Uli's Creative Corner

Thanks for all the well wishes.  I'm trying to take it easy at home.  It's a bit hard with a 4 year old and a very understanding, yet maybe a little bit doubtful of a husband who didn't actually hear doctor's orders directly.  I think he thinks it's maybe not as serious as the doctor makes out and kind of assumes it's business as usual in terms of our division of chores and running errands etc.  I'm not sure.  I never asked if I had to stop running around doing grocery shopping etc.  I figure I'll make this a relaxing weekend though.  My Mom and Dad are coming over and Dad is helping Evan put up the border in Erika's room and Mom will play with Erika and I will sit and knit. :-)  I'm a bit doubtful myself that it is as bad as originally thought.  That doesn't mean I'm taking it lightly.  I just know that my blood pressure readings at home are much more in line with what is considered normal.  So I will keep charting my measurements at regular intervals and be taking them to the doctor's office when I go for my next visit and I guess that will help determine part of my next 3 1/2 months.

I finished the back of JoJo.  I'm so excited that all the pieces are done now.  There's quite a bit of finishing but I can totally see the end.  It's really great to be getting close to finishing this project.  I'm not sure what baby project I should do next.  Maybe to start the baby blanket that I have yarn for or maybe one of the little sweaters that I've got yarn stashed away.  We'll see.  I'm thinking I might leave the baby blanket until next weekend.  I have our 3D Ultrasound with UC Baby next Saturday and assuming baby shows the right body parts we'll know blue or pink with much greater certainty.  I bought blue baby blanket yarn.  If it's a girl, I might exchange it.   As for UFOs, I'll finish up my mitered capelet next.  I'm feeling really good about my UFO busting efforts.  Bit by bit I'm making some progress and it's not feeling too boring because I get to interject little knits that are fun to do.

I'll have more pictures next week.  Have a great weekend.

My doctor prescribed some rest to me yesterday.  My blood pressure was still up so now I'm supposed to take it easy.  I can go to work.  At home I'm supposed to sit on my butt.  Not supposed to go for walks or exercise.  Not supposed to take Erika to the park.  No vaccuuming, no trekking laundry up and down stairs.  Very light housework only, in her words "you can fix a sandwich or peel potatoes sitting down".  I guess the only good thing....... lots of knitting time........... mind you, when you're supposed to sit on your butt it's harder than it seems.  I certainly didn't succeed at home last night.  I've now got a blood pressure monitor at home to keep track of it and I'm certainly not getting the same high reading the doctor got in the office.  So, we'll see what happens.  It's the pre-cursor to full bed rest if I'm not careful and if it really is an issue.  I won't go into all the medical details but I was sent for some blood tests and now in addition to the pre-natal clinic I was starting to go to in a couple of weeks I'm also going to see another specialist.  We'll see how it goes.  I'm not particularly calm about it but I'm trying hard. 

For what was supposed to be a restful evening, I certainly didn't get much knitting done.  I started the intarsia squares on Jo Jo.  They look quite pretty.  A really nice way to break up the plain blue stocking stitch back.  I think it will be so pretty when it's done.  I've got 6 more rows to do with the intarsia squares and then just a bit of blue stocking stitch to finish the back.  Finishing will consist of putting it all together, knitting the inside pocket linings, the button hole bands and and fairly good sized collar.  So even if I finish the knitting of the back tonight or tomorrow night, the finishing could take me a few days to do as well.  But maybe at the end of the weekend I can strike something else off my list.

Better get some stuff done now.

Nope, didn't start any top downs yet...........

I'm less than 1/2 inch away from starting the intarsia squares on the back of Jo Jo.  I'm going to try and keep moving on with all of those UFOs. Here's the cutest little baby hat I finished last night:

I haven't made a pom pom in so long and I did it from memory.  I hope it will stay together.  It took way longer than I ever remembered......... hmmm.... aren't there pom pom makers out there somewhere?   The bottom ribbing is a basic 2X2 rib and I used a 68 stitch cast on for the ribbing and increased a few stitches to have the right # of stitches for the main stitch pattern.

I'm not sure what baby project I'm going to tackle once JoJo is done but I know I'll move onto the mitered squares as my next UFO completion project.  Maybe tonight I can get the back of Jo Jo close to the end and then just the finishing work on that project.

It's already Wednesday....... yeah!!!

