snakes and snails and puppy dog tails...

if that's what little boys are made of, then no wonder i am still throwing up every day...

we had a level 2 ultrasound yesterday where we confirmed that all the parts are present and accounted for, everything is working like it's supposed to, and that we are indeed having a boy. kieran, not rosemary. it's a mental adjustment to let go of the idea of either gender at this point, so you know--it's a combination of excitement and disappointment. i am excited by the thought of a healthy and sturdy little hippie toddling around after his father trying to fix things with a leatherman micra and learning to sail and writing computer programs from age three. but i am also sad to lose the prospect of ribbons and dresses and knitting little lace sweaters for a girl, too. life is filled with bittersweet things like this i guess. don't get me wrong--i AM happy about the boy in spite of my desire for a girl. and mostly i am happy that he's healthy and active and robust. he's about 5 days larger than his gestational age would indicate, which is right on target for us. the hippie was over 10 pounds at birth. my brother was 11 pounds and 10 ounces. this doesn't bode so well for my comfort level, but it does mean that we don't really have any worries in the failure to thrive department either.

i'd show you some pictures from the ultrasound, but honestly they were mostly crap. we only have a few in spite of the hundreds they took--no one gave us a fabulous DVD this time--and none of them are really very clear. sad. i can tell you though--it's awesome to see him and spend so much time watching him move about. he was sucking his thumb, which was really cute. he has all his fingers and toes, we saw all the chambers of his heart, his brain, his abdominal organs, the bones in his legs and arms, his skull--all of it. it's mind-blowing.

he.

have to get used to saying he instead of it.

and now the house is officially full of testosterone. two boy cats, a hippie, and soon, a little boy baby. i told the hippie--i am getting a fluffy girl dog and tying it's fur FULL of pink ribbons.

back home, on my own...

oh yeah--i blew it. that whole posting every day in november--well--we got on the road on friday, and i just utterly forgot. and then it was already screwed up, so i admit, i just didn;t worry about it over the weekend while i was at my parents' house. oh well--nothing lost i guess, although i admit i am a little disappointed in myself. stupid type a personality...

anyway--check out these cute as hell babies! these are kimmie's twins, matthew and katherine. they have an older sister, caroline, who is also very cute, but who, unfortunately, i didn't take a single picture of. heck, i barely took any pictures at all on this trip--i was mostly holding babies, or feeding babies, or riding, or feeding babies, or something. i gotta say, kimmie got lucky here--these babies are good natured, adorable, smiley, and they smell good. in short--they are nearly ideal. it is my experience that matthew (my new boyfriend--sorry, hippie!) is more demanding and would mostly rather be eating than just about anything else. katherine seems more reserved and mild-mannered. clearly she thinks her older brother is bourgeois. caroline is toddling around, and appears mostly indifferent to her tiny twin siblings. she's in that phase where she's learning to talk, talking a mile a minute, and you can understand about 2/3 of what she says. she can very clearly say "backyardigans," however, and thank god for it--her love of that show probably saved our asses on the drive down. (btw, the backyardigans have my vote for cool kids' show, even though their website kind of sucks. i am not a fan of dora, who yells everything and tells lies. a riddle is NOT just a silly question, dora! but i digress...)

so that's where i was on friday--kimmie and i (with major help from the man of the house) loaded up the luggage and babies in the minivan and headed south from detroit to our hometown in western nc. the drive went FAR better than we expected. by the time we got to dayton, we had a feeding and dvd schedule all worked out. i was even able to feed both babies at once due to my extraordinarily long arms. the only down side to me is that i feel i have now had enough road food to last about 3 years. i am currently in detox mode. but i digress... so--we got into the hometown at something like 4am, at which time i fell into my parents' guest bed and slept like a dead thing till at least 9 when the parasite demanded i go eat something. kimmie, unfortunately was not as lucky. when she arrived at her parents' house, caroline decided she was up for the day. at 4am. after a 13-hour drive. i know that i will have some moments like this at some point in my future. tell me how parents resist the black market purchase of tranq guns, people. whew. she seems to have recovered. and now i am back home until next wednesday when we split town for t-day. too much travel, man.

anyway--i am on my own till friday while the hippie is off at a conference in reno. the house still seems weird to me without scout, and even weirder with no hippie. and i admit, kind of missing those babies. kimmie, if you are reading this, go kiss the peach fuzz for me.

