Finally, one for the boy

The blanket for the BFF baby is showing much progress. I've now got 31 pieces of the 36 I need and 20 actually stitched together! I draped the blanket over my rocking chair this week and it looked so beautiful! I might just have to keep it for myself - just joking lol. I did, however consider making one for my own home, but I know I'd never finish it. At least with the BFF baby blanket I have a deadline of April 6 for completion.

So last time I wrote I was going to cast on some wavy scarf, but I knit about 10 rows of 240 stitches and quickly cast off. It's a great idea, but it still needs some tinkering and probably better yarn.

So, back to Hubby's socks, which are almost done. But then I actually had an idea for something for our new baby boy. I told my sister that I had an idea for an intarsia vest. She said, "Don't start another project, Sarah!" Did I listen to her? Of course not. It was Saturday evening and Jeff was at Sac Brew Fest, so I cast on while I was on the phone with her. Six hours later it looked like this.

I even got quite a bit further the next day - up to the shoulders - but then I didn't like how the checkerboard was too tight and squeezed the chest in too much. So I ripped out the whole thing to the first teal line. Oh, boy, am I glad I did. I went with more of a castle watchtower look and I think it turned out great. I was planning for it to fit a 9 month old, but it may be more like a 6 month old. I finished it last night.

Don't worry, I made a slit at the back with a button hole since Hubby and I knew that no little baby head would ever fit through that tiny little opening at the top. Uh-oh! what does that say about how that little head is going to fit coming out of me!! Only about six weeks until I'm due now and even with 12 weeks worth of Bradley Method Classes I'm still scared out of my mind about trying to push this baby out!

Anyway, if anyone wants to see how 34 weeks pregnant looks on me, here it is (photo taken by June Bug).

Hubby just left for work and he said, "Have fun knitting today!" If only I had something fun and exciting to knit...wait, I've got a cousin-in-law due to have twin girls this summer. I better go start hunting for a pattern!

Oh, and I've been craving cake, so I actually may do some baking. But in my current "not interested in cooking at all" pregnant state, they'll be from a box mix. I know, yuck :( Maybe I'll make my own frosting from scratch.

Still Relaxing

Since I've been trying to relax so much (to keep my BP down, of course) and knitting is the ultimate for me, you've probably noticed an absurdly abundant focus on nothing but knitting lately. But hey, I'm eight months pregnant so standing around cooking or digging in the garden (in February) are just not options right now. I really hope I get over this after the baby comes. (Doesn't anyone want to come over and cook something for me?)

I've finished a pair of socks for myself...

But, I'm sad because they are a wool/nylon blend and they're very itchy. Bummer dude!

Since I finished them in record time and didn't really feel quite ready to work on something new since the BFF's baby blanket still needs hours and hours of work, I decided to organize my knitting needles.

Well, that was fun...but I was already missing knitting so what did I do? Go back to the blanket? Of course not, I cast on another pair of socks for Hubby.

These are an Acrylic/Nylon blend and oh boy are they soft and surprisingly thick. Yeah, I know they'll get all pilled up eventually, but oh well. Really these are just for relaxing and mindless knitting, so of course I wanted something else to work on. So I tried a little swatch of something else.

What's it gonna be? When I got pregnant, BFF got me a super great gift of High Tea here. So when we were there a couple weeks ago finally enjoying that tea (thank you again!), I saw a scarf that had this great puckered (read billowing) effect. I tried this swatch with a bit of Aran weight acrylic yarn just using various sizes of needles (thus the organizing of my needles above) to get that bulging effect. It worked, but the yarn is hideous for it. I'll have to find something else. 

In the meantime, I finally got the urge to start blocking some of the pieces to BFF's blanket. I've blocked them to 6.5 inch squares. That's a bit of a stretch for some, but others open up beautifully. 

Oh, seeing them laid out like this really put some fuel inside me to get back to this blanket. Yeah! So a day later I found myself piecing them up. But first, I thought I better sketch out the placement just in case I go brain dead and try to sew them in the wrong order.

June bug helped color it in. So here's how it's coming together. 

By the way, since BFF is about my most loyal follower, this will be the last sighting of the blanket until she sees it at her baby shower at the beginning of April. Sorry. But don't worry, I'll take pics and post them later before it's gifted. Hopefully later there will also be some pics with it cutely flung over her crib or something nice like that (not sure how she feels about pics of her baby being posted on the Internet yet, so I can't promise you'll ever see the baby nestled inside it). Oh, and since these pics were taken some days ago, I now have 7 pieces sewn together and 5 more blocked and ready to sew on today... 

...wait where are my knitting needles? I think I know what yarn I want to use for that billowing scarf :) 

Hats delivered

I really thought I had something exciting and interesting to post tonight. Maybe I'm not a real blogger and certainly not a writer for that matter. Unless you were eagerly awaiting seeing the finished product of the four hats, just close this blog right now and move on...

