I did something completely stupid when I was younger: I assumed I had all the time in the world to complete my degree. I would take a class here, a class there, and figured that at some point, I’d just Get Down To Business and finish it up; I guess I figured that it wasn’t going to be fun no matter WHAT, so I’d just put it off.

Then I had kids, and immediately regretted my slackerism. I had no earthly idea how much harder it would be to balance tiny people and school.

About two years ago, I decided that I would just Do The Damn Thing, so I finally disentangled myself from the local community college (where I had already taken everything I could towards my degree) and registered at a local university. Austin has a TON of colleges to choose from beyond The Major University In the Middle of Town, so I found one that had acceptable tuition rates and make the leap. I only took one class that first semester so that I could get used to the idea of being gone for one night a week, and I finished that class wondering how in the HELL this was going to work. Then I didn’t return for two semesters, partly because we were building a house and that junk is expensive, and partly because the thought of actually pushing through all of these classes is exhausting.

Finally, last spring, I figured I needed to sack up. Nothing worth having is easy (or so the saying goes; I’d claim that ice cream is worth having, and I can pick that up on my weekly run to the grocery store), so I registered for two classes over the 16 week semester. We all made it through with minimal damage, so I picked what I thought were two easy classes for the summer semester, gritted my teeth, and registered. Here’s a pro tip for you: never, and I mean never, register for writing intensive classes in a short semester, unless you happen to enjoy pain. If that’s the case, go right on ahead. (Writing intensive indicates MUCHO PAPER WRITING, and also working in groups.)

This summer semester has been stressful. And frustrating. And I’m so glad to see the ass end of it that I cannot even express my joy properly; interpretive dance might be able to cover it, but I don’t own the right shoes for that. I’ve got two short, sweet weeks off before I start back up again; I plan on doing a lot of nothing for the next two weeks. You know, other than working a full time job. And taking care of my family.

To date, I’ve used approximately 0 scraps.

I seem to lack that gene that allows you to be inspired by your scraps, and to see where they would fit appropriately in with other scraps to make something Super Fantastic. I’ve come to realize that unless I have a specific plan for fabric (or even for yarn), I’m going to end up getting frustrated and quitting the project, whatever it may be. I have to have a clear plan in place before I start something, and the scrappy quilt movement is much more freeform than I can handle.  I’m sure there’s some deep seated psychological crap going on with this somewhere, but for now I’m going to try to combat it by reviewing the fabric I have in my stash and assigning it to particular patterns so that I’m not floundering when I want to start a new project.

Knitting, to me, is easier to stash for, at least with the type of knitting that I do. I stick to socks and lace; these are predictable yardage projects, as I generally know that one skein of yarn will equal one pair of socks and that 400 yards of lace will whip up a small triangle shawl. I don’t enjoy knitting sweaters or larger projects, so I don’t generally have a leftover skein of yarn to contend with and try to work into another project.

Speaking of knitting, I’ve got a finished object blocking in my office – my Peacock Tail and Leaf Scarf finally caught my attention long enough to finish the body, knit the other end, and then kitchner them together. Let me say that again – I kitchnered 182 stitches of sticky lace yarn together without cursing, crying, or throwing it across the room. Matter of fact, it turned out rather nicely in the end. The scarf is a little over 5 feet long, and that’s with extra repeats being knit into the body beyond the 30-someodd repeats it required. Once it dries, I’ll snap some photos of it in all its glory.

But now I have this leftover tiny ball of lace yarn….

This is my new porn.

So many things are going on – trying to get the apartment repacked to move, although that starts next week; trying to get movers scheduled, closings scheduled, childcare scheduled, painters, furniture, it’s like I’m going a mile a minute and it doesn’t feel like there is an end but I know there is because HELLO GIANT EMPTY HOUSE WAITING FOR ME. I’m driving my kids crazy. And my husband. And probably a million other people that want me to just shut my face up about the house. I will, I promise, in about 11 days.

In the meantime, I’m keeping myself busy with this:

Funny what a ton of triangles can look like when sewn together.

