Obsessed

I love social media.

That should come as no surprise to anyone.

I'm a blogger.  How could I not love social media?  I blog.  I Facebook.  I Instagram so much my teenage daughter's friends make comments about how much I instagram (seriously, if you don't follow me on Instagram, you totally should).  I don't Tweet, because I fear that if I figured out Twitter I would have to give up cooking for the children entirely to make time for all my witty tweets.

My favorite thing about Facebook is catching up with my friends from college.  We were all so bold and wild and we thought we were invincible and we would be young and beautiful forever.  It cracks me up and makes me happy to see how "grown up" we all are now.  I love seeing their families.  I love seeing how the crazy guy who was always down for a beer bong is now the most loving family man.  I love seeing how my old sorority sisters have become these amazing strong women, with these amazing lives, some are wives, some are mothers, all are happy.  I love seeing how happy everyone's life has turned out to be.

Including mine.

And I know it must crack them up that the girl who was addicted to body glitter, and dancing, and swimming in the school pool at 2 am (which may or may not have been closed at the time and may or may not have been accessed through tunnels under the school), is still with that guy she married after only knowing him for four months, and that crazy girl now has five kids.

Crazy pants right?

One of my old college roommates is my favorite person on Facebook.  We only lived together for one semester but it was so much fun.  I loved her so.  She was so confident and so creative and so sure of herself.  We lost touch as people tend to do.  But thanks to the genius of Mark Zuckerwhateverhisnameis we reconnected on Facebook.

Her feed is full of inspirations quotes, and happy stories, and information about Down syndrome.  It is always uplifting.  When I was pregnant with Lily I sent her a message thanking her for all the information on Down syndrome that she posted.  It turned out she has a young son with Down syndrome.  She was the only person I could talk to at the time who gave me hope.  I will always be so very grateful to her for that.

The other day she posted this picture

When I read it I thought about Motherhood.  I've been  telling  sobbing at The Greatest that I feel like I'm drowning lately. I love my little motley crew.  I love being their Mom.  It is the greatest privilege.  The Greatest and I sacrifice a lot so I can stay home with them, to make being their Mom my full time job, my favorite job.  This quote took my breath away.  I needed to take a moment to remember that I love Motherhood.  This is my dream.  Admittedly, my dream contained a lot less being spit on (The Queen really does not like her new medicine) but this is my dream.

I'm treading water right now.

But I love to swim.

It turns out this also applies to my knitting.

Once I let go of the sense of obligation, downsized to a knitter, I was able to feel the fun.

My Stepmom asked me to knit her a purple cardigan.  She said the rust stains were optional.  We ordered some gorgeous variegated purple yarn from Knit Picks, and I love knitting it.  Granted I forgot how variegated yarn can pool.

I did not love this.


So I tried alternating skeins every row.

And now it's flashing.

So I tried alternating every two row.

This looks more like the first try, but with more depth of color in the pooling.

So I tried a different needle size

I haven't found a solution but I'm not done trying.

I also have some socks on the needles.

I started these during my big fancy overnighter with The Greatest.  These were cast on at sunrise in a suite on the top floor of the hotel gazing out at the gorgeous view of the city while The Greatest slept in the bed beside me.  I can knit them, or not, as the mood strikes me.

Then I was poking around on Ravelry and I found this shawl.

I.MUST.KNIT.THIS.NOW!

The pattern is in the latest issue of Interweave Knits.  I immediately downloaded it.  I just need yarn.  This is a big shawl knit with big yarn.  So I was thinking I would just grab some Red Heart.  It isn't the most fun to work with but if you condition it and throw it in the washer it comes out snuggly soft.  I was thinking I would like to make this in a deep red/wine shade, but the more I look at this yarn in my stash

The more I think it would make the most gorgeous ginormous cuddly snuggly alpaca shawl.  But do I need a gorgeous ginormous cuddly snuggly alpaca shawl or do I need a deep red/wine but less luxury (an infinitely more washable) shawl?

Either way I'm gonna knit that shawl!

I must KNIT.ALL.THE.THINGS!

And I MUST knit them now!

Because I love to swim.