Brain dead............

I'm beginning to think that so much school summer holiday (9 weeks no less) has left me brain dead. Where once I was able to juggle getting the children up and off to school, making up lunchboxes, preparing supper, ferrying to piano lessons etc, shopping and the children's social life I now can't make simple decisions at all. I seem to have gone from one extreme to the other and I cannot imagine what next Monday is going to be like. Will we be able to get up on time for starters?

Brain dead or no I did manage to get the children to the shopping mall this morning to stock up on pencils, pens etc from WH Smith. Some things never change - I remember doing the same thing in the same shop many years ago. We didn't manage to find any suitable shoes and sandals will have to suffice for a while but I did find Raj some lovely cords to go with the tank top I made. Amber was after more clothes and leggings but all the black ones had sold out - when did they creep back into fashion for goodness sake?

My biggest bargain though was at the charity shop this afternoon and look what I got for 50p:

It wasn't until I had flicked through them properly at home that I realised how fantastic they were. The Toys book is small but has patterns for all these creatures (just click on the images for a closer look):

Amber observed that the English were making Amigurumi way before!

The Patons Woolcraft is also excellent. It has pages describing different stitches, casting on off, decreasing etc and some wonderful patterns for gloves, socks and hats. It also has some pretty naff patterns for jumpers, shawls, bed jackets and these:

I wonder if Tom fancies these long johns? I hope not as I'm not knitting something big in 3-ply.

It's bad enough doing a tank top with 230 stitches on circular needles. Can you believe that I'm longing to purl - me who usually hates the purl stitch. Infact, I'm thinking of undoing it because I've discovered that the pattern doesn't have a ribbed neck or sleeves and in my mind that is not a tank top but then the pattern did say Men's vest so what did I expect. I'm not an experienced enough knitter to be able to change the pattern. However, I did find a better pattern here and I'm going to knit that instead. Thank goodness I've got till Christmas. Talking of tank tops Amber has almost finished hers and is on the neckband now and for some reason I can't understand has abandoned it - maybe she should have her own blog. That'll get her to finish things.

Well, I'd better go and think about all those things I need to think about. I think a list might be in order such as:

1. Shall we go and visit my parents who I haven't seen since my Mum stayed with us after her heart operation?  Why oh why did I leave it till the last week?

2. Do I want to go to The Knitting and Stitching Show in Birmingham next weekend? If so, can I be bothered to drive there?

3. What oh what am I going to do with my class of 13 eleven year olds? I'm getting cold feet about doing dyeing and weaving with all of them especially with the lack of facilities.

4. Heck, I need to find a new violin teacher for the oldest two.

5. What am I going to make for the Christmas fair this year. It's at the beginning of December so I need to start soon.

6. My neighbour has given me a ton of apples and they're sitting in the kitchen staring at me. I should be baking, making, stewing, freezing but I can't get my head round it...

See what I mean about brain dead. I just can't decide on anything. I need some child free time to get my thinking cap on..........

Comments

[Cristina]

Clown bottle cover! We should all transport wine to dinner parties that way--what a conversation piece.

[Rowan]

I love vintage craft books especially the ones about knitting. The toy book looks good, I love the ducks. The way you feel is called post holiday trauma! It will pass and the answer lies in making lists and muttering 'do it now!' to yourself. For me the top two are visit your parents because when they are no longer around you'll be glad you went as often as possible and use the apples so you have an answer when the neighbours enquires what you used them for! Besides, apple pie and apple crumble are really,really yummy.