Forget NaBloPoMo

(This post was actually published on December 4, 2004, but I don't know how to correct the date. Oh well!)

As if I were a candidate for NaBloPoMo. I posted once in November. A good portion of this post was saved as a draft on November 17th. And, I don't think my life is even that interesting. I spend half my day in the bathroom helping my (semi-? partly? mostly?) toilet-trained boys (they generally can get themselves in but need varying degrees of help wrapping up), or asking them who needs to go. Can you post from a bathroom? How about having at least one boy who needs to check out the bathroom at every place we visit? And, if we're not in the bathroom, I'm traveling to various doctors for various issues.

By the way, if you're looking for anything remotely related to knitting, skip the next 8 paragraphs, please.

So here's how my week of November 12 began. I was basking in the joy of my completed Halloween socks (don't even ask for pictures, not a chance). They turned out really well, if I do say so myself, thanks to Caroline Schurch and that little tidbit from Lucy Neatby about making the sock length approximately 1/2 inch less than the length of your foot. I'm thinking: boys will be in school from 9-3 on Monday, Baby Girl will be in school from 9-11:15. I can take a few photographs then, no problem.

And then Monday rolls around, Boy M's cough is really not better (he'd been to the pulmonologist twice already and had a course of steroids), so Monday morning, I drive him the the pulmonologist, who's about 30 minutes away. He doesn't like the way Boy M sounds, so he sends us for x-rays. I fight with the insurance company over referrals to the pulmologist and radiologist (don't even ask about my problem, I used to represent insurance companies who were sued by policy holders, and yet, this problem cannot get sorted out despite the involvement of various representatives from my husband's employer, both doctors and the employer's insurance broker), and I'm totally stressing about what's wrong with Boy M. Which turns out to be nothing more than some asthma (what a relief our radiologist is our friend).

Tuesday, I got to take everyone to the pediatrician because I HAVE HAD IT with all this sickness (Boy M wass just along for the ride because he'd already been seen and was on antibiotics). Four children under four years old at the pediatrician is not my favorite way to go. Boy E had a sinus infection. Boy J was holding is own and was able to avoid antibiotics. Baby Girl was being felled by allergies, not illness, so she got antihistamine. I created a major chart to track all medications.

Wednesday actually began as a quiet day, because I was able to drop the boys at school and actually go to my gastro appointment, which is the only appointment I ever refuse to cancel, especially because I have had several flare-ups with my GI issues in the past month. Of course, the antibiotics for my upper respiratory infection did me no favor except to nearly cure me of the upper respiratory thing and make me otherwise so sick that my GI miracle drug no longer works. I rationalize taking care of myself by reminding myself that if I'm sick, I can't take care of the children. After school, I take the boys to my so-generous parents. After a few hours of quiet play, Boy M complains of pain in his right arm when I incidentally touch it gently. There are no marks, no swelling, no memorable incidents, no crying, so we let it go. Until after bath, when Boy M gets hysterical when we put his pajama top on and take it off again to examine the arm (the thing is practically skin-tight due to fire-safety regulations for children's sleepwear). Again, no marks or swelling. I call my should-be-sainted parents, who have whatever upper respiratory thing we all have, to come over and check out the boy, and we make a joint decision to skip an all-nighter in the ER in favor of a trip to the pediatrician in the morning. Forget about any thought of the discovery that my babysitter, the daughter of one of my husband's clients, regularly visits my bedroom when I am not home and the dawning realization that she has stolen a number of items, the most significant being the earrings I inherited from my grandmother. But back to Boy M.

The next morning, in response to his pain on palpation of the arm, the doctor forestalls further examination in favor of an x-ray. Of course, our friend (and anyone else we know there) is away, so we don't get the results until we return to the pediatrician. He tells us it's broken. What??!! When I broke my leg at 14, the pain kept me up all night. The kid doesn't even cry unless you touch a certain spot. I'm killing myself with guilt. I shook that arm to get the pajama top off and the arm was BROKEN! At this point, after spending about six hours between doctors, we get an orthopedics appointment for the next morning and head off to the drug store for a sling that will fit a three-year-old.

Now, understand, I live in the small town I grew up in. I have been getting prescriptions at this pharmacy all my life. I'm in at least two times a week for the children. I know them and they know me. So we go, and everyone is so kind and helpful, but they have to bring in the sling from somewhere else. Boy M is fried, uncomfortable to a certain degree, and finally throws a full-out tantrum, on the floor, kicking, screaming. I'm shot myself, exhausted and nearly overcome by guilt because I don't even know what happened to him and his arm is broken. Then this woman standing there looks at me and says, condescendingly, "I think he's tired." I didn't even have it in me to say something, I just gave her this 'are you effing kidding me?!' look, and bless the pharmacists, they gave her a dirty look and say that he's had a hard day. Sometimes, people really surprise me. Like the woman who saw me out with two boys and asked me if they were twins. When I replied that they were triplets and one was home, she gave me a dirty look and stalked off. Did she think I was being smart with her? I mean, I didn't even tell her about Baby Girl!

But back to Boy M's arm. Of course, I'm so wound up, I don't sleep well. We go to the orthopedist first thing, and guess what? The arm is NOT broken. In fact, it's FINE. He's not even favoring it! What looked like a fracture on the x-ray was a combination of Boy M's anatomy and the angle of the x-ray. The conclusion is that Boy M's elbow popped out and at some point, popped back in (perhaps during the fateful tantrum). Go figure.

Since then, everyone's been ok, except for a minor adult medical scare that occasioned a morning in the ER, gave everyone terrible anxiety, but apparently has turned out to be nothing. The kids are working through colds, and our big cold snap has triggered Boy M's asthma cough again, but I'm on him like a hawk.

And knitting. I am finding my projects unsatisfying. As much as I love my Woolgirl sock club, which is the best yarn club I've been in, I'm struggling with the project. The pattern calls for gauge on 2.50 mm needles. Unfortunately I need 2.00 mm (US 0) to get gauge. Apparently, I'm knitting more tightly then usual (is it any wonder?). On top of that, I had defective US 0's (nicks in the finish) and had to wait for the replacement set to arrive. I've knit maybe 7 rows of k1 p1 rib using the new needles and already one is starting to warp. I don't mind small needles, but I think I'd rather not knit with US 0's. And I always find the ribbing at the beginning of a sock to take too long. I think I'm just impatient and want to jump into the pattern stitch. But I'm giving it a go, sort of.

My Blue Sky Alpaca sweater? Well, I screwed up the ribbing and since I hadn't knit more than six rows, I ripped it out. Except when I tried to slide the yarn off my needles--my brand new needles from Knit Picks Harmony Options set, received as a gift--the needle came out of the join. Not the join separating from the cable, but the wood coming out of the metal that gets screwed into the cable; I saw the glue and everything. I stuffed the needle back into the join and haven't touched it since. I haven't even gotten to call Knit Picks, because it was a Sunday when it happened, and I put it aside.

I did pick up the "Clap" and enjoy it when I get going, but my hands are so dry, they spontaneously crack and bleed, and then catch the yarn. I'm not in the mood to bleed all over yarn, especially a silk and wool blend.

I have apparently lost my Summer Solstice socks. Tell me how a whole project bag disappears. Just tell me. And it's my first and much-loved Piddleloop bag. I'm sure it's around somewhere. Maybe my ex-babysitter took it when she took the earrings I inherited from my grandmother. Again, that's another story for another time; suffice it to say this was all going down while we were dealing with Boy M's asthma and arm injury, and now I don't have a babysitter. But back to knitting.

I decided to swatch my Lanas Puras Melosa yarn for the "Cabo Hoodie Sweater which I bought, I think, last spring. First, I actually had trouble winding the yarn with my swift and winder because the yarn was, well, sticky. Then, I didn't have the right needles, as if that's possible. I've been knitting for twelve years. I have tons of needles. But it's a top-down sweater, and I need 16-inch circulars to knit the neck/collar and then you join and knit in the round, and I don't have the two or three sizes I possibly need to get gauge. I just haven't been able to sit down and figure out what I need to order or raid from my mother's needle cache. Ridiculous!

What else? I realized that my mother and I were both delinquent in knitting winter hats for the children. So about two weeks ago, she gave me one of Jacey's monster hat kits (they were custom-made for my mom), told me not to bother with gauge and use whatever size needle to knit whatever hat size she told me. Suffice it to say, I've ripped it out three times for being too big, and don't have the heart to swatch just yet, even though the yarn is fun and fast to knit, and the felted monsters (or pirate-ish faces in our case) are totally awesome! (Yes, I'm a child of the '80's, and I slip sometimes).

