Got two sets of knitting-related good news today!
First off, my latest Knit Picks pattern will be going live in the next few days! I’m so excited to get this pattern out to you!
Want a sneak peek?
I don’t want to give too much away before the big reveal but…
The second bit of knitting good news will be shared tomorrow…though some of you may find it out before I get a chance to post. Curious yet? 🙂
So yesterday was a bust on the knitting front. I knit one small 2″ circle (for what? You’ll see!) after making breakfast, getting the laundry in, putting away Jakob’s clothes and whatever else I did. Then Yannick got home, we had some lunch and headed outside to keep turning our front lawn into a giant litter box. Ok- I kid, we’ve actually been spreading the giant pile of gravel into the hole Yannick and his dad dug to extend our driveway widthwise. And moving the extra gravel by wheel barrow to our front walkway. But in the end it kinda feels like we’ve got a giant litter box outside. (And the illusion was helped by the friendly neighborhood animal who left us a gift in the center of the gravel).
There I was, standing bent over the gravel pit, using my hands to scoop out a trench to lay a drainage pipe, when my umbilical hernia popped out again. (Did I mention that I now have an umbilical hernia? It popped out the first time the day before leaving for Rhinebeck). After that I wasn’t much good to help, so I raked up the last bit of the leaves then went inside to shower.
I got one more 2″ circle knit while Yannick went to pick up the boys from daycare, then it was the usual supper routine, followed by playtime and the struggle we’ve been having lately to get Henri to bed. He’s got his 2 year molars coming in, plus he’s on a medication that could be making him hurt, and it has been making him very fussy and clingy at bedtime. By the time he was in bed and Yannick was reading a story with Jakob, it was my time to get OUR supper ready. We don’t eat dinner with the kids ‘cus Yannick isn’t home on time. Anyways, by the time the veggies were ready, the meat barbecued, and the food eaten, it was 9:30. I had NO desire to do anything at that point, I was just zonked. We watched the Big Bang Theory/$#!% My Dad Says from last week and then I just crashed. It felt really luxurious to get into bed at 10, with new sheets and a fully charged, game-loaded iphone- though it would have been more fun had I not fallen asleep 10 minutes later.
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The boys got their daycare proofs last week and we’re giving in our orders tonight. Jakob’s photos last year were really hot and cold- it was very easy to pick which of the two photos we would take. This year’s choice wasn’t as obvious, but I think we picked the right one.
(Ignore the backgrounds, each image is shown in front of 9 different backdrops and we get to pick the one we want. We’re going with a sports themed one this time).
First there is Jakob alone:
The close up isn’t bad, but we’re going with the Mr. GQ, I’m-all-cool-with-my-hands-in-my-pockets look on the right.
Henri alone:
Henri was having a rough morning! He was fussy, and didn’t want me to leave so he was crying when they went to do the photos. We’re going with the pose on the right as well, though with the sports background. Henri’s hair does this crazy stand-up thing when we take off his hat, and his teacher must have tried to flatten it ‘cus the front doesn’t usually make such a Musnters-esque widow’s peak.
Finally, whenever they have siblings in the daycare together, they do a group photo:
We’re not taking either of these! Maybe if Henri was smiling, or at least not looking quite so upset. As it is I have better photos of the two of them together. (Plus Jakob’s protective embrace reminds me of those old-fashioned couples portraits, with the standing, stern husband and the seated, unsmiling wife).
I still can’t show you knitting progress, but I hope to at least accomplish some tonight.
Oh, and since some of you have asked, I’ll explain about Jakob and the oxygen monitor. Jakob snores. A LOT. When we hear him through the monitor we call him Lord Vader, that’s how loud/bad. When I first mentioned it to his pediatrician a while ago, he sent us for xrays. They showed that his adenoids were “moderately large”. We tried a round of Flonase to shrink his adenoids, but he started snoring again as soon as we stopped it. We tried another month-long round with the same results. Finally we were referred to an ENT a few weeks ago.
