Yarn Along

I'm back with the yarn along this week. You can join us here. I've still been doing some knitting and some reading but renovations and that thing called work have really been crimping my style recently! The bedroom is almost complete. All the trim is back up and the major work is done- now it is all those fussy last details that are holding us up. I need to finish (uhem start) the window treatments and Frank is busy putting together the closet organizers that we bought. So I am saving pictures of that until it is completely finished and we can have a real reveal!

Reading-wise I am still working my way through Stephanie Pearl-Mcphee's series Yarn Harlot. I am almost done with Free-Range Knitter and I still think these books are hilarious. Maybe you have to be a knitter to truly appreciate them but I think it would suffice to even know someone who is a knitter so that you could see the humor. Part of the reason I am rolling laughing most of the time is because I see myself in so much of what she writes about. Recently I was reading the section where she talks about not being able to afford good yarn and how most people look at her like she is nuts when she spends $25 on a skein of sock yarn. I can totally appreciate this (well not the sock yarn part so much... that is more my mother's thing) seeing as I fondly refer to myself as a yarn snob. I made a few things with some acrylic red heart and I will never do that again (except...b/c of course there is always and exception... toys.... maybe...but really I'd prefer some superwash). I just love the feel and texture of wool. It is so nice and stretchy- even cotton doesn't give you the same ease. And maybe since I am fairly new to this knitting thing I like it because it is forgiving.

She also talks about people's motivations for knitting and how many women learn to knit when they are pregnant. I'd like to pretend that isn't me and in a way it isn't. My mother tried to teach me to knit for years and as a teenager I think I maybe finished one scarf- I'm not even sure I finished it! But I found my knitting nitch after my first son was born and we used cloth diapers. He was such a super pee-erand I wanted to try wool covers but I just couldn't afford them. I could, however, afford some yarn and figuring that I was a pretty crafty person (I made all his cloth diapers didn't I....) I was going to knit him some soakers. And I did. And a new obsession was born. In part it is because knitted baby things are totally adorable but I also discovered that i could take my knitting with me anywhere- something I couldn't do with my sewing. If we go to the beach or are playing outside or the kids are even just playing in the house I can have my knitting with me wherever we are. The same can't be said of my sewing. And as I get faster with the knitting and projects come off the needles more quickly I find myself getting sucked in even more! I even have more than one project on the needles at a time now- shocking I know but I just can't seem to help myself.

That being said the major project right now is a hobby horse for James. Xander finally decided he liked his and doesn't really want to share it. I knew even when I made the first one I'd be required at some point to make one for James and that time has arrived. I'm using Cascade 220 again for this one because I loved how it felted up. James' horse is going to be orange so there will be no mistaking whose is whose. This one is working up more quickly than the first- the nice thing about repeating a pattern- although I made the same mistake along the neckline with this one as I did on Xander's so at least they will match! I am going to felt the ears separately this time though and sew them on after everything is felted- that way I can make sure the positioning is right and that they don't flop. I may also felt this one a little harder so it is a little smaller. I just don't want to lose all stitch definition. Xander's is a pretty massive horse for such a little guy. More details here. James' birthday is in 3 weeks so I am on a deadline! Can believe my little guy is going to be 2???? How did that happen?

PS- my garden has turned into a jungle of squash. 1500 sq feet of waist high squash plants- even the beans have been overrun so if you need some squash let me know!

Just a boring tuesday.

Today I should have stayed home and worked on the window treatments for our room but since Labor Day is coming up and the beach closes after Labor Day I figured we had better make at least one more trip. It was lovely! James has speech therapy in the morning and then we packed up and headed out. I love how he put his hat on- don't you? He's gotten quite the independent streak recently and wants to do everything HIS way. We spent a few hours at the beach, the boys playing in the sand and my lounging in my chair watching them play. I did read a few chapters of my book but with no lifeguard on duty I needed to keep at least one eye on the kiddos. After a couple hours I packed them up again ad we went to meet Frank at Pizza hut for the lunch buffet. $10 for all 4 of us to eat- you can't beat that! And sine it is a buffet there is no waiting which is a must with 2 little guys after a long morning at the beach!


