The weekend is finally here, and I have found some time to knit. My husband has had to work late nearly every night for the last two weeks leaving me at home for long periods with two toddlers. While I have very good kids, and I love them very much, they can be trying at times, especially when they don't understand why Papa is not home yet. I also rely heavily on my husband to give me time for myself during the week, and his not being home reduces the amount of time I can spend pursuing my own interests (such as knitting and blogging). My wonderful mother-in-law understands this, and took the kids to the park this morning, leaving to luxuriate in yarn, and uninterrupted time. This morning has seemed like quite the luxury!

My Holly Jackets is slowly creeping toward completion. The back, and half of the front is now complete. As the sleeves are about half length rather than full length, I still have hopes that the jacket will be finished in time for me to wear it to SAFF. I would like to have a few more hand knits to wear to SAFF, but despite the insane amount of knitting I do, I have found that I actually spend very little time knitting for myself. I knit mostly for others, and gift nearly all of my projects. I don't feel that this is necessarily bad, knitters in general seem to knit for others very often in very unselfish ways. However, my situation reminds me of the plumber who fixes leaks for a living, yet has leaky pipes in his/her own home. I shouldn't knit for others at the expense of myself. Like the loved ones I take care of by wrapping in hand knits, I need to take care of my self as well. I think that caring for others at the expense of oneself is a trap that many care givers fall into, and we have to be reminded at times to spend time on ourselves.

In the spirit of doing for myself I cast on the bag pictured above. The basic pattern is The French Market Bag from Knitty. I made the same bag for my sister in a more subdued color scheme, and have wanted one for myself ever since. The color work shown in this bag is my own doing, and has been designed on the fly, by pulling scraps out of my bag and guessing by the amount available the design I can make. I am really loving this project, and am finding it calling my name when I should be finishing the Holly Jacket.