A Few Sheep Shy of a Farm

After over a year of working on this blanket – on and off – the Prairie Blanket is finally finished! I just cast off the last few stitches and though I have a few ends to weave (8?) I consider it Done!

As you might have guessed from the time line, I didn’t originally start this blanket for our daughter.  It was started as a baby gift but it quickly became clear I wasn’t going to get through it in time; I knit them a sweater instead.  The blanket spent a good portion of last year on hold before I picked it up again with the idea that perhaps I’d make it really large (50+”) and give it to our son. . . . then we learned we were expecting again and since he’d just been given not 1 but 2 hand made blankets – one very large crochet square and one more than large enough for his twin sized bed . . . I decided that the new baby would need it far more than he does.   Eventually, I’ll knit him something for his bed but that will be down the road a bit when he isn’t outgrowing everything else quite so fast so I can get ahead!

I plan to weave in the end tomorrow after breakfast and then I’ll take a fo photo of it to post – perhaps even outside if the wind has let up at all. 

I have yarn for another blanket for her – a smaller, lighter, more delicate pink blanket that I can’t wait to work on (love the yarn!) but I think I may try to get myself to finish one of the two sweaters that are started before I cast on the other blanket.  We’ll see how it goes . . .

Praire Blanket, started January 6th, 2007, finished March 21st, 2008
Pattern: oAt Couture – Prairie Blanket
Yarn: Inspirations Yarn – Decaf – DK weight Superwash 100% wool, approx 3.5 – 8 oz hanks (almost 2000 yds)
Needles: Addi Turbo’s – size 6
Dimensions: 43″ square
Pattern Notes: I knit this 5″ larger than the suggested size so it would last longer.
Would I knit it again? Maybe, I like the pattern but this is perhaps the largest thing I’ve ever knit and it took a long time – granted it spent a lot of time in the UFo pile but still . . . It would take a special baby to get me to commit to something this big again.

That is how things are going right now . . . plugging along.

 As of Friday we will be at 33 weeks – and since they plan to induce a week or so early that means another 6 weeks to go.  And yes, I’m counting.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled to be doing this again and am so happy that we are having a little girl – but I’m also at that point where I’m feeling big, awkward and uncomfortable all of the time.  Sleep is next to impossible since there is no such thing as a comfortable position and I’m up 3-4 times a night to pee – and then the baby is up and squirming or kicking for anywhere from 30-60 minutes afterward, making it impossible to go back to sleep.  Eating isn’t much better, with my stomach up in my ribs and someone kicking it enought that I frequently feel like I’m on an ocean liner . . .  I believe this is “Mother Nature’s” way of taking the fear and anxiety out of the delivery process.  At least, that is how it is working out for me – I’m so ready for this to be over with that I’m not nearly as worried about the delivery as I might otherwise be.

Yesterday, we had the fun of spending 2 hours at the Dr.’s office – waiting for him to see the little guy.  He’d been spiking a fever at night the past few nights and wasn’t eating much during the day or really eating dinner at all (highly unusual) and then he had a fever only on one side of his head for a while the other night (weird) so I had him checked out.  Turns out, he has his first ear infection.  We caught it before it had a chance to get bad (he’s not complaining about any pain) and he’s now on Amoxicillian – which isn’t helping his stomach any but at least we know what is wrong.

Speaking of not knowing what is wrong – we have  a rooster that isn’t well.  He seems fine mostly, isn’t acting ill per say, but he can’t stand up.  We’ve checked his legs and found no sign of injury  – no bleeding, swelling or obvious breaks – but he can’t stand.  We’ve got him in the “foyer” of the coop, where the feed barrels are and we’re giving him a chance to recover – if he isn’t better in a few days time he’ll likely “walk the plank” but we’re giving him a chance.

I’m also still plugging along on the baby blanket.  The rows are noticably shorter now but it still seems to be taking Forever! but maybe that is because I haven’t worked on it much the past few days  . . .

and on that note, back to the blanket.

The little guy and I went out several times last week – including to story time at Barnes and Noble on Thursday and to playgroup on Friday. As has been happening far too often lately, he wound up sick! By dinner time last night the was throwing up! 5 times in all over the course of the evening and night – the poor little guy was up at 2 am begging for a sip of water . . . which I gave him only to have him sick again within minutes . . . it was a very long night!

And first thing this morning I had another Dr’s appt. We’re currently on the every 2 week schedule . . . Things are moving along just fine. I’ve gained another pound, which is a little less than normally expected at this stage but since I’m up 21 lbs now in all and since we measure out exactly where we should be and that means the baby is growing just fine, the Dr isn’t concerned about the fact that I’ve slowed down . . . personally, I won’t mind if I don’t gain too much more since I’ve got the fun job of actually loosing it all (and the other 10 or so extra I had to start with) when this is all over with . . . . The baby’s heartrate is good and based on where its coming from the Dr. believes she has moved into a head-down position – very good news! So now we go back in another 2 weeks – and the next appt we have an other ultrasound and the plan is to figure out approx. how big she is!

Knitting wise I’ve mostly been working on the Prairie Blanket which is about 80% finished (yeah!)

