Almost July? Already??

Holy crap, I didn't realize I've been neglecting my blog for a whole four months! I thought it had only been three.

A lot has happened, of course. Jonas turned one. He walks sometimes. He has eight beautifully white teeth. I quit my self-imposed monthly knitting challenge because I realized it wasn't very much fun. We've traveled down to Aiken twice, and both times I meant to blog from the world's most awesome Mac but was thwarted by motherhood, knitting, and a newly minted teen (Tarra). I bought a new dishwasher and some plane tickets to Vegas and a Secret Destination, instead of buying myself an awesome Mac laptop to replace this Thing I Suspect Will Catch On Fire Soon. (Because of the the broken thingy where the battery thingy plugs in....I told ya'll about that, didn't I?) We went to Emery's first birthday party. I had a birthday. Jonas was baptised. I rejoined the Methodist church I grew up in. We went to a family reunion WHERE NOBODY CRIED (clearly that was Jason's family and not mine).

I'm sure other stuff happened. Maybe I'll recall it. Maybe I'll go more in-depth on some of the things mentioned above. Or maybe not. I may post pictures. Or not.

I spent a lot of the last four months debating on whether or not to continue blogging. It can be such a Chore and Not Fun. It can be a security hazard. (It's so not fun to not be able to blog in the moment when we're on the road.) And nearly everyone who reads this blog is a friend of mine on facebook so you sometimes (rarely) get updates there. But when it came down to it, I'm just not ready to let go of this outlet for my voice. If I get around to it, I may start another blog, using a nom de plume (which I would let you faithful readers know about, of course) so I can blog anything and everything from wherever and not have to worry about the safety of my house. Oh the things that run through my mind at 3 am when I can't sleep!

Meli and Other Jason "surprised" me with a visit last night. It was supposed to be a surprise, but when I caught my husband CLEANING the house, I knew something was up. My crafty mind figured out what was going on last Friday, and I then spent all weekend teasing Meli, not letting her know I knew until she was a half hour away. I texted her that I was on my way home from swimming (!) and that I might or might not get to the house before her. She was like "WHAT?!?!?! HE TOLD YOU????" And I said, "You have to get up pretty early to pull one over on me." (That's all paraphrased because I'm too lazy to go get my phone and review the actual texts.) They were just here for the night, but I'm happy even with the short visit. We ate dinner at Red Lobster and breakfast at Paula's Hot Biscuit.

Unfortunately for Other Jason, his Kentucky trips continue to be cursed. The last time he was here, he had to replace his drive shaft. This time is was the alternator and battery. And he gave the Bronco a thorough tune up before hitting the road! I told him it was a sign from the universe that it was time to by a hybrid sedan. He may have been more receptive to the suggestion had he not been folded up in the front seat of the Rabbit at the time. (I did point out that a Rabbit is NOT a sedan!)

Off to take care of my son and knit something.

P.S. Frankenthong is hitting the road with Meli and will reach M in time for her 39th birthday! I have requested pictures of her face when she opens Frankenthong and also a picture of her wearing Frankenthong (over her pants, of course) to be posted on the blog later. Because I know you'll want to experience that.....

February Challenge Announced. And Completed. (!)

Thong. Thong. Thong. Knitted Thong. The February Challenge is/was a thong. The usual craziness of my life is not what delayed this posting. Rather it's the fact that I am somewhat a Victorian at heart, and the thought of discussing a thong on the internet with possible strangers had me paralyzed. So deep breath......I KNITTED A THONG.

Really it's a Frankenthong. It started out as the bottoms to Joan McGowan-Michael's Basic Baby Doll and Panty (ugh! my least fave word ever) from her book, Knitting Lingerie Style. Oh, here's where I tell you a very important rule to the challenge that I failed to mention.....All of the yarn has to be from my stash. The pattern calls for Adrienne Vittadini Celia, which is 109 yds/50g of 100% silk. From my stash I pulled a skein of........I Love This Cotton! #24 Ivory, which is 180 yds/100g of 100% cotton. Silk, cotton. Silk, cotton. A child can see how this was going to go wrong fast. As I had promised Jason, I did not start on the thong right away. I waited until the 4th and cast on. I updated Meli all day long. I bragged about how quickly the thong was knitting up. I finished it that night, minus the elastic in the waistband. The next morning I sent her this text: "Omg. The thong turned out horrrrrrribly wrong. Horribly. Everything was going along fine & the next thing I know, I've got a skinny diaper for a big sumo wrestler......I knew the project was too easy!" Followed by this:

And then this: "Amazingly I had NO CLUE how bad things were until I finished knitting and really saw how loooooong the waist band was. It's, oh say, 9 in too long. Hello. That's almost A FOOT TOO LONG!"

