aliens are multiplying!

Remember how I said that I was having knitting mojo problems because of the heat? Well, I found a few projects that I could knit that didn't make me thing of winter weather. First, I started a lace bookmark. However, I didn't get very far on it because a friend passed along this pattern http://blog.fuzzymitten.com/2009/07/mini-alien-pattern.html Wow, these are cute. I thought "hey, I could make one for each of the older kids, they'd like them." Well, "two" has turned into "five" with no end in sight. At first my son didn't want one, and my daughter said she wanted a blue one. Made the blue one. Then she said she wanted a green one too. OK, no prob. Then my husband wanted a green one too. OK, sure. Then my son decided to join the craze and wanted an orange one. Lucky these things are quick to make. Then I made myself a purple one. Now my daughter is requesting a red one and the boy wants a multi-colored one. They take about 20 min to knit up and about 10 to complete (seaming, stuffing, adding eyes and mouth.) but they sure are cute! Hopefully I will finish them soon so I can start on other stuff. I do have a wintery project planned, but I think it will be easier to get into than other cold-weather things right now because it is for Christmas--I'm going to knit stockings for my family. Simple ones made out of Lion brand Homespun, red for the girls and green for the boys. The cuffs are all going to be white and will have everyone's name embroidered on them (probably in intarsia, actually) in the opposite color. Will be cute, I think.

Ok, off to knit some more little aliens!

No Mojo

I've got no knittin' mojo. Zero. Tonight was the first time I've knit in like, 5 days, and even then I only got about 4 rounds done on my tunic. It's not for lack of available projects, I have a whole closet full of yarn and needles and patterns. I just can't seem to find something that can keep my attention. I like the tunic but not the length of time it is going to take to make it. I thought about a pair of lace socks that I've been planning to do, but I didn't understand the pattern directions. I could probably figure them out, or at worst get some help from one of my fantastic knitting friends, but I wasn't up for that much of a challenge. I thought about doing another pair of socks but then I thought that it's too hot for socks anyway.

Hold on. Wait a second. I think I'm having an epiphany.

Yep, I understand now. I know why I can't knit. . .


IT'S TOO FREAKING HOT. It is hard to even think about things like scarves and sweaters and wool socks when it is 104 outside, every day for 2 weeks. Even holding the yarn makes me warmer, something I'm trying desperately to avoid. OK, now I understand. I'm not having knitter's block afterall! I'm just having, hmmm, what shall we call it? Summeritis? Sure, that works. I have summeritis, where I don't want to do anything that isn't summer-related, anything that would be reminiscent of cooler weather. Because in cooler weather you want to be warmer, and I REALLY don't want to be any warmer right now.

OK, I feel better now. I was getting worried, concerned with how long this horrible condition might last. At least now I know. I'm sure when it starts cooling off I won't have any problems thinking about nice warm items.

:::::::WHEW:::::::

back to your regularly scheduled blogging. :-)

It's my birthday and I'll knit if I want to

(knit if I want to, knit if I want to. You would knit too. . . ) OK, do you have the song stuck in your head yet? LOL.

Today is my birthday. I'm officially 29. For real. I'm not pretending to be 29 when I'm really older. However, I have decided that I am STAYING 29. I will still celebrate my birthday because, hey, I love presents and cake, but I am not going to get older. Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. . .

Anyway, I'm hoping for some knitting time today in between feeding the baby and doing laundry and (hopefully) getting a shower in some time. I finished a blanket square last night at my knitting group, which sadly took me 3 days to complete. I used to be able to finish them in an hour or two. Oh well. After it was finished I began knitting a hanging towel for my kitchen. Very simple projects. I'd like to say I'm doing simple projects because I'm going back to my beginner knitter roots and re-learning techniques to improve my knitting skills or some crap like that, but I'm not. I would LOVE to start the Aeolian (sp?) shawl that everyone at my LYS is doing, but I know I'd screw it up somehow or lose track of where I was because a kid would take the post it note, or else it would take me 8 months to finish and I'd get bored and forget it. So for now I will recognize my own limitations and knit simple items that can be finished in a reasonable amount of time, thus giving me some satisfaction. And hey, simple can still be cute and functional!

I've also been strangely monogomous to my knitting, which is rare for me. Usually I have 8 projects going at once and about 10 more on my list of "next in knitting!" but lately I've been focusing on one thing at a time, maybe 2 at most. I kind of like it, I get things done quicker than I would if I were knitting multiple things at once, but it still seems weird to me. After I finish the kitchen towel I'm planning on dedicating myself to my tunic.

