swatches

Once upon a time, I promised pictures of my yarn swatches for the mystery sweater project. Finally, here they are.




After blocking, they've a gauge of 3 stitches per inch. Not bad, but, not what I thought I was getting. (Or hoped I was getting...) I ripped out what I had done with the sweater, and I'll start knitting on it again soon.

Also, I'm starting on a pair of basic socks. y'know, the knit anywhere plain socks. I'm using the basic plan out of Ann Budd's Book of Patterns, and Alpaca Sox yarn from Classic Elite Yarns. Pretty yarn, yes? it's a neutral varigated color.

promised pictures

www.flickr.com

Yarn splurge

Remember I was talking about the yarn that was sorta a present, that I wanted to keep? The Alpaca sox? well, the recipient, my Aunt R, was quite happy with the socks, and so I kept the yarn for myself. i think it's addicting, I had to go back to Mass Ave Knit Shop on Friday and get more of it. (it was all on sale!) So, here's the list of what I brought home with me.

• 1 skein Alpaca Sox, in dark greys
• 1 skein Alpaca Sox, in grey, blue, pink
• 2 skeins Noro Daria
• 2 skeins of Berrocco Ultra Alpaca, 1 dark and 1 light purple
• 2 balls of Crystal Palace Yarns Merino Stripes in dark grey
• 4 balls of Crystal Palace Yarns Merino Stripes in a green/purple

The sock yarn, will eventually be socks, of course. The Ultra Alpaca is for a baby sweater( or two. we'll see) from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac. And the Merino Stripes is for two shawls. yep. One for Easter (Heh. Let's see if I actually get that done by Easter...) and one just because.

When I write it down, it seems like a lot of yarn, but, I resisted temptation. I did NOT buy the $50 skein of hand-dyed lace weight, or the $30 silk yarn, no matter how much I was tempted.

And then, I still have projects in the works...The bulky weight sweater I hope I can get mostly done next week. Clessidra is going to be in the works for a while. and, I'm almost done with the baby hat kit!

"There's no place like home..."

It was a very nice holiday, but it's so good to be back home. Home with the husband, children, and pets. Hmm...now that I think about it, we've a pretty full house.

Before we left, on Sunday morning, we opened up our Christmas presents here. I had all my Christmas presents early (1,2), but everybody else had stuff. The two kidlets had their stockings full, then Little Sister had a toy that she's wanted for a while, and Little J had some new toys too. Big J's presents were the Halo Orange Box computer game, and a car adapter for his mp3 player. .hehee...he was absolutely tortured that he didn't have time to install and play the game before we left for Kansas.

Kansas was good. It had snowed on Saturday, but we missed the worst of it by flying in to Kansas City on Sunday. (the plane was late, and i got us lost driving to Wichita, but, we got to our hotel safely, so it's all good, right?) Kansas road crews (and most businesses, not including the hotel we stayed at...) know how to scrape the snow and liberally salt the roads.

Let's see...Monday, we sorta hung out, picked up some last minute presents, relaxed. Tuesday was Christmas at my Uncle's and his wife's. Everybody was there: My aunt R and her husband, my uncle T, my dad, Other Sister, and Other Sister's friend. Trust me, when you add in me, Big J, Little J, Little Sister, and two toy poodle dogs, it was busy, busy, busy. Aunt D cooked all of dinner, and it was wonderful! my fav is the German sausages, and the mashed potatoes, and the chicken...

Have I mentioned that the adults had picked names for presents? (darn it, we forgot to do that for next year.) well, that didn't count for the kids (which was only Little J and Little Sister) so they got beacoup presents. Little Sister got a lot of gift cards, but Little J has toys that beep, make farm animal sounds, and, a horse big enough for him to ride on. Really! He wasn't too interested in it at the time, but he was suffering from toy overload at the time. That furry horsy is getting mailed to Indiana. It would have been difficult to take it home on the airplane with us...use your imagination ;)

I'll add pictures tomorrow. Cheerio!

Breast-feeding mom wins appeals court victory.

This isn't new news, but I just ran across it tonight. Having read about the background to her case, I would probably have been just as annoyed as the National Board of Examiners with the demands of this woman, but her case does provide an important standard for conditions for breastfeeding moms.

Holiday plans

Once again this year, we traveling for the holidays. This time, we're flying back to Kansas for Christmas. The little boy is interested in being on an airplane again (I think. It's a little understated) but I am just glad that this time we only have one 1-hr flight. We'll be flying out of Indianapolis and going to the Kansas City International airport. Oh, and did I mention that we're leaving tomorrow? I'm not packed yet! Normally, i'm all packed by the day before, with a detailed list of everything that is left to do. Today...well, i'm tired out. Part of it was I did shopping with Little J in tow on Thursday and Friday, and probably part is being seven months pregnant. It's not such a crisis that i'm freaking out, not really, because we're not leaving until the afternoon. And we went to Mass this evening, so I'll have all morning to pack.

Ah, but what do I pack? I have decided that I don't need nearly as much stuff to take along on the plane. I am taking my loverly little 'puter (I'm typing on it now, by the way) and I'm putting essential baby supplies in my carry on, but looking back at the last flight, where we had the baby bag, the laptop bag, the stroller, and a carseat, well, I'm trying to have the least amount of stuff that I'm personally carrying as possible. With that in mind, my knitting, and most of our snack foods, will be going into a checked bag. I never have time for knitting on the plane, when I'm busy entertaining Little J (and sometimes Big J, too.). I'll get it out for our 3 hr drive from K.C. to Wichita, though. Definitely!

I'm taking Clessidra along. :) If you read on Ravelry, i was thinking about frogging my stocking and starting over at a different gauge. However, after doing a swatch on #3 needles, and straining my brain over a pattern at that gauge, I decided that i really liked the Clessidra pattern the way it was working out. The pic (I have to figure out how to edit pics on this computer.maybe just load them to Flickr?) is how far I've gotten. I've did 5 sets of decreases, and am about to start the rapid decreases for the ankle shaping. (Is that what it's called?)

I'm also taking along my baby hat kit. That's a simple project, even with the colorwork. err...I'm also taking along a skein of Alpaca Sox yarn, and a pattern...it's a possible Christmas present. But, if the recipient is happy with the other present then I'll be able to keep the yarn all for myself! MuHuHahahaha! ::cough, cough:: sorry, mad scieentist got stuck in my throat.

Speaking of yarn (to imitate someone else's segues), Mass Ave Knit Shop is going to have an after Christmas yarn sale. All yarn at least 30% off, and some upto 50% off. Niiice. So, if you're in the area right after Christmas, it might behoove us, as knitters with stash habits to support, to drop in and, well, at least LOOK at the yarn languishing on the shelves. I'm going to :)

contest, go look!

Raven, on Trampled by Geese blog, is having a contest for her 100 post. She wants to know why people read (and re-read) a blog. Go over there, let her know, and tell her I sent you :)

A Knitter's Holiday Wish:

"Happy holidays, everyone! May your knitting never unravel, may the
Great Frog leave you alone and may your stash increase in the new
year. :-)"

----Kathleen from Southside Indy Knitters

new toy

I mentioned awhile back that Big J ordered a new computer for himself. Well, we had also decided that I needed a new computer too. But where he wanted one able to play all the new games, I just wanted one to surf the internet, read my ebooks, and type a little bit. And, it had to be as small as possible. Big J found one, and it's here! my lovely little toy for Christmas.

It's an Asus Eee PC, in black. It's a little tiny thing, smaller than some hardback books, and it only weighs about 2 lbs. wonderful! I love it very very much. It's small enough to stick in my bag (or diaperbag), it has a very readable screen. The only thing odd is that it runs a version of Linux, instead of Windows. I know almost nothing about Linux, so this may be a learning experience. ;) heehee, now I'll be able to be on Ravelry all the time! oh, and Little J thinks it's a new toy just for him, too.