I could have fixed it that Friday. I could have picked a different thong pattern. I could have tried to find a different yarn in my stash. Did I? No. I dropped the GIANT thong on the middle of my dining room table and tried in vain to ignore it until last week. I read Days of Gold by Jude Deveraux, started The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, knit a baby sweater for Alaina's new baby boy, knit a pair of modified Bella's Mittens for Trena, watched every minute of the Olympics aired on NBC and USA, finished a celtic horse cross-stitch that I had started two years ago, and did my usual take-care-of-baby/hubby/cats/house routine. I also considered participating in the 2010 Knitting Olympics but nixed the idea as I am still recovering from my tight deadline in January.

Finally, I could no longer ignore the thong. And I was tired of pushing it out of the way everytime I sat down to a meal. I didn't want to frog the whole thing since I thought the main part of it was somewhat okay. I grabbed my scissors and decided that even if I completely ruined the thong by cutting it up, I only had a days work invested in it, so what the heck. I cut the whale-sized waistband off, held the rest up to a thong from my young'un days (which is why you should never get rid of anything....might come in handy someday) to figure out the "butt strip" length, hacked off some of the length there and whipstiched the end like crazy to prevent unraveling. Then I actually figured out my guage, multiplied that by desired waist length, cast on the appropriate number of stitches, cast off, dug out some elastic, and voila.

It's not pretty, and I don't think the lucky recipient can wear them as a real undergarment. But that wasn't really the point since she doesn't wear underwear. I will protect her identity by only saying that her first initial is M and she lives in Virginia and ripped the seat out of her jeans in spectacular fashion the first day I met her. (And that's how I know she doesn't wear underwear.)

Lessons Learned in February:

1. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.

2. Some things have no substitute. Or cotton is nothing like silk....

3. Finishing projects, old or new, is really, really satisfying.

4. I like store-bought underwear very much.

For March, I will be knitting two socks at once on a long circular needle. Oooooh.

Quick Jonas update.....we went for his 9 month wellness checkup on the 2nd. He weighed 21lbs something ounces (the card is in a pile somewhere.....) and was 29 1/4 in tall. He's 80th percentile for height, 75th for weight, and 60th for his head size. His third tooth has poked out, and he has three more that are ready to make their debut any day now. He continues to be a totally awesome baby!

We ate at a bad Chinese buffet in Paris yesterday after taking Aunt Esta to church (where they applauded her being there because she hadn't been in so long....too funny!). Jonas was very excited to get to wear Grandpa's watch and hold a fortune cookie and wouldn't hold his arms still for a picture.

January Challenge- Complete!!

As I type, the lace nightmare is upstairs, blocked and drying. I had to switch gears and knit a different shawl than the one I had originally begun knitting. I started the new pattern on the 22nd. I DO NOT advise knitting lace against a tight deadline! I will still knit the other shawl, but it will have to be a two-month-long challenge. I know it can be knit in a full month.....I'd like to be able to take enough time to do it properly, though. I kept screwing it up. Might have something to do with chasing a very mobile, very fast, almost 9 month old baby around my non-baby-friendly house. Yeah, I guess I need to do more than sweep the cat fur from the living room floor and plug up the outlets. Maybe I'll work on baby-proofing and cleaning during the next two days during my knitting time-out. (I had to swear to my husband that I wouldn't knit for at least two days once the lace was finished. And after my 19 HOUR knitting marathon last night.....my fingers are super swollen. I should finish typing and go stick them in the snow.)

Sorry for the bad pictures. Blogger and I continue to have disagreements on how well my pics should load. (I believe they should look normal, and Blogger believes otherwise. Oh well. This is a free service, and I shouldn't complain!)

Pattern: Fir Cone Wrap by Wendy D Johnson

Yarn: Knit Picks Shadow in Lost Lake Heather (This was an old color that I bought a few years ago.)

