Baby

We had our little girl on Sunday of last week!! It's weird to think she is already a week old, but at the same time, I don't really remember what life felt like without her. We have gotten really lucky because she is an angel of a baby, and makes Anthony and I's life all the better for being in it. We had to get a hold on the sleep thing, but I think we have it figured out, and are going in the right direction!! Plus, I just went out on a limb and tried to put on my pregnacyjeans, and they fit!! There is a little bit of a bulge, but nothing that wasn't there before, and can't be hidden with a nice long tunic sweater like i have been wearing anyway!!! It's only been a week and I haven't started my diet yet (after thanksgiving) I'm so happy!!!

Woodland Emerald Yoga Socks

Woodland Emerald Yoga Socks



I recently went searching for a pair of yoga socks for my glamorous little sister and could not find a single pattern that fit my needs!! Most yoga socks are simple garter stitch, or something along those lines. While I completely understand that yoga in and of itself is supposed to be simplistic, and unassuming, that is simply not my little sister! So, I took my favorite beading technique, figured out the basic construction of the yoga sock, and throw in some pretty cables, and TAA-DAA, Kendra style yoga socks. These would be really easy to change and adopt to any person on your list with other stitch patterns, or cables. Please keep in mind, don't put beads on the bottom of the foot, unless you are trying to make the person break their neck.



Yarn: Knitpicks Gloss (75% Merino, 25% Silk) in Woodland Sage
Needles: set of 5, size US2 DPNS (or you could use magic loop if you wanted, if you are going to do these two at a time, please see the note about the Left Foot at the end of pattern)
Notions: tapesty needle, cable needle, 6/0 glass beads (24grs) Emerald S/L, 1mm crochet hook
*Note: These socks use the beading technique in the tutorial by Sivia Harding in Knitty Spring '06, you ARE going to put the bead on the stitch, then replace it to the left needle for knitting.

Abbreviations:
K: knit
P: purl
St(s): stitch(es)
CO: cast on
BO: bind off in knit
B: place bead on next st, then knit this stitch
C6F: slip next 3 sts to a cable needle and hold in front. K3, then K3 from cable needle.
C6B: slip next 3 sts to a cable needle and hold in back. K3, then K3 from cable needle.


Right Foot:
CO 65 sts (I used longtail method, but you could do this anyway you would like, depending on how much you want them to be able to give)
Rounds 1-4, 6-10, 12-16: (K3, P1)2x, K3, P2, K6, P2, (K3, P1)11x
Rounds 5 & 11: (K1, B, K1, P1)2x, K1, B, K1, P2, C6F, P2, (K1, B, K1, P1)11x
Repeat Rounds 1-16 twice more (3x total)
Round 49: (K3, P1)2x, K3, P2, K6, P2, (K3, P1)2x, K3, BO 33.
Round 50: (K3, P1)2x, K3, P2, K6, P2, (K3. P1)2x, K3, turn.
Round 51: (P3, K1)2x, P3, K2, P6, K2, (P3, K1)2x, P3, turn.
Round 52: (K3, P1)2x, K3, P2, K6, P2, (K3, P1)2x, K3, CO 33. (again, feel free to CO as you like, I used backward loop method here)
Rounds 53 & 59: (K1, B, K1, P1)2x, K1, B, K1, P2, C6F, P2, (K1, B, K1, P1)2x, K1, B, K1, (P1, K3)8x, P1.
Rounds 54-58, 60-68: (K3, P1)2x, K3, P2, K6, P2, (K3, P1)11x.
Rep 53-63 once more.
BO LOOSELY!!

Left Foot:
This one is exactly the same as the Right Foot EXCEPT change all the C6F to C6B, so the cables will twist inward, toward each other when worn :-)

Letters to the UPS Guy

8/24 8:54PM -
Dear UPS Guy, I know that sometimes in your busy schedule certain packages are over looked, I also know my thinking my yummy yarn purchase being here today was a little optamistic. I also know that you guys deliver until 6pm and I left the house at 4...:30. So with all this in mind I am going to keep clinging to the fantasy that when I get there a package with my name on it will be on my doorstep, for both our sakes.

8/24 9:38PM-
Dear UPS Guy, you fail. Lets hope this pattern doesn't continue.

8/25 9:00AM-

Dear UPS Guy, Maybe yesterday I did not impress apon you the seriousness of this situation. I want you to know, beloved delivery man, that I am pregnant and on top of that my other friend, who is BROKEN, is also awaiting afore mentioned yummy yarn. W...e have an addiction that can't be denied, and you are the only person who can help. Please take this into consideration as you make you way about the world today.

