New sock well underway. Just hope there's enough yarn for two.

Accomplishments

The boy walks! And he likes to help out around the house.

The evil socks are done.

Anna's sweater needs only four buttons.

And a new pair of socks are underway, but more on that later....

Evil Sock

I had a knitters moment last night. I've been steadfastly working on the above pictured sock. It is a standard normal sock with short-row heel and short-row toe. It looks pretty innocent doesn't it?

I have felt for awhile that my knitting resume is deficient in sock knitting, so I set out to knit a simple sock that would fit my foot. You see most of the socks I have knit come out large and are comfy but somewhat dangerous on hardwood floors.

So i picked out this very simple pattern with the short-row heel and toe thrown in because I wanted to learn how to make a sock this way, and because I thought it might be better fitting than your standard gusset and picked up stiches sock. And I think this was a good deciscion.

Nevermind that I knit the heel three times last weekend to get it perfect. Nevermind that I basically did the same thing with the toe because I kept forgetting a stitch after I turned the toe, and again I wanted to get it right

As I closed the toe to the foot with a zigzag bind-off and I was all but three stiches from the end, disater struck. I didn't notice when it happened. It was 11:00 at night. I stayed up to finish the sock. I finished it and looked at it, and was pretty happy, until I noticed the dropped stich about three stiches from the end.

I thought, well I'll just rip it back and reclose. Except when I went to rip it back the yarn caught on itself and was really being stuborn. So in a fit of frustration I did what any crazied and tearful knitter would do. I took scissors to the toe. And as I tried to get clear of the mess that creates, the yarn kept catch and I couldn't get clear of the tangle. At this point I went downstairs to my husband who was really as understanding as any non-knitter could be about these things. He said some things that where all very sensical. The sock had been into the garbage about three or four times at this point. I kept saying its not salvagable. He kept saying put it away and look at it tommorrow. Eventually I grabbed a bottle of wine from the pantry, poured a glass for me and my husband , and I put the sock away.

Of course the baby and I had a competition to see who was more cranky this morning ( I think I won hands down, I don't sleep well when a drink, even a little and I wasn't ready to get up at 6:00 with a screaming 15 month old). But we have since recovered. Groceries have been bought. He is know napping and the sock minus the toe and an inch or so of the foot has been salvaged. It is still an evil sock. And to think I need to knit a second one. Maybe I should stick to sweaters!

Finished Green Sweater, and The Allergist

So it might have taken me the time it took me to gestate the model, but the green sweater (Trellis) is finished and functional. I finally got a chance to get the boy outside for his photo shoot. Isn't he an excellent model!

I'm pretty happy with it, the sleeves are a bit long, which doesn't bother me because I can just role them up, and it isn't quite as roomy as I would expect an 18 month sweater to by on my little guy, but it is finished, and even has nice wooden buttons.

However, in what a consider a great twist of irony, the night after I finished sewing the buttons on, I took the little guy to an allergist to look into the excema rash (which isn't very apparent in this picture, but probably is in some of older posts) that is on his cheeks and has been there since he was four months old. As we hit the colder months it started getting worse and worse, and we decided it was time to see if it was being caused by a detecable allergy to something. The Allergist recommend a dozen things to get the rash under control, and sent us on a treasure hunt all over town to find good lotions. But amoung the recomendations was to avoid clothing of any other material other than 100% cotton. Being that I knit everybody else's babies things in at least a cotton blend so as not to be irritating, I find it a little ironic that I knit this in wool, it took so long, and I put so much love and care to making it nice, and now little guy can't even wear it! Ah well, Thems the Breaks! I'm sure Anna will like it next year.