slow day at the office

today was fairly uneventful. i spent the bulk of it holding one or more babies and trying to do the job I came to do. tomorrow afternoon we will leave michigan and drive down to rutherfordton--should be quite an adventure. y'all cross your fingers for us that things go well. for now, i think i will retire early to rest up for the coming trip. us knocked up girls need our rest...

highlight of the day: it snowed this morning--so pretty to watch out the window with a baby sleeping on my lap.

michigan, baby

ah, blogging from my phone... how well i remember this from last year. today i flew up to detroit to see my friend kimmie and meet her nearly 4-month old twins. it's so awesome to see her not so little family on their home turf. the babies are adorable and caroline, the toddler, was very funny today showing off for me. i will be spending a couple of days here with these guys, and then we will pack up all the babies and our stuff and head down to nc to our hometown. cross your inger that we all survive the 11-hour drive in tact! meanwhile, prepare for more phone blogging from me...it's all i got for ya right now. :)

new baby in a new hat

i still haven't found time to clean up the SAFF pictures, but i did squeeze in this one little beauty from last weekend. this is madeline, my brother doug and his girlfriend chrissy's new baby. isn't she the cutest? and check out her fabulous new raspberry hat. see? i really have been knitting some--just not as much as i would like. which is why madeline's baby blanket, and the sweaters for kimmie's babies are still all half done. i will be meeting kimmie's babies tomorrow, and well--i am empty handed. this is very un-Southern of me. but i digress... so this is the third fruit hat i have knitted from ann norling's lovely pattern, and i still love it. it's fast and cute, and yet, still practical. this one was done with my beloved julia on some size 6 needles. i bet i make some more--there are more babies around, after all. :)

the road to hell...

i really do always have good intentions. but you know--life and work and all--they get in the way, and the next thing you know, i am back in that handbasket and feeling the flames get closer and closer again... today is no exception. i have lists--lots of them. i have prioritized and re-prioritized everything i need to do. and i feel like i am in one of those dreams where i am running and running, but getting nowhere. god, listen to me bitch. this has just been one of those days, y'all. here it is not even 9 o'clock, and i am beat--i feel like i have been through the ringer. i have all these pictures i want to get off my camera and onto flickr, but that ain't happening tonight. i have a lot to say about SAFF and ravelry and the cool knitting people who keep crossing my path. i want to tell you all about meeting my brother's new little baby and finding out that his oldest daughter is also pregnant. i want to talk about being knocked up. but man--today is not the day. i gotta get all scarlett o'hara on you people--i will tell you some of this stuff tomorrow. and then maybe some more the next day. right now, though--i am thinking maybe i will make and drink a cup of tea to fortify myself to handle one last load of laundry, and then i am crawling into the bed with a book. unless i skip the tea and laundry and go stright to bed. i'm just--done. wow. two days in a row of writing about being too tired to write--i am doing great over here, aren't i? lol--it's just been a long couple of weeks is all. i promise, it'll get better...

note: i DID manage to update the baby blog if y'all are interested... i can't decide whether to keep my ramblings about pregnancy over there or integrate back into one blog now that the word is out. any opinions?

too tired to write anything coherent

i'd like to have a real day off. today i tried to be somewhat productive, as i had pretty much let everything go for the past week. yesterday i thought i might be productive, but the truth is--i was just too washed out--tired and sad and useless. it wasn't a bad day, but productive it was not. today, however, i washed a ton of dishes, dragged my butt to the grocery store to re-stock, made a fabulous beef and lamb stew for dinner, and spent about 3 hours, maybe more, ironing the massive pile of linens i have been procrastinating dealing with for about a month. yes, i iron my linens. i may be the last person on the planet who is not a paide servant who does this. people make fun of me, but man--i love me a crisp, ironed, lavender-scented sheet on my bed. and especially pillow cases. you know, this is when i would normally say, "but i digress...: but in this case, i am not even sure what my point is. i am tired. the hippie and thk are a bit tipsy and being amusing in the kitchen. lord i love laid back sundays. i just need a repeat one tomorrow where i could maybe stop working around the house and just knit. i remember liking knitting...

i'm tired. i think i should maybe shut up.