Signups Open for HotCocoa Swap!

Signups for the Hot Cocoa Swap are open. Go -->here<-- for details. Without going into details, it sounds absolutely yummy! It's going to involve hot cocoa, yarn, stitch markers, and a cute stuffed little critter. hehee... do i have patterns for cute stuffed critters? somewhere...

Switching projects

I've picked up Clessidra again. I have really really wanted to work on them some more lately, and I've convinced myself that I should. Part of it is that the bulky gauge sweater is really boring. So far, it's been endless (okay, so it only seems endless) stockinette, round and around. And, i haven't been particularly happy with Little Sister lately. The other part, is that I'm tired of Christmas, and I want to work on something not designated for Christmas. Yesterday, it was time to start the sleeves on the sweater, and I just couldn't get the number of stitches needed to fit on the circular needle. They wouldn't fit, no matter what. I had a brief moment of total despair, sitting motionless, but it's okay, I snapped out of it. Unfortunately, I won't be able to do those sleeves until I get dpns. Anybody have size 10 dpns? But, today, when I wanted to knit, I dug into my knitting bag to find my Clessidra stocking. Yay! I've did a little more than two repeats of the main cable pattern today, which really feels like I've accomplished something.

For all the other pregnant (or previously pregnant) ladies out there...

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/12/12/pregnancy.balance.ap/index.html

It's good to know that evolution keeps me from falling on my face. yep. (except for that time when I tripped over the crack in the sidewalk...but we won't mention that)

new yarn

Today, i took the first step toward my last Christmas Project. I want to make the "Hurry-Up sweater" from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitting Almanac. And today, I swatched for that sweater. The main color is going to be a grey, with hand-dyed blue-green-purple accents. I found the yarn for it on ebay, want to see?





The grey is a recycled wool from spinners11702. 1 strand, no ply, bulky weight, almost two pounds. The hand-dyed yarn is 4ply bulky weight, 1 pound of yarn, from dannettetaylor. Aren't the colors gorgeous? But I thnk I may have paid too much for the yarn. Yes, it's pretty, but the colors aren't consistent (light spots where the dye didn't take) and the yarn in the skein before I wound it into a ball had spots where it had lightly felted together (Started to felt? Can you be a little bit felted? Is that like a little bit pregnant?). I didn't notice this before now, because it has been living in the bag it came in. I didn't want to get distracted by the pretty yarn ;)

Finished pic of Christmas in Tallinn stocking! Yay! NO MORE STOCKINGS! at least for this year. On this stocking, my gauge was a little loose on the foot, and I made the foot longer before I did the decreases.

When I held them both up before Little Sis, she said that she likes this one better (hmm...is it that she thinks it's bigger? Number of presents is not determined by foot size...) so this will be hers. I have vague ideas of duplicate stitching initials onto each child stocking, but that may wait until next year.

I finished the 2nd!

Quick post: I finished the second Christmas stocking tonight! Pictures tomorrow...

I love my husband!

Big J is spoiling me terribly. Here's pics:



The first picture, with Little J "helping", is the flowers that Big J had delivered yesterday, for our anniversary. Very pretty yellow daisies and yellow/reddish roses, with a charm that says "Live, Love, Laugh". And if you were here I'd let you smell them, they smell so nice!

The second photo, with the teddy bear, is the flowers that came to the door today! My goodness! They're little blue snapdragon-ish flowers, absolutely darling. These are for my birthday :)

Isn't Big J nice?

And did I tell you, I already have my Christmas present? We picked up what I wanted early, so that I could use it. It's a set of Calphalon (spelling?) cookware. Is soo nice! Practical, and it makes me very happy.

The best laid plans...

I've thought of another knitting project that I MUST do soon. Mittens! For Little J. The ones he had last winter have mysteriously lost one of their pair. He and I went outdoors this afternoon because he wanted to play in the snow. He was fine for five minutes of so, but then he fell down, had snow all over his hands, and came crying to his mommy b'cause his hands were cold and wet. We immediately went inside so I could get him dry and warm, and guess what? He wanted to go back outside again!

I was looking at the pair of socks that I made for him, and I think that yarn (Opal sock yarn) will work up for mittens too. They won't be too think...but they will be warm.

and to finish the quote:

...of mice and men, often g'ang astray.

pregnancy progress

I don't have gestational diabetes! yay! well, at least not yet.

The obstetrician's office gave me a call last week, to tell me the good news. I, unfortunately, was sleeping at the time(hey, naps are important), so they left a message on the voice mail. This was sorta a shock, as I had been expecting the glucose tolerance test to be positive. It had been when I was pregnant with Little J, and being diagnosed with it previously increases (waaay increases) the likelihood of having diabetes with the next pregnancy. (My blood sugar was a bit worrisome through out that pregnancy. I survived by eating a lot of meat and veggies, and very little carbs.)

But I don't! Yay!

Progress Report

Here's a new picture for y'all. It's my second "Christmas in Tallinn" Christmas Stocking this year.

Main color is white, and the pattern is in red. I can see the pattern much better on this one than on the first one. Wierd. I think it's just because of the color, my brain sees white as a background color. Although, the tension is finally getting to a point where I'm happy with it.

I've got two repeats of the pattern finished, and I need to do one more repeat before turning the heel. On a good day, I can get one repeat finished in a day, so I'll be able to start on that heel on Tuesday, or maybe on Wednesday.

N.B. If you like Neopets, remember that the Advent Calender has started. Free presents everyday this month!

Not a good day

And I know, it's all in my head. I had a plan of things that I wanted to do:

• Drop off items at Goodwill
• Library
• Put up Christmas Lights
• naptime
• grocery shopping

It wasn't a very long list, but, I thought it would be nice to get some of it done. I knew hubby was planning on staying at home and waiting for his new computer, (Alienware. Nice 'puters, lousy customer service these days.) and I was okay with going out and about with just myself and the kiddos.

I should have mentioned all this to Big J ahead of time.

Big J and I woke up early, and spent some time snuggling while the Little J watched cartoons in the living room. Somehow, by the time I had a shower and was dressed, it was almost noon, and I thought, "Okay, there will be plenty of time after lunch to do my errands." Suuure. Big J wanted to use his grill one more time before winter, but...the charcoal wouldn't light. Maybe it was the 40 degree temperature, who knows. So, hubby dearest cooked the dead cow indoors. (Big J always forgets that when I met him, I was semi-vegetarian. Only chicken or fish, not cow or pork. Okay, so I like red meat when I'm getting sick, but normally, it's not particularly appealing. But Big J thinks I should like it! ewww...) By the time it was cooked and eaten, it was almost 2:00.

I was cleaning up after lunch, and I was thinking if I could get anything done, or if I could leave the kiddos with Big J while I went to run errands, when I suddenly see him ransacking boxes. (Yes, we still have unpacked boxes from when we moved. Yes, we have too much junk. However, I did empty out three boxes today by repacking the ones Big J emptyed out) Big J decided to reformat his laptop, and half-way thru, realized that he didn't have the product key for his Windows installation disk. Ooops. I don't think we ever had the product key for that sucker, but he is sure that it's somewhere...anyway, at that point, i didn't think it would be a good thing to stress him with the little one at the same time. Then, Big J tried to put in the Windows installation discs that we DO have product codes for - I think he fatally confused the computer.

Then it was 5, and time to start supper, and now...I think I'll go to bed.

We'll take the laptop to BestBuy. Hopefully they can straighten it out.

I found a new swap!

I've been looking for a new swap to participate in, and I've found one! It was on the ClicketyClack blog. It's a Hot Chocolate/yarn swap, which sounds really good with all this cold wet weather. Sign-ups run from Dec 16-31, or until they get 100 players. Nifty! And, the packages are supposed to go out the end of January, which is perfect timing, about a month before the new baby is expected.

