Still no baby...

baby things
So, my due date has come and gone. While I know that it's pretty normal for babies to ignore their due dates and come when they damned well please...and they frequently please to come late...it's really the one thing I wasn't prepared for.

Mostly because between my age and the gestational diabetes, the smart money had her coming early. Particularly if you add genetics into the picture--she's seriously the first baby in three generations of my family to go past-due.

I can't even tell you if she's thinking about coming out. I spent three hours at the Birth Center on Friday hooked up to monitors because my blood pressure has decided to spike. It turns out, though, that it's worse in the doctor's office than it is over, say, three hours of testing it every 15 minutes. Also, since my bloodwork is fine and the baby is fine, they decided to let her stay put for a little while longer. The other interesting thing I found out? While I was there, I was having contractions every 6-8 minutes. But since they didn't hurt, they sent me home. The other interesting thing? They haven't stopped. So, I've been having contractions every 6-10 minutes or so since then (yes, that would be going on three days now), but they aren't exceptionally painful. They get uncomfortable--particularly in the evenings--but I don't have to stop what I'm doing to focus on them. The Beloved is beside himself, because this is not what the video they showed us in childbirth class was like, so he really doesn't know what to do or expect. Poor guy.

The other thing I found out is that I now get to be on modified bed rest indefinitely. Meaning, until the little bugger decides to come out or is evicted. Tomorrow I have a doctor's appointment where hopefully they will tell me how long she's got to make up her mind to come out before they choose for her. I hate to say that I hope they don't make me wait until 42 weeks, but bedrest sucks. I don't want to watch TV, read, or knit. I'd like to go for a walk or clean the disaster that is my house. But these have been declared off-limits for the time being. Plus, The Beloved is still working, so it's me and daytime TV. Yuck.

So, what have I done with all of my free time? I've finished stuff! The Cobblestone Sweater is finally finished. I have no excuses for taking so long with this--grafting the underarms and weaving in the ends seriously took about 30-45 minutes. I finished it while The Beloved watched The Mission on Netflix. Then he put it on. I don't know if he'll let me photograph him in the sweater--he's goofy like that. But it's a very nice sweater. It wasn't difficult at all and it's not girly or anything. Now he wants something with cables. But he's going to have to wait.

I also finished the round baby blanket I started in October.

Pinwheel blanket 3


I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and I think it will be nice and warm and an appropriate size for covering The Tadpole when she's in her carseat or when we're out and about this winter (assuming she ever decides to, you know, be born). I knit until I had 650 stitches on the needles and then used a picot bindoff. The end result is pretty cute, but the edges tend to curl a bit and it seriously took me three days to bind off all the stitches. The blanket is done in Cascade 220 superwash paints. I can't remember the name of the colorway, but it's mostly pinks and yellows and oranges. It's definitely girly, but not pastel. The Tadpole has way more pastels than I intended--mostly because that's what there is for tiny babies, and particularly for baby girls. So I'm making a concerted effort to knit things in brighter and bolder colors.

She's got a purple bonnet made of Mission Falls 1824 Superwash Merino Wool--it's sooooo soft.

Baby Bonnet 2


And a little kimono-sweater made from Colinette Cadenza. Instead of making ties, I'm going to sew snaps on it and add buttons.

Baby kimono w/Buttons


I also finished off the Child's French Socks I started knitting for myself shortly before I found out I was pregnant.

child's french socks 5

child's french socks 8


Now I'm trying to decide what to do next. I've jumped on the Noro scarf bandwagon and have started one of those, but really intended for that to be hospital knitting. However, it may end up being done before the kid decides to come out. Right now, I'm trying to decide whether or not to start sock 2 of an unfinished pair, start another pair of socks, or knit something else for my stubborn child. I have enough Cascade 220 left from The Beloved's sweater to knit her a little tunic and probably a pair of longies. Not to mention the Malabrigo I bought intending to knit longies that's been out sitting in the car. But, as I said, I'm actually so out of sorts that I no longer feel like knitting. I had two false starts on a new pair of socks last night and ended up ripping both out because the yarn just wasn't speaking to me. I don't know whether to give it another go or throw in the towel...Perhaps I'll see if a nap improves my outlook at all.

Meh...

blankets
Yep. This about sums it up for me today. I'm moody and morose and not even knitting seems to help. So, it seems I have only a few choices left to me. I chose this one: comfort food. Now. For some people, comfort food consists of things like macaroni and cheese or ravioli from a can. (This is, in fact, what I resort to when in the absolute depths of despair. Thankfully, I'm not there yet.) I tried to be a bit more epicurean--particularly since I had to feed The Beloved and Resident Sibling (who had the audacity not to show up for dinner). The results of my labors?

