Yesterday afternoon I made possibly the worst watercolor I've ever made. But I'm glad I did it, because I did it. I didn't think about doing it, then do something else, I set up quickly and sloppily, made no preliminary sketches, didn't think much about it beforehand, but I had fun. Which is really what I meant to do.
Whew! This past week I finished submitting Matthew's college preschool applications for next year. And yesterday we/he got 2 invites to come back for child visits - yay! This probably doesn't sound like such a big deal, or like something that would take up so much time and energy, but, believe me, it is. We're not even trying to get a spot in one of the ritziest preschools (yes, some of the preschools around here are ritzy!) but there are so many young families and so few preschools, Montessori and otherwise, that it is really competitive. The applications are pages and pages of questions about your child, your family, your educational philosophy, what can you contribute to the school community, does he dress himself, how does he intereact with other children, what are his strenghts, what are his weaknesses, blah, blah, blah. Sometimes it is just that same basic question (describe your child's personality) but they phrase it 3 or 4 different ways, so yuo need to come up with 3 or 4 perfect answers. Ugh!
If you think I'm making too much of this or stressing myself out about it too much, you haven't talked to other parents of 2 year olds in DC. One mother I know who went through this last year does admissions at Georgetown (University) and when she started the process she thought, "Oh, no big deal, I deal with college admissions all day, I can handle this." Well, she had just as much trouble. Her daughter ended up getting into a nice Montessori school, but not without a lot of hand-wringing. It puts my stomach in knots just thinking about it.
So, on to less knotty things. I've been doing lots of Amy Karol-inspired things lately and it's been loads of fun! After some hesitation (I know how to sew pretty well, but Bend the Rules Sewing looks so cute - do I really need a book about how to do projects that I could probably figure out on my own - the library doesn't have the book, so maybe I should just buy it - she seems like a nice person, I'll just buy the book) I bought BTRS and I love it! It would be a great book for a beginner, but it is also a great refresher of lots of things I haven't thought about since junior high home ec. And so what if I could probably figure out some of the patterns on my own, my brain power is being used up writing essays on my 2 year old child's sense of civic responsibility, so maybe I couldn't figure them out on my own.
Last night I was hunched over the coffee table doing 2 of Amy's papercutting projects for some upcoming birthdays. Her designs are really sweet, and I just adore anything Pennsylvania Dutchy, of course! Even her banner this moth (season? I don't know how often she changes it) is folksy and PD. But she lives in Oregon, and has recently talked about Swedish Christmas bread, so maybe she would say it is more folksy-Swedish, but, whatever, I love it and it reminds me of the good ol' Lehigh Valley!
The weather here has really cooled down, perfect for a new handknit hat! Unfortunately, kids' heads are bigger than they seem, so this hat barely covers his ears and may not fit at all by March! But, it's not bad for completely-inexperienced-make-it-up-as-I-go-along colorwork, right? * Until this fall, I didn't have much any interest in colorwork patterns, but now I'm having lots of fun with it.
* the trees are from a chart in Knitting Over the Edge, so it is not totally made up as I go along, but I started out just with the idea of trees on a hat and decided on the patterning as I was knitting, so in that way I did do it on the fly
Also cool . . .
Bruce Springsteen! We left early since our babysitter had school the next day, but it was lots of fun anyway!
Is it still a stashbusting sweater if I'm buying more yarn for it? The solid sleeve defintiely looks better than the striped one, but I don't have enough for a second solid sleeve. So I ordered more of the same blue-green yarn, and, since I'm already ordering some yarn, why not order some more for cute wooly winter hats? The hat yarn arrived, but the sleeve yarn is backordered. Of course. And no, I don't know of any shop here that carries it. Of course. So the sweater is in second sleeve limbo.
Otherwise, I'm loving the crisp fall weather!
Holiday stamps! Aren't these great? I saw them in the Post today and must get them! And I must start thinking about Christmas knitting, too, I guess!
I've been working on a stashbuster project, a sweater for Matthew. Two full balls of green wool plus lots of stripes in other colors, all superwash wool. It was cute and funky until I knitted the first sleeve to the body. Now it may be the ugliest one-sleeved-almost-finished sweater in the world. Really. I'm afraid to post a picture.
If you must, click below to see it . . .
Apples! Leaves! Acorns! Cool air! Halloween! Thanksgiving! Sweaters and scarves! Corduroy pants! Pumpkins! Orange! Red! Brown!
I feel like I've missed out on fall the last few years (Texas has no fall, just more summer) so I'm super-excited for fall this year. I love the back-to-school feeling of fall too. Starting fresh.
On that note, I've been thinking a lot lately about really focusing my knitting and sewing on designing things myself and adapting patterns to be just what I want. That is what I really find fun and interesting anyway. I can't think of a time when I did a pattern exactly as written, so I want to just take that a bit further. My camo top-down raglan (picture to come when it is cold enough to wear!) turned out pretty well, so if i just put in a bit more effort and actually write down what I'm doing I think I could come up with a pattern. A new project!
I feel bad that I haven't been posting lately, but I'm hoping that come fall we things will get a little more routine around here (i.e. less construction/restoration/painting/drywalling/floor refinishing/AC fixing)and I'll be posting once a week or so. In the meantime, some LA photos to distract from the serious lack of content:
Despite the lack of activity here on the blog, alot has been going here, craftwise and otherwise.
My dilemma is . . . what do bring to knit this weekend?!? Matt and I will be in Beverly Hills (I almost just said "California" instead of "Beverly Hills" because it just sounds so ridiculous, but Matt has a work event there, so we're taking the opportunity to go . . .) and I the alpaca scarf is just too warm and furry to take on a summer trip and I haven't even worked out a pattern for the vest, so what knitting do I take on the 6 hour flight? And will I look totally ridiculous knitting at the pool? Who wants to knit gray alpaca poolside? Do I start another project just to have something to do?
Must go pack!
. . . To me!
I've seen a few other bloggers post lists of goals for their birthdays, the same number of goals as the number of years, so I started a list a while ago, thinking I would finish it well ahead of time and have an interesting entry to post on my birthday. But was I listing these things becuase I wanted to do them, or because they would make an interesting list? Hmmm. So the list is not for me.
*** My birthday was last week - this unfinished post is actually a week late. A few things have happened since then . . . we didn't have inteenet for a while, Matthew started having a really hard time taking naps, which is my only daytime computer time, we went away for the weekend and had a great time in the PA mountains, and we came home to this:
and now we have several of these monsters around the house 
