One day we'll forgive you, Georgia Nicholson

I have turned a new corner in my knitting.  I say new corner because I'm not a new knitter anymore, I've knitted the heck out of anything that would sit still long enough to let me for a while now (thus able to read and produce most patterns), and what I'm doing is nothing like what I've usually done.  Hubby calls it "burn out," I call it "re-prioritizing."

Everyone knows of the "Knitted Christmas" that just passed in which, thankfully, everyone appreciated what they got.  Everyone knows how that carried into January and February, trying to catch up on other gifts I said I would do or just thought they were a good idea.  Then there was the frogging of the sweater and baby blanket that not only liberated knitting needles and supplies, but my personal sense of accomplishment.  In the past month I have been knitting on one pair of socks (that's it.  No new sweater, no nothing (um, anything), and I wasn't getting any inspiration and enjoying it) and I was getting sick of it.  Not just sick of the project, but sick of knitting.  I was (finally) looking at the stack of books at my side of the bed thinking "those look interesting."  I was gazing outside thinking "Playground.  That sounds like fun."  Those things have never happened.  So here it is.  I am actually playing outside with the kids again.  I still carry a sock or knitting project to car pool and various appoinments but not to the playground.  Gosh-durnit the kids are only little once and they love that Mommy goes down the slide and plays chase.  I haven't quite caught up to the reading but I'm working on that.  The regular schedule still isn't allowing sit-down time longer than 5-10 minutes but it should soon.  Hopefully the stressors then continue to be eliminated and we aren't running everywhere hauling everyone at all times.

But I digress.  To sum it all up, I discovered that I'm addicted to stress and I'm going to cut that out.  I know it won't be easy, especially since I do get a sadistic thrill of piling on the projects and responsibilities, but I've decided I've had enough.  I'm saying no to anything new and only sticking to the few things left that I can't get out of.  Anything new isn't limited to knitting, it involves lots of parts of my life and the great thing is everyone understands, even if they are a little curious to what all really is going on.  I just say it's nothing that no one hasn't been through before, no one's hurt, nothing serious, just lots of little things piled on at once and I've hit my breaking point.  I don't like going into all of it because compared to most everyone else's problems, mine sound like a whiny little pig.  And I'm also trying to cut out the complaining.  :)

In all this, I also discovered that everything I knit I give away.  I like only a few knitted things.  Everyone else seems to enjoy my knitted stuff more than I do at times so, yes, I will finish my special, for-me-every-day-wear dark blue cardigan one day but the pattern hasn't shown up yet so I will wait until that prince comes.  I really do love knitting and I'm reclaiming it for myself by choosing NOT to do it all times just because I felt like I should be busy at something.

I also had a laugh but a thought while reading the last of the Georgia Nicholson books.  She was talking about one of the teachers she has who's single and a little out-of-touch with the "modern" life.  This teacher had been the one supervising after-school detention and walked with Georgia out to the gate of the school and Georgia was not just appalled to be seen talking to a teacher, but that this teacher was wearing a knitted hat with (of all horrors) BOBBLES!!!  She didn't want to be associated with "knitted people" ever!  I had a good giggle, thinking of all the knitted things I have, have knitted, and people adore but then paused when I realized I hadn't worn much of anything knitted in a while.  I have 2 wraps I wear on Sundays, sometimes as big scarves, and a short-sleeved cardigan I wear once in a while but the hats, the scarves, etc. only came out in the real cold we had this season because it was so darn freezing.  Otherwise, Hubby and the kids wore theirs all the time but me not so much.  Am I really a knitted person or do I just like making things?

Makes you think, especially with the kind of money it's easy to drop on certain hobbies.  Georgia Nicholson is by no means an authority on anything (but very entertaining series to read) but here she unintentionally exposed a personal possibility.  I'll keep contemplating but there's one thing I know no matter what, I love you knitted people.

