Am I There, Yet?

I thought I’d update my knitting projects.  My new thing is blankets.  I love making blankets.  Here are a couple more that I’ve made in the past couple of months:

O.K.  This one is not my favorite.  I actually made this baby blanket for a friend and was unhappy with how it turned out…so I didn’t give it to her.  I won’t go into all the mistakes, but thought I’d share a picture anyways. 

This one has a story behind it.  This isn’t a baby blanket, but more of a nap quilt for a friend of mine.  Here’s the short version of her story.  She’s pregnant with her third baby and found out during her 20 week ultrasound that her baby has serious heart defects.  The baby will have to undergo at least three surgeries within the first year of his life with an 85% chance of survival.  They like the 85% odds…after all 85% is better than 80%…right?  Anyways…this has been a very difficult time for them and they could use a lot of prayer.  I originally set out to make her a prayer shawl, but then decided to make her a “prayer blanket” instead.  I prayed for her while making this and the idea is that when she rests with it she’ll understand that people love her, are praying for her and that God is wrapping His arms around her.

So, that’s what I’ve been doing with my time.  Well…other than being a mom and wife and all that comes with that.  In other news, Lilly got her yellow belt today.  She’s been working towards this since Thanksgiving and is thrilled.  We took her to Build-A-Bear Workshop for her birthday last October and she “built” a husky karate dog.  Whenever she gets promoted, her dog gets a promotion.  Here they are with their new yellow belts (and missing front teeth):

Hooray…I finished it.  I’ve been working on a baby blanket for a friend of ours.  (In case you were wondering…it’s for a boy.)  I just wanted to show it off.  It was so much fun that I’m now working on one for myself.  We have several friends who are pregnant right now and it’s a great excuse to get out my knitting needles. 

Here it is:

I picked up my knitting needles again.  I’m working on a baby blanket.  Just wanted to show it off…

Here’s a close-up of the pattern:

…and it took me less than 1 week to make.  Woohoo!  That was fun.  What should I knit next?

 

I’ve been going a little stir crazy lately.  I haven’t been out of the house, with the exception of doctor’s appointments, for over a week now.  I kinda don’t mind, though.  I was in need of a break from life. 

So, I’ll bet you’ll never guess what I’ve been doing!  I’ve been knitting!  LOL!!!

I wanted to show off some of my recent projects, and since this is my blog, I get to post whatever I want.  :) 

I made a simple scarf and hat for a friend who watched my kids overnight recently:

Then I made a scarf and matching sweater for my sister-in-law and her dog.  The pic makes it look pink, but they are really made in shades of red:

Then, (these are my favorite!) I taught myself how to make some slippers.  I love these!  I made myself a purple pair, which I’m wearing right now.  And here are two more that I did:

The black and brown ones are made with thick chenille and are super soft and thick.  These were so much fun.  Anybody wanna buy a pair?  I’ll make them special order…any color.  I need to start making some money to support my knitting habit.  :)  I’m going to end up being one of those people who rents a booth at crafter’s fairs to desperately try to sell my goods so I can justify my insanity.  LOL!!! 

I was doing some random blog searches and ran across this picture from a site called UrbanAddiction.  I thought it was hilarious.  Whaddya think?  Should I go for tat #3?

I noticed that when I’m feeling a bit stressed I like to pick up my knitting.  I’ll show you the project I did today and you tell me whether or not I’m stressed. 

(It’s not finished, yet…I still need to thread a ribbon and bow through the holes in the rim.  And yes…those holes were put there purposely!)

Knitting is my drug…

I suffer with depression.  I hate it.

My depression seems to pop in with the change of seasons.  It takes awhile for me to even notice it’s there.  Usually my husband notices before I do.  For some reason, this year seemed to be especially bad.  I’ve had the hardest time kicking it in the butt with my usual tricks. 

Typically when I recognize depression I’ll consciously make an extra effort to spend time outside in the sunshine.  I’ll attempt to spend time with friends.  I give myself small tasks that give me a sense of accomplishment when I complete them.  I light candles.  I listen to uplifting music.  I watch comedies.  This may seem menial, but this is very hard to accomplish because everything in me wants to fight these things.  Everything in me wants to stay in bed and lay around in my pajamas all day. 

This year none of my usual tricks seemed to help.  My wonderful husband even surprised me with a weekend away.  He made arrangements for the kids to stay with friends and he took me to a resort nearby to just get away from the daily grind.  It did nothing to boost my spirits.

I’ve never been to the doctor to discuss this.  My mom suffers from it.  My grandma suffers from it.  My dad has never had a problem with it until this past year when cancer because a part of our lives.

I’m in a women’s small group at my church and we wanted to do a service project together so we decided to all learn how to knit and make scarves for Adopt-A-Block.  I learned how to knit as a kid, but haven’t done anything with this skill since.  Last Tuesday we all learned how to knit.  Now I couldn’t make it to small group and so a friend of mine gave me a website with videos and I re-learned how to knit.

I’m hooked!  No pun intended.  Knitting has been so therapeutic for me.  My spirits are lifted and I’m having a blast creating scarves.  I’m on my 5^th scarf and can’t wait to finish it so I can start another one.  Guess what everybody is getting for Christmas…including my brother and sister-in-law in Phoenix, AZ.   J  Just kidding!

Now if I could just figure out how to make money off of this…