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My First Knit-A-Long

Posted on March 24, 2008 5:35 pm by TheAngelForever

Wahoo! I officially finished my first ever knit-a-long (KAL) and it was a lot of fun. I joined a Yahoo knitting group called Rachel’s Knitting Room. The woman who found the group is Rachel and she designs lots of amazing items that can be found on Knits by Rachel. The KAL this month was to celebrate the Yahoo groups first birthday. Each day of the KAY Rachel would reveal 10-11 rows of the design for everyone to knit. As you knit the mystery of the cloth is revealed.

I decided to take photos after each day to let everyone see how the KAL unfolded. Here they are in order.

KAL 3/17 - Rows 1-21

KAL 3/17 - Rows 22-31

KAL 3/17 - Rows 52-61

KAL 3/17 - All Done!!!

Congratulations to Rachel and Happy Birthday to the Yahoo group! I can not wait to try out my next KAL.

Categories:
fun knitting me moments

Weekend Party Mini-Vacation – Part 1

Posted on March 17, 2008 10:47 pm by TheAngelForever

Did you miss me? What? You did not even know I was away – sheesh! I guess I will have to try harder next time.

This weekend we had two nephew birthday parties together. JL and I were antsy about doing 5-6 hours of driving in one day with the boys. We toyed with staying at a hotel and making it a mini-vacation of sorts. Finally we decided Friday night to do it if NHL and JSL had a good night.

Saturday morning we got up and I packed everything up for the trip. We left the house with no reservations for a specific hotel. The hotel of choice was known and we had directions. On the way there we stopped about 45 minutes away at some outlets for lunch, potty break and retail therapy. I had a nice time at the HUGE Carters sale. Bought two things for JSL for next winter and had to purchase some girlie items for my only niece S. About two hours later we were back on the road.

We made it to the hotel of choice and I went in with the road saver coupon. I waited and waited for someone to come to the front desk – NADA. Finally I took out my cell phone, got the number and called. Suddenly a woman appeared and I hung up the phone and told her it was me calling since I had been out there for some time. No apology – nothing. This should have been my first clue. I asked about a room and showed her my coupon. She told me they were at 80% capacity and no honoring the coupon. WHAT? I questioned her and she got quite snippy. I still do not understand why she would refuse a person a room over such a little amount of money to them. After all it was 4:30 and I doubt they would get a lot of people after that.

Rather than take a room I went out to the car to talk with JL. Apparently he thought I was joking about them not giving us the rate and took the kids out to go in. Finally I was able to get his attention and we went to the car to call two other hotels that were in the area. The first was a no go since their pool was being fixed. So I called the hotel that was directly across the street. They were wonderful on the telephone so we went right over. They were even better in person. We quickly were able to get a room for the coupon rate and this room also included a complimentary breakfast. Oh and important to NHL – they had a pool!

We gathered our things and went up to the room. We did a few things (diaper change and nursing were a must) and called JL’s sister. We were invited to their house and she suggested going out to dinner together. So we went there for a little while to let the boys play and then went to a diner right near their house.

At the end of the meal Cousin A and NHL split a sundae. Here is NHL eating his and he even shared a bite with JSL:

We toyed with going to Trader Joe’s after this, but it was late and the boys were really tired. So we went back to the hotel. On the way in I asked them a question about our room. I had noticed a ladybug and was curious if there was an issue. She said in some rooms. So we went up hoping it was not in ours. Unfortunately we soon found out ours had an issue and we caught several and had others swarming at the lights before bed.

In the room we quickly set up the sofa bed for NHL. He was quite excited about sleeping in it alone. Although he fell asleep quickly the poor kiddo had a rough night. He woke up at about 2:00 asking to go home because he missed his bed. Awwwww! JL was sweet and climbed into the rough looking bed with him. Here is NHL before falling asleep and later on when he was in it alone.

Next it was time to get JSL ready to bunk with us in our king sized bed. He was so tired, but wanted to play on the big bed. JL helped to get him ready with me.

Time for cream, PJ's and bed!

JSL quickly fell asleep, along with his Daddy. One stayed in a single spot, the other rolled all over the bed. As you can see while all of the boys were sleeping, I took advantage of the quiet time to knit. As I watched for ladybugs I was knitting a dragonfly cloth.

Soon after this I turned off Saturday Night Live (one can only handle so many Spitzer jokes) and went to sleep with visions and feelings of ladybugs crawling on my head.

To be continued . . . .

Categories:
birthday family knitting my boys photos sleep vacation weekend

Knitty update (2-24)

Posted on February 24, 2008 11:07 pm by TheAngelForever

With all of the sickness going on here I have hardly had time to keep up with the fun things that have actually gone on. Yes, there actually have been some nice moments mixed in with the mess of a week. Coming soon photos from Sesame Street Live on Thursday.

While JSL was in the hospital and I was not able to sleep I spent time knitting while listening and watching him. Both were wash cloth patterns from Lil Knit of This & That (love her patterns). I was able to finish one wash cloth that I started the day before everything happened and start another. Finished in the hospital was Peek-A-Blue which happens to look a lot like Blue from Blues Clues.

Next up NHL requested the Furry Red Monster who happens to look a lot like Elmo. Once again a great pattern that was super easy to follow and looks amazing when done. I know I will make this for gifts in the future. This is what mine looked like when finished.

