Last Minute...and Sooo Slow

First of all, I want to thank everyone for their sweet comments and emails from this past weekend.  It meant the world to me and was like a great big "mama hug."  As my boys get older, life gets more difficult, disappointments are bigger and my hugs and kisses won't make it go away...not that they would allow either in public. But to be blunt, it sucks.  As their mama, I want to fix everything and it's very difficult to stand back and let them come to terms with it themselves.  There is no art to letting go, it's more like a slow amputation.

Alrighty then....now that I've managed to depress everyone, let's move on to some yarn goodness.  I finally broke down and bought a couple of books.  I've been coveting them for a while now and finally succumbed to the urge...thank you Amazon.  The books are Last-Minute Knitted Gifts and More Last-Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson of Purl Soho fame.  If you haven't ever checked this place out, I'm telling you to do so now.  Such a cool website and I can only imagine how awesome the actual brick or mortar is.  Also, they have a wonderful blog with free patterns called The Purl Bee...Love this! Anyway, I just love giving hand made gifts, so these books thrill me.  And they are so timely because a special someone has a birthday Friday and Car Guy reminded me yesterday...Yikes!  This particular person truly appreciates hand made gifts, so who am I to disappoint?

I'm making Kim's Hat with some left over yarn from the shawl I made for this same person for Christmas...so if she sees this, dead give away...oops! I'm making the simple rolled brim hat and when it's done, I'll probably add a little crocheted embellishment just to spruce it up a bit. Because everyone needs a little sprucing :)  This particular hat is in the two to four hour chapter, but for me it should be in the four to six hour chapter.  I am possibly the slowest knitter on the planet.  It's a little aggravating.  I can crochet a hat up in one evening...about one to two hours depending on the stitch.  Not knitting. Nope.  I cast this bad boy on last night and after working on it for a couple of hours, I have three inches...so I'm averaging  an inch and a half an hour.....sloooooowwww.  Here's hoping I get it done in time.

I'm also working on the Lady Kina sweater. This is a top down sweater and it's the first one I've ever done.  The pattern is for cap sleeves, but I want long sleeves so the stitches that would have been used for the cap sleeves are on stitch holders and I'll go pick them back up after I finish the body.  This is all experimental for me, so we'll see how it goes.  Dear Lady Kina was set to the side last night in favor of Kim's Hat.  Hope she's not a jealous lady.

Eventually I hope to learn to spin.  Car Guy thinks I'm batty, but there has got to be a great deal of satisfaction in the whole process. So if any one out there has a used, working spinning wheel, hook a girl up...with a reasonable price :)  Holy Cow! Have you seen how expensive those things are? 

So there you have it.  This is my world right now. Just grabbing moments here and there and knitting along. Hope everyone is enjoying their week!  Hold on, the weekend is almost here!