A sweater for Anna Lucy

• Harvey Kimono sweater (the girlie version) from "Natural Knits"


• in green apple shine sport weight (a somewhat unatural yarn, but it should be non-allergenic and machine washable which are big pluses for baby sweaters)


• knit on #4 knitpicks harmony needles, and #3 whatever they call their metal needles

This is the 3rd or 4th baby sweater I've knit in this yarn. I like it for the above mentioned reasons, but I'm not thrilled with how it feels on the needles. It's pretty slippery, especially on the metal ones. Thank goodness I got gauge with that size 4, harmony needle that are wood, and all I have to knit with the metal is the picot edge and a little bit of cuff.

Not to scoop my sister, but she did take my name afterall, but this sweater is for a very special little girl who I'm looking forward to getting to know better.

Welcome to the world, little one! You have a great family to take care of you .

There might be even a slight chance that one day she will ask me to teach her to knit (which I don't think my son, or my nephew, or my other niece for that matter ever will, but who knows they might suprise me). I hold out great hope for this one. I should do that whole holding the knitting needles thing with her. Too bad I'm not a better knitter

We Survived Holiday '08!

Last year the holidays passed in the blurr of having a 1-month old. I remeber everyone coming to us, and eating some kind of dinner, and holding the little guy who slept most of the time. And somehow presents were exchanged, but it was basically a blurr to my sleep deprived mind, but a pleasant one.

This year was rough. It was important to me to start observing the holidays a little bit, so we got a tree (and put all four ornaments on it). And we did the family thing at my parents which was fun. I did eventually finish the little guy's sweater. And a was looking forward to a little time off work, and letting my husband take care of the little guy a little bit, so I could do something unheard of like knit during daylight hours, and maybe I would get to go out somewhere by myself.

Unfourtunately, I had two bouts of a stomach virus one a week before Christmas, and one, that everybody got, starting with the little guy, over the New Year's Holiday. I guess this is just one of the things you expect with a kid in daycare, but I sort of feel a little ripped off about the Holiday thing. I mean I'm really glad nobody was sick on the actually Christmas day, but I've been dealing with a cranky kid all weekend, and I'm tired from being sick myself. I don't feel at all rested, I had to take two days off of work I wasn't expecting to (and can ill afford), and I didn't get time to myself,and I don't see much prospect for that in the near future.

I know I shouldn't be complaining too much. I have alot to be thankful for, and I know there are alot of people out there in that world who were suffering a lot more than me over this holiday, but I'm a little crabby.

However, tommorrow is the start of a new week, and the start of a new life (well, probably more than one, but at least one I know of). Good luck big sister, I hope everything goes smoothly tommorrow, and hopefully sometime this week I will get to visit you guys and welcome my new niece. And if that isn't something to be happy about, I don't know what is!

Knitting done. Tree is up. Presents mostly wrapped.The Festivities may begin.

Merry Christmas Everybody!

One Year Old

Last year (roughly-speaking)

This year

Everything else in between seems like a blurr.

Determination meets a stomach virus.... The sweater is probably not getting done on time. I might get the sleeve knit by the 25th, but probably not sewn together until after the holidays.

I am recovering, and am still keeping my fingers crossed that nobody else in the family gets it, whatever it was...

I really could have gone for some chef-boy-ardee ravioli, but all we had was lousy Healhty request chicken soup. It's really not that good.

We will still get a tree.....

'Tis the season.....

I am determined to get this finished before December 25th:

That is Trellis. The Trellis I've been working on for months. I have a back, a left front, a right front, and one sleeve. I need to complete the second sleeve and do the finishing in 1 week and 1/2. Every part of this sweater has been re-knit at least partially, except right front. I even had two sleeves completed at one point, but after looking at the pattern, and thinking , and re-measuring, I decided the gauge was too far off, and I ripped them out. This is a new way of thinking about knitting for me. I don't want to fudge things. If I'm going to take the time to knit it, it is going to be look nice, even if it takes me nine months to knit a baby sweater!

I fully realize that December 25th is a arbitrary deadline for a present for one who will not even notice the sweater or care about it except to fuss when it is put on him, but I sort of like the excitement of knitting it for Sean's 2nd Christmas. I want to anticipate the season by knitting a sweater.

