"Hey, you're knitting!"

Yes, I have managed to start knitting again. A little. Two rows last Thursday, and four rows last night, all on my First Cable fingerless mittens (#2). That doesn't sound like an accomplishment, but believe me, it is. It felt good just to have the needles in my hands, even if only for a few minutes.

I still carry my knitting in my purse, "just in case". It used to be just in case I had to unexpectedly wait somewhere, but now just in case I find some energy.

In happier news, the little one had a first doctor visit, at which I was assured that my exhaustion (and whining, I presume) is perfectly normal, and will get better.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, and looks with optomism for the New Year!

Today, it is all about the optomism.

Knitless

The days of perpetual exhaustion and queasiness continue. I eat three lunches (10, noon and 2), and take two naps (mid-afternoon and early evening), and am in bed before 9. I am lucky if I can stomach a few bites of dinner. I can frequently be found moaning on the sofa, and at rare times, on the bathroom floor. I am starting to envy those women that throw up every morning then go through the rest of the day feeling fine.

And worst of all, my darling husband is started to wonder if I am "slacking". Ok, I realize the laundry is piling up, all flat surfaces are covered with unknown rubble, and we haven't had a decent dinner in two weeks (unless the frozen pizza counts. . .), but I assure you I am NOT slacking. If I were slacking, using the fact that my body is expending an incredible amount of energy to incubate our child as an excuse, I would be doing things I like to do. I would read or knit while I rested on the sofa. I certainly would manage to stay awake during a one-hour TV program.

Men!

And no, I haven't knit anything in two weeks. Not a single stitch. Nadda. Zero. Zilch.

So, dear, since you have a three-week holiday shutdown, what do you plan on doing after I leave for work every day?

This tirade has been brought to you by your local pregnant knitting society. Please note that tomorrow, I will be back to normal, or what passes for normal these days. T minus five weeks til the 2nd trimester and counting.

Today, it is all about the venting.

205

205 stitches is the paltry amount of knitting that I have done in the past week. Three rows on my Branching Out First Lace attempt, and two rows on my Mother's socks. It isn't even worth posting pictures. I have, on the other hand, spent an inordinate amount of time lounging on the sofa staring at the TV or into open space. I just haven't had the energy for knitting, and that is saying a lot! It is a good thing that I am not knitting any Christmas gifts this year, or I would be up a creek.

Thank you to everyone who offered congratulations on the upcoming attraction in our house, and the source of my exhaustion. (Though I know the little one doesn't mean it.) I am nearly halfway thorugh the first trimester, so that means the downhill track for the queasiness and tiredness. At least that is what I keep telling myself.

Tomorrow I have continuing education. A boring topic, but five CLE hours for only $70 is worth it. So maybe I will gather the energy to knit a little then. Wish me luck!

Itty Bitty Knitting

The experiment started. A squirt of fluid onto the testing area. A timer, set to two minutes. Twelve seconds later. . . . that is definitely a "plus" sign. It would appear that I will have itty bitty knitting in my future. And in eight months, my husband and I will be welcoming the new addition to our house. I hope the cat isn't too jealous.

What this means is that I am a little queasy ALL THE TIME. Why do they call it morning sickness if it lasts 24/7? I am also tired a lot. I am doing less than before, and yet have less time for knitting and reading. I find that I am just staring at a television screen, instead of happily knitting away. I didn't know this would be cutting into my knitting time/energy! Well, hopefully things will settle in and I will have more energy again. Hey, don't laugh. It might happen!

In the meantime, while my sweetie was hunting last weekend, I was settled under a warm aphgan, watched DVD's of West Wing, and knit lace. Three more repeats on the Branching Out scarf. I feel like I am finally mastering the pattern, and hopefully the concept of lace. I made a couple of minor errors, but was able to identify and correct them quickly. Everyone is going to make mistakes. The real trick is being able to correct the mistakes.

And for anyone who was curious, no deer were harmed in the production of this blog during hunting season. My freezer is empty, and my sweetie disappointed. Next year, darling.

Today, it is all about the positive test.

Respect the lace

Third time turned out to be the charm with Branching Out. Sunday, I successfully completed a pattern repeat. And I took note of how many stitches I should have for each pattern row to make it easier to spot an error. (Why don't lace patterns already have this helpful hint?) So, fresh with my victory, but sufficiently humbed by ending the weekend with exactly the same number of repeats as I started, I knit on it last night. One successful repeat. Yea!

I think I just did not truly resepct the complexity and precision of lace. Yes, I knew that with a chart, I was obviously doing a lot more complex knitting than normal, but apparently I was just not paying close enough attention. All I can say is thank God for lifelines.

