Plague

I swear we are living in the Plague House. Red and Baby Tig has swapped out getting sick ever since Sister went home in September. This month they have really ratched it up a notch and I have missed so much work taking them to the dr. Then I started running a temp on Sunday and have been out now for three days. I saw the PA yesterday and she thinks I have the flu. I dont think so. She gave me a z-pac to ward of any opportunistic complications and my fever is gone today. I hope it's just an upper respiratory bug and not the flu. I expect the boyos gave it to me. Bleech. I haven't been this sick in years. I have been so miserable I haven't even knit anything-not even while I was stuck waiting for the PA. That is pretty well sick. As sister put it: what a horrible way to use a vacation day!

Well, not much done.

Well, I havent done much on my list for the year-other than talk to the yard guy about the flower bed. I hope to surprise DH with it but that will be difficult as it will take more than one day for yard guy to do it.

Baby Tig has cut two teeth! I noticed them yesterday. I was thinking he was teething because he has been really rough during nursing lately. He also has thrush so we've just been having a great time. He is a very sweet baby though.

Today DH cut Red's hair for the first time. I was v. sad. I know he's nearly THREE! and it was about time but he looks so grown up. I miss that toddler boy look. My mom is going to kill me because she wanted to take pictures. And she's coming over this afternoon so she can kill me for not waiting until afternoon to do it.

I finished my bamboo socks. I am going to give them to my friend Pigwit for last year's birthday gift. I hope she likes them and that they fit. After I finish DH's scarf I plan to start a pair of socks for me. I need some NBK for in the car.

I've been buying some charm packs and a jelly roll for some patchwork pillows. I plan to base them on the pattern at Turkey Feathers. I plan to make one for spring using a Spring Meadow charm pack by Moda. Then I have a charm pack for Red, White and Bold for summer (I hope to back this one with denim) and I have a jelly roll of Moda's Fall Back In Time (and a charm pack on the way) to use for next fall. I have two Thanksgiving pillows that I made in November. I bought the kits at the Quilt Festival from Plum Creek Collectibles. (I LOVE Plum Creek Collectibles).

My friend Bon and I are thinking about taking a beginning quilting class at Quakertown Quilts. I was supposed to call them yesterday and find out more about the class but I forgot. Instead we had Baby T's pics made (adorable), coffee with Dad as usual, a trip to Cavenders to buy a seriously overpriced western belt for Red, and a quicky trip to JoAnn's. Mom is wanting a blankie for my niece and as her sewing machine is in pieces at my house I guess I will sew it for her. Only she wants it backed in minkee and I hate sewing minkee. And it will have blanket binding on it. And she wants two. Oh well, hopefully there will be left overs and I can make some small taggie blankies for the Family Littles.

Honestly, I have no idea when I am going to do all these things because my house is in complete disarray and I have no time to sew. I was going to work in the bedroom and clear out my desk/table corner but DH and Red are asleep in there. And I can't sew out here because Baby T is asleep out here. Whinge.

Hmm. Something positive. I have one load of laundry to do and then I'm caught up. Boy that's a great one!

Things to do in 2008

1. clean one of Mom's closets a month
2. blog my projects
3. sleep with DH
4. teach DS#1 to talk
5. craft more
6. fill in the front flowerbed
7. organize my attic
8. organize my homedesk
9. organize my closet
10. work on the baby books for *both* sons

I think ten is enough. Most of these I can do with just a little diligent effort. One of them, no. 6, I don't even have to do myself-I can pay the yard guy! There's a crying need for organization on this list. I have been worried about my mom's hoarding tendency and her house and am even more worried that I will end up the same way. I need to nip that in the bud!

Well, Happy New Year to all. May this year be healthy and blissfully boring.

Unfinished Business

Well, it's the last day of 2007. It has been a difficult year but a good one as I have my sweet DS#2.

As far as I can remember, I have three UFOs coming into the new year: 1) a pair of bamboo socks 2) DH's noro scarf and 3) the romantic cardigan from Vintage Knitting for Today. The good thing is that all of these are v. close to being finished. For example, on the socks all I need to do is turn the heel and knit the foot of the second sock. Not too bad!

Tomorrow I hope to either list my goals for 2008 or reflect back on my FOs of 2007.

Things my sister has made me knit.

I have a really great sister. She is my best friend and my favorite person to go on vacation with. She's a lot of fun and an excellent mother, sister, daughter, friend.

She's also ditching me today and moving to The Netherlands.

I am thrilled for her as she has always wanted to go to Europe and despaired of ever going. Her husband is military and she convinced him to get a transfer. Her kids aren't too thrilled (well, except for my mid-size nephew who is in alt over getting his own room) and have kinda been giving her a hard time. I am praying that DS and I can go over and visit next spring.

She has also made me knit some things. Now, keep in mind that she learned to knit before I did so she has more experience. She's a super tight knitter which always leads me to tease her about bulletproof knitting. She has made me knit socks (which I gave back to her), finish a hat she was knitting for our SIL and other dire things.

She made me knit a poncho.

I know, I know but she's my sister and I love her. And she used strong ammo: the poncho was for my niece! I never wanted to knit a poncho. I don't have anything against them. In fact, I have fond memories of an adored poncho from when I was a little girl in the 70s. It was predominately black with bands of primary colors (kind of fairisle in style) and had a short, bright yellow trim. I loved it. But I wasn't really interested in the poncho knitting craze.

