It's good to be a survivor

Today was my first day back at work. I think I'm going to like the job, and I was much happier to see my baby at the end of the day...but mid-day, I opened my purse and found one tiny shoe...I'll admit to getting a bit weepy.



Seeing the Harlot in Noho was pretty awesome, but the number of people in WEBS was insane. It was good for curbing my stashing tendencies, as I rapidly got sick of using Lucy like a 13lb battering ram. I am not coping to the stash that I purchased, I loved everything I got, and that's enough for today. :) You'll see it as I knit it.



I did get to meet Karin, which was pretty incredibly awesome. Karin has been taking care of my stash for a couple of years now, and she's one of the sweetest, kindest people you'll ever meet. I'm glad I got to finally MEET her, because the shining light around her brightened my whole day.


Apparently, the Bjorn is Lucy's favorite chew toy. I looked like a dork, but then, I always do.

I also met two wonderful ladies with adorable babies...of course, I've completely forgotten their names, but I'm sure they'll show up on the YH blog, and then I'll find them.

So, one of the ways that you know I'm a gigantic geek? I'm actually excited, because my new job involves a 35-40 minute bus commute twice a day. Do you know how much sock knitting you can get done in that much time?


The cuff, and about half of the brown got done at the Calvin Theatre, listening to Stephanie; the rest is bus knitting. And a little bit of get-me-through-the-post-lunch-snooze knitting. Yeah, you heard me. They let me knit. At work.

Heaven!

So, there will be plain, or slightly exciting, socks for bus knitting...and there will be at home knitting. I need to finish the socks for my step-father's birthday (Sunday) and then I have a project to embark on for a friend of a friend -- and some gorgeous handspun to do it with.

And I'm going to spend a ton of my "economic stimulus" check on yarn. Hooray! Is it sick that I'm already deciding on what I want? Sure, Mr. President, I'll stimulate the economy...at Blue Moon Fiber Arts...and Handmaiden...and Cherry Tree Hill...

...and...

it was awesome!

I've been trying to get to a Harlot signing since...well, for a while now. This year was the first time the stars aligned. It was also an awesome outing for Lucy and I; I go back to work tomorrow, and I was le ball de stress over it...today felt like some kind of bonding thing, even though my daughter won't be able to remember it...I like that I'll be able to say "Yes, I had to go back to work, but we took the coolest trip, just before I did..."

And of course, I had to add to the sock yarn stash. Hey, I'm going to be riding a bus for thirty minutes twice a day until Kingdom Come. I needs me some sock yarn!

Pictures some time when there's light. Not of Stephanie; the ladies I was hanging with and I decided to head up to the balcony, so my pictures were far away and dim and blurry. And then I completely meant to ask for a picture of her holding Lucy, meant to ask her to do it for Alison (hi!) but I got so addle-pated that I just plain forgot, and then I didn't want to cut the line TWICE. I did remember to tell her about my first pair of socks, that I knit, what, 10 years ago, and I just...skipped the heel flap. Oops. It worked...but they were very "interesting" socks.

Quickie

so, I've been frantically trying to finish the Bi-Color Cabled Sweater (by Annie Modesitt, from a practically ancient IK), hence the lack of words here, but it didn't get finished in time, so Scheherazade is out and ready, with the pin that I forgot to wear in Vegas...and so I want to (quickly) say...

WEEEEEEEE'RE OFF TO SEE THE HARLOT! THE MOST WONDERFUL HARLOT OF ALL!

Another one with no pictures.

Sorry about that. But knitting is a two handed task, as is baby cuddling, so picture taking has been right out. Isn't 4 months old a little early for separation anxiety? It's the best I can figure out for what's going on, though -- or else, my little trooper is finally actually teething. People have been predicting it for three months now, so I guess we might finally be getting there.

Project updates: the crumped lace, aka Kay's Diamonds, is on the final border. I've finished 3 rows out of 30, and it's going to take some time to get those last 27 rows done, a.) because I've got 400 stitches on a 24" needle (oy!) and b.) because my step-father's birthday is on Sunday, plus mother's day is coming up, and I'd like to knit my mom a pair of socks for then. If I survive. :)

I'm driving myself and Lucy down to Northampton, MA, on Sunday to see the Yarn Harlot! We will have a very good time; is it tacky to wear the shawl I made myself for Suzi's wedding last year? Am I showing off? Or just being comfy, in case it's cold?

