Love!

Wanna see something irresistibly cute?

*Squeeee*  Baby Sweater!

No, I didn't knit this.  I found it in my mailbox this morning tucked in with the bills and grocery store flyers.  It was knit by a dear friend of mine.  I'd link to her blog, but she is very private and I respect that about her.  I respect everything about her.  I loves her so much.

And she knit this for my baby girl.  She even blocked it!  That's true love right there.

Look at those absolutely perfect buttons.

Could it get any cuter?

It can!

There's a matching head band!  *Squeeee*  I love head bands!

With the world's most perfect button!  She's already hooked me up with her button supplier.  This could be a dangerous thing.  A very dangerous thing!

I can't wait to put this on my sweet baby girl.  Thanks my dear friend!  I love it!

I'm About To Get All Crazy Up In Here

I will enter my third trimester on Friday.  My urge to nest is strong.

Really strong.

There is so much I wanna buy and make and have for the baby.  So many crafts!  So many cute baby thing!  So much to do!  And then my bank says "Hold up, we need to have a friendly chat.  Let me remind you of a little thing we call your account balance."

Reality.

I am not a fan.

I spent the weekend channeling my urges to prepare for the baby into knitting baby socks.

Lots of baby socks!

I just sat on the couch with my hat box of left over sock yarn and worked my way through a list of free patterns for baby socks.

She might not have a place to sleep yet, but by golly, her feet will be warm!

I still have a few more sock patterns I want to try out, but first I think I have enough Malabrigo sock yarn left over from my Honey Bee Cardigan (the one that is STILL waiting for buttons) to make a baby sweater.

I swear if I could knit with only one yarn for the rest of my life it would be Malabrigo sock yarn.  Or possibly Knit Picks City Tweed, or maybe my friend's Handspun (assuming I win the lottery and can afford to keep her on salary as my own personal yarn creator), and recycled cotton yarn is pretty sweet, I could knit with that forever.  I love yarn too much to pick just one.  Thank goodness I don't have to!

Reality, It Isn't for Wussies

It is time for me to face a harsh reality.

I try to deny it.  I am so happy with my delusions.  But in the face of such proof I can hide it no longer.

I have no idea what I am doing when I knit.

I just don't.  I like to think I do.  I like to pretend that I have been knitting long enough that I have achieved some level of knitting expertise.  But in reality, I just try stuff.  Sometimes it works.  Sometimes it doesn't.  And I can never, nope, never ever, not even once ever, accurately predict what is going to be successful and what will have me quietly weeping in a corner as I frog.

Case in point?

My orange sweater.

The entire time I knit my orange sweater I was sure it would be a disaster of epic proportions.  First off?  It was orange.  Next?  Not so sure cotton was a good choice for the pattern.  And let's not forget the endless debating I did with myself over what size to knit.  My target size was my pre-knocked up size, and I was positive that even for my usual body, this sweater was going to be too small.  All signs pointed to an inevitable frogging.

Turns out I was the wrongest of wrongs in the best possible way!

Pattern:  Pomme de pin Cardigan

Yarn:  Recycled cotton from a $2.00 sweater from Savers

Needles:  Size 6 Harmony wood, then size 6 Bamboo Clover Needles.  Plus size 5 Addi Turbos, and Size 5 bamboo dpns for the ribbing.

Modifications:  I didn't do any modifications, but in hind sight I can think of one I could have made.  Just like in my Darling Emma, the lace pattern is carried up the neck and across the back.

I love it.  Makes for such a  nice snuggly cardigan.  While both patterns achieve the same results, each pattern uses a different technique to achieve the look.  In the Pomme de pin Cardigan the neck extension is knit and then sewn to the bound off back stitches.  In Darling Emma the neck extension is joined to live back stitches as you knit.  I think I might prefer the method used in Darling Emma.  But the bound off back stitches for the Pomme de pin Cardigan give added stability to the piece, so really, this is a personal call.  I think I'm leaning towards the Darling Emma method simply because seaming is not my favorite.

Review:  Seriously, could this cardigan be any  more perfect?

I love the lace pattern.

I love the sleeves.  My sleeves blocked out a bit longer than expected, but I love the turned up cuff, so that is definitely one for the plus column.

And remember that size thing I was worried about?

