It's yarn sale season! And upcoming holiday mystery craft -alongs...

 Happy Friday everybody! I have deemed November to be a Fun Friday month, and each week will post some frivolity about upcoming opportunities in hobbies and enjoyable online classes. I think we could all use more frivolity in our lives of late, yes? This week our topic is CRAFTS! 

🥳

We do chat about crafts a good deal on this blog, but we don't always focus specifically on mystery -alongs that are tailored to a holiday season, do we? Yes indeed, we need mystery gnomes. And we also need mystery dolls!

If you're a knitter, I think we can agree that you need an Advent Gnome in your life: 

And his name will be Gnutmeg, what more detail could you possibly need?! This Mystery Gnome -Along starts December 1st, and the pattern is available for 50% off through tomorrow (11/7), so do rush over to purchase if you'd like to participate! I chose wintry colors for my Gnutmeg, and I can't wait to get started! He will be knit with fingering weight yarn, for planning purposes.

If you're a crocheter, then you need a Christmas doll to brighten your home this holiday season, I do think this is mandatory. ;-)

I've never made a doll before, so I'm excited to try this one! This pattern is also on sale, in this case until 11/20. It's 50% off until then, which is the day before the MCAL begins! So this one begins in just over 2 weeks, the weekend before American Thanksgiving. The doll's name is Sally, and she will have a holiday theme and outfit!

Since I don't have all of the needed colors in my yarn stash, it is fortuitous timing that Knit Picks is having their annual Big Sale this coming Monday, November 16th. Despite having enough yarn to survive the fallout of the apocalypse (the zombies will all have handknit socks and sweaters ;-)) I look forward to this *every year*. I log onto Ravelry that morning, and sip coffee while participating in the excited chatter in the Knit Picks Lovers group leading up to the sale prices dropping at 9 am EST. Then I partake in the stampede to the best deals on the yarns that I had on my wist list, and in the inevitable impulse buys of new limited edition colors and other goodies. On my list is a nice acrylic in a bunch of colors to make the Christmas doll, plus a scene of Nutcracker figurines, because OF COURSE TIFFANY IS MAKING THAT. 

Oh my gosh, y'all, I am so excited about all of this! 😎🎅 Is anybody joining me in a holiday craft -along? Getting your fast fingers ready for the Knit Picks sale on Monday? I want to hear all about it in the comments!

Wardrobe conundrums with opinionated 4 year olds, & closing in on the mystery knit-along right in time for National Craft Month...

Anne & I in matching shirts this weekend, because I am a nerd

Good morning all! Normally, I'm pretty happy when Tuesday rolls around, but unfortunately for the next few weeks I have the Wednesday evening reference shift, so the week doesn't ease until Thursday for me. Lots of other reference shifts and lesson planning and grading. I'm just slogging along until spring break at this point. We're almost there.

Meanwhile, my daughter has been making the mornings interesting with her outfit choices:

"Mommy, I am awake, you will help me get dressed!"

#bossy

I look at the clock. 6:51 am. I am still in bed. I should not be, but there you have it. I've been staying up too late reading Into Thin Air at night. I'm at the gripping part where they reach the summit, I just can't help myself.

"Anne honey, remember how we talked about how the clock should have a seven before you get up?"

"There's a seven!"

?

"Remember that it has to be the *first* number, darling. Anyway, go get started, I'll come check on you."

She's very opinionated on what she wears, that one. I often find her tugging on loud, geometric-print leggings underneath a bright pink dress with colorful origami birds decorating the whole shebang, and do I care about such clashing? I do not. I know that she doesn't actually want my help, and I'm happy to set her loose.

"I need you to come in, Mommy."

Sigh.

She leads me into her bedroom, where she has three pairs of underpants lined up on the bed.

"Which of these am I supposed to wear today, Mommy?"

I quickly discern that these particular underwear are all from a "days of the week!" collection, purchased by a highly organized grandmother.

"Oh. This pair, honey, this is the Tuesday pair. With the picture of a smiling hamburger on it."

*unhappy pause*

"But I don't want to wear the hamburger. I want to wear the ones with the ice cream cone on it!"

See, why does she ask me?! :0 And why am I squinting at underwear before 7 am? I ask you. All I want to be doing that soon after waking up is checking the new notifications on my phone, that's about all my brain is capable of at that point.