I also want a tree. Probably a fake one, b/c our dog would probably pee on a real one, but I want a tree with lights, so you can turn off the lights in the room and sit in the tree light and feel the magic of the season, and forget all the hustle, and stress of it. I realize that it might be a hastle (not to mention inherently dangerous) with a one year old who is learning to stand up and is getting quicker and more determined to test us each day. But I want the tree, It's part of my past and traditions that I want to be there for my kids even if we are pressed for time this time of year.

As of yet, we have not had the time to go out and get a tree, but maybe next weekend. Most of the Christmas shopping is done. The cards are made and have arrived at home, and are just waiting addresses and stamps. They should be mailed out this week, so we should be able to do it next weekend. Probably just as well to have it up for a shorter time.

I leave you with a picture of Sean at the park. He turned 1, a couple of weeks ago. I can't believe how quickly his first year went by. Simply amazing.

What the hell, Happy belated Halloween! And Happy Veterans Day too!!

We aren't exactly on the ball with these things, but this is the best we can do. Sean looked very cute in his Japanese tiger outfit. We especially liked the tail. There has been lots of stuff going on around here; bathroon remodeling, career decisions being made, trips to NJ, several books finished,baby wrangling, and yes, knitting, but more on all that later.

ZOO!

Well what does a baby do on a bright and beautiful Columbus day, when daycare is closed?

You have mommy call up your friend's mommy and you head out to the Zoo!

We saw elephants and little hippos and maybe some other animals, and hung out with the stroller set who were at the zoo en force.

And then we took a nap because it was just too exciting!

Visitors

Over the last week we had visitors from the otherside of the world. My brother and his wife visited from Tokyo, and we had a barbeque bash at our house with so many people we used every last one of my plates and didn't have any knives left over. 10 people, I guess our family has gotten a little bit bigger.

His Uncle made quite an impression of OLG. And everybody seemded happy to be together as a family for once. Football was watched, Food was eaten, and A good time was had by all (except the dog who got locked upstairs).

OLG pulled himself to standing for the first time this weekend too. He is growing up so fast.

Beach '08

The first week in September was our annual trip to Duck, NC. As usually we had lovely weather, at least the first four days. Then Hannah decided to stop by on her way through, and we decided it was the end of the week and we'd rather be stuck inside at home then in our beach house.

Our little boy has a pretty good time. Actually I'm not really sure he appreciated the change in his routine, but he hung in there pretty good. He is know an expert tummy crawler, and is getting all over the place. He is also able to pick up cheerios with the dreaded pincer grasp. He has a little trouble with the hand mouth exchange part though. He really wanted to eat the sand, but I couldn't let him. I think he liked the walks in the Duck on the bike path the best, and hanging out with mommy and daddy for an entire week.

I'm still worried about his eating habits. He had his 9 month visit and he has dropped to 5th percentile in weight and height. But, the doc isn't worried yet because they're matched to one another. I started to cry when he was weighed in. It's hard not to take these things personally because of all the effort I've put into breastfeeding him over these last 9 months. He seems to be interested in eating a bigger variety of things now, but still only in small quantites. Anyway we will do what we can, and hopefully he'll start making progress.

Chicken Soup in August

I've been thinking that there is alot I should be recording on this here blogs. Having a small wee one around is nothing if not an experience which causes one to think alot. The thing is things are moving so fast, and honestly blogging isn't exactly my top priority, its pretty far down on the list of things to do....

First example of things moving fast, Baby sits on his own, and has been doing this well for about a month. He is actually making his first forays into crawling, sortof a commando style on the stomach leaning and reaching to one side. It's slow and he gets frustrated, but I think this means we need to baby proof the house soon...

