Temptation ~or~ The Trouble With Monogomy

I'm getting pretty far with my sock project, but I'm getting bored, too.  I started them on the last day of February, so that's 4 1/2 months.  I actually had to rip them all the way back to the start, at one point, because they were just too tight.  Now, at a better size, I'm almost back to where I was but I want more.  I'm not very good at sticking to just one project, since I like to switch it up with my mood and the setting, and I've got all sorts of things calling my name.

I started looking at other sock patterns, a sure sign of trouble ahead.  Being all noble and stuff I decided they should be for Jonathan.  He picked a pattern from the selections I offered and a yarn from the bucket.  They're going to be awesome.  But I still want more.

I haven't worn real shoes in long time, so when I put on heels for church, on Sunday, my little toe was worn raw within an hour.  Sunday School brought cold bare feet and visions of anklets that look like ballet flats that I can keep in my purse just for occasions like this.  And I still want more.

A shawl?  A dress for Lucy?  Dr. Who stockings?  Something else entirely?  Or do I hold out and finish before moving on?

Scattered Thoughts

I'm having a hard time finishing things, right now. That doesn't make for exciting blog posts, though, so I thought I'd give a smattering of starts.

1. James has gone from what I'd expect of a 1-year-old to what I'd expect of a 2- or 3-year-old, speech-wise. He still doesn't use full sentences (can, just doesn't) and you have to know him to understand him ("pee-wah bupper!" "pifa!") but he's using more English, will pull out phrases he learned in therapy or hears around the house, and knows colors, numbers (1-12, out loud, and 1-10 in print), letters (all upper case and some lower case), and is working on house-hold objects. And, after a month of calling me Daddy, is starting to get Mom and Dad straightened back out.

2. All three of the kids are taking turns reading during scripture time. Elena can plow right through a half-dozen verses, Joseph can sound out enough big words to make it through a verse or two, and James identifies all the capital letters.

3. I've finished at least 9 knitting projects, this year. Some of them are very small and simple, like booties for the baby, while other take more time and significantly more brain-power, like the stranded mittens I set aside while Dad was in the hospital. Other projects are stalled in their fifth incarnation because I can't get the pattern to work. Socks are coming, starting next month.

4. The baby is measuring right on for her age. Everything is still pointing to mid-June.

5. My hip isn't hurting as much as last time. I think walking to school twice a day, combined with our Ward's twice-weekly yoga group and my concerted effort to use my hand to lift the bad leg (instead of straining something trying to lift it with the usual muscles) has helped. In any case, it only hurts when I do something to it, rather than hurting all the time no matter what.

6. I say "hip" or "back," even though it isn't either of those, because they somehow feel more genteel than "rear" or "pelvis."

7. Breathing is getting harder, though. Positions that are comfortable for my hip tend to crush my lungs, and positions that loosen up my lungs hurt my hip. The only thing that works for both is to lie on my stomach, but that's starting to require more and more elaborate setups to accommodate the belly.

8. Is it normal to be absolutely exhausted, all day every day? I wasn't this tired in the first trimester, but now I'm dragging around all the time.

Palatte Choices

What do these colors say to you?


Yup, we're having a girl. Elena was so happy, when she found out, that she started crying.

The Year Ahead

So what have I got in the queue?


Um... A shawl, some mittens, socks, ridiculously tall socks, socks, a sweater for the baby (color pending until a week from tomorrow), socks for Elena, three more socks, another shawl, and yet more socks.

The red shawl is already halfway done.

Rest and Rescheduling

Elena and James have had fevers, the last couple days. His has been constant but low, while hers swings up and down with little warning. She's on her second day of missed school, and probably should have missed yesterday, too, but the deceptive temperature (and mood) swings made me think she was better. Sigh...

On the upside, I'm making major progress on my January Sock. I started Sunday morning, a week and a half ago, and after spending a day or two with one or more children draped across me in varying states of consiousness...

(Yes, we're both asleep in this one. He conked out halfway up.)

I went from here, on Saturday...



to here.

