Such is Life as the Child of a Knitter

My children will resent me for this one day. :)

I was going to give this to a friend whose baby is due any day, but as it's not very small and quite warm, I've decided to keep it for ACC. I'll make a wee sweater out of blue cotton-ease for little baby to be.

It's another beautiful day here. The crocuses are almost done and the daffodils are starting. It looks like the Magnolia will be opening soon. Little Boy is sick today. Nothing like projectile vomitting to start the morning! He is feeling better now after quite a bit of sleeping and some Junior Mints.

More Garden Pictures

With sunshine and blue sky finally a reality, I am having a hard time knitting. Wee boy and I have been working a bit outside each day and I am loving seeing all of the spring color. I only have one bed left to clean off and then the spring clean-up is done!


I love JCC's fashion sense.


Are you supposed to cut the old foliage on Hellebores? Mine are beautiful but kinda ratty around the perimeter.


The first daffodil!


ACC in the sweater I made. (It fits well but the buttons are too small.)

Spring!

And a wee bit of knitting:

Blue Yellow Merino = Project Damnation

The blue/yellow Merino and I are just not getting along. First I made the Ribby Wrap Soaker and frogged it, next I started a simple hat for Chris and I am now going to frog it too. Blah. I really have no interest in starting anything warm and cozy as I don't want anyone to be able to wear them until next fall (this is pure dreaming as we will still have rogue snow in May). I'm thinking I'm just going to start cranking out soakers, sizing be damned, as they are quick and ACC will need them soon enough.

I was sick over the weekend and am now just plain grumpy. :(

Mud Season

It's still relatively cold out. (It would feel balmy except for the 70 degree warm-up that threw off our internal what-is-warm gauge.) But that doesn't stop JCC from enjoying the mud.



Wee girl is still sick.


Not much else is going on. JCC actually did print-outs yesterday. He has been interested in letters/reading from going to the Starfall site and yesterday we decided to print some out and try writing them. He still has a bit to go on the fine motor skills to write so I don't think I'm going to suggest it again. I also need someone left handed to show him how to hold a pencil. I did my best to approximate how my father writes and it seemed to be ok, but I think he could use some hands-on attention from another lefty. The whole thing felt a bit schoolish in my book which was just plain weird. I'm much more at home with the mud jumping part of childhood. :) Well, just as long as he takes the boots off before coming inside.

Yesterday it was Spring

And today it's back to winter. Normally I don't mind Cleveland winters as with all the snow they're usually quite pretty, however this year we have had little snow and it's just been gray and ugly. Bleh.

But yesterday it was 70 and sunny. JCC and I spent time outside in our short-sleeve shirts reveling in the blue sky. Even with a babe strapped to my chest I couldn't resist gardening and managed to clean off one wee bed back by the woods where I wouldn't have to pick up the leaves. Underneath the leaves some crocuses were starting to open so it was well worth it.

And now today . . .


Poor baby girl is quite sick (suspected RSV) and is sleeping even more than usual. It really sucks to see someone so young feel bad. :( Even with being sick she still smiles and tries to coo -- that bodes well for her temperament.

Knitting wise I'm making a boring hat for Chris. I had originally made a ribbed soaker (cloth diaper cover) but after having gauge issues and it turning out too small, I frogged it and noticed that the colors match Chris's winter coat very nicely. I had found a couple of cute patterns for hats, but they were dismissed as too childish. With that said, yesterday he asked if I could put a knot on top like on the kids' umbilical hats. :)

I'm not sure what to do about my gauge issues -- I knit really really loosely and can't seem to get my knitting to meet normal gauge ranges. Even going down to small needles (US 3) I'm getting 4 sts/in in worsted yarn. I guess the answer is that I'm going to have to start figuring out how many sts/in I want and then adapt the pattern.

My apologies for this rambley, tense challenged post. My mind is antsy this morning.

A New Sweater for JCC

It's made out of WoolEase Chunky (which I detest -- it splits horribly) from a Knit It! pattern. I took my time with the sewing on this one (Stitch 'n Bitch by my side) and it's much improved. I still need to work on making the increases look good, but it's a hell of a lot better than Chris's Flame Sweater.