I haven't been in the mood to start up again with my Rosie's Popover Mitts. Baby Girl's doll languishes too. It's clearly not going to be a holiday gift--maybe I'll finish it for her birthday in August? I never even cast on for the projects I bought to knit for holiday gifts, and Hanukkah is upon us. That's kind of pathetic, since I planned some of the gifts almost a year ago, and had all I needed to make the gifts purchased by June. In fact, I should be clearing off my dining room table for tomorrow night's holiday dinner. Which takes place just after we get back from NYC for Boy J's surgical consult for the hernia we thought we saw six weeks ago and have never seen since. And even the Hanukkah gifts I ordered may not arrive before the end of Hanukkah. And I have to pack for our first family trip before my nanny takes her 2-1/2 week vacation. Ugh. I think I need to go upstairs, go through my stash and find something to wind and swatch. You think?

Just in time for the Fall chill...

The Lobster Claws are done! Here are my usual bad photos:






Pattern: Mac & Me Lobster Claws
Yarn: Lobster Pot Cashmere in Salt Rose
Needles: 4.0 mm (short) and 4.25 mm (long) --you need two sets of needles (as the pattern is written) and that's how my US 6's converted
Buttons: Moving Mud

The mitts are fun to knit, although there were a zillion ends to weave in because you have to pick up stitches for each finger. The next time I make these, I would pick up two extra stitches at the base of each finger and then decrease on the next round in order to avoid holes that I stitched when weaving in ends.

Also, I spent a lot of time working and re-working the fingers. The pattern calls for the last three rows of each finger to be knit as follows: rnd 1: k1p1 to end; rnds 2 and 3: knit; rnd 4: bo.

Initially, I couldn't get the fingers to roll down to the k1p1 row like shown in the picture with the pattern, plus the k1p1 row made my knuckles look deformed. So, I knocked myself out with all sorts of variations which were not appealing, but the final judgment (thanks to the knitting committee) was to stick with the pattern and roll the ends down myself.

Oh, I also finished one Halloween sock and have cast on the second. (I know, Halloween's over, but I'll be ready for next year. And I have never made sock orphans, and am afraid to go down that path). I'll take bad pictures another time.

And here's the best news: I'm an aunt! My niece was born last night! Yay!

Fall...Waterfall....

Yes! I've finished the Waterfall Socks! Here they are in as much of their glory as I could capture while watching three overtired 3-1/2-year-olds play trains/fight over trains on the back deck in the late afternoon of this beautiful, mid-70's-degree day:





I think I'm going to start my Halloween sock kit from Woolgirl (see it here). Fat chance I'll finish it before Halloween, though.

I've had a major breakthrough in my sock knitting this weekend. My primary trouble (other than the pattern glitches that pop up periodically, or that 'failure to read the pattern closely' problem) is I can never get the foot length right on the first, or second, or often the third try. So I spend a lot of time ripping out and re-knitting the toe until it works. This happens despite my frequent trying-on of the sock and my foot measurements taken a zillion times during the course of knitting each first sock (of course, it's figured out by the time I get to the second sock). I believe I have found a cure for this problem.

At Stitches East, I bought a Lucy Neatby sock-knitting DVD from Shelridge Farm. I'd been having trouble with a sock I was knitting from her Cool Socks Warm Feet book, so I bought the video. I watched it this past weekend with Mom, who's tackling baby socks, and was half-listening to Lucy Neatby talk about foot measurements when she said to make the sock about a 1/2 inch shorter than the length of the foot. What?! That's my problem? Never even occurred to me. If it's mentioned in her book, I missed it (again, that "not reading closely" problem). All the sock patterns I recall instruct the knitter to knit (generally) to 1-1/2 inches less than the desired length to start the toe. I didn't know the desired length was less than the length of my foot. Is that intuitive? Anyway, I know what to do for the next sock.

All in all, it's been a quiet day. The boys were in school from 9a-3p, the baby was in school from 9:15a-11:15a. I had a quick trip to the dentist, a 1/2-hour nap, took the baby to pick up the boys from school, played in the little playground and had a low key afternoon. Things picked up at bedtime. First, I got to call to Poison Control: while I was brushing Baby Girl's teeth, Boy J climbed on the toilet behind me, grabbed the (fluoride-free) toddler toothpaste, and began sucking on/licking the tube (which was nearly empty, but still). The stuff is safe to swallow, but I wanted to be sure. He's ok; Poison Control said it may make him nauseous (which is probably not a bad thing). And then, after I put them to bed and started cooking dinner, the boys all began screaming that I had to come up because their pajamas "came off." Came off? Like a Harry Potter spell: a swish and a flick and...no pj's? Well, after helping them put the pj's on and showing them the "baby" pajamas they'll wear the next time they strip (goodness knows if they'll fit--they're last year's one piece, zipper pj's that I used to put on backwards so they couldn't unzip them), they seemed suitably chastened and went right to sleep. Of course, that meant no dinner until 9p for me, so now I"m going to finish up, download a few podcasts, and go upstairs and knit. Maybe cast on something new? Oh, didn't I do that last week?

