Halu-Halo

Dividing for the sleeves

I love knitting sweaters from the top-down. For you non-knitters (I must bring you over to the dark side!), that simply means knitting a sweater starting from the collar or neck, and then working your way down to the yoke. The sleeves, then, are put on "hold" (on a scrap piece of yarn), until the body is completed. Finally, the sleeves are knit in the round. 

Knitting Pure and Simple has wonderful step-by-step pictures here: http://knittingpureandsimple.com/resources/knitting-your-first/

 

(I apologize  for this horrible, super processed picture)

I am currently working on a cardi for Baby J, using this pattern. And I have divided for the sleeves (the sleeves are now on hold, and I'm on my way to finish the body of the sweater).

This is a big deal; I'm now committed.

By moving on, I am affirming that:

1.I believe in this pattern (I have read through it and understand the designer's directions. I've made my notes, looked at pictures of completed projects by other people, researched suggested modifications).

2. I love the yarn enough to make a garment with it (I've put it up to my face and neck to make sure it's soft enough. I've read reviews that this yarn holds up, and doesn't stretch or lose its form).

3. I have the stamina to get through to finish this project (I want for me/my child/my friend to be able to wear it in the end).

Can I change my mind and have the poor mess sit in my WIP basket forever and ever? Of course!  But after I've decided to divide for the sleeves, I'm pretty sure I want to get to the end of it. Through hell or high water, skipped stitches and wrong stitches, I will bind off the project, somehow.

I've recently divided for the sleeves, also, in my writing life. After months of stitching my outline together, trying on my plot, feeling it against my heart, and gauging it against my hopes and dreams, I finally felt I was ready. And I've moved on to query.

The reality: finding an agent to represent me could take months. Years!

But I've picked my story, chosen my words, rewrote them (and again, and again), done my research, and hoped that I perfected my query letter. Now it's all about stamina, and belief, and in my case, a little (A LOT) of prayer. 

Am I scared? Yes! Do I feel vulnerable? Extremely! 

But I would have never completed this dress for Sweet R had I let it intimidate me. I would have cried myself into a corner during deployments had I not been strong enough to endure those lonely nights. Surely, I will survive this too, right?

I will. I will. 

I will.

As the luck of this non-Irish would have it:

1. I'm late in posting a celebratory St. Paddy's day photo. But what the heck, it's my blog.

So, Happy St. Patrick's Day!  

But I have a good excuse!

2. I've only started to walk well today. And lift my arms. And think straight, because my brain is a muscle too, no? And since every muscle in my body was in agony until this morning, from my race this weekend (on St. Patrick's day!), I can say that today I am functioning and coherent.

It was a wonderful run through DC, and I ran my tushie off.  

I mean, I really felt like I didn't have a tushie when I woke up Sunday morning. Unfortunately, I realized this morning that it's still here :(  . I guess that means I have to run some more.

The race was a celebration of the training my cousin and I have been doing since November. She is a much faster runner than me, and it helped me immensely. It's also a bonus that she's a personal trainer. I get my training for free - ha! Lucky for me, I get beat up every weekend. 

This may be my next challenge.

3. But I've had things to keep my busy! Preparing my query (yes! Query Hell has begun!), is one; attempting to break from my manuscript to clear my mind before I attack it again is another. And this:

*insert mischievious giggle*  Oh yes, my friends...my library holds came in and I am happily inundated with such lovelies to read. My imagination runs amuck with books. (Maybe I should let it run my next half- marathon for me. No?)

So, ya'll know where I'll be this week: at home! (Stretching, reading, stretching, revising query and cursing, stretching, and crumpling paper and throwing query at the computer screen. And stretching.)

I hope you have a great weekend!

Happy Tuesday!

To raise and to Trust

I've cried twice in the last week.

And it isn't because I haven't caught up with laundry from last week's illnesses, or that the bags suitcases under my eyes aren't miraculously disappearing as promised by the uber-expensive cream I purchased last month. It isn't even because I just found out that my Big Three  are scheduled to have soccer practices at the same exact time, but in three different locations this season.

Those are small potatoes-tater tots really.

