It's October!

Happy Birthday from Jane!

...and do you know what that means? It means I haven't blogged since September! How did THAT happen? Let's see--what have I been doing with my time? I truly have very little to report, but here's the lowdown: laundry, watching Baby S, abusing my children by forcing them to do their homework, humiliating my eldest by talking to his teacher on the phone about his homework, laundry, running my "vacuum" over the carpet and pretending that it is sucking up dirt even though I can visibly see that the dirt remains on the floor, drinking Diet Coke, laundry...you get the picture.

Honestly, it has taken me 3 days just to compose this post, and after reading to the end you will undoubtedly say THIS took her 3 days?

October also means BIRTHDAYS around here--Mike and I are now officially 41. In our 40's. Old. Sunday my dear friend Jane gave me more sock yarn, under the guise that it's my birthday month. So how can I say no to that logic? More Pagewood Farms...yum.....

Finished Shedir hat!

I've been in a bit of a knitting slump lately. I finished my cousin's hat (which looks very cool in person and someone with greater camera skills than I would have actually been able to capture that), and now, what to knit....

I mean, I have things to knit. I always have hats. And I currently have 3 pairs of socks going. And I still have Heidi's chicken to start. And Mike's sweater, and my scarf... But nothing is reaching out and grabbing me these days. I need inspiration.

Snowbird

I have been making slight progress on my Snowbird mittens, but they require a lot of attention to detail. And my post-its keep falling off the chart. For my birthday Mike ordered a magnetic chart keeper for me from Knit Picks that is currently en route--I keep telling myself that my enthusiasm for this project will pick up after I've employed my new chart keeper. Because a gadget will improve my knitting, don't you think?

Honestly, I'm not one for gadgets and have very few knitting "tools". I mean, I have the basics--I have what I need. But I don't go for all the point protectors and row counters and special tension thimbles and all that. We sell lots and lots of gadget-y items at the shop that I do not own. However, I do think this chart keeper is a must have. I am so tired of trying to follow a chart and keep track of which line I am on with post-its that lose their stickiness factor after being moved 3 times. My only regret is that I didn't order about 4 of them....

Ryan w/ his stack of books to be signed.

In non-knitting news, Mike took the boys to the UW Bookstore on Sunday to meet author Jeff Kinney. Ryan is a huge Wimpy Kid fan (being kind of a Wimpy Kid himself....) and brought the entire collection to be signed.

Author Jeff Kinney

Eric got his own copy of the first book, which he is now reading, and they both got their books signed. Ryan is so excited to have these autographs that he is re-reading the series (which is so amazing to me--he has no time to do his homework, no time to do his 40 minutes of assigned reading each night, no time for his book reports, but has managed to carve out a significant amount of time to re-read the entire Wimpy Kid series. I plan to use this against him during our next "discussion" about homework. In about 10 minutes).

Well, unless I want this post to linger into a 4th day, I believe I will wrap things up. Let's see if I can return before November!

Baby Hats

A little about me: My name is Jennifer and I have a store on Etsy.com called KNITTINGQUEEN2, selling hand knit baby hats and other adorable things.

I have been married for 17 years to a very sweet man named Mike and I have an almost 7 year old boy, Ryan, and a 4 year old, Eric. We live in a Christian, non-smoking, one elderly cat household. I am a stay at home mom and I do try to maintain my house, but with 3 boys, I'm having a hard time seeing the point. I do keep up with the laundry because, well, I have to. But unless company is coming, I'd rather spend time knitting than dusting. Knitting is more fun and no matter how often you dust, you'll just get more dust.

I learned to knit 11 years ago and took to it immediately. I don't know why--no one in my family knits. I was inspired by no one and whenever I need help, I am left to my own devices. And I have never considered myself an artistic or creative person. But for some reason I wanted to learn to knit. So I took a class and after the first session I knew it was meant to be.

Fast forward 4 years and I am pregnant with my first child. Suddenly a real reason to knit! An itty bitty thing to make itty bitty things for. I made him a sweater. I made the same sweater for my best friend who was also pregnant with her first son. The sweaters were cute, but something was missing.... and then I started making baby hats. Fruit caps, stripes, snowmen--I was getting crazy with the hats. I was giving them away. I was selling them at craft bazaars. I was knitting them for the sake of knitting them (you know you're a true knitter when you knit for the shear love of knitting and the fact that it will actually become a useful garment is really not a factor at all. When you are done you have this completely adorable cupcake hat and then it suddenly dawns on you--what am I going to do with this? I have two boys. And your husband just rolls his eyes because he tried to understand this years ago and knows it's better to just smile and nod. So you put it on the shelf behind your computer, and start rumaging through stacks of books and magazines because you remember that somewhere in your "office" there is a completely adorable pattern for a daisy hat...).

So here I am, 11 years later, trying to go public with my creations. I have yarn and patterns all over my house. All over. My family of boys just steps over it. When I get after my husband, for the love of all that is holy, to please clean up his clutter (!), he does it without ever mentioning my double standard. I think he knows I could use my knitting needles as a weapon. I did impale my hand the other day with a sock needle and made myself bleed, so he knows the danger is real. My 4 year old has asked on a number of occasions "why are you making more baby hats?". And I don't really have a good answer for him. But I am hoping that by getting my services "out there", I will delight someone to the point of actually wanting to buy one of my hats.

I am running out of shelf space, so I am begging anyone who reads this to help me clear out my inventory--I have more ideas just itching to be knit!