I had my first comment yesterday. It was nice to know that someone is actually reading, though it does put more pressure on me. Must be funny. Must post more pictures. Must keep my two readers (I am being optomistic and doubling the number) glued ooey-gooey to their computer screens.

My sweetheart went hunting again last night, and came home empty handed. He was thinking about doing stuff around the house today, but instead will likely be sitting in a tree again. He is counting the number of day left in the season, what with that pesky holiday in the middle, and doesn't want to waste any possible days.

And if my talk about hunting offends anyone, I apologize. I personally would not be able to hunt, because I am squeamish. I would not be able to do the job my mother did (running the heart/lung machine during open-heart surgery) either. When we were caring for Grandma after her surgery, the nurses teased me because whenever they came in the room to check the dressing or, well, do anything, I quickly ran out of the room to fetch grandma more crushed ice or otherwise loiter in the hallway. In defense of hunting, I will only say that I don't see a difference between venison and beef, just because deer are cuter than cows. And in Indiana, they have even raised the bag limit this year because the deer population is unusually high. Obviously, the hunters aren't at risk of creating an endangered species (which would be a horse of a different color altogether.) The only legitimate condemnation of hunting I will accept is from vegetarians, in which case I hope that we can respectfully agree to disagree.

Today, it is all about the respect.

Negative knitting

It is my husband's fault that I didn't post yesterday. Not that I post every day or anything, but yesterday I felt like blogging, and it was his fault that I didn't. He took the camera. Hunting. Why he needed the camera while hunting, I have no idea, but mine is not to question why. I assume that it was in case he needed to document the hunt, which as it turned out was not needed. He spent the day watching squirrels and chipmunks, which I guess can be relaxing in itself.


I spent the day knitting, or at least attempting to knit. I decided since I was solo for the day, I would pick up neglected lace. I started Branching Out, well, a lot of months ago, and haven't touched in since. So I put on a movie, and went to work. I slid right through 8 out of 10 rows of the pattern repeat (half of which are purl entire row), and made the mistake of thinking "Ok, I am actually getting it. This isn't too bad." which should have been my first clue that something would go terribly wrong. Predictably, on row 9, I had two extra stitches at the end. I have reviewed row 9 eight times, and can find no error, so it may be that the error is in rows 1 through 7. Likely the patterned row before, since I had the correct number of stitches for that row, but I can't be exactly sure. Now, I am not working without a net here. I put in a lifeline, but you hope not to actually have to USE the lifeline. Just to make things worse, I noticed a dropped stitched a row or two before the lifeline. I was tempted just to tie a knot with a stray piece of yarn, and hide the ends in the lace, hoping that it would all magically disappear in the blocking. Now, I find that not only do I have to frog back to a lifeline, I have to frog back to the FIRST lifeline. Two whole pattern repeats. I only had three completed! I made a special point to lace knit yesterday (overcoming my odd reluctance to work on this scarf, which probably is based in numbing fear) and now not only do I have to remove everything thing I knit, but I have to undo TWICE as much as I accomplished yesterday. This is some cruel form of negative knitting! No wonder I dislike math.

My knitting time wasn't a complete waste yesterday. I worked on my second Pomotomus at Sock Club yesterday afternoon. I am almost afraid to look at it now, for fear I have to frog all of that too.




I also went through my knitting basket. I bought the basket while visiting my brother in Poland to hold my current WIP's. What I find is that it holds my current neglected and forgotten WIPs. The real ones are in my purse, workbag, on the coffee table, on the ktichen table, etc. (My husband is particularly fond of this.) So, I sorted through the basket, just to remind myself of what was in there. Not that much, actually. So either I am getting better about neglected WIPs, or I am finding better ways to hide them from myself. The search continues.





And since I recently posted my least favorite socks, I thought I would give equal time to my most favorite. (Is that a legitimate phrase? "Most favorite?") Behold, my Trek the Rib socks. Made from "Trekking" in the purple/blue colorway, in a garter rib stitch. I love these socks. I love the way the three plies gradually and randomly change colors as you knit. I love the simple yet classic stitch pattern creates a non-fussy, understated yet textured look. And for once, I was able to properly fit my own foot. I love these socks. I am wearing them now.



Happy Sunday to everyone, excuse me while I go frog lace.



Today, it is all about the negativity.

The Next Step

I took my next step into blog-geekdom this week. I learned how to join webrings. Well, successfuly join rings, I should say. I attempted to months ago, but I experienced techinical difficulties, meaning I couldn't figure out how to attach the information to my own blog. Yet, EUREKA, I figured it out. When I finally sat down, it took about 90 seconds. Why did I put it off for so long, anyway?

Next week, we learn links and buttons.

Excuse me, I am going to knit now.

Today, it is all about the tech.