What a Life!

We did not get Joey’s pictures taken yesterday. Our lovely photographer decided to reschedule the morning appointments for Thursday morning.

Steve came home from work, popped in to say hi, then went out to shovel the snow that had blown back into the driveway and sidewalks during the day. Then his brother arrived, and they left for the basketball game.

Needless to say, it was a very long day. No break from going to town. No break in the evening with an extra set of hands to keep everyone in line.

So what did I do? I put the boys to bed and spent the evening on the phone.

I moved to Lincoln six years ago spend more time with extended family. Lincoln is the crossroads for our family in the Midwest, and there are all sorts of people who live here who I know but haven’t spoken with in months or years.

One cousin had a baby three weeks after Joey was born. The last time I saw her was at her wedding shortly after Steve and I got married. She has never even met Ben.

Another cousin I last talked to before Joey was born. She was going to help me pin my quilts before Joey arrived, but either she was busy or I was too tired and we never got together. Her daughter just found out she is expecting so she is going to be a Grandma. And you know what I’m thinking…ah, another baby sweater to knit!

I think I found some good yarn for knitting baby sweaters. Swish Superwash from Knit Picks. It’s machine washable and 100% wool. (I’m opposed to acrylic and other non-natural fibers because in my experience, they are dreadfully hot to wear, even if they are “soft.”) A baby sweater only needs 4 or 5 skeins, so it’s at a price I can afford. And as fast as babies grow, I’m not too worried about whether it’s going to wear well for years and years.

I have another friend who just had a baby for whom I want to knit a baby sweater. She has beautiful red hair and loves the Mary Kay eye color Jungle so I think her baby’s sweater will be knit with Dublin and Copper. They are colors I would probably never use for myself unless they were accents, but I think they would be beautiful on her and hopefully look great on her new little boy as well.

I asked my cousin (the one with the baby three weeks younger than Joey) what her little guy looks like. She has blonde hair and blue eyes, and I know her husband’s hair is light brown. I’m thinking Deep Ocean or Capri are colors that would look good on either of them and thus hopefully look good on little Jack as well. However, I am so tired of knitting blue yarn – I don’t know if I could possibly stand to knit up something in one of those colors. Grey is boring. Truffle is too dark, I think. Fired Brick is beautiful, but on a blonde baby? Not sure.

I think Bordeaux is pretty too. I’m sure someone will have a little girl eventually who I can knit a little sweater for. Right now I just have more boys to knit for.

The fun of knitting baby sweaters is that you can test all sorts of styles and techniques and the project isn’t overly expensive or time consuming. I am sure each little sweater will be an original design. I already have a long list of ideas running through my head for what I might do. I just need to decide on colors.

Do you knit yarn that you think is pretty, or do you knit something that would be beautiful on the baby and make the mommy want to have his picture taken in your little sweater? That is the dilemma.

One of my unspoken New Year’s Resolutions was to beef up my social life. I’m one of those people who doesn’t naturally want to reach out and call people. I’d rather sit down and knit or read a good book. But the thing is, if you don’t make an effort to reach out and connect with people, at some point, you find yourself all alone and wishing you had a good friend to call. I’ve been there before, and it isn’t fun. I’ve decided to make a point to reach out to people on a regular basis so that I don’t find myself there again. Dialing the phone number of someone who you haven’t talked with in years isn’t necessarily easy, but it is so worth it. I shall be doing this some more…