Second example: We've started introducing solids. We are now making up for the ease with which we got the breast feeding thing down, and are dealing with a very opinionated baby. He eats about four things, maybe five on a good day. Mostly the gerber applesauce, pear sauce, squash, and fresh peaches and necatarines:

Thing is, he doesn't like much else. Maybe a few spoonfuls of peas or sweet potatoe if you also give him some applesaue. He won't even eat applesauce I make for him. So this is the reason I'm making some chicken soup... I think it might be time to try something new.

Excersaucer

For his 6 month birthday, we put together The Excersaucer, which he really seems to get a kick out of.

About 6 months

Our Little Guy turns about 6 months sometime very soon, and as you can see he's starting to look like a little boy and less like an infant. It is amazing how fast he is growing. He is in the I like to roll over on to my stomach, and then start screaming until mommy puts me on my back b/c I haven't quite figured out the whole getting back thing phase. We are working on the whole sitting up phase thing, but he doesn't quite understand the concept of balance yet. It might be awhile.

A little bit of an updated is probably in order as it's been awhile. OLG is a very happy baby as you can see from the above picture. (Please ignore the crazy woman holding him, and instead focus on the cuteness). We did go through a little bit of a sleep problem around 4 1/2 months where due to a series of colds, and mom over-reacting to said colds, Sean developed the unfortunate habit of waking up every 1-2 hours at night, resulting in "reactionary co-sleeping" and a mommy who was dragging herself into work each looking a bit bedraggled. This went on for a month (a month of mom sleeping in 1-2 hour shifts, and then getting up at 6:30 and having to be somewhat functional at work all day, think about it.....)Then Fabulous Aunt Aimee gave us their copy of the Sleeplady book, and it inspired us to get that kid back in his crib, and back to sleeping. Basically, after one rough night OLG figured out how to fall asleep by himself (we'll mostly by himself), and now sleeps in his crib in the other room. He still wakes up more frequently then he should, but we usually get at least on 6-8 hour stretch out of him. The sad thing is that we now put him to bed around 8:30, which means precious little family time on weekdays. Being a working parent is rough!!

So event wise, We went to cherry blossoms with the lab:

We went for two nights of passover in NJ and saw all the cousins. Good food, good people. Thanks Nanna...

We went to Md Sheep and Wool and lasted about 45 minutes before baby got hungry, but decided that too much was going on to nurse. So we left after looking at a couple of baa,baas, and went back to his comfy nursing chair at home where he settled down. I now try to take a bottle with me when we go out. He seems to take a bottle in social situations much better than me. So much for the ease of breastfeeding on the go! By the way my husband was absolutely stunned by the size of the sheep in wool thing, he though there'd be a handful of people, even though I tried to warn him.

We went out to The Old Olney Alehouse with friends, sat outside and had dinner and I drank my first draft beer in a long time. So nice to sit outside , eat, and drink a beer with the baby

There was mother's day. I got pretty flowers, and we had a nice brunch at Fabulous Aunt Aimee's. I'll see if I can steal one of her pictures.

Dad has started to play Thurs evening golf, leaving me to wonder what fun activity I could do to cash in all the baby "capital" I'm earning.

And, oh yeah, knitting: I completed one sleeve of "Trellis" for OLG when he is about 18 months. I might be able to finish the sweater in time.. I started Airsaig (middle), and have decided that it is way overly ambitious of a project for the time being, although a really digg the yarn color, and I like knitting lace, so I'm planning on tucking it into my stash for latter, and re-started a clapotis (right) from MdSW yarn purchase two years ago. I had started this before, and was actually quite far into it, but I remember some wonkiness, so I decided to rip out and start again. Maybe, I can finish this in time for Christmas giving. It's hard to find time to myself these days to knit, but I do try.

Alright that is all for now. I will be sending this link out to some friends and relatives shortly, so that we are not out done by cousin Sam, so Hello! if I actually manage to do that before the next post!

Can't resist the cuteness

While baby .....

