Priceless..

Bouncy seat....$40
Talking plush Bee...$9
Empty McDonald's cup....absolutely free

Guess which one wins as the favourite toy?

Like I said...

I tend to ignore the fact that I have a blog. Life gets in the way sometimes, and other times, I just don't think what I have to say is interesting. But here it is.

It's now September, tomorrow will be October. Emily is 6 months old and I'm not in Canada anymore. The kids and I are in Texas, the husband is in Ontario. Oh it's such a long story that I don't even want to go into it. Let's just say immigration sucks and leave it at that.

I got a job today. It's not spectacular and it's not what I was looking for, but it is a job and a paycheck and that's the best I can hope for right now. I'll end with the monkey's latest picture.

So, I'm not good at this

In a post on a board I belong to, we got to talking about blogs. I realized, I'm not such a good blogger. I don't keep up with things. I don't update often. But meh, I should. It ranks right up there with housecleaning and going through old clothes. I know I should, but do I really really want to? Do I strive for perfection in it? Newp.

So, to sum up the past 4 months since I blooged. I had a baby.

That pretty much covers it. Emily Elizabeth was born via c-section on March 25, 2008. We opted for a section because I'd had a previous one. It seemed easier this way, add to that the fact that I was terrified to go into labour because of how traumatic Tamberly's birth was. So a section it was. The surgeon's assistant didn't even show up until they were almost done and sewing me back up...yet we still had to pay him. But back to the baby. . .she weighed in at 8 pounds 3.9 ounces and 19 1/2 inches long. 2 months later, she's 10 pounds 7 ounces and 22 inches long.

She's growing so big and is getting into her personality. Her eyes are still blue and her doctor said there's a 75% chance she'll keep them. She doesn't cry often, and when she does it's because you didn't get what she wanted fast enough. She gives you a good 5 minutes to figure out why she has her fussy face on first.

I could go on and on about my baby, but if I did, there would be nothing new to blog about the next time I decide to put something out there. I'll leave this one with a picture or two of Captain Cranky Pants.

It's snuffling

It's snuffling today. I woke up to the sound of scrapping, knowing it could only mean one thing. My anal retentive neighbor was shoveling his driveway. He does this at 2am....at 8am...and whenever more than .01cm of snow collects on his driveway. He also salted it, which is a good thing, because looking outside at the continued snowfall, his shoveling efforts are kind of wasted. Me....I'm not touching the driveway right now.

Why? Well a few reasons.

1. I'm pregnant....the last time I shoveled snow, I had contractions all day.
2. It's still freakin snowing! I think I'll wait until it's done, then make the kids do it.
3. The car is in the driveway. Yes yes, I know, I should have put it in the garage when I got back from the store last night, but I didn't expect to wake up to 4 inches of snow.
4. The plow. The man who drives the plow hates me. For some reason when they do my street, they only dump the snow on my side. It's like they go down one side of the street, leave a nice pile of snow in the middle, then circle around and go down my side of the street in the same direction that they went the first time, and all the snow from the middle as well as my side is now dumped at the base of my driveway. I learned my lesson in shoveling before the plow came once.....I won't make that mistake again.

In knitting news.....

I finished the Unoriginal Hat. However, in my mind, it should be called the Unfortunate Hat. The pattern is lovely and it was fast and easy to do. But.....it does not fit an adult human. It doesn't even fit a non-adult human. This hat will fit my unborn baby when it arrives. It honestly didn't look that small while I was knitting it. I cast on the right number of stitches, I used the appropriate yarn, I even went UP a needle size to ensure it would fit me. Blocking was no help at all.....I now have a nice hat for my baby....that doesn't look like a hat you would put on a baby (wrong color / type of yarn).

I'm debating trying again, but I'm so disappointed in it. I think I'll just set the hat aside and we will never speak of it. I do however need a winter hat. I've checked the hats at the stores and they're just not my type, all fuzzy brims and froo-froo ness. I think a simple beanie in a 1x2 or 1x1 rib will work out fine. I just have to resign myself to knowing that the knitting goddess has the same sentiment for me as I do for the plow man.

Catching up

Funny how things get backed up when you get sick. Everyone (except the kids - go figure!) in the house got sick just after New Years. I finally feel human again.

So since I'm catching up, lets see how things have been going.

The baby is growing more and more everyday. I think she's finally turned head down and my worries about having to deliver a breech baby again are going away. She's fond of kicking my ribs and using my bladder as a pillow. I'm 31 weeks today, and if all goes as planned, in 9 weeks (ish), I'll have a new baby girl.

In knitting news...

The bliss blanket is halfway done. I haven't had a chance to take a picture of it recently, but I'll get on that. I started my portion of a charity baby blanket. It's really cool, one person starts the blanket, knits 4 inches and sends it to the next person. Then, they have 2 weeks to knit 4 inches and send it on. When the last person finishes their 4 inches, it gets sent back to the person who started it and a new blanket is started. The blankets are delivered to a hospital to give to babies in need. I believe there are currently 8 (?) charity baby blankets out there in the US, Canada, and the UK.

