Elvis has left the building

This is the last of a series of just,well, really tired posts. Look at that, I almost typed, "tured". Real nice.
You see, I'm 38 weeks pregnant. OK, not until Tuesday, but still, I'm rounding up. My belly is so why shouldn't I? Anyhow (sometimes I type 'anyhoo' and then I realize I *hate* it when I hear someone use that word. Hate it.) I'm just about checked out of my life at this point waiting for this babe to arrive. I feel like I'm going through the motions, just getting through the day, because honestly, I'm just plain beat. As you know, there are three other little ones under four feet tall in this house and it's a perpetual motion machine around here. Sorry to sound like such a bummer, but I'm just going to go stick my head in the sand until December 13th. Or later, as each child has been 'late' by 3, 2, and 4 days, respectively. I always thought that that number was supposed to go down with each pregnancy (as labor is *supposed* to be shorter each time as well. My first was 12 hours, the third was about 8. Guess that works) but somehow someone forgot to tell my body it's okay to have a baby anytime after the docs give the 'all clear' signal.
So we're waiting. And I'm driving everyone crazy.
And I'm trying to knit, but I'm just being plain stupid and making ill-timed mistakes, and then realizing that it takes more brain RAM than I possess to rip out half of a Conwy sock to fix the third row of cabling and then get back into it. LL on size 1s should be banned from gestating women, I swear.
MIL's Christmas socks in Bearfoot are more than halfway done, and I'm quite pleased. Since we wear the same size, I knit hers to be the same length as mine, and they *do* fit me, so I'm crossing my fingers that somehow my feet just appear to be the size of a small dinghy and in fact, are not.
Two weeks left.

The waiting is the hardest part

Two weeks, 6 days, and some-how-ever-many-hours. Until my due date. Which I always pass. But it would be nice to have a baby on THanksgiving, wouldn't it? My grandfather was born on Thanksgiving and they always teased him that they got two turkeys that year. I'm just not feeling myself lately, I guess. No serious contractions yet, just that "Who the heck is talking out of my mouth?" feeling again. It's like I cannot make normal conversation anymore....sheesh.

Knitting....I'm absolutely addicted to Bearfoot. I went to the LYS this morning and bought two more skeins, one for Mom, one for MIL (neither of whom read this blog, so pbbbttthhhpptt~you'll both be sur-pri-ised!) and I'm trying to figure out which patterns to use. MIL was very gracious this week and stayed for us for three days while DH was in Toronto (just in case, dear. You never know what might happen) and Mom's coming up for two weeks once this little bambina actually gets here. I was thinking Christmas, but I may just give them early if she makes her appearance sooner. I really like a slightly lacey pattern, sans cabling if I can help it for the bulk factor. I must say that my favorite socks of all time (and I've knit five pair so far!) were Sockbug's RIver Rapids Socks. The pattern is easy to memorize (although I changed the number of knit-around rows to 4 instead of 3 as it elongated the pattern. Unlike what Hub says, it wasn't *ahem* a mistake. Cough, cough.
I'm still plugging ahead on Hub's Conwy socks, which are beautiful, but so slow going on the LL and size 1s that I can't seem to really concentrate on what repeat I'm on, etc. When I get motivated I'll break out the notebook and really go to work. But the wooly mohair is calling to be wound into a lovely ball....must...not...keep...for...myself.
Anyone up for a game of guess when this baby's coming?

We're getting there

First, Happy Veteran's day to everyone. I'm so thankful for your contribution to the freedom of our country and my personal safety. Words are not enough, but thank you.

Today, I'm starting to feel better. The princess is home from school today, as is the monkey boy. And they're actually getting along...should I say that? Don't want to jinx myself. I actually slept about 1/2 hour longer than I usually do because they were cuddled together reading books this morning. Yay! I have no idea what happened between yesterday and today, but hallelujah.

Second River Rapids sock is almost done. Like if I get off the computer now at 10:05, it should be finished by lunchtime done. I think that I have a second "if I could only knit with one yarn for the rest of my life, I would choose this" yarn, and that is Mountain Colors Bearfoot. The color, the hand, the froggability without showing frogginess, *sigh*. Aurora 8, you're still tops in my book too.