Just taking a quiet moment for an update. This is the aforementioned knitting entry. I started back to work, and baby has started daycare. So far, so good, but I'm exhausted. Before ending my maternity leave I managed to finish up some projects for Sean and his buddy Roi. (See I'm not such a neglectful knitmom afterall!)

Project one: Baby pea-pod sweater, available on-line from Interweave knits.

Project two: Red vest from "Nature knits".

Project three: Tan sweater from "baby knits" from Debbie Bliss

And i've started a new project:

6 hours of sleep and other stuff

One of the first times I got 6 hours of consecutive sleep, left me feeling so great, I was able to assemble the 40 some odd parts of my brother's awesome gift inbetween feeding and fussy time the next day. My husband then came home from work and checked all the screws to make sure they were tight enough, you know just to be safe.

I've been getting a 4-6 hr stretch most nights, and then 2 more in the morning once I resettle him. I think this is really good, I just wonder if it will hold when he goes to daycare.

Baby has really become fascinated with putting his fist in his mouth. He is also starting to interact with us in different ways. Smiles when we make funny animal noises, or opens his eyes up really wide when we talk to him. He is starting to make little noises of excitement too, but no laughs yet.

Lastly, we went over to my sister's house and just look at my nephews keen fashion sense. Notice the knit cap, which was a hat I knit for him when he wasn't even born yet.

Next time, maybe some current knitting content???

Baby, a photo essay

Typing one handed is rough! I can't believe we are at 6 weeks! It is still weird that we have a baby.

The Wait is Over

Weighing in at 7 lbs. 11 oz, and 21 inches, the little one has arrived!
Mom and Dad couldn't be prouder. We love our little guy.

Waiting......

Nesting

We are full-term, and the anxiety I was feeling the last couple of weeks has lifted! I am getting pretty darn big and am beginning to wonder just exactly how big this baby's going to be.

The past two weeks I have been hectic ones around our house. It started with a shower, hosted by my lovely sister (shower at sister's) where my family was very generous to us in helping get ready to welcome baby. Here's a picture of some of the loot, which was hastily thrown into a closet on cleaning lady day:

Then there was a party at our house with friends, the pre-baby annual fall party which was fun, but exhausting. Sorry, I didn't take any picks.

Then the fun began, a faucet broke. We called a plumber, who sortof fixed it. Then J.C. did something to it again while trying to fix it (I was sitting on the couch and heard a geyser type sound followed by some swearing. I didn't ask), and we had our handy friend come over and put in a new one (Thanks handy friend). J.C. cut his finger and broke a blind for the baby's room. It was a bad week for the dad to be.

This was all leading up to the big event Saturday, good-bye ratty 20 year old carpeting that smelled like cat pee in places. Hello new floors. Who does this when they are 36 weeks and counting? That's right, we do.... And somehow we survived, and the floors and the new carpeting got in. There was the minor inconvenience of the installation guys thinking they didn't have enough carpet (yes, we do have large closets, and yes, we did give you those measurements), and finally running out of hardwoods ( and realizing this after they had taken the toilet out of the half bath downstairs). But they came back Tuesday, forcing me to take an afternoon off of work (thank goodness I don't have a real job), and the house is much improved:

The rest of the week J.C. spent putting together furniture for baby's room. This was also not without it travails. One of the drawers on the changing table was not drilled, and the crib seemed to require super human strength to put together. But mostly this to seems to be getting done.

While husband did all his getting the house ready stuff, I sort of sat around feeling not very helpful. I went shopping with a friend while the floor guys were there Saturday. And during the week I washed a lot of baby stuff. Is our baby really going to be that small?

So now what's left? Assembly some shower gifts, and put the damn car seats in the car. Wish us luck with that..... We might actually get them in before I'm in the hospital.

And since it got cold, I started to knit the baby a hat. He can't arrive before I finish it, right?