Seriously, was that a year ago? Didn't even know I was pregnant. Wow.

Anyway.

Other than that, it's just been one of those crappy days where no one can shake their bad mood -- not me, not Robb, not Lucy. Unfortunately, the only way that Lucy will sleep (or even stop crying at all) today is in Mama's arms. It's not that I resent it, I'm glad that my daughter and I have bonded that well...but it'd be nice to take a shower without listening for the screams. Knowing that they'll start right...about...there it is.

Ah, well. This, too, shall pass. Tomorrow, she'll be using my showers to sneak my car keys out of my purse and head for the hills with some boyfriend her father and I disapprove of. I'll enjoy her while she's here.

Much love.

Denial; it's not just a river in Egypt.

So, about a week ago, I frogged a sock. I noticed that there seemed to be odd breaks in the yarn, but I refused to think about it.

I saw a little bug flying around the house, but no. He wasn't the right color to scare me.

But today. I went into the stash to find a dyelot for someone on ravelry. And there it was. A little, light brown guy, hanging out in the back of the closet. And in the bag that had held the frogged sock, a little white larvae.

Crap. Crap crap crapity crap on a crap cracker.

All the yarn that hasn't been stored in the plastic bins is on its way to my mom's, to go into deep freeze. What else can I even do? With a baby and a cat, I'm not using chemicals or fumigating. Suggestions? I've heard lavendar helps?

Crap crap crap crapity crap.

Happy 1/3rd of a Year Birthday, Lucy!

Happy Birthday to you!



My little girl is 4 months old today! She doesn't go to the doctor until next Tuesday, so I can only give you approximate ideas of her stats -- she's about 24" long, I think, and about 13 lbs (based on the very elegant and scientifically accurate method of weighing myself and then weighing myself holding her). I'll let ya know after Tuesday (and three more shots -- almost as painful for me as her, I think!)


B, before you go nuts, the shirt doesn't say anything -- well, it says the letters a-z, but the o is changed into a heart, and it's lined up so it says i (heart) u down one side.

I promised you a pic of the purple/multi yarn, and I have fallen down on the job there; but here is the single of the yellow/turquoise/black merino.



I'll get the twist set tomorrow, and then I'll show you a pic of the yarn in person. I'm thinking of digging some grey out of the stash and trying out some two-ended knitting or some quasi-Norwegian otherness for a winter hat. We'll see. I messed up and plyed the yarn z-ways, so it would be ideal for two-ended knitting...but I don't wanna, because I'd have to spin another z-ways skein to match it and it's just not ever going to happen. Honesty in poker, and all that.

I would show you more of the lace shawl, but honestly, it looks the same. It's crumpled lace. Except that now the newest skein attached has a lot of crimp in it, having just been salvaged from a sweater that was cast on in 2005, if memory serves. Possibly earlier. Oh my. :)


Actually, that's a pic of the shawl that's only from yesterday.

And mentioning crimp reminds me that I discovered two pounds of romney roving in the closet. I can spin this stuff into something very close to thread (at least in my humble world) because of the staple length and immense crimp (don't I sound knowledgeable??). I'll try to remember to post pics of that tomorrow, too.

Big news on the home front: we've set an approximate date for the wedding! (Did I mention here that Robb proposed just before Thanksgiving?) Mom and I go to tour my preferred site for the wedding and reception tomorrow -- Robb's been at that location a lot, so he's just saying "If you like it, I like it."

Keep your fingers crossed that it's only crazy expensive, not insane expensive.

Wherein Knitting Fails To Hypnotise My Daughter

A quick "still alive" post. Lucy has discovered that elbows are for more than just jabbing Mama in the boobs, and that it is possible to progress from one's stomach to one's back, even if not in a stately manner. She can't actually get to her hands and knees yet -- she can either leave her belly on the ground and get her shoulders up, or leave her shoulders down and get her knees under her -- but she's trying.