scout

when i moved back to north carolina to go back to school, i moved into the cheapest house i could find to rent that was close enough to walk to campus. next door to me, renting from the same slumlord, was a woman, kathy, and her 8 cats. kathy had a soft heart and took in any kitty in need that crossed her path. a big orange tabby named roger, a balck and white tom named biscuit, a little matching black and white girl named molly, a few others who were too skittish to get to know, and a half grown tabby female named scout. all these kitties were loved and well-cared for, and most of them had clipped ears--kathy took them to the aspca to have them spayed and neutered because she could not afford the vet bills, and the aspca clips the ears of feral cats brought to them, presumably so that they don't duplicate the surgeries.

when i met scout, she had recently been hurt--trapped under a car and burned on her back--and was a bit wary of strangers. she was also the most vocal meower i had ever seen. after a bit of time, she learned that i was a cat person, and she started meeting me at my car when i would pull in, meowing for a scratch or two. in the other half of my duplex, a botany grad student sheri and her dog billie moved in. billie and scout were fast friends and took to sleeping ina pile on out front porch. even jojo, my former cat who hated everyone, took a liking to scout--they communed through the windows onto the porch. scout was just--part of life. not everyone treated her well--the frat boys down the street did SOMETHING to scout that made her panic when she was picked up--i don't know what, and i don't WANT to know. but she never ever wanted to be picked up--she fought tooth and nail if you tried. literally.

years passed. kathy met a man and got married. she moved away and took all eight cats with her. a couple of months later, there was a familiar meowing from the porch--scout had come back. she was starving and bedraggled and in a sad state. i went out and fed her, petted her, and supplied her with water. she stayed. she got better and fatter and happy again. i had jojo in the house, and scout outside. then jojo had a heart attack--she was sitting on my lap purring one minute and gone the next. i was shocked and devastated and unprepared, but in retrospect, that was about the best pet death one could ever hope for. by this time i had graduated from school and was thinking about moving out of the ghetto--the time seemed right. i made plans to move to an apartment complex in a newly developing area. but what was i going to do with scout? i didn't really feel ready to take on another pet, but i could not just leave her to starve either. i called every no-kill pet shelter and rescue i could fine, and no one would take her because her ear was clipped. it still shocks me that something the aspca had done to the cat rendered her un-adoptable to every rescue place on the map. so--i did what i had to--i kept the cat.

in one day, i changed scout's life forever. i lured her into the house and closed the door behind her. the same afternoon, i took her to the vet for shots and a check-up. she was healthy as a horse they said. scout and i moved away from maiden lane at last. she howled like a banshee the whole way to the new place and hid under the bed for a week. but she adjusted. she came out and interacted with me and slept on the bed at night, but it was clear that she was lonely. she had never been alone in her whole life. so--i decided to get scout a kitten. when a man i work with brought in a litter of 8 kittens his girlfriend had rescued from a madman, i immediately told him i wanted one. instead, as happens with people like me who are ultra-susceptible to the cute, i came away with two, samson and fergus. the difference in scout was night and day. fergus was, and still is, scout's cat. he was her shadow, her annoyer, and her constant companion. and scout--scout became one of the best cats i have ever known. affectionate, loving, happy, vocal, content. she loved other animals and children, and she was patient and tolerant of everyone. she was a slut for pleasure and adored anyone who would sit on the couch and absentmindedly stroke her silky fur. she liked to be between the hippie and me best of all--this is where she spent every moment possible for the past 4 and a half years. she was a cat who just made good company.

over the past three weeks, we noticed that she was losing some weight, but she didn't seem sick at all. cats are really good at masking symptopms, as it turns out. this is the first time in her life that scout has ever been sick, and i guess the last as well. it was just too much to fight. when they told me what was wrong, all i wanted to do was bring her home, and i am so glad i did. her last night was spent sleeping with me, and her last day was spent napping on her favorite blanket, purring the time away on the couch. when we took her in, she was calm and not afraid. and at the vet's office, i let her out of the carrier, and she snuggled down between me and the hippie and purred and licked my hand. when the doctor came in, he was surprised to find her purring. it was simple and fast and painless, for which i will forever be grateful. i know we did the right thing. and although it is AWFUL to lose her, i am glad she could die with dignity and without suffering.

the past two weeks have been terrible. the last few days, some of the worst i have ever experienced in my life. but i weigh this sadness against the years of happiness and all the joy that scout brought into my life, and i have to say--it is all worth it. she was the best cat ever. and oh, how i loved her. i will never forget the feel of her thick soft fur or the sound her loud-ass meowing or her warm comforting presence by my side. i will miss her every day.