My attempt to catch one of those first smiles.

I'm Feeling Strangely Domestic

I feel a bit like a 50s housewife today -- I made some cloth napkins, picked apart a chicken carcass to make chicken salad and organized my cookbooks. Most of this is inspired by my mother's visit -- she bought fabric and made us some table cloths and matching napkins. Our table has not held up well to the rigors of small children and looks vastly improved with its bright covers.

I do own a sewing machine (bought many years ago in a fit of who knows what) but had never broke it out of its box. Before I put it away again I figured I had better sew up the remaining fabric or it would languish un-cut until I purged my craft supplies. They don't look great (corners are blah) but they are usable. I would like to make a few more things -- pillows for our bed, curtains for the kids' room and hopefully this will inspire me.

In baby news, ACC is one month old today! The month flew by -- and she slept through most of it. She is such a different child than the little boy. I have spent a considerable portion of his 3.5 years trying to get him to sleep and with her I spend time trying to keep her awake. Let hope she continues her low needs status, it frees up time for the high needs one.

A Day in the Life of A 3.5 Year Old Boy

Today was the first day for the munchkins and me to be by ourselves. My mother left for Baltimore yesterday after a two week visit. :( I was rather scared but we had an abnormally good day.

JCC has recently figured out how to play navigate around the internet to his favorite sites (I set him up his own user profile with a list of his links) and he now enjoys doing that for a part of the day. As a homeschooler, I felt some initial guilt over this but have then resolved myself that as the spawn of two computer geeks it's in his destiny. Anyway, this is what his day looked like today:

Make Tinker Toy Airplane


Play Online


underwear "Mask"


The kid is too funny.

And now some knitting pics:

My stash


1 skein of each colorway I ordered from a 100purewool co-op. Gorgeous stuff.


2 soakers and a wet bag.


Part of the sweater I'm making for little man

Before and After

Before the Haircut


and After (ignore demon kitty Emma in the background)

Random Things

Baby Cashew will be three weeks old tomorrow. My mom is in town and that's been a tremendous relief. Just having someone to talk to other than a more demanding than normal three year old is a big help. I'm just starting to get back to doing a wee bit of knitting in the evening after Little Man goes to bed. I'm making another pair of felted mocs (sigh) for my father-in-law. My mother-in-law loves hers and FIL requested his own. No big deal, but I'm using stash yarn leftovers and I think I'm going to be a couple of rows short. DAMN IT. That drives me nuts.

Next I want to make something for my midwife -- maybe a scarf. I intend on using more stash yarn for this. So I'm not sure if the colors will be what she'd normally wear, but hopefully she'll enjoy it. After that I want to tackle Anouk as it's so damn cute. Hopefully by then my mondo order of Uruguayan yarn will be in (another co-op, but not Malabrigo this time) and I'll get started on a sweater for me, random baby things and a hat/scarf set for Chris.

While I was busy obsessing over my late baby, I missed posting about my one year of knitting! I taught myself (via online videos) over MLK weekend last year on a trip to Baltimore. What a great year it's been -- knitting provides me with so much! Relief from the monotony of being a SAHM, something to obsess over and dream about, tactile stimulation, new friends, etc. It's great -- everyone should knit. :)

Baby Cashew is a girl!

She was born at home on Sunday. We are all doing well, though wee girl needs to reverse her days and nights. Big brother is very sweet to his sister though a bit of a rascal to everyone else. Overall, we've all handled it well. Chris is home for one more week and then my parents will be up. :)

Still Pregnant

For those of you who are checking up on that. More and more cxs, but nothing to indicate the time is near. Maybe Baby Cashew is really an Aquarius and is holding out for Saturday. (That's what I'm telling myself anyway.)

Nothing too exciting knitting wise, I did sew buttons on some sweaters I had completed and am seaming my little sweater. Who knew one little sweater could have so many seams?

Lastly, I just pinched another finger! This year has been a rough one for my digits! This one already has bruising. Poor little fingers.