And, in what I've been given to understand is proper baby fashion, this new expansion of skills has been met with a sudden burst of clingy, whiny behavior (four months old and the kid knows that whiny gets under my skin WAY faster than screaming) that I am doing my best to meet in my quasi-AP style -- which means I'm spending a lot of time baby wearing, and when that's not enough, just plain old cuddling my little girl. I don't think any knitter would ever be heartless enough to say such a thing, but just so we're clear, this wouldn't be a great time to tell me "just let her cry." I would have to go all mama-lion on anyone foolish enough to say such wretched things.

It wouldn't be so bad if the list of acceptable positions for holding weren't so small. Seriously, I get it wrong by a fraction of an inch, and you would think I just invaded a soverign country for no reason other than my own political and economic gain. Whoops, sorry, friends got me talking politics again. I'll be quiet. :)

However, the new comfy spot that has just been discovered is lying face down on my lap with her head hanging off my leg. What's that about? Weird baby.

Pictures when the pouty lip isn't hanging out, because I can't handle the lip long enough to hit the button.

Oh -- and something to tempt you to come back -- I found a length of merino fiber that I had dyed in spots of yellow, black, and turquoise. I spun it up -- made a surprisingly fine single, if I do say so myself -- and plied it with the purple. Want to see how it turns out? Come back soon!

This is one of those weeks.

You know the sort. In the moment, you think "Dear God, will this ever end?" And after the fact, you go and lie down with a damp cloth over your eyes and a very large tumbler of vodka or screetch or your poison of choice.

I'm still upright. I'm nursing. This keeps me good. :)

Here's what I've been doing while Lucy naps. When she naps. Which, this week, is hardly ever.


I'm so impressed with me. A year and a half ago, I think, I bought the high speed adaptor for my Ashford Kiwi spinning wheel. The process of getting it was such a huge annoyance (it's the reason I now refuse to shop at the other LYS) that I became disgusted with all things spinning. And then, I couldn't see my feet because of the baby in the way. But this week...I really wanted to spin. So I brought out the wheel and listened to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell while spinning away. And, once I realized that the complete lack of treddling was due to the thingamabobbie (you know, the do-dad that actually sets your ratio, the bobbin sits in it?) being brand new, a judicious application of a little bit of olive oil (it was all I had!) set it all to rights, and I set about spinning a really fine single, if I do say so myself. :) It's not thread, and it's still slubby and inconsistent, but it's a damn sight better than anything I've ever spun before in my life. I'm in love.

The fleece is Romney, I think, and I dyed it my very own self.

Crumpled lace picture. I'm on a third repeat of the body pattern, and haven't found a single mistake in this section at all! Hooray. The lace is that wonderful sort of pattern -- easily memorized, so that after I check to see how to do the edges, I'm off and running all the way across the body -- I don't have to check the pattern a zillion times to see what to do next.

I think I'm going to do five repeats...we'll see. I think I'm also going to need blocking wires. Since I can't afford real blocking wires, I might be "making my own." We'll see how it goes.

Finally, I bought Lucy a dress for St. Patrick's Day, then got horribly sick on the day itself. So, after a few weeks of recovery, Lucy got her Irish on.





I think the last one is my favorite, and the one that frightens Robb the most.

I am the coolest cool kid in Coolsville.

Know why? Huh, huh, know why?

Because Wendy (link fixed, thanks for the tip, Karin!) just finished designing a new shawl and I get to test knit it. In a DK weight yarn, no less. (I don't know why that makes it so much cooler, don't ask me. :) )

It's funny -- I wonder if she thinks it's a chore, and I think it's -- well, a sacred responsibility.

I went through agonies deciding on a yarn.

First choice was the mohair that Karin had sent me.



I love the color, but for some reason, the mohair just seemed to devour this pattern. I could make it work, I wanted to make it work, but it just wasn't working for me. Maybe a bigger needle...but I didn't want to reswatch, knowing the halo was still going to annoy me, in this pattern.

Next, I brought out some Jaeger Roma that had been frogged out of the Dollar And A Half Cardigan that was in VK or IK summer before last.



Again, love the color, now LOVE the stitch definition -- but there's no give to this. No drape. And what's a shawl without drape?

So I turned to a third yarn -- some Cashsoft DK that I've also had kicking around in a TOAD sweater that I've been working on since well before I met Robb two and a half years ago (sigh). I needed acres of stockinette to finish it, and it wasn't the right size anymore -- screw it.