Looking at it laid out like this I have a sneaking hunch that I messed up some of the pattern repeats in the first half of it and that it isn’t actually going to wind up being a square . . .  but I also think in the long run that won’t really matter.  And I love the feel of the fabric it creates – I think it will be getting a lot of use.

I’ve also been working on a baby sweater I found hiding in a knitting bag:

Its nearly done – just a few more inches on the bottom and a button band around the front and she’ll have a sweater to wear at some point this summer.

And I made a pair of baby socks – they are a little strange looking but if her feet are shaped anything like her older brother’s were, they will fit just about right – at some point.  I’ve got plans to make a few more pairs in different sizes . . .

And I’ve got this fun skein of CTH Supersock that is destined to become another baby sweater . . .

The color way is “Water” and its perfect since it has all the colors of the little baby things I’ve got sitting in the drawers waiting for her.  If I can get the size right, it will go with most of her summer clothes!

I haven’t  been posting as much as I’d like . . . partly because my computer has become rather difficult to type on since a certain someone ran off with several keys from the keyboard; and its a laptop so not that easy to fix . . .

We’ve had a terrific holiday season – the little guy has really enjoyed the festivities this year. 

A few days before Christmas he and I made cookies together.  He has really come to love cooking and baking and had a great time with each step of the process.

and we had the perfect weather for doing a little baking

We waited until just before Christmas to put up the tree, getting it the Friday before and then letting it just sit in the room and open up on Saturday.  Sunday it got lights and then Christmas Eve, while my family was here, we all decorated it together. 

We had a special Christmas visit from Uncle Anthony who came all the way from Tuscon AZ.  Mimmo hadn’t met him and they had a great time together.  The little guy is going to be really bummed when he realized that Uncle A. has returned to AZ! We hope he’ll come back soon!

We’ve had one of the snowiest Decembers on record here as you can see from the looks of the back yard.

Much of that snow is gone now but there is still snow cover over most of the yard and I’m betting it won’t be long before we have more. 

Knitting & even Spinning!

I managed to finish the modified Fan and Feather Triangle in time for “Nonna” to have it for Christmas . . .well, okay, so it still had ends that needed to be woven but it was cast-off and blocked in time and in my book that counts as close enough

I’ve been working on the Prairie Blanket – its now about 11 inches past the 1/2 mark and finally getting to a point where the rows actually feel like they are getting shorter!  I’d like to do a couple of similar, largish projects for Caterina before she arrives so I’m hoping to finish this up in the next few weeks.

The past few days I’ve been working again on the Tofutisies Socks that I started back in August.  I had finished the first one relatively quickly and then put the project aside in favor of other things (surprise!) and sometime this past fall I picked it up long enough to cast on the 2nd sock and done a few rounds and the had put it down again.  I’m now 22 rounds into the 48 rounds of the foot and intend to finish it in the next few days.  And the timing is good since I could really use another pair of socks as several pairs have found their way into the mending pile recently . . . .

I also took some time the other night to sort and pick some raw wool – a Finn/Ramboilett Cross that I have a large amount of – to try a new technique with.  I scoured it and the dyed it immediately – minimizing the water exposure as this particular fiber loves to felt up.  I dried it the next day and even managed to card up one of the two colors that I had dyed.  The handling method seems to have worked as a brief spinning sessions showed the fiber to be soft and quite spinable.  The one down side to this particular batch of wool is that it is quite full of VM.  Like small furry things could live the winter on the hay in this stuff.  A sizable amount of what I brought in was declared unfit and sent to the compost pile while the rest was picked carefully of the largest pieces and much more came out during the scouring, repicking and carding processes.   The plus side is that I got the wool for $1/lb which makes it a great wool for experiementing with and for quick mittens & hats for the kids. 

New Year’s Resolutions

There is a new poll to the right in the margin – I’m curious how many have knitting related resolutions?

I didn’t make any formal resolutions this year, knitting or otherwise. 

The ususal ones about loosing weight and getting organized just aren’t in order this year . . .  I’m currently almost 22 weeks pregnant and have been told that I should gain about a lb a week right now.  Yeah, later in the year I’ll be working on some weight loss, but its more a long term plan than a resolution and not something I’ll be doing anything about for a number of months to come.  And I am trying to declutter our limted space and get us more organized before the baby arrives – but realistically, a lot of the extra stuff that is around is going to be used for the new baby and won’t be going away until after she has finished with it.

Knitting wise I’ve had to realize that my time is likely to be rather sparse this next year and that most of it will likely be spent making things for the kids – mine and my nieces.   I do plan to try to finish up a number of the projects that are already on the needles before I start a bunch of new things but that is more out of annoyance with the number of projects “weighing” on me right now than a formal resolution . . . not to mention, it would be rather handy to free up a few sets of needles!

Farm Report

Things have started to pick up with the chickens.  Yesterday we started off the new year with 3 eggs in the morning and 1 more in the afternoon and today we had 1 in the am and 2 more this afternoon.  They are also starting to get bigger . . . more a medium/large egg than the little ones we started with.  We had some for breakfast this morning and not only are they good and fresh but the shells are very thick – it takes a lot more to crack one of these than the store variety!

We learned that the white chickens we have actually lay brown eggs – who knew! And so far we haven’t had any of the lovely Blue/Green eggs that we are expecting so far but I’ll keep you posted