In other news, March is National Craft Month, and accordingly I've been knitting away like a crazy woman on my freaking delightful Downton Abbey mystery knit-along shawl. I feel like I've been working on this thing since approximately the Mesozoic era, but yet I keep knitting away, yarn overs serving as mile markers on my brave journey of lacy perseverance. There are eight clues in total, and happily, I've made a lot of progress since I last reported in. Here we have clue 5:

...whereby we have begun the lace on the second "wing" of the shawl. And here is clue 6, which is hot off the presses as of last night while I drank a vodka tonic (I am SO sick to death of this shawl, have I mentioned that?!):

Thus, both wings are now complete, and I'm pretty impressed with my own ability to not drop stitches given that I was drinking and knitting. Clues 7 and 8, I believe, involve edging on the wings, and finishing off the center motif (since stitches are still held over there) and I'm excited to move onto to something besides wing-work, which I've been doing for endless weeks now. These last two clues also appear MUCH shorter than the previous ones, and I'm hopeful that I'll have this shawl wrapped up by next week. I am often delusional about such things, but here's hoping. I still have the crochet version to pick back up.

*long suffering sigh*

How are your shawls coming fellow Downton Abbey-along'ers? What are YOU working on for National Craft Month? Do write in and let me know. :)

On snow days, knitting is always the best medicine...

Well, happy Wednesday to you all! I hope that you are well. For my part, I am back at work after my snow day yesterday. I am feeling decidedly sleepy and wishing that I was back at home sipping tea and watching Team Umizoomi with Anne rather than preparing for a reference shift. As well, every muscle in my body is aching for my foray into a Hipfit class on Monday night.

#ouch

It was incredibly fun though. I do need to be CAREFUL, however, because that muscle in my left leg is feeling a bit sore again. This is the one respect in which I hate not being 20. It's so much easier to injure yourself the older you get. And by "injure yourself" I mean that when you're 20, you may injure yourself playing rugby or having a trampoline jumping competition. When you're 40, you injure yourself by stepping the wrong way when you walk down the stairs. Not fun. And with all of the dancing and fitness stuff that I enjoy, when you injure yourself by walking down the stairs, you can very easily aggravate things via a spin sequence or jumping around too much. Oh the woe.

Thus, it was nice to take it easy yesterday. Although granted, I did go outside to help Mike shovel snow because I wanted "to get steps in" on my Fitbit. I am ridiculous, I tell you. But I drank lots of tea and coffee, and I did lots of knitting.

So, my Downton Abbey mystery craft-along progress is going slowly but surely. I wish I was keeping up with the speed at which the clues came out each Sunday, but I realize now that by taking on both the knit-along AND the crochet-along there was no way that was going to happen. Hindsight is indeed 20/20. And in a sense it's good, because in many of the weekly clues updates were made after they were published, and I got the benefit of not having to be confused and rip out rows due to minor errors in the original clue. So, we'll take it.

I've put the crochet version aside for now to just finish up the knit clue, and then will go back to the crochet shawl when I'm finished. I can tell that I have more momentum when I just stick with one version, and I *really* want to get these girls finished. I'm enjoying working on them, but I have other things in the queue that I'm anxious to get to.

And so here is my weekly accountability report. ;-) I finished clue 4 of the MKAL, and here she is:

More Detroit Red Wing comparisons, yes I know

That's the center back motif, plus a single side wing. I also started clue 5 yesterday, and we've picked up some reserved stitches along the other side of the motif, and have re-begun the lace pattern for the second wing. Clue 6 is the decrease section for the second wing, and then clues 7 and 8 are still a mystery to me. We're getting there! I started my second skein of yarn, so I do feel like I'm making good progress.

I'm also working on some gift knitting, a hat and a pair of socks, and I really want to get those done too. THEN I can move onto new projects, and there's a few things in there that I am over-the-top excited about. They come along with extremely exciting crafting news. Stay tuned! :0

How are your Downton Abbey shawls going? Are you working on any other winter craft projects? I'd love to hear all about them!

Tomorrow, we'll have tea time. Next week I'll indeed have a Lenten book review, which will be of Jeff Cavins' When You Suffer: Biblical Keys For Hope and Understanding. If you're reading this book too, I hope you'll join in!

"Is that a knitted Amoeba?" Adventures with mystery shawls on Ash Wednesday...

Good morning to you all, and a very blessed Ash Wednesday to you. I am all discombobulated today in terms of Lent beginning. I've been excited about it all week, did tons of Lenten-related retweeting all day yesterday, pulled out the book at the top of the Catholic Book Club list for spiritual reading during the season, and then...this morning I woke up all punchy. I felt rather down and beleaguered and didn't want to get out of bed. My hair would not straighten properly and looks like I stuck my finger in an electrical outlet, and I forgot to pack my Kindle so that I could begin my reading over lunch. I also forgot my print copy of the Magnificat Lenten Companion and didn't think at all about the Lenten fast while I packed my lunch, which thankfully by complete coincidence does not include meat. I am just all sixes and sevens over here. But I'm hanging in there.

