Sleeping and a shawl

My days have been filled with images like these:

My hands have likewise been busy. Since I didn't finish this shawl by Halloween, which was my original goal, I now hope to have it done by the end of the year. I'm on row 138 out of 170-something. Sounds easy, right? Each row is something like 768 stitches. It's damned near neverending.

This is my favorite part so far. The lattice-like lace is just so pretty. When I'm done I'll overdye the whole thing to make it all black.

The Elf wanted to knit his grandmother in Ohio a hat. So I spun some yarn for it. He emailed her to make sure she'd actually like a hat (he doesn't really knit and a hat seemed easiest). She doesn't. She'd prefer a scarf - which is too much of a project for the Elf. He'd never follow through with it - and even he knows it. So now I have a semi-bulky yarn with no project in mind.

Grr.

I promised myself that I'd only spin for specific projects. All the "fun" yarns I've spun are in my shop. They aren't in great quantities. I can't imagine what people would use them for. Which is stupid, isn't it? Trying to sell something that even I can't come up with a use for. Bah. So in an effort to clear out my shop of "useless" handpsun yarn I'm offering a coupon code for 20% off in my etsy shop. Just use "flighty" when you check out. I'll leave the coupon up until the end of the year (or when I run out of yarn!).

Linking up with Creative Friday!

Lately.

Batman has gotten arms and eyes, but no bat. I'm really not looking forward to adding it. I have the worst time needle felting details on like that. And the idea of gluing it isn't very appealing, either.

Master Chief still needs his helmet sewn on and the yellow part added. B says that he wants this one, making the first attempt the Elf's Solstice gift.

Iron Man sweater is complete.

B asked me for knit pants. I've never attempted adult sized longies. The base is a grey wool and I'm using scraps for the color stripes. I'm actually quite happy with how it's coming along. This will be my first time adding in a gusset though. Hopefully I'm understanding the basic directions (as I don't use a written pattern for my longies to begin with).

None of this exactly explains my radio silence. I don't have an excuse, really. I just find myself doing other things - frantically reading Harry Dresden books to get ready for today's release of the fourteenth book in the series. Not that I started reading it after lunch or anything. Because really, that'd be obsession, right?

Yarn Along and then some.

Linking with Ginny.

This is what my knitting (and crochet) looks like right now. I have bags hiding Solstice gifts from curious little eyes. I'm running out of places to stash things, to be honest.

Last Sunday in the afternoon I decided that the Beast really needed an Iron Man sweater as his second Solstice gift. I ran off to the yarn store and immediately started plotting and planning. Here's how far I've gotten.

I'm using this pattern and shamelessly borrowing from this unrelated sweater. I'm going to crochet the chest circle (just like on his gloves) and am using all the same yarns. Whee!

The Imp is getting a Pichu and a Batman. Pichu is done.

Ravelry notes here.

Batman still needs a face, a bat symbol, and arms (the pattern doesn't call for them, but I think he needs them.

The Elf is getting a Star Wars origami book and a Master Chief toy (from Halo - a video game). There are no patterns that I could find so I altered one.

Ravelry notes here. Photo taken with B's phone at his office (with the evil companion cube that was an utter pain to make).

This is me trying to write my own pattern. Frustration does not begin to cover it.

As for reading, I'm on the eleventh Harry Dresden Book on my Kobo. Woo!
On top of all of this, we had roofers come out on Monday to replace our roof. They should be done today, but sheesh! The noise! Trapped under all those thumps and bangs with three boys. It's enough to make a person crazy. And for fun, the Beast got up at 4am this morning. Here I am, running on less than four hours of sleep and an incomplete cup of coffee. And now I'm off to play with train tracks at the request of the youngest.

Yarn Along - gifts

Joining up with Ginny today for the Yarn Along.

Let's start this off with text. I'm reading White Knight by Jim Butcher. I think it's the ninth Dresden book. I'm in the middle of a mess of projects. This is partly because I'm working on Solstice gifts and my kids are way too inquisitive. I'm still working on my Arsenic and Old Lace shawl, I just didn't take a picture because it still looks a mess. I also finished the Odette hoodie for the Imp. It hasn't been washed or blocked. The buttons are on their way to us. Today he spilled yogurt on the hoodie, so maybe he'll finally take it off so that I can wash it!

Duotone throw in progress. It doesn't look like I've done much because you can't see how very long this piece is. Also, I will admit to not working on it as much as I should - the hoodie, a hat, and some gloves distracted me.

This is Pichu-in-progress (I don't have a Ravelry project page for it yet). The Imp has been desperate for a Pichu so it seemed the proper Solstice gift to start with.

A waffle hat! Which sounds ridiculous. But it's the pattern. And it matches the scarf that I made last year.

Iron Man gloves. Need I say more? A certain super-hero-loving two year old is going to love them. Though I highly suspect the Imp will be after then as well.

So there I am. Buried under wool (and loving it). For better or worse I need to take a break and work on gnomes. It's amazing how much that seems like *work* these days (I think I burnt myself out making four full sets of weather gnomes not long ago). Six gnomes for a custom order, eight gnome hats for a neglected swap. Today will be filled with wood burning, painting, polishing, and sewing tiny hats.

Button help - Never mind

Okay, I finished the Odette hoodie. But now I need buttons. Eight buttons that are about one inch in diameter. I can't spend a fortune so higher-end wooden buttons are out. I'd prefer something hand made. But sheesh! Slogging through Etsy looking for buttons is making me crazy. A great deal of nice looking buttons don't have any indication of size or are half a world away.