We had a bit of incident coming home involving car keys- the second one this week so you would have thought I'd learn after the first. I picked them up from daycare on Monday and as we were getting into the car Xander somehow managed to lock the doors and then shut his so the car was locked with the keys inside. We had to hang out at daycare until Frank could get home and bring us the spare key. The yesterday after Pizza hut we went to Wal Mart to get milk and James somehow managed to get my keys out of my purse, chew on them for awhile, and then conveniently drop them in a moment when I wasn't looking. So there I am in the Wal Mart parking lot with no keys, 2 gallons of milk and 2 kids totally ready for a nap! Ugh. Despite the extreme lack of help from the Wal Mart staff I did find the keys and we were on our way but there was quite bit of frantic searching followed by the realization that not only did I not have my keys but the spare key was still in the car from the day before. Oh yeah and guess where my cell phone was... in the car. So if I didn't find my keys I was really stuck.

The boys fell asleep on the way home and stayed that way as I put them into their beds thank goodness and then instead of working on window shades I took a nap too! Oh well the shades will wait till this weekend right?

It's been one month

It's been one month since we lost our baby. It's hard for me to believe that it has actually been that long because in some ways the loss still feels so new and yet at the same time like I have been living with it forever. Last week I was cleaning out my closet and I had to move the teddy bear that I bought for the baby. When we were in Burlington I bought each of the kids a teddy, including the one on the way. It has 2 bows around it's neck- one saying It's a Boy and one saying It's a Girl. I thought how fun it would be to take a picture of the baby and the bear with the appropriate bow to announce the baby's gender. Now I am not sure what to do with that bear. I can't get rid of it but keeping it is hard too. It's tucked away in it's box in a closet upstairs and I guess it will stay there for awhile anyway.

I found out in the last 2 weeks that 2 of my close friends are having babies and they are both due around the time Poppy would have been. I'm happy for them but it hurts. I hope that I can look at their babies and not wonder what my baby would have been like.

The part of me that was so angry has mostly eased- now I just feel sad.

Aren't they pretty!

So can I just say that it was completely worth it to hire someone to put the floor in for us! I know it isn't that it is hard but there are certain tools and experience required and it was awesome to be able to go upstairs and take a nap (with ear plugs mind you) and wake up to a new floor! It would have taken us so much longer to get this done. It came out beautifully. I am so pleased. And we had a whole extra box so we got to take that back so my pocketbook is pleased too! They also delivered the mattress and box spring and it was only like an hour after they left that I realized they forgot to leave the bed frame. Of course they don't have one in the store and the next time they can deliver is next Saturday so we have to wait a week for the frame. I'm mostly annoyed at myself because I should have realized it while they were still here! I wish I didn't have to work this weekend so we could work on putting everything back together but duty calls. Frank was going to buy the stuff for closet organizers today and we'll have to get cracking with trim and touch ups- my least favorite part!

Here come the floors...

August 18, Day 11: 10 days, 7 cans of paint, 3 cans of spackle, 2 paintbrushes, 3 rollers, 3 foam brushes, 1 can of finish, 1 can of polyurethane, a whole lot of sandpaper, 1 ceiling fan, 3 light switches, 1 phone jack, 6 outlets, and a lot of man...uhem woman power and we are ready for some new floors. Tomorrow should be a big exciting day. The carpenter is coming to lay the floor at 7am and hopefully he will be finished by the time they deliver the mattress sometime between 12-1 (for the first time ever I am hoping that a delivery company will be late....). If they arrive with the mattress before the floor is done it is really not a big deal because we'll just park it in the living room with the rest of our bedroom furniture. But if the floor is finished then they will set it all up for us! Too bad I have to work tomorrow night so I won't get to sleep in my new bed. I am thinking about imposing a ban on sleeping in the bed until Monday when Frank and I can break it in together. Once the floor is in we'll have to put all the trim and baseboards back up- that is going to be all Frank. I tried to put the window trim back up today and it was totally a disaster. Apparently I need to practice my hammer wielding skills. Plus he needs to reshim 2 of the doorways. The reason my closet door wouldn't close anymore was because the door frame was apparently not actually attached to anything on the inside so when I removed the trim the whole door frame fell out of the hole! I am so excited to see the room with the new floor. I'm very hopefully that Frank can make some headway with trim work this weekend so next week I can attempt to make Roman shades- it'll be a new adventure! More pics tomorrow.

