Arlo

I finished finishing Marek's newest sweater Arlo and I absolutely love it!  We had almost 2 weeks of glorious warm fall weather so we could go out for some glamour shots. 

Here is the cabled back.  The sleeves knit up in a flash because they were plain stockinette.  Here he is playing in the free-on-the-curb water table Dave found on his way to work.  It was in pretty sorry shape but we did play with water in it until the Boy broke the pump off.  Dave had the brilliant idea of filling it with the contents of the fraying sand tubes from the bed of the truck.  Now we have an elevated sand box.

We never carved our pumpkin this year which is OK.  This way we could use it for a fall photo prop.

The Boy absolutely would not let us put his sneakers on and wanted to wear his crocs for the photo.  He was just up from his nap and a little hangry.  I didn't push my luck about the shoes...

...because he wasn't cooperative the entire time!  I was happy with the shots we got before he melted down.

I played a little yarn chicken before I finished up his Eventyrlue hat/hood.  I used up my remaining skein but had part of a mitten I'd started and abandoned to change needles and repeats.  I cannibalized all but about a yard and half of that mitten to finish the hat!  Now Marek has all his winter accessories needed for the season and I can start on some for Dave.
 

 This was the longest week of my life waiting for election results.  I stayed up until 0300 on Election Day but it made me too nervous to knit in front of the TV and watch it.  I turned on the TV in the family room and retreated to the sewing room.  Every time I'd get up to the ironing board, I'd wander out to check the progress.  Dave's truck got stolen last week in broad daylight from the parking lot at his work.  I was sitting in the car with Marek at a car dealership while Dave was out test driving a new vehicle when we heard the news that Biden was the projected winner.  I haven't felt that relieved in a very long time.  Our neighbor a few blocks away had this display on his fence and it was a joy to behold.

 Our weather is beginning to turn cooler and wet.  I'm so nervous about work.  Our Covid numbers in this county may keep Dave from working at the school so we're waiting to see how that will play out.  Pfizer released extremely optimistic vaccine news today but we have to get through this surge first.  Biden addressed the nation today as the President-Elect urging people to wear masks and was that ever refreshing.  We are stocked up and ready to hole up at home.  We've already decided we are not getting together with any family for Thanksgiving and probably not Christmas either.  I am thankful for technology because I can see family over the phone but of course it is a poor substitute.  Take comfort in small things.  I love looking out at our gumdrop tree.  Be safe and wear a mask.  Take care of each other.  God Bless the USA!

Premature Winter

We had a snap of winter weather earlier in October and I was woefully unprepared on the knitwear front.  The Boy loved running amok in the snow in the coat I got on clearance last year that fits him perfectly this year.  His hat is too small and his baby thumb-less mittens hardly cover his little hands.  It didn't stop him from enjoying our first major snowfall.

Lopi enjoyed the snow too!  She loves to prance and sniff and snort in the snow.  Our girl just turned  8 years old!

This boy is a busy toddler but he loves to color.  Sometimes I can keep him in the high chair with his coloring book and some washable markers and I can get some paperwork done...

...and he loves to play or color in the play room that is always one big fallout zone.  I can sit on the futon and close the door and get some knitting done while he plays and does his thing.  I just love when he plays with the play food!  He's not yet at the point where I can place my order and he'll bring it to me but we count and talk about colors and sing the alphabet and other songs and I listen to him babble and talk to himself.  I have been able to get some significant knitting done too!

One of the projects I've been working on is a new cabled sweater for him.  Here are the pieces knit and piled in a lump before I wove in the ends.  You can see the general detritus littered floor of our living room in the background.

I blocked the pieces to the dimensions called for in the pattern.  I get so impatient waiting for it to dry! 

The shoulders are seamed and then the cowl neck and button band are picked up and knitted before being blocked AGAIN.  You're killing me!

I had to wait again before I could sew the buttons on.  I worry the lower center edges will ride up because of the ribbing.  I knit myself a Roosevelt cardigan and had that trouble.  We'll see how this goes.

I used Cascade Spuntaneous Effects worsted for the sweater and had almost a full skein left over for more winter bits and bobs including a pair of spiral mittens with thumbs for this season.  This pattern came from Homespun Handknit which is a wonderful winter outerwear pattern source book.  I've knit lots of these for other kids over the years but this is the first time I've knit them for my own son.  My heart nearly burst!  