I'm on the reference desk this morning, and then I am planning to go to a noon Mass with ash distribution here on campus. I'm rather looking forward to that, and hope springs eternal that it improves my disposition. I mean, if it's any indication, I just kicked a student out of the reference desk chair, which had been moved AGAIN overnight, as that has become a huge pet peeve of mine. Ordinarily I would have sat in one of the other, less comfortable chairs and said nothing. Not today. This is what we're working with here. :0

#AshWednesdayGrouch

#PossibleDemonicAttack

I did do it nicely. *nostril flare*  And things in my crafting world are not going much better. Granted, they are not going *terrible*, but they are moving along at a glacial pace that is making me antsy. After nearly a freaking month, I finished clue 3 of the Downton Abbey mystery knit-along. Here is what we have:

Let's not even get into the specifics of the many inappropriate things we could say this looks like, because there are too many to count. I think that where we're headed is that the center motif (which is currently all misshapen for reasons that are not its own) will become more prominent, and we'll add on a second wing on the other side. I've started clue 4, and we're decreasing, so this wing is coming to an end.

The lace is now going seamlessly, so no troubles there. I do like the center motif, but while I don't hate the lace on the wing, I'm not in love with it either. I think that with these mystery shawls it can be hard to gauge your feelings on the design until the end, because things are just so underdeveloped for so long.

And speaking of underdeveloped, here is our crochet cousin, who is a little bit further along in the process, at the completion of clue 4:

Terrible picture, sorry

This guy now has two full wings, so it's not looking quite so fetal. I've peeked at spoilers for this shawl, and I will say that clues 5 and 6 make it absolutely GORGEOUS, with layers of scallops along the border. Right now, he's looking a bit mesh-y and like he's not quite sure where he's going in life, but I am optimistic that things will improve for him. The colors in this variegated yarn are definitely pooling, as I knew they would, but given that I love the autumn colors, I'm happy with it.

Overall, given that they are lace, both shawls will benefit tremendously from blocking when they are complete, which will stretch out the design and show it to its full potential. I hope.

So, that's the progress update. How are your shawls going? I'd love to hear. :)  And let me know how your Ash Wednesday is going so far! All the details, pretty please. And we have Tea Time tomorrow, yay! I always look forward to that time with you. ;-)

I'm mystery-crafting-along. And along, and along and along...

Welcome everyone to a crafty day here at Life of a Catholic Librarian! I've been a very busy bee this winter with both knitting and crocheting, and every January for the past few years I've participated in a Downton Abbey-themed mystery knit-along sponsored by Jimmy Beans Wool. This year, there is both a knit-along *and* a crochet-along (hereinafter referred to as MKAL and MCAL, respectively). Guess which Fear of Missing Out Eager Beaver decided to do both?

*raises hand*

The way that these work is that the design of the item (we only know that both are shawls) is revealed week by week. Every Sunday the designer releases a new "clue" that is an additional segment of the pattern. We're now into week 4 of the process, and I posted back after week 1 as to how things were starting out, if you want to go take a peek at the beginning of each shawl. I know that a few of you are also participating.

OK, so week 4. *sigh* Accountability time. To the surprise of absolutely no one except me, I am behind. I did really well for the first two weeks.

Famous.Last.Words.

**And if you don't want to see spoiler pictures of the mystery as it progresses, cease reading the post now!

So, the first two clues for both the knit and crochet versions involved what I'm thinking is a center motif. Here is the MCAL after two clues:

Autumn-hued loveliness

I really love it. It's slightly asymmetrical by design, and I like how the colors are pooling. Makes me think of the fall. *heart*

The knit version, meanwhile, was having a bit of a tighter squeeze of things. It's scrunched onto a 24 inch cable as we worked in the round, but it also is a center motif. It was harder to photograph as a result, but here is the MKAL after two clues:

"Somebody help me, please, this cable is strangling me!!"

I took that picture on our anniversary weekend, and by the end of the day Sunday, I had both clues finished and was ready for clue 3. Then came the troubles.

Well, maybe "troubles" is too strong of a word, but let's just say that I'm STILL not finished with clue 3, and the rest of the crafters are well into clue 4. Both shawls moved out of the round motif and onto a flat side in clue 3, into a bit of a...wing situation. I did manage to finish the MCAL clue, and here is what it looks like:

Sort of like the logo for the Detroit Red Wings

I still love the colors, and I have faith that as the design progresses, it will look less and less like something about to take flight, but right now it looks a bit odd. I have not been able to start clue 4 yet.

