Back to work

My husband went back to work on Wednesday. He worked today (Saturday), will be working tomorrow and the next two-three weekends (both Saturdays and Sundays). He may get one or two Wednesdays off instead. During the normal workdays he’ll be leaving home at 7am; if we are lucky, he’ll be back by 7:30pm, but anything between 8 and 10 is more likely. Getting through every day is relatively easy. The hard part is how little time the four of us get to spend together.

More Yarn

Few days after I wrote about my attempts to use up the yarn that I already have in my stash I received a swap package from Stagasaurus and as usual among many goodies it contained some yarn - four balls of Patons UK Mirage DK cotton and bamboo blend.

Luckily for my stash-busting plans I knew exactly what to make out of it - few days earlier I started to knit a simple summer top for my daughter, but the pattern didn't work well with the yarn I was using and I was happy to re-cast.

Stagasaurus was kind enough to include a book and a drawstring embroidered bag for my daughter.

Don't you think that it is beautiful? However, wait until you see the one she made for me.

The message on it made me want to hide away in my studio space and create something special.

This is the third "February" swap we did together and I'm very eager to do another one next year as I keep on smiling for days after receiving a package from this talented and creative woman.

Anyway, back to the yarn stash. Few more days passed and my father-in-law arrived with a ball of gorgeous hand-dyed sock yarn from Nurturing Fibres. Poor man! He got it on the recommendation of my sister-in-law and felt a bit embarrassed of giving me such an unworthy present as he struggled to wrap his mind around the fact that someone may love a small ball of wool, so I had to do a lot of knitting in front of him to help him understand that it was a perfect present as my thanks didn't seem to convey the message.

What should I make out of it? I'm tempted to knit Citron shawlette, but am worried that it will be a very small one as there are only 330 meters of yarn. Of course if it is too small I can always give it to my daughter, who loves orange shades and was asking for a shawl of her own for ages, but I would rather make something for myself. Any knitters out there, who have any recommendations?

First Bike

Stripeless

Stripe lost his black stripe, so now his name doesn't make any sense to people, who never met him previously.

Useless jobs

"If you only do the easy and useless jobs, you'll never have to worry about the important ones which are so difficult. You just won't have the time. For there's always something to do to keep you from what you really should be doing, and if it weren't for that dreadful magic staff, you'd never know how much time you were wasting."
Norton Juster "The Phantom Tollbooth"

Rolled over

Max rolled over today from his back to the tummy. He doesn't seem to have much clue about how to do it the other way, though I'm sure he'll figure it out soon enough. Better start baby-proofing the house.

Pottery

My husband has very fond childhood memories of being taken to the pottery lessons. Hence when faced with the dilemma of how to entertain our daughter on the weekends it was one of the activities that he looked into and found a local woman, who offers pottery lessons at her studio.

Trunkless Elephant by my husband

They went there few times now and brought home these creations. There are more items that are still being fired or waiting to be glazed. I’m so much looking forward to seeing their other creations.

Tea Set by Katya