What a Life!

I love this shot of Ben. It was hidden among a series of pictures of Joey (as things seem to go these days). I only snapped once, but it’s a keeper. Sometimes you just get lucky.

Mom and Dad went home yesterday after a very fun visit. I downloaded hundreds of pictures to my computer this morning, most of which I haven’t even looked through myself yet. I have a lot of catch-up to do around the house as well – you know, laundry, putting things away, and other fun stuff like that. But I just had to pop in, do a quick blog post, and give everyone a taste of what is to come…

We went to story time at the library yesterday rather than Thursday since my parents are arriving tomorrow morning. Joey caught enough of a nap on the way home that he was not interested in taking his regular nap.

Around 5 o’clock, I was working at the table and things got awfully quiet. Ben was downstairs playing. And Joey…was sleeping. So precious!

*****

In other news, I spent my so far today going through my Flickr photos, changing the date posted on each photo to match the date taken so they’re all in chronological order.

Because that’s important to me.

I’ve had my Rebel XTi now for almost 8 months and I’ve taken`over 3200 pictures, most of which are not up on Flickr. There are herds of pictures I’d like to add, but if I added them now, then everything would really be a mess.

Now that all of the pictures already on Flickr are in order, I can add the others – in order, of course. Then we’ll have a nice online photo album we can enjoy without having to lug out big heavy photo albums.

At least that’s the theory.

Because I really needed something mundane to do today that would keep me from obsessing about other things in my life that could really drive me crazy if I let them. Not that putting almost 1000 pictures on Flickr in order is obsessive or anything… It just kept me sufficiently distracted, and I feel so much better now that it’s done.

I must say, it was really fun seeing how my photography skills have improved over time. Memories…

*****

Mom and Dad are arriving tomorrow morning. We’re out of milk, and the house has yet to be cleaned. But now I’m finally relaxed enough that I think I could actually knit a little. Which would be good for the soul.

Better they find a dirty house and a sane daughter than otherwise.

Just saying is all…

What have I been doing with my time lately? I have been organizing all of my knitting stuff over at Ravelry.

For those of you who aren’t knitters, Ravelry is this new site still in beta where you can catalog projects you’ve knit and are knitting as well as your yarn stash and things you want to knit.

It began with the organizing of my queue – things I am planning to knit. I put all of the patterns I already have yarn for at the top. The theory is, if I see them first, I will want to knit them rather than shop for new projects. Indeed.

After that, I updated all of my stash data. Don’t ask how many miles of yarn I own. Actually, it’s a humble stash compared to many. And everything is tagged with a specific purpose. Just saying…

Then I started entering old projects. I didn’t make a separate entry for all of them. Back in the beginning, I did a lot of experimenting, making wool diaper covers for Ben. I grouped them in the year that I made them by what type of yarn I used. The later ones – which were much better and much prettier – got entries of their own.

My first two projects after I learned how to knit – wool soakers. I’ve come along way, baby!

All said and done, I have 90 projects entered on Ravelry. That means, I’ve knit 90+ items in the [almost] four years since I learned how to knit. Wow!

Something else I learned [or was reminded of]? I began St. Brigid by Alice Starmore at the very end of March 2007. I finished knitting the pieces this week, and as we speak, they are all blocking downstairs in the guest bedroom. Once they dry, I will just need to seam them together and do the ribbing on the collar. My goal was to finish by the end of the month. Now it is to finish before the anniversary of when I cast on. Totally doable.

Some say Ravelry just makes you spend more money on yarn because you see all sorts of things you want to knit. The silly thing I’ve discovered? Finishing things and starting projects from my stash is just as fun as buying new yarn. And now that I’ve got it all organized, I know what I have to choose from. Such fun!

Introducing one of my latest finished knitting projects: the Baby Bobbi Bear.

He was initially intended to be a Christmas present for Joey, but now he is slated to be sent to Germany as a new baby gift for my dear friend Mindy.

It’s not that I don’t like him. It’s that he’s made out of the softest cotton you ever felt. My intention was to knit something for Mindy’s little guy, Martin, but when I asked Mindy how she felt about special care items, she mentioned that she has wool sensitivities [thus Martin might also]. All the more reason why this little bear is the perfect gift for them.

At last report, this bear was stuffed and awaiting arms and a face. He got arms soon after that picture was taken, and his ears were knit and ready to be attached, but then he sat and waited for a while.

Call it finishing anxiety if you wish. Even though the eyes and nose looked easy in the picture on the pattern, free-hand embroidering is not my forte.

In fact, I made another teddy bear once. He was originally intended as a gift. He was a felted bear, and he had all this complex, row by row, shaping, which made me think he’d be a really great bear.

He was knit in garter, which isn’t very smooth when felted. A lot of the shaping disappeared in the felting process. As in, I might as well not even have bothered.

And his arms. They stuck straight out to the side regardless of what I did to them.

Here he is, drying after I finished felting him. The rubber band is there in an attempt to make his arms, well, look like arms. But to no avail. He was simply too ugly to give away. Ben started playing with him, and I found another gift to send in place of the teddy bear.

Eventually I did embroider a face on him, but it only served to make him uglier than he was already. You can see I have no artistic skills. I mean, what a lame face!

This was the best picture I could get of him. He’s still ugly, and his arms still stick straight out.

So you must understand why the Baby Bobbi Bear had to wait a while for ears and a face. Here is the before and after again:

The ears and face may not be perfect. [Believe me, they aren’t.] But they totally make him a complete winner. He’s just so cute, if I dare say so myself.

I’ve had him on display – as is my usual custom with finished projects I’m happy with – but I have to be careful: when the boys are awake, they both want to play with him as though there are no other toys in the house.

I’ve thought about making a sweater for that other bear, in a desperate attempt to do something to make him look a little better. But after looking at him again this evening, I fear even that wouldn’t help.

I’ve ordered yarn now to make another Baby Bobbi Bear for Joey. Out of alpaca, which should be easier to knit. [Cotton doesn’t have any give while wool has a bit of spring to it, so wool is much easier on the hands as you shape the stitches.]

The first bear is unofficially Ben’s teddy bear. He did claim it, and he does play with it, though I don’t think it is named, and it probably isn’t something he would miss if it disappeared.

But what do you want to bet that if I make a Baby Bobbi Bear for Joey, Ben is going to want one too?

Or am I just thinking this because it would make me feel better knowing I made two cute teddy bears for my boys instead of one cute one and one ugly one?

Or maybe in the mean time I will come up with a great idea for how to dress the first bear so he isn’t quite so ugly. The first bear looks kind of cute in these pictures. Unlike real life.

Oh, I don’t know. I’ll think about it tomorrow.

Yeah, tomorrow is another day.

Who would have known one strawberry could go so far?

I don’t remember when Ben took and interest in books. He’s an avid reader – at least, as much as he can be without knowing how to read – and all of our children’s books show it.

I know they say you’re supposed to read to infants, but we have never been good at reading to kids that aren’t paying a bit of attention.

Joey has the book thing figured out, though. He’ll bring you a book, thrust it into your hands, and then he’ll stand there in rapt attention while you read the entire thing to him. Total cuteness overload!

Many of our books are so well used and loved that they’re falling apart. We were over at some friends’ house recently, and they have a whole bookshelf full of books, all in perfect condition. [How can that be?] While we were there, one of the boys took one of our favorite books – Go Dogs, Go! – off the shelf.

Ben looked at the book and told our friends, We have this book, too. Ours has tape on it. It was the same tone of voice that he would have used if we had the same book but with a different colored cover.

Indeed, many of our books are being held together with multiple strips of packaging tape. I’m telling you, if we have a third child, we’re gonna need to re-stock the library.

Because there’s nothing like a good story!