Stitches Photo Op

Remember how I mentioned that if you saw four women dressed alike with the same bags, you saw us? Well, we were spotted by the women at Modern Yarn wearing their t-shirts (for the second year in a row, and we did not even discuss our outfits in advance), and they snapped a picture. If you're interested in checking out our family of knitters, click here and scroll down to the second photo. I'm on the left and Mom is second from right; the other two women are my sisters (Stephanie on the far right, and Elizabeth second from left between Mom and me). Do we look like we're having as good a time as we were?

Here's the tally

I've been meaning to post, but things got kind of crazy. The stats for the time period beginning Sunday, October 14, 12:30 p.m. to Tuesday, October 16, 12:30 a.m. (2.5 days) are as follows:


Number of spouses/parents (father) away on business: 1

Fevers (children): 3

Visits to pediatrician (in 24 hours): 3

Number of children who visited pediatrician (in 24 hours): 4

Number of children who made repeat visits to pediatrician in 24 hours: 1

Number of calls to on-call pediatrician (in 24 hours): 1

Infections/possible strep requiring antibiotics (children): 2

Child fingers shut in screen door requiring pediatrician visit: 1

Likely hernia (child): 1

Gas leak: 1

Number of children woken up at 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday night and evacuated from house due to gas leak: 4

Number of children who thought waking up at 10:30 p.m. and sitting in car with Mom, Grandma & Grandpa for 45 minutes was a good adventure: 4

Number of children who did not want to go back into house and bed at 11:30 p.m.: 4

Number of children who wanted to go to Grandma's at 11:30 p.m.: 1

Number of children who wanted to go for a ride "somewhere" at 11:30 p.m.: 1

Number of children who needed entire pre-bed catalog of books re-read in exact order and then screamed for 20 minutes after being put to bed: 1

Number of children who were awake at midnight: 4

Number of parents (me) up past 1 a.m. sniffing for gas: 1

Number of finished objects: 2 (!)

Number of new projects cast on: 2

In fairness, the gas leak was late Tuesday evening (actually ongoing from the afternoon and we thought the faint odor was, as per repairman, due to his running of the gas during installation of a new part in the oven, and he said he checked for leaks and found none), and I finished the Morehouse Huckleberry Sweater and the SeeJayneKnitYarns Frankenstein Hat before then. Of course, no pictures yet: the sweater is waiting its turn on Mom's blocking board, and I have to weave in hat ends.

The Lobster Claws are still in progress. Something's funky with the length of the fingers, and I get frustrated and put it aside. I'd like to finish them in the next week.

About those projects cast on:

(1) a doll from Toys to Knit by Tracy Chapman. After I bought the book at Stitches, my mom said she had read reviews that warned of errors in the patterns in the book. The patterns don't even have a gauge (!) and give the amount of yarn needed in weight, but I don't really care: it's a doll, I can fudge it. So I'm knitting it in pretty pink Koigu and bought golden brown yarn for the hair. We'll see how it goes, I'm totally not concerned and it's mindless knitting. I've already knit the front and back of the head and am now knitting the legs.

(2) Blue Sky Alpacas' Cropped Cardigan, which I'm knitting in a gorgeous purple Misti Alpaca yarn which I bought at Stitches from Rosie's Yarn Cellar. (We LOVE Rosie's!) I had trouble getting gauge, but I think I just had to figure out how to work with the yarn. It's soooo soft!

Oh, and the kids...they're apparently feeling better: antibiotics kicking in, finger is fine, surgical consults scheduled, but no other complaints (from them). However, they're running me ragged: whoever coined "the terrible twos" clearly hadn't hit the threes yet. Oh my!

And my mother's trying to talk me into going to Rhinebeck. Ack!

Stitches East, Here We Come! And There We Go!

I'm just back from a whirlwind trip to Baltimore for Stitches East. This year, the whole family (I mean the knitters, not the children) made it. If you were there on Friday and saw four women in knitting t-shirts and North Face fleece jackets carrying the same pocketbook, you saw us--Mom, my two sisters and me!

There was definitely good shopping--I'm too embarrassed to post pictures of all that I bought. Suffice it to say, we filled up the car (as usual) and had a great time. I bought yarn to make sweaters (!) for me. And sock yarn, of course. And sucked my two sisters into buying sock yarn and starting socks (that's you, E!) or a Chevron Scarf (I can't imagine SLM will go for socks, but she did ask about the Socks That Rock Club). I mean, who can resist Socks That Rock or Lisa Souza for that matter.

