This weekend was all baseball and bathroom. Well, it was just one baseball game, but somehow Saturday games seem to consume the entire day. Gabe and Keats play on the same team, and they both pitch and it’s so much fun to watch them. I carry knitting and cross stitching, but can hardly look away from the game. The funny thing is that we realized that the boys have never seen a baseball game played outside their own. A friend recorded one this weekend for them to watch later this week.
The obvious big work in progress around here is the bathroom, but I haven’t taken any new photos. Maybe I’ll wait and do a big reveal when it’s finished! We chose a white mosaic tile (Sausalito–they sell it at Lowe’s and Home Depot) and Jonny thought it was a bit of a pain to install it so things have just gone more slowly than we expected. Painting began this weekend. I tried to help with the painting on Saturday afternoon, but my shoulder quickly informed me that that was a very bad idea. (I see the doctor this week.) Jonny finished painting the walls himself today. They are gray and beautiful. I’m so excited. I shouldn’t divulge any more details though if I am going to surprise you with anything. I am terrible at surprises. Okay, the name of the color is Ozark Shadows. I grabbed a handful of gray chips from Benjamin Moore and then ultimately chose the one whose name I found most romantic sounding (and then had it mixed at Lowe’s because it’s cheaper of course.) I am terrible at choosing paint colors and typically do a lot of staring and obsessing before finally choosing the wrong color. I love the Ozark Shadows and do believe that from now on I will give more weight to the names of paint colors when making decisions given that it worked so well this time around.
I have been working a good bit on my sampler and have actually made even more progress since taking the photo above. I had the treacherous thought at one point that I’d rather cross stitch than knit! I am sure it was just my shoulder speaking. I have been knitting a bit and am working on learning different ways to hold my working yarn, namely continental style versus my typical English style knitting. I even tried to figure out the Yarn Harlot’s Irish Cottage knitting technique but couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to wrap the yarn around my fingers like she does. I think in the long run things are going to be fine. I have decided not to blame my injury on knitting, so that’s that. I am blaming instead the blond headed baby in the slightly blurry first photo. Really, he’s a toddler, but he likes to be treated like a baby. I forgive him.
p.s. For all you moms out there with picky eaters: My oldest son Seth used to live on “chick” nuggets (vegetarian ones.) He was my pickiest eater ever. Saturday he was fed lunch by a friend of mine who is serious about eating a no sugar paleo type diet. Seth ate liverwurst, black olives, a fried egg and then had black coffee (decaf) with coconut oil, cinnamon, and a bit of 100% cacao unsweetened cocoa powder. I think the coffee made him feel grown up, but he said he couldn’t drink it all. Anyway, there’s hope. (not that coffee and liverwurst are going into regular kid meal rotation at our house.)
MS says
Just curious if you still have the name of the cross stitch pattern you show in the pictures? With the tea kettle and coffee mug?
If so, can you share it? Thank you so much. Love your site!
Lillie says
How do your boys get away with wearing sleeves under their shirts that are not black? Our boys who pitch need to wear black sleeves or the umpires make them quit.
What league rules do your boys play by?
Christine says
Your yarn choice, as always, is just gorgeous. I have been working on picky eating with my two year old. I basically tell him he has to sit at the table even if he won’t eat, with a strategically placed plate of food for him just in arms reach. He has finally started throwing shorter and quieter tantrums and tonight all he did was pout before eating the entire portion of squash soup we had tonight. It has taken a good two to three weeks but I think we’ve finally made progress with him.
Christina says
I Love Liverwurst! However, the fat content is not in my diet regime, sadly! So once every year I treat myself to Neiman Ranch or Wellshire liverwurst, which has a 2 rating on global humanity; otherwise I could not eat it due to the guilt. The gray IS very romantic….great choice!
Casey says
All of these samplers in blogland is tempting me! Actually I’m hoping my husband took my not so subtle hint for my birthday. Hope you’re on the mend soon!
Wendy says
I can’t resist picking up a few paint chips whenever I’m in that area of the store because I’m fascinated by paint names! The paint you chose sounds lovely, and I can’t wait to see the finished product! Sounds like things are moving right along!
Rach says
A bathroom renovation! How exciting! I was showing my Mr what I think we should do to ours… mmmm… will see how long it takes to get underway! Hope your shoulder heals quickley. xx
Tracey says
I think you and I now have the same tile in our bathrooms. I love mine, it’s so pretty.
I use to cross stitch many years ago, but even with bifocals [which I just saw Amanda Soule
got] I cannot see the little squares; it maybe time for an eye exam. Your cross stitch is just
lovely.