...

Last week, my first child turn eleven.

And he's such a good kid, even if my neurosis ran on overtime when he was first born. G has been my partner in this mothering journey; and he has become such a patient child as I grow with him as his parent. He's had the toughest job; I've tried everything on him first. And yet, he is cheerful and understanding, with such thriving optimism. 

I cried the night before his birthday, when I thought of how much I've had to Trust this entire experience, at each step of the way. In people, in God, and in G himself. 

The second time I cried was actually this afternoon, as I held this in my hand.

It's the 3rd revision of the manuscript I started last November, during NaNoWriMo. And it's getting better, not quite the Full Of Suck that it was as a first draft. This one is my child too, and she is growing up. And I love her so much that I've decided that she will be the first novel I will try to share with the world. 

But in order for me to do that, I have to let her go too; to Trust: in my critique partners and beta readers, that they are honest and hard, in the keeping of my own voice in every sentence that's on paper, and in my dream, despite the obstacles I know I will have to overcome.

I go to bed tonight tired but content, but not before slathering twice as much eye cream in hopes I seem somewhat rested tomorrow. 

I hope you all have a great week! Thank you for being here, to listen, throughout all of these milestones! 

Indoors

As much as I love the sun, and being outdoors, I am equally a recluse.  I don't mind wearing my yoga pants all day, my torso bundled up in a sweater.  I find comfort in the confines of my home, even under my favorite blanket. And I love having the predictability of what's to happen next, the control of what task needs to be completed.

When the weather is warm, the pressure is greater  to be productive outside of the home.  I usually never mind rising to it, the sun is pure temptation, and my energy easily flows outwards.  But because of this, I am antsy inside my home, especially when the kids are over-loud, when its walls cannot keep me from my stretch.    

I find that when I am outside these walls, I miss a few things.  I pass on some of the small mundanes, like rearranging our pantry or deleting the spam emails I receive.  I write a little less, I don't craft as much, and I butterfly my way through the day.  It is all great fun, but admittedly, tiring.

So, on days like this, when it is cold and icy, I receive it with open arms.

On days like this, I can allow myself to look inwardly, without the outside to distract me.  The ice is a reason to halt the normal, and encourage creativity from more limited resources. On days like this, it is alright to move slowly, to be careful.

It is even easier to to be caring, in my opinion, to take stock of everything one has ignored on those sunny days.  Like dusting the tops of doorways and rearranging the papers on my desk.  Or folding fabric.  

 And somewhere in between baking and finding a chore or craft for the children to do, the creative mojo finds its way to surface.  

On days like this, I can hear myself.

Have a safe and wonderful weekend everyone.

 

 

 

Doin' the Humpty-Hump

 Just turned on some music, to listen to Digital Underground and celebrate some milestones:

16 days: 

 

and halfway done with the binding:

"I'm steppin tall ya'll and just like Humpty Dumpty
you're gonna fall while the stereos pump me.
I like to rhyme, I like my beats funky, I'm spunky, I like my oatmeal lumpy.
I'm sick with this..."  (Digital Underground, "The Humpty Dance")

Excuse me while I go let off some steam and do the Humpty Dance in my living room.

Happy Hump Day!

What my 9 year old taught me today

...as I was trying to edit my first novel like mad...

...while, at the same time, attempting to write the first draft of another...

...and staying optimistic that someone, somewhere will want to read what I've written...

...even if I am attempting this dream much later than most authors...

 

That even something crazy can be fun, and can be accomplished.

With plain ol' hard work.

(and a lot of licking, apparently)

Translated: How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop

Answer: 1685

Have a peaceful night!

10 Things that make you go...

10. It's supposed to snow tomorrow?  I'm starting to fear the Mayan predictions of weather gone wild before the end of the world.  

9.  And along those lines, I have found myself not completely prepared for this weather.  Son #2 asked me this morning if I knew where his winter coat was, and by golly, I had no idea.

8.  In fact, we're supposed to have family pictures taken on Sunday (on location, natural light).  I may have to rethink the tutu that I was planning for Daughter #1 to wear.  It's now supposed to be about 40 degrees.

