she's seven months

Seven months seems to be the magic age for me with children.

For the first seven months, I am almost entirely devoted to restructuring my life, my priorities, and my interests. It was the same way when lil' b was born, and so it was when my marmallow came into the world. I guess I thought I'd need less time, having been through this before. Turns out, every child requires an adjustment period.

Now, of course, I want to bring my blog back up to speed, but how does one recapture all the moments of more than half a year? I will try to be more diligent in my updates now, and as time goes on, hopefully I will find loose threads from October '09 to June '10 to weave in.

I have continued to knits, crochet, and quilt, with even perhaps as much vigor as before. However, an interesting twist is my new passion for long term projects. I'm not as into instant gratification as I once was... perhaps something about devoting nine months to building a person, and the rewards reaped by such an intensive endeavor, has taught me the value of prolonged dedication. Of course, during the seven months that have passed, due to the rarity of sleep and the absence of focus, I have done my share of quick projects. I've added several baby quilts to my line-up and made at least four scarves. I will try to get the pictures up, but let's worry about getting this new post up first.

My new efforts are much more engrossing. I am working on a sweater, for myself, from the Rowan cotton pattern book Classic Nature. I'm no idiot, though: I'm using the luxuriously soft acrylic Plymouth Dreambaby DK... I do, after all, have two messy kids and I'm no slouch in the spill department myself. I wanted to select something that was both easily washable and infinitely comforting for either child when she or he needs a Mommy's Special Hug. Between knits and purls, I am also attempting a quilt for Daddy-B and my queen-size bed. It's based on a pattern in American Patchwork & Quilt called Cross. I keep calling it Lattice or Plaid, as that seems more accurate.

I'm working on these two major projects before and after work. That's right, God bless, I am back to work full-time, so my lil' b and marmallow are at daycare. I don't know if you recall exactly how long ago it was that I started staying home (over a year and a half) but this has been divine. I miss them just the right amount, and they hardly miss me at all. As it should be. I'm not an apron-strings kind of mama.

As lil' b has gotten bigger, he has become an active participant in my crafting. For the quilt, he helped me select fabrics and lay out the design. Part of the deal is, as long as he remains patient with me, I'll work with him to make a queen-sized quilt for his bed next.