Names are hard.

Well, they can be. Sometimes it's a really important naming, like when I was pregnant, and Tim and I were trying to decide on names. Naming your child is pretty important. That baby is going to carry his or her name for a lifetime.
Sometimes, it's a fun, frivolous naming, such as a particular meal that someone likes and wants to ask for easily...like when Tim dubbed one of my casseroles, "Chicken Nummies".
Sometimes, it's naming a pet...Buddy found his name because he still a kitten when I got him, and the "Papi" that his previous humans called him just did not fit. But, I was too tired to come with anything clever, so he was just "the cat" to others for weeks, and I called him "little buddy" directly...and then I realize, he was Buddy.

And then there are the times that I'm sort-of naming a pet...but it's not a pet. It's a design. My DNA Scarf was pretty easy to name, since the cable design actually looks like a double-helix. My Harvest Splendor Cowl was easy to name, since it was fall colors, and using the Wheatsheaf stitch pattern.

But the newest one? I've been calling it simply, "Ribbon Scarf", since it looks like an awareness ribbon. That doesn't seem quite accurate, though. Neither does "basketweave scarf" or "toddler scarf".

Oh, I remembered why I chose pink yarn now.

Anyway, I still need to re-shoot the photos.

Another Sneak Peek

I've been working on this scarf pattern for a while. The hardest part, putting the directions into words, is done. Right now I'm working on a simple chart for it, and crocheting another sample.

Yes, in pink.
Why pink? I'm not entirely sure; while I know that something must have influenced the decision to order a single skein of pink yarn, I cannot recall what that was. (I did order it over a year ago.)
Anyway, once the second sample is done, and the chart is finished, I'll just need to take decent photographs, and then we'll be into the pattern-testing phase.
Ok, now that I've seen the "to-do" list typed up, it seems a little further away than I thought. That's ok, though. We'll get there in the end.

posted from Bloggeroid

What I'm working on...

I have a few projects I'm working on at the moment, a few of which are actual patterns that will actually be published this year. I just need to kick my butt into gear every now and then.

Hey, remember how I mentioned that one of my patterns will be included in a print book? Funny enough, Amazon keeps sending me "you might be interested in..." links for the book. Anyway, the book is Crochet One-Skein Wonders for Babies, and my contribution is a toddler hat. The hat has a matching cowl, which isn't included in the book, but I'll be self-publishing that one this spring.
I really wish I had a picture of it to show you, but I don't. The submissions were sent out just as we were leaving Japan, and for some reason I didn't think to snap a picture before sealing the mailer and dropping it in the box. (Yes, I absolutely did think about it within minutes of leaving the post office. Whoops.)

I have two scarf patterns I'm working on, too. One is mostly completed, and should hit testing soon. The other...I love, but...wow am I fighting to put directions into words. It's a challenge, to be certain.  (But a fun one. I get a thrill every time I finish writing for the day.)

Here's a sneak peak of the scarves:

Slugging along into the new year

I don't like making resolutions for the new year. I seldom meet them, and it's kind of depressing when I get to December and realize, " Yep, failed at that, failed at that, might have made that one if I hadn't done this instead..."
So instead I just think about what good stuff is going to happen this year.

2016 is a leap year! And it's the year of the Monkey - so was 1980, the year I was born. So this should be an auspicious year for me.

Of course, when the first hours of the new year are spent trying to console this guy
because his first tooth is trying to erupt, it can be hard to see the good stuff. (Two days later and it's barely broken through.)

But, still, there's a lot to look forward to. Such as, Clinton

starting preschool. (Ok, maybe that one comes with equal doses of excitement and apprehension.) And seeing one of my crochet designs in a book. (I'll have a separate post about that later.) And hopefully getting some more designs self-published.
Plus, it's an election year, which should be...interesting.

Anyway, I do look forward to a lot of good things happening in the months to come. Maybe I'll even manage to blog about them!

posted from Bloggeroid

It's almost here...

We're getting ready for Thanksgiving! Or, rather, I'm getting ready for Thanksgiving, Tim is steeling himself to deal with my family for a week, and the boys have no clue what's coming.

Yes, we'll be spending Thanksgiving with my parents & sisters this year! The last time we had Thanksgiving with either of our families was back in 2010, when we got married. Why, yes, that does mean we're celebrating five years of marriage next week!

