Weekend WIP, Belated New Year's style

How we manage to function at all right now. Jeremy and I have God, each other, and coffee. Friends and family too. And more coffee.


While most of the world was ringing in the New Year in their various ways; noisy, quiet, with crowds or just a few, I was sitting on my old IKEA couch watching "Hangover" with Jeremy and alternating complaining about my sore boobs and how tired I was as though these things were a surprise after having my 5th baby. There was knitting sitting next to me but that was a week ago, I forgot which project it was. Sometimes I even picked it up and knit a stitch or two but only if I had both hands free which isn't that often with a newborn around. I was also browsing craft blogs (I can do that one handed), particularly knitting blogs and making smart mouthed comments about the lists of FO that ran on and on. Don't they know nobody likes a show off? So you knit 13 shawls all of lace weight and on size 2 needles? And 24 sweaters, all adult size and nothing more than fingering weight with the exception of that one Noro on worsted? Then there's the spinning and dying you picked up leading to numerous cowls, mittens, scarves, and hats out of hand spun, hand dyed OOAK yarns. Not to mention that 10 new patterns they cranked out, the baby layette set a week for friends of friends having babies, the two pairs of socks per month and all manner of quirky toys, hot pat holders and cozies. What the...? Let me be frank here: You. Have. No. Life. These aren't people, they are knitting zombies. Knitting zombies that make me feel totally inferior and jealous. Blankety-blank zombies. They totally got to me! Those b*tches. (I know, I just said a bad word but I mean it all in the nicest way you can imagine.) All postpartum-y hormonal I decided I'm not going to make a FO list for 2009 because it would make my yarn buying habit look REALLY bad. Besides, I rationalize, I can't remember what I knit in the past year! Seriously, who can remember that? I can't remember what I was knitting last week. Ok, maybe I will this year because now I do strange things like TAKE PICTURES of not just my FO but my WIPs. And blog about them once a week. Holy crap, those knitting zombies HAVE gotten to me! Oooooh! Maybe I'm on my way to being a real knitting zombie too! They annoy me mostly because I'm insanely jealous. My brother reads this blog, I can totally see him shaking his head and laughing his ass off at me. Yes big brother, I know, I'm a total dork, NERD is screaming from every one of my knitting callouses. This is not news, anyone that knows me, really knows me is aware that I am a complete nerd. The point here is that I'm not making a FO list but I am making some New Year's Knitting Goals. I don't want to call them resolutions, to easy to let myself off the hook with "resolution" and it seems like I'd just be following a trend, you know, the trend of making resolutions every New Year? Check the title of the blog. Rebel here, don't do trends. Except maybe a little if I really like the trend and if I can somewhat claim to have started it. Like those people that say "I was drinking espresso before Starbucks was popular." I say "I was knitting before Ravelry was around," and "We cooked with couscous all the time before there was Food Network" and now "I make goals for the New Year, not resolutions." Just call me trendsetter. Or nerd.

I'm still working on my NYKG (New Year Knitting Goals- I'm starting that now so I can claim that I was doing it before it got popular) and ponder these weighty matters often between 3 and 6am every morning when C can't stand the silence of the house in the middle of the night and refuses to sleep. From this place of sleep deprivation I've come up with a few goals so far. I will share them so next year I can come back triumphantly with a FO list worthy of blog gloating. Oh yes, can you smell the faint hint of failure to come already?

NYKG 2010 (this is a WIP)

1. Knit every day.
2. Knit socks.
3. Knit lace.
4. Knit a shawl/kerchief for myself.
5. Knit something for everyone in our family.
6. Keep knitting fun.

That last one is the most important and if any of the other goals make that one difficult then I'll ditch them because knitting isn't my job and doesn't have to be something I suffer through. That defeats the purpose. So there you have it, my NYKG 2010. Sound impressive doesn't it? A bit like Y2K. Because that was so much fun.

So this weekend's WIPs:

I got this book put out by Sterling Publishing during this past year and determined I'd get a lot of use out of it. It hasn't exactly lived up to my expectations but that could be more on me than the book. I'm using it right now for a lace pattern I thought would look adorable on this sweater (heavily modified) for C. in Purewool in Coffee and Creama or is it Chocolate and Creama? Can't remember.

Honestly, I thought I'd have this set finished ages ago. This sweater *should* have taken me an evening, I thought. But in my stroke of postpartum brilliance I decided to use a different lace pattern.So I turned to my book and found this. Instant love. My new baby girl would look precious in this bellflower lace pattern. Never mind that I'm sleep deprived and a grand postpartum mess, a 17 stitch, 15 row lace pattern would be a perfectly reasonable goal with a newborn. K1, nurse, frog 2 rows, K3, YO, change diaper, P2, S1, K1, PSSO, bounce baby to sleep, frog back to start, etc. Oh yeah, lace should be a freakin' piece of cake at this rate.