Take care of your shoulder and treat yourself kindly! 🙂
Sonja says
I was a picker eater as a kid and love all sorts of things now, but still not most seafood. Remembering the error of my ways gives me hope for my daughter that one day, she’ll turn over a new leaf. It’s so fun to see you and Amanda Soule working on the same project. Great minds think alike, I’d say! 🙂
Sherri says
I can’t wait to see your new bathroom… it sounds wonderful. Also, my Mom got my kids to eat liverwurst when they were younger and they couldn’t get enough of it. Now, of course, my daughter says “no way” she used to eat that. Kids are funny! I have a 13 year old and he is still a picky eater. What to do, what to do.
Hope your shoulder gets better soon so we can see more of your beautiful knitting.
Anna says
I agree about looking up some YouTube continental videos to see if it would give you a break. I purl continental. (I was recently told that I shouldn’t knit English and purl continental because they are different tensions and it will show. Eeek! I do lots with Lacey patterns or garter so I haven’t noticed it yet. I will keep it in Mind for large sections of plain knitting I suppose) I just spent an hour looking at paint samples. We’ve been in our house 8 years and I’m thinking I need to tone things down a bit, 3 colors in the open floor plan living room and each bedroom and bath another color! Lets just say after living in homes I couldn’t paint I really had fun!
moey says
Hehe. I know what you mean about picky eaters. My little crowd won’t eat rice or peas or anything normal, but will put away a whole plateful of black olives, blue cheese, pickled banana peppers. Kids!
Sonya says
Feel Better soon Ginny! Can’t wait to see the bathroom. And I LOVE liverwurst. I don’t eat it enough =)
Liz says
Hope the shoulder heals soon! As a child I first learned English style, but it requires a ton of wrist action and careful coordination so I taught my daughter what is often called Portuguese style. This is my go-to for longer projects as all I have to do is use my thumb to flick the yarn over the needle. It took me a little bit of time to figure out exactly how the right tension would feel but now it is second nature and the tension in the final product looks so even. The trick for me was to make sure it slid over my hair or a collar. I’ve heard from folks in south america and eastern europe that they have seen this style of knitting too. I found some good tutorials on you tube under “portuguese style knitting”. Take care!
Jennifer says
Hi Ginny,
A few years back we painted our mud/laundry room (emphasis on mud) a similar shade of grey and LOVE IT! It continues to be my favorite paint color ever. The natural light in the room is not great, yet the wall color seems to reflect the light beautifully and produces subtle changes of tone depending on time of day/seasons. I hope you will enjoy your choice of color as much as we have!
Also– I’m about halfway through my first Sunday Sweater (w/another one planned) and couldn’t be happier with the outcome. The pattern is so thoughtfully written and is knitting up to look just as I envisioned. A rare thing! Thank you for all of your creative hard work on it. I hope you’ll consider other patterns in the future– you are very talented at it!
Have a good week~
Jennifer
karen says
I’ll have to remember to pick my paint colors by name. Food for thought. My son only ate brown food (read that as mostly fried) and suddenly at 18 years old started eating vegetables in stews casseroles or layered in a big sandwich. Every time now he eats something green it makes me happy!
I am almost positive that knitting has not caused you injury. It. Just. Can’t.
Emily says
Gabe looks so grown up and professional in his pitching photo!
I’m planning on painting our kitchen soon, but holding off because I’m having shoulder trouble too. I’m about positive it’s from carrying my chunky little girl around.
meghann says
You know, I hadn’t thought of that, but if you can get the hang of continental style it will absolutely allow you to knit without straining your shoulder. (I learned English style years ago from my grandmother, but never quite got the hang of it—I knew the mechanics but couldn’t control my tension—and only started knitting again two years or so ago when I saw a video demonstrating continental style.) I’m left-handed, so it makes more sense to me to hold the yarn in my left hand anyway, but the movement is so much more economical: I quite literally flick my index finger around the needle to knit, and tuck the yarn around with my thumb to purl. (My grandmother recently told me it doesn’t even look like knitting, and that she wishes she’d seen that 70 years ago when she learned to knit because she could have gotten things done so much more quickly!) I’ll bet if you could re-learn it that way, you could keep going regardless of what goes on with your shoulder…
I hope you get good news from your doctor. I will continue to send healing thoughts your way this week. xo
Tonya - Plain and Joyful Living says
Ginny,
I have also been blaming my very, very painful left wrist on Emmy – always carrying her on my left arm/side – it just couldn’t be from knitting:)
Praying that your shoulder heals.
teresa c says
I had shoulder problems a few years ago. I started waking up with a terrible pain. I made some tests and turns out I had (have?) tendinosis. It was terrible, because the doctor said I would have to stop knitting (that was the only visible cause, since I hadn’t children yet to carry around all day) or at least try to knit diffent things in order to spare the shoulder. The problem was making the same repetitive movements a lot, he said. Well, it was hard, and I was angry about it, but after more or less 4 months resting (ie, not knitting) I decided to give it a go and no pain! I’ve been knitting since then, AND carrying a baby (well, a 13 kg toddler actually) with no pain. I hope you don’t have to stop knitting, but if you have to make a pause, well, it is always nice to have a second choice like stitching.
Hope you get well soon!