Sweet Fern Mitt Fate

So I'm not sure what to do with these Sweet Fern Mitts I'm working on.



I'm not a knitting perfectionist. Life is too short and there are too many things I want to knit to worry about minor mistakes no one but myself is going to notice.

Then there are mistakes that are more noticeable. For instance, on that first mitt I wasn't very careful about counting what round I was on and several of the lower cables are probably 5 round repeats rather than 4. I was willing to let that go. But now I can't figure out how I came up with so few cables on the top part (once I started the thumb gusset) and it is going to be noticeable that the left mitt has more cables than the right mitt. I could just re-do the top of the right mitt. I could frog them both.

The cables are actually the wrong way too. I have a first edition of the book and there is a bunch or errata on this pattern. I found something I knew couldn't be right and looked it up, only to find that the chart has the cables crossed the wrong way. I kind of thought "who cares" because I liked the way it looked anyway, but now with the other mistakes I'm about to rip it all out.

I like the yarn with this pattern, I have sunk a bit of time into these, but honestly I'm not sure how much use I'm going to get out of these fingerless mitts. I have a couple pairs of Fetchings and another pair of fingerless mitts, they are good for fall and early spring, but I am thinking I might just convert these into mittens with the cables going to right way. I'm just not sure I'm ready to actually rip yet. I guess I'll just work on the second sock of the pair for my mom this weekend.

Interweave Knits Fall 2010

I got my new issue of Interweave in the mail yesterday.  I did a quick browse of it while E was playing on the floor, but I have to be careful else he tries to grab magazines and eat them.  Actually substitute and noun for "magazines" and you probably have an accurate sentence.  Such is life with an 8-month old.

My overall impression was good.  I saw a lot more that I liked this time than I have for a long time.  I'm sure my renewed love of knitting helps, and of course any Fall publication always has the best patterns in my opinion.  O actually saw sweaters I wanted to knit!  I haven't wanted to knit sweaters for a very long time.  I probably won't actually knit them because really, when do I have time for a project of that scale? Also, I should probably finish Mark's poor languishing sweater before starting any other sweaters.

I did see some hat patterns I liked and probably will knit.  Mark got me a gift certificate to Wool & Company for my birthday and I still need to use it.  It isn't quite the same ordering on-line as it is going to the store, but he knew I missed it and I thought it was a very sweet present.

A few weeks ago I posted a link to an article that was linked on another site I read. I probably should have given some commentary on it, but I was so disgusted by the article I couldn't stand to. Honestly I was more disgusted as a feminist than as a breastfeeding mother. The primary thing that angered me was the author's insistence that a woman's body is primarily for her husband's sexual gratification. Our bodies are not single use, single purpose. I'm not degrading my breasts by using them to feed my baby. I can use my body to nourish my children and to love my husband. He witnessed the birth of our son and hasn't had any "problems." Just sayin'

This leads me down another path, one that I've been wanting to go down for awhile but I'm not entirely sure how.

So, breastfeeding. My son was exclusively breastfed (in that he had only breastmilk, he did have EBM from bottles) for the first 5 1/2 months. I am nursing now. I intend to nurse until he is a year old, and then we'll see what happens from there.

I have such mixed feelings about it though.

On one hand, I am very supportive of it. I do think there are a TON of benefits for both baby and mother. I've enjoyed the closeness I feel to E and the way I've been able to nourish and comfort him through it. If anyone I know said they intended to breastfeed I would be very encouraging of it.

On the other hand, I have a big complaint. I think the way women who don't breastfeed or even those who do but wean early or whatever are treated can be downright shitty. There is a certain attitude among some pro-breastfeeding women/groups that if you have any problems it is because UR DOING IT RONG!

As someone who wanted very very badly to have a successful nursing relationship with my baby I have to say that when I encounter that attitude it really hurts. Yeah this is about me and my expectations and the fact that sometimes I get these really lofty ideas and try to strive for perfection and when I don't meet those goals I feel a lot of disappointment and beat myself up about. There is that, I admit it. I'm not sure I'm that unique in that though, and this sort of thing can't have happened only to me.

It is the tone some books and website are written in. As great a resource as Kellymom.com is, every time a well-meaning person directed me to the page about slow weight gain that says it is usually due to poor breastfeeding management I wanted to cry and scream and throw things. I had been through that list twenty times and I was doing everything I was supposed to be doing.

It is reading forums where someone pipes in about how formula is completely junk or practically poison and ewww how could you ever give that to your baby? Well I'll tell you. You will give that to your baby when for the last 2 months his weight gain has averaged about 1.5-2 oz./week instead of the 4 oz./week it is supposed to and you've tried everything short of standing on your head (although I tried something similar once when I had a plugged duct) to increase your supply and it isn't making a difference. (Seriously, I will detail the whole story on this at some point.)