The ENT started the appointment by asking if we’d done an oxygen saturation test. We hadn’t. The visit ended there, with a referral for us to go rent the equipment. (Out of pocket- ouch!) So basically the test was similar to the finger monitor they put on you to check the oxygen levels in your blood/body, but we put it on his toe. I waited until he fell asleep then attached it to his toe, taped it in place and put a sock on him. Then, to make sure it didn’t get kicked off or detached in the night, when I was ready for bed I slept in his room with him.
The next day I brought the machine back to the sleep clinic and it generated a report showing his oxygen levels and heart beats during the night, as well as showing markers every time his O2 levels dropped more than 3% for more than 5 seconds. Next Wednesday we’ll meet again with the ENT to go over the results. If the results are within the normal realms, then we’ll ignore the snoring for now and wait it out. If they show that his O2 levels are dropping out of the norm, then most probably he will have to have his adenoids/tonsils removed.
I’m really not worried about him having the surgery, should it get to that point. A) I just had it done- well, the tonsils anyways, and though it sucked worse than anything I can remember, I know the recovery is much worse in adults than kids. B) my nephew had done the surgery at the same age as Jakob, and is now 13. I asked him what he remembered and all he remembered was eating a lot of ice cream. Either way, we’ll see what the doctor says next week.
It’s been a long weekend! We didn’t even do anything that exciting until Sunday when the kids had two (!) birthday parties, but I still can barely remember what I did.
I finalized the design for half of my current KP project, and finished the first duplicate stitch bit (that I showed you last time). I think I’m going to run out of yarn, though. I try to be as conservative as possible when estimating how much I’ll need, but this time I think I fell short. I’ll have to email and ask for more.
I’m typing this from my phone as I lie on the floor in the den, still tangled in the sheets where I slept last night. Saturday night after dinner Yannick’s stomach started to bug him, and he was up all night so he spent the day in bed. I didn’t want to join him until he was feeling better and the sheets were changed, so once the boys were in bed I holed myself up in the den with my knitting and some tea and just kept going until I was too sleepy to knit any longer. Half of our couch (it’s an L shape) is at the Brick being repaired, so I figured it would be more comfy on the heated floor. It’s not bad, actually!
Since I can’t show you my knitting, I’ll share a silly iPhone pic I took about a week ago when I had both boys snuggled in my lap.
Good news! I’ve added my Felted Poker Coasters and the My First SuperHero patterns to my Ravelry store, so now you can purchase them as Ravelry downloads!
Felted Poker Coasters
My First SuperHero
You can still purchase the patterns through Knit Picks, but now you have the option of going through Ravelry too, if you prefer to keep all your PDFs together in your library.
And don’t forget, you don’t need to be a Ravelry member to purchase the pattern through them.
Well, after running around all day I ended up with almost all the parts needed for my car, and the oxygen monitor to put on Jakob tonight while he sleeps, so even though I didn’t make it in to work, I still feel quite productive. Plus driving Yannick’s car didn’t suck nearly as much as I’d thought it would.
Here’s a quick sneak peak at my next Knit Picks design:
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Yes, I'm cheating on my love- intarsia- with its cousin: duplicate stitch. And i don't feel guilty at all! I got a decent amount done tonight once the kids were in bed. I'm calling it a night early, though, 'cus a migraine is brewing and I'd like to fall asleep before it comes on.
What a day. Henri has been having some movement problems, and since June we’ve been doing tests to try and find out the cause. Today was another long day at the hospital. I’m really confident with the doctor we now have, though, even though the next few months will require many more tests.
By the time we got home Henri was 2 hours past his nap, and exhausted. I let him sleep then woke him about half an hour before suppertime. He was so sleepy that all he wanted to do was lie in my arms and cuddle…which was actually kinda nice after the rough day we’d had.
