I’m a big baby

My kids aren’t, but I most certainly am.  I cried.  In my defense, I waited until both kids were inside the school before letting loose, but I did cry.  Like a baby.

I was really worried about my daughter adjusting. She did wonderfully. She says she didn’t cry at all. I’m a little jealous, to be honest. I’m sure we have a couple of weeks’ worth of adjusting fully to 5 day per week school, but it’s gonna be fine. Just fine. 🙂

Isn’t she cute? I can’t believe I have a third grader and a kindergartner. And soon a preschooler, too! Wowzer.  Best wishes to all of you sending your own little guys off to school this week!  I’m going to go plan my 3.5 hours of semi-free time per day now.  heeheeheehaahaaahaaa

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All but done

Summer for us will be officially over on Tuesday.  The kids go back for a half day, then really back to the grindstone on Wednesday.  I’m so thrilled I can’t even put my excitement into words, but I’m also sorta sad.  I will be SOOOO happy to put full days of 3-sibling-bickering behind us, but I know that 3rd grade will bring more homework and tougher subjects.  Kindergarten will be an adjustment for my daughter, and preschool will definitely be a big change for my littlest boy.  I believe I’ll be one of the home room moms for kindergarten as well as continuing the hot lunch program at school.  I’m guessing my level of busy-ness will increase dramatically now that we live a stone’s throw from the school instead of our previous 25 miles.

I know I’m stretching, but I truly hope to take advantage of at least a little of the time I have with zero children… I’ve been working to lose a bit of weight that’s been creeping upward since Spring Break.  Now that we’re closer to the school, I find myself grazing throughout the day.  This is not a good thing.  Also not a good thing is that Mike’s Hard Lemonade bottles have approximately 220 calories PER BOTTLE.  This is WRONG and UNFAIR.  Needless to say, I am no longer drinking them.  Vodka has much fewer calories for the buck.  God that sounds bad when written down.  Ah, well.  Such is life.

So I have been knitting this summer, although I haven’t taken a single moment to post anything here about it!  I’ll not be posting each and every detail, but if something strikes you, feel free to email me or ask a question in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer!

First, a REALLY orange blanket using some stash yarn:

Pattern: Blanket and Hat from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms by Louisa Harding
Yarn: 3 balls original Cotton Ease in Orangeade

Next: Eyelet Baby Blanket from Blue Sky Alpacas
Yarn: Lion Brand Pound of Love in Pastel Pink, just over half the mondo ball… I actually made two of these blankets because I had half a ball of yarn, so I had to use it up…

And after that, a blanket of copycat proportions for a good childhood friend’s baby-to-be:

I knitted a garter stitch border and used the Heart motif from the Hearts & Stars Blanket from Zoe Mellor’s book… used 3 balls of original Cotton Ease in Bubblegum Pink. Here’s a closer look at the heart:

Next, I had a little ball of pink Malabrigo… not enough to make myself a nice warm sweater, so I decided to make a HeyJulie Cabled Baby Hat…

Then I got a bit carried away with how quick, cute, and economical the hats are and decided that I MUST knit all my single balls of yarn into newborn sized 10 cable baby hats:

If you check me out on Ravelry, you can find all the yarns I used here.

Then I decided I needed to stashbust a bit more and made this little garter yoke baby cardigan using Rowan Wool Cotton, a mere 2.5 balls!

and the back:

Then we had my daughter’s best friend over and she spotted some purple yarn and immediately asked if I’d make her a purple sweater. Not one to disappoint, I made this Tater’s Cotton Cardi using Kool Kotton (more stashbusting, can you believe it?!)

and the back:

The buttons on this were really cute, but they evaded my attempts to photograph them well. I gave up.

Then our ballet teacher told us she was expecting her first baby, a girl, and I had to get making some fun stuff for her. I figured since I was on such a roll of stashbusting, why stop?! I made the Easy Baby Blanket with Lace Border Option using some long ago stashed Lion Brand Baby Soft in cream. The entire blanket, including the edge, took 2 balls! El cheapo!

And finally, one of the ballet moms had her third child and second boy… I had to knit something quick because she didn’t find out ahead of time what flavor the baby would be. Enter EZ. Always a hit.

I used (yup, you guessed it, stash!!) Wool Ease Sportweight in Blue Mist color for this. I still need to get it mailed her way!

I have used all my kids-not-bothering-me-time for the day, so I’m off… Good luck with the rest of your summer!

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