As for the knit version:

*crickets*

It's fine, it's just that it feels like the rounds of knitting in clue 3 may never end, and I will knit, and knit, and knit this lace pattern well into the next decade of my life. I was a bit intimidated by the start of clue 3 because the design calls for you to put a bunch of stitches onto waste yarn, and I was all scared to do that for fear that several stitches would take advantage of the situation to jump ship and nefariously drop their way down, ruining my lace work. I managed it all fine though, and began to knit, but there are something like 96 rows of knitting in this clue alone. I mean, I know that we're now knitting significantly less stitches than we were before, but I still feel like crying every time I pick this thing back up, look at the pattern, and find that I'm STILL on row 15. Wasn't I on row *19* the last time I worked on this? Am I actually moving *backwards*?! It's just seeming absolutely endless to me, and clue 4 is not even in sight:

"Ahoy out there, Clue 4! We're coming to get you! It'll just be another...week or two!"

In a development that seemed to be originating from the very pits of Satan's Knitting Realm, I found a mistake in my lace last night, and had to unknit stitches to fix it and align my stitch count again. Why yes, I am IN FACT GOING BACKWARDS, just as I suspected.

*glares*

I was able to fix it with just a bit of improvisation ("What the *&$! How is there *still* one extra stitch?! Forget it, I'm knitting 2 together and moving on with my life"), the lace looks fine, and my stitch count is now correct. So I'm on row 19 again.

Why God, Why?!

I'm getting a bit sick of this winged shawl at this point, but I'm slogging on. I've just come to the conclusion that I will be behind in the MKAL and I'm going to have to live with it. I don't have to like it, but I do have to live with it. Ugh.

How are your shawls going, dear knitters? I need a knitting pick-me-up, so please write in and regale me with your amusing tales. ;-)

Downton Abbey craft-along progress...This is supposed to be *relaxing*, right?!

Well HELLO to all you gals and guys out there in Blog Reading Land! I'm so glad that you're here! I thought the time was right for a crafty post, and so here we are, crafting along together. :)

This has been rather a busy week, and in terms of knitting and crocheting, I am WAY behind. But let's ignore that little tidbit for the time being. Last Sunday hearkened the start of the annual Downton Abbey mystery knit- and crochet-along and like the Type A Eager Beaver that I am, I downloaded the first clue right away and started knitting.

*spoiler alert! If you're doing the MKAL or MCAL and don't want to see progress photos, skip this post :)*

So, the way that this works is that each Sunday morning, a clue comes out with a portion of the pattern. We do know that the finished items will be shawls, but not how the designs will look. This continues throughout the season of Downton Abbey, with the final clue being released for the finale.

I decided to start with the knit shawl and leave the crochet clue for later in the week. I excitedly get my wound yarn and needles and look at the pattern: it calls for a heretofore unknown to me cast on method devised by some woman named Emily Ocker. It's a method of casting on in the round using a small amount of stitches, whereby you create a ring that can be pulled together later, creating a nice, small, non-gappy circle. That all sounds super efficient and lovely, right?

Well. :) Casting onto double pointed needles with just a few stitches on each needle creates...let's just say A NEAR OCCASION OF SIN. The needles are flopping every which way, stitches are sliding off of needles such that I have to start over, all the way back to the ring, I can't discern which needle even comes next in the circle and if it's facing the right direction...I have to re-start the thing multiple times, and by the third or fourth try, I'm pretty punchy. I'm thinking very uncharitable thoughts about this nefarious Emily Ocker, who has so obviously created a device of torture for knitters. Over on the Ravelry discussion board for the knit-along, people are dramatically declaring that they have given up and are electronically flouncing off. I'm far too stubborn to give up, but I'm certainly not happy about it.

I finally manage to get through the first few rounds by holding the needles taut in place using an octopus-like hand configuration and then things get a tad steadier. I knit and increase for about 10 rounds, cautiously optimistic about my future shawl. Then I pull on the yarn tail, which allegedly will close up my ring, and give me a beautiful center to the lace motif. Nothing happens.

*censored*

Let's just say that that wasn't a good moment and leave it at that. Mike had to gently intervene, coaxing me to put the knitting down and not rip it from the needles. Then I pretended to be totally calm and over it, before sneaking off with my phone to frantically text my friend Stacy, who is also participating in the knit-along. She texted me off the ledge, convincing me to leave it on the needles for her to look at in the morning.

Over lunch the next day, Stacy and I figured out a way to pull up a different loop from the original ring and pull it *mostly* taut. It wasn't the way it was supposed to work, I had clearly done something wrong all the way back at the evil, Satan-spawned cast on, but it worked, and so I didn't have to start over and risk losing what is left of my mind. After that, I finished the rest of clue 1 without incident, thankfully:

At least it's done

It's a scrunchy photo, to be sure, but as you can see it has a nice lacy look, and I'm wondering if the final design will be a pi shawl. We will soon find out.