Yessiree, I roasted me a chicken. My sainted mother once told me a very important secret about cooking that I will share with all of you now: The meals people like best are frequently the simplest to prepare. And it's true. It doesn't get much easier than roasting a chicken. Here's what I did. I poured some salt inside the body cavity and rubbed it down. I basted the chicken with butter (you could use olive oil if you wanted to cut out some of the saturated fat, but I'm moping--butter was necessary) and rubbed the outside with some poultry seasoning and Adobo (sin pimenta--the blue cap). I cooked it upside down for 20 minutes at 450; flipped it right side up and cooked it for another 20 minutes at 450; basted it again; turned the heat down to 375 and left it until the little timer popped. Based on The Beloved's reaction, you'd think I attended Le Cordon Bleu.

We had some mediocre bread stuffing and some broccoli to accompany the chicken. I'm not much of a bread stuffing girl myself--but The Beloved likes it. Next time, I think I'll go all out and make my mother's rice dressing (which I love and toward which The Beloved is ambivalent).

Unfortunately, I had to scarf dinner and run off to a meeting. We discussed the Millennium Development Goals. In all fairness, they discussed MDG and I knit on The Beloved's Blankie. Considering I haven't picked it up in several weeks, it's coming along nicely. I got a few rows done, so the evening wasn't a complete loss. Regrettably, the picture does not do it justice. Not that the blankie is all that and a bag of chips, mind you--it's a relatively simple feather and fan sort of thing made of the finest Red Heart Acrylic. But the color looks very washed out here. It's actually Claret in color--a lovely deep red/maroon. I think it looks very manly--well, for a blankie, that is.

And, even though it wasn't chilled when I partook of the fruit of my cooking labors, The Beloved picked up a bottle of vino on his way home from work. The upside: It was absolutely perfect by the time I returned home from the meeting. So, whatever the cooking and knitting didn't cure, I hope to fix with this and a nice bath. Cheers to you all!

Progress!

blankets
On Friday we got hit with an obscene amount of snow. Well, obscene since I'm ready for it to be spring. And since the snowblower we inherited finally decided to give up the ghost. Saturday was largely taken up with shoveling out so I could get to the craft store to purchase supplies for Sunday's Church School lesson. Yes, folks--this is life in the fast lane. After hours of shoveling, The Beloved in one of his moments of brilliance, suggested Chinese Takeout. It may have been the high point of the weekend.

I didn't get to knit or spin at all on Saturday due to hours of manual labor followed by the creation of two parable boxes for Sunday School. Sunday, however....

I completed the following: Watermelon Hat 2.0;


Airy Scarf;


Dishcloth KAL (well, we're not done yet--but I got current on the day-to-day allotted rows); gauge swatch for baby sweater. Nothing has been washed or blocked yet, and I still need to weave in the ends on Airy Scarf, but woot! I'm happy to be able to cross a couple of UFOs off my list. Yippee! Now, it's on to the Blue Lagoon Blankie. You know, the project isn't bad...sometimes row after row of garter stitch can be quite therapeutic. But....because of the striping, it doesn't travel well. Too many balls of yarn. And all those ends....maybe I should train one of the cats to weave them in....But I can work on that in between the now nearly finished dishcloth, a project that is yet-to-be-determined for my mother's birthday (unless I decide she gets the Airy Scarf), and the baby sweater for which I dutifully completed a gauge swatch.

On the kitty-cat front, Polly went to the groomer today. They gave her a modified lion cut. It's a little more dignified than the last lion cut she received--they shaved her entire tail instead of leaving a big, poofy ball at the end. However, long-haired cats with short haircuts look ridiculous no matter how you style them. The important thing is that she is clean and matt-free and that someone else cut all of her claws. The groomer commented on what a great cat she is--and Polly is a great cat--but this always comes as a surprise to me because when I try to brush, bathe or trim this cat, she tries to kill me. Seriously--I've got the scars to prove it. Apparently, for the groomer, she is all purrs and smiles and stands still while they do their thing. Sheesh.

Now that she's home, she's a bit grouchy. But how can you not love that sweet little face? No matter how grouchy she gets, she's still my baby.

