FO: Silly socks for a silly girl

Just in case you were concerned about the lack of knitting content in this supposed knitting blog, here's a pair of socks for the wee Devil:

Pattern: my own toddler-sized interpretation of Mata Hari (detailed below)

Needles: Susan Bates US1

Yarn: Knit Picks Dancing

Started: on vacation in the UK, around 8/30/07

Finished: 9/25/07

Comments: I just made up the pattern as I went along, after several abortive attempts to get the right size. I ended up casting on 48 stitches, knitting 6 rounds of k2, p2 rib and then started the pattern. Pattern row: knit 6, k2tog, yo. Repeat to end of round. Then knit three rows plain. On the next pattern row, on the first repeat knit 5, k2tog, yo. The other repeats are still k6, k2tog, yo. This shifts the eyelet over one stitch so they end up spiraling around the leg. I worked the leg until the first repeat of the pattern started with a yo (about 8 repeats), and then knit one round before starting the heel. Short row heel - I did short rows down to 6 live stiches, but I'd do fewer short rows next time since the heels are a little narrow and pointy when they're on the feet. Once the heel was do, I knit 2 rounds and started up with the pattern again. Worked the same distance for the foot, knit one round and then began decreases for the toe.

Toe decreases: row 1, k1, ssk, knit to last 3 stitches on far side of toe, k2tog, k1. Repeat on back of toe. Next row: knit all stitches. I repeated these two rows 5 times, then worked row 1 every row until there were 12 stiches total left. Then grafted the toes together and started sock 2!

Devil was very excited to have a new pair of silly socks. They weren't as silly as I had been envisioning since I remembered the yarn looking like this:

Instead of like this:

But so be it. She immediately put them on her hands and started dusting off the coffee table. Clearly not my child!

Gotta get this place cleaned up...

Look! Silly socks!

Falling off the wagon

I've been athletic for a very long time, although you might not think that to look at me. In third grade I started taking ballet lessons and by the time I was in junior high I was taking classes 6 days a week. In high school it became very apparent that I was too tall and too big (and too fond of eating!) to be a ballerina so I started rowing. I rowed, in one fashion or another, through three years of high school, four years of college and five years of graduate school. To say that daily exercise and competition were important parts of my life is something of an understatement.

Then I moved to the desert and rowing was pretty much out of the question. Ironman was big into cycling, so I took that up. And then decided that instead of just doing one new sport badly, why not do three? And so I became a triathlete. And I discovered that it's a lot harder to motivate to get out and train when you are all by yourself. But I had people to ride with and people to swim with. I was never really interested in running with anyone because I am really slow. Really, really slow. And I hate feeling like I'm holding everyone else up. So I ran by myself and slowly and surely improved.

Fast forward a few years to Houston: initially, lots of training, new group of folks to train with, new routes, etc. But then came Devil. And I found out that it's a lot harder to train consistently when you're Mama and when the alarm goes off in the morning and you've been up every two hours feeding a baby all night, a run is just not going to happen very often. Ditto a bike ride or a swim. I did get some training in and I did do a few races, but the commitment wasn't there.

Then came Boo. And if I thought training with one kid was harder, try to do it with two was even worse. While I was on maternity leave it was OK, since I could throw Boo in the stroller and go for a run during the day. But once I went back to work, things kind of went belly up again. I did one sprint tri earlier this summer, but then did not get back on my bike until two weeks ago. That's two and a half months (!) without riding. And I'm pretty sure that I would have continued on that trend were it not for the fact that several rowing buddies from grad school are coming to town to do a race with me in October. The honest truth is if I workout every day I just feel so much better.

Now here's where the tough part comes in: in order to guarantee that I get some exercise, it has to happen first thing in the morning. Like 5 am first thing in the morning. And I'm the kind of person who really really likes their sleep (although 2.5 years of not sleeping past 7:30 EVER has cured me of the ability to sleep in), and if I had my way, I'd sleep at least 8 hours a night. So I have a quandary - do I go to bed early and miss out on the down time we have once the kids are finally in bed or do I hang out with my husband, watch some TV, knit (spin), and only get 6 hours of sleep? This week I've been choosing the latter option - we'll see how long that lasts though. I've got a schedule of workouts written down and hung on the fridge. And I went and dropped $70 yesterday on this instead of more fiber, so I've got a challenge to train for. I've got a running buddy making sure I get out of bed three days a week to go run. The rest I'll have to work in myself. But it's a start. So far this week, I've gotten a workout in everyday, the last fewat 5 am. It's a start.

