A New Project!

I can't believe it's been ten days since my last post! I have been feeling better, and that's largely meant that I've had the energy to get caught up on everything that didn't get done due to morning sickness. There has been a lot of crafting going on over here, but I've only got a couple of things to share. Everything else is in too much a state of incompleteness.

First up, Sweet Pea's blanket.
I cast on for this on the 14th, the day we got our ultrasound done. This is the project I am most in love with right now (for obvious reasons). It's got a way to go, but with this soft, fluffy yarn, it's actually growing quite quickly.

That's about all I have for knits today. I've continued to work on the Purple Shawl, but at this point it's been sucked into the Knitting Back Hole. I'm not sure it'll be done for this Christmas. Actually, I'm not sure it'll be done for next Christmas!

I haven't had much time to work on the Lattice Socks. The pattern requires a bit of concentration and although I no longer feel much like puking, I'm still really tired & slightly spacey in the evenings, so concentration is at a minimum.

I spent the better part of yesterday working on a sewing project. We all know I'm a slow knitter, but did you know that I'm even slower when it comes to sewing? It's really sad. But, I managed to make this:
It's a maternity skirt. I don't think of myself as being "cheap," or anything, but I have real issues with paying $30-$45 for a piece of clothing that I will wear for a total of six months. Unless God has other plans for us, this will very likely be our last pregnancy. We are on a bit of a budget, what with trying to save up a couple of extra paychecks so I can have a maternity leave, too, so I'm really picky about how I spend money.

The skirt turned out to be quite a bit larger than I expected, which is probably okay since I ballooned to astonishing proportions during my last pregnancy. It'll give me a little "room to grow." (Which is NOT to say that I will be indulging in extra cookies any time soon.)

And in other news, yesterday was the first day of fall. I wasn't sure about this until I watched the news. We can't tell it's fall here in St. Louis because the high temps have been in the 90's. And we haven't had a drop of rain in weeks. Despite the lack of rain, some of my plants are thriving:

These beauties are the overachievers of this summer. They are called Jack-o-Beans, and they have pretty much taken over our front porch. I think I may have planted a few too many for such a small flower bed that is so close to the house. They are as tall as me and have vines that are threatening to invade the neighbor's yard.
They have a lovely purple flower and end up producing large, purple seed pods (which resemble pea pods). If you dry out the pods, you can extract the seeds and have a ton of them to plant the following spring!

Have a great week!

Important Mystery Project Update

Well, as you'll recall, Mystery Project #1 was the lattice socks. I have completed the first sock, and am well on my way to completing sock numero 2. I've got a few more pattern repeats to go and then I can start the heel flap. From there it should go pretty quickly (since there won't be any of that pesky cabling to knit).
Mystery Project #2 was to be a lace shawl. I have been defeated by my first attempt at lace knitting. It was just too time consuming, and required too much concentration. I could never get around to working on it because there was always some type of distracting stimulus (or three) in the room with me. I ripped it out & started again, this time with a pattern I can do in my sleep. It's all garter stitch, baby. With increases on each edge & in the center of every right-side row. It's going pretty quickly, but I'm starting to wonder if I'll have enough yarn to make it a decent size. It's not lace, so I'm not sure how much real estate I can gain on this thing from blocking it later.

And now, I will address the Mystery Project #3. You may have even forgotten about it because I haven't shown you any pictures and haven't really given you any updates. Well, I'm happy to say that I've got a picture to share. This "project" is coming along really nicely!

Yeah, well... I never said it was a knitting project. I have been working hard on this one, though! This is largely the reason I've been mostly absent from Blogland and from Ravelry lately. I've been exhausted and fighting nausea for most of the last 6 weeks.

As of today, we are twelve weeks along, and I'm so happy to be able to report that I am finally beginning to feel better! I have these bursts of energy, and can eat on a mostly regular basis now. I've been waiting to truly get excited until today. You know, the first trimester... you're sick & tired & very aware that lots of things could go wrong. But, we got to see him/her this morning. The heart beat looks good. He/she even kicked during the ultrasound, so we got to see that. Oh, and he/she is growing. Like. a. weed. Right now Sweet Pea here is about 6 days larger than he/she should be.

