Oh thank GOD

I think enough Moms read this that you all will understand and appreciate.

I just discovered that Lucy now has enough head control that if I put the Boppy pillow on my lap, put her where she -- well, goes, you get the idea -- prop my left foot up on my right knee and position it just so under her head...she can nurse without me holding on to her.

Hooray!

Yeah, yeah, nursing = bonding time, I get it, but sometimes -- sometimes she has radar. And sometimes I just want to type an email with BOTH my hands.

That is all. Please return to your knitting.

Except for B. Who should tell me her shoe size. For absolutely no reason at all. Stop looking at me like that.

Then, B may also return to her knitting.

Because B won't let it rest until I post this...

Here's what happened during the recent bout of start-itis.

You've already seen the Francie sock and the Bias Tank.

To add to my list-of-shame, we have:


Sivia Harding's Waves in the Square pattern. The yarn is Cherry Tree Hill Sockittome. There is actually a cool story behind this -- I love love love this yarn (you might have noticed) and emailed CTH one day, saying that I had gotten their yarn at Kaleidoscope Yarns, my LYS, and adored the yarn, but wondered if they were ever going to make the yarn in a solid, because I thought it would be awesome for lace. Yes, I know, you would think that nylon wouldn't let a good block hold, but I figured as long as it wasn't for something I had to block severely, it would be great.

I thought of the whole Grumperina/Addi/Lace Needles thing, but never thought I'd start anything.

Two days later, though, I got an email from Jill, my LYSO -- CTH was shipping her their ten most popular colors in Sockittome solids, and would I like to know when they came in?

Seriously. How could I not start that shawl?

And then, while I was suffering weakness from those three escapades, my new Socks That Rock Sock Club kit arrived.


The yarn is called Lucky Charms and it's that color of which I am not fond. So, logically, I should want to bury this yarn away and just...pretend it doesn't exist, right?


You would think so. Apparently, I am weaker than I thought. I should point out that the teal-blue color is a complete fabrication by my camera that I couldn't photoshop to fix. I don't know why, but looking at the color my camera thinks this sock is actually makes me like the yarn more, as in real life, it's just sort of froggy-grassy. I'll fuddle with the camera more tomorrow when the baby isn't using her toes to offer helpful suggestions.

Now, on a different subject, Shan posted about something Mel mentioned, called Messy Tuesday. It's not Tuesday, but I feel so...liberated by seeing other people's un-ideal homes that I just can't help myself.

See this?


This is my coffee table. Scattered over with DVDs, yarn, and gaming system controllers. This was actually worse yesterday; there were dirty dishes.

See this?



This is what happens to my bedroom when I get exhausted and sick and fall behind on the laundry. Especially because the dryer in the apartment complex doesn't work for beans, so I have to dry clothes on the drying rack in the kitchen. It takes most of a day to do a load of laundry, and somehow, that makes it infinitely more exhausting.

It would be worse, but we just moved in two months ago.

Aaaah. This is me, stretching, feeling free. Go figure.

I have subscribers?

Imagine my shock when I realized there are four people who subscribe to my blog via bloglines.

Um, hi, guys!

I feel like I need to neaten up, or something.

Anyway.

Side 1 of the Bias Tank is done. It looks comme ca:



Yes, I know there's something of a... protuberance. A third boob, if you will. I have been assured by the folks on Ravelry that it goes away. If you've knit the correct size. This warning caused me to break out a tape-measure and see to what size the nursing had driven me. When I recovered from the horror, I cast on what should be the right size, and I should have a very slick looking top just in time for summer.

If I can keep my focus.

This sock has been my travel knitting. It's Francie, a pattern I found through Ravelry, and I thought it looked very cool...but I've been underwhelmed in the knitting. Possibly in part because the pattern makes itself sounds much harder than it is, and it's painfully unclear at points. When, exactly, am I supposed to start arch shaping? The world will never know. Meantime, however, I am completely enchanted with the yarn (more Sockittome) and have been rendered simple by the delight of waiting for the next little bit of pinky-purple.



Lucy and I hope you had a happy Easter!

Something interesting and entertaining here

I've thought of numerous titles for this post, including "Monogamy is for marriages," and "I was doing so well!" but in the end, I don't know, it just suddenly seemed less funny. Possibly because life got on my case pretty bad this week, and I'm feeling a little like a punching bag.

So yeah, a case of start-itis attacked, and my house is scattered over with half-started items of various degrees. I don't even have the energy to catalogue them for you; you'll see them as I get myself back to heel and get them wrapped up.

Here, look, to distract B from what I just said:


See, I was supposed to start the new job this week, but ended up sick with this Martian Death Flu that has upended New England. Couldn't start work on Monday, couldn't work on Tuesday, so no job now until the next training cycle starts in late April. I got pretty stressed out about it, but made some peace last night when talking to Robb about it all. I said something to the effect of "I just have to believe that this is God telling me that Lucy isn't ready to be without me five days a week yet," and he gave me this big, sweet smile, and said "I'm all right with that."