If you've been around for a while and you've read along and seen some of my projects, I'm sure the fact that I love knitting the top down way quite a lot.  I like how these sweaters fit me and I enjoy knitting them.  Often I even just enjoy the simplicity of most top down type models.  They are a good knit when you want something simple and quick on the needles.  I had a big chore of ironing to do last night and I do it in my sewing room with my little 14" TV giving me entertainment and my "wall of yarn" giving me inspiration.  Well, the TV was uninspiring because Erika sat in the room with me watching Treehouse, her favourite channel.  So, my mind had lots of time to turn to the "wall of yarn" and think.  But remember..... I have all these unfinished projects waiting for me in the background and I'm slowly working on reducing the list.

But my mind keeps being drawn to 2 projects.  2 very simple ones.

One is the Take it from the Top from Cabin Fever.  I have some lovely Naturally Landscape yarn in the tomato colour 812) in my stash. 

The other one is a Knitting Pure and Simple pattern that I've already made once.  It's the Neckdown Jacket #201.  I have made this once and I love it.  I would make it a little longer if I were to make it again and I have some great wool yarn in my stash that's waiting to be knit into this comfortable cardigan.  Those are the two that are kind of calling to me right now.  How long do you think before I'll break down and dip into my stash instead of sticking to my UFO list?  I'm going to try and be strong.

Except for a pom pom, I finished the cutest little newborn hat last night.  Maybe I'll find some spare time tonight to make a little pom pom to finish this cute little piece.  It's so small but even at that small size, I'm still a little worried that it might be a bit big to start out with.

Tuesday already.  I hope the week will go along quite quickly.

It didn't pour yesterday so we went to the pumpkin patch.  We had lots of fun, even in the mud and the cloudy weather.  It was constantly threatening to rain but it never really started.  If we hadn't gone tomorrow we probably would have missed out on it this year.  Erika had fun. 

Here are just a couple of pictures of what we were up to:

I'm trying to look back at last year's pumpkin patch post to see how much she's changed in size in a year.  We took a picture of exactly the same pose and picture last year.  It's a bit hard to tell from comparing the pictures but it looks to me like last year Erika's head barely reached the 3 ft. mark and this year, her head is most definitely well over the 3 foot mark.  Yes, a year can make quite the difference..... they grow so fast!!!

By the time we came home, I was really tired but we did have lots of fun.  I did a little bit of knitting on the way there and back.  One of my carry along projects right now is my first little baby hat and the other is a pair of Lorna's Laces socks using LL Confetti.  Very pretty colours.

JoJo is at the armhole shaping so it's going to see completion fairly soon I hope.

I also got the First Size Jacket close to completion, however, even though I was told at the yarn shop that one ball would be sufficient, I know I will run out.  I barely have enough left to do one sleeve so I'm on a bit of a mission to find another ball of the same yarn.  If I had the time to drive all the way out to that particular LYS it wouldn't be so bad but I can't find the time to make an excursion.  So I think this one will sit for a while unless I can track the yarn down on line (I don't even care if the dye lots match).  But here it is without sleeves......... I must have not have not have had anything in focus yesterday...... a bit fuzzy........

It's a busy week with work and a busy week at home.  I'm behind on lots of things around the house.  Tomorrow night is gymnastics and on Wednesday evening Erika has a free private swim lesson because she's kind of stuck at her current Preschool 2 level and I guess after so many times through the course they give the little ones a free private lesson to help them along.  We're also dealing with the adjustment to her new furniture and sleeping in a big girl bed.  She's very excited about it but when it comes down to it she's too scared to stay in her room by herself in her new big bed.  This will be ongoing through the week, I'm sure.

As for knitting....... I must, I must, I must block the swing coat this week.  I also want to finish JoJo.  Once Jo Jo is finished, I'll get down to picking up and concetrating on the mitered sqaure capelet.

Have a great week.  I'll try and be "more regular" this week.

Did ya' notice my lack of blogging?  Well, it was one of those weeks.  We got a crazy, crazy project heaped on us at work with a deadline of Saturday at noon. It's now Friday afternoon at 5:02 pm.  Everyone pretty much has gone home but I'm waiting for one little bit of data that is supposed to be e-mailed to me any minute.  Everybody else met the deadlines and these guys just grumbled about it and weren't going to send it in until Monday.  So, they've been given marching orders but I'm sitting here waiting for them to push the send button.  I'm kind of frustrated right now as I'd like to go home.  It's been a long week.  I'm tired.  Baby has been active all day and my body is sore from sitting in front of the computer all day long without much diversion.

