More Self-Portrait Goodness

I've been knitting. I really have. I've even finished a bunch of stuff this year. But for some unknown reason very little knitting has made it to my blog, even less has appeared in a finished object state.

Take Starsky for instance. I began Starsky in January. After a quick start the knit lingered. All knitted up it waited patiently on a shelf to be blocked. And due to my favorite method of lazy blocking (throw it in a bowl of water and forget it overnight) disaster struck. My sweater was afflicted with rust. Ugly brown streaks of sweater ruining rust on my creamy alpaca.

Yet we persevered together. You cheered me on while I tried salt, baking soda, lemon juice, cream of tartar and sunlight. (For what it's worth I think the salt, lemon juice and sunlight together did the best, but I'm not ruling out the cream of tartar with the sun.) All was not yet lost.

Then I realized my arms, while long (I'm 5 foot 6, I need long arms so I look proportionate) are not as freakishly long as I sometimes think, and the sleeves were freakishly long. Sick of the sweater but knitting on because my goodness I've already put so much into this sweater I'm going to finish it come hell or high water, I CUT the cuffs off. And there you all were, cheering me on. Assuring me I could do this crazy thing without my entire sweater falling to pieces. And lo and behold...it worked. The crazy thing worked.

The rust was gone, the sleeves were shortened, warm weather descended in the valley and *poof* the Alpaca sweater disappeared, never to be heard from again. There you were, left with the worst cliffhanger ever. You'd spent months with me and my sweater, and suddenly the sweater was gone. No explanation was offered, no closure was given. No photographs of the final glory were posted. It really was a mean thing for me to do to you.

As I have already suggested in the previous paragraph (were you paying attention, or are you merely skimming looking for a photo?), this happened because the weather turned and I simply could not put the heavy alpaca sweater on for a photo shoot without instantly dying of heat prostration. But winter has descended upon the desert once again (as it tends to do, every year, just like clockwork). In the mornings it is a chilly 60 degrees, and I find myself in need of warmth when taking Pork Chop to school. Enter beautiful hand knit sweater stage left.

I'm getting better with the self-portrait. I'm a big enough person, I'll admit it, maybe a little reluctantly, with a little sheepish grin, but I'll confess: the sleeves are a little short now. In my effort not to have gorilla arms I might have gone a bit overboard in the opposite direction *shrug* I could care less. They still cover everything that needs covering. So what if the cuff isn't cuffed precisely right? I love it anyways.

The alpaca is a little itchy, but it's a cardigan. I will always be wearing something underneath it, so again, I couldn't care less. This sucker is warm, warm, warm, warm. This is currently my favorite sweater. I'm always a little sad when ten o'clock rolls around and I must once again remove the sweater or sweat to death. I love the length, I love the collar, and when my belly isn't in the way I'll love the belted look.

So there it is, the long awaited Starsky reveal! Admit it, it was totally worth the wait.

And finally a picture where my belly looks almost as big as it feels.

40 days until the estimated arrival. Of course that is just a suggestion arrival and there is a two week window in either direction where an entrance into the world would be acceptable. I began this pregnancy saying the baby could come when it wants to come and will probably be a week late like Bird. I have since changed my stance and declared this baby need to come soon, the earlier the better. So what that really means is I need to get on the ball and start getting things ready for this baby. I have a list of things that need done. Just writing the list makes me feel like I've done something. But that nesting urge is powerful, and merely having list may no longer be enough. It might be time to actually DO a few things from my list. Like picking a name. This is my fourth child, my third girl. Any good name suggestions?