A Little Heart

Knitted up a little heart this morning (while the kids were running around!) and I was surprised at what a mood booster completing a small project in its entirety can be. Made me feel a little better for the slow going on the shawl (although I worked on it last night and was able to catch two mistakes I made rather quickly & rectify them...so even that project is humming along nicely now).

I love decorating for Valentine's Day and need some more decor around the house...this heart used up a tiny bit of yarn left over from a baby girl hat and left me thinking that if I were to make more for a garland or such, I would use smaller needles and cotton yarn. This heart is hanging in my bedroom window, currently, where I will smile when I see it, to know that I can find time for making, even if they are little things.

(the pattern for this heart is located at ravelry)

Questions I Have Regarding Knitting

1. How can people who knit seriously afford to buy $22 skeins of yarn (multiple ones!) for each project?

2. How come yarn that is that expensive is always twelve times more exciting than any colorway I can find at Michael's or Hobby Lobby?

3. How is it that every single project I want to do requires new needles?! 

4. How am I the only mother on Earth who apparently has children that gravitate towards yarn like a moth to a flame? I'm unable to find any other experience online or in my questioning of real life friends of people with children who inhibit them from knitting during the day time due to being more interested in mommy's yarn than any of their toys. And yet, it happened to be with baby Orion and it's happening again with young Otto. 

These days, knitting gets put off until nap time--and on those days, housework gets put off for knitting--or until bedtime, when knitting isn't even much of a joy anymore. I long for the age to come where they don't give a hoot about my knitting. Or I can teach them to knit with their own yarn (maybe even $22 yarn! I can afford it in my day dream)! Actually, by the time they are that old, I'm sure I'll have another wee bairn (been reading too much Outlander...) around to grow into a feisty yarn tangler...and he/she will have two crafty older brothers to teach them how. 

There was like a few month window when they were tiny ones where I could knit while they nursed. But one time I bonked Otto's head with the needles and quickly abandoned that.

5. Okay, last question...do you think it is possible to be a knitter who ONLY uses circulars? I am hopelessly in love with circs. I think I am going to try. Magic loop is the easiest bleeping technique and makes way more sense to be than trying to wield 5 needles for socks.

Amazing Thrifting Finds! 1/9/16

Second only to libraries, thrift shops are my favorite places to go and lose myself. Sometimes even just trying on five dresses that I'll never buy will turn my mood around. However, I found three dresses I loved while browsing on Saturday. All of them fit! And one was on sale for .69 cents! From L.L. Bean and while most these days might not find it stylish, it is comfortable, well-made, and I look pretty good in it, if I say so myself...

While my dress was a steal, the really amazing find was something I wasn't even looking for, but definitely needed. I popped into the secondhand shop next to our small local grocery when I realized I had forgotten potatoes for the night's dinner at Aldi. Imagine my surprise when, after picking up a pair of pants for Orion, I found a perfect winter jacket for $5! It is Columbia brand, which is an expensive and well-made coat which is perfect for the intense winters here & will keep me warm during all the snowblowing in my near future. Online I see the Interchange Jacket (which is very similar to the one I found) retails for $175 new! There are no rips and hardly any wear on the jacket, save for some dirt stains on the cuffs, which washed out. I am very pleased and warm now! :)

(Sorry this photo came out so blurry...I don't have time to retake one right now).

I'm very lucky to have amazing places to shop secondhand here. It definitely helps our budget and is a gratifying activity because I quite enjoy the "hunt."

Welcome Back!

So the topic of starting a blog for 2016 arose on a simple living forum I am a part of and I decided, after finding this old place a few days back and enjoying reading all my entries, that I would really like to get back to it. My friend over at Untangled Simplicity is also an inspiration and asked me awhile back to write a guest post for her blog, so getting back in the writing habit should happen!

Simple Living and Minimalism are topics I really enjoy reading about and it would be nice for me to do a little more documentation of the various things I do to make my life simple & cozy while documenting daily life here at Acorn Landing with my sweet family...

Today is the first time this winter that I have used the snow blower. I think he remembers all the struggles we had last year, because he graciously started for me on the third pull today. Yes, the snowblower is masculine to me. Mike is around, but I did the job because he is fighting a horrible and nasty cold. The boys are still coughing and poor Otto is leaking snot everywhere, which makes his sleep erratic and all of us a little on edge.

On the 1st, I began my latest knitting project, which is the Outlander inspired Transported to 1743 shawl . The yarn cost more than I expected AND I ended up reversing two colors, but I am continuing the way I started, with a darker color than the main color in the photo of the pattern. The colors will suit my wardrobe better this way besides.

I ended up frogging all my progress you see in this photo on the 2nd because I did not end up with the correct number of stitches after the first 33 rows (only 70-something instead of 97)...our printer is broken and I had to hand write out the instructions.

So, due to that, apparently I missed transcribing a M1R and a M1L increase before and after my stitch markers! Ugh! So, I am back on row 9-10 because now I've been assisting all the sick boys in the house and working on housework without time for the knitting. Today's nap time should yield a good chunk of time for some progress though. Ah, the trials of a beginning knitter. I suppose this is how one learns. I hope some day I'll have less of these mistakes. I thought I was doing well and being careful!

Cleaned out the fridge today...so nice to get back to decluttering after some time off!

We also (finally) cooked a ham last night for dinner. We bought one on sale during the holidays, but already had so many other good meals planned that the ham was moved to the back burner. Tonight I am going to make Ham and Cheese Pasta Casserole from this recipe, but I think I will adapt it to be closer to what commenter Stacie Clarke made.

And there's a brief update on what is new in my simple little life! :)