Kind of crazy, really. In five years, we've moved across an ocean and back again, had two children, left the Navy, and adjusted to being civilians again. Well, I've managed to adjust. Tim never actually stopped being a civilian, so I don't think the transition was difficult for him. And I know he was happy to hand over the homemaking and child-rearing roles to me.

Anyway, next week the boys will get to see their grandparents again. And I'm looking forward to that, because Clinton adores his Gram and Grandpop. (I'm also looking forward to having a date night with my husband, since my mom offered to babysit for an evening.)

I'm also looking forward to someone else being responsible for cooking the turkey. I roasted a turkey last year, and it was kind of stressful for me. The bird was delicious, but I was terrified of under- or over-cooking it, despite having a meat thermometer that showed me exactly when it was done. And I'm not the greatest at timing, so the mashed potatoes were a little cold, then a little too hot because I put them in a casserole dish and warmed it in the oven. The cranberry sauce was awesome, as always...but that's such a simple thing to make!

^ That's last year's feast. Of course I took a picture of it.

In Japan, we had Thanksgiving dinner with the rest of my command, and I never had to cook a turkey. And for Christmas, we ate at the Harbor View Club our first year, ordered a cooked turkey the second year, and the third year we went to a potluck at a friend's house. That was also the year I "stole" a recipe for buffalo chicken dip from a co-worker. (It was really yummy, and I noticed the recipe in a cookbook I already owned. So it wasn't really stealing, just discovering that I could make the same dish.)

Anyway, I'm excited about the coming week. It should be fun.

Introduction!

So, after my first post in 7 months yesterday, I realized that I forgot to write a very important introduction a while back.
Meet Grant, my youngest son.


This was on his birthday.
He was born at home. Yes, we planned it that way. (For some reason, the question immediately asked upon learning he was born at home is always, "did you do that on purpose?")
I had two midwives and a doula attending, and of course my husband. Heck, even Clinton and our cats were here (although Clinton mostly watched PBS Kids, and Tomodachi hid in the other room...but Buddy, most loyal and loving of feline companions, managed to be right by my side during the worst of the contractions.) Anyway, it almost seemed like a party. A six-hour long, rather exhausting, somewhat painful and definitely messy party that culminated with the birth of a very tiny human.
So Grant arrived May 6th, at 3:55pm. He was smaller than his brother, weighing just 8lbs11oz. But my, how he grew.


That's him earlier this week. He weighs 25 lbs now. He sits on his own, he rolls all over the place, and he shrieks like a banshee when he gets excited. I'm fairly sure our neighbors are aggravated by that last bit, but at least he sleeps at night.

I've been too quiet...

Well, in terms of blogging, anyway.
There are, of course, several reasons for this...I had another baby, I'm a stay-at-home mother (which is a lot more involved than I expected, especially with a toddler and an infant...so far in writing this, I've had to stop and retrieve a teething toy, change a diaper, and then prevent the older child from unchaining the front door in his quest for independence). And I'm self-conscious. I'm afraid to post something unpolished or uninteresting, so the result is that I post nothing at all.
Knowing this is ridiculous is one thing, overcoming it is another. (Well, maybe it isn't ridiculous. Maybe I really do post uninteresting things. But they're interesting to me, so that ought to be reason enough to write them down.)

Quick break for cute picture of brothers in the 21st century:


Ok, so here's what happened this week: I caught a cold.
That's a bummer no matter what, but when charged with the care of two little boys, it can be devastating. (I probably don't need to explain further, since the three people I know of who regularly read this blog are mothers themselves.)(I love you ladies, by the way. Even though we haven't met.)
In dealing with said cold, though, I wound up with an extra dose of guilt. Why? Because I was lying in bed, without energy to lift a regular book, reading emails on my phone. And I was reading the emails that gmail automatically filters to the "social" folder. Where I spotted a comment on my blog from September. It's almost November, and I'd missed this comment for weeks...and I felt bad, because this lovely person was both excited to crochet one of my patterns, and also mentioned that she hoped I was still blogging.
And I want to keep blogging, but I've been getting in my own way too much. So I need to change that.

Here's another picture, because I'm certainly not sitting around doing nothing: