What a Life!

Soon and very soon…

…St. Brigid will be finished.

It’s 100% whole wheat bread. Hopefully it tastes as good as it looks. I used the recipe written on the bag of flour shown, mostly.*

Don’t you wish you were having lunch at our house?

*I used butter on the top of the loaves when they got out of the oven instead of shortening (as I normally use), so that’s why they look a little funny. I also used butter instead of vegetable oil in the recipe.

See more Wordless Wednesday here!

Another sweater off the needles. This one for Ben.

It’s the Seamless Hybrid by Elizabeth Zimmermann from Knitting Without Tears. Knit with Valley Yarn’s Northampton (from Webs), 100% wool, in color Sour Apple [Ben’s choice, not mine].

It is by no means perfect. In fact, if it were up to me, it would not even be considered finished. The bottom seam on the body is a bit obvious, and I was going to re-do that. The sleeves are a little snug in the forearm, and I could have fixed that, too. The kitchener stitching under the arms is by no means even. And it is fresh off the needles so it has not been blocked.

But I made the mistake of trying it on him to see how it fit. I saw how it fit, alright. But fixing it was not to be. He would not take it off. Okay, I got him to let me bury the last couple ends, but only while he stood over me, anxiously waiting to put it back on. It isn’t even really sweater weather today, but he’s wearing it. I think maybe he likes it, no?

It does have a special feature I made just for him. If I would have followed the directions for finishing the back half of the yoke, the neck would have been too small. So I just skipped that part, making the sweater the same on each side. As in, no front or back. When Ben wears his clothes backwards [which seems to be quite often], I call him Neb [which, of course, is his name spelled backwards]. Thus the name of the sweater – Nebben. Forwards and backwards at the same time.

This really is probably the most imperfect thing I have ever made, even if you go back to some of my first projects. The knitting would make the members of the TKGA Master Knitter’s Committee cringe. I’ve been knitting my swatches for Level I of the Master Knitter certification, and I’m thinking there might be a bit of rebellion going on here. I really do take better care when I make things to ensure they look nice than this. But as I said, it has been taken out of my hands and is being used and loved – what can I say?

I’m not sure I’ll be letting him wear it out of the house, though. It really is that bad. It can be his sweater to wear at home as much as he wants, unlike other sweater’s I’ve knit that are just worn when we go to town. This one can be for enjoying. He can wear it every day if he wants, and I won’t worry about something happening to it. This one’s for him. I shall leave it at that.

Last week I was reminded that we have twelve weeks (or so) until Christmas. In the days since, I’ve been pondering our plans for this year.

This year is going to be a fun Christmas. Two years ago, Joey was born at the end of October, then in December he had pyloric stenosis and right after that my grandma died. Last year was its own nightmare, which I care not to recount.

But this year will be different. There are no foreseen crises that are going to occur. [Not that such things are ever foreseen.] And my plans are already getting underway.

The biggest gift project for me every year is the photo calendar with snapshots of the boys that we give to family members. That, and portraits of the boys. Last year was the first year that I used my own photos for the portraits rather than going to a studio. I didn’t get the sweaters knit in time, and the pictures I ended up using certainly had their flaws (which I will not recite here, of course).

This year, the sweaters are ready. The next big step is taking pictures of the boys wearing them. The weather needs to be cool enough for them to be comfortable (but not too cold), and the light needs to be good. I’m still waiting for the magic opportunity, but I have everything set to go when it comes.

We will be getting together with my family for Thanksgiving, and my parents own a printshop so they print the calendars for me every year. That means the calendars need to be done by mid-November so my parents can bring them along, and Christmas shopping for my family needs to be done by then as well. I’m going to spend this month going through my photos, getting everything sorted, thinning the stash, etc., so it will be easier to go through and select photos for the calendars next month.

I’ve made an executive decision that I will leave Christmas shopping for Steve’s family – as in, anything we give them beyond the calendar and pictures of the boys – in Steve’s hands. He knows what his family likes, and he has a much better feel for the appropriate amount to spend on them. I worry myself sick about that every year, and I’ve decided there is no reason for me to do that. I’m doing my part, and he can do whatever else he wants to do.

Once I get the calendars made and off to my parents for printing, I will work on Christmas cards so they are ready to put in the mail when we get back from spending Thanksgiving in Kentucky. So that will be out of the way before the season officially arrives as well.

Then in December, I can simply enjoy myself. Baking Christmas goodies. Listening to Christmas music. Watching Christmas specials like Charlie Brown Christmas and It’s a Wonderful Life. Reading favorite Christmas stories like The Gift of the Magi. Decorating for Christmas. Planning Christmas dinner – I love making Christmas dinner. That’s all the fun stuff.

My knitting in December will be fun holiday knitting as well. I plan to knit some Christmas stockings, which we I fill every year for each of us on Christmas Eve. I want to knit a pair of socks for each of the boys to put in their stockings. [Hopefully Steve’s socks will be finished by then so his can get put in his stocking too.] Getting a pair of handknit socks in their Christmas stocking may even become an annual tradition [at least for the boys].

Next year I want to knit a skirt to go under our Christmas tree – I have the pattern all picked out, but I don’t think I’ll get it done this year. I’ve had the yarn to make some of the Christmas stockings since January, so they’ve been hanging over my head all year. But I decided that the most fun time to knit them will be in December during the Christmas season, so I can savor that knitting as part of our holiday celebration.

Finally, last year everyone had all these wonderful Advent calendars they were showing on their blogs. By the time I was reading about them all, there was no time left to make one. I’m going to start planning mine now so it’s ready to go when we get back from Kentucky.

We had a simple Advent calendar when I was a kid. There were 25 little bows of yarn that we untied one at a time, and then there was a little bell at the bottom that you got to ring when you untied the last bow on Christmas Eve. I remember it was one of my favorite things when we got out the Christmas decorations every year. Not because it was pretty – it was just fun.

I’m thinking I’ll put together one of the calendars where you do a different Christmas activity every day to enjoy the season – there are little pockets that the boys will get to pull a slip of paper out of each morning telling us what we’ll be doing that day. I won’t have to put anything in the little pocket until the night before [as long as I make sure I get it done]. Or something like that. I’m just thinking an Advent calendar would be so much fun to do with the boys, and it will be a highlight of my holiday season as well.

So our holidays are all planned. How are your holiday plans coming along?

I’m generally not one to discuss politics with people. Unless you see eye to eye on most things, the conversation usually isn’t much fun. But sometimes I wonder how people come to their conclusions, what they’re seeing that I’m not seeing. And I wish that rational discussions between the two sides could be had, because I really would like to understand where people are coming from, to see the world from their viewpoint.

If I was so lucky to actually have such a conversation with a liberal, I would just have one question, and that would be this:

What is it about Obama – aside from the fact that you really would like to see a Democrat in the White House rather than a Republican, aside from the fact that he can give a really inspiring speech, and aside from the fact that his skin is black – what is it about Obama that makes you think he would be such a great president? What he has done for you – what has he accomplished – that you think he would be such a good President?

[And simply being elected isn’t an accomplishment. I’m talking about things he’s actually done, either before or after he was elected to public office. “Oh, he was a community organizer” doesn’t count – what are some of the things he did as a community organizer that would make him a great President?]

Because I would really like to know what it is that liberals see in Barack Obama.