Spring Break's of the devil!

Okay, not really. But a mom can pretty quickly get used to her preschoolers going to school a few hours a day, 3 days a week. Really used to it. Same for the boys, who'd much rather be at school with their friends and teachers than with boring old Mom.

I've really got to write more often. Yikes. Okay, my new pledge for the spring. Spring Break's officially over today, Daddy's home all weekend, the boys go back to school Monday, and I'll have more than 30 seconds a day to sit down at the computer again. Yahoo! I'll break out the camera this weekend and get some shots of my latest projects.

My current projects

I'm eagerly awaiting the Uruguayan merino I'm using for my niece's cardigan, so I'm killing time with projects I'm not really that into. I started the chevron scarf for my sister's birthday, coming up in April, but it's SO slow going that I'm already losing my patience. And it's a scarf! I've got quite a way to go! It's the fact that I can't just knit away without looking that bothers me the most. With 3 separate strands of yarn (I think 2 plies each) all rolled together, it's hard to keep up with so many parts when doing things like K2tog and ktf&b. But I got new needles today that are pointier, so they're making it go a tad more quickly. A tad.


The striped atrocity is Aric's. He has growing pains, I guess, in his legs off and on, and I put him to bed with a hot water bottle. But it always makes me nervous to do it since I just wrap a towel around it or stick it into a pillow case. How to make it hot enough to last a while, yet cool enough to not burn a child who's asleep and oblivious to what's touching his legs? So we decided to make a cover. He picked out my favorite yarn, of course. It's the Malabrigo/handpaintedyarn.com merino worsted that I used on one of my very first knitting projects. I have to admit having tried to pull what the Yarn Harlot tried in one of her stories. I tried to talk him into the "crap yarn." He didn't fall for it any more than Steph's daughter did. Oh, well. He picked the yarn colors. I'm not liking the coral-ish stripes at all, but hey, it's his hot water bottle cover. (It's the leftover yarn from my hourglass sweater below) Gotta let the 4 year old start making his own decisions when his life's not on the line. Wow, that's hard to sit back and let a child make his own choices!

I can't wait to get started on my aqua merino! It's the merino from Uruguay that's identical to Malabrigo's, only half the price now that Malbrigo's skyrocketed. I used it on my Hourglass Sweater and love it. Her colors are so pretty, too. Both companies have their own set of gorgeous colors. And Sandra's so sweet and helpful. Of course, if you pay standard shipping, your needles you bought from Hong Kong will arrive before the yarn, even though the yarn was shipped a full week and a half before them. Huh? Is it traveling through Uruguay by burro?
I'm doing a steek, a hood, and cables on this sweater, all things I've never done before. Logic would say to take the rest of that HG sweater yarn and start swatching, since they're identical. But have I done that yet? Of course not. Maybe I'll go do that now. Or maybe I'll go finish the Yarn Harlot book, which is absolutely hilarious! Even non-knitters would find this book funny. Well, at least non-knitting crafters.
Off to swatch! Or read. Hey, I wonder if her book's on tape yet!