The Gamble Life

Lace & Socks (how unusual!)

Chris likes to tease me by saying I have the tastes of an old lady...and I guess I do when it comes to lace knitting, if you believe the stereotypes anyway!  This is a sampler pattern I'm working on; when it's finished it will be a half circle with five or six different lace patterns in half rings.  I love the color of the yarn, and I love that I bought on some crazy discontinued sale for $6 or something crazy like that.  This picture is after the first two lace patterns, so I've got quite a bit to go.  Also, since it is knit from the center out each row or section increases the number of stitches so it takes longer and longer to knit across.  Worth it though!

I've also made it through round three and into round four of Sock Madness.  I believe I finished seventh overall, first in my division.  I am planning on giving these to a friend who I think will really like them.  Of course, I don't have her foot measurements and she has bigger feet than me, so I just sort of guessed.  These are very stretchy socks though and I think should fit her fine.  Ravelry'd here.

I also finished two shop samples to take to Maryland Sheep & Wool (which I really wish I was going to!) for a friend of mine who dyes yarn and sells it, Mary Ann, of Three Waters Farm.  Her yarn is just wonderful and her colors amazing.  I knit Skew, from Knitty, which is just such a cool pattern.  Ravelry'd here.

And I also knit Multnomah (a free pattern), also from Three Waters Farm sock yarn!  This will be a present for a good friend of mine, when I get it back (well, at her birthday!).  Ravlery'd here.

A kid's work is never done.

Especially when his lazy parents never bothered to rake last fall.

Baby Days

So the other day I read a really great book, The Host by Stephanie Meyer (yes, that Stephanie Meyer, the author of Twilight et al).  It's science fiction, but also a really human story and just very compelling to read.  I recommend it.  I was so into the book that at one point I had given Abe a snack and I knew he was doing something with it that I wouldn't ordinarily let him do but I just didn't care because I had to keep reading.  And what was little Abe doing?  Filling my bag with cheese, of course.  And taking it out, and putting it back, and so on.  He was really happy doing this!  I got to read a lot of pages!

It was, however, the last straw for my trusty and well-used diaper bag/purse.  Chris gave me this bag when Gus was just born and I carried it for three years with him, and almost two years with Abe.  The piping was coming apart, it had grime on the inside that just wasn't budging and I had already realized that it would be all used up as soon as Abe potty trains.  (It's a BIG bag--marketed as a travel bag--so perfect for carrying the many changes of clothes you need when a little one is learning to use the toilet reliably.)

After the cheese incident though it's retirement date had to be moved up.  Now I love bags, and I love shopping for and buying and using new bags, so this wasn't exactly heartbreaking.  Except that in a little way it was.  Somehow, giving up this diaper bag and buying a smaller, somewhat cuter but probably less utilitarian bag, made me really sad.  Abe is my baby and he isn't a baby at all anymore.  He'll be two in less than a month and he can and does so many, many things all on his own now. 

I am not at all comfortable with being done with the baby stage of my life.  I feel like I waited my whole life to get here and it's over in a flash.  I'm not saying it's all roses and sparkles, lots of it is really hard, but it is also really great, and for me, it is the one thing I always wanted and never changed my mind about.  And now it is probably over and that is heartbreaking for me.

I don't know if we had one more whether I would feel this way when that baby was turning two, or if I'd feel okay with it.  Right now, I think one more would feel complete to me the way two feels incomplete, but who knows, maybe this is just the way it sometimes feels when your baby days are over.  I'm going to keep hoping Chris changes his mind though, even if I'll feel exactly the same way again.

Matching

I love putting my boys in matching clothes--luckily they seem to like it too.  This is the third year I've knit them matching sweaters and I hope to keep the tradition going even though the knitting involved obviously gets greater every year.

This is a lovely pattern, pikkuveli; not free, but worth paying for.  The yarn I used is Cascade 220 a nice sturdy yarn that comes in over a hundred colors I think.  It is not washable so the sweaters do require a little bit more care.  Gus' sweater is already showing a bit of wear, which is disappointing.  However he wore it at least twice a week since I finished it and he is not the type to take extra care of it just because I made it.  I regularly find pine straw, leaves, and sand from the playground in and on it not to mention bits of lunch.  I also saw him make a lasso out of it and play tug of war with it.  So all in all I'd say the yarn is holding up beautifully.

Abe's on the other hand is still pristine because he's only consented to wear it one time.  Here's hoping he likes it more next year!  Projects are ravelry'd here and here.

Gus Eats A Pear

Or tries to anyway!  Poor kid has no teeth.

365: March

If you want to see the pictures in individually, in their true rectangular shape, click here.

Kids and Cars

Or maybe, my kids and cars?  Gus before him and Abe now absolutely adore playing in the car.  For a long time...like 45 minutes at a time.  And it isn't just my car, playing with the knobs and steering wheel and blinker arms, they both also love to play in the back of my mother's truck.  Something about being in the car (or truck) is just so exciting to them around 2-3 years old.  Almost every day after we drop off Gus at school we come home and Abe plays in the car before coming inside.  And even after 30 or 40 minutes he doesn't actually want to come in, but there is only so much I can do out in the car, plus there is the mid-morning poop to contend with!

If only riding in the car, in his car seat, were as fun for him.  Abe doesn't scream the whole time we're in the car or anything like that (thank goodness since we log a fair amount of car time taking Gus to and from school), but he does complain and demand:  about the sun, the wind, not being able to reach the books and toys he's thrown on the floor, wanting "wawa" or "etzel" or something mysterious that I can't decipher.  Just in the past day or two though he's gotten more interested in seeing and talking about the trucks and cars we see on the road "big tuck" "BIG TUCK"!  And in yet another sign of his genius, he identifies every VW Jetta that we see as "Dada!"

Since we're heading to DC shortly for a visit with some of my best friends I'm hoping that watching for big trucks and other exciting cars, plus hopefully a nice long nap, will get us there without too much screaming.  I should pack some earplugs though, just in case, because this kid?  He has LUNGS.

The Sock Bug is Sticking Around

I am still really excited about knitting socks.  I finished five pairs in March which is definitely a new record for me (some of them were started in February).  Some for Chris:

On Ravelry here.

Some for me:

Ravelry'd here.

Ravelry'd here .  And seriously, aren't these socks sexy?

Some as part of Sock Madness IV:

These you've seen, they got me through round 1:

Ravelry'd here.

And these, which got me through round 2 and are the first pair of fair isle socks I have ever knit:

Ravelry'd here.

These were a true learning experience!  But I am happy and proud to announce that I can now knit fair isle holding both yarns in my left hand at the same time.  Woo hoo.  My tension is so tight that I have to switch from a 0 needle, my usual for socks, to a 2.5 or 3 needle AND pay attention to knitting loosely.  That is fun!

My first attempt couldn't even get half way up my foot (sorry about the state of that foot, by the way, I've got a pedicure planned!):

And when you flip them inside out you can see how inconsistent my yarn handling was as I figured out what I was doing.

I'm so excited I stumbled across Sock Madness (it's a speed sock knitting competition loosely based on basketball's March Madness) because I don't know how long it would have taken me to try fair isle without the motivation of wanting to advance to the next round.

By the way, the links to Ravelry will now work for anyone; you don't have to be a member of Ravelry.

365: February

You'll notice I'm one photo short...I did miss one day.  I can't even remember why now; I think some portion of the family was vomiting or otherwise sick that day requiring all my time and attention.

Happy Easter!

I finished Gus' angler fish for his Easter basket.  What do you think, will he like it?  Does it make think springtime?

Hey, if you've knit one too, post a comment with a link to a picture!  I want to see the other angler fish out there.  Ravelry'd here.  Pattern is from the excellent and very cool Amigurumi Knits.