Also, the swap is having a contest, now, before the sign ups start. So, if you want to enter the contest, head over to the swap, and let them know that I sent you :)

Childhood memories

I'm terribly grumpy tonight, so, I'm going to write about something totally unrelated to today.

Sesame Street! (Okay, so Little J did watch it today, but still...) Sesame Street is a TV show that I remember watching from when I was really little. My mom used to say, that when I was only about 2 or 3, she could put me in front of the TV, and be certain that I wouldn't move. (Very important, it was on a farm, and sometimes she absoulutely needed to go outside without children.) And later, I remember watching it during when my brother and sisters were little, too.

I was on the phone with a friend, and she was talking to me about seeing an article about Sesame Street. They're putting warning labels on the DVD's of old episodes!

on Volumes 1 and 2, “Sesame Street: Old School” is adults-only: “These early ‘Sesame Street’ episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.”

While I appreciate Sesame Street's commitment to educating children, and, true, standards have changed since the 1970's, this is taking politically correct waaaay too far.

Here is the corrected Clessidra. Yay! If you compare it to the first photo, there is now another crossing of the cables.

Clessidra progress (sorta)

Last night at Knitting at Panera's, I ripped out the cable section on my stocking. Ouch! It was painful to see all the loose threads in my knitting. But, the knitters gave lots of support, and, it all turned out right in the end. Whew! Thank goodness. The cable section now has almost two repeats of the pattern, b'cause I found my mistake and corrected it this time. I'll put up a picture of the corrected stocking later today. This may be the last I knit on Clessidra until after Christmas. Or, perhaps I can pick it up again when we travel to KS for Christmas.

Also on the knitting front, I'm hoping to cast on for my second Christmas in Tallin christmas stocking today. I need to get that started. After that, I have one more christmas project to work on, and it's going to be a doozy.

In about 15 minutes, Little J and I need to hit the road. He's got an appointment to get a booster shot. It's for Hepatits A, which isn't a common one in this country, but he had needed it for when we traveled to Thailand. And since he recieved the first shot, I'm darn well going to see that he gets the booster for permanent immunity. Someday, remind me to tell you about the wierd vaccines that I've had...

Thanksgiving Travel

I am glad to be home again, with almost a month before we travel to Kansas for Christmas, and we had a really nice time in Wisconsin. When we drove up, it was cold, rainy, and snowy, but Thanksgiving itself and the Friday and Saturday were nice. Cold, but nice.

As I put in the previous post (I thought I'd separate them out) I did get some knitting done. I was pretty actively directing (doing directions?) while we were driving thru Chicago (coming and going), and my knitting in the dark is limited to simple stockinette and ribbing, so I didn't get as much time in the car as I had thought I would.

Thanksgiving itself was very nice. We spent the day with BigJ's sister (SisterJ!) and her family. Her husband cooked a wonderful turkey dinner (BigJ wants me to fix the butternut squash risotto. must find recipe...) and Little J loved hanging out with her big kids. Me, except for the time spent eating, I plopped on the couch and worked on my Clessidra knitting. Little Sister spent Thursday and Friday nights over at her house, so Big J and I had the hotel room all to ourselves. Well, while the little one was asleep.

Friday, Big J and I did touristy things. We drove around Kenosha, mostly. We found Fiddlehead Yarns, a LYS I'd seen on Knitmap.com, and I shopped. Big J was feeling a bit left out of the shopping experience, so we drove around looking for a shop he wanted to buy something at. Can you believe, Kenosha dosen't have any major Bookstores? At least, we didn't find any. We DID find a toystore. The Learning Express. Wow, that place was fun. Little J was occupied with the toy dinosaurs, so the husband and I took turns looking at everything else. Eventually, we left with a stack of goodies. Some things are for Christmas, and some aren't.

My friend Fleur, and her neice, B, came down from Green Bay to see me. Yay! I hadn't seen Fleur in ages, so this was really really nice. We went and visited the Kenosha Dinosaur Museum, and the Kenosha Public Museum, then had supper at SisterJ's house. we ate Turkey Day leftovers, of course! :) BigJ and I drove Fleur and B to Milwaukee, so they could catch a bus back to Green Bay. We had an interesting time getting there...good thing BigJ and Fleur insisted we leave early. Let's say, if I could remember where everything I saw was, I would be able to give you a detailed tour of downtown Milwaukee. And then it took BigJ and me an hour to get OUT of Milwaukee, because we managed to get lost. Oh well.

We came back on Saturday, and I was just exhausted. I'm feeling better today, and tomorrow, Little J and I will be in our ordinary schedule. Hope y'all had a good holiday too!

Knitting Progress

I didn't get as much knitting done as I had hoped. Watching Little J is a full time occupation, and I found out that co-pilot (while driving a car) can be a very active position. (Chicago and Milwaukee are confusing! Especially in the dark!) However, here's what we have...

First up, Christmas in Tallin Stocking #1. This has been done for awhile, but I didn't have a finished pic of it. I think on the next one I'll do, I'll make the foot a bit longer. The pattern was done in fingering(?) weight yarn, and I didn't know how long I should knit it in this worsted weight.

Side 1:
Side 2:

And, the Sage Clessidra Stockings. I worked on these on Wednesday. I can work ribbing in the dark! Not the rest of it, though. I did try. But on Thanksgiving I had several hours that I worked on the pattern. I was very impressed with myself, until I reached the 23 row of the pattern. umm....i'm no longer full of myself. The main cable pattern isn't where it was supposed to be. And, I think it will make an obvious difference when I knit the second stocking. So, I'm going to undo the main cable section and reknit it. Just the cable section, b'cause I don't want to rip the entire thing.



And, my beginning of Yarn Harlot's Unoriginal Hat. If you're looking for it on Ravelry, I'm calling it the "Cool Kid's Hat". I haven't did very much (I started it after I realized I had a problem with Clessidra) but I think the gauge is working out okay, even with larger needles than the pattern called for.

WI - Kenosha

We dropped in at Fiddlehead Yarns, and they were very nice. There was a small group in the back knitting (I think a class) who laughed at my Little J going stomp, stomp, stomp down the hallway. And, when I was paying for my stuff, talking to the sister of the woman of owned the store (No, I didn't get any names :( ) I felt like an absolute idiot after I asked her if she knit. Duh! She had been casting on for something when we walked in. What can I say, it's an example of my mouth running off before my brain kicks into gear. Hope she dosen't think I'm too much of a silly. But the store was lovely! Small, but full of wonderful yarns, and delightful kits and notions. And, a larger-than-expected selection of knitting books.

I would like to say, it wasn't where I expected it was. On KnitMap.com, the map showed it on Hwy 50...not there. We had to go south several blocks before we actually found it on the corner of 75th St. It's in the same building as U.S. Mobile. It shares the side entrance with the cell phone store - I wonder what they think about the knitters passing thru? The parking is either in the front, along the street, or, in the back of the store, in a church (wierd looking church! Part is up on stilts!) parking lot.

I picked up a copy of E.Z.'s Knitter Almanac. I would have liked to get it at Clementine's in Franklin, but I needed the pattern for a December Christmas project (Hurry Up Sweater), and Cami just wasn't sure when she would get it in. Also, I tried to find the needles I need for the Yarn Harlot's hat. Oh, they had the needles, but, my brain, for some reason, thought I needed 10 mm needles. What do I actually need? The pattern calls for 7mm. That is, #10 needles are needed, not #15(10mm). Pbththth! My brain has been doing this a lot this weekend. Knitting dyxlesia? And, this darling little kit for a child's hat called my name. It's from bullywoolies, and is adorable. Shouldn't take too long to knit up, either.

Back to that swatch...

A while back, I had knitted up a swatch of my hummingbird Louet Gems. Today, I took 15 minutes to sit down and measure it. On #1 needles (sorry, I don't know for sure if they are 1's or 1 1/2's) I have 29-30 stitches per 4 inches. I knew I knit tightly, but this is ridiculous! The recommended gauge is 20-24 stitches. If I get the same guage in the sage Louet (I should, but I'm going to swatch to make sure) then I think it will work fine for Clessidra. They'll be very solid stockings, though!

