Burnt Out Wonder Woman

I've also been searching for the perfect Burnt Out Wonder Woman meme, where we see her the day AFTER being so Wonder-ful, saving the day and taking care of shit. Cause the next day I'm sure she's totally strung out and can't seem to form a complete thought, get anyone dressed, or feed them anything remotely resembling food.

The past few weeks have felt like that -- alternating between being a kick-ass multi-tasker and a bumbling bag lady still in her PJs at 11am ... ok 5pm. It seems I can never quite find that middle ground, that happy medium between productive and relaxed, where the house is clean but not obsessive, the parenting is "just right" -- good enough, because anything more than that is, let's be honest, lost on the 3 year old.

No, I'm only ever at one extreme or the other. Let's take last week. Freelance gig revved into high gear and I did 20 hours of work from my kitchen table; D's wedding handkerchiefs are due oh so very soon that I'm pressing and hemming fabric next to my laptop while simultaneously rendering said freelance gig; Newborn Care class on Saturday meant I was finalizing the lesson plan and practicing the lesson with the child (luckily, bathing and diapering a baby doll is the same as 'playing', so 2 birds); and Etsy is doing very nice things for me lately, so DURING class on Saturday I got an order for a Notre Dame Baby Sweater (Go Irish, indeed). Also, you know parenting. And general self-care. And the keeping of the house. My husband said that he wouldn't let me become a "home-maker", which is why, I think, he's so willing to take the kiddo (and the dog) away on Saturday mornings so I can teach class. And some weeks I'm totally on top of things like dinner -- remembering to defrost something deserves a freaking medal. And when I set up activities for the child, I'm all "give me a mom of the year award, please".

But more often than not, those weeks when I do 3 out of 7 of my jobs at once (freelance TV planner, Childbirth Educator, Knitter/home-made wedding favor-maker), the last four (house-keeper, mother, wife, self) usually get thrown to the back-burner and left to boil over/burn/curdle. I let the kid watch movies all day, I don't shower to eat anything good, and we have pasta and meatballs for dinner -- and don't get me wrong, pasta and meatballs are awesome, so I'm usually not too worried about that one. It's when the kid eats cereal for the 5 meals and snacks leading up to pasta and meatballs that I start of feel guilty.

Oh the guilt. Really, it's when I let any of these 7 jobs slide. I feel like I'm not networking my classes enough, I'm not getting D's handkercheifs done fast enough. And heaven forbid I take a day/night off to just chill out with a book. And it's all me ... no one else is putting pressure on me except me. But I'm a bitch, so when I do it it's totally not in a nice way.

But the alternative is actually DOING all 7 of the jobs, after which I am so burnt out that I can't do ANY of them. Cue mom and kid in their jammies all day, effing around on facebook. Aaaaaand cue more guilt.

Maybe more lists is the answer?

Baby Sweaters!

So many babies lately! Baby Caleb (Troy+Becky) was born right before Christmas and Baby Dominick (Andrea+Ricky) was born just before New Year's.

   

It was a good thing I was trying to get all my knitting projects before the New Year (new, bigger, non-knitting project on the horizon!), because one of these babies came early!

For baby Caleb, I nixed the idea of combining Packers and Vikings (a little too complicated) and went with a simple Notre Dame jacket. The special touch is the shamrock applique, which is SO CUTE!!! They also got a simpler Golden Dome hat ... I didn't have the patience to do the brim fanciness.









Baby Dominick got the real prize. Ricky is a huge LSU fan, and his nursery is completely decked out.








Of course I went with a Letterman Jacket (I can practically do this pattern in my sleep now).



Oh, it looks like an ordinary sweater in the LSU colors, right?


Wait WHAT!?!?!?!

I took the LSU logo and gridded it up!




This was so complicated, but I came out so good!







I had to have so many balls of the same color, or else the back would have been even crazier! Also, this was a great time to learn to weave in ends correctly!

I really liked doing this more complicated pattern, and there MAY be another Domer baby headed someone's way soon (not me, keep your panties on people). Maybe a little leprechaun?

Baby Golden Dome Hat, 2.0

Here is a revised version of my Baby Golden Dome Hat, with a turned up brim (and made with smaller needles). (Printer Friendly Version)

Materials:

Worsted Weight yarn in White, Navy Blue, and Gold/Mustard Yellow

5 Size #2 dpns

Cast on 72 blue

Divide onto 4 dpns (18 on each) and join

For the Base: (see grid at the bottom of page, start at the arrow on bottom right)

Row 1: K1 P1 blue around

Row 2: [P1K1 7 blue, attach white, K1 white, P1K1 7 stitches blue, K3 white] x4

Row 3: [P1K1 5 stitches blue, K1P1 5 stitches white, P1K1 5 stitches blue, K1P1 3 stitches white] X4

Row 4: P1K1 white around

Row 5: P1 blue, K1P1 13 stitches white, [P1K1 5 stitches blue, K1P1 13 stitches white] X4, P1K1 4 stitches blue

Row 6: P1K1 around

Row 7: K white around

Row 8 & 9: P white around

At this point I turn the work "inside-out" so I can knit the majority and decrease easily.