Well, off to browse the web a bit more then hopefully knit.

re-organizing, AGAIN

Ok, it's no secret that I HATE to clean. I especially hate organizing, mainly b/c I'm no good at it. Really, I'm terrible. I get sidetracked far too easily, and a simple 1 hour job ends up taking me all day. Plus I've been having hip problems since having our daughter 2 months ago (WOW has it been that long already?) which makes bending and sitting on the floor painful, thus making organizing lower shelves virtually impossible. My office has been a mess for, well, longer than I want to think about. I have a habit of kind of throwing things on shelves instead of taking the time to put them away where they belong, and yarn was piling up behind my door because my yarn closet was scary. I mean, open-the-door-and-stuff-falls-on-your-head scary. Like the can of slinky worms that when you open it they all pop out. Yep, that was my yarn closet. So recently all my purchases (and there have been, um, a lot) have wound up staying in the bags and stacking behind the door in my office. It made getting to the light switch a bit difficult, but being the slob that I am I just stepped over them. :-) However, as they saying goes, opposites attract; I am married to a neat freak. A SERIOUS neat freak. He has a hard time sitting down to eat until the kitchen is cleaned up from cooking. He's nuts. And I say that with a lot of love. Well, we reached an agreement yesterday--he could have the couch from my office (which he has been coveting for months!) if he helped me organize my stuff. It was my idea, but he jumped at it. I think the mess was about to drive him insane even though I kept the doors shut. He KNEW the mess was there and that was enough to eat at him. So while I fed the baby and helped him a little, he pulled all the stuff out of my yarn closet, sorted out the stuff I was going to give away, put away the rest neatly, then took my couch out and rearranged my office. I had to do most of the organizing in there because he doesn't know where I want stuff, but I will admit it is a lot easier to move around in there without the couch. The room seems a lot more open.

I still miss having somewhere comfy to sit besides my computer chair plus when someone comes over or when my kids are in there I want an extra seat, so tomorrow we're going to IKEA for a small armchair. Maybe a new computer chair too, this is his old one since we moved my PC to the living room and my computer chair is out there. His old one is HUGE and I don't like it. I love IKEA, great stuff (if a bit too modern for my tastes sometimes) and cheap!

Since my room was nice and organized, I was able to make this:

A little treat container for my friend Dawn, who's going on an extended trip to vist family. Inside was a few cookies. This container is a recycled baby formula can. Since we go thru a lot of them, I save them to stamp on. They make great piggy banks, just cut a slit in the top. Or treat containers, as seen here. I'm thinking I could make something really cute for Christmas gifts. I've been trying to stamp more, since knitting has kind of taken over. I love knitting, and it is a lot easier to do around the kids, but stamping is a lot of fun too, and since she refuses to knit (I'm still working on her though!) stamping is something that my mom and I enjoy together.

As for knitting, I finished 2 pairs of baby socks and. . . that's it. I started a lace tunic from the book "french girl knits" (GREAT book BTW, lots of nearly seamless knits. Cute stuff.) but I'm not progressing very quickly on it.

Well, off to feed the baby and put her down for the night. Hopefully she sleeps thru the night, we're still hit and miss on that. Good night!

I know, I know

Yeah, I know. I said I'd post more often and it hasn't happened. What can I say? I'm a busy mom with 3 small kids. The baby especially is very time consuming. She will be 8 weeks old in a couple of days and is growing like a weed. Now we're just working on convincing her that if she is awake and not hungry or in need of a clean diaper, that it is perfectly OK for her to sit in a bouncy seat for a few minutes :-) Needless to say, not much knitting going on. I did finish a really neat project, but unfortunately it is for a design contest so I can't share it with you. Sorry! I crocheted a bath poof as well, but not happy with how it turned out. I mean it looks great, but not very functional. I think it was the yarn. I tried to find something similar to the pattern because the yarn she used was discontinued, but I must not have substitued well. I think the weight of the yarn was too heavy and the content wasn't a good mix. I used Cotton Twist, and it seems too heavy and the cotton just absorbs the soap instead of getting all sudsey like it should. Oh well. I tried. Now I'm working on a pair of baby socks, my baby girl has super skinny feet and the only socks I can keep on her are a pair my friend Dawn made for her out of cascade fixation. Since she needs more than one pair, I started some more for her. Plus I needed a quick easy project since that is all I am capable of knitting lately. I did start a really cute mini cardigan out of white cotton twist, but I had it in the pool bag to take to my son's swim lessons, and apparently there was something in the bag because there is now a spot on the white sweater. I don't want to just finish it and hope it comes out because, well, what if it doesn't? Nor do I feel like frogging it right now. So, the stupid sweater is in time out. I have bad luck with sweaters.

Well, as is usual in my life, I have no more time. Millions of things to do. I will TRY to update again soon! :-)

I'm BAAAAAAAAck~

Sorry for the long absence! Here is the reason I was gone so long:

Introducing, Erin Marie. She was born on 5-4-09. She's less than a week old here in this photo but we still managed to catch a random smile for the camera :-) The pregnancy really wore me out, and most days I just didn't have the energy or inclination to drag out the camera and the cord to hook it to the computer to download pics to upload here. Actually, most days I didn't have the energy or inclination to even knit! LOL. I did manage to get my february lady sweater done, and I know I took pics of me wearing it while pregnant but of course I can't find them. I will find them eventually and post them here. It turned out well. Maybe a bit too wide, but it is a nice big comfy sweater after all. I also made several crochet market bags. My favorite was out of knit picks new organic cotton, but I can't take photos of it b/c my MIL claimed it LOL. And I finished a simple pair of striped socks from knitpicks' felici, the one my hubby got me for Christmas. I just made simple 2x2 ribbed socks with them, toe up with heel flap and gusset. Those were my hospital socks, to wear after I had the baby. I made a lace pair with the new "mermaid lagoon" colorway from knitpicks' inspiration yarn (can you tell I am a big fan of knitpicks??) but they ended up being wayyyyyyy too small for me. I gave them to my MIL (just to show you how badly I messed up the gauge on these, my MIL wears a size 6 shoe, I wear an 8.5, and they fit her almost perfectly! OOPS!). However, my MIL has a sensitivity to wool, and these are alpaca, so she's not sure she'll be able to wear them. I was pretty bummed b/c I really like that yarn and spent a lot of time and brainpower on them but oh well.