Moss Stitch Baby Blanket and Other Adventures in Yarn

blankets

See the nice, even, orderly balls of yarn? This is the current state of the moss stitch baby blanket. I decided to just pull the darned thing out and start over. I was knitting with two strands of yarn held together throughout and if I realized what an absolute pain in the ass it was going to be to rewind the yarn, I may have seen the wretched thing through. Frogging took no time at all. Untangling the yarn--that took me through a viewing of The Usual Suspects, a documentary on the History Channel, and two episodes of Law and Order: Criminal Intent on Bravo. Can you see a neck behind the yarn? Yeah--that's Gaius Octavian Caesar. Fortunately I was done tangling in time to watch this week's installation of Rome on HBO. Antony and Cleopatra met at the end of tonight's episode. The anticipation almost makes up for the yarn debacle. Almost. The bad news is there are only two episodes left--which is a shame, because this has been an excellent series.

This has actually been a weekend steeped in the ancient world. Well, sort of. Yesterday, The Beloved and I went and saw 300. It was excellent eye candy. Very stylized--if you didn't know it was based on a graphic novel going in, you could tell based solely on the cinematography. You could almost see the movement from frame to frame, the blood spatter hung in the air. It was unbelievable. The writing, however, brought us right back to Planet Earth. Holy cow. It was like a montage of every testosterone war flick ever. If you've read the review in The New York Times, they hit the nail square on the head. The Beloved was entranced. Must be a boy thing.

But enough of my weekend entertainment. Did you notice? A picture of yarn? My camera phone is finally sending pictures and so I can post them. The quality is a little lousy, but it works. For now. Until I can motivate enough to acquire a real camera. But that takes a lot of energy, and as you can see, I've got quite a bit of knitting to do...

Just Call Me The Frog Princess

blankets
Because that's all I've done for two days of knitting.... *sigh*

I'm attempting to knit some washcloths for my grandmother. I've got one done. It's cute. I used this pattern and knit it in Bernat's Cottontots yarn (lovely lilac). It went so well, I launched right into washcloth number two last night. Same type of yarn, only in sunshine rather than lovely lilac. Choosing a pattern, though... Yikes.

It's normal to start in on a pattern and just not like how it's coming out. So you frog and start over. I think I did this about five times last night. I finally settled on this pattern, and really liked the way the simple lace pattern looks with this nice, plush cotton yarn. However, after knitting several rows, I realized it wasn't symmetric. It wasn't asymmetric either. It was just, well, WRONG. So, rip, rip, rip, and back to bare needles. I altered the pattern so that the cloth is now symmetric, but when I started this evening, I did two rows with totally incorrect decreases. When I took out the offending rows, I was missing a stitch. It was not to be found anywhere. So, with much chagrin I ripped everything out and am now at about the same place I was last night before putting the damned washcloth down and going to bed.

Since I'm obviously on some sort of roll, I'm considering frogging the moss stitch baby blanket. I like it less every time I look at it. No border. Goofy gauge change. I don't know that it's completely hopeless, but it certainly doesn't give me much enjoyment. I like the yarn, and I like the idea of a moss stitch baby blanket, but I really don't like this particular baby blanket. I think I'm going to do it. I suppose that's one way to get items off of my unfinished objects list!

When I finish the Blue Lagoon Blanket, I think I'll give a moss stitch blanket another go. I'd like to knit it like a "grandmother's favorite" dishcloth, only in moss stitch rather than in garter or stockinette. What do you think?

My Karma ran over my Dogma

blankets
Or something like that. So, yesterday topped off my already interesting week--which is scary because it was only Wednesday.

To recap:

On Monday, I called Virgin Mobile about my phone and went through menu/holding hell whilst trying to discover why my phone refuses to transfer pictures. After following the directions given to me by the oh-so-not-helpful guy in the returns department, my phone still will not do what I want it to. I have since e-mailed the returns department to discover that, though you can send them e-mail, they do not handle returns in that fashion. Oh, and if I didn't buy my phone through them directly (I didn't), I can't return it through them. Great. Which means I now get to transfer my frustration to Best Buy. Naturally, they no longer carry the phone in question. This should be fun.

Monday night I returned home to find a sick cat. The Beloved and I went to the vet where we dropped a pretty penny on the visit, burn cream, and amoxicillin. Each morning and evening, the two of us give Polly her treatment. This involves The Beloved putting her into a sleeper hold while I clean the affected area (yuck), apply burn cream, and then move to the other end of the cat in order to force a dose of liquid amoxicillin down her throat. It's the same stuff kids take for ear infections and the like--pink, bubblegum-scented, sticky goodness--and the cat is as fond of it as most kids are. Perhaps someone should look at creating special cat flavors. I'm sure she'd like it more if it smelled like duck liver or chicken.