Tonight’s guild meeting was a welcome break at the end of a long day. Tanis of Tanis Fiber Arts was there, selling yarn and giving a little lecture on how she started and got where she is. Veronik Avery came back, and brought Robin Melanson, who was nice to meet. In all it was a great evening. That is, until I got home.
Yannick had been spending the night working on my car, cus some lady slammed on her breaks in front of me in the middle of turning a corner, causing me to hit her. We pulled over but it didn’t look like there was damage to either car, and the kids were with me, and when I went to check on them she told me she had to leave and she took off. Well tonight it turns out that there was more damage to my car than I’d thought, and now I have to spend tomorrow driving around in Yannick’s car (which I hate doing) buying all the expensive parts. This sucks.
To end on a more positive note, here’s the latest attempt at the daycare teacher gifts. It’s the Karaoke Mitts (you can find them on Ravelry…I don’t have the link handy). I’m following the patt though I had to go down a needle size as I got gauge with the 4.5mm as called for but the cuff itself was HUGE. I like what I’m getting with the 4mm. Also, instead of doing the mini twists as “k into back of 2nd st then into 1st, then drop both”, I’m doing “k2tog then k 1st st again, then drop both”.
It’s gone! Sent! The pattern that has been my focus for the last two months, and been sitting on one of the back-burners of my brain ever since I did the initial sample is finally going to be published!
I sent it off to Knit Picks today and hopefully within the next few weeks it will be available to you. What a relief!
I’m super proud of how it came out and I can’t wait to share it with you! In the meantime I will be working on another KP sample and getting started on the holiday mitts for the boy’s teachers.
PS this is my first blog post from my iPhone. Anyone know if there’s a way to include photos?
Nevermind- I think I got it. If this works, this is a photo of a side project I’m sneaking in…a swatch for my mom.
I’m so close I can taste it! I just have a few photos to add in, a few more lines of text, a good proofread or two- and the pattern will be ready to put in the mail on Monday. I’m so relieved to have it thisclose to being done. Now I can move on and try to get more cleared off my plate.
After dinner tonight Henri and I did some coloring. I colored in a page in Jakob’s dinosaur coloring book, then tore it out to give to him when he got home from my mom’s house.
I thought it was cute, and then I turned it around to see what was on the back…
A knitting dinosaur! I think I’m keeping this one for me! 🙂
Rhinebeck Rhecap, Part 1:
Maaike and I drove down to Woodstock in the afternoon of the Thursday before the festival. We left early because Maaike was registered for a class on Friday on spinning exotic fibers. That meant one thing- I had a day to myself to roam free in Woodstock!
Our inn was right in the heart of the Woodstock village, and it was amazing. To a tourist, at least, it feels like an artist’s community right in the middle of a forest, complete with bubbling stream and rushing waterfall. I LOVED it.
To save money we took a room with a shared hall bath. Our room was lovely, quaint and welcoming. My favorite part of the room was the top drawer of the dresser which held journals that had been filled in by previous occupants of the room. It was so sweet to look through the memories that other people had made in that same spot.
After meeting a few other guests at our inn who were also there for Rhinebeck, I went out for my walk. Unfortunately it was clear that almost nothing would be open for another hour or two so I took advantage of the time to grab some breakfast at the Oriole9, a restaurant that had free wifi. (Our inn did offer a continental breakfast, but my tastebuds have been majorly screwed up since the tonsillectomy, and I can’t really eat much. Sweets, dairy and the like taste the worst, and the continental breakfast was muffins, fruit and yogurt…so that was out).
I’m not posting all the photos here, but there was so much to see and photograph in Woodstock.
Everywhere you’d look you’d find tie dye, peace signs and other “typical Woodstock” trappings. You’d think it would get overdone or theatrical after a while- but it never did. It just seemed to make sense.
Across the street from our inn was one especially colorful shop:
The black figures in the center of the photo are 2 life-sized Blues Brothers sculptures, posed reclining in patio chairs.