LilMan has been very excited about the baby. (He picked out the nickname "Sweet Pea" after I said that in no uncertain terms could we nickname the baby "Optimus Prime" after his newest favorite movie.) He has been touching my tummy frequently and thinking up all kinds of things he can teach the baby. He can't wait.

After Matt & I left the doctor's office, I did what any devoted knitter/mother-to-be would do & went straight to the yarn store. I've waited until today to buy the yarn for the first baby knit because, well, I didn't want to jinx it. Silly, I know, but I just didn't want to start a blanket only to have something go wrong and then have to figure out what to do with a half-finished knit.

Here's what I got:

It is Plymouth "Oh My!" Yes, it's 100% nylon, but that should make it relatively durable and wow, is it soft. You pick it up and just say to yourself (or to the clerk at the yarn store), "Oh, my! This IS soft!" We have to wait another several weeks (6-8) to find out if Sweet Pea is a boy or a girl, so I decided to make the first baby knit a multi-colored blanket, suitable for both genders. I'm thinking it will be a log cabin style... probably square or rectangular in shape.

Okay, well, I've got to go. I must do some real work at some point today. I believe I will very likely be blogging more now that I don't feel like "death-warmed-over" (as my daddy always says). Have a great weekend!

Coming Attractions

It's been a while since my last post. Again, life has intervened and I haven't had much time to blog. I've also been a little frustrated because my current WIPs have been slow and plagued by problems. I think I've got them mostly figured out, and am back on track. I think.

I will have a TOTALLY and UTTERLY, COMPLETELY HUGE post coming up. Probably tomorrow. Maybe Saturday. I promise to include some pictures and interesting topics.

Check back later for the full skinny!

A Good Company... and a [Mostly] FO

I have to give big Kudos to Crystal Palace! Remember a few weeks ago when I had that unfortunate needle incident? The needle pulled right out of the join & when I tried to glue it back together (as I had the other pair the day I bought them) I ended up with a gap that the yarn keeps getting stuck in...

I was reading the blogs a few weeks ago and This Blogger was so helpful as to do the leg work to find out the replacement policy for all the major needle companies after she had a similar needle incident. I went ahead and emailed the company & a very nice representative (Andy) got right on it and sent me not one, but two new sets of needles.

They arrived today, just in time to knit up part two of one of the Mystery Projects.

So, thank you to Crystal Palace for standing behind your product! ANd thank you to Andy for taking care of it so quickly!
Speaking of Mystery Projects, I have an updates.

I give you the Lattice Stripe Sock:

And a close-up of the lattice stripe:
Of course, this is only the first sock. I still have to knit the other one. This lattice stripe takes a long time to knit. Although I found the lattice stripe in my trusty stitch dictionary, the sock pattern is my own.

Which brings me to a small challenge I am faced with. I didn't really write down the pattern for the entire leg. I just sort of know that there is a lattice stripe down each side, and there are a couple of ribs and a stripe of seed stitch down the front and the back. I'm not entirely confident that these two socks are going to match all that well... I guess we'll see if I can figure out what I did with the first one!

Thank Goodness! The heat wave seems to be over. We've recently had some really awful high temperatures... like, record-breaking high temperatures. Here's an example:
This was measured in the shade, and it wasn't even our highest temperature of the last two weeks. The highest this baby reported was 105.9 degrees. Ugh. Walking outside was like walking into a steam room. Thankfully, our high today was only 93 degrees, and our humidity is relatively low, so it seems like fall weather might be just around the corner!

And now for the knits. Okay, well, the knit.

Here's my progress on Mystery Project #1. I guess it's not much of a mystery anymore. It's been slow going with this one. This is probably due to the two false starts and all the cables. Cables slow this already slow knitter down. A lot.

I couldn't get a good picture of the actual stitch pattern because I ran out of good daylight. I'll try again later this week. The pattern is my own. It's got a lattice stripe on each side, with ribs and a stripe of seed stitch down the front and back.

There are quite a few errors in this sock, but, hey - it was my first try at knitting a sock with no pattern, so I'm happy with it. I'll have to start the second sock as soon as I get this first one completed because I made some notes about my pattern, but I'm not sure they're clear enough for me to figure out later.