One of the neatest things was meeting people who I've read about, and/or lurked on their blogs/shops (Lisa Souza) and/or listened to their podcasts (Wendy). Everyone was so lovely. Lisa Souza was warm and gracious, and gave E good advice on where to start with socks (i.e., don't start with the patterned ones). I had a lot of laughs with Wendy (you stayed at the Norman Bates Hotel at Rhinebeck last year? We stayed at the Shining on our girls trip to France!) I found the Interlacements booth--I have been eyeing the sock yarn for the past year at various sites--and met Judy who dyes the yarn and who was just lovely and friendly. Of course, I bought gorgeous, vibrant yarns. (Maybe I'll have to post yarn bit by bit).

I have lots of good projects to start, but way too many on the needles, so I told myself I had to finish one before casting on something new. So today, I broke out the Morehouse Farm Huckleberry sweater which needs a second sleeve and I'll definitely finish it today.

I brought the Lobster Claws fingerless mitts with me to finish on the trip. After consulting with my knitting committee, I'm going to work the k1p1 row that makes me look like I have bulging knuckles and then roll down the bound-off edge and stitch it down so it looks rolled. I just got so fed up Thursday night doing different variations that I didn't have the patience to come back to it. Maybe tonight after finishing the Huckleberry sweater.

The only down part was that I had a flare-up of my GI issues on Saturday; hopefully, it's just a blip. And getting lost on the way out of Philadelphia and hitting more traffic on the way home, but that 's for another post. Oh, and at lunchtime today, two boys started running low-grade fevers. Well, if they're too ill to go out, that means more knitting time for me, right? (I am ever hopeful).

Taking the plunge

I think I mentioned I signed up for the Fingerless Mitts for Fall knitalong. Of course, I hadn't picked up either pair of unfinished mitts from last year until last night. I had wanted to finish my Woolgirl Waterfall sock before taking on (or reviving) another project.

Well, last night, I "finished" my first Woolgirl Waterfall sock. By "finished" I mean finished the toe but for the grafting, tried it on, found it to be 2-4 rows too long, and promptly ripped out the toe. At that point, being after 10 p.m., I wasn't really in the mood for knitting, trying on and reknitting the toe the usual 3 or so times it takes me to get it right (despite having my foot measurements and measuring the sock for accuracy), so I decided to pick up the Mac & Me Lobster Claws fingerless gloves. In short, as I discussed here, I knit the left mitt wrong and have to rip it all out. I almost have the nerve to do it, now that I've started the right (as in "right hand" and "correct") mitt. It's a fast knit, so I'm not so nerved up about it. Here are some photos.

First, the left and wrong mitt (the pattern says to knit the first six rows and then join to knit in the round, while I knit it all in the round, which makes it difficult to knit the ruffle, which is also knit flat):




Next, the right and right mitt (notice the split at the base of the mitt, which is where the ruffle and button closure will be):



That's another one of my yummy project bags from Piddleloop.

Oh, and for added fun, the pattern calls for knitting the hand on US 4 (4.0 mm) long dpns and the fingers on the same size short dpns (while keeping the hand on the long dpns). It actually is fun except when one discovers at 11 p.m. that one's long dpns are US 4 (4.25 mm) and the short dpns are US 4 (4.0 mm), even though I apparently never noticed that when I knit the first mitt. And after swatching, I get gauge on the 4.25 mm and am a little short on the 4.0 mm. So I decided I'll just knit the fingers a little looser. But from now on, I'm definitely going by metric measurements for needles (I'm already sensitive to the issue with socks, so it's not a big deal).

By the way, the Lobster Pot cashmere is a dream to knit with!

And on a completely different topic, the boys have given up their nap, Boy M runs hot in temper, temperament and temperature (the boy was beet red and sweaty in our unseasonable heat, never mind the angry and demanding attitude), and all three are deciding to test their independence and explore oppositional behavior. You know, things like Boy M angrily shouting "Mom!" each time he wants my attention and stamping his foot to punctuate it; Boy E biting his brothers if he does not like what's going on; and Boy J crying when his brothers get disciplined for something like biting or kicking, or willful disobedience, and while doing so, trying to convince me that the egregious behavior did not occur (although when offered the option to stay home with Boy M who could not run an errand with us as the consequence of naughtiness, he quickly stopped crying and arguing--a lawyer in the making, that one, guess it's in the blood). I'm exhausted, but relieved I can escape into my knitting!