Friday, October 26, 2007

We are off to go camping for the weekend. It is our annual Halloween campfest & I am totally excited!

Before we go, however, I wanted to direct your attention to a new project I've started... and one the I need your HELP with. Please go & check out this site:

http://knitgreetings.blogspot.com/

It' s a second blog i started. It's for a really good cause, and there will be PRIZES!!!!!

Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Fall is Finally Here!!!

Yes, fall is definitely here... and it has inspired me to knit. Well, the inspiration came partly because of the cool weather and partly because of the fact that I just realized that Christmas is approaching. Quickly.

The Garter Shawl is coming along, slowly as usual. The problem I'm having is that I can't really tell how big it is, so I don't know if it's done. I don't know how much stretch I'm going to get from blocking, and my needles are too short to see how wide it is. Which begs the question: Can a shawl be too big?

I've been working on other Christmas-gift knits as well. First up, I dyed some yarn! I haven't used the Kool-Aid to dye yarn before. It was surprisingly easy! I had some left over from a visit with H a couple of years ago. I needed some green yarn for a gift, but didn't have any in my stash. So, I bought 8 packets of lemon lime Kool-Aid & pulled out the big pot.


With the very electric green color of the lemon lime mix, I decided to do a variagated yarn. I wrapped it around a wooden spoon, balanced across the pot-o-green. I let more yarn out every 10 minutes.
Here's the end product: It's still got some white spots in it, which is exactly what I wanted. I'm anxious to knit this up to see how the colors will look.
But I can't start the gamma-green socks yet. I was so antsy to start another pair of socks while the gamma-green was drying that I had to start a different X-mas knit.
These will be for my step mom. I'm using some really rich concord-grape purple yarn. I just cast on this sock last Tuesday, and I'm already just a few inches from binding off. We're going camping this weekend, which means that this could actually be my quickest pair of socks yet!

I'll leave you with a question. Look at this picture, and then tell me this:

Am I the only one who believes this is the most ridiculous strategy for "washing" the floor? In case you're wondering, the idea of skating around on cleaning rags was NOT the four year old's idea. It was the THIRTY-four year old's. (And for the record, they left streaks and dirt all over the floor. It actually looked worse than when they started, so dear old *pregnant* mom had to come back later & give it a real scrubbing... um... yeah. Thanks for the "help," boys.)

Have a great weekend!!!!

Friday, October 12, 2007

A Week of Endings...

Before we get to the part about this week's endings, I have a baby update!
I went to the doctor this morning and he say that everything looks great! My weight, blood pressure, etc. are all looking good. And Sweet Pea gave us a good, strong heart beat (149 bpm) and was apparently doing the cha-cha in there.. we could hear lots of movement.

Although I am still incredibly tired, my nausea is totally gone. And, I'm learning to get as much done as I can early in the day, because otherwise stuff doesn't get done. I'm so tired by mid-afternoon that I have to force myself to do even the simplest of tasks (finishing paperwork, cooking dinner, standing upright..). So, everything is going well so far.

We have our detailed ultrasound scheduled for November 9, and that's when we'll find out if we have a boy or girl. I am happy to have either. I love being the mother of a boy, and another would be great! But, it would be interesting to have a girl, too. I suspect my MIL is secretly hoping for a girl since all of the children in her family are boys. She has three sons & a bunch of nephews... I'm certain she would l-o-v-e a grand-daughter.

I'm going to go on record right now and say this:

I think this baby is a girl.

I cannot explain why I think this, but I do. Again, I will be happy no matter what. But I think it's a girl.
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Now, onto the Endings that I mentioned in the title.

For some reason, this has seemed like a week of endings.

Up first, I finished the Lattice Socks. The eye strain of cabling on size 1 needles is at an end!

I know, I know. I'm a knitter. A FO shouldn't be all that rare, but around here... FO's have been few and far between.


Pattern: Lattice Socks. I based the pattern on Yarn Harlot's basic sock recipe.
Yarn: I think it came from Knit Picks... Heather & I dyed it over MS&W weekend, 2006
Needles: 2 - Size 1 circulars.
Pattern Notes: I'm not sure I can take credit for "writing" this pattern. As I said, the basic pattern came from Yarn Harlot's recipe, and I found the Lattice Stripe in my stitch dictionary. I added 2 seed stitch stripes and a few ribs for extra texture, though.
Comments: I sort of imagined that the legs would be a little taller, but if I had added any length to the legs I probably wouldn't have finished them until 2008!