And this:

All sewn by hand, y'all!

And I’ve even dabbled in a bit of this:

The craftiness is about to be boxed up, though, and shifted about two miles west to the new digs.  This is one move that I’m not dreading one little bit.

Kitchen Cabinets, or alternately: Where We Decided to Invest The Children's College Funds

These are the cabinets that we picked out, after hours of dickering back and forth. That giant white thing in front there is going to be the bar facing into our family room. It will invariably be covered with mail, keys, gadgets, toys, crayons, cups, paper, and the various other things that we’re just too lazy to put away. It is amazing how something as simple as a kitchen cabinet can completely define a room, and I love these more than when we saw them in the design center. And as of a few hours ago, our walls are painted, our banister is in, and our house officially has doors that my children will become well acquainted with slamming.

In the mean time, I’m spending my time with this:

Cassidy, by Bonnie Marie Burns

This looks complex, I’ll give you that. Don’t trust your eyeballs. There isn’t really any crazy difficulty here, and once I got into the rhythm of the cables, it is basically knitting itself. This is another one of those difficult, eye-catching type patterns that I love. Big bang for my buck (especially considering that I am knitting it in Valley Yarns Northhampton, excellent yardage for the price).  And there has been sewing, of both the hand and machine variety.

Look! I made a dress!

Hexagon Wreath

All in all, I’d say things are clicking along nicely.

I finally bound the edges and moved it through the washer and dryer; I was totally caught up in other projects, though. I blame Flickr; I was browsing through projects in some of the groups that I joined, and I saw these adorable hexagon quilts that folks were creating using the English Paper Piecing method. Next thing I knew, I had 500 die-cut paper hexagons and an order of fabric sitting on my lap to make my own. 

And then, I had the fight of my life with the sundress pattern that I mentioned in the last post. I purchased the elastic thread, dutifully wound it up by hand into my bobbin, and….nothing. I could NOT get the fabric to gather up the way it was supposed to. I jacked with the tension, I fiddled with the stitch length, and I hauled out my manual to see if there was something I could find that would help. Online forums, blog stalking…nothing was giving me any clue as to what I was doing wrong. 

Then I decided that it was my fault for buying a machine that was focused solely on quilting. Since it is all computerized, it adjusts the tension automatically; I can override it on the top tension, but the problem was with the bottom tension – as in, there wasn't any. I finally stopped by a Husqvarna dealer and asked the shop owner what I was doing wrong. I would love to tell you that she was friendly and helpful and took the time to work with me, but I'd be totally lying and then lightening might strike me and I'm not sure my insurance covers that kind of crap. She acted like helping me was KILLING HER INSIDE; she was much more focused on getting her quilt on the frame in the store than she was with helping stupid me (who didn't even buy the machine from her shop! OMeffin'G!).  The cherry on the top is that she asked me what kind of machine I had and how much I paid for it, and when I answered her, she *sneered*. SNEERED. AT ME. And my awesome machine.  I think she was annoyed that I brought my children into the shop with me, and they WERE being rambunctious, but Mike snatched them up and took them outside within five minutes of us getting there. It sucks, because that shop had a great selection of feet and accessories for my machine, but she can suck my ass, because I sure won't go back in there. 

What was I talking about? Elastic! Anyway, she might have been snotty, but she fixed my issue without knowing it – she reminded me that I needed to pull the thread back through the bobbin to a certain point so that it sits in the groove. Once I did that, I was off and flying with the top of that dress. I am now looking for all sorts of uses for the elastic thread, because that stuff IS AWESOME. Here's proof:

It is adorable. No, no arguments, it is ADORABLE. Admit it. I want to make another one, but I'm wondering how it would work with a knit fabric, and maybe really wide straps that could almost be considered sleeves.
Quilting is just the gateway drug to full on sewing. Be aware.

The past month has been full of activity: new job, new house on contract, picking out crap for the new house, getting sick, working out details on selling old house, finding apartment, getting insurance in case we burn down new apartment (seriously, we are required to have renters' insurance; it's a good idea anyway, but I've never been required to have it before), yada yada yada. My stress levels are UP TO HERE :gestures to neck region: and I haven't had time to knit. Well, I've had some time to knit, but not enough time.