After setting out for my walk I passed two stores then the street meandered over a bridge. I looked down to see a beautiful rushing stream, and then a few more stores later I followed an alleyway to suddenly come across this waterfal feeding the stream. It was just perfect.
I forgot I can’t rotate photos in WordPress…so let’s just all hold our heads to the right, m’kay? 🙂 In the heart of the main street was a little community center that had some colorful sculptures around. This blue park bench had hearts on either side with this peace symbol and hand in the center. It was just the thing to hold my Rhinebeck Travelling WIP (which was finished 2 days after we got back- more on it later).
As if it weren’t enough to randomly come across streams and sculptures, there was also “found art” everywhere, like a peace sign drawn into the sidewalk concrete, or another peace sign made out of broken bits of motherboards and little round stones found on a garden ledge. Along the way I also found this guitar carved into someone’s fence.
When I left Oriole9 I went over to the Tea Shop hoping to find some of the same tea I’d had with my breakfast. They didn’t have it, but I did buy sample sizes of 6 other flavors; the Cream Earl Gray has since become my new favorite.
I didn’t buy much else during my walk- just a polished gemstone to add to my collection, and these two VW vans for the boys:
That evening Maaike and I met up after her class and headed down for an amazing dinner at The Red Onion. (It must have been good if I enjoyed it even with my silly tastebuds). It was a beautiful steakhouse with low candle light and black & white photographs of nude women on the walls. (Those two things don’t seem to go together, but it was very tasteful…no pun intended!)
We finished our night back at the inn, knitting in the lounge with the other Rhinebeck women there.
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Getting back to the present, it’s been more of the same around here. Every night I’ve been working on getting my pattern ready for publication. It’s getting close…I have hopes to maybe mail it off on Monday.
I spent the day home with Henri who seems to be fighting a gastro. I don’t like when my kids are sick, but I’m not sorry about getting an extra day to stay home cuddling with him. I do feel really bad for the poor kid, though- he threw up again tonight right as I was about to put him to bed, and I had to put him in his crib (his pjs were still clean) so I could clean up the floor. I had the lights on, and kept going in and out of the room to get more paper towels and floor cleaner, etc, and then I looked over and my little fireball of energy- the kid who never sits still or stays put- had laid himself down on his stomach and closed his eyes. It was heartbreaking.
I can’t work on anything important while Henri’s awake because I keep my focus on him, especially today when I was always on the lookout for signs he was about to throw up (so I could protect our couch, etc). So while we were watching a new Diego DVD I’d picked up, I started the first Ravenna Mitt. I think it will be cute, but will have to try on the completed mitt to see if it is right to give all the teachers at the daycare.
And now the kids are both asleep and I’ve had what little I can stomach as supper (toast. all I eat is toast. all I can taste is salt. this kinda is annoying) and am going to do more math, more calculations and more tweaking to get the pattern to look and sound just right.
Out of nowhere this little memory popped into my head, and I wanted to share it before I forgot it again.
When Maaike and I went to Rhinebeck, the first thing we did on the first day of the festival was to visit the fleece auction. The next thing after that was to bring the fleece that Maaike bought over to the Zeilinger Wool Co tent to give them the fiber to be processed, and then shipped home to Maaike.
Maaike was chatting with the Zeilinger guy about the fiber, the prep process, shipping to Canada, etc. Then she asked how they could be sure she’d recieve the fiber from her fleece, and not that of someone else’s.
“We keep ’em seperated,” the Z dude replied.
There was a pause of about 2 seconds, then he, Maaike and I all burst into a spontaneous chant of:
“You gotta keep ’em seperated! Duh nuh nuh nuh duh nuh nuh nuh duh nuh nuh nuh NUH!”
I can tell you this- I’d been planning this trip for a while. I thought I had the whole weekend planned…but never did I think I’d be singing along in a random outbreak of Offspring at a sheep and wool festival.
jeloca.com 