Almost Finished With Hayden's Pants

Here is a pic of the pants (don't look at the stains on the desk calendar. I eat my lunch here. What a slob!!). I can see where I knit instead of purled and vice versa. However, the Patons, Be Mine yarn is so fuzzy, it would have been tough for me to rip back and redo the parts where I messed up. Hayden doesn't mind. I have learned a lesson...use a yarn that isn't so fuzzy to learn new stitches(stockinette and ribbing).

The pattern adds a pull string to keep the pants up. I am going to get some elastic and sew it in. I don't like pull strings, especially on babies. Furthermore, I am thinking of picking up the stitches at the bottom of the legs and adding 'feet'. It has been cold lately and I hate how most pants the little guy wears ride up his leg, leaving his calves cold. However, as soon as I put the elastic in, I will deem this project complete. If I wish to add 'feet', I will call it another project. Yes. I am the type who will not move onto another project while one is still incomplete. I fear that if I do, I will have many incomplete projects which, I will NEVER complete.

We Have Bind-off!!!

I can't believe it. On Thursday at lunch, I started to bind-off Hayden's pants. I am so excited! I have been pretty busy as I am sure everyone has because of Christmas. Thursday evening was our Christmas party. It was at an Italian restaurant. The owner is very Italian. I am Italian. Another Salesperson is not Italian but he goes to the Colombo Club. Dh and I had prime rib. The restaurant only gave us a few choices for the dinner which is a shame because their pasta dishes are awesome. However, their hors d’ oeuvres were delicious. They included breaded zucchini, baked raviolis and calamari. Oooh!! I love that place. The restaurant has a bar and whenever he went to smoke these older barfly ladies followed him and talked ‘amongst themselves’ about sexual things then looked at my husband and giggled. I think they were hoping he was interested. It was funny but not. He made fun of them when he described them to me. I felt sorry for them.

Dh and I did our Christmas shopping for the boys yesterday afternoon. Now we have to figure out how we can get the time to wrap the gifts without the boys interrupting. I wonder what their Grandma is doing? Maybe we will stay up late and wrap. However, last night we laid down with the boys and tried to get them to sleep so we could get up and watch a Lord of the Rings but that didn’t work. We fell asleep.

Time to go. The boys want my attention.