This is my latest project. Well, in addition to the 2 pairs I have on the needles (a plain stockinette pair and a lacey patterned/charted pair both made out of Happy Feet), I saw this pattern and just couldn't resist. Plus, I had the perfect yarn for it! The pattern is here: http://mscreate.typepad.com/BoltsFinal.pdf I ended up doing a short row heel instead, just because the striping sequence was going so well I didn't want to have to cut the yarn.

I could not have planned the stripes better if I tried. However, since I actually am only doing one sock at a time (I figured 4 balls of yarn would be too much to deal with!), I doubt I'll be able to duplicate it for the second sock. I may end up cutting the yarn to get the stripes to line up if I have to.

See. the thin purple stripe ended up at the beginning and end and middle of the heel as if I had planned it that way, which I hadn't!

It also ended up at the last row of the toe!

This is the top of the foot.

I meant to get a photo of the inside too, to show how my floats look (not bad, if I do say so myself!) but I forgot. I will when they are finished. They fit too, which is always good! LOL. I'm very very pleased with them. The dark purple is knitpicks kettle dyed in eggplant. The striped one, I can't honestly remember. I think it might have some bamboo in it?? It is stash yarn I've had for a while. I had started another pair of fairisle socks with these two yarns but the difficulty level was too much for my pregnant brain so I frogged them. I'm glad, these are turning out great!

Still recovering from the c-section, so I am missing my knitting buddies. I haven't been able to make it to the last couple weekly meet ups. Hopefully next week, I'm going thru withdrawl LOL. I also hope to post here more often. Thanks for reading!

What's new?

Sorry I haven't posted for so long. For some reason I tend to think I shouldn't or can't post an update without photos, and I'm terrible about taking them and uploading them (especially since my small camera quit working and I hate dragging out the huge one) but I figured a post with no photos is better than no post at all, right? If not, well, humor me.

Lets see, what's new in knitting news? Well, I finally broke down and bought myself a skein of that beautiful Tili Tomas Disco Lights yarn, 100%silk plus sequins. ohhhhhh so georgeous. I got it in a light sagey green. I was hoping for pink and purple but they still didn't have any and they haven't ordered any of that yarn for a while (guessing, since every time I go to that LYS they have the same few skeins of it) so I picked the green. I'm going to make myself a scarf with it. I'm thinking the "My So Called Scarf" pattern, but I may try to find something lacey. Haven't decided yet. I may get addicted to this yarn though.

I also got some of the berocco metalix sox yarn, my friend Dawn called me from another LYS and said "They have that yarn you've been looking for in a color that is SO you, do you want me to pick it up?" of course I said yes! It IS me too, she knows me so well. It is all various shades of pink and purple. SOOOOOOO pretty. However this lovely yarn might not actually get made into socks. I have a pattern for an adorable baby tank top out of sock yarn and this might be cute for that. Either this yarn or one other one I have in my stash, I haven't decided yet.

I finally started my February Lady Sweater. Maybe I'll actually finish it in February too! LOL. I'm working on the lower body now, about halfway done with the lace part on that, then onto the sleeves. So I'm probably a little more than halfway done with it. I'm using Knit Picks Swish Worsted in the Marine Heather colorway. Very pretty. Hubby and I are going to FL this weekend so I'm hoping to get some of it done on the plane.

I also started a scarf for my mom, I'm about 2/3 way done with it. It is out of cotton twist in a green/brown/yellow colorway. definately more Mom's colors than mine, she and I are so different. She likes earthtones, I prefer bright colors.

I also started a raglan baby cardigan, I have 2 friends that are also having girls, one due in March and the other in April. I messed up and forgot a couple increases on the front parts (mis-read the directions, that's why one should not knit a new pattern while watching the superbowl!) so if it doesn't look right after I add the edging I'll save it for my little girl and make a new one. :-)

In other news, I'm 26 weeks today, we decided on a name for her (Erin) and so far things are pretty good. She's moved down a bit which makes walking more uncomfortable but the doc assured us everything is OK. i have my next check up in 2 weeks. Hubby and I get to go away this weekend, the inlaws are going to stay here with the kids, since this will probably be the last time for a long time that he and I get to go away without children. I'm looking forward to some nice weather and beaches and swimming and nice resteraunts without kids menus. :-) Oh, and sleeping in, and not having to come up with creative, nutrituous meals for notoriously picky eaters numerous times a day. LOL.

Have a wonderful day!