I guess I needed to get that out. As much as I still stand by my choice the attitudes of some people are seriously pissing me off. I imagine it is the same as other women feel about having a c-section. That whole thing that "well, ok, some women have problems, but it is rare" disclaimer, then disparage women who don't do what you think they should do and never mention those exceptions again. (Which, for the record since I had a natural birth at home I feel self-conscious about this and will say I think whatever birth choice a woman makes for herself and her situation is fine. I just hate to see women not being given options and pushed into something they don't want for silly reasons and I feel like I hear that a lot. But it makes me sad that the women were pushed around, I don't think there is anything wrong with them as mothers or as people. If an informed choice is made that is great. But if we are going to talk about birth that is a topic for another day.)

As I have spent the last 45 minutes basically trying to get my son to go to sleep and stay asleep, my mind has wandered and I've been thinking about this blog.

To keep it or let it go? To post about just knitting or more?

Awhile back I said I didn't intend to turn this into a "mommy blog." I still don't, yet it seems that is what I have to write about most of the time. I guess it comes down to the old saying that to write well you have to write what you know. Right now a lot of what is on my mind tends to be baby related.

I think my passion for knitting is returning, and I am optimistic that I will have a pretty scarf to share soon. There just isn't much to write about there though. "I'm knitting a scarf from alpaca I bought at the Fiber Show. It is soft, it is pretty. I like knitting. " See what I mean?

What I really want to do is just write and not worry about what category it fits into. With that said...

This is not a knitting blog.

This is not a mommy blog.

This is not a cooking blog.

This is just my blog and I'm going to write whatever I feel like writing about. So there.

For the last month or so I was filling my writing needs in other places. I had to get my mind somewhere else when I was pumping at work besides just worrying about how I never get as much as I think I should or feeling sad about certain things. Since the dates this June and July are the same days of the week as they were in 2004 when Mark and I started dating I decided that I would take my reminiscing a write our story. I think I am done with that now so lets see what I have to put out here now.

What is making my head explode today

I have never read such utter bullshit in my life. That is saying a lot, because I've read some threads in Remnants and BID

Today's Random Thoughts

I really don't care if LeBron James stays in Cleveland or not, but I can't wait until he just makes his decision because I am sick to death about seeing articles in the paper about it and receiving phone calls inviting us to "Akron loves LeBron" rallies. I have never cared about the Cavaliers and I am not going to start.

July is really here isn't it? We have are getting a string of days with highs in the 90's. We didn't really get heat like this last year, which was good being that I was pregnant and already hot all the time. It is already 73 degrees out at 8;45 a.m. I think if I want to take a walk today we better take it soon.

I'm really excited about my menu today. With inlaws visiting yesterday I didn't do any cooking since they always want to go out. We are having burgers for lunch and I'm trying my hand at some pulled pork for supper. Plus, it is time to break out the ice cream maker. I think mint chocolate chip might be the flavor of the day.

Just sayin'

So I don't really read the main boards on Ravelry unless I'm rubbernecking, but there are enough remnants threads that end up being rubbernecked that I guess I read my share.

Anyway, there is one mod in particular that is a little heavy-handed I think. She also always seems so annoyed with everything and so jaded I wonder if maybe she should just let someone else take over some of the moderating.

This probably seems like an think to vent about, but it keeps annoying me and obviously it isn't really proper to complain about it on Ravelry.

For the record I've never been moderated by her, I don't really post in the Big 6 most of the time.

Weekend Yarn Shopping

Last weekend's fiber show must have reawakened my desire for yarn or something.

Actually it was just the first time in awhile I've made it to a yarn store. There really aren't any around here, so I have to wait until we are visiting my parents or Mark's parents, and usually we are visiting my parents on a day or at a time the yarn store downtown is closed, or if it is open, it isn't convenient to stop in. That and why should I have been buying yarn when I have plenty and haven't had time to knit.


My purchases this weekend are for specific gifts. I have had a request for a foliage out of Malabrigo. Yesterday we went on a long drive in a desperate attempt to get E to take a nap. It sort of worked. Anyway, while we were up in the area and not otherwise obliged to be doing anything specific, I suggested we stop at Calla Lily Yarn to see if they carried it. They don't, but I found a very similar worsted weight Merino that will be perfect. This is jil eaton Minnow Merino in Aqua Marine. It is 77 yds a skein so I think I will use most of it to knit an adult Foliage. I think the recipient will like the color too. The sock yarn caught my eye, I really liked the long variation in it, sort of like Trekking but different, and this is really vibrant blue in person. That is Regia Hand-dye Effect. The socks are destined for the same person the hat is. Can you tell what her favorite color is? I don't think she reads this blog.

Baby-Led Weaning vs Purees or What do I feed my baby??

When I first started thinking about all this baby stuff a couple years ago I read Super Baby Foods about how to make all your own baby food and what food could be eaten by babies when etc.
At the time I remember thinking the author was a little out there on some thing, I didn't agree with everything she wrote. I thought it was a great resource for craft ideas, party ideas, and a mishmash or other things. I did like the information about when it was age appropriate to introduce certain vegetables. I liked the instructions on how to prepare the baby food.