All in all, I'm happy with these socks. They turned out pretty much exactly as I had hoped.
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There were other endings as well:

Roscoe (named after the sheriff in the Dukes of Hazard) has had a thing growing on his ear for about 6 weeks. It seemed to not really bother him, except for a little itching now & then, but it was gross! We had the vet take a look at it after it became obvious that this thing was only getting bigger. It was a melanoma. I had no idea that dogs could get skin cancer.

He went in to have it removed on Tuesday, and hopefully his skin cancer ordeal is at an end. For now, he's a little funny looking since they had to shave part of his ear.


Doesn't he look annoyed at the indignity of having only half of only one of his ears shaved? Maybe they should have shaved the top half of the other one... then it would be ike a rebellious K9 fashion statement!

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And, the saddest ending of all: My cat, Shadow had to move into a new home this morning. She has been my faithful companion for ten years, but it was time for her to go. She's been living in our unfinished basement since I got pregnant because the last time I was pregnant she peed all over our first floor carpet (and my husband's hockey gear). Since we just replaced the floors this spring, we couldn't take the risk that she'd freak out & starting peeing all over again.

So, she's been in solitary, downstairs... with only a brief daily visit from me. She's actually a pretty social cat, so I didn't think it was fair to her. Also, Hubby has been quite surly about having to scoop the litter box since I got pregnant. So, in order to smooth the turbulence with Hubby and give Shadow a better home, I relinquished custody of her to my intern. I know that she'll be happy with Intern Katie after she adjusts to the change. She's probably already forgotten all about me... though it will take me a lot longer for me to stop missing her. I think the pregnancy hormones are not helping with this, since I tend to be a bit teary-eyed over the silliest things anyway.

Overall, it's been a good week. Busy and productive and now I'm ready for the weekend!!!

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

What is that?

I can see something... can you see it? It's a light, and it's getting bigger. I wonder what it is.

Oh, wait... I know! It's the light at the end of the "lattice socks tunnel!"

I am four rounds into the toe decreases, and the end is so near I can almost taste it.
It tastes like... wool.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Are You SURE it's Fall?

I ask if anyone is sure it's fall because the weather here in St. Louis didn't seem to notice the official changing of the seasons. The high today was around 88 degrees, and we haven't seen a drop of rain in weeks. It sucks. My mind says it's fall, but my body has to keep wearing shorts. I say it again: It Sucks (with a capitol S).

I don't have much to say about knitting today. I have been knitting... a whole lot. But with three projects going at the same time (plus a few trysts with my sewing machine and crochet hook) all my knitting time seems to be adding up to very little actual progress.

This is why I am a one-project-knitter. (Socks don't count.) And in an effort to get to the finish line on something, I have returned to my one-project ways. I am determined to finish the Lattice socks by this time next week. I am finished with the leg and will be turning the heel tonight. If I ever mention doing cabled socks again, please smack me in my head.

I have forsaken the garter shawl, and yes, even Sweet Pea's blanket to get this sock off my needles. I have Christmas knitting to start & I need the needles. So, progress is being made, I just don't have anything to show for it yet. (Don't you just hate that?)

We've had a couple of busy weekends around here, and in the absence of any real knitting news I thought I'd share a few of my favorite photos of Ty with ya'll.

Now, this is how donuts should be eaten. We started a recent morning with a rare trip to the Donut Stop.
Look at that satisfied kid. The donut was thoroughly enjoyed.
After that we put him to work. Child Labor be darned, I say! Actually, he was dying to help with installing the new bathroom floor. He couldn't participate in he demo phase, what with all the hammers, crowbars, and grown men who found themselves transformed into eight-year-old boys again. So, he got to do a little painting. (I'll post photos of the before & after as soon as I get the "after" photo taken...)
And, apparently, all the construction wore the poor little guy out. He fell asleep at the dinner table, still gripping his sloppy joe as if it were a priceless treasure. (What can I say? The kid loves his sloppy joes!)
Well, that's about all for now. I am anxious to get the Lattice sock #2 OFF the needles, and cannot wait to get the garter shawl (which has fallen into the knitting black hole) done. These two projects have just been hanging around here too long. This house isn't big enough for the three of us.