Slacker

I am soooo sorry that I've been such a blog slacker lately! I don't mean to be. It's just that we've been having such beautiful weather lately (albeit the crappy rainy day that we had on Saturday...but even then we made the most of it and were barely home) and I've been wanting to make the most of it before the weather turns too cold and wet and we are confined within the boundaries of our home. The Munchkin is becoming more restless, more curious and adventurous about the world outside, and I feel a major need to get him out and about experiencing things.

So not only are we hitting up our usual parks, playgrounds, and play groups, but we've explored the breakwater (and stayed way too long, but that's because we saw a seal in the water and the Munchkin wanted to sit and watch it), spotted a yarn bombing (ok, that's more for me), hung out at the library (that was our rainy day activity), rode around the 'hood on the quad, took long walks, spied a fairy door (this made me really giddy with happiness!), and over the weekend we visited a pumpkin patch! Sadly we did not go home with a single pumpkin. According to Brett, who is the pumpkin carver in the household, all the pumpkins that we saw were either not the right shape or didn't have the proper surface. I was hoping to get at least one, but the massive line up leading to the cash register made me change my mind. Oh well, the Munchkin had a blast and that's all that matters to me.

As a result of all our adventures, I've barely been able to sit for long periods of time at the computer to catch up on emails, blog reading, blog posting, and basically keeping up (and keeping in touch!) with the various online communities that I'm a part of. To top it off, lately the Munchkin hasn't been taking his afternoon naps so the days really have been go, go, go for me. I'm starting to get nervous that naptime will soon be non-existent in this household. The lack of me/down time during the day has caused me to be extremely exhausted by 10pm. There's been a few nights where I've fallen asleep on the couch and have no recollection of even getting up to go to the bedroom!

In the off chance that I do catch a break I've been watching endless amounts of horror and zombie flicks (a reason why I love October...I get to watch my fair share of my favourite movie genre, all on the telly) and knitting like a fiend. I even managed to snag some sewing time! Last night I was able to not pass out fall asleep before 10pm and was up until the wee hours cutting out fabric. So this morning, while Brett took the Munchkin to his play group, I was able to whip up a few bags for the shop (but have yet to list them) and get a handful more started. Fingers crossed that I can do an update some time next weekend.

As for the knitting? Well, there's been a ton of that action happening around here. So glad it's such a portable hobby. Just wish sewing was this portable! A little over a week ago I started a Thorpe hat for the Munchkin at a Friday knit night and managed to finish it the day after. It hasn't been exceptionally cold enough for him to want to adorn his noggin with it though, so I haven't been able to score a photo of him modeling it.

Then last Wednesday I decided to cast on a hat for myself (I've been freezing my nips off at the playground, definitely time for me to knit a new hat). The pattern of choice: one of Felicia Lo's (of SweetGeorgia Yarns) newest hat patterns, the North Wind Hat. Um, can I just say what a totally awesome pattern this is?? So awesome that I finished it the next day too! Less than 24 hours to knit this bad boy. Oh yeah, it's a super quick knit with a very memorizable pattern. I made mine with Tough Love Sock held doubled, but I definitely plan on knitting another with some Cashluxe Fine...or maybe in Superwash Worsted?

Oh, who am I kidding?? I'll probably make hats in both bases! How could I not? I absolutely love my North Wind hat and have worn it all weekend long. I promise I'll take some photos of it soon and post more about it sometime this week.

I also finished knitting my Hooray Cardigan (yippee!) and am impatiently waiting for it to dry. But don't get too excited. It still needs a little more work on it before it can make its debut. Let's see...what else? Oh! With so many projects completed you better believe I had cast on even more! Try three more. Earlier this evening my knitting group had a beer knitting night (can you say yay to Pumpkin Ale? Oh hells yeah!), so a few ladies and I decided to kick off our little knit-along on this night too. What will the four of us be knitting? The Dahlia Cardigan (that's a Ravelry link, btw) by Heather Zoppetti. The four of us fell in love with this pattern when the Fall 2011 Interweave Knits issue came out, and I in particular have been knit-lusting after it ever since. Saying that I'm excited to finally cast this on is quite the understatement. Sadly I have so much on my plate right now that I won't be able to give this project the full attention it deserves. So I'm going to dedicate the rest of this month to finishing up other projects so that I can hopefully concentrate on it more next month.

For now, I've gots a lot of knitting to do! But first, this sleepy kitten needs to go to bed.

Nighty night napping knitters! (Yeah, I'm tired.)