Manners

I live in the Bay Area in Northern California and have my entire life. My commute time is double what it would be if there wasn’t any traffic. I don’t go far so it is not too bad. However, the people are so nasty here. Last night, while driving home, I took a different route for I had to go to the mall. En route there is a stop sign that usually backs up traffic. In the traffic area there is a driveway to a social services office. I stopped and let someone go at one driveway. That person waived and I waived back, as I usually do. At the next driveway, I let that person in. She did not waive nor acknowledge me. I ALWAYS waive when someone is kind enough to stop and let me in. I also usually mouth the word “Thank you”, smile and/or nod. That is just the way I am. Anyway, back to my story. I entered the department store and got in line to get a gift certificate. At the front of the line was a boy holding some clothes. His father was still shopping in the area. When it was the father’s turn, rather than take four steps to the next clothes rack and put a shirt he had in his hand back in it’s place, he just put it on the rack right next to him. I hate it when people do that. As I stood in line, my shoulder was bumped. I looked over and a lady and her daughter walked by. The lady bumped me. I wanted to say, “Hello. You are excused”. When I have to pass someone and I enter their ‘personal space’ or if I have to pass in front of someone who is looking at something. I ALWAYS say ‘excuse me’. I finished my business and exited the store. I saw a Toyota key on the ground. Someone is going to be in for a surprise when they try to get in their car. I picked it up and went into the store. I went back to the cashier who helped me, who was with another customer. I said, “Excuse me, I don’t mean to interrupt, but I found this on the ground outside.” She thanked me and I left. The closest exit from the parking lot onto the street I wanted was near a busy intersection. It is hard to get across the lane that goes straight and get into the left turning lane. There were a couple of cars sitting at the parking lot exit and I knew that the only way to get into the left turning lane was if people in that lane stopped and let us go. Hence, I took the extra ONE-MINUTE to go to the exit in which there was a stoplight. I got into the turning lane to turn left. It is a busy lane because it takes one to the freeway entrance and backs up pretty far. There were a couple of cars sitting at one of the exits from the parking lot, which I came (I think they were the ones I saw as I was making the decision to go to the exit with the stop light). I let BOTH cars in. I don’t know if they waived because I was looking around. A minivan in the right lane (which goes straight) was sitting with a turn signal on. There was a black Honda behind it without a turn signal. When the traffic moved up, nobody let it in (usually that lane has ‘cheaters’ in it. They try to bypass some of the backup by going into the lane that goes straight and jumping into the left turning lane). Therefore, I let this person in and proceeded to accelerate. All of a sudden the black Honda entered my lane. It scared me, I gasped and hit my brakes. Had I not hit my brakes, I would have hit him. Note: I drive an EXPEDITION, he a HONDA. You can say it is the holidays, but it is normally like this here. I was at Toys R Us the other day and a little boy was pushing a shopping cart in front of the store. His father and other siblings were about 20 feet away and still walking. The boy let go of the shopping cart and it rolled into the parking lot lane and stopped. Luckily, there were no cars going by. I gave the father a look as he turned around to see where his son was. He proceeded to scold his child. However, he kept walking and made no attempt to retrieve the cart out of the lane. I went out and got it so the cars wouldn’t have to drive around it. What is up with our society? Where are the manners? People are just so nasty. Everyone can’t be like this. I am not. Being someone who doesn’t travel much or even leave the Bay Area for that matter, I haven’t experienced other places with other people. However, I have a girlfriend who moved to Chico, California. A couple of years ago I drove out there to visit her. I was utterly amazed at the people’s behavior. They stopped at the stop signs and actually waited their turn!! People did not drive like jerks! The atmosphere was so comfortable. I knew then that there are other places where people are not so creepy! Where people have manners! Right then and there I resolved to move out of the Bay Area and move to a place like that (when I can afford it).

When my son gets older I am going to have to explain some things to him. You see. He is only 2 ½ and is VERY polite. He says ‘please’, ‘thank you’, ‘you’re welcome’ and ‘blesses' people (and his baby brother) when he hears a sneeze. He expects people to do the same for him. I am going to have to explain that although we have manners, most people do not (at least not here in the Bay Area). Then maybe it won’t disappoint or frustrate him as it does to me.

Lord of the Rings

I cleaned house on Saturday, as usual. Then Hunter and I wrapped gifts (actually he helped tape and wherever he could) while Hayden bounced around in his jumper. It was fun. Hunter loved it. He tries to be so helpful. In the evenings, he pushes a chair over to the counter in the kitchen and helps me make dinner. He also enjoys making his Daddy's sandwich for lunch the next day. He is so sweet. Hayden is making more noises. He tries to talk. I love being a Mom.

We haven't gotten gifts for the children yet. We had been waiting for Chrismas bonuses from our employers. I am almost finished with shopping for everyone else on my list. I guess I had better make a stop on the way home tonight so I could cross more names off of my list.

I did not knit any Chrismas gifts this year. With the boys, I hadn't had time.

I didn't get much knitting done this weekend. I have become obsessed with watching the Lord of the Rings triology. It was so interesting that I couldn't knit and watch at the same time. I saw the part of third one on TV and wanted more. Odd. My husband has all of the movies and I have watched bits and pieces of the first two a few times. I just never was too interested. Now, I want to watch all of them. I watched most of the first one while the boys were napping. There is a part where I could swear one character told another that he was smoking too much of the Hobbit's weed. I couldn't believe it. I mentioned it to my husband the other night and he doesn't believe me. Now, I must find that part and play it for him.

