Yarn Along: Pretty Poppy Hug

My Baby Surprise Jacket is still stalled. Elizabeth isn't feeling well and I am absolutely terrible at all things spatial. Hence, I can't wrap my brain around what she's trying to tell me about picking up stitches. Stay tuned. The good thing is that we're both stubborn and we won't give up. I promise a new tutorial post soon and I know I still owe you a prize post. This is summer schedule boot camp week. I'm totally focused on making my kids do whatever I tell them as soon as I tell them establishing rhythm.

While I've been waiting for my brain to catch up with my fingers, I finished this sweater for Sarah. I spent hours--literally-- waiting for the ferry to go back and forth across the Potomac for soccer last weekend. Put the van in park, listened to a book on tape until I could bear it no more, and then listened to Scotty McCreery's "album" over and over again while I knit and knit and knit. About that book: I usually love Roald Dahl, but I could not bear to hear how the witches talked about children. It was making me physically ill. I never write negative reviews--usually I just say nothing if I have nothing good to say, but it brought tears to my eyes to have my kids hear this book. Maybe I'm overly sensitive. Or I just don't suspend disbelief enough to be unaffected by fantasy. Whatever, I'm not a fan.

I love the way this yarn behaved and I think the shirt is pretty poppy hug. The pattern runs small. I added eight extra stitches under the arms and it's still a bit snug, especially since I knit it for a layering piece for next fall and winter. Not much need for sweater hugs in Virginia in the summer. The heat index today was 105 degrees. I also tweaked it a bit at the bottom, finishing with a broken rib stitch. {Geez--I tweaked it. Sounds like curriculum;-)} Knitty gritty on Sarah's hug sweater on Ravelry.

I just sent Give them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus to my Kindle. Haven't yet begun to read. I will admit here and now that I bought this book because of its title and cover. It just looks like something I would really love.  And because it's on Kindle,  it won't add to my house clutter.

Speaking of house clutter, I'm after it with reckless abandon this week, truly eradicating it from my house. I'm on a tear. And then, maybe I can think my way clear to write again. I once read that the best way to teach children how to be good writers was to teach them how to clean out and organize their closets. There is something to that. If you can't organize and get rid of the clutter, you can't write logically or edit well. At least that's what I'm telling my children.

Mary Beth has saved enough babysitting money to buy herself a brand new MacBook. This accomplishment has me bursting with pride. She went a little camera crazy this afternoon in order to have lots of pictures with which to christen her very own iPhoto. So the pics of my baby in a pretty poppy hug come to you from Mary Beth's Mac.

Now, I'm off to haul away another bag or two of stuff. And grab a hug or two of the kid kind.

Do go visit Ginny. That new baby is scrumptious.