Striped Sweater

I finally finished Connor's sweater. Who knew that such a small and easy project would take over two months to complete. The neckband gave me some trouble. Originally I did a 2x2 rib with a kitchener b.o. It was too sloppy looking. Next I did a folded and hemmed 2x2. The ribbing ended up being too stretched out. I then settled on a 1x1 that was folded over. Much better even though it doesn't match the other ribbing. I don't care. I figure that it'll end up getting stretched as I put over his head so this is the best option. I made this hat for Royd last week in an afternoon. He picked out the pattern and the yarn. He loves it and has wore it every day(except when in his uniform). I got the pattern from the 2004 issue of Knit It. I think it's called Cool Caps-it's somewhere in here. I used Encore Worsted in Blue and Grey. Just so you know, this is his spot in the house. At any given time you can find him here--sitting in front of the tv, either watching it or playing PS2. The carpet underneath shows it too.

Fur Mein Socke Pal

Yes, the socks are done. Finally! All I have to say is, I hope that she likes them. I have never been soooo stressed out about a project before. The first sock's heel was knit three times and the toe twice. I'm still not 100% satisfied, but there's nothing wrong with them. I just wanted them to be perfect. The pattern is the Pretty Comfy sock and I did it in Elann's Esprit. I made these for myself last year and they remain one of my favorites. After sneaking around my pal's blog, I noticed that she didn't have any in this yarn and she said she was open to anything. So, it seemed like a good choice. Aahhhh! I've been sucked into the land of neverending ribbing! Send help! Royd vetoed the Irish Hiking Scarf. Although he loves cables, he felt it wasn't "masculine" for a scarf. Whatever. He wanted something that looked identical from the same side. So, here we are in 2x2. I hate doing scarves in this. It seems to take forever. Perhaps it's because I don't purl correctly and keep having to change hand positions. Maybe someday I'll figure it out and maybe someday I'll finish the blasted thing. No, I didn't forget about the gummies. We seem to be missing one of the packages. So, I put a normal sized bag in for comparison. The large ones are 1kg each and the small is 250gms. Please note that I do not eat gummies. I like the flavor but not the texture. Give me chocolate or a cookie any day.

My Feet Hurt

The hubster was granted a three day weekend after finishing his reintegration. So, with a little bit of money burning a hole in the debit card, we ended up doing some shopping. A lot of shopping. Saturday we ventured downtown to see if we couldn't find some yarn for his sweater. No luck there, but I did find some more sock yarn. After walking around for nearly two hours, we got hungry and headed to the E-Center (grocery store) to see what kind of goodies we could find. Let's just say that there was alot of chocolate bought. Sunday was clean-up day. I took the kids for a walk while Royd "attempted" to clean and organize his stuff. I'll have to finish up tomorrow while he's at work. Today we drove down to Wurzburg to explore some of the palaces and cathedrals. First stop was suppose to be the Residenz, a Baroque palace. We turned the wrong way and ended up on Alte Mainbrucke (Old Bridge) instead. This is a shot off of the bridge of Festung Marienberg (fortress). Too bad it was closed today. This is the actual bridge itself. There are statues of saints across the entire span. After we turned around to head back to the Residenz, we found the Marktplatz. This is the Marktplatz with a beautiful cathedral towering over it. At the bottom of the picture you can see the different vendors. They sell anything and everything to include kitchenware, pottery, clothing, and baskets to name a few. I happened upon a particular vendor that was selling handmade socks, felted slippers and hats. As I was admiring his work, a basket caught my eye. I just had to indulge: That's 400 yards of handspun blue and white sockenwolle. It's fate is to be a scarf for Royd and I'm thinking the maybe the Irish Hiking Scarf. Needless to say, we never quite got to the Residenz today. Next time. We ended up walking around and exploring the downtown. It's easily five times the size as ours. After five hours, and twenty five dollars worth of Gummi candies, we called it quits for the day. Oh, you want to see what twenty five dollars of Gummi's looks like? I'll indulge you next time.