i am grateful for the support of everyone over the past week. it's amazing what an impact a pet can have on you and how hard it is to lose one. they really do become members of your family. people get this, it seems--they come out of the woodwork to offer prayers and condolences. the original vet who saw scout yesterday called to see how she was and how i was and what had happened. two of my amazingly good friends figured out where scout had been hospitalized and called to make donations to help cover her massive bill--that was a shock when i went to pay the bill yesterday. unexpected and generous, unnecessary, but utterly appreciated. i have good friends, what can i say. i love you guys.

ok--i am going to stop now--i guess this is something like a wake for the kitty, it's a damned shame i can't drink a bunch of beer in scout's honor--i totally would if i weren't knocked up.

a youth in asia

today is scout's last with us. i brought her home from the hospital last night and took the day off from work to spend it with her. and i am so glad i did. she's purring and napping by my side right now. she hides her symptoms so well that you would almost not know she is sick. but he is. she has a large mast cell tumor in her abdomen, and there is nothing to be done for it--we COULD choose to put her though a major abdominal reconstruction, which she may or may not survive, and then treat her with chemotherapy afterwards. but to me, this is not an option--it would mean buying her some poor quality time for purely selfish reasons. i just cannot do that to her. right now, she is weak, but not in pain. she is not suffering, but is fading quickly. so this afternoon, we will take her back into the hospital, and end her life in a loving and humane way. and i have to say, this is the worst and hardest thing i have ever had to do in my whole life. i know with complete certainty that it's the right thing to do, and i hate every second of it. i have been lucky as a pet owner--this is the first time in 38 years i have had to make this kind of decision. this week has been pretty much god awful. it's just life, and i know that, but man--it sure feels heavy right now. i would really appreciate any good thoughts y'all could send my way today.

announcements

1) it's november. i will be posting daily again. we'll see if i can pull it off.

2) i'm knocked up. i'vee been quietly blogging about it on the side over here. i'll link that blog in in the side bar when i get a minute.

3) my cat, scout is very very sick and probably dying. i am depressed as shit and am in hermit mode as a result. blah.

4) i have pictures and all kinds of news and shit. a lot's been happening, as evidenced by my conspicuous absense from this here internet. it's coming people. be patient with me.

did i say blah already? if not, then--blah.

on socks...

yep, that's right--i've been knitting socks. i haven't been talking about it a lot as i have barely had time to breathe, buti HAVE been working on them. a couple of weekends ago, the hippie's friends all came into town to play D&D, as they are wont to do. to escape on saturday--i split the house and headed to the LYS, where my friend works to take advantage of the company, the good light, and the help. seemed like a good day to start making socks. i took everything i thought i would need with me, and still ended up buying a few more fiddly bits. (of course! it's the YARN STORE!) (click on that top picture for an explanation of all my gear--there are many notes on that pic.) for my first socks (again) (let us not dwell on last october's false start.) (poor unfinished alpine lace socks, languishing in the sock bag all this time...), i decided to copy some socks THK made a while ago--a pair of plain old knitted socks made of trekking. i love this yarn, both how it feels and how it automatically creates all these lovely tweedy stripes. i swatched it, aiming for 8 sts per inch, which i got on my first try on some 1's--go me. i learned to do a provisional cast-on, which means i also learned to crochet a chain, and promptly fucked it right up. the choice of dark green yarn to provisionally cast on for dark blue socks? perhaps unwise. so, what this means is that i spent two hours in the yarn store working on socks, only to come home with--exactly what i came in with plus $50 worth of random crap i just HAD to have. (what? that little blue bag matched my sock yarn? what could i do?) i started over the next day, and managed to get going on the cuff. a week of knitting later, i got going on the main part of ths sock. and you know, they look good. they will fit me. i want to wear them. but man--i am not loving knitting them. here's why. if i had more time to knit, i would be all over these socks. but i don't. i have precious little time, period, and my time to knit is even less. i think is this part of why i make so many baby objects--i have a prayer in hell of finishing them in under a year. i keep looking at these socks and thinking about how many stitches i have knitted on them already, and it's more than a whole baby blanket. and i KNOW this is the wrong way to think about it. it's a different beast entirely. but it's just frustratingly slow for me. i need a week to work on them to get one done. and i just don't have it. i am still trying. i am knitting every chance i get. i have touched nothing but socks all month. and you see before you what i've got. a third of a sock. i need to find a way to go faster. tonight i will knit on something else--i just need a break...

