Randomness

I had a pretty good night’s sleep last night.  I think that I only woke up twice, which is unusual.  I am at the point in this pregnancy where sleeping is starting to get difficult.  Pillows are my BFF, as is not consuming liquids after 3 pm, ha ha. Hard to believe that I only have 8 more weeks until I can hold this little creature that is growing inside of me.  Secretly, I think it is a boy.  And I thought that BTH was a girl, so that means that this one is probably going to be a girl.  Which is okay…we have names picked for either gender.  And lots of gender neutral newborn clothes from BTH.

Lots of random things to share…

• The Election:  No, I won’t gloat.  Actually I became very quiet in the last month or so of the campaign…I was tired of dispelling rumors, falsehoods and half-truths to people I know (and many I am related to) until I was blue in the face.  I decided that I wasn’t going to change people’s mind, just like they weren’t changing mine.  I am proud of our country.  While I do think that John McCain is a fine person and has proudly and selflessly served this country much more than I ever will, I knew the deal was sealed when he chose his running mate and we learned more about her.  I am interested in where this extremely ambitious woman’s political future lies.  I don’t know that she can be content with being our Governor since she has had a taste of the political spotlight.  Anyway…enough about her.  I am so happy that I had the chance to go vote.  And DH voted for the first time in his life, go DH!

And he let me finally put the sticker on my Odyssey about 8 weeks ago, whee!

• The House:  Yeah, still working on things.  The best part is that I have my craft room 90% put away.  DH just have to get the other half of the room done, the office part.  You can be sure I will be showing pictures.
• Knitting:  Did I tell you I finished my Clapotis?  I did!  Here she is…

Pattern:  Clapotis by Katie Gilbert

Yarn:  Noro Kureyon color 150, just barely 7 skiens

Needles:  Knit Picks Harmony Interchangeables size 7

Okay, so this pattern was sucking my brain out of my head.  I think that it took me a total of 5 months to do it.  4 of which it was shoved in my bag, being ignored.  The pattern is simple, I just was freaked out that I would mis-count again and have my dropped stitches be off.

• Random Cuteness:  BTH has managed to learn how to drink the left over milk in his bowl when he is done with his cereal in the morning…too cute!



Peace.

Blah, blah, blah

I feel so incredibly uninspired lately. I know that it is partly because we only have 27 more days until we get packed out and move to the hotel and there is still an unbelievable amount of things to be accomplished. I know that it is because I am so completely tired lately, you know with producing another human being inside of my body while chasing after a wild 16 month old every day. And the other part is that last week was hard. Mentally. I am trying to get my brain wrapped around the fact that when we go home in 37 days, Mom won’t be there.

Ever.

I keep going over how it all happened in August and September and I find that I am forgetting things. For example: Who picked DH up at O’Hare when he flew in? If I was the one, I certainly don’t remember it. And if it was me, why can’t I remember it? Little things like that. I know that it was a whirlwind of events that transpired and nobody on the face of this Earth thought that it would happen so fast.

But still.

Even though I haven’t been exceptionally inspired, I am still crafting and knitting.

I made this pincushion for my partner on the pincushion swap on Ravelry. I think that it turned out pretty cute. She loves dragonflies. It is made with all thrifted materials. Thrifted and felted sweaters actually with a charming vintage rhinestone button on the bottom. 100% hand stitched by me.

A new pic of the new Clap. I am now on my 3rd repeat. Yay. I am absolutely loving the way the Noro is striping. I am on the 3rd skein.

A new pic of the Monkey’s. I have since completed the heel flap…on to turning the heel! If I thought that I was loving the Noro on my Clap, I am loving the Socks that Rock yarn as much, if not more. All thanks to the lovely and incredibly generous Phoe.

The other thing that has been occupying my less than abundant free time is this…

I love these books and will be sad when I finish the series. Did you see my little bookmarker thingy hanging out of the book? A lady that works with my MIL & Step-Mom makes these book markers, she calls them “book thongs” because they fit nicely in the crack. HA! I have a couple of them, this one is pretty great in my opinion…

The charm says I*heart*2Knit and has a dangling sheep. Love it. I am so easy to please.

Peace.

The Clap has been frogged

Sounds like a crazy down da bayou voodo cure for an STD, no? Well, remember my Clapotis? I was happily trucking along on it every night (it is a gift knit) and got to the final section, the decrease section when I saw it. The out of place dropped stitch. Must have happened when I had a “learn to love Merlot ” night. (I have been trying to step outside of my white zinfandel/chianti/gerwurtzaminer/reisling box, er, bottle recently) I tried to fudge it (during another wine infused knitting session where my IQ pretends to be higher than it is), but my stitch markers were all off track and it was a mess. So, to the frog pond it went.

