It was bound to happen. . .

You all were there and know the story. My brother and SIL were having their first child. In honor of that child, I knitted an EZ Baby Surprise Jacket. I spent months knitting the BSJ. I agonized over the yarn, changing my selection twice. I had to overcome my apparent inability to count. I then found the perfect buttons to sew onto the jacket once Sarah had been born.

And if the jacket weren’t enough, I knitted a duck bib and a Spartan tribute bib for the baby to wear. I created the pattern for the duck bib, the first time I ever felt confident enough to not follow a pattern. I accidentally learned intarsia when I crafted the Spartan tribute bib (also a PeachyQueen creation).

I have been so proud of these gifts. I actually brought them to “Show and Tell” at the Atlanta Knitting Guild in June. The BSJ received compliments from both the Atlanta Knitting Guild and from the Ravelry BSJ Forum. Other people have asked me to write down the pattern for the duck bib.

With pride, I carefully wrapped each item in tissue paper, tied them with a ribbon, and sent them to Phoenix last week. (Okay, I was a little late in sending them out, but the baby isn’t two months old yet and is in no danger of outgrowing either the bibs or the BSJ anytime soon.)

So today I get the phone call. “Hi. It’s me. I’m calling because first I received this package today and I wanted to thank you. But I really wanted to know if the kids are at home because I’d like to show them Sarah on Skype.” (Skype is a free program that allows you to chat with, call or video-call other people through the Internet. It really is cool. During the last week, I’ve been able to video-call my nieces and nephew in Greece; my SIL, brother and niece in Phoenix, and my parents in Tennessee. But enough about Skype. Back to my rant.)

Okay, that wasn’t the entire phone call. It was, however, the gist of the phone call. The gift was nice, but she really wanted to talk to the kids. The hours spent agonizing over the perfect yarn and knitting the perfect baby gifts . . . I can’t even finish the sentence.

I think we all know who is getting a scratchy acrylic neon scarf this Christmas.

It's Calling Me. . . .

I’ve had this strange calling over the last few weeks, and it’s not my knitting needles. It’s my crochet hook.

I picked up the crochet hook years ago. I worked in an office where a secretary avidly crocheted. At night, she sat in front of the TV making granny squares. When someone had an event, such as a baby shower, she would sew the squares together to make a blanket. I really liked the idea of being able to throw together a homemade gift.

I took crochet classes at Michael’s, and later I took a few private lessons with the instructor. After a few lessons, the instructor stopped returning my calls, and I lost her address. I feel a little guilty because I still have some of the crochet square samples and a book that she loaned me.

Despite the lessons, I never really took to crochet. Granny squares in dark, bland colors just weren’t that exciting. I never have been a big afghan fan (I sleep with comforters). Lace doilies also didn’t interest me. I crocheted a few baby blankets for friends, but that’s about it.

Then came Ravelry. I started looking through the patterns available and realized that many of the patterns I admired were crochet. For example, I found a great little Christmas tree ornament in the shape of a Christmas tree. Being Jewish, we don’t celebrate Christmas in our house, but what a great gift for friends! Recently, I saw a pattern for a children's rug in the shape of 4 crayons. It was all I could do not to run out of the house to buy the yarn.

The final straw is the clown my grandmother made for me years ago. I absolutely adore him even though he’s in desperate need of repair. I took him to a knitting group to find out how he was made. An experienced knitter explained the pattern to me after looking at him for two minutes. Of course, it is a crochet pattern.

Crochet seems to be an art form on the rise. It is no longer restricted to granny squares and dark afghans. I am excited by the patterns I see on Ravelry and by the artistic windows crochet opens.

Having resisted my impulse for weeks, I finally grabbed some yarn, a hook and crocheted a doll leg. (I was going to show you a picture, but the leg sitting alone looked obscene.) I also am ordering a book of crocheted yarmulke patterns to make gifts for various family members during the holidays.

At the risk of sounding trite, this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Ripples in the pond

Do you remember the movie “Awakenings”? The doctor, Robin Williams, described Robert DeNiro’s character as having so many ticks and twitches that he (DeNiro) was paralyzed. That description describes my blog writing as of late. I’ve had many stops and starts, but I’ve been pulled in so many directions, I have not finished any of them.

The source the craziness - I got a job. About two weeks ago, I accepted some contract work. It’s nothing glamorous; I'm reviewing thousands of pages of documents for litigation. It is good work and reasonably interesting. Of course, accepting this job is the equivalent of throwing a pebble into the cosmic pool of life, and we are dealing with the ripple effects.

Naturally, now that I have time commitments, my husband’s contract work has picked up as well. That means we need a babysitter for the kids, and our primary sitters are out of town for the next couple of weeks. With our regular sitters out of town, we have needed filler babysitters for this week. Life should get easier next week when PeachyKids 1 and 2 (PK1 and PK2) start school on Monday. (Hooray!) I now need daycare for PeachyKid 3 (PK3), which means I need to research daycare options. A new preschool opened up the street from us, and I’m hoping it has an opening.

In addition to finding childcare, I also need to adjust my stay-at-home-mom schedule to a working mom schedule. All the chores I saved for when the kids were at school now have become my evening chores. Unfortunately, I still need to take time during the day to complete some tasks, such as going to the tailor to alter my new suits. However, this may have to wait a few weeks until I finish this job. In the meantime, I need to figure out how late I can call my insurance company. We have had several health insurance companies in the last 17 years, and I have never spent so much time dealing with any of my insurance companies. I’m going to start billing this one for my time, and, unlike my doctors, I don’t accept discounted reimbursements.

I’m also trying to balance professional development with contract work. I’ve networked with several people and need to follow up with a lunch or coffee. On one hand, these meetings are important to helping me identify my next job. On the other hand, I have a lot of documents to review in the next couple of weeks.

As if those issues weren’t enough to occupy my mind, we just returned from a fantastic trip visiting relatives. We visited with my DH’s sister, her husband and children at my in-law’s house in Flordia. I finally met my Scottish nieces and nephew, and they are wonderful. (I’ll tell you more about this trip later.) My SIL and her family extended their visit in the US through August, and they would like to visit our house in Georgia. I suspect that their travel plans will be last minute, and I want to make sure that I am far enough along in my work to enjoy a visit from them.

My big concern is that working has had a detrimental impact on my knitting. I used to do all of my CEO (Chief Everything Officer) work during the day and knit at night. Now, I’m doing my contract work during the day, CEO work at night, and knitting only if I do not collapse from exhaustion. I need to figure out how I can squeeze more knitting time into the day. I think I have a few free minutes between 1:30 and 2 am . . .

I am excited about what I am making. I am knitting Debbie Bliss’s Zippered Vest from her Essential Knits for Kids. Originally, I planned to knit the vest for PK2. After measuring the bottom half of the back on both PK1 and PK2, I decided that the vest probably will fit PK1 better. I’ll knit one for PK2 next.

Although the knitting is slow, I have adopted Kelley’s habit of listening to audiobooks while I knit. I’m listening to two books right now – Ken Follett’s the Pillars of the Earth, and Philippa Gregory’s The Other Boleyn Girl. I started the Follett book first, then realized I needed to “read” Gregory’s book for book club next Sunday. The last book I audio-read for my book club was The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. I was so inspired by the book, I actually wrote most of a book review. I hope to finish and publish the review in the near future.

In the meantime, it's off to bed with me. I have a full workday tomorrow.