Needless to say, I haven't knitted all that much.  My little first size jacket is almost finished but I'm going to run out of yarn before I'm done.  Bummer.....  It's very cute, too.

Unfortunately, having some time to wait for this file to arrive in my in box is giving me some time to think and for some reason I just started to think about the Sock-pal-2-zaa project.  I had great fun making my socks and I received awesome socks from my sock pal.  They are so cute.... gotta say, "thanks" one more time.  I sent my socks off to my sock pal a little late but at least a month ago now and I haven't heard peep.  So I wonder if I should be worried that they never arrived or that they weren't liked or didn't fit?  I don't want to e-mail and ask.  That seems a bit silly.  It just leaves me out to wonder what happened to them and whether they found a good home.  Maybe I'll know one day and maybe I won't.  I guess I should just get over it...........

On our system, we can see who is on line and at least now I can see that he has logged on so maybe my e-mail will come soon. 

We're going to the mall tonight to buy a gift for a little friend of Erika's.  She wants to buy her a scotter.  Mommy says "No Way".  We'll figure out something else.  Might be an interesting battle.

But at least it's the weekend.  I got my file.  I e-mailed it all off and I'm out of here.

Hope everyone had a fun weekend.  We had a busy weekend with Evan's birthday and everything.  I did get to make a little visit to Village Crafts, one of my favourite LYSs in the area but I have to admit, for once, I wasn't "having to have" this, that and the other.  I'm not sure why....  I ended up buying a couple of really soft balls of DK yarn to make some newborn hats with. 

Hooray!!!! I finished the swing coat.  It's just not blocked yet.  My main challenge in blocking will be to straighten and stretch the i-chord edging along the front pieces.  Other than that, I think it will be a wearable piece for me, especially through the next couple of months of getting bigger.  This should grow with me fairly nicely.  Here's a shot, taken on the carpet under fairly bad lighting.... you get it, not the greatest picture.  This project has been over a year in the making and it's been a tough project to stick to over time.  I put it away for months at a time but always brought it back out.  Now I just have to figure out where in the house to find enough room to block it.

It feels good to get it to this point.

JoJo is also growing.  I hope to complete the back this week some time.  I'm only about an inch away from the armhole shaping.  I've just been dragging this project around and doing a few rows here and there.  I'm looking forward to having this one finished as well.

As I'm plowing through some of these projects, I think it's about time I start another sock.  I have a couple of unfinished socks on the needles but I need something new in the sock department.  I think I'm going to do something with one of my Lorna's yarns.  I might even just make a basic stockinette stitch Lorna's sock rather than trying a pattern on the pretty, pretty yarn.

I also started a little baby something this weekend.  It's called "First Jacket" and I got it as a pattern from the Knit and Stitch Shop.  It's the cutest little top down, tiny little newborn jacket.  I'm almost ready to divide for the body and the sleeves.  This little project should be ready for a showing in just a few days.

Well, with the fall weather having arrived, I'm also in the swing of knitting.  It came easily but it is coming at a sacrifice..... I'm getting less time to be active as we're not even going out for evening walks.  I need to keep myself active so that I don't turn into a total couch potato by the time I'm 8 and 9 months pregnant.  When I was pregnant with Erika, Evan and I were still going for fairly long walks even close to my due date and it was really good for me.  If I keep sitting on my bum every evening, that won't happen.  So I've got to step it up again.  I should probably get back to my lunch hour routine of walking outside or going for a quick, easy trip to the Y for 15 or 20 minutes on the treadmill.

Another busy week here.  Enjoy your week.

Well, back from the Doc and the results of the ultrasound came back normal.  Baby looks fine.  So I'm relieved.  We heard the heartbeat better today and it was 140.  My blood pressure was up a bit and the moment I hear that I start to stress........ instead, I should be destressing........ right?  But then, I was super anxious for the appointment today just because of hearing about how the ultrasound went etc.  And the "wonderful" ultrasound tech who said baby's gender would be written up in the report to the doc didn't include baby's gender in the report.  A disappointing end (in that sense) to a disappointing ultrasound experience.

I got some good knitting done last night and I'm so happy to say that the 2nd sleeve on the Top Down Swing Coat is nearing completion.  I just might be able to do it tonight.  Yahooo!!!! Only 12 more garter stitch ridges.  Yes, the whole thing was done in garter stitch and is all in one piece on my lap now.  Last night that was just right because I was cold and it was a dark and rainy night.

