Love was definitely in the air the other day when the mailman came though. No, I don't love the mailman - I love Aunt Jenny! We did a swap on MaryJanesFarm and the big box of yarn that is my treasure from the swap arrived a couple of days ago. I've been dying to photograph it and publicly thank her, but, well...life has gotten in the way this week (can't my blogging time be separate from my daily allotted 24 hours?! there's never enough time...) I've already started using it too - that denim twist Wool-Ease came just in time for some winter slipper/booties for Jackson. I have a million other ideas for the rest of it too - why don't my leftovers and extras look half as exciting to me as other peoples'? The brown and red balls are wool and mohair and have tons of little flecks of color - so soft! Lots of great sock yarns too. And the Plymouth Yarn is so soft - I've knit with this yarn before (in different colors) and love that it's washable wool. Let it be known that Jenny handspun the two hanks in the front of the photo on her farm - the off-whitish one is Icelandic from her former ram, Romeo (see? love is in the air tonight!) and the cocoa one is wool/alpaca. The gray skein in the middle is homespun too, also Icelandic. Thank you, Jenny!
This is what happened to Jackson's pumpkin hat this week. I tried it on his "little" head while he was feeding himself Cheerios the other day and was horrified when it popped right back up and off his head. The 12-18mos size was obviously not going to work! I always knit really small, but still...the hat was 18" around and I thought that would fit. Note to self: measure child first, then start knitting... The child came in at 19" (yes, that's right, 19" at 8-months...wow!) so I opted for the 3-year-old size hat (what?!) and it came out just perfect due to my tightness. Not a big deal to have to frog and re-knit, since hats - especially little ones - knit up quick. (And it's a good thing that I had to do it over anyway since I completely misread the earflap part of the pattern the first time. This is what the flaps were supposed to look like! Duh.)
It looks much cuter on Jack than on this teddy bear*, but he was not exactly in the mood to be photographed for the last couple of days. Here are a few from Saturday night - he yo-yo'ed between cranky-tired and crazy-awake while our friends were over and would not leave the party for bed, not-no-way, not-no-how. Ooh, the whiny boy we had on Sunday...it was like he was hungover! We had a few more days of this and since he also has the sniffles...well...it's not been good. (Yes, that's an unidentifiable baby stain on my shirt.)
Since Dan was working late tonight and I was on for the long-shift, I knew that distraction was going to be the key for today's happiness. It worked out okay...not bad, Mom. A trip to the Co-op in the morning, back home for lunch and a nap, off to the library downtown via light rail with a walk down Nicollet Mall to the big Target just for fun, back home on the train, storytime, dinnertime, bedtime. A few whines in there, but since he slept from Target to home, the transit piece worked out okay (a good thing, since I timed it horribly and we were heading home right at rush-hour; business people don't like strollers on their trains!). I couldn't fit in the Wednesday Knitters at Bruegger's though, as much as I would have liked to have gone. Sorry Shelly et al! Hope to see you next time!
In other Jackson news, we've started...the dreaded...wait for it...CRY...IT...OUT. Oh the pain, oh the agony! The first time it was 10 minutes. Then it was an average of 1.5 minutes, so we were thinking this was going well. Well, I'm sitting here listening to him wail as I type this (Daddy's got the monitor now that he's finally home) and it sucks. It's so hard to balance attachment parenting and your desire to have your child know how to fall asleep on his own. This could be a whole long post just devoted to this subject, since parenting debates go on and on about this. I don't have the energy to say anything more about it. Tonight, it sucks.
But I'll throw in this photo to round out today's love story, so you all have a nice image of Jackson in your heads. His grampa went to the Twins game and just had to get him a hat...this is the grampa with a hat collection to rival Imelda Marcos' shoes. How appropriate to start Jackson out young!
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* The teddy bear was handknit by my good friend Laura. She brought it over for Baby Jack soon after he was born - the same night that she and her husband brought us a homemade dinner of spanikopita and potatoes. I will never forget that dinner! (The bear is pretty amazing too!)
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Update on the Mouse: He's gone. I sneezed loudly and that was apparently all that was needed to throw him off his game of "balance carefully and steal the peanut butter without killing myself." So, yes, I'm a murderer. At least an accessory to murder.
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He stopped crying. Keeping my fingers crossed.
3 comments:
I am so glad you liked the yarn!
I did spin the grey in the middle too...don't you love the center pull balls like that. I have a nifty little ball winder that does that. I need to get all set up and get some more wool spun...shearing sheep this weekend if it quits raining!!
I am glad to hear the mouse is gone. I caught two today in my milk barn..the easy way. They had both crawled into the tall trash can in there (like a plastic kitchen trash can) and could't get out. I let them out way out in the field and my cat seemed very interested. I turned and went quickly into the barn..I figure at least one of them had a good chance..pumpkin is an old cat and may have just watched them run away.
What is spanikopita???
What a great box of stuff!! The hat turned out very cute.
Have you read "The No Cry Sleep Solution?" Awesome book. It has helped us a lot in the past with sleeping issues. She's got lots of great plans and ideas and it's the only book I've ever read that actually explains sleep. Definitely worth the $12 to have around the house. Good luck...sleeping issues are never easy! :-)
I covet your heap of yarn!
I second the "No Cry Sleep Solution" BUY IT!
I am soo with you on the unidentifyable baby stained clothing.....whatever vanity (or pride) I once had is long gone. I guess they went to the same place all of the size 8 jeans went??????
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