How to find my way back?

Can you go back? Can  you reconcile with your neglected blog to get where you once where? I'm not sure.

Do or do not. There is not try.

Hah.

Currently 26 degrees C, feels like 32

If you know me a little, then you'll know this is almost too hot for me. Though the sun is really nice. Just a bit too hot.

I'm in a pickle. I promised not to haggle my wares here, but all I do at the moment is working on the "Lili & Leo" designs.

So, happy Victoria Day everyone!

Long week

I'm sure this week only has 7 days as any other week - but due to some strange time warp thingies (or, maybe, my imagination) it felt and feels a lot longer.

Egg has seemingly a health problem, her temperature was elevated for the last couple of days but she didn't seem to mind at all. No other symptons, just a higher temperature than is normal. Which makes me wonder what's going on, but according to the internet doctors her temperature is well in the limit of 'oh, that's nothing'. As her mother I don't exactly feel that way, but try to stay calm and get her through it.

Now it's Friday evening, I have ordered pizza and am thankful that I don't have to cook dinner.

I do hope that the two remaining days of the week feel exactly as long as the others did - but in a good way. (However, that maybe asked too much.)

The first Kill of the season

Rather, the first Kill ever!

Before my zealous attempt to get all the laundry done in one day (ha, who was I kidding?)



After (be assured, it won't fit her anymore)


Never ever in my long knitting life have I felted a knit in the washing machine accidentally! On purpose, yes, but never did I miss a sneaky knit amidst all the other laundry and effed it up. There goes a hat...(and it just was perfect with all the coats Egg owns *sigh*).

Oh, and I don't know how I ever thought there's nothing to blog about - I manage to procure enough material, interesting or not.

One Step forward, two back - but this is finished

I think I have come to the conclusion that trying to finish everything before starting a new project is just not the way it works for me. When one project is almost done, I usually feel the urge to start another, or twonother, for that matter. The almost done project gets either done quickly or, sadly, lingers for a long while before it is completely done.

I get excited about new ideas and want to start them right away - which in return keeps me from finishing 'other crap', as I like to call it myself. (Not in a derogatory way, just because I don't feel like dealing with it.) Also, Egg often needs a certain item right away - or so I tell myself - and she has been a priority in my life ever since she has been born, hence the bestest excuse ever to start more crap.

Having said that, Egg didn't really need this hat, but I wanted to make it anyways. An adventure from beginning to end, and I'm not sure how it ended. You tell me!




ETA: I used Reynolds "Cool Cotton" (90% Cotton, 10% Steel - yes, really!) and the hat weighs 76 grams.

Knitting!!

That's how I found Egg after coming back to the living room, I'd left my knitting on the couch. (Oh, and please excuse the MESS.)

I can't even think of anything appropriate

I fell off the earth, again. I will know forever when I was very busy working (knitting, writing patterns) because that's when there are NO BLOG posts whatsoever.

Now that that is done and over with, I suddenly have the urge to blog again. It does take time and when that is sparse, one (or rather, I) just can't afford spending it on frivolities. Ha, as if.

I have started to tweet, though. Random things thrown at my readers (yes, there are a few, I myself am surprised) at least give the impression I'm still there and it's much faster. And most probably not really informative but maybe entertaining. Or the other way 'round, who knows.

I'll be back, I promise.

Done

Just to let you know: the beret is fixed and done and I wore it today. Love it.

One of these days

That would be today. Nothing goes right, child is cranky, makes me cranky.

Knitting a simple beret. Had to rip twice already. It's done now. Or so I think. It's too big. Rrrrrip.

Not to mention the countless scream fests we had today, and I had no clue why or what to do about it. Somehow the day went by only to end with another bang.

Child usually goes to bed without any drama. Not so tonight. Am close to nervous breakdown, but manage to stay calm. Child still doesn't sleep. Her dad is on sleep duty now while I hide in the office.

Please keep your fingers crossed that tomorrow will be better! Thanks, that would be all.

Music on a Friday

Today Egg and I are off to a friend's house where we are going to meet lots of other babies and will play music and sing. Egg loves it, and I enjoy it as well.

Having said that, when no babies are around, playing Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" does the trick also. I wonder what Lady Gaga would have to say about that.

Hanging over my head

Old. All of a sudden this word threatens my existence as I know it. Well, not really suddenly, it's been creeping up for some time now. There have been some days in the last 2 years when I felt old. I have had back pain ever since Egg was born, but mostly right after I got up and when I was sitting for too long (more than half an hour that is) and then it went away.

A couple of weeks before Christmas I woke up to excruciating back pain. So bad that I wasn't able to pick up my toddler and even getting dressed was a painful ordeal. A trip to the emergency room revealed a kidney infection and, wait, a bit of Osteo-Arthritis in my back. Even now I wonder, is that like "a little bit" pregnant? (Which, to quash all expectations, I am not.) The kidney infection was dealt with, Antibiotics do the trick. But the other pain, the daily one that won't go away, is the reminder of said word at the beginning of my post. Thankfully the days when my husband had to lift me out of bed are over, but some days just sitting on the couch with a hot water bottle pressed against my back is the only thing that makes it bearable.

Having said all this, I totally know it could be worse. It could be my hands.



P.S. After trying three times to get her to nap, Egg slept for almost 45 minutes yesterday.

Monday

Random.

