The photo-less one is back!  It’s been one COLD week, and I didn’t even have knitting to keep my lap warm.  Honestly this week has been a bit of a blur.  Luckily thanks to the antibiotics we’re all fine and back at work/daycare, so every day has blended into the next.  Wake up, give the kids breakfast, Yannick drives Jakob to daycare, I go in to work with Henri, Yannick arrives at work, we work through the day, I take Henri with me to go pick up Jakob, bring the kids home, give them supper, Yannick arrives sometime between after-supper time and midnight, we study, we go to bed.  FUN, lemme tell you.

On Thursday I was smart and got a doctor’s note about my hernia, so Friday we changed things up a bit and I drove Jakob to daycare so I could stop in at my gym afterwards.  With the doctor’s note I was able to have them put a hold on my membership so I stop losing time, ‘cus I haven’t gone since the pain started getting worse.  This way once things are settled they will add back the time I’ve lost and I can get the benefit of the rest of my membership.  I’m glad that’s settled!  When I was going 6x/week I managed to drop about 20 lbs and 24″, but want to get a bit more out of it before my membership expires.  I’m still not sure what I want to do when it is over- I love weight training but can’t bear to think of getting up at 5am the rest of my life.  Maybe I’ll look into getting some equipment for the house instead.

I actually knit a little this week.  I know, I know…strange but true.  Maaike* and I are knitting a baby blanket for a mutual friend, a log cabin variation in 5 colors of Cascade 220 Superwash.  We’re each knitting 8 squares and will seam them together afterwards.

I’ve been having some gauge issues but it seems to be settled.  Maaike knit the first square and gave it to me to match my gauge to.  Unfortunately my first needle choice (4mm) gave me a center square significantly smaller than hers.  My second choice (4.5mm) also seemed small, and my third choice (5mm) seemed prettyclose but not quite spot-on.  I couldn’t go up any further, because a fourth attempt with a size yet larger (5.5mm) was about an inch too big in all directions.  Clearly something strange was going on.  I went back to the 5mm and finished the square center, then did the 2 attached stripes in contrasting colors.  Funny thing- when I held my center against Maaike’s, the center square was a touch small, but the stripes were dead-on.  The culprit all along was the yarn!  For some reason that color (the darkest of the 3 blues we were working with) was thinner than the others, so I ended up with a tighter gauge.  Crazy but true.  At least now I can get moving on them, as I have time.  I’ve decided that I need to make time for myself in all this crazy school/work/life stuff, so I’m making it a point to knit for a few rows before I settle in to study, and then maybe a few rows at the end if I got a good chunk of school work done.  I’m also making an effort to get ahead in my notes/exams so I will be able to afford the time to spend on the Knitting Olympics.  We’ll still have to see on that one though.

Henri is totally walking now, although he doesn’t know how to just stand up, so if he topples he’ll crawl until he reaches something he can grab to stand up, and then will walk until his next topple or until he reaches something.  He was a riot tonight, doing laps back and forth between Yannick and I, with Jakob finding it funny to follow him around.  It is so awesome to see them together- their faces both light up when one sees the other, and they truly already are best friends.  Jakob will stop whatever he is doing if Henri approaches, and will stroke his brother’s cheek and kiss him and gaze adoringly at him, and Henri finds everything Jakob does hysterical.  I love watching my boys together and am so happy that they are so close in age and have each other.  I can’t wait until the computer is working properly and I can post photos to show you the two in action!

Oh, and if I AM able to squeeze in the Knitting Olympics, I think my project is settled.  I have the pattern, the yarn and the challenge in both time and technique.  *fingers crossed…*

*BTW she hasn’t posted in over a year, so that’s FAR worse than me!