Since my experience is that this sort of garbage manifests in threes, I assumed that my third misery-causing experience is the continued absence of a reimbursement check for which I've waited two weeks (turnaround time for these reimbursements has generally been under five days). I'd gotten down to the "dangerously low" level of funds in my checking account where the bank sends me balance notifications every 12 hours or so, possibly in hopes that I will rectify the situation. Unfortunately, as I found out yesterday, absence of funds--while distressing--does not qualify as catastrophic enough to knock one's karmic balance out of decline.

The Beloved and I have our phone service through Vonage. One of the great perks of this is that I get an e-mail every time someone leaves us a voicemail message. Yesterday I find a 3 minute message from "Anonymous." Hmmm--unusual. "Anonymous" generally signifies someone trying to sell us something we don't want. They never leave messages that long. So I listen to the message at work. This turned out to be a gigantic mistake, as the message is from my Library School Adviser.

The gist of the message is: They have lost paperwork I sent in at the start of fall semester. My program of study form does not match my transcript. Because these two pieces of paper don't match, I haven't actually graduated. I may have to pay a continuing registration fee for this semester. Oh, and what was your internship about again, because I can't find any of that information either.

This sends me into a panic on, oh, any of a number of levels--from the fact that I'm all done giving the Library School money, to the horrifying realization that if the places I've applied to work call to confirm my completion of the program in December 2006, I have no idea what the registrar's office will tell them. This is not good. Because I am sane and rational and together, I shut my office door before bursting into tears and e-mailing something absolutely incoherent and rife with swearwords to The Beloved. Because The Beloved is an amazing man who can occasionally reply with just the right thing, he tells me that this is not my fault and we will not have to pay for it, because if the Library School screws me over with either another bill or by creating problems for a potential employer, well, that's why God created lawyers. (The Beloved used to be an attorney, so I have confidence in his assessment of what is and is not a potentially litigious situation.)

The hyperventilating ends long enough for me to e-mail Adviser (complete with concerns), fill out required form (again), get to second job, and fax the document. Adviser admits that this is their fault and not mine, that my records will state a graduation date of December 2006 since I did complete all the requirements, and that I shouldn't be charged any extra fees. Adviser also says that if potential employers have any questions, I should have them contact him. Theoretically, crisis has been averted, but man-oh-man--I just want to be done with Library School!

Needless to say, I finished off the ballband dishcloth last night. It's stunning. Well, for a dishcloth. I didn't even try to kill anyone with my knitting needles. Impressive, eh? Tonight I start the March dishcloth KAL and this weekend I'm going to attempt to make some progress on my unfinished projects. Last weekend, I actually wove in all of the ends on the Blue Lagoon Baby Blanket, which means I have no excuse for not picking it up and working on it while watching TV. Except for the watermelon hat I really want to make for a friend's baby....

Still no pictures...

afghans
...and it's really starting to tick me off! I tried to use the phone last night but it decided to be difficult. The pictures are not being saved to the flash chip (which makes me wonder where they are being saved to?), and I can't upload them through Virgin's wondersite. And Virgin's help page is not terribly helpful.

I suppose I could e-mail them with my tale of woe, but right now whingeing is a bit more enjoyable. Poor me.

In searching the house last night I discovered that my sister has an ancient camera--the quality will probably be comparable to pictures taken with the phone. All I need is a scandisk and 4 double-A batteries. But, right now, that also seems like more work than I care to deal with. Maybe my mother will let me borrow her camera once a week until I can convince the Beloved that this really is an important thing for us to possess.... Hmm....

So, right now, you'll just have to settle for me telling you about my knitting projects. I know. Not nearly as fun. But, well, life is full of disappointments.

Last night I posted a list of projects currently "On Needles." Looking at that list, you might think that I like to knit blankets. Well, sometimes I do. They make good meeting knitting. All you need to do is pick a straightforward pattern and you're good to go while pretending to listen to your colleagues drone on endlessly about something that is probably important, but could better be expressed in a nice, succinct memo. Unfortunately, they eventually become a little too cumbersome to drag around. Which is the case of the Moss Stitch Baby Blanket. It's maybe a bit more than halfway done, and I still have to make some decisions concerning edging or binding because, well, the blanket looks boring. The yarn is pretty and looks really nice with the moss stitch, but, well, it's a big square of moss stitch. So, it sits in a bag where I poke at it every now and again. In theory, meeting knitting should also make good TV knitting (which, in fact, it does), but I have a very tiny brain and get distracted easily.

