and nothing to show for it.....

I've been diligently knitting on the guilt induced striped socks...though you'd never know it. The are several possible reasons for this. Either I'm a crazy anal retentive perfectionist or I'm too stupid to plan ahead and knit a darned swatch.

After I knit the socks (from the toe al the way up to the beginning of the leg) I decided that I didn't like the way the heel looked (even though I had already re-knit parts of it 3 or 4 times). So I pulled out the whole heel and started over. After I re-re-knit I had my son try the sock on. Turns out it's too big. Not only is it too long, but too wide as well.

If I weren't a crazy perfectionist I would have just thought that he'll eventually grow into the sock. If I weren't too stupid not to knit a swatch I wouldn't have had this problem in the first place.

Either way...I pulled it back to the toe and started over...So I have nothing to show for my effort. Check back tomorrow.

knitting Guilt

I have a few more little baby knit items to show off. There are two pairs of socks. One is bigger than the other, but I think that I got the proportions right on the second (all blue) pair. Babies have such funny shaped fat little feet that it's hard to get it just right.






The second is a little hat that I wipped up last night.



With the hat and the socks I have used up almost all of my Dalegarn Svale yarn. I really only have scraps left. If my calculations are correct (and lets just pretend that they might possibly be.) I have used up 3.546 yard of yarn since the last time I purchased yarn on March 19. Not too shabby.

I have started a pair of socks for my (currently) youngest son. For the past few weeks I have been knitting a lot of baby stuff. Everytime he sees me knitting anything we have the following conversation:

Him: What are you making?

Me: Socks.

Him : Are they for me?

Me: uhhh....no, they are for the baby.

Him: oh.

As I think I have mentioned, I am particularly succeptable to guilt. When it comes from an adorable little boy with white blond hair and big brown eyes I am putty in his hands. So, the Stripy socks are on their way. Stay tuned for the guilt induced aftermath from his older brother.

The perils of parenthood

It has been said that having children is like forever having a part of your heart reside outside of your body. Or something similarly smaltzy.

The more I think about this, the more it rings true. Essentially with every child, you are taking a big old risk. The problem is, when your heart isn't safely contained inside of your body bad things can happen to it. It can fall down, it can get hurt or sick.

Currently, one of my little guys is exhibiting some symptoms of a genetic disease for which I am a carrier. Initial tests indicated that my husband was not a carrier, so we were lulled into a sense of security. Turns out, those tests were not completely fool-proof and there is still a chance (about 15% depending on whom you ask) that he could still carry the defective gene.

We are awaiting the results of yet another (again not completely conclusive) genetic test. I am a nervous wreck. It has been two weeks and the results are STILL not in. Technically, I understand that this sort of test takes time. I'm trying very hard to be patient.

I'm very bad at being patient.

The worst part is, that even if the test comes back negative, I will still know that there is a (increasingly) slim chance that it is a false positive. I will continue to insist on further testing and my doctor will continue to think that I am a crazy neurotic woman. This is one of those times when being a biologist and a mom is a very bad combination.

My name is Krista and I'm a Lurker

I have to admit that I am a lurker. I read blogs and do not comment. This is doubly wrong because I so love when others comment on my blog. Yes, I am familiar with the word hypocrite.

Starting today I am turning over a new leaf. I will attempt to comment on at least one blog EVERYDAY. I have to admit that some blogs just don't do it for me. I don't want to just leave frivolous little comments like "nice font" or "I like you background". When I comment I want to to come from the heart. This is why I'm not promising to comment on every blog I read, I don't want to cheapen it.

Okay....here I go.

ugly socks and strawberries

I've given up on the really ugly socks.

I don't know why I get started with these sorts of things. I knew they were ugly when I was in the middle of the leg part. I could have saved myself days of knitting by just admitting my mistake and moving on...but NO....hope springs eternal. When I started knitting on the heel (in a third color no less) I was absolutely certain that I would NEVER wear them. It is only now, that I am on the foot, and not only is their ugliness apparent to even my 3 year old, that I am ready to admit defeat. It is not the actual ugliness that is doing me in here. It is the fact that I now realize that I will never have enough yarn to complete two matching (or even sort of matching) socks. Ugliness is one thing, but spending precious yarn buying money to complete ugliness is where I draw the line. Now I just have to decide if I will completely give up on the whole thing and just pitch it all in the trash (it pains me to throw out perfectly lovely yarn and this is really quite lovely yarn) or will I frog them and try to find something else to knit with this yarn.

As a side note I will admit that these socks weren't completely a waste of time. I did hone my two circular needle sock skills and got to use my homemade stitch markers...which I found to be quite nice.



On a completely non-ugly note....the family and I went out for more strawberry picking this past weekend. We brought home about 15 lbs of ripe, red, juicy strawberries. Since we had already processed 24 jars of strawberry freezer jam (and as my husband reminded me, there were still raspberries and peaches and plums and .....well you get the picture....to come) we decided to try to freeze the berries. Since there is no universally accepted protocol for berry freezing, and in the interest of science, I decided to try both of the more common methods.

One batch of strawberries were washed, stemmed and frozen as is, Au natural, if you will.



The second batch was also washed and stemmed, but then a bit of superfine sugar was added and they were frozen that way.





Each batch is currently residing in my chest freezer in a zipper baggie....check back for the exciting results.

Illness

I've been deathly ill...okay, i've had a runny nose and I've been really sleepy. I promise actual blog content this evening.

PENS!!

Lord Stanley, Lord Stanley, get me the brandy!



Photo credit: Chaz Palla/Tribune-Review

1991


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2009

photo credit: Getty Images

More socks

Okay....I can't find my stupid camera. That's a lie....I know just where it is, but I'm too lazy to go and get it. Since noone likes a photoless blog entry, I am attempting to take pictures with the web cam thing attached to my computer. As you can see I have had little success.



Poor photo quality not withstanding, I hope that you can tell that I am knitting yet another pair of socks. You may even be able to disconcern that they are cabled socks. I'm no good at cables. They are all screwed up and I just don't care.

Fact is, these socks are pretty ugly. By the time they are done they will be 3 different colors. Once again....don't care. They are using up a chunk of stash and I will wear them anyway. You can all just kiss my ... feet. That's the kind of day I'm having.

Swim - Bike - Run

Ethan participated in his first triathlon this weekend. It was (of course) a mini-triathlon, though I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't have finished it. It was also a "fun" triathlon...for those of you with out kids, that means that the don't keep time so noone has to lose, of course noone gets to win either. He had to swim 25 meters, bike 1 mile and then run 1/2 mile. The organizers did a great job. They even had an actual Ironman triathlete show up to give a little pep talk. The kids were unimpressed because he had never won the ironman.....7 year olds don't really get the concept of personal achievement.




Ethan burned up the pool...swimming is definitely his sport and he swam circles around the other kids. Ryan was psyched and happily cheered him on toward the biking portion of the race.



Considering the fact that he has only been riding a two wheeler for a few weeks, I think that he did a pretty good job at the mile long bike ride. Then there was the running.



Add the concept of pacing yourself to the list of things that 7 year olds don't really get. He did perk up in time to get his medal.



All in all, it was a great, fun experience. I'm not sure that he's ready to sign up for the Hawaii Ironman, but he'll probably give it another go next year.

Baby Surprise suit and a Sock

I finished off the Baby Surprise Suit, and I totally lurve lurve lurve it!!! It was actually a rather quick knit - even after I frogged parts of it four times. I am a little afraid that by the time it is cold enough to wear the baby will have outgrown it...sait la vie. It is knit from mostly cotton and a cotton silk blend (let's not discuss the insanity of knitting something for a baby out of silk...it was in the stash.) so it won't have to be too cold to wear it.


Insted of fussing around with a million little buttons I decided to use snap tape to close it up. Believe it or not, but I actually had snap tape sitting around the house...crazy I know. After several missteps I managed to sew it in there and even learned how to use the zipper foot on my sewing machine!

Finally, after all the trauma associated with the seashore socks, you may suspect that I had completely sworn off of knitting footwear altogether. But no! I am nothing if not resilient (or a masocist). I tried out Cat Brodhi's technique for knitting socks on circular needles. And do they ever soar!! I knit this one up in just over a day..granted it is very small, but it's a sock! It was also a good use of the bits of yarn I had left over from the baby suit.


The yarn diet continues....I'm hoping to find a widget to keep track of my yardage loss.

More Signs of Summer

I Lied

I know that I said that I was going to try to crochet that scarf for my next project, but that just didn't happen. I don't really understand it, but somehow a little project that I have been contemplating for a while now took hold of me. It's one of these:



For the uninitiated amongst you, that is an Elizabeth Zimmerman Baby Surprise Jacket....sort of. You see, the very smart lady at Chasing Bunny has figured out how to make a BSJ into a pants suit type of thing. I simply adore any sort of baby "lounge wear" as I call it. Even better, all this yarn came from my stash allowing me to continue not buying yarn. Yes, I am that good.