- Left over pizza for (second) breakfast for a toddler? (Hey, she insisted. At least it's home made.)
- Is she going to nap for more than 20 minutes today that I am alone with her? (She did so over the weekend, just to prove my complaints to my husband wrong.)
- Egg started saying her name on Saturday. It sounds a little bit as if her nose is stuffed up, but it's definitely recognizable.
- Big plans are in the make. Slowly. It involves Knitting and writing patterns.

I leave you with this:

First FO of 2010 - and lots of irritation

Gaaah. I'm having a bad day because Egg is having a bad day. She just does not want to nap. And I can tell she's tired, very tired. She's cranky, needy, pick-me-uppy, whiny...It's just - I have no words.

She's also wearing my first FO of 2010 - a dress made from Noro Iro which was a Christmas present.


I don't know how, but she must be aware that I am irritated beyond anything, because after our second try to get her to nap, she came to me and smiled, said 'hello' and tried to give me kisses, all the while not wanting to nap...Gaaah.

ETA at 3.35 p.m.: I might have overreacted. A little bit.

2009 Statistics

Blog statistics

6 unmoderated comments, discovered today. Yes, dear readers, I'm terribly sorry I didn't check better if someone had left one. Please excuse my sloppiness, I do very much appreciate comments, always! I got some unwanted crap, so I decided to moderate and look what happens...

To answer the questions:

@quinn: yes, it's her first - but most probably not her last.
@KnitandPurlMama: I picked the name Erna, 'cause that's what I secretly called Egg when I was pregnant before I knew she was a girl. Now we have another Erna around.
@lori: Erna didn't come with the sweater, I made it. And Egg was very excited about that. Just as excited as when I made the hat. She does appreciate hand knits.


Knitting statistics

Now to the other statistics, the knitting. Ravelry makes me look prolific, as my friend Melanie assures me. But then she clearly didn't have a closer look at how many childrens' hats I made to pump up the volume...no, not really, that just happened. I do admit though that there were a lot of smaller things I made in 2009, but also a baby blanket, two shawls and some scarves.

Projects begun before but finished in 2009:
- one baby raglan
- a pair of socks
- fingerless mitts for Rolf

That's 3 projects I won't include in the final tally.

Projects begun and finished in 2009:
- 8 baby/toddler tees, vests or shrugs
- 15 baby/toddler/kids sweaters or cardigans
- 11 scarves, cowls etc. (some lace)
- 2 lace shawls
- 7 pairs of baby/kids shoes or socks
- 1 pair of socks (OMG, just one pair?)
- 1 baby blanket
- 12 kids hats
- 2 hats
- 1 doll hat
- 1 doll sweater
- 1 kids tie
- 1 kids scarf
- 1 kids skirt

That's 64 projects, 1.23 projects a week. I was a bit stumped by the amount, I don't think I ever knit that much in one year.
Now I'm under pressure to make at least one more this year (which is, I can safely assume, not going to happen).

Good Bye, Johnny Castle

Patrick Swayze passed away.

"Nobody puts Baby in a corner."

And that's all I have to say to this.

Toe Woe

It looks like I'm on house arrest. Today I stepped on one of Egg's toys and one of my toes on my right foot got tangled in it, gave way and broke.

OUCH.

It stuck out in an awkward angle and hurt - after the initial adrenaline shock wore off. Once Rolf was home from his soccer game we went to an emergency clinic, where we spent the afternoon (I didn't bring any knitting, big idiot that I am!) waiting for x-rays and a doctor who said about my toe that "it is broken and crooked. I can yank on it to make it more straight but otherwise there's not much I can do." I let him yank.

OUCH! No, seriously, OUCH!!

Now the broken toe and the one next to it are taped together and I took some pain killers and won't be able to go out much for the next, say two or three weeks for sure.

OUCH.

Egg Vogue

Egg likes to be informed about what goes on in the fashion world.


That's a beautiful coat! That colour would look fabulous on me!


Those gap boys are fer sure goodlookin'.


Ellen's doin' a commercial!


Oh, Manolo, I wish they came in my size!



When she was bored with perusing, she ripped out what she really, really liked:

Yes, it's the Manolo Blahniks.


And the Ugg ad. I'm sure it was the knitted item on every single page (as our friend Todd pointed out, I hadn't realized it before) and not the boots that caught her attention.

Calling Oma?

Egg never ceases to amaze me. She's not keen on 'talking' on the phone, she'll listen politely for about 5 seconds and then she wants to play with the phone and push buttons. I did not think she grasps the concept, yet.

Imagine my surprise when I found her on her own phone, babbling away and having fun? That was last week.


Every day there's something new she can do, sometimes we have a whole day of discoveries: Friday she stood for about 10 seconds on her own, she climbed stairs (I never showed her how!) and she phoned people all afternoon.

The night from Monday to Tuesday was rough. She woke up at 10 p.m. and just wouldn't go back to sleep, just sit in her bed and talk to herself, play and undress (yes, another thing she can do now!). I could tell she was tired, but she was up and about until 1.30 a.m. Then she fell asleep and stayed that way. I had no idea why until last night when I by chance spotted something white on her gum - she's sprouted a molar!! I never would have known, since except for not wanting to sleep she showed no sign of distress or pain. Haven't I the bestest kid ever??

We're off now to Mommy and Baby knitting - maybe I'll get to knit a couple of stitches, maybe not.

That's my girl!!

Egg 'found' some 3.5 mm circs this morning and I caught her clicking the needles together. Here she is with a bit more kid friendly (well, I'm trying) 8 mm:



Please excuse the bad quality, I'm still figuring out this youtube thing - and the heavy breathing, that would be me...(yikes!)

Kid in a Box*

*Some assembly required. Batteries not included.