Oh, and Top Hat? thanks for the comment. I do like Wisconsin, I went to college for two years up there, I just know how cold it can get for Thanksgiving. And I hate being cold :(

Next expedition

Will begin tomorrow. After Little sister gets home from school, we'll be driving up to Wisconsin. (I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. I still have a list of things that I have to do...and with the girl not telling me that she still had to finish packing until we got home from the shopping tonight, not terribly happy, either.) We're visiting my sil and her family for Turkey day. Hmmm...next year, how about everybody come to our place? Honestly, I'd rather cook. I LIKE cooking...and i really do not like traveling while pregnant.

I've got two different knitting projects I'm taking along. One, is the Clessidra stockings from Knitty. I've got a lovely sage green yarn (Louet gems) that I just got from Cami at Clementine's Dry Goods tonight. Well, I picked up the extra skeins she was holding for me tonight. I originally had purchased two skeins of it, but at the time, I didn't know what I wanted to make with it. Ashley (? hope i got her name right.) has been working on a pair of Clessidra for a while now at Panera knitting, and I finally decided that I want a pair for myself. I'm hoping, that once I get the pattern started, I'll be able to do it without thinking too much. Good for knitting in the car.

The second project is the Yarn Harlot's unoriginal hat. (Oops. Just realized I need to get needles for this one...) I've got some lovely Rowan Spray super bulky yarn, that i've been wondering what to do with it. Well, some people may be getting hat and neckwarmer sets for Christmas! If I can only find the needles...

And, not least, my other sister, I haven't forgotten your birthday! I need to mail your present after this week, but, I have one for you, and it will get to you. Happy Birthday!

Oh, and I'll try to do a photo dump of Little J cuteness after we get back from WI.

Finished Stocking #1!!

Finished up with Christmas Stocking #1 tonight at Panera's! Yay! Look at it, dosen't it look like it can hold lots of goodies?

Pre-Thanksgiving expedition

I am so glad that one of the November excursions is over with. It was nice being in Kansas, and seeing all the family, but I am so exhausted. so tired. I didn't do any practical knitting, but the half skein of Noro I stuck in my bag at the last minute may have saved my sanity. I've just been doing 2x2 ribbing, around and around....it's showing off the color changes in the Noro very nicely. Now, I just have to figure out what to do with it.

We'll be returning to Kansas for Christmas. There will be more family stuff, more staying at the same hotel (which, although the people were nice, the facilities themselves have serious issues. Not the least is the double bed, which is way too small to fit Big J, Little J, and me. Let's not mention the "high-speed internet".)

I was going to give y'all a little travelogue of our plane flights. There was the flight into (and out of) Wichita that required us to walk down steps from the plane to the ground, and walk outside to the terminal (Gosh, how spoiled am I?). There was the really nice woman working the ticket counter at Wichita who made sure everything was right for our flights, and the man at Indianapolis who only gave us half (almost half) of our boarding passes. There was a two hour lay-over at Denver that turned into 4 hours. A skater dude that was very rude to an airline worker (Granted, she deserved it. And, he had been traveling who-knows-how-far with two little kids.) The Guy With A T-Shirt that said "Beware! I'm a Brain Eating Zombie"(I almost went over with a shovel to behead him...) The difficulties of lugging a car-seat around airports. The further difficulties of getting that baby car-seat onto a shuttle to go between the Chicago O'Hare airport terminals. The hottie I sat beside on that shuttle because of the car seat(heheehee...such a hottie). How extremely nice it is to be home. Finally.

Tonight is knitting at Panera's. From the sounds of the email list, there is going to be a small group of us there. Yes, it's the Monday before Thanksgiving, but I don't have anything I have to do at 7pm on the Monday before. And I could really use some serious knitting time. I'd like to finish up on the Christmas stocking, so that I don't feel guilty about not starting the next one (or guilty about starting a brand new project).

Talk to y'all later!

For the next two weekends, we're going to be traveling. This weekend, starting tomorrow, we're flying to Kansas for a funeral. Next weekend is Thanksgiving, and we'll be driving to Wisconsin. Already, I'm so tired that I'm sure I'm forgetting something I need to pack. And I can't find one of Little J's pants...even more, I can't even think about what knitting to take along!

Continuing on Christmas #1

Christmas stocking #1 is coming right along. The stranded section is going faster than I thought it would; holding the yarn two-handed really is faster, now that I've got some practice at it. I think I should be done with this stranded section tomorrow. Hopefully, I've got enough in the white skein to finish up, without starting a new skein. I'm keeping my fingers crossed! When I start Christmas stocking #2, (I must have 2, there's two kids here. I'll have to knit another one next year for the new baby.) I'm going to reverse the colors, so that white is the background color.

Poor Little J, he was feeling really icky yesterday evening. He was running a fever, and just wasn't acting normal. He stayed plopped on the couch, wanted a blanket over him, and when his Daddy asked if he was okay, his reply was a little "no". Poor baby. He feels much better today, though. So much so that he didn't take a nap...

Christmas is giving me aches and pains...

I've never had a problem with arthritis (yet!) or repetitive injuries from knitting or crochet. It just hasn't happened. But I think I'm on the verge....my right hand and wrist is aching, as I type. Why? that is an excellent question! Because of the colorwork I've been doing. Here's the pic:

I did all of the lower bit, below the green and white braid, today. And, that's with yarn held in both hands. My right hand is not accustomed to holding the yarn, and it's not happy about the motions I use to throw the yarn, either. Hopefully it feels better tomorrow, or I may be taking a break from the christmas presents and working on a pair of socks.

Breastfeeding Benefits

Now, a study has shown that there is a benefit to cholesterol and BMI (body mass index) to individuals that were breastfed as infants.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21639442/

http://tinyurl.com/2daef3

New WIP

That is, "Work in Progress". Yep. Since I finished the top-secret project, tonight at Panera's I cast on for the "Christmas in Taillin" christmas stockings from Nancy Bush's "Knitting on the Road". It took me 2 hours to cast on and do the first two rows. Goodness! It's very pretty, though. Green at the top, and a pretty red and white braid below that. Hopefully, the knitting itself goes a bit faster.

FO

This post will not be put into the blog until after Christmas, because this project is a surprise for my sister.

The finished project is a pair of Elizabeth Zimmerman's Norweigan Mittens, with the alternate cuff pattern, and the Spruce tree pattern on the hands. They were knitted with KnitPicks Wool of the Andes, 2 skeins each of evergreen and cloud. I had about a quarter of each skein left over when I was finished. I really like these, and they're very warm! However, my colorwork still needs better tension. The green on the patterns was obviously looser than the white; it's very puffy. I'll wash and block these before I give them to sister, and that may help.

Weekend was good...

Although I feel like I've been cooking all day.

I have, actually. I was cooking before church, to make up a hollandaise-ish sauce for brunch. And, at the same time (and I left the oven on during church. oops.) I was toasting bread cubes. After church, I made up brunch. That was fairly quick, I put together Eggs Benedict and canned fruit cocktail. However, after that, I needed to finish up with the bread crumbs, freeze the left-over hollandaise(ish) sauce, and decide what we were going to have for supper. Oh, and wash dishes, of course.

Shall I go on? For most of the afternoon, Big J and Little Sister were putting together a new grill. That was going to be used for supper, so I put together veggies in foil packets to put on it, whenever Big J cooked up the meat, thawed out some of the meat and started bread dough in the bread machine for rolls. (I love my bread machine!). I think I washed dishes again....then, I was asked to assist with the supper, to decide what else we could put on the grill, to make sure that the meat was thourougly cooked (I'm not sure it all was, but it all tasted good.) and, I turned the bread dough into rolls and put them in the oven. Oh, and took my veggies back from the grill where they had not been cooked and put them in the oven too.