Yarn Along

I'm still working on Yarn Harlot: The Secret Life of a Knitter. It's certianly not for lack of interest- this book is hysterical. I just have been so busy with renovations that all my spare time has been spent knitting and not reading. I read Frank aloud several sections from this book last night in (and yes you listened and laughed appropriately...) and the section on Christmas knitting had me crying I was laughing so hard because I can competely see myself in this section. It reminded me that in order for "IT" to not happen again this year maybe I should start working on Christmas presents now.... or at least James' birthday present since his bday is in a month (can you believe the little booger is going to be 2!). I think I'll probably head back to the cable book to pick out a cable for Xander's sweater that I'd rather be working on though. I have time to finish the hobby horse for James right....

The soaker is something that I wipped up pretty quickly. It's from this pattern. It was a nice pattern to work from and I love that it comes in three differnt yarn weights. I really like the ribbed crotch- it makes it nice and stretchy but also adds some absorbancy. I do think that the sizing is a bit big seeing as I was right on gauge and this small soaker fits James. Now I realize that my kiddos are wee-nuts but that seems a bit extreme even to me. I had this yarn left over from James' errand sweater so it worked up in to the soaker with about 1 yd left to spare! A perfect use of leftovers. So the sizing doesn't matter per se because I wan't making it for anyone in particular but I will never go larger than a medium that's for sure! I'm not sure who this soaker is for but I figure I can gift it seeing as I have several pregnant friends or I can FOM it on DSD or save it for a future baby.

Reno progress update

August 15th, Day 8: I'm not sure today can really count as Day 8 seeing as the last 4 days I have been working therefore haven't gotten much done but progress was made today. All of the carpet tack boards are up. Frank closet is officially cleaned out, carpet removed and all trim and floor boards removed. The walls have been vacuumed, washed, spackled and painted..twice! So except for the ceiling which will be done tomorrow when I have better light Frank's closet is done. The ceiling fan is down so I can also finish the touch-ups on the main ceiling tomorrow as well. My closet has been vacuumed, washed, and spackled but the wooden shelves are still partially up so I need to get those down tonight so tomorrow I can do the painting. We don't have a set day yet for the floor installation but I am very hopeful that it will be this week so I am in a hurry to finish the painting. Plan for tomorrow is the finish the ceilings, paint my closet and put the final coat of pain on the walls in the bedroom. I also need to move out all the floorbaords and trim pieces that are sitting in the middle of the floor and bang all the nails out of those. By tomorrow night I want the room completely cleared out and ready in case he can come and install the floor on Wednesday. It's a lot but I think it can be done. I'm feeling somewhat guilty that I have been sending the boys to daycare to get this done but if I had tried to do this with toddlers underfoot I would be stark raving made, they might be locked in their rooms and no one would be happy. So really I am not at all guilty about sending them to daycare- it's more the paying for daycare when I could have them home guilt. I'm guessing the money for daycare is worth my peace of mind and ability to paint in peace! Once the painting is done and the floor is installed comes the herculean task of putting all the trim back up =) I have all new outlets and switches which is easy enough to do... just tedious and then we can start moving furniture back in. Then the fun, decorating part can begin. Oh yeah and shopping for a new KING size bed!!!!