Today, I am working on stash reduction. I really seem to have gotten myself in trouble there, and I will die of embarrassment if I have to report on the 31st that I now have more yarn than I had on the 13th when I last updated.

Right now, I am working on DD#3s sweater, and it may be finished today. I am doing the bottom ruffle on the body now, and then it’s just the 2 sleeves, but finishing it will take care of 4 balls, one way or the other (use or return to store).

Yes, I remember the mitten. I’m just not ready to make the other one just now. I’ll get to it, really.

I plan to sort through my dresser today as well.

DD#1 and her Crusher Hat 1/24/2006

Made with the silky wool. Yummy yes-ness. So she immediately asked for a felted top hat. Just call me brother and make me a knitting machine, eh?

The first mitten is finished, and it fits mah-vah-lously. I should have pictures of the finished pair soon, but here are a couple to tide you over in the meantime.

2 more midwife hats, finished yesterday.

Soaker for the store that I finished sometime last week.

I have the first of the baby things in the washer now

Knit a custom fitting mitten, I mean. Thanks for asking I am past the thumb-hole now, decreasing toward the wrist, and the mitt fits exactly as I wanted it to. I wrote down exactly what I did, and that’s a real good thing.

I was up til 4AM hot flashing and then coughing. DD#4 decided 6:30 was a great time to waken. HA. And now two more kids have pink eye. Yay me!Yay them! Hurrah, hurrah!

So, today, I’ll do the daily stuff, and go through the highboy. (I did manage to rid myself of a couple things yesterday from the nightstand.) In between, I shall work on the mittens.

Here is DD#2 and her crusher hat. She’s not mad, just a bit under the weather.

Consider here that I have put a huge rant about our current financial crisis, and I’ll spare you the details.

Today, I plan to start on the deep cleaning of the bed/bathroom. I’ll start in the far corner with my nightstand. Of course, there’s still the general everyday stuff too. I’ve got the washer and dryer going and have already folded and put away a load of dipes. And lest we *not* bore you with details of the mundane, let me also report that I am sneezing my fool head off.

Mama is picking up the yarn tomorrow for DD#1’s crusher hat. Now I don’t want you to shriek when I say I am getting new yarn when I just whined about finances. Since I teach, my yarn goes “on account”. I’ll be using silky wool for the first time, and I am excited to see how it works up. Once I do her hat, and something for DS#1, every kid will have gotten something from the hook/needle. He wants mittens or socks from the yellow opal. My size 2 DPNs are in Jenna’s sock. I have zero motivation on her socks just now, so I will take the needles from there to do his… whatever it is I decide to make.

Actually……….if I double the yarn (which I should for mittens) then I can work it on the available 3s. But I really HATE starting on DPNs. I don’t mind then once I have enough done to hold the needles in place. I wonder……..maybe I can do a short row top and work down. I’ll have to figure out the thumb gusset, specifically how to build it in reverse. Hold on, let me ramble. Seems to me that I could work down to the base of the thumb, and then cast on sufficient stitches for the gusset, then decrease them away as I head on down to the wrist. Yes, good and OK, fine, that is what I will do. I just love designing on the fly–but only when it works. I am pretty sure this will. I’ll let you know of course. If you have any thoughts, or cautions, please leave a comment and save me some frustration. It’s the knitterly thing to do.

Then……….I will work on finishing the stuff in my basket. Like, you know, that lace sweater I started in July, I think it was?? That would be a nice little Easter sweater for me, yes? Yes, OK. And Jenna’s socks. I have the first one done as far as I can go without measuring her foot. I’ll get the second one there, and if she has not come by in that time, well………….I’ll either wing it (not my favorite option) or put them on some needles I never use until she does come by. Also not my favorite option, as I’d like to get these done pronto, after my own children’s stuff.

Oh, and I need to crank out a few more midwife hats. That’s what I’ll do this morning, I think. After I put away my laundry and clean my nightstand. None of which is getting done while I sit here.

Now, I think I can do all this in my free time. Should be finished by lunch.

This is the same yarn I am using to make her sweater. I am pretty sure it will be finished in time for Easter as well.

More midwife hats

We did bring the baby stuff in from the shed yesterday, and I’ll be dealing with that over the next several days. I also want to get my bedroom and bathroom deep cleaned this week. It’s not horrendous, but the rooms do need to be “culled”.

I decided to go ahead and make the girls crusher hats, so they would at least have new Easter bonnets, even if I did not get their sweaters made. And then one of the boys piped in with “I want a hat.” And then…………the list kind of exploded. I listed it as best I could on the planning page, but I imagine that I will just have to go in age ascending order and ask.

Oh, her hat just needs the ends woven in now, and the yarn is already wound for the next one. I’ll have pics soon.

Awhile ago, I got the itch. The unidentifiable itch. The “Need to xyz” itch. Was it stash? Messy room? I was already processing laundry as fast as the machines could go, so it wasn’t that. So DD#1 and I started to try to organize my room. Well, it is organized. It’s full, but there is not alot of clutter there, and there was not much to that idea. But we did get the little hutch ready for baby things. And then I started winding some yarn. I looked up and said “what’s the date?”. Well, it’s the 20th of course. And a little rapid math tells me 25 days to go. Max. THAT’S the itch. It’s time to get ready, and ready I shall get. Just a little more today, but then the midwife comes for the home visit tomorrow, and DH will pull the birth kit and teeny baby things out of the shed, and we’ll get ready.