Lessons Learned in January:

1. As stated above, don't knit lace against a tight deadline.

2. Don't give up.

3. Be open to change.

4. Keep going even when you think it's impossible.

5. I am married to the most understanding and supportive husband in the world. (Ok, Ok, so I already knew that, but I had to say it again!)

6. You can't add days to the month. (I tried to tell Jason that January might have to be extended to the 32nd or even 34th, but he wasn't buying that....)

7. Sometimes you have to stop and read a book. (I read The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club by Gil McNeil to break up the monotony of k8, k1, YO, k3, sk2p0, k3, YO, k1, YO, k3 and so on for 44,460 stitches, not counting all the stitches I had to rip back and re-knit. I do recommend this book.)

8. The dishes don't do themselves. Nor does the laundry wash, dry, fold, and put itself away. If only!

February challenge project to be announced soon.......

On the Wagon

I'm talking about the year-long-bloggable-project bandwagon.  Like cooking all of Julia's or Martha's recipes.  Or spending a year trying to find happiness.  Or cooking a $5 dinner every night for a family of four.   I read on the web or saw on the news a story about how the year-long project is the new thing to do.  All the cool kids are doing it....so then, what is my project?  Well, don't get too excited, folks.  I'm not out to change the world or get a book deal.  I just want to challenge my knitting skills.  That being said, I'm going to knit something new every month (knit it AND finish it).  And by new, I mean an item I've never knit before.

My first project is a lace shawl with a difficulty rating of experienced (which I'm not concerning lace).  I started it last week, and after casting on 624 stitches with lace-weight yarn and size 3 needles SIX TIMES, I am in the groove.  It's not so bad.  (And this is where the Knitting Goddess strikes me with a bolt of lightning...)  I promise pictures the next time I'm not blogging from Pixi because I have nooooo idea how to put pics on the blog from my phone.  That's way too advanced for me.

now, back to my knitting.  January will be over before I know it, and I've got a ways to go on my first year-long-bloggable-project project....

pixi dust

Hello, 2010! You've been good so far...Jonas took his first steps on his very first New Year Day.  We finally had a decent snowfall.  Jonas really enjoyed crawling in the snow.  (And then I realized that he's never even touched grass, yet!)  Last saturday, Jason & I finally upgraded cell phones. Yay!  I got a palm pixi.  And in case, you're wondering, I LOVE this phone!  I'm even blogging from it now.  Watch out world!  

Squeezing In Another Milestone Before 2010

So I walked into the nursery yesterday when Jonas was supposed to be napping. Instead I found him STANDING UP! When Jason came home from work, he had to lower the crib again. Now it's on the lowest setting- you know the one for when the crib is converted into a toddler bed? It's so far down, I won't be able to change the sheets anymore because I'm not tall enough. (Oh gee, guess Daddy will have to change the sheets now. Darn.) Just like when he learned to roll over, learned to crawl, and learned to sit up from laying down, now all he wants to do is stand. You know what this means, don't you? Walking. Unless he skips walking and goes straight to running.....

30? Really? When Did That Happen??

Last night (or early this morning, more truthfully), I was tossing and turning in bed as I do every night (or every early morning), and it hit me- I'm THIRTY. It's not like I just turned 30 like Jennifer and Michelle. No, I've been here since last June. I think what surprised me most about realizing that I'm 30 is that I have absolutely no recollection of ever imaging what thirty would be like. (You know how you picture what life will be like when you turn 16, 18, 21.....) For me, 30 feels like 20, except for the odd aches and pains, the popping and cracking, the heartburn and insomnia. Is 30 supposed to feel like 20? Will 40 feel like 30? If 30 doesn't feel like what I think 30 should feel like, I can't even imagine the feeling of an age like 80 (God willing)!

There is one age related thing that I have imagined and that's climbing Mt Kilimanjaro for my 40th birthday. Well.......I had decided to push that back to my 45th, so Jonas would be older and also so that if he has younger siblings, they'd also be old enough to go on the trip. And then I watched a program on PBS about the mountain, and let me tell you, that IMAX program lied about the difficulty of Kilimanjaro. So as I'm watching it, I'm starting to lose my interest in climbing to the top, and then the narrator says the magic phrase: active volcano. Oh, hell no. I'd rather go lie on a beach in the Turks & Caicos for both my 40th and 45th, thank you very much. (The program also made me sad because the narrator said that the glacier at the top might be melted away by 2016, which will be very detrimental to the people living in the shadow of Kilimanjaro.)