Around mid-week, I started in on the crochet clue. This one generally went better, although I will say that this is not a beginner-level pattern. It's definitely intermediate, and the directions were difficult to follow. The message boards had lots of back-and-forth with the designer to decipher the pattern language, and there was even an update provided to the pattern to clarify things better. I was rather glad that the dust had settled somewhat before I picked this one up. I also switched my yarn choice from a solid teal color to a variegated autumn colorway, and I really love the result:

One can never have too many autumn hues in their wardrobe...

Right now it looks like a budding granny square, yes indeed, but I'm very fond of it. It looks like in clue 2 we may go asymmetrical, so excitement is in store! If you're a crochet nerd, that is. ;-)

I've started in on clue 2 for the knit version, and it's going well, albeit slowly because I have little time to work on it this week. I will post updates as the shawls progress!

How about you, dear reader? Are you working on either of these shawls? Write in and let me know how it's going. :)

Tea Time with Tiffany #29 - Merry Christmas! Looking forward to fun new adventures in the new year...

Hi all! This is a very special Merry Christmas episode of:

Yay! Today I talk about Christmas staycation plans, a holiday craft update with show and tell, the Downton Abbey knit-along, and excitement about the coming new year. Oh, and my Thomas Kinkade chiming clock started playing a Christmas carol right in the middle of the video, AND this was already a re-shoot because my webcam was doing that weird, annoying color flickering thing on the first take. Such is the way of things when you don't know what you are doing.


Items mentioned in this episode:

• 2015 was a great year, and I look forward to only more goodness in 2016!
• My troupe has new dance costumes. :0 Expect lots of excited squealing and frantic bead repair in the new year!
• Downton Abbey Mystery knit-along and crochet-along.
• Holiday crafting update.

What are your Christmas and New Years plans, dear reader? Tell me all about it in the comments. I'll be on blogging hiatus through the holidays, but rest assured that I will be with you again on the afternoon of January 4th. Until then, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

A final holiday knitting update, & book club plans!

Well, it's officially three days before Christmas. I have been knitting and crocheting myself ragged, and yet I realized weeks ago that there was no way in tarnation I was going to finish all of the holiday crafting I had originally planned. Such is the way of things in the life of overambitious knitters. I DID finish 2 pairs of socks, plus a boatload of dishcloths for various aunts. I also finished a commissioned colorwork hat for Allison:

Free pattern is Sanpo

In these final days, I currently have various and sundry cat body parts stuffed into my knitting bag as I frantically crochet them in preparation for assembly tomorrow (hopefully). I *think* I'll have her finished for Anne on Christmas morning. I also have a sock for Henry that I'm about to start the gusset for for. Yes, you noticed correctly that I used a singular there :0, so there is no way I'll have the pair finished for him by Christmas, but I'm aiming to complete them well before the new year.

After that, I have another of socks and two infinity cowls to knit for gifts. And poor long suffering Mike's cable tweed sweater. Oh, oh! And in January comes the Downton Abbey Mystery Knit-along! And Crochet-along! I am doing both, because I am stupid and always like to take on more than I can handle, you know this about me by now. So my goal is to finish as many of these gifts as I can by early January, and then allow myself a reprieve to work on mystery shawls. Are any of you crafters out there going to be participating in any of the Downton Abbey mystery alongs? Do let me know!

In book club news, I have come up with a plan. I don't want to assign dates in advance for books anymore, because I sometimes just cannot make my own deadlines. Big surprise, right? ;-) So, what I'm going to do is keep up on the sidebar the Catholic Book Club Reading List. They will be in some semblance of order in terms of when I'll review them. When I've started reading one, and thus can schedule a date for review, I will add it up there so that you'll know specifics if you'd like to be sure and finish with a certain title prior to my review, so that you can participate in the comments. A few readers mentioned that they use my book club list as a way of forming their own To Read list, and I think this system will still aid them. And it has the added benefit of not stressing me out if I have a slow month of reading.

I'm also going to have secular titles on there sometimes. Rest assured that these will be wholesome secular titles, most likely non-Catholic inspirational fiction, or non-fiction having to do with dancing, crafting, family life or another topic that I enjoy and frequently write about on this blog. We're Catholic, but we read all sorts of books, right? I'm a huge fan of biographies, so those may pop up from time to time. Sound good? I would love to hear your thoughts on this now that I'm fleshed it out a bit more.

I'll be back with a short video message tomorrow. Until then, enjoy these final days of Advent!