For the Dome: (see grid, start from arrow on upper left)

Turn work inside out by bringing the work through the center of the needles and turn work. Attach yellow. Knit all yellow. You'll be working back the way you just came, so there will be small hole. You can tie this up with the white and yellow tails after you're done.

K1, P1, [K8, P1] around yellow.

Repeat [K8, P1] for about 4-5 inches (depending on the size of the baby in question).

Decreasing: [Knit until 2 stitches before the Purl row, K2tog, P1, SSK] until there are two knit stitches between each purl row. (24 st)

[K2tog, P] around. (16 st)

K2tog around. (8 st)

For "Statue"

Attach white

K2tog around. (4 st)

Kfb around (8st)

On 4 needles (2 st on each needle), [Kfb, K1]around (12 st)

[K2tog, K1]around (8st)

K2tog around until 3 stitches remain

Change to Yellow

Make a 3-stitich i-cord for about 7 rows.

Cut and thread end through the stitches.

Embellishment of Base:

Using a crochet hook, do a chain stitch up and down the white triangles (are the gables? are they peaks? I have no idea). For this version, I threaded the yarn through the inside of the hat at the end of each gable.

**when you use one color for more than 2 stitches while switching colors, carry the other color behind by twisting the two different colored yarns. Alternate which direction you twist the yarn to avoid tangling.

For Base, start at the bottom right; first blue row indicates the cast-on row.

For Dome, start at arrow near the upper left (this indicates the turned section)

(click for larger image)

Finished Notre Dame Baby Gifts

Baby Boy Curtin Gift Set -- DONE!

Letterman Jacket/Sweater

Pattern: "Top Down Raglan Baby Sweater" by Carole Barenys.

Yarn: Lionbrand Vanna's Choice (I LOVE this yarn!) in White, Navy, and Mustard.

Special additions:

Monogram logo intarsia pattern:

Shamrock Appliqué:

Football buttons from MJ Trimmings in NYC.

Golden Dome Hat

Pattern: "Baby Golden Dome Hat" by ME!

Yarn: Lionbrand Vanna's Choice (I LOVE this yarn!) in White, Navy, and Mustard.

Blue and Gold Socks

Pattern: Modified from Unisex Socks by Alyce Benevides & Jaqueline Miles

Special Additions:

Shipping out today!

Baby "Golden Dome" hat

Just finished my Golden Dome Hat.

The resemblance to the actual Notre Dame Golden Dome is uncanny, if I do say so myself.

This is a gift for new baby boy Curtin, due in August. Now, I know being born in August in Texas may make the hat a little unnecessary, I just couldn't help myself. It is to go with the Notre Dame Letterman Jacket, which is almost done (I just need to hit up the trimmings store for buttons tomorrow).

I originally was going to base the hat pattern on a fantastic ribbed hat I found online, but it just didn't decrease the way I wanted, so I guess this is an original pattern!

Materials:

Worsted Weight yarn in White, Navy Blue, and Gold/Mustard Yellow

5 Size #4 dpns

Cast on 72 White

Divide onto 4 dpns (18 on each) and join

For the Base:

Row 1: K1 P1 rib around

Row 2: Attach blue. K1P1 blue, K1P1 white for 13 stitches, carrying the blue behind. [K1P1 in blue for 5 stitches (carrying the white behind), K1P1 white for 13 stitches (carrying the blue behind)] X3, P1K1 blue 3 stitches. (* For a graph of these instructions, see the image at the bottom of the page.)

Row 3: K1P1 in white around (do not carry blue)

Row 4: K1 white. P1K1 blue for 5 stitches, K1P1 white for 5 stitches, P1K1 blue for 5 stitches. [K1P1 for 3 stitches, P1K1 blue for 5 stitches, K1P1 white for 5 stitches, P1K1 blue for 5 stitches]X3, K1P1 white.

Row 5: K1 white, P1K1 blue for 7 stitches, [K1 white, P1K1 blue for 7 stitches, K3 white, P1K1 blue for 7 stitches]X3, K1 white, P1K1 blue for 7 stitches, K2 white.

