baa 1, knit 2, cluck 1, purl 2

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as i work to teach the wee one farm noises, because this is a must needed life skill i suppose (or maybe just makes reading more fun, requirement to learn for future occupation optional)….anyways, as i teach these noises, i’ll be also knitting up the (possibly) related animals each evening after bedtime. enter the book (story and instructions included): Spud and Chloe at the Farm.

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i started on this project over a year ago and have made little progress! it’s a bit tedious, as the instructions are detailed, frequent change (e.g. you don’t just knit for inches and inches) and these animals have more parts i initially think–two ears, four feet, a toupee (the sheep), etc…little parts upon little parts…that then must be stuffed and stitched together so that the heads are facing the right way and they hopefully stand up .

i love this farm already.

i desperately hope the wee one will love it far more than the plastic farm the mil graced us with already (this will be relegated to “farm for use with little visiting friends”, as my knitted farm will not in use during rambunctious playdates with other’s children i did not raise to be kind to handmade goodness thank you very much). anyways, the wee one loves the animals i set free from his mobile (i knitted them to replace those horrible khaki bears it came with).

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so i have hope that he will love the knitted farm 1% of the amount i will…when it’s done.

key word: done.

here’s my progress so far:

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group photo time of farm.body.parts (“.” inserted because goodness knows if you are googling that in ernest, you are not looking for this blog post!): present are all brown sheep parts, cat head and body, mice body and half of chicken insides (mother hen’s lining is the polite term i suppose).

so, here’s my attack plan in order to actually accomplish this slightly overwhelming task before it becomes a “good luck in college” gift for wee one.

one animal. finished. each month. happy 2013.

january: barn cat (yes, half done…as is this month)

february: mice and hay bales

march: brown cow

april: mother hen and chicks

may: farm dog

june: piglets (two)

july: little lamb

august: spud…aka chloe…the kid (i’m switching the names of the kid and the name of ‘her’ sheep…spud is wee one’s nickname and i want a boy for his farm, so switchin’ them up!)

september: chloe…aka spud…the sheep

october:  barn

november: picket fence and buckets

december: finish it all up before putting it under the tree!

i have all the yarn already (i’m using cascade 220 because it requires a lot of yarn and a lot of different colors, so using the spud and chloe yarn sure is a nice idea…as is being able to by groceries…so thus, a less expensive yarn choice).

i’ll post my finished animals here, of course, and put them on my ravelry page too!

if you knit and just can’t live without this animal cuteness gracing your home, please feel free to join in and make this a knit along! 

the laughter of plans

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oh the foolish, impossible, mirage-like world of planning. we can all relate, no? over the past decade, i have planned many terrific occurrences. i’d say next to none have come true, at least in their first iteration. let’s quickly review a few biggies, shall we?

1) planned to move out of state and transfer to a well known college to pursue a fabulous career in operating on unborn babies. nope. accepted to well known college but stayed instate and local. purused useless degree that lead to well meaning, but short lived career solving the problems of some sick kiddos.

2) planned to have winter evening wedding by candlelight. nope. had midday midsummer wedding.

3) planned to have a baby right on time. nope. five years later, welcomed joyful, mellow little guy after trudging through hellish group effort.

4) planned to never leave state. nope. GOT to move to favorite city for a short tenure.

5) just planned to pay off inordinate amounts of debt by this time next year. so close. but nope. seems income isn’t as sky high as i’d imagined.

so, are these completly, or nearly so, opposite happenings dissappointing. some yes. to some degree. but to some, no. not at all. in fact, the opposite, as what i did end up getting blows my imagined perfect outcome so completely appart. while i will not be saving the unborn world as i had imagined, nor do i have some fancy shmancy degree to hang on my nonexistant office in the saving the world position right next to my candlelight wedding photographs, i do in fact have the coolest, happiest, funniest little guy by my side daily who i welcomed to the world in my favorite city stateside that is even more of an amazing feat given all the poor outcomes and crystal ball false predictions we were thrown. and the debt payoff…well, here’s to some unexpectedly, unplanned good occurrences 😉

here we go!

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oh blogging, i think i’ve missed you. i’ve written many posts in my head over the last year, but it’s time to write them out here in the vast web. i hope to use this little space as a place to write so that i can to keep my mind clear of thoughts on parenthood, wifehood, person.hood and my mouth clear of negative words to those i love and those i hardly know around me. again, this will be a slice of my life, a slice of my brain–from changing cloth diapers to changing towns to changing focuses to changing household products–from deep to shallow–from useful to useless…