Weekending- the old and the new

This weekend found us busy but satisfied. The kids had fake slumber parties in their new play tent (thanks Aunt Kristine and Uncle Patrick!) Because pretend sleep is so much better than the real thing. 

                                             We danced around at a Caspar Babypants show, and visited with
                                          friends. Then at one point, Unity came up to me and asked me to show her how
                                          to knit.
                                          I've showed her before and she's done it on one of those little wooden
                                          dohickeys, but this time I got out the hot pink size 17 needles and some extra
                                          bulky wool and she got it! She knit about eight rows with some help from me,
                                          but mostly by herself.

                                          Brixton still thinks he's knitting when he grabs a needle and stabs it into a ball of
                                          yarn, but he has to be included of course.
                                         

                                        We are a pretty low-technology family but on Friday nights we sometimes have family movie night. That hasn't been going so well, so this Friday we had family Kinect night. There is a very kid-friendly game that involves lots of jumping around and is not scary at all so maybe once a month we will all play it together. We are ok with occasional screen time, after all I would never give up my Downton Abbey, but we want it to be a special treat not an everyday habit. So far we've managed to find a balance that works for us.

Linking up at Habit of Being. 

Chicken Scratches

I've decided this summer I want to work on my sewing skills. I do enjoy it, I think, but I don't do it very often and I am such a beginner that every time I do, it's reinventing the wheel. This counts for any and all kinds of sewing, machine and hand.

So I have a goal that I will work on some sort of sewing project at least once a week over the summer. (Summer starts in June via the calendar, not based on the weather of course. I might be waiting a while for that.)

I have a couple of easy machine sewing projects lined up, I have the fabric and everything. I also am interested in embroidery and I have a cool alphabet sampler and every so often I try to teach myself the stitches.

I forgot how learning things is hard. I get all excited in my head, with visions of samplers hanging in Unity's bedroom and me running around town in hand-made outfits that both flatter and fit me. "Oh this?" I could say. "I made it."

But I forget how dreaming up an idea is one tiny piece of creating something. The rest of it is doing the work. And making the mistakes. And throwing it down in frustration and consulting the internet and friends and deciding to wait until tomorrow. While I lay on the bed and dream up more ideas.

Chris keeps reminding me that knitting was like this for me when I first started. And that wasn't really that long ago. Two or three years? I had a pair of hot pink plastic size 17 needles and some extra bulky wool yarn and a copy of Stitch and Bitch and I puzzled my way through a scarf. And I love it now and I knit on the bus and while watching BBC dramas. Which is not to say I am an expert at all, but I have come a long way since the size 17s.

But to get from here to there is the work. The commitment. The coming back to it and trying again even when I'm frustrated, trying to find that place where my brain opens to the skill and my body understands what I'm supposed to do. I have to pick it up again.