I started a hat for myself. I'm using the Yarn Harlot's Unoriginal Hat pattern and Moda Dea Tweedle yarn in the blue heather colourway. It's so nice and soft and was on sale at Michael's when I got it. Sales are good. They make me feel warm and fuzzy. I also started a pair of baby Ugg booties for a friend. She's having a girl and asked for a bright colour. The yarn store I went to only had the Berroco Suede in blue, brown, light purple, bright pink, and orange. I didn't think she was an orange-y type person, so I grabbed the pink. If she's not thrilled with it...well I'll keep these and go find a different colour for her....but I think she'll like them.

Oh and I finished something too (hey wait, stop pretending to have a heart attack, it's not nice). I ran across a pattern for a baby washcloth. It just so happened, I had the right yarn and right sized needles in my stash, so I cast on right away. Only took two days and the finished result is pretty cool. I have yellow in the same yarn and I think blue and white too. I'd like to make a matching set of these washcloths. Maybe the yellow and other colours do the baby's initials instead of the feet.

I know this blog post isn't extremely amusing or otherwise entertaining. Give me some time to get back up to feeling like a person again instead of a sick cow.

Moo...


Oh and here's a picture of the yarn I'm using for my part of the charity baby blanket. Isn't it so nice and pretty and bright?

Pitter patter

Yes, little feet. I put down the blanket for a few days to work on finishing the socks I started at Christmas. The main reason I'd stopped working on them, is the pattern called for working on 5 dpns and I only had 4 of the size required. So, I had to wait until I could go buy another package. Hehe, now I have 8!

The socks knit up very quickly, but right away, I could see some problems. See, the yarn I was using didn't have a ball band. I had no idea what weight it was, the manufacturer, the fiber content, nothing. But I wanted pink baby socks, and by golly, pink baby socks I was going to get.

I had a suspicion that it was cotton yarn, which was perfectly okay. The socks ended up looking too big in the cuff, and too small in the foot part. But, it was my first pair of socks ever, so I was happy. Then, while I was searching my smal stash, I found a ball of Rowan Cotton. The weight, texture, and everything else about the ball I made the socks out of matched this Rowan I had found. So, I'm thinking they're like family or something.

The thing is, the Rowan was worsted weight and the pattern asked for DK weight. Okay, so lesson learned this time. I have a ball of DK in acrylic, which I wouldn't mind making up into another pair of socks. I'd like to get some wool or other natural fiber to make other pairs of socks with, but that'll have to wait a little bit. For now, I'm going to rejoice in my first ever pair of socks.

Entrelac is not hard

So far this balnket is humming along. I've got the base row of triangles, and the first and second tier done. Now it's just repeat tiers 1 and 2 8 times, a row of top triangles and bam! I have a baby blanket.

Except....

Well...one should not actually attempt knitting entrelac in the dark. Literally, without lighting instruments. To be fair, not completely without light. Sleep deprivation led me to believe that knitting by the light of the TV and computer combined was a wonderful idea at 4am.

Not so much.

The good news is, it's really easy to frog a rectangle or 3 in Entrelac as long as one pays attention....and has a light.

Bliss

I started this blanket the day before yesterday. It's beginnings came under dark clouds, sad to say. I had been crocheting a hooded blanket for my baby to be, but, a mere 6 inches from the end, I noticed a fatal error.

See, the blanket I was making started out at 25 inches in width along the bottom. I didn't notice until halfway through that I was using the wrong yarn, and wrong hook size, so the size I had was not going to mesh with the pattern size. But I shrugged and plodded on.

One night, I thought I was being clever and took the blanket out in public with me to work on at a meeting, but I left the pattern at home. Somehow, I added a few stitches in some of the rows, and the result was a very noticeable buldge along one of the side edges. Again, this was a mistake I could overlook. I firmly believed that when the edging was done, it would cover the mistake....or at least make it less noticable.

Well, New Year's Day, I pulled it out to finish the blanket part so I could get about with the hooded part. After crocheting happily for an hour or so, I decided to measure it. I laid it out flat and measured the width along the bottom. Still 25 inches. Then I took a good look at it. The top (where I was still adding to it) was not the same width as the bottom. With a wee bit of dread in my heart, I measured the top.

...23 inches...

Somewhere between the bump mistake and where I had stopped to measure, I had LOST 2 inches. Looking at the blanket, I could theoretically see where the lost stitches had occured. But looking at it the way it was...I knew I could not continue on. I would have to frog back to one of the mistakes. Either the bump or the decrease would have to be corrected. But the bump was halfway down. If I took out that much work, I would not have finished the blanket. I know myself. I would not have been able to make myself continue.

So, I made the decision to scrap the entire thing. It was very sad to rip out the blanket and rewind the yarn. I was kind of okay while doing it, until my husband remarked that I looked sad. Of course I started to cry. I'm pregnant, hormonal, and this blanket was to be for the baby, darn it!

The good news is, the next day, the new issue of Magknits was up. There was a pattern for a baby blanket. An Entrelac baby blanket. I've been wanting to try entrelac for...well forever. Probably since I first started knitting. I had the yarn to start it in my stash, I just needed the needles...and since I also need these same needles to finish a bib I've got almost done, the purchase was justified.

There was a tense moment when I accidentally dropped the last 5 stitches of the cast on edge while making the last triangle for the base tier, though. I sat there looking at the lonely loops that were no longer on my needle, with the working yarn still wrapped around my left hand. My husband looks over as I gasp and asks if I need help. Very carefully, very gently, I dropped the working yarn and with the precision of a bomb diffuser, I placed the dropped stitches back on my left needle. As you can see from the picture above, all is right with the world now.