Masks

I used to make myself up everyday. I was in my twenties, and I had a great deal of self expression, which is good, but what was truly at play was a need to put on a mask so that people wouldn’t see the real me, the vulnerable and insecure me. I was a contradiction, I wanted to be seen and hide. I thought my self worth was wrapped in how I looked and what I did for others. All in an effort to like me.

Challenges Knit and Small

Life is lifey right now and that’s just the way it’s supposed to be. We are renovating a 1940 minimal traditional style house while renting another. This means that I’m primary caregiver while Calvin works at the house and his daytime job. I love having the privilege and opportunity to be with the boys, however it’s been pretty intense these past months.

I’m doing a thing

We’ve been in our new town for five months. It’s been a great transition for us, but not without its challenges. This has all been an adjustment with a new state, city, home, schedule, and two littles ’round the clock.

Lately I’ve been revisiting my purpose here, you know, who and what I am outside of mom and wife. I’ve gone from running a nonprofit at a historic site to planning activities for a four year old and trying to keep the one year old from putting toys in the toilet. Really, it is so much more than that, though. I love this time with them.

Gnome Hats and Knitting Bags

I started blogging after discovering my love of knitting and reading some fabulously entertaining knitting blogs. This was supposed to be a focus on knitting and my life’s journey, however,  I’ve had more life and a little less knitting. It’s pretty tough juggling a baby with yarn and needles. I did mange to knit my first dishcloth out of cotton though. I had to do something while on maternity leave to meet my fix. It was fun and simple, but I still managed to make mistakes. Small wonder when I have this scenario:

Baby. Cat. Knitting. Multitasking at its finest.

I realize that I didn’t get around to my review of the knitting bags I purchased from Slipped Stitch Studios. Before I begin, a few disclaimers: I have never written a review. My experience does not mean others will have the same. I have not been requested by Slipped Stitch Studios to write this review and so I am not receiving any free gifts. Here we go.

Squeee! Doctor Who toile knitting bags from Slipped Stitch Studios.

Okay, so I probably went a little overboard with my purchase, but they have been useful to hold all the projects I haven’t finished. I bought them for that purpose after all. My husband was tired of all the bags lying around that held my yarn and knitting supplies, so it just made sense to buy more. A lady can never have too many bags.

This was from the Doctor Who Bag of the Month Club I purchased last year. It came with the following items:

• SOCK+™ (Sock)
• TWO SKEIN+™ (Small)
• PROJECT+™ (Medium)
• DOUBLE KNIT+™ (Large)

I also purchased:

• miPATTERN™ WALLETS
• miPATTERN™ MAGNETS
• TRAVEL SCISSORS

These fantastic bags and notions were covered in this fabulous Doctor Who toile fabric:

Doctor Who Toile. Tardis, Dalecks, and Weeping Angels…Oh My!

 

The travel scissors include a handy attachment with a Dalek and the phrase, “Extermi-Knit”. Get it? Extermi-knit? For the non-Whovies out there here is an explanation.

I haven’t used knitting bags before, but I can say after using my grocery bags and totes, and after searching thrift stores for knitting baskets and finding nothing–I LOVE these bags. I’m over Gallifrey and back for these bags.

Doctor Who was the main selling point for me and the classic toile design cinched it. It turns out that Slipped Stitch Studios uses fabric for all kinds of themes from The Walking Dead to Harry Potter and if media culture isn’t your bag, pun intended, they also have cute designs for lovers of cats, skulls, dogs, even matryoshka dolls. You have to follow these wonderful ladies though, the special bag of the month is usually limited, so you gotta act fast.

The quality is incredible. I don’t know exactly what I was expecting, but I did think I was going to receive canvas bags. Imagine my surprise and delight that what came in the mail was a soft cotton material, well stitched, with pockets galore. Even the sock bag has pockets for all your needles, scissors, and notions. The space available was just enough, too. If it gives you any idea, I used the sock bag to carry a ball of yarn, my double-pointed needles, other notions, and it doubled as my purse with my iPhone and small folded wallet. These babies are right up there with a Mary Poppins bag, but without the teacups, those come separate. I also discovered this handy little snap inside the bag that allows you to string your yarn through and use the bag as a yarn holder, yippee!!

For those who like their paper patterns, the miWallet and miMagnets are a good alternative to folding pieces of paper and using post-it notes. It helped to keep my paper patterns organized. There’s even a small zipper to hold more supplies.

The miMagnets are ribbon with magnets attached and they come in 3 different sizes which allows you to work with most book sizes. These can be used with a variety of books and she even provides a QR code to scan for a how-to video. How considerate!

I am quite pleased with my purchase, my only regret is that I didn’t wait to buy my bags piecemeal. They have come out with some really cool bags since then.

They have held a few projects since my purchase. One of the most recent is the Scrappy Gnome Hat I started for Quinn. I intended to use my rather large yarn stash, since this was intended for stash busting, but the mouse who took up residence in my stash caused me to make other plans, and a great deal of heartache. There was mouse poop everywhere, and I tried to wash it out of the yarn, but then I thought about all the potential diseases like, hantavirus, bubonic plague, and lots of other scaries. With an infant in the house, I decided it was best to trash the stash. I had such plans for that yarn. Now I know that plastic bins are my friend.

So the Scrappy Gnome Hat is the first hat I have knitted. It was so easy and forgiving of mistakes. This was also the first i-cord I ever knitted. I also managed to make a mistake with that one, but it’s all good. Here is a picture of the kid in his hat. Fair warning: you could potentially die from all this cuteness.

Our little gnome.

 

Here we are, laughing at his gnomy adorableness. His expression suggests he sees the humor, but not that much.

 

Now I’m working on one for his father. I see a Christmas card in the making.