Blanket number two (the Blue Lagoon Blanket) was picked out by the Beloved. His mother gave me a gift certificate to AC Moore for Christmas, and so, among other things, I allowed the Beloved to choose yarn and a (free) pattern so that I could make a blanket intended for future progeny. He liked this particular one, I figured it would be easy, and the colors were pretty, so on we went. And the colors are pretty. But it's a blanket done entirely in garter stitch. So I get bored quickly. And, if that wasn't enough, the pretty color changes happen frequently. Like every four to six rows. Which means the knitting is boring and I have 5,000 ends to weave in. I've decided to weave the ends in as I go along--which means every time I finish a set of the color-change pattern, I stop and weave in the bloody ends. In theory, this is a wonderful idea. But I'm now at a point (about halfway through the blanket, I'd guess) where I need to weave in ends and I just don't want to do it! It hurts! So this also sits in a bag, next to the Moss Stitch Blanket, where it whimpers morosely. After all, it hasn't done anything to deserve such treatment from me.

This brings us to blanket number three. The First Cable Afghan. Now, I've done cables before. I don't need to do the First Cable Afghan to bring me up to speed. But. This summer I promised my friend, RA, that I would make him an afghan. And I allowed him to choose the yarn. He chose this in Dark Rose and Forest Shades. Now, because I was crazy-busy with school this fall, I didn't even start on this afghan until after Christmas. But, due to my experiences with Moss Stitch Baby Blanket and Blue Lagoon Blanket, I thought I would pick something a little more...piquant. But it had to work with this soft, nubby yarn. First Cable Afghan is designed for use with Lion Brand Homespun, which is very similar in weight and texture to the yarn RA chose. Unfortunately, I hate how it's coming out. Like, I really, really hate it. Even more unfortunate--I can't decide if it really does look horrible, or if I'm just being difficult. I'll try to get a shot of it this weekend so that you can tell me what you think. I'm thinking I need to frog the foolish thing and try again--I can't decide, though, if I should try it on larger needles (I do tend to knit a little tight), or if I should just give up the ghost and find another pattern.

The last blanket was cast on this weekend. The Beloved was very unhappy that RA was getting a blankie, but HE, the love of my life, was not. As Monday was a holiday and I wasn't doing anything anyway, I cast on for a modified feather-and-fan throw. The pattern comes from Knitting for Peace by Betty Christiansen. The pattern is simple enough that it can travel with me for now while it's small, but complicated enough that I really need to pay attention on the rows that aren't straight knit or purl. It should keep me occupied at least until it's too big to come to work with me any more.

The problem with all of the blankets I'm knitting right now is that, aside from failing to hold my attention till the end of the project, they are all made with cheap yarn. Now, for baby blankets, acrylic really isn't that bad because it's hardy and you can put it in the washer and dryer. The same holds true for afghans. For people who say things like, if you're going to put that much time and effort into something, you want to use a material that will last and be heirloom quality, I have this to say: Beloved and I have an afghan knit by my mother maybe thirty years ago. We have a picture somewhere of me, age three or four, wrapped up in this same afghan. It's cheapy acrylic yarn. And it's not pilling or showing any sign of giving up the ghost.

However. I really like yarn made of natural fiber. I also like expensive yarn. The Beloved neither likes nor understands my desire and need to possess fancy, expensive yarn. (This is why his blankie is being made of the finest Red Heart Acrylic. Shade: Claret.) This brings us to the Airy Scarf. I'm knitting this in the recommended Rowan Kidsilk Haze. It's actually the second one I've done, making it an almost economic project as the Kidsilk Haze is around $13 a ball and I can get two scarves out of it. I'm nearly finished with it (are you noticing a pattern here? I'm not.), but put it aside last week to knit a couple of small things for my sister's birthday (she got a handknit bag, a handknit washcloth, and a bar of all-natural soap from The Mustard Seed). However, we're going to see my Mother-In-Law to celebrate her birthday this weekend, so the plan is to finish Airy Scarf and block her on Friday night, or Saturday at the latest, so that she's good to go on Sunday.

Wow. I'm tired just thinking about all the unfinished knitting I have. So much to do. So, why do I have to leave this all to go to work again? Maybe we'll have a meeting today....

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