My Job

Yesterday I was able to knit at lunch for about 35 minutes!! Woo!! Hoo!! I am now up to the waist band of little Hayden's pants. Yes!! I am hoping to finish maybe by the end of next week?! I can't wait to post a picture the finished product. You know, I have all of these ideas for plus sized clothing and I just don't have the time to even research and learn how to knit them. Most of the plus sized patters are so boring (with of course, the exception of White Lies Designs). Us big girls want to have style too!! Anyway, sometimes, when I have an idea, I draw a picture of it. Although, my drawing sucks, when I look at the pic, it reminds my brain of the picture it had when I drew it (did I confuse you?).

My job is easy. I do my 8 hours and go home. No overtime, no stress. It is just easy. I went from Business Manager to Bookkeeper. This work is hurting my ego and with two kids in daycare, definately hurting the pocketbook!!! I know. I know. The kids are too little to get a salaried job with stress and overtime. But I miss the pay, the feel that I am doing something really important, and the action. Here, I am the low man on the totem pole and unless I am related to one of the owners I don't get paid $*&t. I know that this is only temporary. When the boys are older I would like to do taxes or maybe become a CPA. When I got preg. with Hunter I was working on an MBA. This brings me to another thing. I was more content with my job until I started seeing how if you are related to one of the three owners, you don't really get raises and are underpaid. We have 8 people here and three are owners, two are sons of owners, and three of us are unrelated. The President's son has been promoted to 'outside sales' which means he basically gets paid good money to sit here and surf the web most of the day. He makes more than anyone here who is not an owner. Don't get me wrong. He is a good kid and wants to work. I can tell by some of the things he does, he does not like being treated differently than the rest of us. Then you have the other owner's son. He makes what I make. However, I feel bad for him because I feel that he should at least be making what the Presidents son made before becoming an 'Outside Salesman'. I guess I should quit complaining. I know darn well that at other jobs if it isn't relatives, it is favorites and he who kisses ass most eloquently is favored. I hate job politics. I am too much of a geek to be cool. I just like to work hard, be good at what I do, and get paid good money. I get great pleasure from that. As a Business Manager, even though it was a high stress job with crazy hours and sometimes awful travel time (I was once tranferred to a job site in Lincoln for 9 months until it was complete. The commute was 1 hr 45 min each way! I recall getting home at 11 pm some nights), I looked forward to going to work. I even worked 45-70 hours a week WHILE GOING TO SCHOOL AT NIGHT! Okay, I must have really liked my job to do that!!! I just want to go to my office and work and be rewarded for the good I do and the hard work I put in.

Stupid Day

Do you ever notice that when you are totally busy at work, stupid people from other companies call and ask stupid questions? It is like they have some sort of radar which tells them when to irritate you most. It is like they are bored or something and try to be as stupid as possible so that they can waste as much of your time as they possibly can. Maybe they enjoy irritating people with their stupidity. Maybe they are just so dumb that they need to call others to get some instruction as to what they are doing and how to do it so they can feel that they are accomplishing something at work. Who knows. I know that I was bombarded with stupidity today and it was my job to let them know (subtly and gently in some cases) how stupid they are being. Note: I am the 'Accounting Department' at this company.

I didnt get to do much knitting today. I think I knit for 5 minutes. I spent most of my lunch obsessively reading in a blog called Crazy Aunt Purl. She is so funny. She is great. It inspires me to actually have a sense of humor again, instead of being....so darn serious. I used to be sort of funny. What happened?