Then I started to hear about baby-led weaning. If you aren't familiar with it, basically here it is: you wait until your baby is at least six months old before starting solids, then you don't have to follow all those "rules" about what to introduce when and can offer your baby most healthy (so no added salt and sugar) things you are eating, there is no spoon feeding or purees, just finger food. Your baby probably won't be eating much to start out with, but when he or she is ready they will start eating a lot more instead of just mouthing the food.

So those were the two books I had at kind of opposite ends of the spectrum. The one thing they had in common was not using commercial baby food.

I was really set on having E be exclusively breast fed for the first 6 months. That is what all the current literature and studies suggest is best. We made it over 5 months, but unfortunately, with E's slow weight gain (that is probably several more posts to explain everything) I was going to have to supplement before we reached 6 months. One night I made chicken paprikas and E was sitting in my lap and reached for my plate (pretty typical for him) but his hand landed in the paprikas sauce. He tasted it and immediately went back for more. Twice. At that point Mark and I decided we would try some solid foods to see what he would do. I had an avocado and knew that was a great first food and good for him. I tried giving him some chunks of it but it was probably too ripe for that and certainly too slippery. So I mashed it up and tried giving it to him on a spoon. It was a big hit. The next week I tried banana. He seemed to like that, but I will say he prefers to have some of my banana (he "bites" it as I hold it, really I think he is sucking on it as much as anything) rather than eating it mashed on a spoon.

Then I wasn't sure exactly what to do. I liked the concept of baby-led weaning, but E really seemed to want more food than he was getting that way. Mark really enjoyed getting to feed E, and I had baby food from my sister-in-law and my mother-in-law and father-in-law.

So what am I doing? I'm using commercial baby food. For right now anyway. I have it, I figure I might as well use it and get an idea what he is going to like before I go buy things to make my own and freeze it. Although I'm not too sure how much of that I'm going to do either.

I guess I'm kind of trying to combine these concepts.

I'm not doing cereals. Both books convinced me that regular boxed rice cereal is pretty much pointless. I got a box of organic brown rice cereal at one of my baby showers. I finally decided to try that last night. That was the first time I ever heard E retch. He CLEARLY didn't like it. A couple weeks ago I made some oatmeal and offered it to him. No retching with that but he didn't like it and was not interested. I've figured out that for him the more flavor the better. I tried adding fruit to it. He still wasn't interested. I should note that I didn't add breast milk or formula to the rice cereal, I don't feel like wasting it. I used water. Then I tried adding bananas. It was still a no-go.

E likes his fruits and veggies. He was lukewarm about the apple sauce I gave him. He likes peaches, green beans, sweet potatoes, squash, and carrots. I've given him purees of all of those now. Oh, and I gave him a banana mango mixture which he liked. I'm careful about how I give them to him. I never shove the spoon in his mouth. I either hold it up to his mouth and he reaches out and eats from it or more often, I get the spoon close enough to him and he grabs it and gets it to his mouth. Of course we go through about 4 spoons a meal because sometimes I can't get it back before he drops it, but I figure this way he is still in control of what he is eating (a big benefit of doing baby-led weaning) and he is learning to use a spoon, which he is going to need to learn to do eventually anyway. The thing I do like about purees and Mark especially likes is that we don't have to worry so much about choking.

The choking risk is Mark's biggest hang up with baby-led weaning. The book explains why it isn't as big of a risk as you might think and of course you never leave a baby alone with food, but even though I've read that I still get a little nervous about it from time to time. While I will feed E purees, I don't shy away from giving him finger food either.

He has had broccoli and seemed to like it. He LOVES sweet pepper sticks dipped in hummus. I gave him a strip of grilled pork to taste one night. He liked it but Mark kind of flipped out on me about that. I boiled some pasta shapes and have given them to him to play with the last few days. He sucks on them some but mostly he plays with them and they end up on the floor. He likes bread too. I don't like excess bread on my hamburgers and if I take it off and leave it on the plate he is all about getting that to his mouth.

The food thing is a big adventure. I see no reason why I can't give my baby purees on a spoon as long as I'm not forcing them on him and I see no reason why I can't let him experiment with real food either. I've lightened up about the age guidelines somewhat. I liked the Baby-led Weaning book for that, I learned that most guidelines in place are based upon starting solids at 3 months. I probably won't buy any more purees. I might make some, but by the time I need to I think E might just be old enough that he starts to actually eat more of the real food I put in front of him.

I think my main goal in all of this is to help E develop a healthy attitude toward food and a love of whole foods as well. Sure, I'm expecting to go through some macaroni & cheese benders with him when he is a toddler, but I'd like to give him the best start possible

Excuse me while I explain myself a little

It is certainly not my intention to turn this into a "mommy" blog. My day to day life is really probably not that interesting and I have other things (like knitting) I would still like to blog about.
I miss writing though, and I think I need to get back into writing blog entries to fill that void in my life. I do want to talk about some of my parenting decisions, maybe just to organize my own thoughts, maybe just to put it out there. If I have any readers left feel free to skip such posts, especially if babies aren't your thing. If you do have kids, please don't take anything I write as a criticism of your parenting method if it differs from mine. Like I said, I'm just trying to find my way and I'm learning and adjusting and sometimes adjusting expectations and I think writing may be one of the best ways for me to organize these thoughts.