Welcome Home

After several no-go's, Royd finally arrived last Friday at about 8pm. I of course, being the bad blogger that I am, forgot to take the camera with me. So, I snapped some pictures once we got home. The reason Connor's in his diaper is because Royd wanted to see how fat he had gotten. Connor is now know as "Pork Chop". Reilly is thrilled that his daddy is home. I think he's a bit worried that he will leave again, as he hangs onto him constantly. I'm also not allowed to do anything for him. I don't mind-it gives me a break! Obviously knitting has taken a back seat this past week. I have managed to finish the knitting on another sweater. It just needs a major blocking before seaming. I still haven't blocked the black cowl neck sweater-I keep forgetting. I also started the socks for my sock pal. They should be done in a few days. The good news is that Royd had finally agreed to let me knit him a sweater. After my first (scary) attempt to knit him one, he kept telling me that he didn't want one. I showed him what I've made since he's been gone and saw that I've improved greatly. So, this weekend we're going to go see if we can find a color that he likes. He picked that Basket Weave Pullover from Interweave Knits Fall 2004. He made my day when he said that he doesn't want the zipper. I'm dreading doing that because it requires sewing needles and thread. Hopefully now that things have started to settle around here, I can actually finish something and show it off!

Progress? What progress?

One would think that since it's been four days since my last post, I'd have something fabulous to show off. Nope. Sorry. I have done some knitting, a bit of spinning and a whole lot of cleaning. The house never quite recovered from my last bout of sickness. Saturday I took one look at all of it and dove in. Since the hubster is expected any time now, I wanted to get it to look it's best. Don't get me wrong, he does not expect it clean. Quite the opposite-he loves a messy house. That means he can be messy and I can't nag. I don't think so deary, there'll be none of that. The apartment looks alot better now. Granted there are still some things to be done, but I'm not too stressed about it. I managed to finish the major knitting of the cowl sweater yesterday. I have to remember to block it tonight before bed. I'm not allowed to block during the day since Reilly seems to think it great fun to rearrange the pieces. I also have started the seaming of Connor's sweater. Key word is started. I really don't enjoy the finishing process all that much. I'd much rather knit. So, we'll see when it gets done. Another sweater has been started, but I'm not sure if I'm going to keep it, so maybe we'll talk about that another day. Spinning has proven to be a challenge to squeeze into my day. I gave up trying to do it while Reilly's awake. Between him and the cats grabbing at it, I spent more time chasing and shooing than spinning. I did take the first yarn I spun off and set the twist. Ugh. Gastly. I spun it way too tight to be useful as a single. Live and learn. So now I'm practicing at a slightly looser twist and keeping the yarn consistent. Hopefully I'll have something usable out of this. Since I had nothing really to show except some boring pieces of stockinette, I'll leave you with the latest picture of Connor.

There Will Be No Knitting Today

Or tomorrow. Or maybe the day after that. What could possibly leave me to make this frightening statement? It's contained in this little tiny box: Ooh... What could be inside? Yummy! That's a pound each of Corriedale and Wildberry rovings from Copper Moose. A sexy shot of the Wildberry. Isn't she beautiful? My first ever attempt at spinning. Not too bad, eh? The spindle was a gift from my SP3, Pam. I know I haven't talked about this before, but it's been in the works for awhile now. Here's the story. This summer my mom showed me her Navajo spindle and got my brain thinking about it. So, when we moved here, I saw that the Arts and Crafts studio on post had a weaving and spinning class. We were only here about a month and a half before Royd left so there wasn't anyone to watch the kids on Friday nights. I had been holding out until he does get home, but I finally caved in. I'm so glad I did. It's so fascinating! I still plan on taking the class so that I can learn to use the wheel. On top of that, my mom has said that she's going to send me her spindle, fleece and carders. Woohoo! I'm giddy! I was hoping that the package would get delayed until Monday so that I could get some other projects knocked out. I've finished the knitting on Connor's sweater and it's busy blocking on my ironing board. Although, he won't be wearing until next year, I just want it done. I also had started working on the cowl sweater. I'm halfway through the second sleeve and then still need to do the front. Of course I finished my pink socks. As I was washing all of my wonderful socks yesterday I noticed something peculiar. All the socks I've made have been in varying shades of pinks and blues. It's weird because I almost never pick these two colors for sweaters or tops. But, almost all of my dresses and pretty unmentionables are these colors. Strange, huh?