Boo-tooth equipped*

Right deity last week, wrong patient. Boo did manage to escape the wrath of the tummy bug from hell, but yours truly did not. By mid-afternoon last Tuesday I was starting to feel kind of wonky, and by the time I needed to be on the road to go see the Harlot, driving did not seem like a good idea. Particularly not an hour of driving through Houston's o-so-lovely rush hour traffic. So, crushingly, I stayed home instead of getting to see her. A great disappointment, since I really enjoy

her blog

and I knew it would be a good talk. In fact, I like her blog a lot more then I like her books (of which I own two). So be it. I'll get her the next time she comes to town.

My picking up the tummy bug from hell, plus Devil's somewhat inconsistent (hah!) attendance at daycare last week has made for not-so-much-progress on the knitting front. And even less on the spinning front - part II of the Tour de Wool posts is languishing with 1.5 samples left to finish, so I'm aiming to get that done this week and posted on Friday.

In other news, as the title indicates, Boo's first teeth have finally come in and she is a much happier little girl for it. When I walked into her class to pick her up on Friday, one of the teachers said "Ooooo, the good girl's mommy is here!" Apparently she'd been smiles, lightness and joy all day. Which made me wonder a) what is she like there normally? (gulp) and b) who else's child was the spawn of Satan that day to make her look so good in comparison?

*all credit for this pun has to go to Daddy Ironman, who is quite pleased with himself for coming up with it.

Harlot's here!

Or will be here some time in the next 7 hours. And I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Devil and Ironman are well enough to keep each other company in their tummy bug misery while Boo and I venture up to Spring to see the Harlot. (And if anyone up there is listening? Please don't let Boo come down with this nastiness in the middle of the Harlot's talk. I've been at home with a sick kid since LAST THURSDAY and I need a night off. Thanks!)

I may have a problem

Usually I'm able to keep working away at a project until the bitter end (aka the weaving in of ends and blocking) with no problem. But in the last few weeks I've found myself having an absolute fit of startitis, with very little to show in the way of finished projects.

First came our vacation, and the need for a small portable project to take, so I'd have something to work on in the few brief moments in the car when I wasn't in fear of my life, what with all those crazy Brits driving on the wrong side of the road and all. So I knit a pair of socks for Boo, which ended up actually being more appropriate for a newborn. And I started a pair of socks for Devil, whose current status is one sock done (ends not woven in) and the second sock to the heel. Good bus knitting, but not terribly inspiring.

Then came the Basalt Tank from Knitting Nature. This is a fun project, but I've now made it through the two side half hexagons, and I'm having trouble getting excited about casting on for another whole hexagon. OK, it's a 5/6 hexagon, but still - it's an awful lot of stitches to cast on/pick up at once.

So I pawed through the stash and started this.

This is 1) really fun, since I'm basically knitting a doily with worsted weight yarn and 2) a Christmas present for some lucky family member. In fact, this is the only picture I'll post of it, since I've only got the edging left to do, and any blocking shots would just ruin the surprise. I'm not sure who's going to get it yet, but a number of the candidates do actually stop by here once in a while.

Then there's the homespun Zeebee I started a while back, also perfect bus knitting, which has been languishing completely untouched in the bottom of my bag for more then a month. The problem is that I don't think I have enough yarn. Somehow it's easier to not move forward then it is to get half way through the last quarter of the hat, realize I don't have enough yarn, and rip it back yet again. Or find someone with a smaller head to give it to. Both of these last projects are immediate reactions to my sudden awareness that the holidays are just around the corner, and I may have built up some unreasonable expectations in my family as to the availability of handknit goodies at Christmas. For example, last year the three grandmothers in the family received this, and this, and this (a month late). What to do for an encore? Chunky acrylic hats for everyone, whee!

With all that complaining, I do actually have an FO to show you (note: the actual knitting on this has been done for two or three months waiting for the buttons to get sewn on).

Pattern: Peapod Baby set by Kate Gilbert (helpfully modeled by Panda), free on the Interweave Knits website somewhere

Yarn: Elsbeth Lavold Silky Wool in in color #45

Needles: US4 I think - whatever the pattern called for.

Started/Finished: Doesn't bear thinking about (sometime in June I think)/Last week, let's say 9/14.

Comments: A really cute and easy knit. It went very fast, and the lace panel on the front kept it from being too boring. The only modification I made was to work short rows on the neck edge instead of binding off stitches. This necessitated reworking the numbers for the top ribbing, since the pattern has you pick up fewer stitches then were left after the short rows. No big deal. It's now off to be presented to the wee one it was made for, and hopefully it will fit him for a bit.

Sigh. So now I just have to keep plugging away on the projects on the needles, and try not to hyperventilate when I contemplate the ever-growing list of holiday knitting. Like sweaters for the girls. And socks for Dad. And something for Ironman? Uh oh. I'm in trouble.