Baby Carriers

Since I've had E I have spent way too much time reading the message boards on Ravelry. Specifically the message boards for baby/parenting sorts of things that I do (like breastfeeding, cloth diapering, homebirth/natural childbirth, AP parenting, and the other lovely November '09 mamas). What can I say, I sit around nursing a lot or with a sleeping baby in my arms and I need something to read.

Well the other day I read about this blog entry and feel inspired to do my own review of sorts.

1. My first baby carrier purchase was a Hotsling. Actually, I believe this was my first baby item purchased while pregnant. It was on clearance and I knew I wanted a sling, and the website made it look so easy. I love the fabric of the sling I chose. Unfortunately, I haven't really been able to make this sling work for us. I'm not completely giving up on it as I've read some people have liked it best for toddlers, so maybe it will be more useful down the road. My issues with it are mainly that I don't feel like it really fits me right even though I have the size that their chart says I should be using and I can never really get E in it where I feel completely comfortable with his position. I have used it really short-term a few times, so it has had some use.
   
2. A few months later I realized after more reading message boards and such that I didn't just want a sling, what I actually needed was a ring sling. This way the sling could be worn by multiple people and didn't need to be a specific size and I could adjust it better. So I bought a cotton/linen blend that was on clearance from Taylor Made Slings. I keep trying to make this sling work. I have yet to get it right. I tried first when E was only a few weeks old. I just couldn't figure out how to get the sling on right and to stay in position long enough for me to safely get my newborn in it. It made me nervous since I didn't have any experienced baby wearers around to assure me I had it right or to adjust something I had wrong. I put it away and moved on to the next carrier (discussion coming shortly). One of my friends (K) who has a daughter about E's age recently got a ring sling from Sleeping Baby Productions and she loves it. So I asked her to show me how she uses hers, figuring that seeing it in person might help me out. Well, it did help me out, now I realize why this sling isn't working for me. I think it is all in the shoulder. The way this particular ring sling is sewn by the ring doesn't really allow me to spread it out over my shoulder without the rings being way too far down my chest for my comfort or for E's. I tried putting E in it in a front carry and had to watch that he didn't hit his head on the rings. I knew that couldn't be right. I tried the hip carry that K likes but that wasn't really working out for us. As with the Hotsling, when I tried to put him in a cradle hold he had a lot of objections, and I didn't feel I had him in right so I stopped trying. I still really wish I could make a ring sling work for us, especially since so many women say they can nurse discreetly in them, but I'm just not sure that it is going to be for E and me.
   
3. This wasn't a purchase, it was more of gifted garage sale item that hadn't sold. It is a NoJo padded ring sling. Honestly, I've never really tried it because it seems so bulky and hard to adjust that it just didn't appeal to me. I guess this is a really unfair review considering I haven't used it, but since the other styles of slings haven't worked out for me I don't think I would have fared much better with this one.
4. This is another garage sale item my mom brought to me, I don't remember if it was given to her as the NoJo sling was or if she actually bought it. This one is a Snuggli. I really wasn't into it and was set on the slings, so I told Mark that it could be his carrier and he was all right with that. He used it with E a few times and liked it and E did pretty good with it. I'm not very comfortable with him using it because of how it holds E. Rather than creating a seat for him it basically holds him by his crotch which isn't good for him. Of course Mark never really wears E for long periods of time, so I guess it isn't terrible. Mark liked it better than anything else for him because he could put E in a front-facing carry which we found out he prefers.
5. This purchase came about a month after E was born once I realized that the slings were just not going to work for us, at least at that stage. At the suggestion of one of some of the ladies on Ravelry, I went for a Moby wrap. This was the first carrier I found that actually worked for us and I felt comfortable with! First I tried the cradle carry. That didn't work, but by then I realized that E just didn't like to be carried that way. Next I tried the hug hold which is an upright carry where E faced me. That worked for a few weeks and E liked it. Then we got to the point where he was just much happier being able to see everything. So I put him in a front facing carry and that was perfect! I could go to the grocery store again! When the weather got a little warmer I could take him for walk, all I had to do was wrap my sweater around both of us. He was happy he could see and I was happy I finally was able to "wear" him. Of course as most Moby users will tell you, even though it theoretically can be used into the toddler years, once a baby gets to a certain point, he or she is just too heavy for the stretchy fabric. I don't think I really reached that point with it, but I did get to the point where it was just too warm for me. It is a lot of fabric to have wrapped around you and especially if you are going for a walk, it gets too be a bit much having a warm baby (E is a furnace!) that close to you while exercising. Also, he was getting a bit big for the carry I was using and if I were to put him in it at this point I would need to figure something else out. If he isn't too heavy I may play around with it more this fall. It was totally worth it from December through April for me though.
6. We had an unusually warm spring, so by April I was definitely thinking I was going to want something with a little less fabric for spring. I debated between the Ergo and Beco, I looked at the Baby Hawk and the Mei Tai Baby Carrier. I was pretty certain I wanted something in a Mei Tai style. I loved the pretty fabric options many of them had. I liked the look of ties better than buckles, although I knew if Mark was going to wear it I would have to go for buckles, but all the options were just so darn expensive and I didn't feel I could justify spending at least $80 for a carrier I wasn't sure I was going to like let alone whether E would like. At that point the only way I had been successful carrying him was front forward facing. He had quit liking to be carried facing me, and you can't really do a front carry with a Mei Tai or a soft structured carrier. I decided to take a look on Etsy and see if anyone made them (of course) and I could find something I liked for a more reasonable price. I found what I was looking for. I bought a Cuddle Me Mine Mei Tai from The Kitchen Sink Boutique. I loved the fabric in the one she had posted for sale. What I didn't realize at the time was that I wasn't buying that particular carrier (I didn't read well enough or misunderstood) and that she was in the middle of moving so she wasn't going to be able to fulfill the order for a few weeks. She wrote to me about these things and gave me the option of continuing or backing out of the sale. I chose to continue and wait it out and I'm glad I did. I got to choose the base (strap) color and let her know what type of fabric I was wanting for the back. I gave her an idea and she picked out a great fabric for me. When I got the carrier to my surprise E loved it even though he wasn't facing forward. It had a little bit of a learning curve to putting E on and tying it, but really so did the Moby. Anyway, as much as I liked it, I think it is my mom who has used it the most. She puts E in it in the afternoons when she watches him while I'm at work and takes a walk with him and he will fall asleep for her in it. He never does this for me by the way. What I like about it is that I can put it in the diaper bag and take along in case I want or need it better than I could any of the other carriers. As much as I like the Mei Tai though, it isn't perfect. Mark wouldn't wear it. If I put it on out in public I have to try to find somewhere that it wasn't a disaster if the straps drag on the ground while I initially tie it on. Sometimes I feel like is more secure in there than other times, and it is kind of hard to adjust once I have him in it without redoing the whole thing. Along with that if the straps get bunched up instead of laying flat they kind of cut into my shoulders.
   
7. Having determined that we liked the Mei Tei style but could use something a little more easily adjustable and easier to put on and take off quickly I returned to looking at the Ergo and Beco carriers. Then I got a bonus at work. I decided that I could use some of that to go ahead and get one of the fancy expensive soft structured carriers. Then Cotton Baby Bottoms had an Earth Day sale and almost everything was 10% off. Actually Ergo was one of the exceptions, but by that point I had already determined I was going to get the Beco. Since I wanted Mark to use this one I asked for his input on the pattern. I also wanted a pattern that wasn't overly boyish but wasn't feminine either. We decided on the panthers. I liked some of Beco's new patterns a little bit better, but I figured that if I wanted pretty fabric on the back my Mei Tai fit that bill. I have to say that the panthers have really grown on me too, I love them, and E was enthralled with them when I first got the carrier. When I got it though, the one seem on the bottom was torn. Beco has a great warranty policy though and they sent me a replacement and a shipping label to return the defective one. It delayed me being able to try out the carrier for a few days, but once we did it has been a hit! I use this one the most now. It is more convenient for using at stores and I feel like I can be more sure he is secure in it. Mark has only tried it once and it was when E was in a fussy mood, so while I think it will work for him he hasn't been doing much baby wearing lately. I thought my mom would like this better than the Mei Tai but I think there are almost too many straps and in that sense the Mei Tai is simpler for her to use so she just uses that. The one time she did use the Beco she said she liked it. The only things I don't like about it are that the straps do hang and aren't nearly as pretty as they are on the Mei Tai and I wish the chest strap was easier to adjust. I love how easily the sides adjust to get him in and out easily and to make sure he is secure. I also like that it comes with a little hood I can snap on if it is raining or really sunny and I don't have a hat for him or if he were to ever fall asleep for me in it (haha). I also liked that it came with the infant insert. E is too big to need it, but for any future babies I would be able to use it earlier without having to buy it separately like I would if I got an Ergo.

So that wraps up my carrier collection. Of course I can't say definitively that I won't buy anymore ever, but I feel like I have a good variety of options for different seasons/stages/purposes. I may find I want something else as E gets to be a toddler, but what I have should actually work. If anything I think I would maybe try a different ring sling that would sit on my shoulder better. That, or if I had a summer baby I would definitely consider a wrap in solar veil.

Wrong # of Stitches

I'm completely frustrated with my current knitting.