Le sigh. I'm so tired. So tired that I"m not even going to finish up the top-secret knitting project tonight. There isn't much left, really, less than half an hour, not counting working in the ends, but I'm too tired to do even that much. I'll get it done tomorrow.

And then, I can cast on for my NEXT Christmas project!

Prayer request

Please prayer / send good thoughts for my grandmother. I learned today that she had been taken to the hospital Friday night with trouble breathing, and possibly a heart attack. They (the medical professionals "they") will be doing more tests on Monday. She's in Kansas, and I'm in Indiana, so, I'm sending out my prayers, too.

Swatching on new Yarn

I needed to do knitting that WASN'T colorwork (e.g. the top secret project), so I cast on with some Louet pearl sport weight that I had, and I'm doing a swatchie bit. Size 1 needles, a lot smaller than the recommended size, so, we'll see what I get. The color is called "hummingbird", and my picture dosen't do it justice. It's three strands, a turquiose, a dark plue, and a wine purple. Loverly!

Book List

• The Bride Hunt, by Jane Feather
• So you want to be a wizard, by Diane Duanne
• Deep Wizardry, by Diane Duanne
• High Wizardry, by Diane Duanne
• The Butler Did It, by Kasey Michaels
• Equal Rites, Terry Pratchett
• A Rose in Bloom, by Louisa May Alcott
• Eight Cousins, by Louisa May Alcott
• A Wizard Abroad, by Diane Duanne
• A Wizard Alone, by Diane Duanne

sickly....

Last night, Little J woke up vomiting, right after he went to bed. He eventually fell asleep again, then woke up and was running happily in circles. This morning, I woke up with a sore throat and that icky flu-like feeling. When is it my turn to run in circles?

Happy Halloween! (with explosions)

y'know, I always thought glass exploding was an old wives tale. Extremes of temperature? moisture on a hot glass? naaah, never happen. well, I just spent half an hour cleaning up a broken Pyrex glass bowl off the stove that literally exploded. It was my fault, mea culpa, I left the bowl on the stove (full of pumpkin seeds from the jack-o-lantern's we made this afternoon) and accidentally turned on the wrong burner. That is, I turned on the burner under the bowl, instead of the one that I actually MEANT to turn on. oops. I left the kitchen (to go get on the computer) and 10 minutes later, there was this "Crash!" from the stove. Big J and I rushed for the kitchen, b'cause we both thought the cats (or the little boy) had knocked something off, but, no. It was a classic example of glass' reaction under temperature stress. Anyway, the moral is, be careful with your glass bowls.





And here, is pictures of my little one. We went over to Sam's Club this evening, where they were having trick-or-treat, and stories, for the little ones. We were doing that because I had thought Little J was really too little to go around the neighborhood...we came home, and Big J took the Little one around to the local houses. what can you say? little boys, big boys...they all like candy.





Here's pictures of my little one...

COOKIE!

another quick update

No pictures tonight :( I did finish up with the apron, and it's exceedingly cute, but, my photographer was busy. Big J was working on a paper for his military history class, and I was dragooned into proofreading.

nada

I putting up a blog post tonight, to say that I'm not posting anything. :) It hasn't been an exciting day, we haven't did anything, and I haven't been knitting either. Hopefully, tomorrow I will have pictures of my lovely new apron to put up here. We'll see...

baseless anxieties

For the last twothree days I've been frantically cleaning my house. What the FlyLady calls "crisis cleaning". I cleaned the areas my company would see, and shoved things into the other rooms. This morning, my "public" areas were clean, and I was exhausted by the time people started showing up for the meeting at my house. But, I was ready, I smiled, I welcomed them in, and was a gracious hostess. Yay! And I think everyone had a good time.

And then I had an "eureka" moment. Why had I been fixating on the cleaning and decluttering? Why was I thiiis close to having panic attacks over it? Everyone who was here, knows what it's like to have small kids and be pregnant. Nobody was going attack me for having dust on top of my TV. Nobody was going to run in terror because there was a stack of paper on the dining room table.

And, on the other side, I really like having my house this clean. It's nice to to have clutter on top of the entertainment center, it's nice knowing where all the bills are. It's very nice to have all the junk and clothes off the couch so that there is actually room to sit on it. Why haven't I did this before? (well, i have, just not all at the same time, and not recently.)

Did I mention that I had shoved things into the other rooms to hid them? Yes, I did. Next project, cleaning up alllllll the other rooms.

For Terry Pratchett readers

In November, ION channel on cable TV will be showing the movie "Hogfather". Yippee!

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/071022/20071022005910.html?.v=1

new baby thoughts

Big J dosen't know it, but he may have caused me to spend more money for this new baby. He found an article on PBDE's in children and was telling me ALLLL about it. I've known for quite a long time that humans (and all the other creatures in our environment) are carrying around a lot of industrial chemicals, but, it kinda slipped my mind that quite a high percentage of what humans have is from indoor exposure. It's a scary thought, and I don't really want my baby exposed to more than I can help.

So, I've been googling organic mattress, and clothing, to see what I can find...it's expensive! Dh and I were talking about getting a new mattress (Little J is too wiggly at night. Need more room!) and the organic ones cost about double a non-organic, even before you add in shipping. And baby clothes, well, these suckers would be heirlooms and hand-me-downs, because I would only want to buy one set.

Whatever we do, this is going to be in the back of my mind.

Knitting

No pictures, and no details, b'cause it's the top secret Christmas present, but, I've officially finished half of this project! Yay! And the second half should go faster.

Do I have a boring life?

A friend of mine was talking to me about coming to visit. To visit me, that is. That's cool, it would be great, I haven't seen her in person in years. But, then she asked "So, what is there for me to do there?"

::blink, blink::

Say what? How do I answer that? My friend is recently single again, but even when she was in a relationship, she normally went out in at night, went clubbing, spent time at bars...that's in contrast to me, who hasn't been in a bar in (let's see, it had to be before Little J was born) over 3 years, hates the smell of cigarettes, and, at this point in my pregnancy, is exhausted by 6pm. Even when we were in college, I would just as rather spend the evening with a good book as go out to a party.

I don't do anything! I don't go to concerts anymore, it's expensive to take the whole family out to a restaurant, I'm exhausted half the time....my idea of a fun trip is to go to a fiber fest. (oh, and in case you're not busy Saturday - Southern Indiana FiberArts Festival ) Or the library (Not the bookstore. How much browsing can YOU do with a two year old shrieking happily and running amok within the bookshelves?).

i need a life.

I'll take her to the local yarn stores. She crochets. Yep. That'll work. ;)

Too tired...I really want my morning nap....and the afternoon nap...oh, and live in maid and cook would be nice too....

Book List update

I have been knitting recently (but it's a top secret present). [sad face] so I can't show my project here on my blog. Very sad. But if you're on Ravelry, you can go look at it there! I'll have a picture of it up tonight.

Instead of knitting, I'm going to up date my reading list. I haven't did it in a while, and I have a growing (!!) stack of books beside my bed that I've read in the last month or so. (This isn't all! some have went back to the library, some I've forgotten, and I absolutely refuse to put down all the times I've read Jaiden's favorite books to him)

• Interesting Times, by Terry Pratchett
• Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett
• Making Money, by Terry Pratchett
• Kushiel's Justice, by Jacqueline Carey
• The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch
• Empire of Ivory, by Naomi Novik
• Wolf Who Rules, by Wen Spencer
• The Serpent's Shadow, by Mercedes Lackey
• Conrad's Fate, by Diana Wynne Jones
• Deep Secret, by Diana Wynne Jones
• Sorcery and Cecelia, by Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer
• The Grand Tour, Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer
• A College of Magics, by Caroline Stevermer
• A Scholar of Magics, by Caroline Stevermer
• The Wizard of London, by Merdedes Lackey

Got the KnitPicks!