That leads to Hub's socks. I think I may just veg out and knit these in plain stockinette. Boring, I know, but he'd prefer it, and it would get me a quick "kudos" from him, as I've only ever finished one project from him. We have a running joke that he will get a sweater one day. I started one for him while we were dating, and grew to hate LB Woolease and then became a better knitter and my gauge changed, and well, it's just a big basket of frogged goodness now. That's almost ten years of promised sweater angst. I started another sweater for him this fall, but I don't like the yarn for the project, and I'm thinking that my DH's tendency to wear his clothes in a full throttle way might just preclude the use of Paton's Merino. I see a big bark-green pilled mess, and that ain't good, folks. I'm thinking perhaps something in a cotton blend or a superwash may just work better. I'm just not knitting sweaters right now, as I'm sock-addicted.

Off to try to grab a shower while the kids are camping in Monkeyboy's room, and then, sock-love.

Son of a knitblogger

Silly, I know. Little Bobo, our youngest as yet, is finally over the croup. His sister, the Princess, is still hacking upon rising every morning, although she seems no worse for the wear. Their chunky, pregnant Mama, on the other hand, has finally succumbed to the beginning of Cold Season. I've been trying to get to bed early, and therefore have knit very little. I'm halfway done with the second of the River Rapids socks, but other than that I have little ambition. Dear Hub keeps asking when HIS socks will be started. I haven't the heart to tell him that I need to finish another Cascading leaves first, nevermind the two sleeves for Princess' sweaters (which she may need this week as it's finally getting colder here).
I really, really want to go to ABC tonight and knit, but my head is feeling not-so-good. Perhaps another early night might just ward off the full-blown ick. I can hope, at least.

I haven't slept a wink

I have the Beatles rolling through my head at the moment. Just about all there is in there right now.
Socktober Update:
One finished pair of Retro Rib Socks in Knitpicks' Sock in Redwood. No photographs as the camera would not cooperate that day. I'm still not thrilled with the finished(read:fuzzy) product, but they're soooo soft. Very nice on the feet.
One sock: Sockbug's River Rapids in Mountain Colors Bearfoot. Color, Lupine.
Quite a lovely color, with much more blue than I've ever used before. No pictures of the sock, but I have to say that this pattern is one I'll make again. With the Bearfoot, of course.
I also finished sock one of the Cascading Leaves, shown in the below post.
Bad girl that I am, I cast on for Nancy Bush's Conwy socks in Cherry Tree Hill Supersock, colorway Indian Summer. Note to self: Socks on #1s are not as fun as socks on #2s.
And I keep typing 'sicks'. Agh. Probably because we had to take Bobo to the E.R. at 1 am Sunday morning for the croup. Earned himself a shot of epinephrine and a neb treatment. Three kids with croup all in the same week. Here's hoping that the Princess will come home healthy enough tonight for the massive costume parade and candy fest that is Halloween in our neighborhood...

Houston, we have socks

This is the Cascading socks from the Townsend socks KAL on Yahoo. Forgive me for not linking, but I'll come back and fix that later.
Happy day, happy day.

Your Post Title here

I'm too tired to think of one. The littlest chunjy monkey has been up before 5 am every morning this week. THen, my phone line went kaflooey sometime between the hours of 3 am and 6 am yesterday. I can't seem to upload any of my sock pictures and I NEED A BREAK from the crazy monkeys. Harumph. Not to mention that I had to rip out *two* socks because they weren't turning out the way I wanted, then had to rip back 2 inches of the Cascading Leaves toe because I (how did I do this again) dropped a stitch in the first toe decrease row and it LADDERED (gasp) back down to the instep. Did that toe twice. This afternoon I spilled my drink (non-alcoholic for you jokesters) all over Hub's Socks that Rock yarn, preventing me from casting on for him....again. Bah.
And to top it off, I have to miss SnB tonight because I volunteered to paint a castle for the Book fair at the Princess' school.

Koigu, take me away.........

Socks and now more socks

Socktober Update:
I finally finished the Retro Rib Socks, and even got to wear them once already. I have to say I'm quite disappointed with the Knitpicks sock yarn for these, as after one wearing they're fuzzy and the stitch definition isn't great. If I'd have been thinking more clearly I would have saved it for a simple stockinette pair, but they're still a bit too fuzz-ball-ish to wear anywhere other than around the house. Pity.
On to more socks. I joined the Townsend socks KAL over at Yahoo Groups and am almost finished with sock #1 of the Cascading Leaves pattern, in Cherry Tree Hill Supersock something-or-other rose. I *love* this yarn and the pattern was easy enough and repetitive enough for a pregnant woman to start in the car on the way to Rhinebeck. Nice. Now I'm looking for a sock pattern for Hub to make of the Obsidian Socks that Rock that I purchased while in NY...

What every Amy Needs

I had to laugh today.
Via Wendy, just google "Your name here needs" and post the best 10 you find.