I should be finished increasing on the stockinette portion of the Traveling Woman shawl I'm working on, but my stitch count is off. Looking at it I can't figure out where I went wrong, although I suspect I forgot a few yarn overs or added a yarn over on the purl side where I shouldn't. I guess the only thing to do is rip it, but I'm really annoyed because I was so happy at the progress I was making and now I have to frog a week's worth of knitting. I hope this doesn't change my perception of the yarn. Frogging will do that sometimes, but this is really nice yarn to work with so I think it will be all right. The yarn is Creatively Dyed Seawool I bought last year at Great Lakes.

Annual Great Lakes Fiber Show Wrap Up: Part 2

So what did I get this year?

First off, I have several skeins of pretty sock yarn waiting to be knit, and if I run out before next year (unlikely) I certainly know where I can attain some more.

Second, I decided that no matter how pretty and soft, I just wasn't willing to pay more than $20 for a skein of anything this year. The best I will be able to do is small shawls, so no major lace yardage for me. Also, no sweater quantities, I've already discussed that in my previous post.

This year I went for the pretty but scratchier stuff. The ones that are hand-dyed and/or hand-spun. The ones that you can still smell the lanolin in. I might have bought some alpaca too.

I wish I could tell you who I bought this yarn from, but the booth had no name and there are no tags. These 100 yard skeins were only $1.25 each. I really couldn't pass up getting a couple. They are kind of scratchy but I think I can find some good use for them.
This is pretty. The picture doesn't really due the subtle dye job justice, but I didn't get outside with my yarn and camera this weekend.
This is some really pretty blue-faced leicester. I'm thinking I may try to knit a soaker again, but I'm not going to feel bad if this doesn't end up as a diaper cover.
I don't know the name of this shop either (due more to lack of attention I think). I was interested in this first yarn because it was dyed with natural dye, in this case cochineal. See what pretty yarn mashed up bugs can make?
This is from the same booth. I don't think it is naturally dyed, but it is pretty and spun a little differently than any of the other yarn I bought.
Now this is some nice soft alpaca and I really liked the color.
More alpaca, this from Wooly Knob. I'm currently using a skein of their wool and really liking it so I wanted to support them again. This is fairly soft too.
These two skeins are bulky weight (fun! I like big needle knits now and then) and it is pretty local yarn. It is handspun hand-dyed wool from a farm a county east of where I live.
I think I did a better job of varying my color palette this year.

I know that I won't get all this knit up before the show next year, and a few skeins may stay in my stash awhile, but sometimes a quick knit out of yarn like this is just what I need. It is my comfort knitting and good for the soul.

Annual Great Lakes Fiber Show Wrap Up: Part 1

We have had a busy weekend here! Today we had E baptized and then had a big family picnic afterward at a nearby park. It was nearly 90 degrees and the change in routine, excitement, and heat really exhausted us. I'm not sure how much I'll get to, I got E to bed and have some time for myself right now so I wanted to write as much as I could.

Somewhere in the last few weeks I've been thinking about my knitting, or lack of knitting lately, and what I realistically can knit and what I want to knit.

I am really not a garment knitter. Sure, I've cranked out a few sweaters, I know I can do it, but I'm not sure I have a lot of interest in doing much of that right now. I don't really have the time or money to commit to sweaters and I don't get enough happiness out of the FO most of the time to want to put my resources to that.

As for baby things: Well, the bibs are definitely turning out to be worth it. Those are more mindless than dishcloths though so while they make good movie knitting (watching a movie? what is that? I haven't done that for ages) that isn't exactly a thing I really enjoy knitting all that much. The last baby sweater I finished for E was too small for him by the time I was done with it. The baby sweaters I knit before he was born fit OK, but not that great. It isn't that I won't knit anymore sweaters for him, but I'm not going to feel like a bad knitting mommy if I don't. Hats are worth it. I'll definitely need to make more for this fall and winter.

Then there are socks. I like wearing handknit socks. I have a few people in my life who really like receiving handknit socks. I don't like getting complicated with them though. I love all the beautiful sock patterns out there but while I may experiment with different construction methods, most of the time lace and cables and other stitch patterns are just too fiddly for me to bother with. When I knit socks the WIP ends up in my purse to be mindless road travel knitting or something I can pick up and knit a few rows here or there while waiting. I absolutely hate having to refer back to a pattern for socks. Every time I've tried to knit a sock from a pattern I had to follow it has ended up frogged. Anyway, all this to say that if I'm going to knit socks I want pretty yarn because I'm going to let the yarn do the work, not the stitch pattern.

So what do I really want to knit? I think it is mostly hats and mittens. I have a love affair with mittens and the mitten books to prove it. I've knit quite a few pairs, mostly plain, but I love a good stranded pattern, I just don't always have what it takes to fully commit to knitting a pair. Hats are definitely a fashion accessory for me in the winter and I love how varied the look can be depending on cables or lace or ribbing and the weight of yarn, the colors used, etc. Sure, you can do that with anything you knit, but I think hats are one of those things that you can really play with.