Row 6: Knit all blue.

For the Dome:

Row 7: Attach yellow. Knit all yellow.

Row 8: (all yellow) [K8, P1]X8.

Repeat Row 8 for about 4--5 inches.

Decreasing: [Knit until 2 stitches before the Purl row, K2tog, P1, SSK] until there are two knit stitches between each purl row. (24 st)

[K2tog, P] around. (16 st)

K2tog around. (8 st)

For "Statue" . . . (this may be one of the most blasphemous things I've ever knitted)

Attach white

K2tog around. (4 st)

Kfb around (8st)

On 4 needles (2 st on each needle), [Kfb, K1]around (12 st)

[K2tog, K1]around (8st)

K2tog around until 3 stitches remain

Change to Yellow

Make a 3-stitich i-cord for about 7 rows.

Cut and thread end through the stitches.

Embellishment of Base:

Using a crochet hook, do a chain stitch up and down the white triangles (are the gables? are they peaks? I have no idea). For this version, I threaded the yarn through the inside of the hat at the end of each gable.

I'm thinking the next one will have a folded bring with the embellishment on the "inside" -- we'll see.

* pattern graph (click for larger view)

Start at the bottom right; first white row indicates the cast-on row.

The down-side of using yarn as packing material . . .

. . . is that when our move date gets pushed back I can't knit anything. I am nearly finished with Baby Notre Dame Letterman sweater number 2, and eager to start on the "Golden Dome" hat I have half-designed in my head (see below for details). I was hoping to use either beige or gray yarn for the bottom; however those specific skeins are being used to pad certain fragile objects packed in boxes, stacked in my bedroom. Problem is I don't know which boxes contain which yarn. I didn't think to document which skeins were padding which boxes, because I thought I would be UNPACKING them soon!!! sigh.

My original goal was to move on June 11 . . . it being the 20th, I'm sure you have guessed that THAT plan did not come to fruition. The good news is that we close on Thursday at 4pm (YEA!!!). Bad news is that the movers we had on hold are not available on Friday, and the building does not allow weekend moves, and the closing Thursday is too late in the day to move afterwards. More bad news is that between the 27th and the 3rd is the movers' "peak" rates, so it would cost us more to move on Monday. grrr.

So right now we're waiting to hear back on what that higher rate would be (we might just have to swallow it . . . that's what she said). If it's too much, we'll just wait until "peak" is over, and move July 5th (screwing up our Independence Day family plans AND Chris's Birthday plans) if they even do "holiday" moves, or wait until July 9th . . . a full 3 weeks from now!!! double sigh.

Anyway . . . the Golden Dome hat. I wanted a hat to go with the Notre Dame jackets, and any true Domer knows that their true symbol is the Gold Dome of the "Main Building" on campus.

(Side note: you'd think that the most iconic building on campus would have a cooler name than "Main Building", wouldn't you?)

I found Jane Tanner's "Rib-a-Roni Hat"

The pattern has 16 wide ribs that come together evenly at the top (instead of spiraling); I am going to widen them and only have 8 ribs.

The bottom will be folded up and have a zig zag pattern to represent the "gables" (I know they're not true gables, but I can't think of a better word). I would love to use a "twisted knit" stitch, if I can figure out how to make the colors work. I did a twisted knit on the washcloth shown below, and I love how it makes a raised, diagonal knitted line.

If you look at the photo of the building, you can see why I would want the gray or beige yarn that is hiding at the moment. I think I might just give up and use white and blue (since I'll have some leftover when I finish the jacket). I also don't think I'll be able to replicate Mother Mary on the top of a hat, but I'll see what I can do, in a non-blasphemous sort of way.

New baby project

So I have been brainstorming a gift for new baby boy Curtin. Mom and Dad went to Notre Dame with my husband, who suggested making a Notre Dame letterman jacket, like the Steelers Jacket I made for baby Kay+Rob last month.

"Oh! That's actually a great idea!", I said to him this evening. "Well," he replied a little sheepishly, "that's what I really want for our baby eventually." Awww!

So, I will probably use the same Top Down Reglan Baby Sweater pattern with an ND monogram logo and maybe "Notre Dame" across the back.

Here are pictures are of the modern letterman jackets at Notre Dame.

The blue arms, however, make it look more like a regular windbreaker than a sports jacket. The old-fashioned jackets, like these:

are more iconic.

Luckily, I already have a great "gold" yellow color in my stash, and Vanna's Choice makes a great Navy color.

I think I'll put the monogram on the back the way I did for the Steelers Jacket. If there is room on the front, I might add a clover or a little felted leprechaun.