Shawls, toilet paper, and a dream

I'm working on knitting a lace shawl with silk and wool that I dyed, and blended, then spun into what is turning out to be more lace weight yarn than I actually need. I started this shawl on a dare. I was in a chat room on a knitting web site where I met a lovely person from South Africa. We were talking about patterns, and whatnot, and I mentioned that I wanted to knit a shawl from hand spun yarn. She told me I should just do it! I had no idea what I would do with such a thing, I don't wear things like that. I've always imagined that shawls are for old ladies, and I'm not really an old lady yet. She said something to the effect of, "You could sell it!" I argued that I would have to sell it for about $1000 for all the time and supplies that would go into it. She convinced me that people buy all kinds of things online all the time, and that surely there's room in this world for a $1000 shawl too. So really on a dare, and just to see if I could really do it I started on this shawl. I'm now about 20 very long rows away from finishing this shawl, and I'm not even sure I could part with it. It's actually turning out rather nice, and I'm thinking maybe I could find the occasion to wear it. Then there's the issue of pattern copyright. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to sell something I knit from this pattern. So, since I spun more yards of yarn than I needed for this shawl I'm now toying with the idea of designing another shawl, and knitting it with what's left from this yarn, and possibly trying to sell that one. But we'll see, I toy with a LOT of ideas. There's just not time in life for them all.

Tuesday morning we ran out of toilet paper! This is something you should never let happen, but somehow I did. Luckily we had some tissues to substitute until I could go to the store. So, once I got the kids off to school, and the other 3 dressed and ready to go we headed off. But since I was leaving I figured I may as well go to the craft store, I had coupons! And I needed yarn anyway (yes I needed it!). Well, 3 kids, and a craft store do not make for quick shopping for me. I should have realized this before I left, but I just thought, I have 3 hours before school gets out, I have plenty of time! Hmmm... well not exactly. First of all, I live in the middle of nowhere, so it's a LEAST a 30 minute drive round trip just to the nearest grocery store, and the travel time increases exponentially if you wanna go anywhere worth shopping. So off to the craft store we headed, and we had a delightful time looking at yarn. Crickett (who is about 3 1/2 yrs. old) had to use the bathroom twice when we were there which was kinda funny, and each time she asked if this was where we were going to get toilet paper. No, we'll have to get that at a different store, I told her. So after yarn shopping we headed for the grocery store. I thought I'd have a lot more time to shop, so I brought my grocery list, but as luck would have it I only had a few minutes to shop before needing to rush home to make it back before the kids got out of school. So, I grabbed only peanut butter, and toilet paper. Crickett was delighted that we had the toilet paper, and that she got to be there with me when I bought it. She kept talking the whole way home about how she's glad we got the toilet paper, and that she's going to tell her older brother and sister that we bought toilet paper when they get home from school. And sure enough the first thing she said to her siblings when they got home was, "We went to the store and bought toilet paper!" with her very excited voice! It was adorable! I've never seen anyone so excited about toilet paper as Crickett was on Tuesday!

I have a dream that involves me getting up at 6:00am to clean, finishing cleaning the house, and getting the kids off to school no later than 12:00 noon, having lunch, putting the little ones down for a nap, and crafting the afternoon away guilt free, because my house is clean, and the kids are fed and happily sleeping. I somehow have to make myself go to bed at 10:00pm so I can get up at 6:00am though. I'll keep ya posted on this dream, surely one day I can drag myself out of bed at 6:00am again!

Until next time, happy crafting!