Sorry for having been incommunicado the last few days.  My in-laws have been coming in every Thursday and staying the weekend to help us do the necessary renovations to get the house ready for baby.  They sleep in our current office/spare bedroom, which is where the computer is.  We turned the computer off for them Thursday, and I only turned it back on last night.  I still use “real” email (as opposed to web-based email, like Hotmail or Google) and prefer to not check it online, so I haven’t been able to reply to any emails over the weekend.

But boy did we get a lot accomplished!  On Thursday Yannick’s sister also came by and his mom and sister painted our living room.  That wasn’t strictly for the baby, but we all hated the Crayola Flesh color that the previous owners painted this entire house in an attempt to “freshen” it up to sell, as well as the hideous brown plaid curtains on the picture windows at both ends of the living room and dining room.  While they were in Florida his parents bought us new curtains and rather than wait until Christmas to give them to us, they decided it was time to fix up the room and put up the curtains.  We painted the two rooms (really one long room) a soft shade of gray which sounds strange when you think of it against a dark brown and tapestry Louis-the-something reproduction living room set and cream curtains, but it looks so soft and peaceful in there now!  Really inviting and cozy, almost like a country house, if that makes sense outside of my head. 

While that was being done upstairs, Yannick and his dad were busy working downstairs.  It’s not quite ready yet, but my future office now has the framing built, insulation, vapour barrier and firenze (sp?  The wood you put over the vapour barrier to attach the gyprock to) put up, most of the gyprock on the walls and ceiling put up, and all lights, plugs and cable installed.  I’m so happy with the speed it is coming together!  This coming weekend we’ll finish the rest and plaster it, and next weekend paint it and move the furniture down.  Woo hoo!

I couldn’t do much to help them with painting or renos, so Saturday night I emptied the dresser I will be putting into the baby’s room.  I then brought down ALL of the clothes Jakob has grown out of, folded them and put them into bags by size.  While doing so I took out any unisex clothes in the 0-3 months range.  I emptied my big metal chest (you might remember it from my old office, if you’ve been reading long, it’s a blue metal army trunk-type chest) of all the yarn and put that yarn into storage buckets with the rest, and put the bags of baby clothes into the trunk for storage.  I then washed all the unisex clothes I’d pulled out, and on Sunday I folded them all and put them into the dresser.  Now once we’re able to switch kids’ rooms all we need to do is move the furniture…at least the contents are already ready.

I was on such a roll that I started getting everything ready for my hospital bag as well.  I can’t find the bag I’d used with Jakob, which is really bugging me, but I did pull out the baby clothes I want to bring, as well as my toiletries and such.  I will be picking up a pack of newborn diapers today and by tonight my hospital bag will be fully packed and ready to wait by the door.  My due date is in 5 weeks from this coming Friday…so no matter what happens with the baby turning or having a c-section, no matter what I’ll be having a baby by the latest 5 weeks from now.

Because of all the work going on and catching up on sleep when not working, I didn’t get to knit much.  Since I’d finished the Eye Lash chemo cap on Tuesday, Wednesday night I cast on for another hat for my cousin.  I managed 1 repeat (10 rows) before bed.  Thursday night I had my last prenatal aquafitness class and I did another repeat before getting to bed early.  Friday I did the same, leaving me with 1 repeat left to go on Saturday night.  Sunday I worked the crown decreases as per the pattern but realized after gathering the final sts together that it was way too short- when I tried it on it didn’t even reach the top of my ears.  The actual pattern calls for an aran weight yarn and I am using a sport/light worsted.  Doubled the hat would have been too big, used singly the width is perfect but the height wasn’t enough to follow the pattern as written. 

I ended up undoing the crown section and working another 2 repeats before redoing the decreases.  Flat on a table the hat looks long and funny, but now it is long enough to cover my ears and down to the nape of my neck, and I think that my cousin will prefer it with the extra length.  If not, it can always be folded up at the bottom.

Pattern:  Lacy Slant Hat by Anastasia Roeszler (Ravelry link and Non-Ravelry link). 

Size:  As written – fits 21″ to 23″ head without being too snug.

Yarn:  Bernat Natural Blends Soy – in a soft blue shade whose name I forget right now.  My ball had been started already so I had to dip into another for the crown decreases, but I’m pretty sure that 1 full ball would be enough.  Don’t forget- I also added 2 repeats so it is a bit too long.

Needles: 4mm

Dates:  December 3 – 7 2008

Modifications:  See the details above.  I also used a much smaller needle than required, omitted the final non-decrease round of the crown shaping, and modified the pattern to be worked in the round as opposed to flat then seaming.

As usual you can find my finished (and unfinished!) projects in my “projects” page by clicking the tab up at the top of every page on my blog, and I also have this project in my Ravelry notebook here.

Oh- and while they were here I had my in-laws each try on their 1 completed sock (while blindfolded so it wouldn’t technically ruin the surprise).  Both claimed the socks fit perfectly, so once I finish the last Flower Scarf neckwarmer (to be cast on today once I get around to winding the yarn) I will complete their pairs of socks.