Sad Eyes

Our day care provider took Friday, the 8th through the 17th off. I stayed home with the boys on Friday. I woke up early and cleaned house. I had hoped to get some knitting done this weekend. Good thing I stayed home with the boys. Hunter was tossing and turning during nap time. He told me that his ear hurt. By the afternoon, he was running a fever. It is so sad when a little one is sick. He would look at me with those big brown eyes, his bottom lip curled, and tears streaming down his face. I get misty just thinking about it. He threw up a couple of times. He just wanted to sleep and have Mommy hold him. Before Hayden, I would spend a good portion of the day just holding him while reading books while he was sick. I can't do that now. My poor baby. We took him to the doctor Saturday morning (I am so glad Kaiser has appointments on Saturdays). He has an ear infection. We gave him some of the prescribed antiobiotics and come Sunday, he was almost back to his normal self. He still intermittently ran a fever. His Grandma took this week off to babysit them and the timing is perfect. Grandma will take care of him.

Sunday, my husband, who usually doesn't open up to me about these sort of things, told me that he had nightmares about Hunter. He was afraid of losing him and had anxiety nightmares. He told me that he worried about Hunter all weekend. I didn't realize that it was tough for him also. I respect him more for sharing with me.

I did not knit this weekend. I did not knit today, on my lunchbreak. I had to go to the store.

My Current WIP-Hayden's Pants

I am working on the pants slowly but surely. After I finish this post, I will knit away!!!

The 'knot' at the bottom of the picture is actually a tie from a bread bag with the ends wrapped around it to keep them from annoying me. I read this little tip somewhere. The stitch marker is custom made by myself! The circulars are Denise circulars.

Alrighty, now I shall knit!!!

Hunter's Hat

This is my third FO. Before I was pregnant with Hunter, my family planned a trip to Italy. When I found out I was pregnant, I knew I could not go on the trip for it would have been a few months after I had the baby. Hence, I stayed home. It is a shame too because I am Italian and ALWAYS wanted to go. My Mother went to a yarn shop while visiting. She purchased this wonderful Italian yarn. This picture does not do the yarn justice. The colors are beautiful and the yarn is very nice. I can't remember the manufacturer. When I do, I will post it here.

Cicular Knitting

I was able to knit for about 20 mins today, on my lunchbreak. I am so enjoying knitting on circulars. Knitting continental style on circulars is cool!!! I am learning to knit fast (at least fast as compared to how I was knitting). I love it!! I need to post a picture of my WIP.

The bank lets me skip a car payment every December (they just tack it onto the end) so I ordered two books a couple of days ago. They arrived early. I received Knitting on the Edge: Ribs, Ruffles, Lace, Fringes, Floral, Points & Picots: The Essential Collection of 350 Decorative Borders and Big Book of Knitting Stitch Patterns. I was able to look through the books while nursing Hayden at various times last night. At least while nursing, I have to sit there so I get to look through books and magazines. Sometimes it bothers Hayden. But mostly, I get to do it.

First Weekend of December

Ahhhh!! I put the babies to bed and my dh and I stayed up late Saturday evening to watch Van Helsing (Hugh Jackman is very good looking). I was able to knit for about an hour. I now have both legs of Hayden's little pants on circular needles. No more stockinette stitch!!! Knitting continental style is awesome, purling is a little annoying. Furthermore, I can see on the little pants where I knit instead of purled and vice versa (give me a break, this is my first project knitting continental style and it is my first project knitting in stockinette stitch). I even used a row counter. I must have failed to count a new row here and there. I know that the cast on yarn tail could give me a clue as to where I am too. I know that if the tail is on the left, I should knit and when it is on the right, I should purl. However, I just did not pay attention. I am not going to worry about it. I am glad the pants are a little fuzzy, making my mistakes less obvious. Sunday was a good day too. I put the boys down for a nap and hung out with my husband outside. I just shoved my ball of yarn in the pocket of my sweatpants and stood around talking to my husband while knitting. I was quite proud of the fact that I was able to multitask so. =) Love those circular needles.

First FO-Hunter's Hat 2004

This was my very first project. The pattern is from the book "Knitting for Baby: 30 Heirloom Projects with Complete How-to-Knit Instructions". I love this book. I knit this while pregnant with my first child.