too much to do!

this past weekend, i actually started painting my studio. saturday i got it ready, sunday i put a coat of paint on it. i think i like the color, but of course, it needs a second coat to be sure. my plan was to finish it monday night, but instead i got kind of sick and ended up going to bed REALLY early monday. no painting. last night, we had a friend over for dinner. good time, but no painting. tonight, there will be a handful of people in the house for dinner as well, but i am still hoping to paint anyway. this may be a pipe dream, but i'm hoping... then tomorrow night, i can start putting the room back together, so that i can get all the studio crap out of the guest room so that people can actually sleep in the guest room this weekend. did i mention that we are having house guests this weekend? houseguest i LOVE and look forward to, but still... and now, my parents have decided by come miracle to come visit the following weekend as well. there's just too much to do. i need to quit my job to deal with my life. or at least get my environment set up the way i want it. sorry this post is such a bitch-fest. i am just feeling a tad overwhelmed today. thank god i took friday off.

by the way, i am holding crazy aunt purl's book out as a carrot to myself--i am not allowed to read it till the studio is done!

gotta have it

sometimes a girl just needs a little instant gratification. retail therapy. whatever you want to call it. today at lunchtime i ran out, drove all over hell and half of georgia, and came back with these: crazy aunt purl's drunk divorced and covered in cat hair, which i cannot WAIT to read (LOVE crazy aunt purl--hey girl!), and a beautiful little natural ball of kidsilk haze, with which i will, in my copious free time, knit a branching out scarf as a gift for my lovely work friend janie, who is both awesome and a really tremendous help to me. why i had to have these things TODAY, i am not sure, but i did. and now i have them. so yay! besides, who can argue with the benefits of a yarn store visit at lunchtime. that's just good stuff right there.

ps--that second picture is just there because i like it--love the sunlight this time of day.

time flies

it always seems like we are busiest at the end of the summer--this year even more so because we put the beach trip off till september. since i last wrote anything, we have been on vacation, had many houseguests, and run around like chickens with their little heads cut off. i actually wrote a post about leaving for the beach and failed to publish it. i even put the pictures from last year on flickr in honor of leaving this year. and the pictures from this year? those are sitting on my memory card just waiting around for me to deal with them. in my spare time.

i am so glad fall's here! fall is quieter than summer. there's more time for knitting. it's such a great time of year to cook. it makes me want to be home, work on my house, knit, make stews and soups, dig holes in my yard, plant things, and generally nest. and i think fall weather might be my favorite of all. i don't know though--it seems like i get excited by every season change...

this fall promises to be filled with events that please me. the hippie's friends are coming down the first weekend in october, which is a huge treat. i thought i would be out of town, but plans have changed, and now i will be here to go with them to a hockey game (the first in a LONG time!), and to feed them a big pot of chili and some pies--man, am i craving some apple pie! then in november, i am flying up to detroit to meet my friend kimmie's new babies. we will then drive (with two infants and a toddler--should be VERY interesting) down to NC, where kimmie will be spending a few weeks in our hometown with her mama. hopefully i will get to see my mama, too! i actually really wish my mama would come to see ME, but she's got some travel phobias--i am always surprised to see her further than 8 miles from home.

and speaking of fall--october is looming CLOSE on the horizon--and that means socktoberfest, which will once again be hosted by the lovely lolly (who is sporting a fabulous new haircut). i have promised THK that i will knit some socks in october. i guess since i started my first sock last october, maybe i should finish it this october. (first sock status: the heel on it's turned, and i am through the gusset and to the start of the foot, but i have STALLED...) i can't say i am looking forward to it, but hopefully i will get more fired up. i am way more into making random items than socks--maybe because i don't really like to wear socks... anyway--it's in my knitting future either way. my goal is to have two finished pairs by the end of the month. and maybe the hippie will finish my pippi kneestockings, too. we'll see...

anyway--that's about it for my rambly catch-up post. i have stuff going on that calls for pictures, so hopefully you will be seeing and hearing more from me in the next little bit. maybe i should make october a month where i promise to post every day like i did last november, so i am committed and don't let time get away from me like this. that was awesome...

points of interest

it's been a busy couple of weeks here, people. the hippie got me a new 8G iPod nano for my birthday, and it still has nothing on it--that's how busy i've been. travesty, if you ask me. so anyway--it's calming down, sort of. i am gearing up to head to the beach on saturday, and i can't believe it's already time to go. i didn't even count down this time. so much i still need to do before then! however, i can't let my life pass withouth ANY commentary, so here are a couple of highlights from the last week and a half.