Recently I've discovered I really like knitting these smaller outerwear items out of more rustic wool. The Knitter's Book of Wool just fueled this desire. Where better to get handspun local yarns than a fiber show?

This was my fourth year at the Great Lakes Fiber Show.

My first year, 2006, I was just amazed that my hometown had one of these fiber shows (which I had only recently learned about since I started knitting seriously in the fall of 2005) and I was in the height of my I-like-it-so-I'm-going-to-buy-it yarn buying. I bought 2 huge skeins (500+ yards) of merino superwash wool from Maple Creek Farm and later made the Hourglass Sweater from it. (One of the sweaters I was actually happy with the outcome.) I bought some Noro that became a felted bag. I bought 5 skeins of this bargain black Egyptian cotton yarn. I think I though I would make a tank from it? I'm not sure, I found it really hard to use and almost linen like and it is still languishing in my stash. I'm not sure what else I bought that year, I think that was it judging by a quick look at my pictures from May 2006 on my computer.

In 2007 I returned, at that point I had a better idea of what I wanted. I was going for really nice yarn. Soft yarn with nice dye jobs and some organic cotton yarn I saw the previous year and regretted not buying. I bought 3 skeins of sock yarn that has became 4 pairs of socks, a large skein of bamboo/silk yarn from Briar Rose that became the Tuscany shaw, and the desired organic cotton yarn that eventually became a baby sweater that I'm hoping will fit E this fall.

In 2008 I missed the show because my husband's law school graduation from Northern Illinois was that weekend. I gave him a hard time of that, but of course that was more important. I guess.

Last year I went but I wasn't very focused. My first trimester had really knocked the knitting desire out of me. Then I was thinking "baby" with all my purchases, which is why everything is a shade of green or blue, except that one skein of undyed yarn. At that point I was pretty sure I was having a boy. If you scroll down only a couple blog posts you will see what I bought last year. Some of it has been knit, most of it has not. Actually one of those skeins has become a FO. The sportweight Knitting Notions yarn became the too-small baby sweater for Elijah. The green Wooly Knob yarn is about 3/4 the way to being a pair of fingerless mitts. The blue silky Creatively Dyed yarn has just begun its journey to become a small shawl. So I guess I've knit with half that yarn.

I have to admit I bought more yarn than ever before this year. I think, actually I'm almost certain, I spent less than I ever have before this year.

And now, nearly a year later...

I've been wanting to post for a long time. Every time I have two hands free I am doing something else though. Having a baby hasn't stopped me from reading things online, but it sure has limited the amount I can participate. Honestly, most typing gets directed to Ravelry forums these days about topics like breastfeeding and cloth diapering and chatting with mothers of other November babies about what is going on. Either that or commenting here and there on Facebook.

So last time I posted was right after the Great Lakes Fiber Show last May. It is almost that time of year again! In knitting, I am working on a pair of Sweet Fern Mitts from The Knitter's Book of Wool with the green Wooly Knob yarn I bought last year at the show. They are technically backward because I didn't read the errata until I wanted to check something that didn't seem right in the directions for the right thumb gusset. Then I saw the cables are mixed up so if you knit them like the chart in the book has them they are upside down. They are still cute though, so I'm not going to rip them out.

I get a little knitting done now and then. Since November I've managed to knit a vest that baby E wore once or twice and the other week I finally finished a sweater knit in 6 month size that is too small for him. That is my fault, partly for knitting too slow and partly for not knitting a gauge swatch. I have a feeling the sweater is a little smaller than it should be. I knit that from some sport weight Knitting Notions yarn I bought last year too.

I have to knit up at least some of the yarn I bought at the show last year if I am going to justify buying any more this year.

So yeah, if I haven't posted since May I haven't posted at all about my baby.

My pregnancy went pretty smoothly. I really loved being pregnant until about the last month. Then "the baby" as he was known then was laying in such a position that he was putting pressure on my sciatic nerve and it was pretty painful to walk much at all. Up until mid-October Mark and I were able to go walking almost every day and I loved that so much. I felt it really made a difference (and not in a good way) when I had to cut that back. I was also having a lot of Braxton-Hicks contractions which made work really interesting some days.

I actually worked up until the day before the birth. It was Friday so I only worked until noon that day. That evening around 7 p.m. I got some signs that I was going to be having a baby soon. I tried to get as much sleep as I could that night, and I did ok until about 5 a.m. and then I couldn't sleep through the contractions any more. I got up around 6 and went out to the livingroom and rocked back and forth on my big excercise ball. That thing was my best friend throughout pregnancy and labor. Then I realized that the contractions were coming regularly at around 3-4 minutes apart and were lasting awhile. I went to wake Mark up but he was getting up anyway. He timed them for awhile and then I sent him out to get a copy of the local paper. I wanted the newspaper from the day my baby was born and I was getting more certain that it was going to be that day. Then it all is kind of a blur. My midwife showed up around 9 a.m. and I was already a few centimeters dilated. I was fully dilated by mid-afternoon. (Oh yeah, I had a planned homebirth, I don't think mentioned that either) The pushing took awhile, but our son was born at 5:15 p.m. Saturday, November 14, 2009. We hadn't found out whether we were having a boy or girl ahead of time, although for most of the pregnancy I suspected the baby was a boy. Mark thought we were having a girl. The midwife also thought we were having a girl based on the heart-rate pattern. When handed me the baby she said something about "her" and I looked down and exclaimed that we didn't have a girl! I will refer to our son as "E" on this blog. We had thought about that name since pretty early on in the pregnancy, we had it as a potential name before we pinned down a girl's name. We were waiting to see if we felt it fit, and it did.