Most of that was worked just yesterday. If you're wondering why the first one still isn't done, it's because that ball of yarn ran out. Once I get the second one to the same point I'll bust out the third ball and finish them at the same time.

Self-Imposed Sock (Yarn) Club

I like to read Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's blog. Last year, she looked through her rooms full of yarn and decided that, instead of joining a Sock Club, where someone mails you new yarn and a pattern each month, she would create her own from what she already had. I, myself, have lovely yarns that I never seem to get to because something else screams "Knit me!" So, I did as she did, picked twelve projects and twelve sets of yarn, put them in Ziplocks, and will pull one (possibly at random) each month to work on.


Not all my projects are socks. There are two pairs of gloves and two small shawls in there, but all are made out of sock yarn. Or, at least, fingering weight yarn. Anyway, this is my Self-Imposed Sock (Yarn) Club. I know some of you knit. Would you like to start your own? You can make the rules anything you want, since it's yours.

Distraction

Elena's elementary school lets parents and community members check books out from their library. I find that really convenient because I'm at school a lot anyway, and it lets me have the chance to pop in and browse books during a spare moment instead of making a special trip to the public library--not that that's hard, just that I have to wait until 10, instead of a quick scan at 7:30, so there's the whole packing-the-boys-along thing to consider. Anyway, while I was scanning through the school shelves looking for the second How to Train Your Dragon (because I believe in knowing about the books my kid reads) I decided to pick up a copy of Artemis Fowl. I read the whole thing straight through with enough time to run to the public library and grab the next two before picking up Elena. It's that good. It reads like a combination of crime drama and spy novel, which given the title character is a 12-year-old criminal mastermind is absolutely understandable. That was Wednesday, though. I finished the third book last night, and while that was, luckily, a good stopping point, I can't wait to start of the next one. We're heading out to the library's story times in about half an hour so that I can swap out my books while they have fun.

I also cast on for the start of the Christmas Queue, last night, since I'd finished my books by 8:30 but had no car. Elena's up first. When she was little, I fell in love with a style of sock at Gymboree--a lattice pattern up the instep, ribbed top, and a picot/scallop edge. I must have bought these sames socks in a half dozen colors, I loved them so much. I'm attempting to make new ones (in her favorite color, red, of course) but with a bit of a twist. She's not a little girl, anymore, but she's not big either. I want to merge the two into an anklet, still with the lattice, and picot edge, but drop all the ribbing. She doesn't fold her socks down, these days (and they wouldn't stay put id she did), so I think that'll work well. Plus, that's less work for me. Win-win, I say.

Equipment Failure and Injury...

...or so the official results will read.

The main portion was done in only a day and a half. At that point I knew that the amount of yarn I had was not going to cut it. So I went to get some more. Neither the color I had nor the color I wanted was available at any of the 3? 4? stores I went to, so I got a slightly different color and launched into the edging. But I decided to do it the hard way. And forgot that it takes two rows of edging to bind of each of the 224 stitches around the edge. Sigh... While slogging my way through that, Joseph got sick. It was just a fever but one night of ruined sleep can be disastrous to an athlete. Some tree decided to drop all it's pollen on me, too. Three days of vicious sneezing has left my throat raw and prone to breathless coughing bouts. To cap it off, Elena got sent home from school with a fever, on Friday. So, having made it a bare 1/8 of the way around, I've now realized that the original amount of yarn isn't going to cut it, even with the secondary augmentation. As I sit here listening to Canadian rockers belt it out en francais I'm going to have to call this year a bust. I hope London will be better planned, on my part.

A Challenge

A challenge has been laid down and I have decided to take it up. I might be insane, but I really hope not. I will start a knitting project during the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics, and finish it by the time the torch goes out.