The back of JoJo is progressing nicely.  Slowly but nicely.

After much thinking, the Victorian Ruby scarf is going "bye-bye".  I saw a very pretty little scarf that will work well for the rest of that kid mohair I'm using for the Victorian Ruby and will start that when the time is right.  (I don't have the link with me for that particular pattern today but it's a free pattern and I'll dig it up and post it).

The Flower Basket shawl is also going down the drain, in the yarn I was using.  The yarn is just  too busy for that pretty lace pattern.  The yarn is destined to be something else.  I saw what that something else could/should be but I can't track down the source for the pattern.  Have to dig a little more.

Dropping down my list of WIPs......... all the others stay.

And here are my new/old cross stitching adventures:

On the left is the cover of a kit from Dimensions "The Gold Collection" and it's a lovely Christmas design that I started probably two years ago and so far I haven't even finished a whole teddy bear yet.  The saying on it says "Keep the Christmas spirit alive all year long" or something like that.  On the right is a pre-stamped, pre-quilted little baby quilt with the guy all adults love to hate if they have young children............ Barney.  I bought that for really cheap years ago and have never done anything with it.  I pulled it out again and here is what I've done so far:

I have absolutely no visions that this will be done before baby arrives but it's kind of a fun distraction.  If I get home from work before Evan and Erika I try and sit down and stitch a thread or two.

How did it get to be Friday tomorrow already?  Yeah!!!!

Long weekends are awesome, especially when they are filled with down time.  I've needed one of those for weeks now and I got it.  I didn't even leave the house yesterday.  It was raining until late afternoon and I had a very relaxing time.  Sunday we had Thanksgiving dinner at my Mom's and Dad's and we kept Erika home from swimming because she had a cough and wasn't feeling great so it was quiet indeed.  We already got all of our groceries on Friday night and I got produce and a f ew other things on Saturday morning and that was it.

I wanted to thank everyone for their ultrasound comments.  I'm an extremely nervous patient, in general, so when it comes to issues relating to this pregnancy, I go into hyperdrive.  I'm not so much worried about the ultrasound but I'm still sad that I don't have a picture from the experience.  My dr. appointment is on Thursday so I will find out then whether everything looks okay or not.  Until then, I'm trying to remain calm.  Even if something turned up wrong on the ultrasound, I don't think my doctor would call until that appointment because she probably will only get the report today and it's so close to the appointment date already.  Really, I don't have any reason to believe that anything should be wrong.

And for a quick update on our $1,000 (plus) cat.  I didn't notice that she wasn't well before we started all of these tests and X-rays and medications.  I was quite sceptical and maybe a little sarcastic about the whole process.  The only signs were the throwing up.  Well, she's been on her meds for a while now and she almost takes them voluntarily now.  Popping the pills has actually become fairly simple as Spice just let's my open her jaw now without resisting too much.  This weekend, I've really been noticing a difference in her behaviour though.  She spent more time downstairs, hanging out with us and purring in our ears and just being around.  She hasn't done that for a while and we just wrote it off to still not being comfortable around Erika (which she isn't) but she definitley returned to being more sociable.  Except when she snuggles herself into the sleeping bag that's sitting on Erika's new mattress (we have the mattress but not the furniture yet).  See for yourself:

As for projects.......... I didn't get everything done that I set out to do but I did a few other things as well.

Get this!!!! Sleeve # 1 on the swing coat is done and I'm on my way into the second sleeve.  I'm so excited because I can see this project coming to completion very soon now.  I will stick to it and perservere.  I'm so close now.  Since the sleeves are top down, I will have fewer and fewer stitches as I go.  Can I finish it up in 2 nights?  I hope so.

I didn't start the back of JoJo but I did finish the back of the Lucy Neatby Celestial Baby sweater. (no picture, sorry).  I was on the last garter ridge for the shoulder button hole bands and my Addi Turbo Natura 3mm snapped right off at the joint.  Arrrrgh.......

I also resurrected the Victorian Ruby scarf from a recent Knitter's (Winter 2004).  I'm working on the drop stitch length of the scarf.  I dislike the drop stitch pattern very much but I still think it will be a pretty scarf when it's done.  I took it with me to Thanksgiving dinner at my Mom's.  All of a sudden I discovered this:

Do you see the very distinct "kink" at the top of the picture?