And IT is Finished

Ta da:


And now some baby knitting:




I'm still pregnant . . .

Do I have bad karma now?

Because of course I didn't get everything done. I did finish the satchel this morning:


I think the recipient liked it. It was a trade for a bunch of wee baby diapers. A huge bag full, hopefully it won't be a giant munchkin and we'll get a couple months worth of use out of them. I did finish Chris's slipper. The Evil Sweater is still a pile here on my desk. We don't have much planned for tomorrow so I should make some progress on it. I think I'm going to rip the bunting out. It is way too small (I had two skeins worth of HPY and was adjusting the size of the bunting to fit the yarn), even with using different yarn for the sleeves/hood. I think I may just buy a bunting and make longies out of the HPY.

So now I am itching to knit something fun. I looked through my books/magazines and didn't see anything calling my name that doesn't require a yarn purchase. Maybe I'll just make a quick sweater/hat/bootie set for Baby Cashew out of some of that Joann's yarn. I need to make another pair of slippers for my FIL as I felted his way too much, but I just can't bring myself to knit another pair right now. Ug -- knitting ennui. Or maybe, life ennui as I'm just waiting for the wee babe to make its appearance. 11 days to go!

Ensuring Good Knitting Karma for 2006

In order to appease the knitting gods I have decided to finish all WIPs by this Saturday night. This shouldn't be too hard -- one more bastard slipper, side seams of the Evil Sweater, a baby bunting and the satchel. The satchel is currently 20 miles away so this does pose a bit of a problem. Slightly inebriated Chris was entrusted with putting stuff in the car after last night's Christmas dinner at his brother's and instead left them sitting in a nice neat pile. Leaving presents and tupperware is one thing, leaving knitting is treason!

It was a nice dinner with a mish mash of the normal American stuff and traditional Lithuanian things. My brother-in-law made some kick-ass mushroom gravy. I could have ate the whole boat full. Yum. After dinner I helped my niece (10 years old) to start knitting. I was very impressed that she kept at it for quite a few hours. I'm going to dig her out some bigger needles (these were 8s) and nicer yarn to encourage her. I found the slow-going nature of 8s to be intimidating at first and enjoyed making those first scarves on huge 17s, I hope she'll feel the same.

Today has been long -- little man is suffering from post-holiday let-down and is driving me nuts. Luckily he is already in his pjs (at his request) which I hope indicates he wants to go to sleep soon.

In Baby Cashew news, there is none. I am freaking huge but otherwise well and happy. I go to my chiro tomorrow just for a hip alignment. On Wednesday we have our home visit for the homebirth just to review the general plan. And that will be it until the munchkin decides to arrive. Chris and I both think it will be sometime the week before my due date (1/13).

Holiday Knitting

Well, some of it is done. There has been a bunch of rationalization as to what would be finished and what to skip. Oh well.

There are actually 3 pairs that look just like this, and another in a purple:


Ruffles Scarf:


Skull purse (Hello Yarn skull pattern, my bag pattern):


Skull purse with needle felted bow:


KNITTING LIST:

• Chris's sweater


• skull with bow tote


• ipod cozy


• 5 pairs of adult slippers


• ruffles scarf from Scarf Style


• another Miss Dashwood


• another satchel


• wee pair of baby slippers

So that's not too bad, the yarn for the satchel should be here soon, I can crank out the ipod cozy in a night and then I just have to sew the sweater. I think I can now allow myself to start something for Baby Cashew!

A Motivational (to myself) Update

Pictures coming soon. The KnitPicks Wool of the Andes slippers turned out very nice. Not nearly as thick as the others but definitely nicer looking. I just finished another Miss Dashwood for a friend's new baby (the last of the year!) And I have the bottom couple of inches of the skull tote finished. Chris had the good idea that instead of doing the bow in intarsia on top of the head I should cut out a felt bow out of another color and stitch it on. I also got the yarn for the Ruffles scarf -- it is the Andean Silk Twist from KnitPicks -- it is dreamy. I would like to make a Clapotis out of it!

