just sleep through the night again! We have been through 2 days this week so far, and no stickers. I really hope I get to give her a sticker tomorrow morning, that would do me and Hubby so much good!

Third in State

I am so proud of my East High Blue Aces boys basketball team! We have been submerged for the last three days in basketball and traveling back and forth between Wichita and Emporia Kansas. Yesterday's semi-final game, was as close to a championship game as you could have asked for. And if the brackets had been set up differently, could have been tonight's final game. Instead it went down to the last 20 seconds of the game. We had already split in two overtime, regular season games with our close town friends/rivals, the Southeast Buffalos. We battled back in the 4th quarter and tied, and exchanged leads, and ended up barley losing the game. But I am so proud of my team. They picked themselves up and came in this afternoon ready to play, another town rival and played well. They took home the third place trophy and ended on a positive note. (I will have pictures to follow when our manager e-mails them to me)

Beyond that, it has been an adventurous weekend. Thursday night when I got home, the big one came out of her room in a total daze. The Hubby said that she was talking gibberish, and he couldn't figure out what was going on. She was also swaying back and forth wiggling her hips, and refused to speak to me. I took one glance at the glassy look on her face, and rushed her to the potty! She is just too much like her mommy! I told Hubby, if she ever does that again, just get her on the potty, just ask her grandma how I know this!

Then there is the little one. We have been trying this new reward system of star stickers for staying in bed and not screaming when she wakes up in the middle of the night, because after all, she is a big girl of 3. So far, we have gotten one sticker in a week, the goal is 5 a week for a treat. Last night, I got home, she woke up, and would pop her head out of her room a few times. Then I heard the thump, and swore she had fallen out of bed. I went to check on her, only to find her crawling out from under the bed where she was, "just looking". She followed that up with a little chorus of her own tune, and promptly lost any chance of a sticker this morning. We will see how tonight goes.

On a knitterly note, I truly have gone over the edge! We were on a chartered bus, so I was able to knit up and back and before our game on Thursday, no problem. Yesterday, I had added a basic 3x3 rib hat to my sock that I was working on, because it required less focus when we were waiting on the game before us to finish. I managed to stalk a person, because she had on the cutest hat with a very cool cable pattern to it, and I even tried to take a picture of it with my phone so that I could study it later. Only one problem, she was walking, and I was walking, and she didn't know I was following her, so the picture was so blurry, it looked like a cream blob. I guess I need to get better at my cable stalking! So the night ended on a somber note, then I got on the bus, and the lights did not work. I am awfully proud of myself though, I knitted for 30 - 45 minutes in the pitch dark by feel and counting to 3. Even better, when I got home in the light, I hadn't made any mistakes. I was floored. Then today, we were up and back in the daylight, so knitting both directions was not a problem. I am about halfway down the leg of my second rambler sock, and have about an inch and a half of the hat. I hope I would have done the Yarnharlot proud!

Back to School!

Hooray! The big one is finally fever free and was able to go back to school today, much to her protests! That meant I was finally able to run a few errands, get a few things done, and make some more knitting plans!

I started the day by making the little one a little camisole to wear under a Dora nightgown that she got for her birthday that she says hurts and now won't wear. I have fixed it on 4 different occasions, still to no avail. So I made her the undershirt, which fits beautifully. She had the nightgown on and was fine until bedtime issues were not going her way, and she threw a fit again, balled, and made me want to pull all my hair out! The nightgown was angrily thrown in the trash, by me, and off she was to put something else on. Fortunately, the shirt that I made she still likes and is still on. My anger was definitely fueled by the thumb I found in her mouth. We successfully got rid of the paci, and I am already fighting a much longer thumb sucking battle. I am not about to have a second thumb sucker!

On a much happier, and knittier note, the big one has picked out a new pair of socks for me to make her. It is Ann Budd's Mock Wave Cable socks, and she has been wanting red socks out of this yarn for quite some time, so this will be my March Sockdown entry. Now I just need to finish the second ramble sock. (at least it is started)

I have also been braving the cold, as it has been cold and windy, and spring - outdoor sports have started. I have gotten this beautiful navy blue superwash wool (I can wash and dry it in the machines) and I plan to make a simple ribbed hat and some wrist warmers out of it for work! Far and away, I must say that around here, baseball season is so much colder than football season.

Can we please be healthy already?

So, the congestion and fever garbage that has gone through the house has affected everyone now. The little one was home at the beginning of the week, and then I started not feeling so hot. I was eeking through the days, mostly because I had too, there was too much going on! Thursday afternoon though, we get a call from the big one's school, she has a temp and needs to come home and not come back on Friday. I had to get through a basketball game Thursday night, and I decided then, that the two of us needed a sick day, so I took Friday off, and we hung out in our room and watched movies. It was just what we needed. I had another basketball game last night to continue in the playoffs to state, and a soccer tournament to work, fortunately it worked out that I just needed to work the game and not spend 6 hours out in the wind before that.

Well, I did get some knitting done along the way on Friday! I worked my very first short row heel on the rambler sock. Actually I did it twice! For all my non-knitting friends, I must introduce you to two very scary knitting terms. The first is tinking. When you have to go backwards stitch by stitch, knit backwards spells tink! Not fun, but at least it is controlled. Now the other term is frogging. That is when you take out the needles and rip-it, rip-it. This is very scary because you have live stitches and losing one could be disastrous to your project. Well, I was working on my heel, and as I was almost finished, I realized that it was off center because I had counted wrong. So I very carefully took a deep breath, took out the needles, and frogged back to the beginning of the heel. I don't think I took another breath until I knew that I had all 40 stitches that I needed. I then took another deep breath when I finished the heel and it worked out beautifully!

Now this is a very different heel than the one I showed you before in anatomy of a sock which uses a heel flap. I am much more comfortable with that type of heel, but the idea was to challenge myself, and I did. I am very happy with how it is turning out, and here is my progress so far!

Now, I still have half a foot, a toe, and a whole second sock, but I am definitely having fun with this yarn and pattern!

On another note, my basketball team won last night, and we are off to state playoffs next week. So I have at least one, if not three hopefully, drives up to Emporia, Kansas where I can knit, at least on the way up, a bit too dark coming home!