I finished my scarf for February Fixing. I love how this turned out. It's now nice and wide and still long enough to wrap nicely. I used the Bias Lace Scarf pattern from the Pattern-a-Day Calendar. The closeup picture below better represents the true color. Don't judge me. It's become apparent to me that I go through kicks. You can call is obsessions or even a sickness if you wish to. Last year it was scarves and the year before it was afghans. I have this need to make each one better as I explore multiple techniques. Once I feel that I have made one truly awesome object, the craziness will start to pass-only to turn to something else. These are actually the fast pair I've made yet. I started last evening and have been sporadically working on them throughout the day. Plain stockinette stitch and a larger gauge than I'm used to really move things along.

I Caved

Yup, that's right. I did it. I broke my promise to myself. It happened so quickly I didn't even know it was happening. Before I knew it, I was printing out a confirmation of sale. So, you may ask, what prompted me to do it? Well, there's this little place on the internet that's called Elann. Need I say more? I look at it this way-yarn sells out so quickly that it might not be there when I do get through my ten projects. Then what would I do? I mean, it's happened before. I'll divulge my new lovies when they arrive. Honestly there hasn't been too much knitting going on. Between getting sick last week and paying for it all this week, and trying to get stuff done around the house, time has been a little lacking. I did manage to do these earlier this week: These are just your basic toe-up sock. Nothing special, but the stripes match within twelve stitches. Not bad for an afterthought. Thanks for the concern about my sockpal's socks. I do have a few tricks left up my sleeve. I finally realized two days ago that I was stressing too much. I had it in my head that they had to be the most beautiful socks that had ever been knit. I know what my pal likes and doesn't-just go from there. I'm feeling much better about it and have faith that she'll like what I do make her. Oh, one more thing. I finally updated my Finished Objects page with all the info on my projects. On the home front I have good and worriesome news. First, Royd is in Kuwait! We still don't know exactly when he'll be leaving but that's okay. I'm just glad he's out of Iraq. Second, my FIL has accepted a job in Baghdad as a contractor. Honestly, I worry more about him than my husband-he won't be carrying around a M-16! I guess the worrying will never stop. Last year it was a cousin's husband over there. Who knows what the following year will hold. Hopefully not my husband again.

Gung Hey Fat Choy

Sockapalooza and Other Woes

Sockapalooza I have been having the worst time trying to settle on a pattern and yarn for my sock buddy. I had said that I would wait until Royd got home and I could get to the yarn shops. I knew that once there, I'd find a perfect yarn. Well, his date for arrival has been pushed back twice now(to the last week of the month, or possibly March), so I can't count on that. I then turned to KnitPicks. I wanted to try out their sock yarn and here was a good chance to. So, I ordered some and two books as well. I am not happy with the colors of this yarn. It's called Morning Glory. This picture doesn't do it justice, even with alot of photo editing. In person, it's very bright-kinda reminds me of kids colors. It will probably end up as kids socks too. Argh. February Fixing Here's the scarf that I'm fixing. I tried to get a picture of it laid out, but I couldn't get it all in the shot. It was about eight feet-way too long for me. Although I still like the way the original stitch I did, I thought I would do something different. No luck so far. side note: The reason I have to wait to get to the yarn store, is that the double stroller will NOT fit into them. Seriously-they're that tiny! Just trying to get Reilly's umbrella stroller in there was pushing it. Besides, it's so much easier to look with out them.

Charity Knitting, Part II

Red scarf was just taken off the needles. Now to weave in those pesky ends. I love how on the one side, it looks almost as if it's one continous pattern, and not broken by the ribbing. I may have to make one for myself. Maybe not. I see lace scarves in my future. May I present to you, four knitted hats: Two are sized for baby/toddler and the other are for older children. All were done in Lion Brand Homespun at about 4sts per inch. That's as tight as I could get it. I chose this yarn because although it's not the warmest out there(say like wool), it is very soft and it's what I got. I could get another four hats at least out of what's left. Though, as I was doing the first one, I remembered why I hadn't done anything with it before. I can't stand knitting with it! No particular reason, it just drives me batty. Oh, yes one more item to share with you. This is what we were NOT discussing last week: It's the Bell Cloche from the Pattern A Day Calendar. I chose Cascade Yarns Quattro for it. It took three attempts at blocking before I got the right shaped bowl to do it on. Have I worn it? No, it has decided to act like spring since I casted off. Stupid weather. This brings me to another thing. I have worn a sweater for maybe a total of 5 hours this winter. After about just a half hour, it's been torn off as I seek the nearest window for fresh, cold air. I suppose it has something to do with nursing? I can't really say how I was with Reilly because we were in Georgia. I never wore sweaters there. So, I've been re-evaluating my wishlists of projects. Perhaps I will take the sweaters off of it for now. I certainly have plenty if I do get cold.

Charity Knitting

I found another worthy charity to knit for: Found this while reading Mossy Cottage Knits. As far as the red scarf goes, I'm halfway through and am taking a one day break from it. It's starting to get monotonous. So, I casted on for a hat. I promised myself that I'll make at least four hats for the Dulaan Project. If I get really inspired, maybe I'll throw in a pair of socks too.

Another Pair

Yeah, I finished the Chevron Socks. Now I can move onto other things. I spent the entire weekend doing swatches for the red scarf. Just when I thought I had found one, I realized it was just like someone else's. I figure variety is key, so back to the drawing board. Front Back I wanted something with visual interest on both sides. I'm thinking that it has been achieved. Now I just have to clean up those edges. I have a k1p1 rib but I'm thinking that I'll just let the first and last repeat curl as it was doing. I'll just add a selvedge to it and leave it be. Both kids and I are sick. Yuck! It's not too bad but just enough to make us feel crappy. Connor's doing the best of all. He's such a little trooper! To top it off, he cut his first tooth yesterday. I know, pretty early. I have to admit, I started crying when I saw the white sticking out of his gum. He will be our last and I want him to stay little as long as possible. Already he's doing things that Reilly didn't do until a month or two later. I had promised Royd that he wouldn't miss much until he got home and he's missing alot. Well, three weeks to go...

Temporary Insanity

First, we will not discuss that after an entire morning of knitting, I have nothing to show for it. Second, we will not discuss the issue of making sure you are using the same needle that you achieved gauge with. Not one of the other two that didn't work. Ask me not. In other news, I have completed one of the Chevron socks and am quite pleased with the result. They fit perfect! I also have signed up for this: I made a scarf last summer in this beautiful rayon/cotton blend from Wool in the Woods yarn. Don't ask which one or which colorway, I lost the band. Anyway, I made it way too long and skinny. I want to wear it since it's so pretty, but end up having to wrap it three times to make it manageable. After I take a picture(to come later) for reference, I'm off to frog.

First FO of 2005

Finally! It's been November since I've finished anything. These are my Fluted Bannister Socks. Aren't they pretty? This is a shot of the lace ribbing on the cowl neck sweater I'm doing. So far the back is completed and I just started the sleeves. Since I'm changing the original pattern to not include a fur cuff, I'm playing around with how many repeats of lace to do. I'm aiming for a bell sleeve that isn't too wide yet drapey. Here's the sweater I'm doing for Connor. That's a sleeve, if you weren't sure. I'm also hoping that you can tell that's lime green and navy blue. I'm making this pattern up as I go along while using The Knitters Handy Book of Sweaters as a reference. I was suppose to drive down to Ansbach this morning to visit with Jean, but the weather had different ideas. I woke up to about 2 inches. Yeah, I know, it's nothing compared to the Northeast. I know mine and my cars limitations, and had to cancel. Bummer, I was really looking forward to it too. Instead I casted on for the Chevron Socks that I had frogged. So far so good.