Beautiful. I'm off to the races, and I finally get to move beyond the set-up charts. Hurrah!

Now, this one apparently has a huge issue that needs to be dealt with THIS SECOND so while I go figure out what the heck that is, go gaze at the girl who finally started sleeping without Mama there sleeping right next to her (it only took an hour! -- we'll see what happens tonight.)

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. :)

FO! Cast on!

So, I figured out a rule.

For every languishing project completed, I can do something new. But I have to finish the new something, and I'm not allowed to start ANOTHER new something until that new something has been finished AND another languishing something has been finished.

I still haven't come up with a concrete rule for buying yarn.

So, to keep you up to date:


Bartholomew's Tantilizing Socks -- DONE!

I first started these socks...oh, sometime before I stopped working at Borders, I think. October? November? Sometime in there. I finished one, it was way too small, I got disgusted and stopped knitting. I'd cast on for the top of the sock, but just never finished.

Ta-dah!

Of course, there is one small problem. Look at the heels of the two socks. The bottoms of the heels in particular. Look closely.

Yup. One's a reinforced heel. One's a plain heel.

Oops.

I haven't yet noticed it when I wear them; if I do, I'll figure out some clever solution that doesn't involve me reknitting the sock. Again.

So, as my reward for finishing those, I cast on:

Cables & Corrugations, out of the same book. The yarn is Cherry Tree Hill, Sockittome, in a color exclusive to my LYS, Snow Bowl.

Can I just say that I LOVE this yarn. It's a Merino/Nylon blend, and it's incredibly soft. I've no idea what is different, really, between this yarn and their supersock, but it's like all the same great colors, without the -- well, koigu-esque feeling of the supersock. It's unbelievable. I just might have to go get more.

B, stop looking at me like that. There are exclusive colors! I want them!

Oh, hush.

In cool developmental news, I saw Lucy getting excited about a toy for the first time today. She's previously really only been a people-baby, studying faces to the point that her pediatrician couldn't get her to track the little light, because Lucy was so busy staring at the doc's face. (Reason I found the right pediatrician -- the doc then bobbed and weaved until she was satisfied that Lucy was tracking just fine!).

And I'm going nuts for Ravelry. I got an invite months ago, but just couldn't get into it -- I didn't have time. Now that I do...I'm loving it.

And if any of you who read this subscribe to Audible.com -- let me know what you think of it, please?

Hugs!

I thought progress went FORWARD, not BACK.

Two weeks ago, it was beautiful. Lucy was sleeping through the night. I know, I couldn't believe it either. She'd cry for about ten minutes around 7:30 or 8:00 pm, then fall asleep. She'd sleep like a rock until 11pm or so, when I got ready for bed. I'd get her changed, get her in PJs if I hadn't before she fell asleep at 8, let her nurse herself to sleep -- and wake up at 7am, rested and ready to actually live. Both of the mornings B was visiting, I actually was able to leave her in bed for another half hour to 45 minutes, and she could sleep without me there. It was astonishing.

And then, about a week ago, she started waking up in the middle of the night to feed again. For a few days it was two night feedings, and I thought I would just die. Granted, the beauty of breastfeeding and cosleeping is that the whole night feeding thing is dead simple. Realize baby is hungry. Pop out boob. Go back to sleep. Wake up periodically because her head control still isn't perfect, help her find the nipple again, go back to sleep. It doesn't take much. But still, twice means rolling over so she can get the other boob, and waking up more...so yeah, two days of it, and I was as dead as I was when I had an utterly new newborn and was on percoset. She's stopped that nonsense, but she's still waking up at 2am to eat, and then sort-of-waking-up at 5am. It's more like asleep fussing; she's kicking and whining and moving herself all around in bed. If we stay in bed, there is no solution. I can hold her and cuddle her and pat her back and play Glowworm and she just gets more stressed out. The first morning she did this (it feels like several months ago, but was probably just six weeks, since she's only, ya know, 10 weeks old) she worked herself into a screaming fit before I got the hint -- she didn't want to be in bed anymore. She'll sleep anywhere else -- the couch, her swing -- but the bed is outs. If I even try to bring her back in there, she spazzes out.

