Christmas Hats

Here's a bit of delicious torture for the kids ... Christmas Hats!
I convinced Evan to wear his with a piece of Chocolate this morning.  What?

Baby Handwarmers

My son's getting to be about the age where I can convince him to wear hats, scarves, and mittens.  As long as none of them are covering his head, neck, or hands, and as long as he's not tired, hungry, or awake.  But that's beside the point.  I knit; therefore I force him to put these things on (and he pulls them off and throws them at me).

I was recently theorizing that the reason he won't wear mittens is that they cover his fingers.  After all, even I don't like my fingers covered.  That's why I wear handwarmers instead.  So, I decided to make him some handwarmers.  I think they turned out really cute - and he did too (he calls them his boxing gloves) - before he yanked em off and hurled em at me.  But the point is, he wore them for probably a whole five minutes!  That's about 60 times as successful as the hat I made him earlier this week!

Best part?  I did the first pair in 2 bus rides, and the second pair in just one bus ride.

Here's a pattern for the mittens.  It's not exactly what I knitted, because afterwards I thought of how to make them better.  But it's close, and you know what?  It's free :).

Size 7 DPN needles
Worsted weight yarn

5.5 sts/in

~ 2T Candy Cane Handwarmers

wrist

co 24 in white. join to work in the round
purl one round
knit one round
purl one round
knit one round
switch to red here and alternate between red and white every 2 rounds
knit 12 rounds

thumb hole

work back and forth in stockinette for the next 6 rounds (keep alternating red and white)

hand

join to work in the round again
knit 6 rounds (keep alternating red and white)
cut red and continue in white
knit one round
purl one round
knit one round
purl one round
bo

sew in ends

~24M Blue & White Handwarmers

wrist

co 21 in white. join to work in the round
work in seed stitch for 4 rounds
break white, switch to blue yarn
knit 6 rounds

thumb hole

work back and forth in stockinette for the next 6 rounds

hand

join to work in the round again
knit 4 rounds
cut blue and continue in white
work in seed stitch for 4 rounds
bo

sew in ends

Kitty

I've been having a fun time designing my own patterns. The latest thing I've made is this kitty! My coworker wanted to knit a mini version of her sister's cat for her sister, but couldn't find a good pattern, so I offered to make one up for her. A few days later, this little guy was born :).

My husband wants me to make an alien next!

Summer

Mommy Pants

I used to wonder why people wear mommy pants (pants with the waist at your actual waist - as in, well above that loose area on my abdomen that was about 2 feet further away from my body 1.5 years ago) ... well now I know!  My new waist is my actual "waist".  No more completely flat stomach.  Now if I wear hiphuggers and low-riders, I have a muffin top.  A true, all the way around, supersoft muffin top.  Options are:

• Eat less = be hungry on top of tired, grumpy, and frazzledazzled.
• Exercise = of my no free time, all of it will be spent sweaty and miserable (more so than usual).
• Mommy pants.

Hello, guess who wins!

Working Out

I decided the other day that I'm done with my old lady bigger than my big boobs belly.  So I decided to do sit ups first thing in the morning.  As soon as I started, Evan came over and lay on top of me so that I couldn't do a sit up without hitting his head hard with my chin.  After some "discussion" he got up and started bouncing up and down on my pelvis with the full force of his 30 lb turkey leg butt instead - all the while laughing like a madman.  After he did that for a while I got up and noticed that my lower back hurt like crazy from the bouncing.  So that was my workout.  Anyone got suggestions for workouts that you can do with a little drunken master around?

Supermom

Well, I always thought I'd be a good mom because I love kids. Since I am generally not a responsible person, I didn't even begin to think that I'd be too irresponsible to have kids. Only responsible people worry about that kind of crap. As it turns out, that was the right way to think about it. I suddenly realized today what a nauseatingly responsible person I have become. I am rarely late coming home. I don't flake out of things any more and never just because "I didn't feel like going anymore". Keeping up with laundry is like second nature to me. If I have a spare moment, I throw a load in. In my free time, I think about what to cook. There is always a casserole in the fridge for Evan to eat. I make omelettes and bacon on weekends because I always have fresh eggs and bacon in the fridge. I'm up by 6 am every day. All I can say about this is, WTF? Haha. Well, I guess we all have to grow up some time! Honestly, it feels pretty good to be consistent. And it's not as tiring as you'd think. It's a lot more exhausting to be completely free and have an inconsistent schedule where I choose to play or be productive at night instead of sleeping.