Now that someone is awake. I will return to this, maybe sooner than 11 months from now...

Great Lakes Fiber Show

I've been gone awhile and I hate to admit this, but the truth is I've hardly been knitting at all. For the last three months really I will have the occasional mindless knit, which is how I have one WIP sock and why the the last three completed projects I've made have been garter stitch baby bibs, but I've actually gone for days at a time without knitting a stitch.

This is most likely because I'm pregnant and I hear this is very common in the first trimester especially. See, I knew what I was doing when I started knitting baby clothes two years ago despite knowing we weren't ready to start a family then ;-)

I've just given up and unjoined the 2009 stash down and Hat of the Month groups on Ravelry. It isn't happening.

I really would like this to change soon. To try and spur that, despite the lack of knitting my existing stash in the last couple months, I went to the Great Lakes Fiber Show today and bought six skeins of yarn.
I had a really good time at the show today. I randomly met some knitters from the West Cleveland group (wearing Ravelry shirts is a good way to meet people!) and since I was at the show by myself they adopted me and I hung out with them for awhile.

I have even managed to enter this new stash (with pictures!) into Ravelry already. As best as I can anyhow, some of this yarn didn't come with labels and the receipts don't have any store info on and I don't remember the names of the booths.

Yes, it does snow in April.

Every spring the same thing happens. No, I'm not referring to my with sinus problems, although that happens too.

After 25+ springs in the Midwest (mostly Ohio, but a few in Illinois too) I continue to be baffled by the collective amnesia with regards to springtime snow.

EVERY YEAR it snows either in late March or the first half of April. Many years we have had white Easters. In fact, if it doesn't really snow at all in the second half of March you are practically guaranteed to have a heavy April snow. When I was in elementary school we even had a snowday once (with snow fit for making snowmen) in late April. There are pictures to prove this. Snow in April in Ohio is just not that unusual at all.

As you may guess, it is snowing right. You may also guess that about half the status messages on Facebook right now are expressing utter shock at this occurrence.

Frustration

I want to knit. I really do, yet I cannot come up with anything I actually want to work on. I have over twenty miles of yarn in my stash and NOTHING is satisfactory for me right now.

I actually kind of feel like crocheting an afghan, but currently I do not have enough of any appropriate yarn and while I do sort of feel like going out to and buying some Simply Soft, it is almost 9 p.m. here so I don't really have time.

This often happens when I try to start knitting project on Saturday nights, so I really have no one but myself to blame since I should expect this by now, but I tried all day to come up with something I wanted to work on to no avail.

I completely forgot that today is Flash Your Stash day. You might havethought that I also completely forgot that I had a blog. I didn't, I've just been busy and a little preoccupied.

Last month I spent a week in class and now have one of the licenses I need for my job. It sounds like I'll be going through that again next month for a securities license I need to get too.

My knitting has been kind of sad lately. I've managed a few projects here and there, mostly simple small things but mostly I don't have much desire to knit. When I thought about pulling out my stash to flash it I realized I have very little interest in that right now either.

This is kind of typical spring ambivalence from me. I think mostly I would rather be planting things in the ground this time of year. I'm trying to get our patio all set up too. Last week we bought a patio table and chair set and put it together. I'm really excited for it to be nice enough to enjoy a meal out there! I've only had small balconies so outdoor dining is going to be a new thing for us. Next step: buy a grill. By the time we do that maybe it will stay warm enough that I can feel all right about putting some flowers in the ground.

Isn't a little early for startitis?

According to the Yarn Harlot, spring is supposed to be the time when startitis runs rampant. (I can't tell you what book that essay is in off the top of my head.) Either I am a little ahead of schedule or there really is no seasonal aspect to it.

I haven't had much knitting time this month but I keep wanting to start new projects. It isn't that I don't want to work on things I have going, I just am suffering some delusion that I can keep 25 things on my needle and get them all done.

Like I said, the knitting time has decreased lately, but I'm still a happy person. I'm really enjoying living in a small town again. I park a block or so from my office so every day I get to walk down the main commercial street in town. I love looking in the shop windows (I walk by a bridal shop that changes the prom dress display every couple days) and being friendly to people going in and out of the post office. I love that I can look out a window in my office and see things happening outside. It really does make me happy.