Yay! yarn came today, so it's just like Christmas! Or it will be, when I get this stuff knitted up :) I started on of the projects today. It has an i-cord cast on (have I mentioned I hate knitting i-cord? I really really do) and I've got that done, and the first few rows of the color work. I'm trying to do the two handed yarn thing, but so far, I can't keep good tension on the yarn on my right hand. Argh! But, I can see how it will be faster than having both yarns on one hand, so, I'm going to stick with it, and see if I can get it. If I don't understand what I'm doing by next Monday, I'll take it to knitting at Panera's and see if I can badger one of the right-handed knitters into showing me what to do with the oh-so-annoying yarn.

Happy Birthday!

To my darling husband, the best man in the whole world! I love you!

Knitting at Panera's

I had a really cool quote from Jonathon Swift, something about...ah ha! Here it is:

It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into.

Anyway, that was a random thought, wasn't it?

Tonight was knitting at Panera's. (wanna come? Go here ----> Southside Indy Knitters) there were about 9 of us there tonight, with lots of nifty neato projects. Interestingly, there were several people working on mittens. Cathy had a reversible mitten on her needles, and Crystal was starting a mitten from her garage-sale-yarn. And, (i can't remember her name! Bad me!) somebody had roving and a drop spindle and was spinning. The roving was dyed in a lovely assortment of purples blues and greens, and I'm amazed at how smoothly she was spinning out the thread (when I do it, it's a much more laborious process. hmm, i should practice more.) Oh, and Suzanne (spelling?) from Mass Ave Knits stopped by to say hi.

Me, I finished off Jaiden's socks, and worked on the alpaca sweater some more. I noticed on Jaiden's socks that my gauge was a little off, so I hope it dosen't make a problem in the sweater. If I have to rip that 2" of work out again, I will just cry.

Ribbit, ribbit

I ripped out a day's work on my current knitting. RIBBIT! discouraging, it is. I was trying out an idea, and it took that long to see that it wasn't going to work. It was about an inch of knitting (hey, i don't get much time to knit in a day) and made a nice heap of yarn in my lap.

Let's see...I ordered yarn from knitpicks for my Christmas presents. No, not Christmas presents for me, presents to give to other people. One I can't mention, because I know the giftee reads my blog, but the other is two Christmas stockings (for Little J and Little sister) from Knitting on the Road by Nancy Bush. The yarn should be here in about a week (I hope!).

And, a very nice person(Should I put your name in?) gave me a sample hank of Alpaca sox yarn. Very soft, muted varigated colors....very nice. (I'm not really in love with alpaca yarn in general, although I can definitely make an exception for this stuff. I simply fell in love specifically with the alpaca yarn I'm using for Big J's sweater.) I think I'll swatch it, then decide if (or how much) I need of it when it's available.

Ultrasound pics

Or, I'm having an alien baby. LOL! No, but at this point, the ultrasounds of the darling little girl's (the tech wouldn't give a 100% guarantee(of course not), but said that the baby looked like a girl) face DO look very much like an alien. The doctor thought everything looked good; skull, brain, bones, hearts, fingers...
Even legs! During the ultrasound, we saw alot of baby's hands and feet, because she kept wiggling them around. I think she's going to be another very active baby. It's that old mother's curse, "May you have children just like you were!"
Big J was able to come along to the ultrasound, and he had ahold of Little J. We tried to get the little boy interested in the pictures on the monitor, but, c'mon Mom, black 'n white? I don't think the pictures made much sense to him. Since then, I've sat him down and tried to explain about the new baby, but, I don't think he was listening. Oh well, another 4 months, and then it'll be easier to explain.

not fun Sticky Stuff

I went to stick wet sheets in the dryer, and what did I find? There's blue stuff streaked over the inside of my dryer! it's sorta sticky, and looks alot like crayon, but I don't know for sure what it is. It had to come out of Little Sister's jeans, but she's not admitting to anything. ummhm. I was testing to see what would get it out (alcohol will, with a little elbow grease) and then I thought more about putting flammable solvents in to my dryer. Not a good idea! I decided I don't really care if the sheets get blue stuff all over them, and, if there's any left over, I'll do a load of my really old and grungy towels until all the blue stuff is out. Hey, I bet I know what it was! Melted Smurf!

a new FO, finally!

I finished of my Other Sister's dishcloth. Yay! It looks very nice, except for all the dangling yarn ends on one side. yep, still need to work in the ends. But, that's an hour's work, and it's finished.

I've started work on Big J's alpaca sweater again. Maybe because it's getting cooler, I feel like working on it. Hopefully, it'll be done by Christmas. Maybe. I have a list of Christmas presents (etc.) that is sooo- long that absolutely have to be done, so we'll see what actually gets finished.

Life progresses, but not much knitting

Let's see...we did go to the circus on Saturday. Much fun was had by all, including Little J. He slept through about half of the show, but he really liked the horses and the elephants. (I really liked the horses too. And the hunky guys riding the horses...) I forgot my camera when we went, so, all we have is one pic taken on Big J's camera that I need to have him send to me.

Today, was stressful. It's Little J's second birthday, and I took him to Toy's R Us to pick up his presents (I'm lazy, I hadn't got his presents in advance. I DID decide ahead of time what to get him, though) He did pretty well in the store, but after a few other errands I was wiped out. We went home, and we both took a nap. Hey, pregnant women need their naps.

Little Sis showed me her mid-term grades today. They had been handed out on last Friday, but she forgot to give it to me then. This all did not make me happy, because her grades had two F's and one D. If I thought she was struggling with the work, I could understand, but it's because she dosen't turn in homework, and she dosen't finish the work she does turn in. This happened last year too, both spring and fall sememsters. I don't understand why she is doing it, because there are things she wants to do, and she knows I won't give her permission if her grades are this bad. (Or, if I use my college psych courses: she does this so that she gets more attention paid to her and her school work, while avoiding the responsibility of being responsible for her own homework. Argh!) I mostly managed to avoid taking my frustrations out on her. mostly :( But now I have to email the teachers to see just how bad it has been. And why in world don't the teachers contact me BEFORE her grades are so horrible? I really don't like this school, and I don't like the teachers.

As I said, it's Little J's birthday today. After supper, Big J and I were frantically wrapping presents (wrapping paper may be one of the most wasteful expenses we ever have. Wrap, Tear off, Trash. But it's so pretty!) then we had cupcakes and present opening for the little one. Here's a picture of his pile of wrapped goodies (Please excuse the clutter. Little J was playing all over the house today). I may have went overboard with the presents, but really, they were things that I wanted him to have at this age, we just gave them to him all at once.

Here's one of his favorite presents. We (Little J and me) picked out a stick horse, and he was carrying it all around the toy store. He knew exactly what it was when he saw it again, no matter how well I had wrapped the head up.

This is a present sent by his Aunt S. Boy, does she ever know what he likes. It's a set of three board books, Police cars, Firetrucks, and Ambulances. Yep, I'm going to be reading those tonight, i betcha. Thanks, Aunt S!

His great-grandma sent him a birthday card along, too. It had Elmo on the front, which got a great big smile out of the birthday boy.

A-ha! Here's a picture of Little J, right after he put his fingers in the cupcake frosting. Hmm...I didn't realize Gallant was standing behind the boy. He must have wanted some cupcake, too. Little J's daddy picked out the cupcakes, so, the green ones are turtles (each with a candle) and the orange ones have Star War's figures on top.

I have actually gotten a little bit of knitting done. (Oops. I just realized I missed Knitting Night.) I've been spending way too much time on Ravelry (username marigo), and I would get more done if I stayed off the computer, and knit instead. (or maybe i should just clean the house? naaahhh.) Here's what I've been working on: Other Sis asked me if I would make her a dishcloth like the one I did for DishRag Tag. (I'm not sure if she plans to use it on dishes, or as a face cloth. Oh well.) I didn't think I had enough of the red/blue/purple varigated yarn to do an entire dishcloth, so, the middle strip is a different varigated that I had. And, I'm almost done with it. One more stripe!