We're probably going to Glens Falls for Easter, provided that my mother stops having the Martian Death Flu, and that will allow me to have purty purty pictures to show you when I get back. I will keep you up to date.

This week's official WIP is the Bias Knit top out of Veronik Avery's Classic Knitting Style. It has a great honking boob in the middle of the boobs until it blocks out properly, so I'm loathe to show you a picture just now. :)

So, um, mostly this post seems to be saying, "HELLO!"

I'll go now.

Ah! A talking muffin!

Cables & Corrugations sock -- done!

Next out of the languishing WIP basket for socks will be the Friday Harbor socks I started out of Cascade Fixation about a hundred years ago. It's the purple sock in my little avatar photo, up there on the right.

After working with the soft, wonderful smoothness and luxury that is CTH Sockittome, I'm not in love with Fixation. I love the first sock -- it fits so wonderfully -- but the tension on the yarn is so strange feeling. It's like I'm never getting quite the right tension. I remember feeling this way before, and that sock fits perfectly, so I'm trying to just carry on, but I remember now why I made these socks anklets.

In adorable-baby news, Miss Lucy has started sleeping in her crib for naps. There has been much rejoicing -- it means I can actually get a small amount of housework accomplished every day, wahoo! Last night, I also put her in her crib until we went to bed. Before, I had been keeping her with me, or putting her in our bed surrounded by pillows, but she's been such a squiggleworm this week that I just feel better knowing she's in her crib where she can't accidentally fall to the floor!

We have house guests this weekend -- I've got to get to work!

Much love!

Ask...

and you...



shall receive...



Not a whole lot of knitting going on in the Lucy household this week; I was stymied when I went to Mom's on Sunday for LaundryDay(tm) and I brought the WRONG IK issue to continue working on the bi-crossed cables sweater. Oops. I'm sure I'll recover soon.



I go back to work in two weeks, and I'm a little stressed, over somewhat-silly-but-not-really-silly things. How will I manage to get up, feed the baby, catch the bus (I know we are now two-car'd, but it's more environmentally friendly, less expensive, and actually more convenient with the parking downtown issue, to catch the bus) and get to work on time? Will I be able to pump enough milk to keep the Ravenous Beast (she's growth-spurting again, I think) satisfied? Will we have enough money to keep on keepin' on?

I think the answer to all of these things is "yes," but that doesn't stop this lil ole earth sign from worrying.

Also, for those of you worrying, I've gotten no extra spam from Phanfare, but I respect your concerns, and promise to be more proactive about posting baby pictures.


From top down, we have Lucy holding her Lion while Daddy holds her, Lucy taking a bath with Mama (Robb's instructions were "Take a picture of your girls without taking a picture of *my* girls"), Lucy in her turtle jammies, provided by Aunt B, Lucy learning to suck on her fingers (and not liking Daddy's big flashing box), and Lucy lifting up her head while on her belly. She held it up for about five seconds, and I took a zillion pictures, but this one is the best.

Ah, the calmness of life

Yeah, right. :)

we are officially no longer a one-car household. I'm not really sure how I feel about this, and plan to compensate by taking the bus as much as humanly possible...but the truth of the matter probably is that the public transportation around here SUCKS, so it actually is very helpful to have a car so I don't have to fight with Robb about whether or not I'm driving him to work so I can get errands done. Does the fact that I'm using cloth diapers almost exclusively now off-set this two car thing at all? Someone rescue the Latte Liberal, please.

To deal with my guilt, I figured I had to go the yarn store (oh, stop. Like you expected anything else?). Sockittome is one of my favorite yarns of all time, and I just had to have more of the Kaleidoscope exclusive colorways. They got me with the old "When they're gone, they're gone!". I held my ground and only got two, even though there were six I really really really really really wanted. I swear on my knitting needles that this:



is all I got. Sockittome in Sugarbush and Mad River, a skein of K1C2's Babyboo in Pink Ice to make Saartje's Booties for Lucy before she's old enough that she'll trip and die on them (a time that suddenly seems perilously close), and a skein of Manos Silky Wool that was in the bargain bin for $6 because someone's hand slipped when they were cutting open hanks. I'm thinking, stipey hat, maybe?

Cables & Corrugations sock continues, and I'm in love. Finished the first one last night (I can't believe I'd never heard of EZ's sewn bind off last night, it's the stretchiest, most wonderful thing, and the edge looks BEAUTIFUL) and immediately cast on for the second; toe's done, and I can start working on the pattern as soon as I sit back down with it.



Today, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. Robb's back to work, so I shall be sitting down with a baby and a sock and a good audiobook. It beats fine wine anyday. :)