A Knitting Update

Just a warning, there is lots of updating to be done. I've been a bad blogger as of late. I've had alot to blog about, but didn't quite have the energy to do so. Therefore, I'm just going to do one huge entry. Sorry, but pictures will follow another day. I'm still too lazy. I've started quite a few projects the past week. Oh, and they're ALL from my stash! Another blanket for charity in mint green and white yarn. This will end up being donated to Project Linus. Fluted Banister Socks. After reading how much other people liked the pattern I thought I'd try it out. I have so say I'm liking it alot. It's a quick and almost mindless knit. A cotton striped sweater for Connor. I'm using navy blue and lime green yarn I picked up for a steal (.75) a few months ago. The Fur Trimmed Cowl Sweater sans fur from the latest issue of Knit It!. Natalya. Well, kinda. I really want to use Classic Elite's Miracle for this, but am not getting gauge. So I'm swatching to see what gauge I do like and then need to rework the pattern. I also frogged those Chevron socks that I had made right after Connor was born. Ultimately I wasn't happy with them and couldn't bear to leave them as is. So, as soon as the Fluted Banister are done, I'll start these. I've also been quite the joiner. I've been accepted to the Knitting Blogs webring. Yeah! I signed up for Sockapalooza. I wasn't going to initially, but then Alison re-opened it, and I felt that that was a sign that I needed to join. I've been seriously stressing about what color and pattern sock to do. I don't want to do a sock that is too simple and nothing too complicated that I won't finish on time. Oh, yeah, I have to wait three weeks to get the yarn. I looked at what I do have and none of it is "right". (This does not qualify breaking my diet since it's for someone else...) I joined the Sock it to Me knitalong. Why? Ummmm...... Socks. I'm going help out the Red Scarf Project. I've got red and red and more red. Now that I think of it, this can count towards one of my ten projects. Woohoo! Not to discredit that it's also for a great cause. Yeah, that's alot for one post. I really need to get it together and post more regularly. Wait. I have a toddler and an infant. Hey, I'm lucky to even get time to knit. Ya know when I get most of it done? Between 5 and 7 am. I figure there's no sense in going back to bed after Connors morning feeding. It's probably my favorite time of the day. Coffee, knitting and quiet. Ahh. I've got happy news too. The hubby should be home no later than the 15th of February. For good. Well, for now. Who knows what the future holds, but I'll save that for another day. This is a happy post.

War President

Don't understand? Go here. Thanks to Kerstin and Jessica for setting this up. Well, George, I hope you enjoy your party. I hope that spending $40 million makes you feel good about yourself. Why do I protest? Because I have never believed in the decision to go to war. Now the country is sitting there wondering if it was such a good idea either. What? No WMDs? Because I feel that all that money could be spent providing better services for the troops that are there. I hear people talking about troop morale and how our protests bring it down. Guess what? Troop morale is low, but not because of this. How about feeding them a hot meal more often than every other day? How about getting them the proper tools to do their job? How about those Humvees? How about getting their mail to them? Oh, I could go on and on with what could be done, but I'll merely be wasting my breath. Because I am an Army wife. Because of my children. It kills me everyday that my husband is in Iraq fighting a war that neither of us believe in. It kills me that he should miss out on seeing his children grow. I'm not protesting just because he's gone, like other wives I know. I protest because I truly believe it is wrong for us to be there. I'm not protesting because I don't support or love my husband. I am very proud of him. He is an excellent soldier and leader. I just wish that his talent was being put to a better use. Oh, like maybe Afghanistan? Likewise, I support all of our troops and pray for the safe homecoming of every single one of them. Okay, my little "speech" is done. I know I am not usually political on my blog, but I felt that I had to express myself.

Giving up

I'm not going to make it. It took me two days to get through one panel of the afghan and I need two more. Then there's seaming it and a pretty border that need to go on. I guess I'll just have to send it in for the next deadline. I may do another one for them, just because I feel really bad. Since I no longer have to finish the afghan by this week, I feel free to work on other projects. Specifically Natalya. I'm swatching different yarns to see which ones I like best. So far two have been deemed unacceptable. Hopefully the next two work out better for me. I love cheap yarn. Elann restocked the Highland Wool. I of course got some, in Oxblood. And since there was still some money left on the gift card, I got some more sock yarn. I really must stop going to their website. It tempts me so much. On top of that, KnitPicks just introduced their own line of yarn. Such cheap and pretty colorways. Their Highland Wool is only 1.79. They also have merino sock yarn for 3.99. Ohhhh... Ahhhh... Maybe I should lock my computer up so I won't see it. Better yet, I should hide my debit and credit cards.

Wishful Thinking

1. That I will remain on a yarn diet. When I previously mentioned it, I did not specify any end to it. Well, it's kinda open. Mainly I want to work through some of my stash before I start supplementing it again. I'd love to be able to get through at least ten projects before this happens. These are the six containers of my pretty yarn. Yarn that is high quality and don't mind keeping in a stash. These are the four containers that I'm dying to get rid of. Most of it was bought before I knew what "real" yarn felt and looked like. 2. That I will be able to get my shipment for Afghans for Afghans sent in time. The original deadline was the 15th, but it's been pushed back to the 27th. That gives me until Thursday or Friday to finish the last afghan. I know that seems like a lot of time for shipping, but I'm dealing with the Military Post Office. I don't trust them. 3. That I will be able to resist casting on for Natalya before the afghan is finished. Jody made the most beautiful cabled gauntlets and was kind enough to write out the pattern for us to enjoy. She saved me the trouble of having to do it myself. I love the easy way out.

Too Cute

Today I received a little package from Kim, my spoilee from SP3. She made Connor the cutest little hat! As you can see, he needs to grow into it a little bit: She also sent along some of her wonderful homemade Chamomile soap and yummy maple syrup. Thanks Kim. I love everything! I also got the latest issue of FCEK. For once it didn't take two months to get here! I am loving all four of the sweaters from "Pretty in the City." I have just enough of Highland Wool to make one sweater. It calls for 1575 yards and I have 1635 yards. Cutting it a bit too close for my taste. I'm debating whether to use the GC I have to get enough in another color. I may have to, to do the cabled sweater. Decisions, decisions...

Sweet, Beautiful Quiet

For the first time in two weeks both children are napping at the same time. There was some serious happy dancing going on for a little bit. Now I can post about what I've meaning to since last time. I wanted to show the beautiful necklaces my sister, Laura, sent me for Christmas. I usually don't wear jewelry, but they're so pretty that I have to. That's not all she sent. I also received some clasp-on stitch markers. In fact she just started out her own company, Laura Stark Designs. Seriously, you should go check out her stuff. Yes, blatant plug to drum up business for her. But hey, my blog-my sister! As far as knitting content goes, not much to report. I'm kinda in a rut right now. I had to put Mariah on hold for now. The yarn I was using isn't making me happy-too thick at that gauge. So, in accordance with a self-imposed yarn diet I'm on, I'll just have to wait. I've also been working on a hat for Connor. This too is displeasing me. I'm doing the Jester Hat from The Yarn Girls Guide to Kid Knits. The problem is the points- they won't flop down like they're suppose to. I'm contemplating ripping it all out and working in a looser gauge, or try reworking the decreases in a different matter. Two weeks worth of knitting and nothing to show for it. Hmphf! Yes, you read right. Yarn diet. Am I crazy? Yes. Can I resist? Probably not. (Disclaimer: patterns bought to support yarn stash and the GC to Elann don't count) All this stems from my first New Years Resolution in about 10 years. To live life a bit simpler. What does that mean? Well, stop buying things on a whim, get rid of the clutter surrounding me, invest more in my future instead of present, and teach my children about appreciating what one does have. It hit me two days after Christmas that I've become materialistic and am teaching Reilly to be the same way. He was sitting next to me on the couch, whining and bored out of his mind. I couldn't believe it with all the new toys he had! To top it off, I had just gotten done shopping on-line. Now I just have to get my husband sold on this idea. He's worse than I am.

Ho, Ho, It's Over

Actually, I did manage to get a little bit into the spirit after all. My celebration manifisted itself in the way of baking cookies. Five batches worth. This is down from my traditional minimum of seven or eight. One wouldn't know that I had been baking for two days though. There isn't a cookie left in the house. They were either given to various neighbors or eaten. I won't say which disposed of more. I hope that Santa was good to everyone else this year. He brought me lots of goodies. This picture showes a sampling. Four balls of Gedifra Scarlet, two skeins of Koigu in #403 (which I have to say is one of the pretties colors I've seen yet) and three of TSC's Donegal Tweed. My lovely family also indulged me in other things: wooden dpns, a set of Lantern Moon needles, a copy of Socks, Socks, Socks and a copy of Simple Socks. Such wonderful things! I can't wait to play with everything. My hands are still bothering me, but are better than they were. I've been wearing splints, taking Motrin, doing back and arm exercise and avoiding knitting to try to make them better. Avoiding knitting is proving to be very hard! I do sneak in a few rows everday, just to get my fix.

Secret Pal Revealed

Awesome goodies were awaiting me yesterday at the post office! My secret pal, Pam, sent me a bracelet, a spindle and a knitting calendar. Wow! Thank you so much, Pam! You really, really spoiled me. I'm sad to see the end of SPs, I had so much fun doing it. I probably won't be doing SP4, maybe the one after it though. Actually, the package got here on Monday, but I didn't know about it until yesterday. The clerks forgot to put a notice in my box and then had the nerve to give me a nasty second-notice. It's now the second time this has happened and I'm quite annoyed with them. I'm in denial that Christmas is only six days away. My house shows no signs of it's short arrival, except for a lonely wreath on my front door. There will be no tree this year, only a tabletop artificial with some bows stuck on it. This is so weird for me, usually by the first week in December I'm dancing around, giddy like a school girl. All of this strange phenomenon has to do with Royd not being here. It just doesn't feel like the holidays without him. I've tried to get Reilly excited in the hopes that it'll rub off, but he doesn't quite get it. All he knows is that presents are coming. The concept of Santa isn't quite sinking in. Next year. Today's my birthday. I'm making a carrot cake to celebrate. Since Reilly has dairy allergies, I made him some cupcakes with some of the batter. I could have chosen a cake and icing that he could have eaten, but it's my day and my cake. Besides his birthdays in less that three weeks. I got an awesome present from my sister Laura. She sent me a gift certificate to Elann!!! Oh, the trouble I'm going to get into... Actually, I haven't been knitting too much this week. My carpal tunnel is acting up very badly. Just doing one row sets my hands and arms on fire. I'll need to go to a doctor pretty soon in order to get a referral to a therapist. I can just hear my mom(an OT herself) saying "I told you so" right now. But all is not lost. I've spending my lost knitting time cleaning and organizing my house. I'll leave you with the latest picture of Connor, sporting his booties and a hat I made him:

Three Weeks!?!

Honestly I can't believe it's been that long since I had a baby and last posted too. I'm not sure where the time is going. It seems that each day is a blur and before I know it, it's 9pm and time for all of us to hit the sack. Royd left last Saturday morning to go back. Saying goodbye again was harder than I had thought it would be. I just keep telling myself that it's only 2-3 more months and he'll be back home for good. That is unless he gets extended, which we have yet to find out. His visit home couldn't have worked out better. We got to spend two days together before Connor was born, he witnessed his son's birth and then a week and a half to bond with him. Reilly really enjoyed having his dad home too and is now having some issues with him being gone again. Thanks to a quick recovery from labor, we were able to go out and do things. Mostly we did alot of shopping for Christmas, both for us and for his guys. My poor, poor credit cards! One day we all headed down to the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market) with my in-laws. There were all these vendors set up in the cutest little outdoor buildings. They have a name, but it eludes me right now. I didn't see anything I couldn't live without, but Royd spent some serious euros on Gluhwein (spiced hot wine). We now have quite the collection of mugs that it was served in. You pay a deposit for the mug and can either return it and get your money back or keep it. There was also a pen with some goats in it and Reilly had a blast feeding them. Of course the day wouldn't have been complete without a stop at the bakery and loading up on some yummy treats. Can I say yummy again? I have gotten a little knitting done. I've been working on these socks. They were intended for me, but turned out a little too tight, so I'll end up giving them to my mom. I also started on Mariah from the latest issue of Knitty. I'm about half way through the first sleeve. I had been going through all of my patterns looking for a cabled sweater and then I saw this. It's perfect. I love hoodies and the cable isn't so complicated that I'll get tired of it before completion. Also I wanted to show what my friend Jean sent me. Aren't they just the cutest little booties? She also sent Reilly a book that he very much enjoyed. Thank you, Jean, you're awesome!