I can't figure out what I did.  Did I inadvertently add or drop some stitches and then pick them up (or decrease) again later?  Did I knit more loosely/tightly?  Opinions would be appreciated as to whether you would ignore it and hope it will block out.  Ripping back is really not an option.  The other two options are stopping here and starting over with the rest of the yarn as I'm pretty sure I've got lots even with the yarn I've already used.  In some ways I feel like abandoning it altogether.  Is it worth to keep going?   Obviously the whole thing will need a really good blocking but I'm not sure that the kind won't always show.  Will it drive me nuts just to know it's there even if it won't be noticable wrapped around as a scarf.......... hmmmmmmm.........

And look, the little Phildar Neige hooded cardigan is done and seamed.  I just need to go and get a zipper and put that in.

I think it's just too cute.......

I'll talk about my cross stitch adventures tomorrow.  No sewing was accomplished this weekend.

Have a great week.  I'm glad it's a short one for me (although they do sometimes seem longer).

No new baby pictures to show.......... why? I was never given one and at the end of my ultrasound yesterday I was too flabbergasted to even ask for one.  Both Evan and I were.  I've had 4 ultrasounds in my 2 pregnancies so far and most of the techs were quiet and diligent doing their work and that's a good thing.  However, all the others at the end, spent some time showing us the neat things about baby and gave us some information.  As expected, none of the information they give at this point is diagnostic because that's up to the doctors but at least they have taken the time to show some of baby's features in detail.  This guy, in a matter of 2 minutes just showed arms, head, legs and that was about it.  Most techs have at least made some comments to me about "things look fine, don't worry" or something along those lines and in my state of constant worry, I'm trying hard not to take this guy's apparent lack of communication skills to mean that he discovered things that didn't look right and therefore didn't say anything.  I'm trying to not go there!!!!  The only thing that makes me feel okay are two things: One, I saw all the hands and fingers and feet and toes and the ltitle beating heart.  Two, my due date was determined in the beginning as February 18.  My first ultrasound put that calculation about 2 or 3 days off.  This ultrasound determined my due date as February 20th.  Again, 2 or 3 days difference.  So to me, the untrained individual, this makes me think that at least baby is growing proportionally and at the expected rate.  So I won't worry about the rest until I go see my doctor next week for the results - or at least I'll try not to worry.  I did ask whether he could tell the gender even though I knew he wasn't supposed to tell me (but you don't find out anything if you don't try - some will tell and some won't).  He said, yes, he woud write it in the report for the doctor.  And I know my doctor will tell us........... so by next week, we might know.  This time it seems very important to me to find out - even though I really don't care - I'd just like to decorate the room accordingly and knit in appropriate colours.

And you know what.......... if you've ever had an ultrasound, you know about drinking the water............ knitting isn't distracting enough of an activity to make it any more comfortable especially if you're the passenger in a car going over lots of pot holes and speed bumps.   I do now know though why I'm so uncomfortable.  Baby is positioned in a way that puts its feet right under my rib cage and it digs its heels right in.  Yikes.

We also had a lovely dinner out to celebrate our anniversary.  Very lovely........... nice and quiet and all by ourselves.

I've been straying a bit from my knitting but yesterday I carried along a project I started in the movies a few weeks ago.  A basic simple little baby sweater using sock yarn.  I'm using Lucy Neatby's Celestial Baby Sweater design using some Opal Rodeo, colour 1155.  A few minutes knitting on that go a long way.  The back is almost finished.

It's a long weekend here in Canada and I have some goals:

• finish knitting the Phildar Neige Baby sweater
• start the back of JoJo
• spend a little bit of time with the top down swing coat
• pack up and stuff my sock advent calendar goodies
• do some craft projects with Erika (Thanksgiving/fall related) - any ideas would be very welcomed
• make an apple pie to have for dinner on Sunday (we're going to my Mom's for Thanksgiving and I just called her to offer that I'd make an apple pie for dessert)
• finish the Softee Baby Quilt
• Relax...................

Fortunately, there doesn't seem to be a lot of housework this weekend.  Evan is home today with a sick Erika so he will probably start on the vaccuming etc.  I'll have to do some ironing and laundry.  We have soccer and swimming.  And maybe, just maybe, if I have a bit of time left, I'll pull out one of my cross stitch projects.  I've got a big Christmas one on the go and I'm thinking I should pull it out and put a few stitches in it every once in a while.  If I wasn't so busy, I'd take half a day of vacation.

Speaking of busy........ back to the things that are calling me.  Have a great weekend and if you're up here in Canada, have a great Thanksgiving weekend.  Enjoy!!!!