I could have knit the sweater 3 times over with the number of times I've frogged this lace pattern. I still don't want to admit defeat but I am starting to think that the lacy scallops on the next page of the book would be a better option for this particular sweater. Having done them several times before successfully makes them even more attractive.

When lace is making you crazy because you are far too sleep deprived to keep track of where you are, what is one to do? I need to knit something, I'm comitted to really resting during my postpartum period for the best recovery possible and any of chance of that happening means sitting and laying around can't be boring. Feeling like I'm accomplishing something helps. What to do? Start an easy little gnome for a certain little girl that is turning 2 tomorrow. There will be more of these, they take all of 15 minutes to knit. I need to sew them up, stuff them and knit their hats. Bits and pieces of yarn from my stash, some Lamb's pride, Patons wool, and an unknown colorway I got in a grab-bag of wool scraps make up this one.

Requiring no pattern at all and thus a good knit while I'm nursing I started a simple wash cloth that will have a matching soap sack and a bar of handmade soap for a gift. Peaces and Cream dishcloth cotton in a flecked natural colorway. I liked it a lot and have no idea what I was thinking I would make with it but for $1.48/ball it made me happy to have it in my stash and now will be a perfect gift. Both are FOs now.


A WIP I started in November but has been hibernating since has finally come back out. A wrap/shawl/scarf for me, this is BFL dyed by one of my favorite indie dyers, Elliebelly (no longer stunning the world with her amazing dye work, sadly) in my favorite feel-good colorway ever, crayon. I picked the dummy clap because... it looked easy. People, sometimes you want something that is pretty but easy even if it is boring as all get out to knit.


Remember these? Yeah, so sad that they are still a WIP. They should have been done ages ago. I would feel guilty about it except the child these are intended for refuses to put any mittens on her hands, even to try them on. She also doesn't wear the hat and scarflet that match these mittens. It will be an adorable set that never, ever gets worn. Her hands were red and cold today so I pulled them back out to finish them so she can wear them during this cold snap even though I know she won't actually wear them. I'll just feel better having finished them so she could wear them if she would. Anyway, I'll get pics of the set when the second mitten is finally finished.

This last bit is yarn that I'm dying to have be a WIP. The problem is I don't have needles that deserve to work with it and I haven't found the perfect pattern. I'm going to try out another pattern or make my own but I want this luscious dusty rose silk (by Debbie Bliss) to become this for C. I know it looks kind of peachy in the pic, all my pics have long shadows and golden afternoon light thanks to holding a fussy newborn most of the morning. That fussy newborn would be much happier if I could get this yarn knit up for her, I just know it.

I feel hopeful that I'm already doing pretty well on some of my NYKG 2010, not that I've even thought about intentionally doing any of them at this point. Maybe I'll keep this up, maybe not. Not exactly a knitting zombie yet but I am a postpartum zombie for sure. KEEP KNITTING FUN! (KKF!)

The Ultimate Excuse

Cosette Marguerite Constance Martin-Weber
7lbs, 4oz; 19.5 inches
12.28.09, 7. 36 a.m.
Born at home into my hands surrounded by love and peace.

I started several posts over the last week or so. I had planned a post on "Happy Holiday vs. Merry Christmas," one on our Christmas traditions, a few brief update posts, some maternity photo posts, a Christmas activities post, some WIP and a post on procrastination but I kept, er, procrastinating? I have a good excuse now though, sorta.

Moment of Christmas 1

Moments from Christmas Eve and Christmas day in our house.

The tree and gifts on Christmas morning.

No fire place or mantel, the stockings are hung on a door.

A baby doll in her cradle hanging on the tree for E.

Delicious Christmas Eve salad made by the girls. Festive with cauliflower, basil, oregano, parsley, tomatoes, sprouted sunflower seeds, salt and olive oil.

Hand knit elf hat ornament.

Happy Birthday Jesus!

I hope your Christmas is full of beauty.

If I were up for it...

I would make some cute Christmas crafts like this and of course loads of knitting, cooking, baking (or watching Jeremy bake since that usually has a better outcome) and crafting. That would be so much more fun than being sick. So. Much. More. Fun.

"Tis the season for snot and coughing...