This lace IS stretchy, so stretchy  I could button it over my baby belly if I had bothered to put buttons on it.  Which I didn't.  Because I can never find buttons I like.  But I did add button holes just in case someday I do find buttons.  In reality I never button my sweaters, so really, why do I bother?

Yup, I love everything about this sweater.  Now if only the weather would get cold enough that I could actually wear it.  I checked.  It is mid-almost late-September and the ten day forecast says to expect the temperatures to remain around 105.  Until the tenth day.  Then it is supposed to drop to 99 degrees.  But I don't believe it.  I think they are only saying that to give me false hope.  We moved here almost seven years ago because The Greatest got a job.  I wonder if there are any job openings in Alaska.  We moved once for a job.  We could do it again right?  Moving so I can finally wear my sweaters isn't a completely insane idea right?

And because I have people who NEED this.

26 weeks.  I've already warned The Greatest that I am poised to go insane with the Nesting very very soon.  He just nods his head and asks where the furniture needs moved to.

Exciting Things

So yesterday I FINALLY convinced Bird to let me show her how to crochet a different way.

Up until now she has been holding her hook level, wrapping the yarn around her hook, and then using her fingers to pull the loop over the new yarn, creating a crochet chain. Then she repeats the process to infinity.  And as I've documented before all she does in make the world's longest crochet chains.

But for some reason on Sunday she decided to let me show her how I hold a crochet hook.  I showed her how I loop the yarn around my left hand and use the hook to grab the new yarn and create the crochet chain.  I showed her how quick it can be, and how even my little v's were.  It took her a bit of time to get the hang of it, but she did it!  My Bird was on her way to learning to make something besides a crochet chain.

And she did!

She made her first finished object yesterday.

And best of all she made it for me!

Isn't my new bracelet so pretty!

I have a friend who makes gorgeous versions of the bracelet in her etsy shop.  All beautiful beads and smooth glossy yarn.  This was Bird's knock off version and I love it.

And I'm going to pretend very hard that it isn't yet another crochet chain, this time formed from the world's itchiest wool, because

BIRD MADE A FO!

Go Bird Go!

In other news

I wasn't exaggerating about the terrible snarl of yarn ends from my orange sweater.

Moving On

So if any of you guessed it would take me two weeks to actually get around to blocking my orange sweater you would be correct.  In an impressive display of my abilities to procrastinate it took me two weeks to get around to laying out my sweater.  Any one who guessed less than two weeks has an inordinate amount of faith in me.  I finally gave up and threw it in the washer with a load of kids clothes because, lets face it, it smelled really bad.  So bad it was making my kitchen smell bad.  Then I laid it flat to dry.  Unfortunately I hadn't wove the ends in yet, and now my random yarn ends are an amazing snarl of knots.  I should have fun later today salvaging what I can.  Did I learn my lesson not to procrastinate so long?  Only time will tell.

I'll admit it.  I've been in a bit of a funk lately.  About ten days ago it rained.  It rained two days in a row and it was GLORIOUS!  The temperature dropped.  I was able to sleep with my windows open, buried under my covers.  I love sleeping with the windows open.  It felt like fall.  It felt like home.  I cried when the temperatures rose back above 100 degrees.

Usually I roll with it.  Usually I'm only sad for a little bit and I move on.  I'm gonna blame this on pregnancy hormones.  I got homesick.  Really home sick.  I missed fall.  I missed changing leaves, and apple picking at the local orchard.  I missed planning Halloween costumes around big puffy coats.  I missed making chilli on Saturday afternoons while The Greatest yelled at his favorite football team (Go Blue!).  I missed my family.  I wanted to run away from this desolate place and go home.

I sat on my couch feeling sad and knitting a test knit for Knit Picks in record time.

But life will only let me sit on the couch for so long.  Then I have to get my butt off the couch and sort the laundry.

And boil water because there is e coli in our water (Yay!)

I ventured into the depths of The Abyss to decorate for fall.  Just because it is over 100 degrees outside doesn't mean I can't pretend inside.

My ghost chair is by far my favorite decoration.

And I've made a pumpkin roll for desert tonight, just because I can.  The children are less than impressed with my pumpkin roll.  Meaty is angry because he wants pumpkin pie.  Pork Chop has declared she doesn't like cream cheese.  Somewhere my parenting has gone horribly wrong.  I guess that means more pumpkin roll for me and the baby.

Yes, life moves on, even when I'm sad, life keeps moving on.  And sometimes that is a very good thing.