Help! What are you favorite button sources?

Never mind. We stumbled upon these and they make the Imp very happy.
Still, for future knitting, I'd be interested to know your favorite button sources.

Hoodie update

Here's a more accurate picture of the progress and color (though it's still not quite right. it's really darker) of the Odette hoodie. I do usually take pictures with natural light - outside or in the bedroom with the good morning light coming in through the windows. Lately I've been spending the better part of the morning and early afternoon compiling things for school work. By the time I summon the extra energy to take pictures of things, it's evening and all of the light is gone.

My day looks something like this:

Reluctantly wake up, drink coffee and eat oatmeal. Read blogs, email, etc. Wake the Elf (by now at least one of the younger two is up, if not both). Feed monkeys, change diapers, prepare lessons. Convince the Elf to start his school work, start laundry, take something out for dinner. Build with train tracks, knit when the littles let me. Help with school work, prepare lessons for tomorrow. Change more diapers, find snacks for toddlers. Build with blocks and mediate toddler fights. Help with school work, prepare lessons. Eat lunch, feed monkeys.. you get the idea. By about 3pm I'm ready to drop and will let the littles have shiny boxes to stop them from fighting for a little while. Around 4pm I start dinner. By 6pm, after dinner, I've announced that I'm done. Just done. I will then spend the evening struggling to accomplish anything, put kids to bed, and imitate a vegetable on the couch until I can't keep my eyes open any longer.

So yes, please excuse the crappy pictures for a while.

And now, since I've deviated from my routine. I need to prepare tomorrow's lesson on the Boston Tea Party and change some diapers. Whee!

Yarn Along

Joining up with Ginny for the Yarn Along.

Here's the thing. I took this picture about 24 hours ago. I wanted to be prepared. To get ahead. Yeah. Because that was really likely to work out. I'm knitting an Odette hoodie for the Imp. I've now finished both sleeves and am working on the yoke. Bottom-up construction baffles me. Also, the yarn is blue. Very blue. My lighting just sucks.

For fun I'm still reading Dresden books by Jim Butcher. But mostly I've been cramming for the Elf's homeschooling. We started late this year - which doesn't matter, right? That's one of the reasons we homeschool. At the end of last year we were in medieval Japan, I think (using Story of the World). The Elf fought me every step of the way with history (and everything else, but especially with history). No matter what I tried, he hated it. Enter video games. Yep. This is why I don't speak out in any of the Waldorf communities I belong to online. My husband plays Assassin's Creed - I watch. So does the Elf. The third game came out at the end of last month and is about the American revolutionary war. So we've jumped right in. And let me tell you, I haven't had a single complaint about history at all. Not one. He seems to really enjoy seeing the semi-fictional take on the things he's learning.

But this leaves me studying American history every day just to prepare for the following day. In addition I've been searching out botany websites and lessons. Can I just tell you for a minute how amazing it is to hear my stubborn ten year tell me that he's enjoying the things that I'm teaching him?

At any rate, I'm exhausted. The kids are all in bed and I think I'll go lose myself in that just-for-fun book now.

Lately.

Shipwreck the first is in the middle. It's more blue. Shipwreck the second ended up more green. Ah well, I like them both.

Another armadillo. This one bound for Ireland!

Besides that I've been cramming for the Elf's school work. We started "late" this year and have made some changes. Maybe I'll post more about it tomorrow for the yarn along (since it has involved a lot of reading). In the meantime I'm linking up with Nicole for KCCO.

Saturday.

My favorite yarn shop.

My sheepy addition to the shop's yarn masterpiece. I'm hoping to add more. I have grand plans, friends. Grand plans.

A lion I finished this morning for the Imp. Again, I used one of Linda's amazing patterns.

Boys + legos = daily life around here

Other than that I'm working on an armadillo and an odette hoodie. We'll ignore that I've also been watching B play Assassin's Creed 3 for much of the evening. Next up, maybe Halo 3? Yes. We are addicts.

Fiber overload

If I took a picture of the bags of mill ends (that are all totally perfect pieces of roving - I have no idea what Brown Sheep was thinking), you'd be shocked. I have at least six pounds. Mostly white/off white and a pound each of green and black. Mmmmm. Which reminds me that I still haven't finished/shared my beaded art yarn yet. I'll have to get to that this weekend.

At any rate, here's what I've been up to (which is why I suck at responding to emails - I found my zone, sorry!).

I finished my hat. I'm not terribly sure about it, but the Elf tells me that it looks okay on me. Alas, I can't take pictures of my own head very well, so he graciously modeled for me.

I'm calling the colorway "shipwreck" - I know it isn't very original. But as I was dyeing the yarn I thought of tossing waves, dark clouds, lightning, the falling masts of ancient ships. It just stuck. So there it is. Ravelry notes are here.

These are some of my mill ends. I was feeling phoenix-like. Out of nowhere I had energy and motivation. A drive to create. My husband would call it a fey mood (if you've ever played Dwarf Fortress, you'll be laughing now).

This is my attempt to recreate the shipwreck colorway. It's pretty darn close, too. I wonder what it will look like once it's spun. I can't wait to compare it to the leftover yarn from my hat.

I'm still waiting on replacement needles for my shawl. This weekend I aim to spin. And maybe sew some wee hats for gnomes I've been neglecting (sorry, Laura!).