The design options we chose for the house are AWESOME, if I do say so myself.

The lot is being scraped and leveled today, and there are rumors that our foundation will be poured next week. And in two weeks, we move out of our tiny little house and into a tinier apartment for four months while we wait for the house to be built. School will be over for the year, as I am not taking any more classes until the spring semester, so the summer will be spent constantly checking on the progress of our new home. And driving the builder crazy. Here's hoping that we don't drive him to peeing in our foundation before the concrete hardens (not that, you know, we're that bad. Ahem.).

It all happened so fast – people came to look at it, then they came back with her fiancee, then they came back AGAIN, then the offer, we accepted, inspection was great, and now…we wait. The couple that are purchasing the house are getting married in the next two months, so they asked to put off closing until the beginning of June. I'm totally cool with that (although, I have to admit, it does make me a little nervous that they might back out or something because they have two months to think about what they are doing) and we are currently researching temporary housing. Why temporary? Well, because we didn't expect this house to go so quickly, we hadn't even started the process of building a new one. We will be getting on that ball this weekend, which also coincides with our 6th anniversary. 

We are absolutely relieved and excited and nervous about a new house and ready to move on. This house was our first house together; we were married while we lived in this house, we brought our babies home here, I learned to knit here (and so started a lifelong obsession). It is a little bittersweet to be leaving it behind, but we're really ready to have more space for our family. And for my yarn. 

(For those of you not up on knitting lingo, that's like trying to build your house out of toothpicks. It would take forever.)

I have the perfect yarn (the pattern calls for Cashcotton, but I have cashsoft, which is the same yardage just swapping wool for the cotton content), I have the pattern, I have the needles, but I have apparently lost my mind and decided that this is a good idea. I like the fact that it uses a relatively thinner yarn and that there is some lace on the pattern, making it less warm that some of the worsted weight sweaters that I've made, but again, I live in Texas. Thank God that we are as active with the A/C as we are, because otherwise most of this stuff would never get worn. I am doing some modifications to the pattern, though; I'm not making the hoodie, and I'm shortening the sleeves to 3/4 sleeves, since I end up shoving the sleeves up anyway. And I want to add some length to the body, so I'll have to figure that out, too. I'm not all that great at making modifications to existing patterns, but I'm determined to make it fit the way I need it to, so that will take a little a little extra effort on my part.

On the house front, we're still on the market, getting 1-2 showings in a week. Spring is starting to peek through, and we're hoping that will drive people out to find their perfect starter home so that we can get this one sold.  But for right now, we're still in a holding pattern. I'm trying not to think about it all that much; I know it will sell at some point, but I'm very impatient when it comes to this type of thing. Send good house selling karma this way, if you please!

That is six repeats completed on the center panel of the body; the pattern recommends 31, but the plan is to just keep going for as long as the yarn will allow. I promise that there really are beads on it, but they get lost in the mess of the unblocked lace. And to be honest, that is the point. I don't want the beads to overpower the lace. My goal here was to add just a touch of sparkle to the already lovely yarn, and they do that rather well.

Don't adjust your eyes – it is a bit blurry. But you can see the beads a little bit better, no? And that's not all that has been getting a little bit of work around here:

In order, that's my crazy-ass socks, which I plan to finish off with a plain red toe just for fun; my master bathroom, which needed a serious makeover and now matches the bedroom; and the pictures that now reside in my master bedroom that I have been asking to be put up for months. This moving thing has so far included cleaning, decorating, putting things in storage and preparing to live in as sterile an environment as possible. See that silver speaker in the last picture? Going to storage. The candles? Storage. The weather alarm? The blue plate with change in it? STORAGE. Clutter is the bain of the For Sale home, and I am determined to boot it out of my home.