Our Downton Abbey obsession

That's the start of my Lady Edith Shawl, very much still on the needles. I work on it diligently each night as we re-watch Seasons 1 and 2 of what may be our favorite show of all time, Downton Abbey. It's taking quite a while, but I don't mind. Come spring, I'll have a lovely new shawl.

I'm also still doing the mystery knit-along, and after this week I think we'll have the first glove done. I can post a picture after that. :) Mike is all confused:

"If it's a mystery, how come you know what you're knitting?"

Which is indeed a very good question, no?

I too was a hair disappointed to know what we were knitting from the very first clue, but the designer needed to give a lot of sizing information up front so that everyone would be happy with the way their finished item fit. And man oh man, I can see why.

Ravelry has been abuzz about this knit-along, with lots of demanding knitters wanting additional clues and help along the way. From requests for how to knit both gloves at the same time, to critiques about how the lace pattern is working up on the suggested variegated yarn, the designer has been shepherding quite an opinionated group. Before we knew that our mystery item was gauntlets, I was amused by a few people who posted that they would NOT be participating if the mystery item was _____ (fill in the blank). A purse, a hat, you name it. If there was even a possibility that it was one of those things, they weren't knitting it. They were taking their needles and playing elsewhere.

I mean, really. This is a *knit-along*. Let's not take ourselves too seriously. As well, it IS supposed to be a mystery, that's part of the fun. If you're not willing to live dangerously, then this is not the project for you.

At any rate, the end design is the only mystery that remains at this point, but I'm enjoying it very much all the same. And the show.

*swoons*

I love this show. And their hats!!! My God, the hats. I wish women still wore hats like that. The music, the clothing, the plots, everything is just so SWEEPING on that show. I'm so, so enjoying it.

We have not started watching Season 3 (so no spoilers!). We pre-ordered the DVD's from Amazon and they ship out on Tuesday. Then we'll savor each episode at our very own pace. Plus, we're usually asleep between 9 and 10 pm on Sundays nights, which is when the show actually airs. The children have drained the life out of us by that point.

We're nearly done with Season 2. I have belly dance tonight, so no Downton. We plan to watch the final episode, the Christmas special, tomorrow night.

*pulse races*

Too tired to come up with witty title

I mean, I could have called this post "Elbows in my sternum" or "Knees in my diaphragm" but it's too depressing to focus on the endless stretch to which I was awake last night with my daughter (nearly 4 hours, not that I'm counting). It was one of those nights in which I just hit rock bottom. There were tears (mine), there were angry denials of juice, there was much body contorting and tantruming, and overall there was much sleep deprivation.

BUT, we had a nice morning, and I'm trying to focus on the positive. I can't help but amuse myself by thinking what the world would be like if we all never matured and consequently handled being upset or in distress the way toddlers do. For instance, I'm not feeling good at work today. I thus:

(1) Throw my coffee cup at somebody during a meeting;

(2) Refuse to sit down and bow my body over the chair, screaming;

(3) Deliberately refuse to make eye contact with someone who is talking to me;

(4) Interrupt anybody at anytime to demand a snack and some milk; refuse to take no for answer;

(5) Go out into the lobby and cry continually from my perch in a heap on the floor.

It would be interesting.

At any rate, we're focusing on the positive, no? To the extent that I can stay awake to do so, that is. I have belly dance tonight, and I just hope that I can make it through class without collapsing. That is my prayer.

In other news, Mike and I have started re-watching Downton Abbey from Season 1, as we await our pre-ordered Season 3 DVD's from Amazon. They are released in late January every year, and we have found that we prefer to patiently await them rather than watching the episodes as they air.

So each night after our volatile little Anne is safely tucked into her crib for the night, we play a board game with Henry, and await the real fun that is to come. Henry goes to bed. We turn on Downton Abbey.

I just love this show, and the Jimmy Beans Wool Mystery Knit-along is based on my absolute favorite character, Lady Violet. We received our first clue last weekend, and uncovered that we are going to be knitting Lady Violet's Dinner Gauntlets. As we started the first 2 episodes of Downton, I worked on my gauntlets. They feature a lovely "rosebud lace" panel and are going to have a ruched feature with either a ribbon or laces of some kind. We shall see. After I finished clue #1, I moved on to my Lady Edith shawl, which was designed by KnitPurlGurl Karrie, who I mentioned passed away around Thanksgiving. It's just a gorgeous pattern, this is what the finished product will look like:

The yarn that I chose is also a solid spring green. I wanted to knit this in memory of Karrie, and I wanted to use the same color that she did. This works out perfectly with my annual January - May addiction to any and all spring colors. I absolutely love the pattern, well done Karrie! I've never enjoyed knitting a shawl this much. The edging is this beautiful leaf lace, I can't wait to wear it!

