Interesting Assumption

So I was given the privilege, inconvenience, chance, opportunity to be a part of our system of justice here in America this week. You guessed it, jury duty!

During the first stretch of waiting (if you've ever served, you know what I mean by that, right?), an older gentleman sat next to me and struck up a conversation with me about the sock I was knitting and it continued on to family life.  It went a little like this:

Nice Old Guy (NOG): So do you have any children?

Queen: Yep. Four.

NOG: Wow. How old?

Queen:  11, 9, 6, and 2.

NOG:  You must stay home with them.

Queen:  I do actually.  Out of curiosity, how did you guess?

NOG:  Well, daycare for that many kids would be awfully expensive . . . plus you're knitting.

Queen:  Ah, well, there you go, it was the knitting that gave it away.
***************************

What can we take away from this dear readers?

Some in the world assume you are a stay at home mom

when you have four children 

and 

(the best caveat of all)

you knit!!

Hope you got a grin out of this one.  I know I did!!

Wonder what he would have said if I would have

also confessed to educating my children at home!!

Probably would assume that I also know how to sew!
The horror! {grin}

One Thing Leads to Another

So, I just finished knitting up the most adorable baby rattle, (pictures forthcoming since for some reason March is starting off rather deary), anyway, the kids--all four just went crazy for it!  The first thing they did after shaking it, you know, to make sure it would rattle to their own personal satisfaction, was to use it as a microphone. {grin}

Well, that got me thinking.  What if I tweak the pattern and make them each a little microphone?  If I could make it work, that sure would save wear and tear on the Rockband microphone!  I dug through the stash, found some silver crochet thread leftover from the little tea set I made last year and then a bag of leftover sock yarn scraps and went to work.  This is one of the first times I've actually gone ahead without a specific pattern.  I am relying on the rattle pattern, but am modifying it to suit my needs, and that is kind of fun.  It is by no means an original design, but is a tiny step in that direction.

Times like these, make me thankful that my Mom taught me sew and sew well, and to those that know me, no, the irony of that last statement is not lost. {grin}  The ability to eye ball something and know if it is "right" is invaluable when it comes to knitting, and I am grateful my Mom persevered with her lessons.  One of the main reasons that knitting garments is not scary to me, is that sewing experience that I received as a child/teen.  I know how patterns work and how they *should* go together from a sewing aspect, so if I am in the midst of a knitting project, I can usually figure out where it headed south and fix it or fudge it into submission!

Anyway, I will be back to post pictures of the rattle and hopefully a successful prototype of the microphone!  Thanks for reading a kind of a boring post, I apologize, but I was excited to share where my knitting obsession took me today!

Bribing Myself

So I hate ironing. It is a loathsome chore to me. I will usually let the items that need to be ironed sit until I have at least an hour's worth of work, you know to make my time worthwhile, it's not like I'm procrastinating or anything. Uh-huh.

Well, today we had nice cooler weather, good sewing weather I thought to myself during school. However, my mom and I have the same deal, no sewing til the ironing is done. So once school let out I attacked the pile. Got the ironing done, the knitting blocked and even a bit of sewing done. Nothing like a little bribery to get a detested job done!

(Note for Friberg girls: I even did it without a stash of green m&m's and pretzel sticks!!)

Sick of Sick

Let me re-cap the past week for you all. A week ago Sunday we were "ushered" (really ushered, by the head usher!) out of church to rescue our eldest, who had thrown up during Sunday School (thankfully she made it to the bathroom in time). Then I got her stomach bug the next day. Princess #2 started in with a runny nose a day or so later and passed that on to me as well. Saturday she woke up with pink eye. Sunday the youngest and oldest princess' are coughing. Which brings us to today, all four of us blowing noses, coughing and cranky! I am so sick of being and dealing with sick of any kind!!! Thankfully the weather reflects my mood and health (dark and drippy), so I am not feeling frustrated being stuck in the house as well.

Enough of that . . .

On another note, Murphy's Law of sewing has struck again! As I am working on Princess #1's Easter dress yesterday feeling all smug as the first cap sleeve pops perfectly into her dress, wouldn't you know that the second one would not go in for anything. Being swept up with euphoria over the first attempt on the first sleeve being perfect, I neglected to lower my expectations for the second sleeve and Murphy struck. There is one pleat that I cannot get out. I have ripped and resewed twice and then spot-ripped and resewed to no avail and I decided that the sleeve could win this round! Her dress is made from a vintage 1950's pattern and is very cute. I am eager to finish it.

I got Princess #3's dress cut out today and it looks to be a fairly simple pattern. No extra gathering or fussing thank you Lord! It is a duro-style dress and I am excited to get it going. I have purchased three duro-style patterns for myself, I just need motivation to get them sewed up!

However, it's hard to be motivated to sew when the knitting has been going so well. After completing a couple of sweaters, I decided to do some smaller projects and it has been a lot of fun. I've made up some adorable mary jane baby slippers and a teddy bear and am now just about to felt for my first time. I made a little stripey bag to try felting. I'll post some pictures when I get it completed.

So despite the illnesses, I am surviving. Of course with all this sewing and knitting, I mean illness, housework has become non-existent . . . I guess it's the price you pay!