8/25 7:20PM
Dear UPS guy, so glad we had this chat :-)

Things I didn't know...

I found out a few things in the last few days.
1. homade soap chips (what is left in the pot after pouring into the mold, and what is left after cutting the soap into nice even bars) can be made into body wash (knew this) but this body wash is an even better dish soap! Seriously, best dish soap I've ever used, not going to use anything else :-)
2. I havethe ability to write knitting patterns :-) I just sat down and wrote a pattern for a pair of yoga socks for my little sister (nothing I was finding was really what I wanted for her, and very little of it was in a fingering weight, which is the yarn I wanted to use.) and a pair od fingerless gloves to match. So impressed am I with myself that I will be posting the patterns here on LJ and linking them to my Ravelry account for all to enjoy. I am also going to make a point of making more patterns :-)

Other then that I don't know what I have learned, but I will keep you updated :-)

Not as productive as I like

Ok, I didn't get Mom's stocking done yet, but that is ok, because I have been working really really hard on getting all the Christmas knitting patterns into a journal so I can just grab whatever project I want to work on (needles and yarn kept in the Ziploc) and the journal and go and always have everything I need. Besides, I know I will get them done, but maybe not until after I go ahead and start a baby blanket :-) I haven't yet, but since I am home today and Anthony wants me not up on my foot anymore then is absolutely necessary, I have time to do things. In fact all I have to do is take a shower, and put on my uniform and I have about 6.5 hours to do so.

About the foot. Guess what I did. I went to the beach with my In-laws, since the girls are going to be leaving for New Mexico soon (this makes me sad, as I love them both a LOT). So we get to the first beach, in fact my favorite beach, where Anthony and I had planned on getting married, and headed down the staircase that is there. Of course, I tripped on one of the last steps, dropped all I was carring, and severely sprained my ankle, like the doctors looked at the film from the xray twice because they were pretty sure it was broken severe. Luckily I grabbed the rail for dear life, and they checked the baby and she is fine, a little shaken I'm sure, but fine. It could have been way worse, because there are a lot of rocks there, and this was the last step with the rail. Freak Anthony out pretty bad. I had to tell him a few times to go play while I sat there with ice. We stayed on the beach for a few hours, to see if the swelling was going to go down, and I got a pretty good sunburn. So now I am on crutches, which I really hate, and am starting to feel it all over that I fell, I'm sore, and my ribs and stomach hurt from using the crutches, I'll be glad when its all healed.

Other then that there is not all that much going on. We got a baby book from my Mom, which makes me lots of happy, and its already filled out to the best of my ability, all the way up to the baby shower, and since that is not going to be until Oct, I think I am set :-) We also got some baby clothes and Mom bought things to put into the handmade cradle/bassinet she and Dad are making for the baby :-)

Old rocking chairs and people that don't kow what they are doing

I purchased, a few years back, a rocking chair at a yard sale for 5 dollars. This poor thing, while I love it dearly, has sat in one room or another, lonely and untouched, not even able to be used because of a cockeyed peice of dowel threatening all who tried to make use. I LOVE this chair, its very simple and plain, but big and perfect for my height. It is most sincerely one of the most comfortable chair I have ever had a chance to sit in. SO, yesterday my mother and I began taking it about, because recently all I can think about when I sit down to knit is my lovely rocker, now taking up residents on my mothers pouch, waiting its turn in the line of antiques in need of refinishing. My mom believes the rocker was made around 1900, which makes me emensly happy. Unfortunitly it appears somone, who had NO IDEA WHAT THEY WERE DOING, previously attempted a refurbish on this chair. There were screws where there ought not be any, finishing nails THROUGH dowel pegs, and BRACKETS glaring at us from under the arms. We spent most of the afternoon just trying to get the chair into workable pieces, and in the process I through my hip out so badly, at which point I'm not usre, I was very focused on the task at hand, that by the end of the night I couldn't stand on my own accord. I am just glad it is over. I am not happy the chair is going to be such a project, but my mom just laughed at me and said the things we want most often take the most work. That's true. I just have to think of the beautiful maghony chair with a leather seat I will have when we are all through, even though it will take us probably a few weeks to do, even if we work on a peice everyday.