KNITTING LIST:

• Chris's sweater


• skull with bow tote


• ipod cozy


• 5 3 pairs of adult slippers


• ruffles scarf from Scarf Style


• another Miss Dashwood


• another satchel


• wee pair of baby slippers

I finished the knitting on the Evil Sweater

Er, still have the seaming and neck to do, but the majority of it is done. I want to have a party! I'm hoping to have it together by Thursday.

I just checked my knitting list and I'm supposed to have 5 pairs of slippers finished this week. Hmmm. I am quite sure that is not going to happen. Now I just have to figure out what family members I like best. ;)

KNITTING LIST:

• Chris's sweater


• skull with bow tote


• ipod cozy


• 5 pairs of adult slippers


• ruffles scarf from Scarf Style


• another Miss Dashwood


• another satchel


• wee pair of baby slippers

Finished 2 sleeves, another to go

Why? Because the first one is HUGE! I don't know what I was thinking -- it's obviously really big. Maybe I was just so involved in the intarsia that I didn't let my mind focus on this shortcoming. The first one is about 2 inches bigger at the bottom. Here's a pic, the big one's on the bottom:



Next pic, wee baby slippers. The recipient (or recipient's mama) of the wee fuzzy feet requested a pair for a friend.



Little man and I have had a pretty good day. So far we've made bread (haven't baked it yet,) felted the above slippers, made cookies (too flat) and played around with his playsilks. We had a great time bouncing around to Fat Boy Slim. OK, he was bouncing, I was sitting and laughing. We were each holding an end to a huge playsilk and he was jumping like crazy on his trampoline. Sonic Youth came on next and it killed the mood. :) He has definite music tastes, so far Johnny Cash, Elvis, Fat Boy Slim, bouncy reggae and Moby are well liked. It makes a mama proud. Now I just have to work on getting him to like Tom Waits.

KNITTING LIST:

• Chris's sweater


• skull with bow tote


• ipod cozy


• 5 pairs of adult slippers


• ruffles scarf from Scarf Style


• another Miss Dashwood


• another satchel


• wee pair of baby slippers

Miss Dashwood

Isn't she sweet? I love it! Basically a night of knitting (earflaps and ties the next) and fun knitting at that.

We drove back from Baltimore yesterday -- a nice visit. Yorick went to my SIL, who I think liked it. My mother modeled her vest -- we both still like the yarn but aren't sure of the neck. She ended up pinning the two pieces together with a broach. I also think the vest should have been narrower through the shoulders -- we are not the type that needs shoulder pads. Amazingly, I did zero knitting while there. I must be gearing up for December.

Over the next month I need to complete the following:

• Chris's sweater


• skull with bow tote


• ipod cozy


• 5 pairs of adult slippers


• ruffles scarf from Scarf Style


• another Miss Dashwood


• another satchel


• wee pair of baby slippers

Of course, now that I'm only 6 weeks away from Baby Cashew's due date I have some serious nesting urges to knit for my own wee one. I bought yarn today (Chris, you didn't read that) to make a bunting (a violet shade of HPY in worsted) and I have designs on making a Pinwheel blanket out of some Lion's Brand Polar stuff I bought on clearance. I think I'm going to have to stop sleeping to get it all done.

In good baby news, the wee one was pronounced head down and anterior today by the CNM. Little man was a very long labor thanks to his posterior position so this is great news. Now the little bugger just needs to stay that way. I also ordered our birth kit today (we're planning another homebirth) and feel like I'm pretty ready for the babe. Well, minus the missing bunting. For some reason I feel like this baby just needs a bunting.

A Felted Yorick

Yorick is done (need to get the scissors to the wonky nose openings)! I felted just so the stitch definition was gone from the knitting side. Still, it is quite dense. I love it! I have some merino that I bought earlier in the year that knits as described, but this stuff is almost a worsted. Regardless, it is lovely.

Miss Dashwood is blocking and then I will assemble and photograph.