Really I just wanted to show that I actually finished the third and fourth baby hats.

Hat Number 3

Hat number 4

There you have it. Four hats in just nearly two weeks. The girls got them at class last night and all were received with great appreciation. I didn't select who would get which hat, only that those having girls would get the girl ones and likewise with the boys. BFF got the one I hoped she would (boy hat above) and I think everyone was happy. Especially me! But, then they all asked for booties!! Not booties for their babies, no, ones for those cold hospital floors. Uh...I politely declined. I think that's more of a crocheters project, don't you think? lol.

Back to my socks and yes, of course that blanket for BFF. But first I gotta read some more of that knitting blog. Hey, I need some inspiration!

Knitting is the name of game

I have been in a knitting frenzy the last couple weeks - gosh maybe longer. As you know I'm expecting a baby boy in April. You'd think I'd be all too excited to knit up a wonderful blanket or some clothes for him, but alas I bought the yarn for a blanket and decided against it after knitting a swatch for the pattern. It turns out it's a very heavy gauge holding two strands together to make a very bulky weight yarn. Not really baby blanket-style to me. So, fortunately my BFF is also expecting a baby boy - just one month after I am due. Well, of course I had to start a project for her!! I had seen this cute patchwork blanket here on Ravelry when I had been looking for a design for my own baby's blanket. My BFF is set on a very specific color scheme of gray and yellow  for her baby's room, so I headed to Michael's and picked out the perfect shades and included some white to have a good variety. I remember when I first showed them to her, she gave me a hug and said, "Finally someone understands what I want".

I set straight to work on it. That was back in November. My original dimensions were just 4 squares by 4 squares but when we laid out the first few I had finished she decided it should be 6 by 6. She's my BFF so I went along. :) As of a few weeks ago here's how it looked so far. There's 21 1/2 piece done in this pic, but now I have 24 complete - 2/3 done!

However, if anyone knows what kind of knitter I am, they might ask why I decided on a patchwork blanket since I HATE the finishing part of knitting. That is, piecing together and weaving in all the ends. Do you see how many ends and pieces I will have to put together? What was I thinking!!

So, last Thursday I was feeling a little shaky about my current pregnancy and frankly worried that things were starting to go downhill toward Pre-Eclampsia (turns out it was all in my head), so I decided I need to relax. What better way than knitting - and not something frustrating, but something mindless and fun. How about socks for me? Besides, I finally completed a pair for Hubby a couple weeks ago (after he was complaining that I was spending too much time on BFF's blanket) and honestly after they were done I thought, "that wasn't so hard". What took me so long?!

So, trying to spend my days relaxing both Friday and Saturday, I knit my little heart out. I finished one whole sock for myself. Here was the start. It is a self-striping yarn I got at a thrift shop for only $3.50 that still had the original price tag of $17!

After texting my BFF about my new socks she reminded me that I had told the other girls in my Bradley Method birthing class that I would knit them all hats for their babies. There are two having girls and three of us having boys. So I set aside my sock and started straight away! Here's the first girl hat.

Well that only took about two hours so I then went back to work on my socks and by Sunday evening I had a whole first sock done. Back to work on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday so not much time for knitting. However, by Friday, I was back in gear and back to baby hats. Actually, this next one turned out more like a toddler hat, I think, since it nearly fits June Bug. Oh, well it was only about two hours, so if I decide to keep it for my baby and make a slightly smaller one for the.other girl's baby, it'll probably knit up in a jiffy.

Last night I was determined to tackle some sort of start of seaming up the blanket for BFF's baby. I had to start somewhere, right? I tried two different techniques. Mattress stitch and whip stitch. What do you think?

Mattress Stitch

Whip Stitch

This is the back of the blanket. Hubby likes the whip stitch and I think I do too. The front looks really nice and about the same for both. I'll ask BFF what she thinks too, but I'll show her the live pieces.

So, today I am suffering with a head cold so I couldn't go to a very anticipated kids party where June Bug was invited. However, hubby had the day off and took her for me. What a great husband! I rested and of course knitted. I did a little work on my second sock and as of this evening started the second baby girl hat. I think that that hem alone took two hours, but I was watching Vanity Fair with Reese Witherspoon, so I was a little distracted. lol I love Reese! I can't beleive I've never seen it. I've watched Sweet Home Alabama probably half a dozen times! Well, Dr. McDreamy is in that one too, so you can't blame me. :)

Oh, here's how the baby girl hat #2 is progressing

P.S. In case you were wondering why I've been in such a knitting frenzy (besides trying to relax), it's because I found a new blog to follow. Yes, I've caught up on every post she's ever done. Wait, should I admit that? Anyway, what a knitter!! You can find her here http://allkindsofknitting.wordpress.com/.

A new routine?

This week my daughter was off of school due to the holiday. So, I decided to use some of my PTO to be with her. For part of it we headed to my sister's house. Every time I go there I come home with some sort of life-changing improvement idea. These ideas include saving money, couponing, building a budget...you get the picture. Well, this time it was an extra bit of desire to have a clean house. Sarah, you say, really? It probably is because my sister is in the process of moving so her normally very clean and de-cluttered house is less cluttered than ever! As you can tell from the title of this blog on my home page I generally can find lots to do besides my housework. Yuck!

I became pregnant 6 months ago, so that 'avoiding housework' feeling has increased even more and of course brought me even more grief than before from hubby. He works 45 hours a week and if you include his 45-minute commute each way he is away from home about 50 hours a week. Since I work 19.5 hours a week right now and only work 10 minutes from home, I'm the obvious choice for the majority of the housework.

So, naturally I discussed my new idea with my BFF right when I returned home and she smartly suggested I look up some help on the Internet. So, I did. I searched things like, "How to maintain a clean house" and "Keeping a clean house". I soon found several blogs and some how-tos for daily maintenance. Several had suggestions from flylady.net so I went there.  In a nutshell she has a "program" that you follow for maintaing a clean house.  Day 1 is simply to shine your sink. So June Bug and I eagerly watched the how-to video and got right to it.

So here it is two dinners, 1 breakfast and one lunch later.

  

My BFF is already eager to hear how things will play out. 

I didn't hear any skepticism in her voice, but if there would have been, I wouldn't have blamed her. Lol

I'm Bored

I’m not really sure what has really kept me away from blogging, but hopefully I’m back (probably not since I composed this way back in January 25!!) I’ve composed today’s blog about 30 times today, but honestly they were all just me examining life - mine to be exact. I think my first blog explained it all. This blog is for me! I need it. To “sort myself out” as my BFF likes to say.

The bottom line is...I’m just plain bored. The truth is we have a TV. Now understandably, we’ve had TVs in the past, but this is the first time we’ve had one permanently seated in our living room in our house of 10 years. We even bought a TV stand for it at IKEA! (One must visit IKEA once a year to buy something, unfortunately I had already made my annual visit a week earlier so sh’ant have bought it).

Now the reason I blame my boredom on my TV is that it has made me into a couch potato. I’m not joking, I'm being unbelievably honest. I caught sight of myself in my full length mirror last night and got really grossed out! So, today I bought a mocha, had a coke, ate pizza (homemade, of course), made cupcakes (ate three, albeit they were mini), and am currently sitting on the couch drinking a beer! Say it with me "c-o-u-c-h   p-o-t-a-t-o". (Here's my view).

I don’t know, maybe I’m doing a last hoorah, but I have not really made a plan, except that I need to make one! You’ve heard about my past “diets”. Let’s see what I’ve been through:

Ediets.com – Expensive and menu too expensive

 “Fat Fallacy” – Loved the purity of the anti-fake “food” but too much self-control involved. Hello, Chocolate is allowed and ENCOURAGED after dinner!

 “Body for Life” - Need a buddy and can’t find one, also exercising 6 times a week, please!

“South Beach” – Great for the first two weeks (for me) but then determining your own number of servings of carbs for continuing your “weight loss” meant for me – I’m sure I can eat them all and not gain weight! Yeah right. Also, too much fake sugar. See “Fat Fallacy” above.

“French Women Don’t Get Fat” Loveable anecdotes about how she got fat in America then came home embarrassed, but again too much self-control involved

“French Don’t Diet Plan” Yes, I’m sure by now you can see why I failed, again. I can’t control myself!

“The Abs Diet” Kinda like Body for Life, but less emphasis on the actual workout and no “Before and After photos” to encourage you to continue!

“The Sonoma Diet” Couldn’t wait for my first glass of wine, but then making my own separate meals was too labor intensive.

It's now May 23 and I'm finally posting this January 25 page. But, guess what, I'm on a new plan. Imagine that! Stay tuned :)

School rules!

I think I could have stayed in school all my life. Today (actually, May 17) I attended Constant Contact’s Boot Camp in Sacramento. What fun! You may not know Constant Contact by name, but chances are they sent many of the emails now in your in box. They are one of the most popular email marketing companies around – and I can see why.

Many things I already knew based on my use of it over the last few years, but the class certainly built upon my knowledge. I can’t wait to incorporate all its many tools and features into enticing my clients into reading and opening and engaging them into opening my company’s emails. It even makes me feel like I want to start a business all of my own just to see how I could build a company just by using this amazing tool all by my self.

You never know…