Trying to shake the blues...

I wanted to blog on Friday, but after my reference shift ended, I ended up taking a half day. I was just exhausted, emotionally and physically. Today, I sort of feel the same way, but I'm trying my best to muddle through. We should hear more about the potential furloughs this week, and besides waiting for that, there's nothing I can do. So, I'm very much trying to perk.

I did have a wonderful weekend away from the office, although worry was the devil on my shoulder the whole time. Knitting and crocheting takes my mind off of things, and so we are the proud owners of two brand new baby dish cloths. As well, I worked on the prayer shawl I'm knitting from the Homespun yarn, and I started my first garment: a shrug.

I have some inexpensive Vanna's Choice acrylic yarn in taupe that I picked up on sale a few months back. I was going to use it to make a shawl, but I rather have shawls coming out my ears at this point. Instead, I found a free pattern for a simple shrug on Lion Brand Yarn's web site, and I'm using the yarn for that. I figure, if it doesn't come out the way I want, it won't bother me too much since the yarn was so cheap.

For the first time ever, I dutifully knitted a gauge swatch. For afghans and dish cloths, this really isn't necessary, but for garments, gauge is essential. What you are doing is testing out how big or small your stitches are with the recommended yarn and needle size. If you knit loosely, you should move down a needle size, to assure that your sweater doesn't come out making you look...well, big. If you knit tightly, you want to make sure that it'll fit you, and not your toddler, so you move to bigger needles.

This is a frustrating process for me, because, as you know, I'm not exactly the queen of patience. I'm dying to dive right into my new project, but now that I'd like to start knitting pieces to actually wear, I've resigned myself to gauge regularly. So I did. And, as expected, my gauge was big. *sighs* My gauge is always big. I make big things, what can I say? Even Hank is unusually tall for his age, and his weight was off the charts when he was an infant. He was the biggest baby at the pediatrician, every time. Ah, well. Big is good.

Since this is a shrug, which is supposed to be a bit loose, I just kept on with the same needles. My gauge wasn't that far off, as opposed to previous projects wherein hats that I'd make looked like they'd fit the Incredible Hulk. So I think it'll be ok. I'm very excited.

I worked on these projects off and on all weekend, and we all went to Mass as a family on Sunday, which I very much enjoyed. Hank continues his boycott of the formerly coveted Children's Liturgy of the Word, and finally he told me why. He said that an older boy there called him "stupid" and told him he was a baby. Granted, this is my 4 year old, and so we parents know that we don't always get the full story. I take all Hank tales with a bit of a grain of salt. But clearly something happened that led him to be upset and afraid to go with the kids again, and consequently I'm upset.

When the children went back yesterday during Mass I did notice that several boys who were much older looking than all of the other kids went back. To be fair, I don't know that they are responsible for upsetting Hank. So I would certainly never say anything. I'm just feeling extra sensitive these days, and I'm feeling badly that this activity that Hank once enjoyed so much has been spoiled for him. At least for the time being. I'm hoping, with time, that he'll start to want to go again. We'll see. It brought out my mama bear instinct though. How dare anybody say such a mean thing to my angel. *glares* My precious little guy.

Who didn't get enough sleep either Friday night or Saturday night and thus was an absolute nightmare yesterday late afternoon and evening. Parents, you know what I'm talking about. Some little inconsequential thing, like Iron Man's arm turning the wrong way, and suddenly you have a sobbing child on your hands for the next 20 minutes. Who intersperses the rest of his free time whining. It was just one of those days.

But, in exciting news (for me, at least) my bellydance group is going to be performing at a festival this Friday, and this will be my first performance as an official member of the group. I've been practicing up a storm and I'm super excited. Mike has gotten used to be undulating and shimmying my way around the kitchen, as that's my favorite room to practice in. Apparently there is no changing room at this shindig come Friday, and so we have to arrive dressed. In our bellydance costumes. I'm going to have to drive and navigate my way into a gallery in a heavily beaded and netted gown. This should be interesting. I'll definitely be reporting in on this one.