And somehow, I'm now knitting *2* Downton Abbey related projects while watching the show.

NERD.

But it makes me happy. And I need something to lift my spirits given the nights that we've been having. Here's hoping for a good weekend.

"What is a week-end?"

I just love her!

Of painful weekends and Mystery Knit-alongs...

Well, I'm alive. I think that after the weekend I just had, that's the good news. Let's get started...

Saturday was good. All was normal, Mike and I went out to dinner to celebrate our 8th anniversary (actual date is Tuesday). Then I woke up on Sunday. Hank comes downstairs crying.

And so it begins...

Hank is sick. His head and stomach hurt, he says, plus he's cold and his "whole body feels weird." We tuck him into the couch with an afghan and some juice. Anne meanwhile, hasn't slept well at night nor napped well in days, and it's clear that she's once again teething due to her drooly ways and consequent stinky sleepers. She begins a reign of terror that lasts from the moment she awakes at *5:40 am* until 6:30 pm, when we literally couldn't take it another moment, and shipped her up to bed. Besides when she napped, all she did ALL DAY LONG was the following:

(1) Screamed;

(2) Cried;

(3) Threw self on floor;

(4) Asked for things (like a cup of milk, or some cheese) and then when handed aforementioned item, threw them down violently; broken up only by some

(5) Whining.

At one point, I offered her one of her favorite books, and do you know what she did?

She made A DISMISSIVE SOUND and TURNED HER BACK ON ME!  Attitude was positively *oozing* from every pore. It was just one of those days in which you wonder who replaced your sweet, loving toddler with this feral, demon child.

It was ugly.

Anyway, I don't know when I've ever heard so much crying for such a long period of time, ever.  Over the din, I was telling Mike that for me, hell would be listening to a baby cry on a non-stop repeat forever and ever. It makes me so anxious to hear a continually crying baby, I just want to jump out of my own skin. For Mike, we agreed that hell for him would be being strapped down and for ALL ETERNITY and being forced to watch full volume reruns of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. But I digress.

All this fun and I haven't even finished chronicling the day yet.

The highlight of the day was definitely Mass, and the feast of the Epiphany. Henry was too sick to accompany so, so I sadly went alone. He was looking forward to seeing the wise men arrive at the nativity scene from their perch of traveling across the altar for the past couple of weeks. I went up to the nativity so that I could take mental notes and describe it to Hank when I got home. The wise men looked lovely in their gold robes.

And the Epiphany has always been special to me. I read in a "Name Your Baby a Saint Name!" book years ago that Tiffany is derived from Epiphana, so therefore I consider my name a Catholic name; it makes me happy, so humor me.

After I arrived home and had lunch however, the day took yet another turn. I was really tired from being up with Anne, but I felt kind of weak. Chilled. Achey. Uh oh...

Suddenly, I felt lousy. I was so cold I could barely function and it hurt to lift Anne or generally cavort about the house. I had zero appetite.

I was miserable. I felt absolutely awful and there was no rest for the weary. Anne's screaming did not cease for a sick mom. Mike was doing all of the heavy lifting with regard to the kids but it's not like I could relax with Anne's antics reverberating through the house. It was a LONG day.

By the time she fell asleep in my arms before 7 pm I couldn't believe that I had made it. I was in bed before 9 pm. Good riddance on that one.

This morning, I had a fever rash (I get these all the time after I'm sick, real attractive) and had lost 3 pounds.  I'm just glad that that is over.

But in exciting news, the Downton Abbey Mystery Knit-along started yesterday, the first clue has been posted! I've taken a look at it, but I have not knit it yet. It appears that we are knitting gauntlets (what I would call long fingerless gloves). There is a provisional crochet cast-on, which I've never done before, and a lace panel in the first clue. I'm a bit intimidated, but can't wait to dive in later today!

Excitement with yarn

As I've mentioned several times on this blog, I love Knit Picks for my knitting and crochet supplies. I have multiple sets of interchangeable knitting needle tips and cables from them, I bought their new wood crochet hooks (and love them!), and I buy most of my yarn from them. They have lots of selection of workhorse natural fibers (wool, alpaca, cotton), and some luxury blends to indulge in on occasion, for very reasonable prices. I know that I get more for my money with them than if I shopped in other places. When I need yarn or needles (which seems to be at least once every other month), I turn to Knit Picks. They have very friendly customer service, and our relationship is quite loving. I participate in the Knit Picks Lovers board on Ravelry. I recommend them to others. I'm rather wedded to them.