Every project I start (minus the innumerable bibs and baby socks) seems to take at least a month to finish, though. This might be because I am not a monogamous knitter and tend to flit between projects like butterflies around a honeysuckle bush, but I refuse to let that stop me here. This is the nature of my personal challenge, after all. So, for the next two weeks I will pour my energy into a specific project, a gift for a good friend. If I manage to finish on time, I'll get my very own gold medal, and the knowledge that, for once, I got it done way ahead of time instead of looking through wrapping paper with one hand and running a hairdryer over the still-slightly-damp just-washed freshly-cast-off project with the other. Let the games begin.

Thoughts on Progress

Through a discussion board on Ravelry, I found this article on work. It made me think a lot, especially on the things I spend my time on.

As much as I love being a mother, it's so hard to gauge how you're doing. You don't get progress reports or performance reviews. You don't get peer reviews, either, because everyone is terrified of finding out what everyone else will think. Every minor setback makes you question your entire operation. Even outward signs of growth mask the quality of the real product. It's a work that spans a lifetime, but only a small portion is actually under your control.

It's no wonder I retreat into my crafts--perhaps too much. No matter how frustrating it is to rip out five rows of cables, I can reknit it and move on in an afternoon. No matter how trying to the patience a single row comprised of a thousand stitches of sewing-thread-thin yarn in a complex lace pattern can be, I can see the pattern forming and find pleasure with each repeat added. No matter how fiddly the pleats on the front of my new purse are, I know that I can rip out the basting and do it again. And if it just won't cooperate, even after seven or eight honest tries, I have no guilt in chucking the whole thing and starting anew with a different fabric or pattern. Ink stains on my hands become a badge of honor as I look with pride at the dozen cards or gift tags before me. What was once nothing more than a scrap of fabric and a pile if thread morphs into a Christmas stocking embroidered with beautifully shaded pine trees or angel wings. There is real, tangible progress in these things. I can measure my life by gifts given, dresses worn out through constant wearing, or replacing my favorite pair of lacy knee-high stockings one more time.

This is not to say that I can replace my job with my hobbies. I try to bring them together as much as possible, letting my kids pick the project and colors for their friends' younger siblings' gifts and showing them how it is made and the progress that's made, but that doesn't resolve my need to find progress in my everyday endeavors. True, my daughter was just starting to sound out words, six months ago, and can now read any Dr. Seuss book you set her all by herself, but that's hard to remember when I'm changing my tenth diaper of the day and struggling to decide what dinner will be.

So, as my personal request to everyone who knows a parent, let them know what they're doing right. Tell them how sweetly their child said "thank you" to you. Tell them how their child helped clean up someone else's mess without complaint. Tell them about the progress their child--and therefore they--have made. Trust me, they're desperate to know.

It's getting colder around these parts. Our temperatures may be nothing to those of you rolling in snow, but it's still cold enough to make us shiver. It must be mitten time!

I have plans to button them onto a ribbon that will thread through the sleeves of their coats. Very cheesy, I know, but soooo effective. (And the fourth mitten's in there, it's just hiding behind the pile.)

Done!

During the beginning of the knitting frenzy, just about a year ago, I borrowed a book from the library and happened to see a really cute and really easy baby blanket pattern. I knew I was going to have more kids, though not precisely when, so I pulled out a few skeins of a warm peach yarn I had tucked away and started. I've had other projects going on, since then, and it it's gotten pushed out of the way innumerable times, but I've been working on it with extra enthusiasm, this last week, so that I could put it in my bag to take to the hospital. Today I finished off the last 10 rows and got it all bound off. It's done! What do you think?

Girls Who Make Stuff

Elena has a favorite website for coloring pages and can often be found coloring Disney Princesses, assorted mermaids, or Hello Kitty pages. One day she wanted a paper and a pen, too, so she could copy the letters on the screen.


I had a lot of fun trying out new patterns for baby socks to give to Sherry and her upcoming baby. These were my very first Fair Isle project. Elena's been so very excited about both the babies, so I let her pick the yarn colors (she's insisting on pink socks for ours). They look more like sunflowers than snowflakes, but that just makes them more interesting. Even though I followed the pattern they still ended up fitting Joseph's feet (6-12 months, my rear!) so I'm glad I did several pairs in a couple different styles and sizes.