10. Amy needs help.
09. Amy needs to touch up her roots.
08. Amy needs a good topic for her film.
07. Amy needs help for life. (I guess I'm getting desperate here!)
06. Amy needs a new pair of shoes. (I like that idea.)
05. Amy needs to either wake up or start getting some extra will-power.
04. According to doctors, Amy needs to drop about 25 pounds. (This will happen in about two months, according to Amy)
03. Amy needs to come to the office to sign checks.
02. Amy needs some therapy, if you ask me.
01. Similarly, at the very least, Amy needs to be in "time out."

Enjoy.

Self-Inflicted Disaster, Part One

Didja ever do something that you just *knew* you shouldn't do, but everyone else was doing it, so that made it OK?
While I'm fully aware that this is not the first grade, I went ahead and jumped off the bridge, just like my mother warned me that I would someday do "if everyone else does it too."
I washed my Klaralund in the washing machine.
On gentle.
With a bit of gentle shampoo.
And I waited on it hand and foot, and when it started to spin too fast for my taste, I pulled her out of there.


And I'm not happy.


I guess I should find the good ol' sweater piller (de-piller? Pillerizer?) and go to work, because she's looking a bit bedraggled. Why, oh, why for the love of all that's Noro did I wash her in the washing machine?
Because it worked for everyone else, and I had heard about how the fabric improved, and how the stitches took up some and fit so much better afterward.
Mine's just a big fuzz ball that's misshapen and sad.

And so am I.

Spencer and SnB

First, the main body of Spencer is done, minus blocking. Have to run downstairs and grab the tape measure because I'm going to have to beat this thing into submission to get it to the measurements, I think. My gauge swatch was right on, and everything measured correctly as I was knitting, so I'm praying and crossing my fingers that it's the stretchy boing-iness of this yarn (Aurora 8) that is making me doubt myself. Maybe I'm just chunkier.
SnB last night was quite fun. I haven't been since they started meeting on Wed. nights, but it was the break and night out I really needed. I got a lot done and met Chris, Karen, Karen, Kathleen, and Audrey's friend, Pat, I believe. Seems like a great group.
Anyway, Spencer. I didn't really want to wet block it because that seriously cuts into my finishing time, but I'm beginning to think that I don't have a choice. I'll let ya know.

Ripped and torn

So I ripped out 30 rows of SS last night and managed to actually fo the first increase section the right way. Torn? Yes, I'm torn about whether or not I really want to make the big push to finish before Rhinebeck or take my time and enjoy the finishing of this sweater. Once the body knitting is done, I'll have to block that piece and do the edging, plus the applied I-cord. Not really that big a deal, but the seaming? I'm such a seaming procrastinator. OK, I'm just a procrastinator. Not a very lovely trait, but especially ugly when it comes to churning out FOs.
I'll be going to our local SnB tonight and the current plan is to just crank the thing out and get 'er done.
Off to take the Monkey to school and get yet another blood draw-fun is.

A different kind of sweater curse

Ever feel like the piece you've been working on *forever* has a mind and soul of its own, and that it just HATES you? I mean, I know that needles can feel that way (see this post about Boyd via Neglecting My Kids) but a sweater? Come on.
Today, however, I've been convinced. Bonne Marie wrote about having to frog Spencer after realizing that the cables in the front didn't match. Not only did I read her complete notes prior to casting on last Spring, but I made the same mistake. Duh. The problem is that I had already started the right sleeve by the time I even LOOKED to see if I had committed that error. Oh well, not *that* big a deal, right?
Wrong.
I then read the instructions to "Decrease one stitch at each end of needle every other row 6 times) as "Decrease one stitch at end of needle every other row" and instead of stopping, kept right on knitting, even though it didn't look possible that this sleeve was made to go along with the first. Think Abbott and Costello, folks.
And I thought that I could just match that baby up, block her out and finish her in time for this weekend. Hah.

More fun on size 1s...dpns that is.

It's Socktober!
I can't figure out which sock I want to knit...but I'm thinking it just may be Kristi's Spearfish sock, in the Cherry Tree Hill Old Rose.

Happy Columbus Day, y'all.

I'm sure I'll be making something lovely and Italian for dinner tonight, just for the holiday, you know.
Her Royal Highness and the Monkeyboy have the day off from school, so we took a little fieldy trip to Fabric Place to return some yarn and pick up some size 11 dpns for a very lovely gifty that Wendy sent to me this morning. I also picked up some Cascade 220 on sale (it's 2/$10 right now, yay) and got some fabric for a project for HRH's school.
It's a rainy day, and we're to have a full week of this to follow. SHould be exciting when the CT river overflows on Wednesday. Doomsdayers, beware.
Will try to get some knitting done this afternoon when the Bug and Monkey are napping.

One down

I'm knitting socks, as I mentioned. Retro Rib Socks, by Evelyn Clark, to be more precise. I've started many socks in the past, just to chicken out about heel-way through, but I'm done with half of this pair, kitchener stitch and all. I don't know what the big deal is about kitchener stitch~it's so logical and really easy. Freaked myself out over nothing. I can't wait to finish this next one so I can wear them. Ok, I really just want to start the next pair, which I think will be Amble from the Six Sox along. I purchased two skeins of Cherry Tree Hill Yarn's Supersock in Old Rose and Indian Summer, and I'm just waiting to use them...yum. I must say though, I've never had more difficulty in winding a skein than I did yesterday afternoon...the skeins looked great prior to trying to wind but they were really quite tangly and I ended up having to roll the other end into a ball and weave it back through to untangle and finally, yes, wind. Maybe it's just me.
Rain here all week long, so hopefully we'll have some extra cozy knitting time.

I'm officially banned

from starting a big new project for myself. At nearly 7 months pregnant, there's no way I'll finish a maternity-type sweater in time, and there's no point sobbing in my cheerios over the fact that I can't fit into one of Jenna Adorno's adorable little patterns. So I'm knitting socks. I'm hoping to have the first pair done by Rhinebeck weekend so I can wear my Birkenstocks with my lovely redwood socks. I can't imagine walking around all day in anything else, considering the amount of weight I've already gained with this little one.

I've also decided on no holiday knitting for this year. There's only a couple of non-blood-relations who appreciate the time and effort I have spent in past years and, well, my due date is December 13th, so I'm just nottagonnadoit. Feels really good to say.

I had the best of intentions

Story of my life. I'm just a bad blogger. I've had five total posts since April. Five. Add to that the fact that I have no digital camera and you get the most boring knitting blog that ever surfaced. Pooh on me.
I've had a re-growing interest in resurrecting this thing in the past week or so, so perhaps I'll be back. Like my UFOs, it seems I work in phases (although frogging seems to be my hobby of late rather than knitting, unfortunately). It is quite difficult to knit something in a size 34" when you're packing an extra 30 lbs and your chest is so ginormous that 34" seems more like the half circumference of your burgeoning belly. I notice that there was a Belly Along a year or so ago....I may just be willing to restart that if there are enough takers. Of course by the time I finish a project, I'll be back to a chest measurement of 34".
I'm having a serious case of the knitting blahs. I see things every day that I would *love* to knit, but then I cast on and realize that six inches of stockinette on a size 4 needle is just, well, too much stockinette for me to handle right now. I cast on for three different projects this week, all of which have been relegated to the Pond. And yet, I have two sweaters for the girl that are lacking only a sleeve before they can be called complete. Somebody stop me.
Off to find the next frogging lesson...until tomorrow, mmmwwwwwaaaaah.

I am merino wool

No surprise here. Via Rachel's blog, another Quizilla masterpiece. I am merino wool.
You are Merino Wool.
You are very easygoing and sweet. People like to
keep you close because you are so softhearted.
You love to be comfortable and warm from your
head to your toes.


What kind of yarn are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
Quite fun, and quite true.
More UFOs than I can shake two sticks at here, which I cannot understand as my computer time has been severely limited (just look at this blog). Dunno. I have a bad case of second sleeve syndrome, contributing to one unfinished Debbie Bliss sweater for the 6 year old and Kristen Nicholas' "Dancin' Daisies", also for said child. I need to just finish the darn things and get them sewn together. Soon. Like before she's fifteen.

Hum da dee dum, hum da dee dum

I'm still knitting. Amazing that it would take me almost a month to post again, but so much has happened in one month that it doesn't seem that long! We were on vacation for a week, the kids had some mysterious stomach bug (that mom and dad eventually caught too) for almost five days, and then my computer has been down for a week and I'm on temp service here. I know that the days don't all add up, but add to that one midway-through-pregnancy-brain and there you have it.
I just placed a nice order for some yarn for a couple of sweaters for Princess J and a few goodies for my poor, neglected SP. See above reasons for said neglecting. Should be here in three business days and I can't wait! I'm hoping to have the Beth sweater from Debbie Bliss' "Junior Knits" completed in that time...wishful thinking. I love that book as it really spans the ages of my kiddos.
Speaking of kiddos, I have an ultrasound on Monday to see what particular variety of baby we're expecting......