So here I am, reading blogs and Ravelry at 6am. About to commense the heel on these:


and continue listening to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. (Why did I resist the audio book thing for so long? You all are geniuses. GENIUSES!)

The socks, because I haven't posted about them in months, are the Bartholomew's Tantilizing Socks from Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters. I read a fair amount of criticism on this book in the out-there because you have to flip around a bit sometimes for the patterns. Example -- in this sock pattern, the pattern is on page 27 -- but when you get to the heel, the book refers you to the "Master Reinforced Heel" which is on page 138 or something, and then the heel directions remind you to reexamine the cw and ssk/cw technique from page 14 or so. You go back to the pattern on page 27 for the foot, and then are directed off to page 140 or whatever for the toe construction. I get why this annoys people; it makes the sock less of a travel project, unless you have handy access to a photocopier just to copy those pages (because you, of course, own your own copy of the book). To me, it's awesome, though. If the fates are good, I may soon be embarking on a design project for a friend, and it's cool to have these "master" patterns out there, so that when I want to figure out how to do something, I don't have to remember which pattern the heel or the toe I liked was in, and then extract the heel info from the pattern.

It works for me. :)

O Blessed Peace

For the first time in -- okay, well, just since this morning, but still -- Lucy is asleep. Completely, totally, 100% asleep.

I don't expect it to last, but I can hope.

She's ten weeks old today, and I may end up going back to work -- not the Bookstore'o'evil, but work all the same -- as soon as next week. So, for the benefit of those who might be taking care of her, I'm trying to get Miss Lucy onto some kind of schedule.

This is, so far, like herding chickens. But she slept 5 whole minutes unattended in her crib today. It's better than the zero minutes she'd done before that.

She's in our bed now, surrounded by pillows, with the Chant album playing. Monitor on. Mom having silent fits of worry every time there's a squeak. I'm sure you know how it goes.

So I'm here to tell you about knitting. :)

One of my best friends, B, (you may remember her from last April) came to visit for the weekend. We unpacked and (dear god, can I say it?) organized the stash. Seriously. All the sock yarn has its own bin, wherein it's been organized by color. By the way, B? You were right both about me being too chicken to put away the yarn we bought, and that I'd start the EZ Pie Are Square shawl (instructions in the most recent VK) as soon as you were out the door. Actually, no, I did finish both pairs of socks like I promised. But then?


Ah, the monster wakes. Back later!

In the Spirit of the New Year

Ladies, I have seen something terrible.

It happened while I was moving. While my guard was down. I saw it.

All of it.

In one place.

My stash.

All of it.

Oh my.

And I know that I don't have anywhere NEAR as much yarn as some people who are reading this. I know I don't have anything LIKE the amount of yarn that I've seen in other people's houses...but I don't have a house. I have a two bedroom apartment, and a sudden influx of clothes that belong to someone much tinier than me, who, nevertheless, is occupying a surprising amount of area.

It gave me a case of -- you won't believe this -- finishitis.

I know.

I cleaned out the project basket. I didn't take pictures of all the things I took to the frog pond, but let's just say that I saved $50 in needles I don't need to buy after all. And, I found half a dozen things that I'm ashamed aren't done.

See this?



Just needed a picture taken and put here so that it could be officially considered done.

See this one?



Finished it last week, it just needed to be seamed and have the buttons (rescued from Grandma's button box) sewn on.

This one's the really shameful one.



Finished TWO SUMMERS AGO. Seamed up and everything. Just needed to sew on the buttons. And I'm not sure why the one front is longer than the other in this picture -- it doesn't look like that in real life. Oh well.

There's more. There's a sweater that just needs to be cut and finished STILL only now I need the yarn to finish it (and I have to make up an edging, but that's practically nothing, and I'm seriously considering binding tape, just to finish the cursed thing, it's been sitting in the basket since college). There's a scarf that's blocking on the floor so it can be drive-by'd to my doctor tomorrow morning (thanks for taking such good care of me and my uterus present). There's a pair of knit pants that I made for Lucy that just need to get seamed and have elastic sewn into the waistband.

I'm trying hard to finish some things before I start anything new. But there's some cascade lace that's just begging me to find it some Kid Silk Haze to play with...it might win, we'll see what happens.

Take care!