But don’t let your heart be too sad for me, I started a new Clapotis last night out of Noro Kureyon. Little Knits is having a fabulous sale on their Kureyon, if you are inclined to purchase awesome Japanese 100% wool yarn. Can I just tell you something? This was my first time buying from Little Knits and I always use the shipping as my deal-breaker. Many places charge outrageous fees for shipping. Well, Little Knits shipping was incredibly reasonable. The kicker is they adjusted my shipping (in my favor) once they processed the order (almost $5 savings!) because I had been over charged. I was happy to pay the original shipping since it still made the Kureyon cheap, but I am even happier to pay the discounted shipping. They have a customer for life.

Somehow, this skien of Debbie Bliss 100% pure silk jumped into my cart before checking out. Man oh man is this stuff ever soft. I am in a swap on Ravelry, so this one is going to my swap partner. Lucky girl.

The only down side is that the hanks are crazy small. A splurge for sure.

Our old friends from Louisiana now live in New Jersey where he is a Company Commander at Cape May (Coast Guard Boot Camp). They are the ones that got our first pick, Portsmouth, NH for this rotation. Rat bastards. (said lovingly of course) They are also expecting their first baby in a few short weeks. A little boy. So, I knit this up for them this past week. I used Berroco Touche (cotton & acrylic blend) in the apple green that I had in my stash left over from BTH’s wrap sweater. I love this pattern. Much better than the wrap sweater. In fact, this will be my “go to” pattern when ever any of my friends are having babies (hear that, BFF?). Plus, it is a free pattern. I did the version without the hood. Maybe next time I will do the hooded one. It is a seamless raglan worked from the top down. Love love love this pattern. I still have to weave in the ends and block it. I did the 6 month size and I think that it will be great for the New Hampshire autumn.

I wanted to do a matching pair of booties for them as well, so I started the infamous Saartje’s Booties.

I actually finished the knitting part of the first one last night and to be honest, I hate it. It is getting ripped out. I would like to do a pair of booties, but the time is running out.

That’s all I have for today.

Peace.

MIA

I know, I have been really sucky at the whole blogging thing lately. *Insert whiny voice* I am just so swamped, y’all! Lemme try to catch you up real quick like…

• Thursday, I got to go to another knitting night. Did I tell you that Deece & I were invited to a new knitting group? Yay! The cool kids like us, they invited us back! It was tons of fun, lots of information and ideas exchanged, tons of yakking, a little bit of knitting and many snickerdoodles were consumed. Deece couldn’t go this last week…you know, her son turned one and all…like that is important or something *kidding*. They all got to see my Frankensock before I rip it apart and start over. The foot part is long enough (I wear size 9’s), but the ankle part is minute. I started at the cuff and worked down and was worried about running out of yarn. I really need to learn to do socks toe-up. Oh yeah, I can’t get this pair on my feet either, too tight.

• DH has renewed an old passion…bike riding. He got his road bike all cleaned up and tuned up, he even was in a bike race last weekend! Yay DH! Now he is drooling over the fancy-schmancy road bikes that cost more than our car is worth. In the meantime, he is dragging my sorry butt out there for bike rides up to Marpi. Seriously, he can lift his bike with 2 fingers, I think that my son’s head weighs more than his bike. Mine on the other hand is definitely made of cast iron, picking it up, not to mention peddling the sucker requires much strength. So, naturally, I hate bike riding. He is trying to get me to come to the dark side with talk of a new bike for me. I say no way, Jose unless it has an iPod that comes with it so I can at least listen to podcasts and feel like I am doing something constructive. So, if you see some lady on a bicycle with a baby seat on the back of it, please hit me and put me out of my misery. I keed, I keed.

• Saturday, I met with Deece (see a patten here?) for our usual coffee & knitting at Coffee Care. This time we were pleasantly surprised to be joined by Bruce and his little guy. Bruce found what turns out to be a crochet hook set in some of his stuff and was interested in learning how to use them. Turns out he is a pretty quick study and might come back again for another lesson! I worked on my Clapotis some more. I really enjoy this and am almost done, another couple to drop, then I am on to Section 4. The instructions look intimidating, but they aren’t. I am already thinking of what yarn to do it in next…something luxurious, something with silk, me thinks. It might be a Clapotis year for my gift giving, I am enjoying it that much!

• I have been sewing quite a bit. I am trying to be more mindful of when I am sewing, that I don’t take time away from my family. The Flame Tree Arts Festival is this Thursday, and I have a couple more bags to make up. The best news is that a shop here on island has expressed interest in having my bags for sale in the store!!! Whoopee! I am still on cloud 9 since that whole discussion. Here is what I have so far:

Small fabric bags – good for library trips, knitting projects, lunch bags, etc.

Large Grocery Sacks

Small Zippered Pouches

• The other day, I was sewing for a few minutes and thought to myself, “Hmm, BTH is being unusually quiet, what is he up to?”

He had climbed up onto our bed (which is rather high) and was sitting there right in the middle looking at a craft book I had left on the bed. Happy as a clam. Meanwhile, Mama about had a heart attack.

So, my friends, I have much catching up to do. Seriously, my email inbox is virtually running over. I will get to you all soon. Just give me a couple of days to get through the Festival. And if you are on island, come to booth 31…that’s where the cool kids will be hanging out!

Peace.