So, I’m sick. It started Monday with a little tickle in my throat and nose and by Tuesday it was full blown. I’m really sick of it because it just won't go away and I feel like poop. Actually, snot, I feel like snot, lots and lots of snot. My head, face, teeth, and chest all hurt so bad and when I cough I'm pretty sure my head and lower back are going to blast apart. I may just be spared labor at this rate and get to cough V out. Which reminds me, I'm 36 weeks today, we could go any day now and have a full term, healthy little girl. H was born at 36 weeks exactly, sweet thing gave me an early dismissal. So did L at 37 weeks and a few days. Of course, O and E both went to 41 weeks and 4 days (not that I was obsessively counting or anything and I certainly wasn't saying things like "get out of me you little parasite!" after week 40) which, if you do the math, means I could be saying "any day now!" for the next 6 weeks or so, give or take. That is such an encouraging thought. Back to being sick. I've not been doing much since if I move it hurts, breathing is nearly impossible, my eyes seem to think I've been watching The English Patient, standing and coughing is deadly, and I'm sucking down hot tea like the Boston Tea Party is hitting this weekend. Which also means that I'm floating away and having to pee every 5 minutes because having to pee every 20 minutes wasn't fun enough. Oh, and I smell lovely, shoving Vycks Vapor rub up my nose trying to get a break. Mmmmmm, tasty.

I have had company while sick, everyone is still getting over their crud too, I was the last one to come down with it.
Isn't she cute? That is so totally how I feel right now. She's doing better though her face is pretty much always snot-encrusted lately.

One of my trusty tea mugs the girls made.

Sorry the pics are dark, that's what happens when I'm taking them on the couch, inside with the house all closed up. Today we did venture outside for a walk and Jeremy snapped a few pics of my 36 week belly and I snapped a few of the girls. I'll share more of them later.


Knitting, schooling, all things holiday related, writing, reading, cooking, etc. have all been pretty neglected this week. We got the first step of painting the living room done but then we were all sick so we're in limbo now. The list of things to do is beyond ridiculous and all I still feel like doing is laying on the couching moaning about how miserable I am with a hot compress to my face. Doesn't that sound endearing? Hey, we did watch "Miracle on 34th Street" today, there is some holiday spirit to be found. So what if I slept all the way through it?

Time to sit.

Today I have a sick toddler. All the cleaning, schooling, writing, phone calls, work, cookie baking and knitting I had planned on getting done went out the window and was replaced with lots and lots of cuddle time. My primary job today? "Hold me, mommy." I had planned some activities for today that would hopefully make my to-do list shorter for the time being. That was not to be though. Cooling a feverish brow, wiping a runny nose, wrapping my arms around her little body curled around my belly was about all I was able to get done today. There is a pot of a hearty yet simple vegetable soup on the stove for dinner that I managed to get made with the help of Jeremy and the big girls in those brief moments E let me set her down and we'll be enjoying the warmth of that soup (loaded with garlic) in just a few moments with some crusty bread and a bit of brie. Initially I was annoyed at how my day was going but then I realized that I needed to savor it. E wanted to spend hours just being held and cuddled on my lap, there was nothing more important that I could be doing in that moment but to meet her needs. Even though in reality I'm currently a stay-at-home-mom, I don't think of myself that way. It simply boils down to me not being the best version of myself if I don't pursue a career outside of my children. More on that later (as in another post some day, somewhere down the road) but today wasn't about being a stay-at-home-mom or a work-out-of-the-home-mom. It was about what my daughter needed and even if I was working full-time out of the home still what she needed was mommy or daddy to have an available lap for her to curl up in and get her clementine, goji beeries and walnuts when she needed a snack. Deadlines, agendas, and clients can't hold a candle to her needs in that moment. So that is what I did today just as I have done in the past when I worked 40+ hours a week out of the house. It was warm and sweet and special and just what we all needed. I drank 3 cups of tea this morning, when else would I get to do that? We watched a Muppet Christmas movie (not A Christmas Carol) in the middle of the day and E and I were entertained by the big girls putting on dance shows to Christmas music blasting through the house. The big girls wrote their letters to Santa and made clay Christmas ornaments for our as of yet undecorated Christmas tree. We picked out our ridiculous list of cookies to be baked for the holidays and curled up with books (and some coffee and chocolate for me) for a nice quiet time. No, this wasn't the day I planned but it was the day that needed to be.

The only thing that is sad with this picture is that it took a little girl having a fever, cough and runny nose for me to take the time to do this. I need to plan these kind of days a little more often. Now, off to knit and watch White Christmas after eating our soup.

Wait, that's not the Eiffel Tower.

Not France, I know but I had to share anyway. None of the pictures from France feature the girls since they weren't there and the girls are cute, they should make you smile. They make me smile. They also make me want to pull my hair out, bang my head against the wall, run away and spank them all soundly and put them to bed. Wow, that was a tangent right there. Just for the record, sometimes the girls behave in a way that causes me to want to do these things, not that I do them. I don't "believe in" spanking (strange phrase for this I think) so no worries, that was just a reference to a nursery rhyme. As for banging my head against the wall, what are you looking at?