Other then that everything is good, other then the hip, but I should be used to it by now, I can fix it given a few days, so not to worry :-)

Knitting is going on like a crazy person and the blanket is already 45% done! I am hopping to be done before scedule and am knitting whenever the opportunity presents itsself, although I wont take it with me place because it is white, and white and I are not friends :-(

I might be officially a knitter....

ok, so, I have been knitting A LOT. Just learning at first and then trying a few complicated stitches here or a swatch of a difficult cabled sweater there, (which P.S. I totally rocked at). I started getting needle envy, then cringed when I realized the cost of those drool worthy sticks. Started to think about more things I could create, (seriously I don't think there is a problem in the world that cannot be solved with some application of yarn and sticks or yarn and hook) from lacey pillow case edgings that are sweet but not overly frilly (think spa) to pumkins for Halloween. That's when I started to read books about knitting, I'm not talking knitting patterns or "how toos" but books that knitters wrote about knitting, the feeling of knitting, the obsession, the inablilty to put it away or out of your mind for long, because, again, anything can be solved with knitting. That is when I realized it:

I was sitting there(knitting my sisters legwarmers of course, and reveling in the new yarn a friend had run to the store for me to get) today reading KnitLit (too): From Sheep to Shawl, when I realized that I was agreeing with everything that they were saying - I COMPLETELY understood it!

I finished the book and was immediately saddened that it was over. I thought a little more and realized I was no different then some of the people in the story, and I was saddened that it was over because I loved reading about knitting (I love to read about a lot of things, why would knitting be above those when obviously it is more fun to do then read about) but because while I was reading this book I could feel the things they felt.

I was reading one story where a lady decided one day that she wanted to keep sheep, but she lived in the city - fortunitly this woman had a friend in the county that was equally addicted to knitting and spinning who was willing to have a joint custody thing with her for the three baby sheep they ended up investing in (which automatically made me start calculating what likihood I had to get my mother to agree to let me keep sheep at her house - the answer is not likely - I already called but she didn't answer - which some might take as an omen) ANYWHO - long story short one of the sheep dies because they don't really have any idea what they are doing. The question at this point is put to the reader - What do you do with a dead sheep? - In my head the lightning fast answer is - "you better sheer the poor thing before you bury it".

I was right.


I think I might have a problem.

I used to be a crocheter - hard core too - I was POSITIVE there was nothing that you could do with your two needles that I could not do with my one. I was so sick of "yarn snobs" (who I am starting to understand, because lets face it - if I was not dirt poor I would probably only buy acrylic for things that needed to be SUPER durable) telling me how much yarn I was wasting on my silly crochet.

Then I had surgery in which they had to open my chest cavity, I could not lift my arm to crochet, or move my chest at all - but I could sit with knitting in my lap and move just enough to not hurt myself (after the drugs wore off of course, no need for Frankenstien knitting thanks). So I took it up to keep from going crazy for the next 8 weeks. After a few painful (in the mental way and the ego way) lessons I finally caught on and knit myself a Harry Potter scarf, in a relatively short time. I thought "that wasn't so bad, lets do something else".

That's when I went to the library.

I felt guilty going to the knitting books and asking for there help after shunning them with an upturned nose for my precious crochet patterns, more guilty that the crochet books where right there watching. After glancing through a few, that were dated in the seventies I found a modern one - and my world exploded. I sat in the library for hours with books in my lap (the poor librarians actually dragged a arm FULL of books to a comfy chair for me to sit because I couldn't lift anything) teaching myself to cable and make pictures within the fabric. I became a woman crazed, wanting to learn everything, needing too. I started working on a hundred things at once, and then decided what I really wanted to do, SOCKS. I haven't picked up a crochet hook since except to work on a blanket to use up my scraps from my stash, and my heart is only half in it.

That was over 6 months ago.

I have come to realize while I analyze this dramic change in my preferences, as it where, a couple of things. One) I have changed as well as my new abilities have. Where once I wanted things to be done, quickly and with a large since of acheivement with smaller need of effort I am now willing to put in more effort and understand that a greater since of accomplishment comes from pouring your heart into something. Crochet was always such a "look what I can do" thing for me, whereas kniiting is more about the love that I put into the stitches and the clean lines and well thought out patterns, instead of largeness and loudness of the piece screaming a boost to my abilties. Crochet was about the large blankets to keep you warm and to be seen, large jesters of love to show you, and everyone else that I love you and thought of you. Knitting is about the finely knit socks, that wrap around your feet on a brisk day, hidden away in your boots or curled up on the couch, a little secret to let you know I love you, to let me know I love you, and for you to do with that what you please. It might not be this way for everyone, it was with me. Some people might very much enjoy crocheting more then they enjoy knitting, some people might truely hate to knit.

I just like to knit.

I'm a knitter.

And I make socks.

(but I do sometimes still boast about my abilities, I mean, its nice to feel impressive sometimes :-) )