Grocery shopping isn't for cowards!

We spent an hour grocery shopping. When I can get everyone to help, I try to make an expedition of shopping, and get at least two weeks worth of supplies at a time. At least. When I was more organized, I could get a month's worth of groceries, not including fresh fruit and veggies. The whole organization bit...means I have to sit down, write out menus (for the month, or for a couple of weeks) and do a complete shopping list. That takes time, but when I do, it does save us a lot of money. Some of it is that we save because we don't eat out as often, but a lot of it is because I know what I can buy in bulk, and I can plan to use left-overs, so we don't have to buy as many groceries. Also, I like to shop at the Army commissary in Indianapolis, and they have really good prices on meat.

Shopping could have taken longer. At the end, Little J was being held by his daddy, and screaming, and that really encouraged me to hurry up and get done. Poor Little J had had a very short nap, and was in no mood to shop. We still finished with one full grocery cart. Very full. Overflowing, almost.

Usually, we shop like this, and I come home exhausted, and with my feet and legs killing me. Today, well, I was exhausted, but that was from the hour and a half stuck in traffic on the way home. (it should have taken half an hour...) And my feet didn't hurt! Yay! I just got new sneakers, and, I LOVE my Ryka's. They're designed for a woman's feet, instead of being based off of a man's, and they are wonderful! These are the first new pair of sneakers I've gotten since I was pregnant with Little J (2 1/2 years)...hmm...maybe that's why my feet were hurting...

Tomorrow, the circus!

In Memoriam

Robert Jordan is dead at the age of 58. CNN article.

Socks for loved ones

This is the first sock I've knit for Little J. (i never made booties for him...couldn't find a pattern I liked, and the first try at improvising was VERY discouraging.) It's knit in Opal sock yarn, and is just a basic pattern. The sock does have some problems (short row heel did something funky, and it's about 1/2 inch longer than it should be...) but Little J loved it when I grabbed his foot to try it on. So, I'll stick it in a drawer until his foot grows some more.

Darling husband seems to think that it will take me forever to finish the second sock. I'm thinking, I'll have the second one done by Monday. We have 8 hrs of driving over the weekend, and if I can convince Big J to do most of the driving (he usually does) I should be able to finish a little boy sock in that amount of time.

We're going along with Big J to Columbus, Ohio. He needs to go for a work-related event, and we're tagging along. We may take in the Zoo there, or maybe just hang out. We'll see. I'll have the Little J sock to work on, I'm taking along sock yarn for a pair for me (I'm thinking the 'Back to Basics' pattern from the newest Knitty), and I'm going to take along the alpaca sweater, too.

counting up books...

I have 94 books listed on my books list. And that's an incomplete list. hmm...think I read too much?

Naaaaaah.

We won!

We won third place! My team, Rag Racin', won third place in the Dish Rag Tag contest. Is that spiffy, or what? A lot of people participated (over 200!) and, it was a lot of fun working with other knitters. hmm...maybe they'll do it again next year :)

Book List

• Deliverer, by C.J.Cherryh
• The River Knows, by Amanda Quick
• The 2nd book of Swords, Fred Saberhagen
• Love, Lies and Liqour, by M. C. Beaton (I really liked her Marion Chesney Regency romances, but, I don't think I'll be reading any more of the mysteries. I just don't like the characters. Whiny, stupid, self-centered...)
• White Lies, by Jayne Ann Krentz

When I was nineteen...

Inspired by a conversation I overheard during lunch at Denny's. A woman, who didn't seem very satisfied with her current life, was having a discussion with a philosiphical good-ol-boy who tended to go off on tangents, about what their nineteen year-old selves would have thought about what they were like today.

When I was nineteen...I think I would have liked the today-me. Yeah, I haven't gotten all my goals accomplished, but, sometimes life hands you curve balls, y'know?

However! Back then, I did have this idea that I would have a career, and kids, complete with a nanny to take care of the kidlets. By the time I was thirty, of course. The important part, and oh-so-relevant to tonight, is that I never ever ever envisioned poopy diapers. Or poopy clothes, when the poopy diaper falls off/explodes. Or, trying to clean off the poopy child before we pop him in the bathtub to get clean. How did I NOT think of this stuff?? I'm the oldest of 4 kids, fer gosh sakes. I had changed enough diapers, even before I started highschool. silly me...

Little J overdosed on apples today. We visited a pick-your-own orchard, and he had so much fun. He ran up and down the rows of trees, under the trees, pulled apples off, and he's been nibbling on apples all day. Which is a good thing, but, it led to a very stinky diaper. I think a lot of those chunks of apple he gnawed on passed right thru his digestive system. Ick. He was a very good boy - after his diaper fell off (!) he came and told me he was stinky. Now his daddy's giving him a bath in lots and lots of bubbles.

I wonder what my nineteen-year old self would have thought about this? hmm...probably that it isn't any worse than taking care of bottle-fed calves and lambies.

Book List!

• Sisters of the Raven, by Barbara Hambly
• Circle of the Moon, by Barbara Hambly (I really wish she would write more in this series, but she's mostly doing historical fiction/mysteries these days.)
• Oathbreakers, by Mercedes Lackey
• Oathbound by Mercedes Lackey
• Oathblood, by Mercedes Lackey
• The Silver Gryphon, by Mercedes Lackey
• Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen
• there was something else....

Ta-Da!

Today, we have pictures:

First, this is the dishcloth I recieved in the DishRagTag box today. Laura tied it up so that it looks like a butterfly. Thank you Laura! And it's in green, too, my favorite color :)

Second, here we have the stuff I'm mailing off tomorrow in the box. The washcloth (it took one Knitting Night, and one day of knitting to finish.) which is much brighter than it looks in this photo (I've got to learn to take better photos. Sigh. that means better lighting.). I did it from the pattern from the ball band, also found in Mason-Dixon Knitting. The yarn, in greens (What!? I like green!) and the goodies that are going in the box for Becky.

Dish Cloths!

I got the box! I got the box! It came at around 1pm, (probably. Don't get me started on my mailman...Let's just say I'm letting thistles grow in my flower beds. Just for him) Laura put in two lovely balls of dishcloth cotton, a granola bar (yummy! I think I'll be nibbling on that tonight) and gorgeous stitch markers. The yarn's going with me to Knitting at Panera's tonight. (pictures will be added later this evening) I think I'm going to be doing the ballband dishcloth from Mason-Dixon Knitting. It's easy, it's pretty, and I can do it without looking at the pattern (Definitely a plus!)

Thanks for all your kind thoughts :) It's very nice to hear from all of y'all!

And, I agree, I should be thinking of all the little baby sweaters, and booties, and hats I can knit...And I am! Ooooh yes. I'm got lots of ideas running around in my head. But I can't get my hands to knit! They don't want to pick up the needles, they don't want to hold the yarn. Sigh. bad hands. You know what this means? I'm going to have to find absolutely lucious yarn, to tempt my hands into knitting again. Cami, when are you going to have your yarn shop open??

Reasons for leave of absence:

Reasons for leave of absence:

1: Have felt tired, and generally not well, for the last month.
a: the reason for this, is that I am pregnant.

This isn't a planned pregnancy, but our new baby is definitely wanted :) although...if I had remembered how tired I get when I'm pregnant, I might have waited longer...Little J takes lots of energy to chase after him all day long. Ah well. The new little one will be here the end of February.

Goodness gracious, I have to get new baby things. I gave away all (okay, most) of Little J's stuff. Hmm...and I'm going to have to get some clothes for me, too. I'm currently wearing dh's jeans because mine push against my tummy too much. Hopefully, the fashions this time don't make me look like a little SHORT round butterball. Last time, they did. Which meant I really really didn't spend much money on maternity clothes.