ANYWAY... we went and got our Christmas tree today. I have no Norman Rockwell type photos for you of us bundled up on a Christmas tree farm or out in the woods selecting our own, nature grown Christmas tree, not even close. The quality of these pictures pretty much stink but considering they were taken with my phone on a very sunny day and I made not even the feeblest attempt to make them interesting they aren't too terrible. Fine, maybe they are terrible. We're getting a Christmas tree, not going after artistic expression here. So the tree, we love live trees. Or at least we do for about 2 weeks while they are still soft and smell nice and aren't raining showers of needles every time someone sneezes near the thing let alone touches it. We were given a fairly decent artificial tree some years ago after the massive job loss experience and we stuck with that for a few years to save money. Until that tree died. Yes, the tree that never was alive died. I'm not sure why but suddenly the limbs had issues staying up and every year another set of limbs would look like we needed to feed them little blue pills in order to keep the ornaments on. After one particularly hazardous limb drop problem (there were a few ornament casualties involved) we decided that tree was done and the next year it was time for a real tree again. So excited. We went to a reputable nursery in town and picked out a lovely, over-priced, dying tree. I had my suspicions that they may have painted the trees but when we asked they said no, of course not. I mentioned it was a "reputable" nursery, right? Car dealerships are "reputable" too. Just keep that in mind. After picking out this over-priced, dying tree we wander around more and spot a huge, as in bigger than Jeremy, vat of green/blue paint with a sprayer hose attached and right next to it a whole slew of trees drying from their touch-ups. Why we still got that tree I'll never know. When we got it home we were able to clearly see the paint lines on the trunk from where our "never been painted, fresh pine" had indeed been painted. Ah, a reputable business. That tree was showering needles well before the 2 weeks mark, actually, I think it was showering needles before we got it home, we just missed that somehow. Chalk it up to having used an artificial tree for a few years, we'd lost our touch. So the next year we decided we'd head elsewhere, perhaps some place a little less "reputable" for a tree and saw a sign that IKEA had trees for $20. We got a great tree there, fresh, well shaped (minus a big hole in one side, but so what?), not falling apart and green all own it's own accord! Cool, huh? It was a good tree and held up well so we were hoping that IKEA would be doing the same deal again this year and guess what, they are! We got embarrassingly excited over this fact. They started selling yesterday, they were out of Douglas Firs almost today and I bet by Saturday they will be out of trees completely. Rushing to finish school work and chores, we had pumpkin soup for lunch and then headed out to pick out the tree. Which is a bit like opening a book randomly and pointing at a passage looking for inspiration, you never really know what you're going to get. The trees are all bundled up tight with their limbs strapped to their bodies in a "stick-em-up!" pose. There are a few things you look for: no obvious gaps (unless you're like me and think it could be fun to have an odd looking tree), what appears to be a nice taper to the top, a good height, a trunk small enough to fit in our tree stand, fresh needles (these trees are pretty darn fresh, they almost made me blush), and just no obvious "ugly." Oh yeah, and height. I tend to like them very tall. As in so tall Jeremy ends up cutting several inches off the bottom and the tree topper doesn't fit on top. That's ok though, I still haven't found a tree topper I love. This time I decided we wouldn't get a huge tree. In fact, I was thinking a small tree, maybe only 4 feet and not too wide. The girls loudly and passionately disagreed. Had to be at least as tall as Daddy. I consented, as long as it wasn't too big and so today, outside of the blue and yellow building next to I-10, we picked our tree. A picturesque setting to be sure, it really is a lovely blue. We picked a tree that was just a smidge taller than Jeremy and looked pretty decent in it's over-all shape. Oh yes, dear Christmas tree, you're about to be fulfilled in life in our modest living room for the next 4 weeks. When you can't really tell how a tree looks, picking one out goes pretty fast. Height? Check. Trunk? Check. Shape? Think so, uh, yeah, check. Good, let's go, we're having hot chocolate at home. The girls had fun and it was just the right amount of time. With all the talk of snow we're supposed to have in Houston (uh-huh, right.) we actually made the girls wear coats to go shopping for the tree. Big mistake, they complained about being hot. Oh well, at least the pictures look like it is chilly lending a slightly more Holiday feel to the experience in hindsight than shorts and sandals would. Maybe. The best part of picking out our tree? The girls pushing the cart with the tree on it and Helena and Evangeline along for the ride. They thought that was pretty cool.

Way too many words for what is supposed to be just sharing pictures of picking out our Christmas tree.Yes, the tree is taller than Jeremy.

The whole gang with THE tree.


Jeremy and O loading the tree onto the cart.

Tree transportation. H and E enjoyed the ride.

This one is just because he's nice to look at.