Jobo Designs

My children are adorable… the cutest little munchkins ever.  ‘Kat’ is 5 months, and ‘Bear’ is one month short of 3 years old.  They are sweet and smart and funny…

But Dude… they don’t seem to sleep much! 

When I`m overtired… I have a hard time keeping up in general.  This has been a challenging week.  I do pretty well on 4 hours sleep a night… but this week it`s been even less than that.  Iced Coffee is my BFF.

I love being creative and making things up as I go.  I love modifying patterns and tweaking things to add my own flair.  I daydream and scheme spinning, knitting and yarny things around the clock.  I get excited and talk too fast and too much about my fibery aspirations.  I get all worked up about my hobbies!

When I am this tired though… I can hardly butter toast.

Enter the realm of survival knitting. 

Sometimes I just need a project to follow row by row.  Something that I don`t try and jazz up.  I follow the pattern exactly as written.  I have to mark the rows I’ve completed in the margin, and make notes of any counts or measurements so I can remember how to make the second of a pair. 

This kind of knitting isn’t challenging – it`s comforting and calming. 

It doesn't charge me up – it relaxes me and makes me feel like I am accomplishing something small in my chaotic day.

Some days all I get is 15 or 20 minutes… but these short bursts of “survival knitting” are what`s keeping me sane.  Ok.  The knitting and the chocolate. 

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Do you ever craft to “Survive”?  Tell me about it either in the comments below, or head on over to JoboDesigns on Facebook!  (remember to “like” the page while you are there!)

Now I just wish I was lying in a hammock in a lovely warm tropical breeze under an actual Banyan Tree... instead of being zonked with a lovely sniffly sneezy cold :(

Either way though, the socks are lovely!

I really enjoyed everything about this pair... from the twisted rib, to the leaves (which always seem to fly off the needles for me), to the little cables (I don?t know why I never thought of making 3 stitch cables and just moving the outside stitch? duh!) and the streamlined and simple foot.  I also enjoyed the heel flap, which isn?t rocket science, but looks so different compared to the standard slip stitch heel

All in all ? a great knit... and a free pattern!  Go check it out over at the loopy ewe :) they have fantastic yarns too by the way, and excellent customer service!

- I needed something easy but interesting to bring with me to the hospital work on the day that labor was induced? so I opted for another pair of Monkey Socks (Cookie A.)

- I had done these once before, so I knew the pattern was well written, and I also remembered that the basic construction was straightforward and I could work on them without really needing any paper pattern.  I took a photo of the main chart with my phone, so I?d have that to fall back on, but other than that, I just needed stitch counts to get started.

- I knit all morning while the contractions were getting started.  I worked the cuff, and then 3 repeats of the pattern design before things got too hairy and I needed to stop.  After the epidural I was exhausted and a little woozy, so I had to put the knitting away after that.

- Yarn:  Knitpicks Stroll Solid in Pumpkin                   - Needles:  2.5 mm Circular

- Progress:  Normally I eat socks for breakfast.  I can knock off a whole pair of socks in a week or less when I?m feeling particularly focussed.  Compare that to now:  I finished sock number one around the 4 week post-partum mark? and sock number two is cast on, but only halfway to the heel so far.  At this rate, I?m looking at not finishing these until March sometime!  I?m finding that I?m gradually getting more time to myself with the little beasty having a little more independence, but still not what I was accustomed to? not by a long shot.  She is wonderful, but is seriously interfering with fiber and knit time!  sheesh kid!

- Strangely enough, it turns out that my Daughter, Romy is also a little Monkey.  I wonder if it?s a coincidence?  Or maybe she?s just following in her father?s footsteps.  He?s also a bit of a baboon sometimes *wink*