Everything is beautiful in it's own way

I love it when projects suddenly are finished a day early. I love it when that allows other projects that have been hanging around like stinky cheese monkeys to be suddenly finished. I love it when all the projects suddenly make the house more organized and clean, whether that is by providing a spot for things to go or by finding a way to my car to be taken to their true homes. I just love it. That stack of books overwhelming the poor little book shelf holding them to the right in the previous picture? Gone. The books are now organized in a large, oak bookshelf, stained by yours truly and Hunky Hubby. It is finished and standing tall and lovely. There is an even taller one in the front room for all the socially acceptable books and hardbacks but it needs to finish fully drying for another 24 hours. The kids' books are organized and separated in their rooms. They now have the smaller particle board bookshelves, i.e. shelves I'm not going to have a heart attack about when I found them markered and covered in stickers.

The separating of all the kids' books was interesting. I didn't realize how much I collected through the years and found lots of the old favorites from when I was a kids. (Note to siblings: if there is a book you want from when we were growing up, I probably have it. Let me know if you want it.) Most of the books had not been moved from the crates they were squatting in and I found lots of dust bunnies and a missing puzzle piece in the process of cleaning them out. Now everything looks like it belongs and it's BEAUTIFUL!

Just like the quilt, beautiful. Even Little Guy comments on the quilt every time he comes in our bedroom; he pats it and says, "Hm! Mommy's quilt!"

Now for Christmas presents to start on and finish. And a few baby presents. Oh, and another lap quilt. Oh yeah, I need to get my modern sewing machine back from the shop so I can fill bobbins for the antique sewing machine and use it. And that would enable me to finish the mending for that friend of mine...

Yep, still have more to do. But no more stinky cheese monkeys. These projects are sweet, cuddly monkeys I like having for company.

Beautimus

It is done. It took all day Monday to do it and my sewing machine is now having professional maintenance work but it is done. It is so lovely.

I probably don't need to tell you how frustrating it was when what I thought was a 3-4 hour project turned into a 10 hour one. I probably don't need to tell you about how 2 year olds can sense blood, sweat, and tears because that's when they decide to come "help." Or at least demand milk, water, and whatever else they feel like they need at that instant. It was at supper when I was sitting there, staring at my hastily prepared supper and the quilt with binding half done, half not, when SuperGirl asked me "Mommy, are you tired?" I said "Yes honey, and I'm ready for that quilt to be done." "Me too, Mommy," she answered.

It took 40 minutes to wash, 3 hours to dry (cotton batting is great for absorption and resisting dryer heat), and I finally tucked it around Hubby (who was asleep) at 1 a.m. It was beautiful. the crowning achievement was the next day when I had the bed made and he came home. He looked at it and said, "It looks really good!"

It's actually a little too long but it's still fabulous because we don't have to worry about the ends riding up while sleeping. The cotton batting is not too heavy (I was worried about that and almost changed it but something told me not to) and feels wonderful. It feels so good to have it done and on my bed. I can look at it and say "I did that. I did all of that. I didn't just finish it, I did it ALL." And the flipping thing is king size. [patting self on back for not shying away from what "experts" would say isn't a "good idea"] I did, however, make an emergency call to LMSS while sewing the binding telling her about wanting to throw the thing out the window while my sewing machine tried blow up. She talked me down off the ledge and said "Whatever you need to do to get it done, do it." Thanks, LMSS.

The other thing I feel good about with this quilt is it's totally us, one of a kind, well-made, and will stay on our bed for ages. It's not trendy or synthetic. It's our colors and our feel. When I was looking for bedspreads years ago I couldn't find any in the stores that were big enough and/or the colors/patterns we wanted and we were living with a cheap substitute bedspread. I say cheap because the fabric and sewing work was cheap; it in itself was not cheap, although was for a king-size bedspread. I've been patching holes on it from the day we got it, which means 2 years, and I'm happy to fold it up in the closet and have a bedspread that I have constructed from the ground up. If anything happens to it I can fix it.

I celebrated all this by doing all the laundry and housework that has been left undone for the past 2 weeks. We also are staining and finishing bookshelves for the house which means all the books will finally be organized and in the right place, i.e. kids' books in kids' rooms, adult books, photo albums, and nice books in front room, paperbacks in our bedroom. I'm so excited but of course that means cleaning more stuff out and moving things. It's going to be great once done. And we are actually enjoying the staining and polyurethane coating procedure so it hasn't been too bad. Of course it helps the weather has been gorgeous.