Halloween is tomorrow night. Do you think we are prepared here at the Dwire house? That’s a big N-O good buddies. As I’ve told you all, I’ve been sick as a dog for the last few weeks. (Why do we say “sick as a dog”? My dog has been “sick” about twice in his 13 years…I’ve never really heard of a dog being sick, per se, unless it was something pretty bad. A common cold or bronchitis, though, haven’t heard of that. Oh well, something to look up on the internets later…) We have roughly 30 hours until the big trick or treat and we are very poorly prepared. This will be Jake’s first real Halloween experience. When he was 2 months old we dressed him up and propped him in a pumpkin.
I thought this was going to be the beginning of many great baby/toddler Halloween costumes. You know, the ones where I got to pick what I wanted to see him as. Not so much, though. His 2nd Halloween, we were living up north and since the trick or treating wasn’t a very feasible option (it’s hard when you have about three neighbors in a mile radius and no mall or any other big place like that to take the kids) we planned to go to the Halloween party at the local Eagles club. When we took him shopping for the costume, though, he wanted NOTHING to do with it. He had a full on fit at the costume shop when we got near him with any costume, even Thomas the Tank Engine which he was obsessed with at the time (still is). So he went to the party in a sweatshirt and jeans; we called him the cutest baby in town; clearly we don’t have a problem with humility when it comes to Jake. Last year, he still wanted nothing to do with costumes or parties etc. so we took him shopping, got him some candy and a Halloween toy and we called it good. This year, we’re in Kalamazoo, in a house in a subdivision and he’s going to have his very first “real” Halloween experience. He’s been saying that he wants to be Scooby Doo, not that he understands what dressing up means, really. He’s mostly excited about the fact that he gets to ring doorbells. He’s been practicing saying “trick or treat” and he knows that he’ll get candy. We’re going to go shopping for a costume tonight and we’ll carve the pumpkins (we grew them ourselves this year) tonight as well. I’m thinking about taking him to the “zoo boo” at the zoo tonight as well. Tomorrow will be a family day. We’re going to take him to the pumpkin patch/cider mill to do the corn maze, maybe a hay ride. I want him to experience the whole season. I feel like my illnesses and my physical problems have caused way too much missed opportunities for him. He’s been cheated out of a lot b/c of me and I hate that.
I still have a lot of problems with follow through on what I plan to do. It’s so much easier for me to stay at home and take it easy, to assume that I don’t have it in me to do this or that. I always regret it and I always swear I’m going to do better, but I never do. I really want to, but I’m a creature of habit and this staying home all the time is a hard habit to break. It’s like quitting smoking only scarier!
On to the knitting. I’ve been reading a lot of people talking about their UFOs and the things that either need to commit to finishing or send to the frog pond. Knitting Daily has been doing a series on it and it’s got me thinking about my UFOs as well. Off the top of my head I have: Fifi (which is about 5% or less done), Lizzard Ridge (still on square #1), felted boxes (still on #1), felted bowl (need to work on the decreases and then felt), Booga Bag (done but for the felting), multidirectional scarf (about 50% done), garden path shawl (10% at best)… this is only partial and it’s very sad. The Lizzard Ridge blanket is something that I plan to do for sure, it’s not on a time schedule and I’m planning to work on that as I go, buying the Kuryeon as time/money allows and going from there. All the others, though, really need to go to the frog pond for now. Fifi was part of my first KAL and I liked starting it and I think it will be an interesting and challenging (first garment) knit. I put it up when I started working on Christmas gifts (which was a disaster in and of itself). The Garden Path Shawl was a part of the Christmas thing and I had high hopes for it. I put in weeks of work on it before admitting to myself that it might have been a little bit too ambitious for a first lace project. I ended up choosing a faux moebius pattern for a scarf and doing it in a gorgeous cashmere blend. It’s a much smaller gift, but something within my abilities and really quite beautiful. I hope the recipients love them as much as I’m enjoying making them. I really don’t have as much time to knit as I’d like, but I think it’s mostly due to poor planning and time management on my part. My newest crafting love – spinning – is taking a lot of time. I recently spent too much money on roving and other fibers for spinning. I’m determined that I’m going to completely master the spindle before I get my wheel for Christmas. I started spinning the Kareoke fiber (50/50 wool/soy silk) that I got and it’s a dream to spin! The problem that I have is that I buy gorgeous fibers and I don’t want to use them until I know what I’m doing so as not to “waste” the fiber. I keep telling myself that there will be other gorgeous fiber and that I’m never going to learn if I don’t give in and use it. I’m quite excited about practicing dying with the silk hankies that I just got. They are going to be fun. I can’t wait to learn more about spinning them.
I’d love to write more, but Jake is clamoring for attention and I don’t think I can bear watching Cinderella III again…more on my spinning obsession when there is more time. Happy Halloween!!!
I’m getting my wheel for Christmas and I can’t wait. Ever since I got to use Shannon’s a few weeks ago, I’m hooked. Admittedly, I haven’t done much spindle spinning in the last weeks, but I’ve been working on the knitted X-mas gifts for family. I’m using totally different yarns and patterns than I originally planned. My first ideas were a bit of a reach for my skills. I think I could have gotten them done, but definitely not in time. Maybe next year.