last week we went to a couple of concerts. we saw nickleback, who were awesome. sadly they were playing at walnut creek, a sucky venue. totally worth it for a band that's great, but i swear, that place actually has energy sucking powers. anyway. then we also went to ozzfest. the hippie goes to this every year that he can, and i had never been--i admit i was kind of a tourist. in years past, there have been at least a couple of bands i love at every ozzfest--this year, not so much. however, this was the last year for it, and i just wanted to experience it for myself one time. really--it was TAME compared to how i thought it would be. we met and hung out with cool people, but there just weren't the number of freaks i expected. nor was there any body painting. and the stuff they were selling was mostly--eh, whatever.

the one standout of the day for me was this one girl's piercing. this picture is from my phone, and therefore it sucks, but you can see the ribbon pattern on this girl's back, right? (click on it to make it bigger.) that's 12 steel rings pierced through her back and laced up with a black silk ribbon. holy OUCH, batman! but it was also really beautiful, in a tortured sort of way. i will also say that seeing ozzy osbourne in person was worth the whole hot day. what an icon in the world of rock and roll! to me, it is amazing he still lives and breathes.

now, on a completely different note, i got to meet isaac earlier this week when his parents came over for a little cook out with us and jenn and harry. he's the 3-month-old son of our friends jeff and carrie, and he's cute as a button. his big sister ella was off running around with gabriella all night, so there was no photographing them, but i grabbed the camera and snapped a couple of isaac shots since he was flailing around on the floor on his new blanket. the top one's my favorite because it's the most accurate. the kid is NOT still. however, i also LOVE that expression on his face in the bottom one. he's all--what in the WORLD are you doing up there??? so cute. he's a smiley kicky baby with a sweet nature and a total cutie pie.

and for the record, long weekends ROCK. we need more of those, please.

down time

the bosses are all out of town. this in no way means that i have no work to do. however, it does mean i have a prayer in hell of getting my office organized this week, something i am dying to do. also it means i can get out of work a tad early and get home to the making of dinner (relaxing), and the couch (relaxing), and the watching of some battlestar galactica, to which the hippie and i have become addicted (also relaxing). i have had a headache for about a week, and i think the time has come to take steps to de-stress and get rid of that thing. tonight's going to be my night to sit, knit, and go to bed early. whoo hoo!

and tomorrow's my birthday, by the way--i keep forgetting... happy birthday to me.

roller coaster

man, this week! it's all up and down. the hippie's birthday was tuesday, and he loved his gifts--at least the ones that made it here on time! on the other hand he's sick. i've had long conversations with well-loved and old friends. on the other hand, it's mostly because some of us are going through a tremendously shitty time, and the others of us are rallying around them. it SUCKS watching your friends deal with the hard parts of life. stuff in the yard is blooming. except for the stuff that's dying instead. i am getting caught up at work, but my concentration level is for shit. i am just all over the place. oh yeah, and the car? seven hundred and fifty-one smackers. but hey--it's running now! so yeah. enough talk--let's look at pretty stuff!

the hibiscus bush that gave not a single flower last summer is bloming up a storm. it's been hot as balls lately, and this thing loves it! we will not speak of how much water it needs, and we will not tell the town how much we give it, either. but we will speak of the vibrancy and beauty of these flowers. i love them so much! and at long last, the crepe myrtle tree in the front yard has revealed itself as a white tree. i have mixed feelings about this. i generally prefer my crepe myrtles to be colorful because the white ones start to look like they have mud spashed on them when they begin to fade. that said, it sure is lovely right now! the flowers are so clean and delicate! this baby is just getting revved up, and promises to bloom like crazy in spite of my fears that the frost had killed it off. what is it about flowers? no matter how crappy i feel, flowers make me feel better.

and so does yarn!!!

jaeger, sadly, is going out of business. this means that webs is selling their yarn in super-cheap close-out prices! as you see--i stocked up. a few of these balls of yarn are for meredith, but most are for me! whoo hoo! it's all good baby sweater/dress amounts of wool and cotton in many colors with the exception of that stuff in the bag that's hiding in the back--that's 2000 yards of matchmaker 4-ply in anthracite, which someday... a day a long time from now... will be come a fine cabled sweater for me.