Getting to Me

So for the most part I've had it pretty easy being pregnant. Little morning sickness, haven't felt too weird about gaining weight, there was the bad heartburn I was having for awhile but that went away, and there was the ankle thing.... But basically not too bad.

However, I just crossed the 35 week, and it's starting to get to me, and it wasn't what I expected (you know, the usually physical complaints), but the mental aspect. Nobody warned me about this. I am becoming a neurotic and perhaps hysterical at times, expectant mother. I find myself crying about once a day because I'm worried. Not about the approaching labour process, but about the baby. Is he moving enough, have I done everything I could to make sure he is healthy, have I payed enough attention to my body to know if there was a problem, have I had the right discussions with my doctor. The thing that makes it worse is that I'm completely aware that I am being completely irrational. And I dislike this feeling so much that I'm looking forward to going through labour, so that I can have the baby on the outside where I can check to see if he is breathing, and thriving, even if it means going through labour and having a baby to take care of, and giving up my beloved sleep. It's got to be a little easier than this madness.

5 more weeks!!!!

Time is speeding up

It's been so long, that I don't remeber any of the html or the what I called the little special elements I created for headings and such . At some point I will look it up, but for now just typing something is probably all one can hope for.

We've been busy, and I feel like I'm just trying to get to November, because I've decided that November must be a chill month. I mean I'm going to be 9th months pregnant. Yikes!!!! I still have problems beleiving that I'm actually having a baby, even though there ample evidence. He's moving around right now actually.

I'm really excited about having the baby, but its hard to let myself get too excited. I guess I'm the don't count you chickens type, and I don't want to get too excited for fear that something might go wrong. I'm already really in love with the little guy, and I'm a little scared about that too.

To recap what is going on, we went to the beach in the beginning of September to hang out and relax. After that there has been painting of the baby's room, other work around the house, shopping, baby classes, and doctor's appointments. Somehow I also try to do some work.

This week I've felt particularly pregnant (33 weeks). I keep dropping things. I actually threw up because of my prenatal vitamin. Baby's been moving around alot and with more force then before (which is nice, I like to know he's getting stronger). I'm starting to outgrow some of the maternity clothes. I mysteriously hurt my ankle, so in addition to being big and cumbersome, I've been hobbling around. (It is starting to feel better by the way.) I've also been working on a talk, which is depressing because I feel like I've done nothing over the last year since I gave my talk last year.

Anyway that's how things are. Knitting progress is slow because I need to read the directions and I don't feel like it. I've been working on my crocheted blanket. It's really wide, and will take me years to complete, but doesn't really require a lot of thought.

I need to go walk the dog, maybe I'll post some pictures some other time.

We are still around....

Apparently it was still spring when I last sat down and wrote one of these little bloggy things. Now it is fully the dog days of August in D.C.; hot, humid,
and dry. I hope our lawn survives okay, I feel a little guilty about watering it, even at night. A big tree up the street from us died because of the drouhgt. If their water column breaks they are done for. Poor tree... poor homeowner who now needs to have the giant tree cut down....

There's actually been quite a lot going on around these parts over the last five months, so I will quickly update, in no particular chronological order.

• Finished peapod sweater:






another view





• Working on a red vest sweater, for a baby, (pattern from "natural knits, for Babies and Moms" by Louisa Harding, knit in Shine Sport)





• Went to a small scientific meeting in Italy, where quite a few people were talking about my paper, which is weird because at larger, less focused meetings nobody generally cares about this stuff. Picture of Italy at flickr sight



• Bought a shiny used 1971 Yamah U1 piano. Has a very nice sound, and doesn't have problems turning on and off. Still haven't figured out what to do with the old electric piano which was a nice idea in principal, but would strongly urge anyone thinking about buying one to consider a used real piano instead.







• Seriously thinking about writing a K grant, mulling over ideas which will take a lot of work to flesh out




And lastly, but certainly no leastly...




• Started working on producing another human being, about four more months to go:




Me at 21 weeks:








Baby at 20 weeks: