My first gold medal

Ain't it purdy? I am such a nerd!!!

It fits!

See? The sweater fits real babies too. Char is wearing it over overalls, so I know it will fit for quite a while. Char does know how to smile. I have seen her do it. I will stop posting about a silly baby sweater now.

I have finished!!!

Here it is, every seam sewn, every end woven in. Char has gone to bed so Hillary Barbara has graciously volunteered to model. If the closing ceremonies are still replaying on TV, do I still get credit? Given the setbacks I had, I am just so happy I finished mostly on time.

Stats:
Pattern: Chaos sweater from Knitty in 12 months size.
Yarn: Vintage Mary Maxim Starlette and Starlette Heather worsted-weight acrylic.
No modifications to the pattern made. If I make it again I will change the increases on the arm to knitting in the front and back of stitches instead of the M1 increase as those left holes.

Up next? Wristwarmers in my pretty Kureyon. Then I get to sit by the mailbox and wait for the big box of yarn I ordered to start on Christmas presents with.

Do I look 30 to you?

Happy birthday to me. So far, just another day. I don't know what I was expecting. It seems like such a grown-up age. I certainly don't feel like a grown-up most days. A grown-up has their shit together, right? I feel like I may be getting closer, but it hasn't happened yet. Every year of my life gets better and better. I should be happy about another year coming, looking forward to everything that will happen. I am feeling kind of meloncholy. Hubby was so happy when he turned 30--he can hardly wait for 40. I want to stay 29 just a while longer. I like that number better. It looks better to me. I feel more 29 than I do 30.

Olympic report.

Here are some shots of my Olympic work-in-progress. Don't worry, the front of the sweater is supposed to be shorter at one shoulder than the other--I will be picking up and knitting a button band along that side. I am really happy with how the cables look. I am now working on sleeves, in cream as I have only enough yarn to do the neck and button band (I hope)

I don't think I will be done by Sunday, but that is ok. I am happy with all I have done.

Olympic report.

According to Yarnharlot's evil Olympic ticker there is are 6 days, 4 hours and around 15 minutes left of the Olympics (as of the time of this post). I am plodding away to the finish line. The back of Char's sweater is off of the needles and the front is up to the underarms. I have reached a new snag: I am running out of yarn. I have enough to do the front, and hopefully the neck and button band, but there will not be enough for sleeves. There is no possible way to get more of this stuff. I am guessing the ball I have could be at least 20 years old. I have a ball of ivory in the same brand and weight, so I guess we are going for a colourblocked style.

A switch got turned on in Char this weekend and now all she wants to do is move. She is chasing one of Emmett's toy cars around the livingroom floor right now in a modified commando-crawl. When she is in her walker, she just tears up the main floor. She really surprised us with her speed and agility in it!

Emmett went sledding this weekend for the first time. Once Richard convinced him it was ok to go down a hill on a piece of plastic he thought it was ok. He didn't think it was really great until he saw another kid at the hill do it too. (Lesson learned: Dad is not as cool as a big kid is.)

Winter finally came.

Ahhh, February on the Prairies. Schools are closed today because of the severe windchill factors. If you go outside my door today you will be blasted with -45C (-49F) winds. Yeah, we are not going out today. I was listening to the radio this morning and the hosts were throwing boiling water into the air. It froze before it hit the ground. I'll have to see what tricks I have up my sleeve to keep an energetic 2 1/2 year old entertained this afternoon.

I have a drafty almost 100-year old house. My bedroom was COLD last night. I climbed under the covers and was taken back to camping trips where you try to lay as still as possible inside your sleeping bag in case you stretch out and find a cold spot. Hubby is a night owl and when he finally came to bed I warmed up. Thankfully the kid's rooms are warm. For some reason the heat does not make it to our bedroom. An old home quirk.

I am making progress on my Olympic sweater--I may actually make it to the finish line. I am having anxiety about running out of yarn. If worst comes to worst, Char's sweater will have cream-coloured sleeves instead of blue. I keep looking longingly at my balls of Kureyon--they keep asking when they can come out and play. I must not lose focus! My Snowflake yarn is calling to me too--there is a girlie pink or purple teddy bear in the yarn that wants to come out. This is the first time I have ever committed myself to knitting only one project at a time. Who knew it would be so hard?? I am not a knitting monogamist. I know very few knitters who are.

Knitter down.

Well, I may not make it through the Olympics. While I was work yesterday handing in my resignation I slipped and fell hard at the bottom of a wheelchair ramp (how ironic). Everything down the right side of my body hurts, including my wrist and hand. I probably should have had it checked out while I was at the hospital and all, but sitting for at least an hour in emerg with two grumpy children just didn't seem like a good idea.

Send happy thoughts. (and painkillers!) I hope Emmett goes easy on me today.

I am looking for a dare to be great situation.

Your Life is Like

Say Anything...

What John Cusack movie are you?

A quiz for Valentine's Day.

If you have spent your life looking for your Lloyd Dobler, you know what my title means. If you don't, then go rent Say Anything, you young whippersnapper and be prepared to swoon.

I did it. I quit my job. My boss was very nice. I left with the door open, which is just what I wanted.

While the cat is away...

Ahhh, who knew that 10 hours on a bus spread over two days could be so blissful? I knit and read and dozed while the scenery whizzed by outside my window. I may have to leave the car at home more often. When you are not responsible for the toddler asking "Are we there yet? How much longer?" it changes from grating and irritating to cute, and at most, easily ignored as you concentrate on the cool clicking sound aluminum knitting needles make as a sweater emerges from them. (yes, it is a different sound than stainless steel or wooden ones).

I love how my sweater is turning out. I am really regretting not using higher quality yarn. I have a handful of rows left on the back, then the front will be cast on today. (Why am I typing??? I should be knitting right now!)

The social was pretty fun. There were a lot of half-naked teenagers there. As I was checking IDs at the door I felt like sending most of the little girls home to put more clothes on. I got a lot of scathing looks as I stamped hands with the "no booze for you" stamp. (not that it mattered--I noticed that they all got hammered anyway)
Charlotte and Emmett are never leaving the house, unless it is to go to a convent or monastery. At the very least, I will try my best to teach them that having sex, even if clothed is not appropriate for public places. I was impressed that no one automatically got me to clean up the vomit on the floor (common hazard of being a nurse and a mom--you are the resident puke cleaner) I was also a little sickened knowing how all of those teenagers were going to get home that night--I didn't noticed anyone staying very sober.

I had a great time visiting with Robin and her family and future inlaws. It was also nice talking to the rest of the bridal party. I think that they put on a great party.

I won a basket full of chocolate at the party!!!!! (no, the draw was not fixed) I got to sleep until noon!!!!!

Meanwhile back at the ranch, Char was not giving anyone a rest. Her teeth are causing her a great amount of pain, and poor Richard did not know the trick to getting the painkillers into her. I was greeted by a sleepy hubby, crying baby and a smiling toddler clutching a video cassette sleeve. When we got home I found dishes done, floor swept, diapers washed and five baskets of folded laundry. I also found the entertainment center rearranged so that Emm (or I, for that matter) will need a stepladder to get to all of the fun stuff. I almost did a little happy dance. I did tell Richard over and over what a wonderful job he did.

I will forgive him for trying to sneak fluorescent bulbs into all of the light fixtures.

The trouble with two-year-olds.

My boy is very smart. My boy is very stubborn. My boy has a one-track mind. My boy loves DVDs and video tapes. He likes to carry them around, take them out and put them back in their cases, and watch them over and over. He screams when you mess with his plans and does not stop. This boy can throw a tantrum that will drive a sledgehammer between your eyes. He has no words, but he has volume and pitch.

I have relocated our movie collection once and now need to do it again and I am running out of patience and space. I put them out of his reach and he is now strong enough to carry a diningroom chair over to the high shelf and help himself. I cleaned out my china cabinet drawer to put things in because it is blocked by a playpen. I have no idea what to do with the stuff that was in the drawer.

I think I will be taking a big box out to the dumpster today. It is the sort of day to throw out useless crap. (and about half of the video collection--not hubby's half. Tossing out the Star Trek movie boxed set and the Star Wars movies is grounds for divorce, I think)

I need help! I am losing my mind. Did I mention I also have a baby to look after while I am doing all of this reorganizing? There is only so long she will sit in her exersaucer. Is 11:00 too early for Irish Coffee? Come on, it's cocktail hour somewhere in the world, right?

I am really, really, really looking forward to my night away tomorrow. Really, really really.

cartoon dora explorer knitting patterns

My first google hit.

Olympic Countdown

Well, the Olympics start this Friday!!! So far 3000 knitters have signed on for YarnHarlot's challenge. That means there are more knitting Olympians than ACTUAL Olympic athletes. Yeah, I know that there are no Wheaties boxes in our future, or multi-million dollar endorsement contracts, but that is still very, very cool.

I am prone to pain when I knit and this is going to be a long challenge. Lets all be kind to our bodies and heed Beadlizard's advice. Lets not all end up with tendonitis and carpal tunnel syndrome.

I get to have two extended periods of knitting time this weekend as I am taking the bus Up North to help out at a friend's wedding social. One whole night without children or husband. I will feel so lost, but I will keep my chin up and try to carry on. I am sure an uninterrupted sleep-in will help immensely!! (Thank you, Sweetie!)

Thursday night is my Stitch n' Bitch night. In honour of Valentine's day we will be making This tasty number. It will also be something fun and simple to bide the time with until Opening Ceremonies. I just hope I can find the ingredients um, materials. I was at Sprawl-Mart today and they did not have the right stuff--you'd think it would be easy to find shoe-string licorice!!

Best. Cinnamon. Buns. Ever.

My good friend Cheryl sent me this recipe and now I must share the love. You will thank me for this. Or maybe if your family is like mine, the buns won't last the weekend. Then you may not thank me after all, but consider yourself warned. Cheryl says they freeze well, but you may never find out. If you are feeling dangerous, try them with cream cheese icing and toast your nuts before adding--they will caramelize in the sugar and turn to candy in your buns. (heh, heh, I typed candy buns.)

Soft, Moist and Gooey Cinnamon Buns that will elevate you to domestic god(dess) status and cause your family bow down and kiss the ground you walk on and then volunteer to wash the dishes and do all the laundry and reorganize your shoe collection.

My favourite words.

I found this website that scans your blog for familiar words and makes a word cloud from them. Cool!

Stupid things people say.

So, my friend Cheryl and I took our kiddies to the mall this afternoon. Between the two of us there are: a three-year old, two year old, 8 month old, and a 4 month old. Yes, you can give us our medals (or drugs/alcohol) now.

The three year old needed new shoes. We went to the store were you always Pay Less. The person helping us had to have been raised under a rock or in some sort of cave, away from polite society. At the very least this woman should not be in a retail sales situation where the goal is to butter up people so they will spend gobs of money in your establishment. Yes, I know that people who work at the store where you Pay Less probably don't work on commission, but all salespeople have their sales tracked--you can get prizes and stuff. (I know this from experience)

Anyway, the little boy who needed shoes likes Dora the Explorer. There are no "little boy" shoes with Dora on them (or Diego, for that matter--wassup, Nickelodeon??) This little boy wanted to try on the pink shoes because Dora was on them. His Mom knew that one of the other three children in tow could blow like a volcano at any moment, so she found some shoes with Dora on them in his size. Enter the saleswoman. "Those are girl shoes." Uhh, do we look like we care??? Those of you with toddlers know all about choosing your battles. When the goal is to have shoes on feet, who cares which cartoon character is on them? For that matter--whose to say the small person in blue wasn't a girl in her big brother's hand me downs?? We both kind of rolled our eyes at the saleswoman, before continuing our search for shoes for the little boy. She tried to save face by making small talk about our children. She asked which of the children belonged to which of the mommies. She then turned to me and said: "Wow! You must have your hands full with two." She then glanced at me and added "And I see you are expecting again?" WTF????? Doesn't she know the cardinal rule? You don't ask if a woman is gestating unless she is telling you the time between her contractions, or talking about visits to the OB/Midwife/doula. I was gobsmacked--I mumbled something about not being pregnant (I was being polite because there were impressionable children around...and I was so stunned the appropriate snarky comment just didn't come to me) She then tried to backpedal by telling me all about her troubles losing weight post-partum as well.

Uh, Yeah. You lost me at "expecting again?".