The "newsprint" in the background is actually the new top sheet I made for our bed out of 2.5 yards of 108" wide cotton fabric purchased from Joann's with a coupon.  I brought it home, washed it, ironed it, safety pinned the selvages together so I could fold and shake it into shape to find the straight edges.  Dave had to help me hold it and fold it while I aligned it and trimmed it as straight as I could along the sides--this was the most difficult part of this easy project.  I hemmed the 2 trimmed sides and one of the selvage edges because the print did not go right up to the edge.  The other selvage was printed all the way to it's finished edge and also the side that will get tucked under the mattress so I left it alone.  Done. Anymore I only buy fitted sheets instead of sheet sets because Lopi circles and "digs" at our bedding before she finally lays down and many a fitted sheet have been ripped this way.  Because of this we have some mongrel bedding that I'll use for the fabric in some eventual utilitarian project, but in the meantime I just replace the fitted sheet and make my own top sheets.  This way I can literally roll around in my fabrics!  I love having favorite and seasonal prints around the house in our daily textiles.  I make most of our pillow cases for the same reason.  I took the Ikea twin duvets off the bed in the ceremonial Changing-Of-The-Bed-Linens from summer to winter.  In summer we each get our own sheet encased duvet and we sleep on a fitted sheet.  In the winter we have a fitted sheet, a shared top sheet and several of my quilts.

 Back to the knitwear, I'm knitting another Eventyr Lue out of this same yarn remnant and I finished a larger Minnesota Gopher bonnet style hat but haven't managed to take a picture of that yet.  I got the yarn on closeout from Webs.  I've also discovered Hobbii and know I've ordered yarn twice from them and 2 or maybe 3 times from Webs during this pandemic.  I am using the stuff though.  

 Speaking of pandemic, I had my own Covid scare a few weeks ago and had to get a test which took practically an act of Congress.  I'm so disgusted and frustrated that this far into this, as a country we still don't have our poop in a group.  Once I got approval and a test ordered, I had to find a place that had an opening to perform the test and then I waited 4 days for results and was out from work.  Thankfully it was just a nasty snot/chest cold but I work in a high risk job and I didn't want to spread it to anyone else.  Things are getting hotter at the metro hospitals and that worries me daily.  Dave is still working at school and his teacher is out for 14 days due to an exposure.  Nationally we are not producing testing reagents so there is no rapid testing capability at my metro hospital.  Let me repeat that: My metro area hospital has no rapid testing capability.  Every day I am more and more flabbergasted at how this administration has handled things.  I'm sure the reagent production tows the line of his philosophy that less testing results in fewer cases.  Would that were true, I wouldn't be fat if I never weighed myself.  I'm going about this fertility thing all wrong because I'll never ovulate if I never test.  Can he hear himself when he speaks?  And I don't even have to say his name for you to know exactly who I am talking about.

Tonight is also the eve of Election Day and I am a nervous wreck about tomorrow.  I think it is going to be a rough week no matter who wins.  It makes me sound old when I say I never though I'd live to see such times.  I'm feeling the need to watch Lord Of The Rings.  I'm reminded of Tolkien's simple philosophy of, "All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."  I have a beehive in my chest all the time these days.

Help us get through this election and the pandemic.  Our numbers are surging here in Minnesota.  We've had over 3,000 new cases every day for almost a week which is quite literally 10 times what they were a month ago.  I'm so beyond angry and frustrated with people.  This is the embodiment of exponential spread we've been warned of and it falls on deaf ears, including my in laws.  I find it utterly offensive to my sensibilities when I hear people say this will all go away on November 4th, and I've heard several people in my life say that.  Are you effing kidding me?  The virus doesn't care who you vote for.  I don't understand why it has become political.  It is science.  It is not a matter of if you believe it, it matters that you understand it.  It is science, not the Easter Bunny.

Focus on something positive...  Here I am getting ready for work and my little boy is also brushing his teeth with his dad's toothbrush.  He loves to wash his hands in the sink but really he just rubs his hands in the water and the bowl of the sink.  You can see one of our paperboard Halloween decorations taped to the bathroom door.  I do so love putting out my fall decorations but they have to be toddler proof.  We didn't dress up or go out on Halloween.  We had plenty of candy but we stayed in.  Of course I wanted to dress him up and take him over to his grandparents' house but it is not the safe or responsible thing to do.  I'm thankful he is so young and it is us grownups missing out and he won't remember that he is missing out on the best kid holiday of the year.  Hopefully next year...

Marek has colored on the walls a few times and thankfully washable marker washes off.  We've had to have several talks about only coloring on paper.   How can you resist that face?  You can see how long his hair was getting so it was time for another homemade pandemic haircut.

 

I think this was the 4th time we've cut it here at home and I think it looks pretty good other than above his ears where it got a little short and looks like a monk haircut.

 I requested the day off tomorrow so I can keep an eye on the election.  I am off to my bed for some fitful sleep before an anxiety riddled Election Day.