This is, technically, a knitting blog. Not only do I have very little time to actually compose a thought of my own, sitting at the computer or not, I haven't had much time for actual knitting. And then, I realized, knitting is a very important thing for me. Outside of being a mother (and wife), I'm a crafter. If I could do college all over again, I'd choose to major in Art with a focus on Fiber, since, well, I'm not really doing anything with the degree I have now! (And, for anyone who would ever judge a person for not "using" their college degree, I use everything I learned in college in some aspect or another, and I wouldn't trade the experience of college for anything.)
Now that Miss Miriam is learning to nap and sleep without being held, I have a little bit of baby-hands-free time every day. I've taken advantage of that to focus on me, instead of the huge amount of housework that should probably be attended to at some point. When you're a mother to two high-needs children (make sure you read that right, that's not special-needs, that's "high" needs) and a nanny to three more young children, and you have a husband who typically works from sun up to past sun down, I've determined that it's okay to let housework be pushed aside until the weekend. It's important for mothers to take a break and focus on themselves. As such, I've returned to my knitting needles. And, to help me along in my quest to have actual finished products, I've volunteered to test knit new patterns.
This is the VTT men's sock pattern. Chris likes hand knit socks for the comfort and warmth factor, and I like knitting socks for the convenience factor. This is a very manly patterned sock, but knowing my husband, I still knit it in black so it couldn't possibly be thought that these are "feminine." However, black does not make for good photographing in the grey, rainy (/snowy/sleeting/hailing) Wisconsin spring. One sock is done and the other will be knit (maybe) on my trip to California. The pattern is now published and available for purchase on Ravelry.
There's more, but I'll do another post on that another day. :-)