Ups and Downs

I've been meaning to post some stuff, just fun things we've been doing in the last week or so, but by the time I find the free time I'm so moody (grouchy?) that I don't want to talk to people. So, anyway...

Joseph got to go shoe shopping. His boots were getting a bit small and I wanted to see how his feet were growing so we went to Payless, got his feet measured, and looked around at shoes. It' no wonder his shoes are a bit difficult to get on--they're a 4, and Joseph's feet are somewhere between a 4 1/2 and a 5. After trying on bigger shoes, he refused to put his old shoes back on. Payless didn't have any shoes that were quite cute enough even for the $12-15 price tag, so we headed on to Target. They had a bunch of shoes on sale for half off, including a great pair of two-strap velcro sneakers in tan suede with black canvas panels. They look great.

I knit my very first piece of clothing, a bolero style sweater for a friend's baby shower, and it inspired me to make a leap of faith in the knitting world--a sweater for me. I found a pattern I like that suggests recycling yarn from a thrift store sweater (I really wanted wool for a warm sweater, so the other option was to spend $40 for new yarn) so I made a trip to Goodwill. Two trips, actually. The first yielded a moss-green-with-a-turn-toward-yellow chunky yarn that was actually 80% silk (20% nylon), and the second found me a black-with-a-single-strand-of-silver worsted in 100% lambswool (minus the sliver thread, I'm assuming). Both are shapeless, XL turtlenecks. I hate turtlenecks, so I don't feel bad about taking them apart. The green has been unraveled already, but needs to be balled; the black is still in sweater form, until I can find a new pattern for it--I think I like the green better with the cables. Silk won't be as warm, but that's OK.

Elena spent all day, Saturday playing Primary in the living room. I'm not sure if she did any Sharing time lessons, but there were a lot of opening and closing prayers, with singing time in between.

I've visited half of the ladies on my Visiting Teaching route, and we're only half way through the month. I've seen Jeanie and her family at church the last 4 Sundays (her husband's not a member, and they usually only do Easter and Christmas) and Tiffany and I are working on getting rides to church for her kids once Jeanie's soccer league starts in February. We're trying really hard to get the other two before it gets to the last week of the month. I usually give the message, since I'm really lazy and Tiffany make the appointments, and I really like this month's. The first few times I read it, the last bit about motherhood seemed a bit jarring, since the lesson is a bout our purpose on Earth (fall, redemption, Plan of Salvation, all that), but the more I thought about it the more it made sense. As a mom, my job is to see that my kids grow up to be competent, responsible adults. My Heavenly Father's job is exactly the same. Motherhood (or, as Sister Beck put it, "a mothering heart") is about helping people grow and learn and become the best people they can be, and anyone can do it. Everyone should do it, in whatever capacity they can. Anyway, that's my deep thought of the week.

And, very best of all, I got to go shopping with my friend Jess, today. She just started nursing school (one class, but it's 40 hours) and has been so busy it's amazing I caught her at all. Joseph got a Carter's gift card for Christmas, there's a Carter's store up by her, and I hadn't seen her since September, when our buddy Jon got married. Perfect chance to get together for an hour or so. It was so fun!

Well, enjoy!

Raw and Roasted

Remember the chicken hats? I finished them! Here's the pictures...


Which do you like better?

Yarn For a Dead Chicken

It was a very surreal moment: "Which one of these looks more like raw chicken?" I ask the lady in the yarn area at my Hobby Lobby. She replies, as I knew she would, that the slightly fuzzy boucle did, though the cotton would get the smooth skin texture I wanted. Blast.

Perhaps I should back up and explain.

I found a pattern online for a baby hat that looks like a whole raw chicken. Think Joey from Friends with that turkey on his head. The pattern calls for cotton baby yarn, but that company doesn't make baby yarn anymore, and their regular cotton yarn doesn't come in the color I want. Neither does anyone else's, either. How often do you have a need for yarn the exact color of a raw chicken, anyway? I got both, though, and I'll make a hat with each to see which one I like better.