A stitch in time..

saves nine? Is that how the saying goes? I don't even know what that means, but for now we'll just go with it. I have been absent from the blogging world for quite a while now. My schedule has caught up with me, I'm afraid. However, just because my blog has sat idle for over a month, our family has been exactly the opposite. We've been busy with acting class, soccer games, work, football and an assortment of other wonderful (yet time consuming) activities!

One night last week and I was drifting into the peaceful depths of sleep, I came up with the idea to teach myself how to knit. I don't know why I thought of it...perhaps it was the knowledge of my sister recently learning how to knit, combined with a conversation with my husband about needing a new hobby. Strangely enough, I must have been semi-conscious enough to have the wherewith all to remember this sleepy cognition the next day. I decided to pursue it. So, yesterday I took my willing helper (see below) to the fabulous land of Hobby Lobby to purchase some items with which to begin my knitting adventure. I ended up getting a lace-up sewing kit for my youngest, Gannon, and a kid's cross stitch kit for Melody. For myself, I purchased a DIY book on knitting which came with needles and random other things that I assume I will need later if I don't throw all the stuff straight into the garbage in frustration when I improve my knitting skills.

Gannon wanted to dive into his project right away. He caught on quickly, and I must say the child is a handsome seamster (what's the masculine version of seamstress, anyway??).

Once Melody returned home from school, she also dove right into her cross stitch kit. I showed her how to make the stitch, and she took off with it! I'm very proud of her as well.

While the little-sewing-man was taking a break from all the stitching (a.k.a. taking a nap), I got down to business with learning how to knit. I really, really tried to follow the Oh So Uncomplicated (NOT!)instructions and diagrams in the book. However, I guess being a visual learner does not apply to deciphering a diagram showing a gazillion million loops and the tiny needle going through that one particular loop in the middle somewhere. I finally got one lonely loop onto the needle, then couldn't figure out how to begin a new loop. By then I had been "practicing" for an hour, I had given myself a headache, and I was ready to jab said needles through my head. I think they made those silly diagrams for men. You know, men are used to those kinds of things because they are always putting things together. Take my husband's grill for example. My husband had to assemble most of his grill, and it came with a 50 (or so) page instruction manual, complete with hundreds of those silly diagrams to show you exactly where to put that screw. I have never been able to figure those things out, so it's no wonder that the knitting diagrams have me at a loss. I will be hunting/stalking an accomplished knitter in the very near future.