Holidays

Things are progressing as usual for this time of year. Some days I feel like I've got everything under control, and some days the stress level is through the roof. I have 99% of my gifts bought and wrapped, so no stress there. Of course, I had some help from the kitty.

 

I did two big grocery runs and a wine/beer run, so I have plenty of food for the kids who will be either staying here or visiting. I also have all of the baking stuff ready to go and baking day is planned for Friday, the first day of my break, which will finish up the gifts I need to have. Stephanie is due home tomorrow, and Meredith and Ryan are coming in Thursday night. The only thing missing is a tree, but we purposely planned to do it late this year, so the kids are a part of it. I even took a mental health day on Friday with three knitting friends from work and we spent the day eating, knitting, and hanging out at two different yarn stores. It was marvelous and probably will be an annual event, as it was such a great way to spend a day.

So why don't I feel joyful? Blended family stress again. It just never seems to go away. Maybe I was being naive to think it would, but since it hasn't after six years, I'm thinking I better give up that particular expectation. I thought about leaving this paragraph out, but I'm trying to keep it honest, so I'm leaving it in.

 

Now for some crafty news. Still loving my new craft room, but in the rush to organize it, I've either lost some black polar fleece I need for a gift, or else I used it up last year and forgot. The only knitting gifts I'm doing this year are some wash/dish cloths for my former MIL and some hand mitts for two nieces and a nephew. I have all but one of the dishcloths finished, and two out of the three pairs of mitts done, so I'm not stressing about that at all. I've made a pair of Cozy Thermal Mitts in Quince & Co. Lark, a pair of Braided Mitts, using Berroco Vintage, and I'm going to make the third pair using the pattern, Staghorn Mitts, with another skein of Lark. I am giving lots of food/alcohol/craft supply gifts this year, so they were easy and fun to buy. And I'm making one polar fleece throw for my son-in-law, in a sports theme print he will love. That and an eight pack of craft beer sounds like a good guy gift to me.

 

I hung some thrifted curtains over the open area to try and tame the cluttered look. What do you think?

 

The cloths on the left are face cloths and the ones on the right are dish clothes. Come to think of it, I'm done with these.

This is the Calais Cowl made out of Dragonfly Fiber yarn. It feels a lot like MadTosh, but the colors are often extra vibrant and eye catching.

I made this hat for a student of mine who is the mom to a three year old girl. Cat helped me with the photo.

 

Spent Friday knitting on the Woven Cowl, and will put it in the FO pile for an as yet undetermined recipient. I'm mostly knitting for the joy of it lately. I can't figure out if I'm using MadTosh or Dream In Color, as apparently I never put it in Ravelry. It doesn't much matter, as I love the richness of the color.

Oh, and Steve and I ate breakfast at this cute little place in Virginia Beach this morning to celebrate the date; six years ago we were married in our church ceremony, despite being secretly already married six weeks earlier, on November 7.

Cute decor, with free range chickens running around outside, and delicious food. Looking forward to a return visit.

Only four teaching days this week, which shouldn't be too bad. I'm teaching Romeo and Juliet, and the kids are really into it, which makes it great. Happy week to you, whatever you're doing.

****It feels trivial talking about all of this without mentioning the Sandy Hook tragedy, but it just leaves me without words. Apparently we are helpless to make meaningful changes to our gun control laws, which means these types of tragedies just happen over and over and over again. And feeling helpless is not a good feeling.

 

Posted with Blogsy