But my sister changed that. One summer the extended family spent a week on Dauphin Island, AL. Sister, niece and I took a trip to Heidi's Yarn Haus. A very friendly yarn store. Sister's eye was caught by a purple child's poncho and she pointed it out to her daughter who was immediately in love. The owner was friendly and helpful-she told Sister that she didn't need a pattern to make a poncho. She just needed to know the poncho code (basically a 1:2 ratio of width to length). So Sister purchased some blue Skacel Antonio (hate blue) fancy pantsy yarn for the poncho. And proceeded to knit said poncho on some 9mm needles. (you have to say 9mm in the Terminator's voice. v. funny)

The summer ended. Fall passed. Winter came. Sister came out to help with Dad's illness after Christmas and brought The Blue Menace with her. The problem? Basically she forgot the poncho code and the ratio was off. When niece put the poncho on it fell off her shoulders and to the floor. So she tossed The Blue Menace at her unsuspecting sister (me) and said "Here, fix this." ????

So DH and I ripped the thing out (had to cut a little) and reknit the thing. Went to block to the two pieces and realized, to my horror, that I had knit the second piece ten stitches wider than the first. RIP. I cast on again and called Sister to tell her that Niece had better wear the darn thing to shreds. Blocked the second piece overnight and stitched it together the next evening. I mailed off The Blue Menace and its attendant yarn remnants so that I would never see it again. I hope never to knit with Antonia again. It's a loosely spun three ply yarn (of three different materials) so I had to actually watch my knitting to make sure I didn't miss a ply. It was a mess to rip out and I had to knit one panel twice. I also hate blue. And guess what?

My niece never wore it.

knitting socks

Ordinarily, I love to knit socks. I love to cast on and I love the sense of accomplishment when turning the heel. I love the sense of satisfaction when I kitchener the toe. But right now? I don't want to knit socks. Specifically, I dont want to knit DH's Father's Day socks or the yellow socks.

What do I want to knit? Hmm. I think I want to knit the entrelac Market Squares bag. I have the yarn. I plan to knit it in coffee colours.

I also want to knit a sweater from Big Girl Knits. I am wearing my short sleeved sweaters I bought last summer from Kohls. I bought five of them to wear to work as I needed something that would fit over "The Girls" (my breasts were HUGE when I started breastfeeding). They are a little too short for me as I am long waisted and most of them have a band at the hip which is not a particularly good look for me. If they were two or three inches longer it wouldnt be so bad. I would love to knit something that actually fit properly and looked nice.

Saturday night DS fell asleep early and I reknit, for hopefully the last and final time, the neckband for his wallaby sweater. I need to take it in to find a button. My sister recommended a wooden button to go with the tweediness of the yarn. He looks so cute in it. I hope we get some cool weather this winter so he can actually wear it! I ended up using a few yards of the last ball of yarn (I had tucked it away in the phone book cabinet while doing the last dash through the house before our guests last month). I guess I can knit him a hat to go with it.

Hoist on my own petard.

My Aunt and my Grandmother came down to stay for the weekend. They mainly came to visit because my sister is here for a few weeks before she and her family ditch me and move to Europe. At New Year's I made a deal with my Aunt that I would learn to quilt if she would learn to knit. I knew I was safe because she always said she was too busy with quilting to knit.

Guess what she pulled out of her bag the first night she was here? Very quietly she pulled out a scarf in progress and not one hook (she used to crochet) but two shiny gold knitting needles.

Ahem.

Sister, Auntie, and Grandmother were all entraptured by my multidirectional scarf (still in progress) so we headed off to Yarns 2 Ewe for supplies. Noro Kuryeon is just gorgeous. My Auntie chose the same colourway as I did for mine, my sister chose one that matches her current mitten project and Grandmother chose one that I covet unashamedly. So we ended up having a little Knit Along while they were here.

My auntie had to leave Sunday morning and took a little extra home with her. She opened up her bag to show her husband and there was my sister's yarn! She was quite chagrined especially because my sister had finished her first ball of yarn and had nothing to knit. She told us that she must have grabbed the wrong bag of yarn and for us to look for her bag. Well, we knew it wasn't at my house (had searched high and low for sister's yarn) and I got the bright idea of telling her to check her handbag. There it was! Item: her handbag is what I would call an overnight bag. HUGE. We will get a lot of milage out of this for sure. My DH is a wool-pig and my Auntie is a Wool-THIEF!

My sister is on a project starting spree. She currently has in the works: a pair of mittens, an cross stitch sampler, a multidirectional scarf, and a hooked rug. The hooked rug was actually my UFO but she needed something to do as she had no yarn to knit and had left her cross stitch pattern at my parents' house. I had started this hooked rug a while ago and it had been languishing for a while. She wanted me to show her how to do it so she could make her own. She liked my pattern so I told her she could keep it and just go to town. She's v. fast. I think I was too concerned with getting each loop the exact same height as the other (damn OCD) and she is of the opinion that it's going to get walked on anyway.

My grandmother flew home this morning and unfortunately took her lovely yarn home with her. In fact, she tucked it into her purse to make sure it went with her. Hmmph.