Today while doing laundry, caring for JSL and blowing my own nose (darn germs). . . I started something new. I decided to try a Nubbins wash cloth (great free patterns found here). Laura told me it would be quick and easy and something different. That it is. . .in a very good way. I have done about 20 rows at this point, so it is about a third of the way done. Here is a quick peek of it so far.

As you can see knitting is something I can do while sitting with JSL and it helps to get rid of some of the stress. Now I just hope that his temperature stays down since it was starting to go up again this evening.

Requesting a dull moment – PLEASE!

Categories:
knitting me moments

A LONG icy day

Posted on February 14, 2008 10:11 am by TheAngelForever

Yesterday morning every single school in the area was closed thanks to the 3-4 inches of snow that we received topped off with an icy mess. During the morning commute freezing rain was making for an even more treacherous drive in to work for hubby. NHL was home from school, so it was going to be an interesting day with both of the kids trapped inside thanks to the freezing rain and ice.

To make things even more "fun" JSL woke up and his eye was completely glued shut. Not a good sign after using antibiotic drops for almost two days. In addition to this I mentioned to JL that his face was puffy. Sure enough, not only were his upper and lower eyelids red and puffy, but his cheeks that are already big, was horribly distorted on that side of his face. The picture below shows how he can not open his right eye entirely and you can see the puffy cheek. At this point the redness was not as intense as it eventually got and the flash washed it out a lot.

I freaked out and immediately called the doctor’s office at 8:00. After that I called the pharmacy to see about an allergic reaction response to the drops. I was curious about this since I am allergic to that family of medicines. They told me to stop and wait until I heard back from the doctor. At 11:00 (yes, you read that right) the nurse from the doctor’s office called me. She basically said that JSL had to be seen. Ice or not they were very concerned. I took a 3:00 appointment and called hubby with the news. There was no way I could clean off my icy car, and the house with a clingy 9 month old and 4 year old in the house with me.

This is what the hockey rink outside of my house looked like.

Ice Prints

I nearly fell just trying to stick my nose out the door to take the photos. This is the tree right outside the door. Many other trees came down thanks to the icy . . . along with power lines galore.

Another look at the walkway an hour or so after JL left for work.

NHL enjoyed lounging on the couch in the morning, but was jealous that Mommy was with the baby most of the time.

JL took a half day off and met me home at about 1:00. We left our house at 2:00 after I broke my car out from under the ice. When we got to the doctor’s office his eye was performing nicely. I have NEVER in my life seen an eye ooze so much green nastiness. Mind you as a mommy of a 4 year old and a teacher, I have seen a lot of pinkeye. While there we also noticed that tooth #7 has officially cut and is moving up in the world rather nicely. When the PA came in and said he had a really nasty case of pinkeye and thankfully he did not believe it was anything worse. He told us that the eye is draining into his cheek and causing the swelling. Basically JSL gets a beautiful first case of pinkeye at 9 months old. He changed the prescription to a different antibiotic, only this time I have to pry open his eye for an ointment four times a day for the next week. We also canceled his well baby visit for today and rescheduled for two weeks from now.

After picking up the baby’s new medicine we went home. As we were on the street before ours we saw that a firetruck was blocking the road. We went around another way and saw there were a lot of people there. Then we saw that the traffic light was out. Ugh, not a good sign at all.

Sure enough when I went inside to check we had no power. I grabbed a few things and checked in with my parents. They had power, so we went to crash there. Our sweet neighbor was kind enough to agree to call us when we got power back so we could try to avoid darkness, cold and candles with the boys. At 7:20 she finally called and we were on our way home with two very tired boys.

_______________________________________________

After the boys were in bed JL and I exchanged Valentine’s Day gifts early. Tonight we are going to my parent’s house for dinner since Aunt M, Cousin S, and M’s mother are in town (someone always has something when we see Aunt M and Uncle I).

JL gave me a Whirley Pop and a great knitting bag (thanks to Laura for helping him with that). I can not wait to use both of them. Hmmm. . . popcorn when knitting sounds yummy!

I bought JL some dark chocolate and Cooking Mama Cook Off for the Wii. He enjoyed it when we rented it, so I thought it would be nice for our chef to have.

JL played his game and I started knitting a Peek-A-Blue (basically Blues Clues) wash cloth.

Later the boys will get their gifts, as will Cousin S.

Categories:
doctor holidays jl jsl knitting nhl sick kid teething winter

D’oh Dad Done!

Posted on February 13, 2008 12:12 am by TheAngelForever

Yesterday I finally sucked it up and decided to try my first ever knitting project with a pattern. I wanted to do something fun for JL. I found a really cute washcloth pattern on Lil Knit of This & That called D’oh Dad. It is none other than the face of Homer Simpson. Perfect for JL.

Here is a step by step photo diary of how it knitted up over the last two days.

This is the start of the wash cloth. I stopped at 19 rows for dinner last night and getting the kids ready or bed.

Once we were able to get JSL to sleep (the pinkeye was really bothering him) I plugged away on Homer and stopped at about the half way point (row 29):

By this point I was exhausted and wanted to try to sleep some since I figured the little guy would be up. This afternoon while JSL was napping and NHL was playing I was able to knit a little more. By the time we sat down for dinner I was 70% done with Homer.