I'm Over the Knitting Blahs

It was a good knitting weekend -- I finished the sleeve for the evil sweater, knit about 3/4s of Yorick and finished the hat portion of Miss Dashwood (earflaps and ties to come).

I chose to knit Yorick in the KnitPicks Merino and man, do I love this yarn. So much so that I decided to do Miss Dashwood just to get my little fingers on some more of it. The former is to be felted and the latter is just a baby hat so pilling hopefully won't be much of a problem. It is scrumptiously soft.

Non-knitting wise, I managed to pinch two of my fingers in the garage door. I had thought I had broken them but they came out with dents. After some weeping at the sink (holding them under cold water) I took some Arnica and amazingly the bruising that was there yesterday is already gone and they don't look any worse for wear. Amazing stuff! I was sure I was going to lose at least one of my nails.

Finished photos to come in a day or so!

Miss Dashwood 

For a wee babe to be, just modeled by the boy.

Yorick 

Finally, Branching Out is finished! It really was a wonderful pattern. I had thought about giving it to someone else, but after working on it for this long I have decided to keep it. I love it.  

Miscellaneous Photos and a Book Recommendation

KnitPicks Order:

Didn't I say I wasn't going to knit with worsted weight black yarn again? I must have a slow learning curve.


I love this book! It has such unique patterns in it.

Wee boy having fun in the box:




Finished baby/big sister gifts:


And lastly, the big dog:


Finally, Charms for the Easy Life by Kaye Gibbons is a wonderful book! It's about 3 generations of healer women living in NC in the early to mid-20th Century North Carolina. A quick read but fun and touching.

Laurie Anderson Rocks

The show last night was great! It was more of a poetry reading to spacey music with viola interludes than a concert, but it was beautiful and thought provoking. I'm very glad we went. If it comes to your area you should go!

We have decided we're not going to see Bauhaus. :( It's in a general admission venue i.e. standing room only and I don't think I can stand for 1.5 hours this pregnant even to hear Peter Murphy's beautiful voice. I'm kinda bummed but figure I don't need to be in a smoky bar anyway.

Still blah about my knitting too. I'm making more slippers but I really need to get to work on the Evil Sweater and Branching Out. I am completely procrastinating on both of them.

23 Hanks of Yarn Coming My Way

Wow, Knitpicks is fast! Chris break out the ball winder. :)

Good Music, Not So Good Knitting

Last night at SnB was a bust -- I finished one of the remaining two slippers before running out of yarn. I started a swatch for the Tattoo Sweater in SnBN but didn't have small enough needles to achieve gauge. Then I switched to Branching Out but I can't knit lace and have lovely feminist discussions so I will be ripping that out too. I also stared mournfully at the Evil Sweater sleeve and had everyone admire the flames before I told them of it's limited future. Blah, a not good night.

Today I placed my KnitPicks order for all of my holiday gifts -- one skull tote, one pair skull slippers, 2 pairs plain slippers, one Yorik, one King of All Wild Things crown. And then I have some other stuff too but I'm just using my existing Knitting Mill sale yarn for that.

In better news, fall is proving to be a banner season for good music. Dead Can Dance last month, Laurie Anderson this Sunday and then thanks to Laura, Bauhaus in 2 weeks. Sweet. I'm am anxious to get out as I don't think we'll be doing much concert going with a new wee one. Only 10 weeks until we are a family of 4 (well, 9 if you count the extra furry members)!

The Evil Sweater is Truly Evil

I really think something is off in the pattern for the sleeves. The one sleeve is quite long and I don't have nearly the amount of decreases done. Bastard. I'm thinking about just starting on the 2nd one and doing it to feel and then re-doing this one. I also feel like Stephanie of The Yarn Harlot as I cannot find my freaking tape measure. Where did the damn thing go? I have resorted to using Chris's construction tape measure. Grumble grumble.

I didn't do any knitting yesterday as I was annoyed with the Evil Sweater. Today I am making that last pair of children's slippers and then we'll be felting away. I have my Stitch 'n Bitch tonight and I'm not sure what I'm going to make. Maybe I'll start on another bag.