Book List

I know, long time, no see. Sorry! I'm not going to explain all now (i'm sooo sleepy), but, I'll have more updates soon. For tonight, I'm going to get back into writing in a very small way.

These are books that I've read recently. It's not all that I have read during my hiatus, just the most recent selection.

• Armagedon's Children, by Terry Brooks
• Sunshine, by Robin McKinley
• The Curse of Chalion, by Lois McMaster Bujold
• The Paladin of Souls, by Lois McMaster Bujold
• The High Hunt, by Lois McMaster Bujold
• The Sharing Knife, by Lois McMaster Bujold
• Legacy, by Lois McMaster Bujold (yes, i read a lot of her books. I wanted to read the entirity of a couple series.)
• Magic Time, by Scott Zicree and Barbara Hambly
• Midnight is a Place, by Joan Aiken (good children's book!)

testing...

Big Grey Blob

We're baaack! It was a good trip, we had fun, all of us. We played games and spent money at Origins. Lots of fun :D I even got some knitting in. A very nice lady showed me how to do entrelac, so I'm about half done on an entrelac dishcloth (It sounds silly, but the dishcloth cotton was the only yarn I had along that I was willing to do a practice project with). Another nice woman (with cute green hair) showed me a little of tatting with a shuttle. I tried it long ago, got frustrated, and switched to needle tatting. Now, I think it might go better if I had a real person to show me how to do it.

I also got about 12" on the sleeve of my alpaca sweater finished. I didn't work on that in the convention, but I did have about three hours knitting time each way (6 alltogether) while I was riding in the car.

Dragonfly, are you going to GenCon? We're going to be there too. Big J says that since we live so close, it's an absolute rule that we attend. (It's his childhood dream to attend GenCon, and we go every year we can. We even went to GenCon Anaheim for our honeymoon. What can I say?)

I got back, and my swappee for the Hogwart's Sock Swap, A.J., had received her package! Yay! She writes about it on her blog, here. After I mailed it, I realized I had forgotten to take any pictures, and forgotten to write a letter to go in with the goodies. So, go look at my socks on her page. go, go, go look, then come back. The socks did turn out to be Dobbie socks. *Blush* it's not too noticeable, and probably only another knitter could tell. Dobbie tried, but he just dosen't understand why we would want two socks the same.

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July! Thank God that we're a free country!

yes, i could be snarky about a "free" country, but, it could be a whole lot worse. So today, I'm going to enjoy food, fireworks and my family, and not worry about anything.

Thanks for the hint about the sewing. I'd forgotten that you can sew on either side of a steek to anchor it, _before_ you take the drastic step of cutting. Thank goodness! My alpaca isn't slippery at all, it's very fuzzy, but it might not stick to itself well (it's sticking to everything else...my shirt, my hair, the cats...)

Me and Big J and Little J are going to be on vacation for the rest of the week. We're headed out to Origins convention in Columbus, Ohio. I'll see y'all Monday! I've already got my projects picked out to take along: alpaca sweater, big black socks, dishcloth. That should be enough. I'm going to be running around after Little J, too, so who knows how much time I'll have to actually knit.

Alpaca is so sweet...

I've started up on my alpaca sweater. I'm not going to be posting much about it, b'cause I'm sorta doing my own pattern, even (gasp!) writing it down, and if I want to submit it somewhere **coughKnittycough** can't have it previously on the internet. But, it's a gorgeous, soft yarn. And, I've decided that I do the cables better with a cable needle. The ones I'm using involve crossing three stitches over three stitches, and if I do it without a cable needle, there's squinting and cursing involved. with a cable needle, I feel much better about the whole thing.

I'm thinking about a modified steeking technique...Does anyone know if Alpaca felts? Or is it furry enough to stick together for steeking?

My Hogwart's Sock Swap package is ready to go out! Yay! Big J reminded me that the Post Office is closed tomorrow, but our main branch has a nifty postage mailing machine, so, I'll probably run it by tomorrow morning. I hope my swappee likes everything! I'll post pics after she gets it. :)

Gardening :)

Gardening is one of those things that make me happy. just, happy. Even when there's weeds, and the bugs are eating my potato plants, it still is calming to go out to my garden. Or, when I need calming, pulling up weeds by the roots definitely helps!

I did need it this evening. Big J and I played a game of Dungeons and Dragons (he was the game master, and I was the only character) and unfortunately, my character died fighting the horrible monster. :( I don't like it when my characters die. I'm attached to them, and I absolutely hate it that that is the end of their short little lives. It makes me very grumpy too. Then, I did some fast decluttering to the house. It's been accumulating things for weeks, that I've been too tired, lazy, something to pick up. It's good to see the living and dining rooms neat and clutter free, but the cleaning process makes me tired and cranky, too.

So, I went to the garden. I put more peat moss around my potato plants (hilling up dirt wouldn't have worked. Trust me. Peat moss works). I watered everything. I spent about 30 minutes pulling weeds out of my garden. Now, there's the grass in between rows! Grass is an improvement, I think. Over the tall prickly weeds with stickery seeds. Oh, and there are dandelions left, too. Little ones. I think they're cute.

And then, I ooo-ed over my zinnas that are blooming. I petted the sunflowers, that are getting very very close to blooming. I examined my bean plants, looking for beans (there are some, but, they're teeny. 1/2 inch long, and almost microscopic.) I discovered that one of my bell pepper plants has a pepper on it! Yay! It's big enough to eat as a green pepper, but I'm going to wait until it turns red. The other pepper has little peppers started, too. My volunteer squash plant in the compost pile has two baby squashes forming. They look like acorn squashes. sorta. Let's see...I brought home baby broccoli headlets, basil, chives, parsley, and a bit of oregano. And there's still home-grown lettuce in the fridge for salads.

I love my garden! and what's really cool, is all the little sparrows have stopped eating my broccoli, because on the other side of the community gardens, there's sweet corn ripening for them to eat. :}

Baby cuteness

Big J put the baby in the tub for his bath (Little J's, not Big J's), got him all cleaned and scrubbeded, then turned off the light and gave the baby a glow stick. hehehheee...Big J called me in to look: Little J's waving that thing around in the water, like it's the best thing since a rubber duckie. LOL! I've even got a picture...will put it up later(when I have a camera cord...)

New Book...

I got a book from Amazon today! And, it's probably a sign that I've been reading way too much, but I've almost got it finished. Lois McMaster Bujold has done it again, totally believable characters, that I'm totally sympathetic with. And, she shoves her characters into the worst possible situations...but it's very interesting! This book deals with family problems, from Dag's side this time. How does a nomad tribe (matriarchal) deal with a man bringing home a farmer bride? And even worse, she dosen't have magic?

Wierd comment

Hey, on the last post, look at this comment (the one at the bottom). What the heck?? Babelfish can't translate it properly, I think it's in some South American dialect of Spanish, and it's an advertisment for custom T-shirts. How wierd is that? But, as it's my first comment ever in a foreign language, I think I'll leave it there, instead of deleting it.

Camera dissapointment

You wouldn't think it would be hard to find a replacement camera cord? Well, neither would I. But it seems it's harder than I thought.

I checked on my Radioshack order online, because I hadn't heard from them lately. Whadda ya know, FedEx says it's been delivered to my local store. Ooooh, I can see the signature that signed for it...Now, why haven't they called me or something. Little J and I traveled to the store, and, captured a sales person. They didn't have my order in their computer, but! they were willing to go look for it. Yes, it had arrived, several days before, but had not been entered into the computer properly. They handed it over to me...and when we got home, it didn't fit in my camera. Darn, darn, darn.

The online description was of a cord that should have worked with my camera. Maybe mine's just a wierd brand, i don't know. But, I'm not going to try Radioshack again. I'm returning this one, and ordering one from a camera store.