School

When did I turn into a once a month blogger? I had been doing much better earlier this year, but kinda fell off the wagon near the end of the summer. Bafflingly, part of my recent absence has been Monkey's first day of school. Holy smokes. Two weeks ago was the first day of PreK for my little guy, and I've been catching up from the week leading up to it since then. Seizure activity hasn't been the greatest, so we've been spending a lot of time with his Neurologist, who is a little over an hour away. Between that and meetings with everyone involved in the special needs program at our school I wasn't really home at all for literally a week straight. So after launching the little guy onto the bus (and having a good cry) I attacked the house and haven't stopped. Stuff that has been a mess since we moved in 10 months ago looks great now.

I also finished the Stag Bag! It is fantastic, beautiful and sturdy and is now my daily bag. It is one of very few things I've made that not-knitters have stopped to tell me they liked. Knit with Pattons Classic Wool, in about 1 1/2 skeins each of Chestnut and Peacock.The design is not as sharp and the colors are a little more muted after felting, which I didn't really consider a problem because it was pretty bright before. A great deal of puckering and weirdness from my first stranded knitting was resolved with some trimming of carries on the back after felting and some really severe blocking. Like everyone else, the back of the bag also was a lot larger than the front so check your gauge and/or knit a few stitches fewer in width across the bag than the pattern calls for (actually, you should probably just check gauge; who am I to tell you to adjust your pattern willy-nilly.) As you can see, I cleverly added my initials on the bottom-you know, so I won't get it mixed up with all the other turquoise and brown felted stag bags out there.

More finished objects coming! With my mornings alone, I am getting a lot done.