stupid car, redux

car has a oil leak that's going to cost me a bunch of smackers. suck. i'm getting to that point where i am like--the car is 10 years old and has almost 150k miles on it. it's sliding down the hill into old age and infirmity. when do i replace it? what to i replace it with?? a new honda civic? a used something or other? heh--a mini cooper??! i know i will end up with something practical and economical, because that's how i roll on the car thing. but man--i don't WANT a car payment! bleh! *whine*

dear car,

please last another year before you croak for good and please don't cost me thousands of dollars in the meantime. and if you could eject the tape you have eaten, i would really appreciate that as well. and also, please take a bath--you are NASTY!

love,
jackie

just thinkin'

so i was just looking for something back in my archive, and made the mistake of clicking on last november. i forgot i had actually written a post every day of that month, and then i got lost re-reading what i had written and remembering everything. compare that to this summer, and well--i should really write more posts. it's actually kind of cool to have that whole record back there, and i find i enjoy re-reading the snippets more than the long tomes i tend to write. there's no real point to this post--i was just thinking about it, this whole bloggety thing we do. i'm sure not tired of it yet, but i wonder occasionally if i am maybe just a TAD narcissistic. but then--i guess you have to be to start a blog in the first place, right? anyway...

knittin' for littles

i've been running around like a mad-woman latey, and work has been kicking my ass--thus the lack of posts. even so, i've been knitting when i can, even though i have way less time for it than usual. i spent some time this past weekend project-wranging and trying to assess my overall knitting progress. i haven't gone ANYWHERE on the baltic sea stole as it takes all my concentration not to mess up. some people won't let me work on it on sundays because they think i am BORING when i knit it--it's probably true. however, i have been making some headway. get ready for a long post about knitting! (tom, you may as well stop reading now...)

this is the garter stitch baby cardigan from simple knits for cherished babies, which, if you recall, i hae made before. i really love this pattern, and i like how it comes out with this mission falls 1824 cotton. it's a heavier gauge yarn than the pattern calls for, which makes for a sturdier garment; i like that in a cardigan. it's got a wonderful hand, and the colors are fabulous--they remind me of beach glass. i am also all about these little wooden buttons. i think this will look smashing on kimmie's new baby boy, matthew!

this is the same sweater as the cardigan above, but this one's for baby matthew's twin sister katherine (katie). these itty bitty babies are only a couple of weeks old and are quite a long way away from fitting into these sweaters, so i am not in a gigantic hurry to get them finished. (plus--hello? it's a hundred degrees out, even way up north in michigan!) however, they're fun to knit, so they are going quickly anyway! i can't decide which of these two buttons to use on katie's sweater, although i am leaning heavily toward the green ones. you can't tell from the picture, but the grey ones are actually iridescent shell buttons, and also look smashing. any opinions would be welcome and appreciated.

ah, ella's hoodie. i finally sucked it up and did the finishing work on this on sunday. i am embarrassed to say that i have procrastinated sewing up the casing for the drawstring on the hood and finding a button for this thing since NOVEMBER! ugh! seriously, people--that's just crazy. that said, i think this might be one of my favorite things i have ever knitted. i LOVE the noro silk garden and the way the colors just fade into each other. (look at this detail!) i am going to block this tonight, and hopefully ship it off to little ella in a couple of days. it's going to swallow her whole, but that's kind of the idea. hopefully, she will be able to wear it for a couple of seasons.

yet another basket weave baby blanket made from paton's melody. i just keep knitting this thing--it's so fast and practical, it's almost hard not to! this one's for our friends, jeff and carrie's new son isaac who was born in may. i knitted this in two days, and then it took me a month to get around to weaving in the ends. i picked something bright this time, just to try something different, and as you see--there's some pooling and flashing going on up there. it doesn't really bother me, but it's something to consider if you are thinking about using this yarn for anything.

in addition to all this, i am also about 2/3 of the way through yet another felted bag, this time in red. that's my current knitting-in-the-dark project for. you know--movies, road trips at night, and such. i also started another baby blanket for a co-worker who will be having a second squeaker in january. that one's my knitting-in-front-of-the-tv project. and there's still the baltic sea stole in the wings as well--that one will be on hold until i can find a day to myself somewhere in my crazy life.

in other, un-knitting-related news, the hippie's been away at a conference since last saturday, and it's time for him to come home. i miss him! look how cute he is knittng me some pippi kneestockings. how i do love my man!