Well, that's all for now. I haven't made any progress on the Mystery Project #2 because I can't work on it when anyone is in the room with me, or when I'm trying to do anything else (watch TV, sit in meetings at work, etc.). LilMan & Hubby are going fishing in the morning so I'm planning to try to get a bit more done. tomorrow. I'd better... at this rate it's going to end up being a gift for Christmas 2008!

My husband, Matt is the coolest. We celebrated our ten year wedding anniversary on July 26. I got him a sappy card and the promise of no eye rolling or deep sighing the next time he wants to buy a video game. He got me this:



For the first time in our entire relationship, I have a cooler, more awesome gadget than he does. He gets his cell phone through work, so he can't have an iPhone. But I can!

Now, I should mention that I'm not really a gadget head (except when it comes to knitting gadgets). But I do like anything that makes my life and my job easier. This really does. I no longer have to wait to get back to my office at the end of the day to check my email. I have my entire schedule, all my contacts, and the Internet all at my fingertips. And I don't have to carry my cell phone, mp3 player and personal electronic organizer around with me. (I know it doesn't sound like much, but remember that I already carry a guitar and a 25lb bag full of rhythm instruments and therapy materials with me pretty much everywhere I go.)

So let me just say it: I have the coolest, most awesome husband in the world!

Now, onto the knitting.

All three mystery projects are coming along, though not all are without problems. Super-Duper Mystery Project #3 is coming along fine so far. No problems... for now it's smooth sailing.

Mystery Project #2 has possibly hit a small snag. I think I may have gotten a bit off on my last row. I'm not sure because I realized it pretty late at night & just didn't have the mental energy to try & figure it out. Now... I think I'm avoiding it. I am dreading this project. I think I'm a bit afraid of what I might discover when I go back & count the stitches. I will have it figured out by Monday, though. I don't want it to sit on the back burner too long.

As for Mystery Project #1, it's got some issues. Most of them are okay with me. However, I had a very traumatic event the other day. I am knitting this particular project on 2 circular needles. I guess that gives you an idea of what type of project it is, but it's very relevant to this story. So, I finished the stitches on one of the needles, and began to pull the needle out (so the stitches could rest on the wire). All of a sudden, the freaking needle pulled out of the join & tiny cabled stitches went flying everywhere!

Now, I purchased these particular needles (ahem-Crystal Palace brand-ahem-cough) back in May while at MS&W. The very first time I used them two of the needles separated from the join. I super glued them back & and all was well.

Until the other day. I ultimately got all the stitches picked up using a spare needle, and then attempted to glue the needle back on. I tried a few "test runs" before actually applying the glue to be sure I knew exactly how it went in.

Well, I dotted on a small amount of glue, and began to slide the needle back in... and it stopped! It wouldn't go in all the way! And, because the glue dries so fast, it wouldn't come back out either!

So now I'm stuck knitting on a size 1 circular needle that has a gap between the needle & the join that is exactly the width of my yarn. Well, I'm stuck with it at least until I can order a new [non-Crystal Palace Brand] needle.

Okay, I've go to run. My favorite MD knitter is due to land right here in St. Louis in about 30 minutes! She's coming into town for a visit, along with my mom and grandparents (who are already here). It's very rare that we all get to be in the same place at the same time, so I would imagine it's going to be a very busy weekend!

Mystery is in the Air

I give you Mystery Project #1:It's a stab at something new for me. So far there are a few errors, but I'm going to stick with it & see what happens.

And now... Mystery Project #2:

Yeah. It doesn't look like much to me either. At least not so far. But I have high hopes for this new experience. I worked on it today and am already more comfortable with the pattern.

And last, but not least... Super-Duper Mystery Project #3!

Hah! You thought I was going to show a photo of it, didn't you! Not a chance. This is a pretty big s t r e t c h for me, and I'm not going to share any photos until I have an idea of how it's going to turn out. Settle in. It could be a while on this one.

I don't know what it is about this summer, but I've suddenly been inspired to try some new things... to broaden my horizons... to stretch my limits a bit. It's fun!