7.  It's also supposed to be pretty chilly for Halloween.  How do I  supplement Daughter #1's witch tutu without me covering up her black and white striped tights?      

6. Speaking of Halloween - it falls on a Monday this year.  Are schools ready for candy hangover symptoms that are sure to rear their ugly little heads?  I can't be held responsible for Krabby Patties that find themselves into my children's backpacks.

5.  I will, after all, be focusing on digging out all of the Snickers and Kit Kats to put in the freezer for my own personal consumption.

4.  Even though my doctor just this last week thought I could lose a few pounds.  As a "preventative measure" she said. Humph.

3.  I told her I would do my best.  After Halloween.  Or maybe after Thanksgiving.

2.  I need the calories!  I will be writing my heart out in November.  And training for my first half marathon in March.   

...and the #1 Thing that will make you go Eek in the Halu-Halo household is

1.  I have a Finished Object to show!  Can I get a...WOOP-WOOP!  

A charity quilt made using fabrics designed by Jay McCarroll himself....fabrics donated to members of the Modern Quilt Guilds for a quilt challenge.  The NOVA Modern Quilt Guild will be sending our quilts to Inova Fairfax Hospital NICU.

I call it "Building Blocks," and I dream for it to go to a baby who will lay, roll, and grow on it, dragging it along, dirtying it, staining it, so his parent will have to patch or re-sew it, and rewash it again and again.    

It is about 30 x 45, made improv style using a log cabin method.

 

 

I hope you all had a wonderful Friday.  Stay warm Northeast!

Composition

I have been noticing that my Sweet R has been toting a composition book around the house, along with a random marker or crayon.  After I've sent her to play or read in her room, I've found her laying on her back with her knees up, bracing her marble notebook, scribbling.

It dawned on me that this might be her first official diary.

My first diary was a Pink Hello Kitty beauty, with scented pages.  My mother gave it to me, along with a pink gel-inked pen, which was scented too.  I was 9.

Each page was so fresh, crisp and new.  I wanted to fill each line just so that I could get to the next page, sometimes just drawing happy faces, little hearts and flowers.  And yes, I started each entry with "Dear Diary."  I brought it with me everywhere, and once it was filled, my mother gave me another one.  

She never gave me a diary with a lock, but she always told me that she would never read its contents, and she never did (to my knowledge).  I felt free within the contents of its cardboard cover.  And as I grew, and wrote, I always looked for a Hello Kitty notebook to scribble in.  

I wonder if my own daughter finds peace in the same blank pages, in her drawings and her half-spelled words on paper.  In the future, I wonder if she will find a friend, in herself, when she realizes that she will have so much to express.  And I wonder if she will feel validated in her feelings, as they are and will be true - her concerns urgent, her sadness tragic, and her happiness pure bliss.

God, I hope so.  Because her own mommy finds this same comfort, through a blog instead of a diary, and in writing her story that she hopes her own daughter will eventually read.  And to share this love, as it was passed down to me, would be true fulfillment.

 

Have a wonderful nostalgic night everyone.

 

 

Good times

The Halu-Halo residence is happy.  We revel because we have realized that we have to when we can.  Do you feel that way?  Each of our families goes through our own ebb and flow.  There are stressors at every corner, a challenge to overcome, some worst than others.  While I try to stay positive daily, I don't pretend that our life is free of ebb.  

Because without ebb, how do we know how to flow?  How to see the little and run with it.  We, over here, run and race until we perspire and are exhausted.  This is why I write about everything when I can, or take pictures if at all possible.  Capturing the moment, it is bliss.

A couple of great things are happening here at Halu-Halo.  Hubby has reached a professional milestone that is momentous.  As humble as he is, he just smiles and blushes, but I know that he is celebrating within himself.  Praising God.   

And this pile?  Printed this morning, a great part of my little novel, tangible, ready for my first set of edits.  Where will it go - who knows?  Maybe just to my daughters' laps in a few years when they are old enough to read it - that alone will make me happy.  But the fact is, my words are on paper.

We're all flowing with it.  The ebb can wait.