However, I have a hidden yarn secret: somewhat regularly, I have an illicit affair with Jimmy Beans Wool.

Jimmy's yarn is pricier than Knit Picks, but I was drawn to him because of a discounted Namaste knitting bag he had in stock. I bought the bag, and found that every purchase you make with Jimmy Beans gets you 5% back in store credit that you can use during the next quarter. And their customer service? Out of this world. I mean, SAINTS can't be as nice as these people, and their shipping speed is verging on the very wings of angels. Then I saw that they had that London 2012 colorway in their Lorna's Laces sock yarn and I ordered a skein, to commemorate my first successful Ravellenic Games.  Yes, it costs twice as much as I normally pay for yarn, but everybody deserves a little splurge sometimes. Suddenly, I had a little stockpile of store credit and a free shipping code to use from October until the end of December.

And oh, oh Jimmy. Seducing me with your limited edition colorways every month in the Lorna's Laces yarn, that is most unkind of you. I felt like I was sneaking around every month checking on the new color to see if I liked it. Several were pretty, but I wasn't tempted. Until last Friday.

I'm innocently scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed. Suddenly, via my friendship with Jimmy's Lorna's Laces limited edition fan club, I see December's colorway. It's called "Christmas at Downton."

*keyboard activity ceases*

*brain function comes to a screeching halt*

CHRISTMAS AT DOWNTON?! I *LOVE* Downton Abbey!!! It's one of Mike's and my absolute favorite shows. And the third season begins airing in the U.S. right around our anniversary in January.*heart*

It was meant to be. I considered the sock yarn, but let's be honest. I already own A LOT of sock yarn that still needs to be knitted up into warm and comfy socks. I looked through some patterns on Ravelry and justified a skein of the worsted weight so that I can make a hooded cowl for myself. Doesn't that sound cozy for a winter project? And with my store credit and the free shipping, it was only $16. I mean, it would have been a sin to not get the yarn and let that credit go to waste.

So I ordered the worsted on Friday. And Jimmy, with his wonderful speedy shipping, had my yarn on my doorstep by Monday afternoon (and it was coming from Reno, NV!). Didn't I tell you that he is wonderful?

The colorway is *beautiful*. Pleased as punch, I tucked my new yarn into my stash to pick up again after I finish Christmas knitting.

And then came yesterday. I'm innocently (ah hem) looking for a pattern on Ravelry when I notice on the "Hot Right Now" list the following:

"Downton Abbey Mystery KAL (knit-along) with Jimmy Beans Wool."

*eyes widen*

How could I not click on that? I click on it.

Starting on January 6th, Downton's premiere date, Jimmy is hosting a mystery knit-along in which participants will receive a clue each week and knit a project together, the final product of which is a mystery until the very end. The recommended yarn is of course some of the "Christmas in Downton" colorway in a sport weight.

A mystery KAL?

*Hallelujah chorus*

I DREAM (quite literally) of good knit-alongs. I MUST DO THIS. My dignity as a knitter requires that I take part in this blessed event. There's just 1 problem.

I have no sport weight yarn.

Well, ok, that's not *completely* true. I have a few skeins of sport weight yarn, but they are ear marked for other projects. It's not like worsted weight, or sock yarn, which I have an abundance of in my (very reasonably sized, that's my story and I'm sticking to it) stash.

What to do, what to do...

Somehow, it was all a blur I can't remember the details, the "Christmas in Downton" Sportmate yarn that the KAL mentions jumped into my cart. I swear I don't know how it happened. 1 skein is $24.50.

*cringes*

But you see, Jimmy, with his smooth talking ways, was already working on me. You only need 1 skein to make the mystery item, he whispers in my ear, and if you can get free shipping...

I'm on the email list to my knitting group in seconds. Anybody want to take part in the Mystery KAL, I ask? There's a brief silence, and then a flurry of happy responses. Anybody want to order the yarn?

There was some negotiation involving consideration of existing stash yarn, but Jimmy worked his wiles with them as well. Next thing you knew, everybody was in for a skein of Sportmate and together we had free shipping.

The yarn is actually out of stock, but is on order. Jimmy wrote right back to me to tell me he was sorry that he didn't have the yarn ready to ship out immediately, but that it would arrive in 1-2 weeks. He thanked me for my patience. We sent Jimmy a kiss.

It will arrive in plenty of time for the KAL, and meanwhile excitement is building in my knitting group.

This is the most fabulous development in my knitting life since the Ravellenic Games. I AM RIDICULOUSLY EXCITED. So expect lots of Downton Abbey and knit-along talk this January and February. I'm just lettin' you know now. I'll keep you posted every step of the way.

Karen, want to join us? *evil smile*