However, it is eating into my knitting time. I am not sure this is acceptable.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I don't really make resolutions, because I always end up snapping them in half and then mourning the fact that I can't stick to them. I like to have goals instead: be healthier, save more money, spend more time with my kids.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Nope, although everyone seems to be getting ready to pop some kids out.

4. Did anyone close to you die?  No, thank God.

5. What countries did you visit? I don't think I have ever been out of the US. So that would be a giant negatory on the countries.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008? Patience. And more patience. With two kids in the house, both under the age of 5, I struggle in that department.

7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?  Obama's election is huge, HUGE in my mind, but other days that stand out are my 30th birthday,  my daughter's 1st birthday, and my son's 4th birthday. It's funny how my memories are tied up more in things that are important to my kids than in things that are important to me personally.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Starting back to school, and getting that path set out so that I will actually finish my degree instead of draaaaaaaging it on and on.

9. What was your biggest failure? I think that I need to work on being a better parent. Scratch that. I KNOW I need to work on being a better parent.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?  I had to undergo physical therapy for an ankle that I sprained, but it's not like that was life threatening or serious.

11. What was the best thing you bought? iPhone. Hands down, the best gadget ever created. How I managed without one is a mystery.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?  My son's, as his potty training skills were cemented and perfected. I cannot describe the joy over not having to change someone's butt any longer. One down, and one to go!

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Family stuff, and that is all I can say about that. Oh, and SARAH PALIN.

14. Where did most of your money go? Daycare and mortgage.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? My trip to SAFF. I was so excited about it, I'm STILL excited about it.

16. What song will always remind you of 2008? Kiss Kiss, by Chris Brown. My son learned the words to it, and sings it randomly. I don't know whether or not to be horrified by this, or to laugh hysterically. I do a little bit of both.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? Happier; post-partum depression is a bitch to recover from.
b) thinner or fatter? Exactly the same, strangely.
c) richer or poorer? Richer. We put ourselves on a saving plan, and hoo-boy, does that really look to come out well.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? I wish I had spent more time with friends and family. We have turned ourselves into housebound hermits, and I'm ready to get out and be social again.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Procrastinating, lazing, and basically just being a slug. Nothing will get done if I don't get up and do it.

20. How did you spend Christmas? The same way we always do – in our pajamas, at my in-law's house. I look forward to that every year.

21. Did you fall in love in 2008? Yes. With a phone.

22. What was your favorite TV program? Grey's Anatomy

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?  I can't think of anyone new to my list – although I'm sure there are folks on it.

24. What was the best book you read? Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett

25. What was your greatest musical discovery? Paramore. I KNOW, you all knew about them FOREVER ago, but it took Rock Band to introduce them to me.

26. What did you want and get? Wii Fit. Now I just have to USE IT.

27. What did you want and not get? A raise. Seriously. This has gone on long enough.

28. What was your favorite film of this year? Wall-E has to be THE FILM for me, but then again, I don't see many new movies. Marley and Me did make me cry like a baby, though.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? On my birthday, I don't remember doing anything memorable (hah!), and this was the BIG 30. Hopefully, 31 will be a little easier on the emotions.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? I wish that I had worked out more, and dropped some weight. I need to force myself into it.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008? Ann Taylor for Work, Things That can Withstand Spaghetti Handprints at home.

32. What kept you sane?  AudioBooks and knitting.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Michael Buble. Mmmmm…..

34. What political issue stirred you the most? The entire election was huge; all of the issues combined into one giant pot of POLICITALSTUFF that I had to wade through to decide on who I wanted to vote for.

35. Who did you miss? My sister. She moved away from me earlier in the year, and I'm still trying to convince her that she needs to come back to me.

36. Who was the best new person you met? Well, all of my friends on Ravelry. It's amazing to me that people that I have never physically seen can mean as much to me as they do, but they are really and truly friends. I think that a few of them know where to hide bodies.

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008. Moderation in all things. Food, drink, emotional reactions…all things are better if you step back and ask yourself if you really, REALLY need to handle it in that way. Do you need that last drink? Does that Big Box Store employee really rate the amount of wrath that you are about to heap on his head?