I finally (FINALLY!) finished the mermaid costume I was knitting for a friend's daughter's 5th birthday. It's the Splash pattern from Vickie Howell's book, New Knits on the Block. (Rav link to my project.) The 5-year-old in question loved it and put it on immediately and had it on for the next two hours that I was at her house at least. I hope she didn't sleep in it because I'm not sure it would be comfortable.
I want to make another one for another of the girls who was there because I didn't make her a birthday gift this year and she looked like she would love one too. I'm thinking of Knit Picks Comfy bulky in either sea foam or marlin. Thoughts? I wish I could stash dive for this project like I did for the purple one but I don't think anything I have is bulky enough or in my stash in large enough quantity to use doubled to make it the right weight.
Finishing things is always satisfying, of course, but finishing gift knitting even more so. Especially when the recipient is as enthusiastic as today's was! She could barely wait for me to finish sewing in the elastic before she put it on.
I have one of the looms warped for this week and a few picks woven onto it to get the kids started. I'm going to show it to my friend Victoria tomorrow, who is a much more experienced weaver, and maybe she can give me some tips. She also loaned me a warping mill so I can measure the warp for the other two looms. Look! I'm even learning the lingo!
I visited my friend who is about to start her chemo today and delivered her shawl. (I've also figured out a way to upload photos so you get to see it.
For the back I followed the pattern exactly (the Chunky Highland Wool Wrap from Elann.com) -- other than not using wool of course. If I were to do it again I'd change the cross of the top left cable of the fleur de lis pattern to make it so that it doesn't go over twice in a row. I'm not sure if you can see that in this photo or not.
For the front I changed the pattern completely. The cable they had on the front pieces was very pretty but it pulled far too much in this totally synthetic yarn (Crystal Palace Puffin). Since I couldn't block the pulling out it had to go. I fiddled with a couple of more simple cables but ended up just using a stitch pattern from Barbara Walker vol. 1. I like the way it turned out. My friend liked it too. She said that the nurse told her that some people get cold sitting in the chemo chair during the treatments and it would be perfect for that. I hope it is.
I need to dig out a chemo cap pattern. I'm thinking about making one from some Sock Candy I have. I'll have to soak it in vinegar before giving it to her though, since my Sock Candy always loses its color on the first wash. I need to get a good picture of my post-wash Holey Socks to show you. It's really astonishing.
- 04:45 Just uploaded 12 new photos to my SmugMug "Music > HDH próba Pilly nélkül" gallery: bit.ly/3IjE5y #
Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
I think I may have gone overboard with books for Niels. He seems to be overloaded a bit. He took a book out of his class library and has been reading that. It's from the Guardians of Gahoole series about a group of owls. I haven't read them so that's all I know. I'm still hoping that he'll want to read Fergus Crane because it was such a fun little book. I also think he'll want to read to second of the Magic Thief books when we finally get to it.
I tried that tomato soup in my blender again, this time with less onion and it was red. It's still too oniony, I think. I have a can of pumpkin so I might try the pumpkin soup recipe next that uses sautéed onion and roasted garlic. It sounds really good.
My sweater is still growing in a very boring and unphotographable way. I mean, I could take a picture but it's not much to see.
Day 6 and I'm running out of stuff to say already!
I'm just about 4 months pregnant right now, and not really showing much yet. I just look chubby. But I know that in the next 2 months all of that will change and I will start having trouble with my normal wardrobe. Plus, the weather is getting cooler.
Last time around, I adopted a uniform that consisted of gaucho pants and long tank tops with sandals. I looked AWFUL. I hated my body and was pretty depressed about it for the last 2 months. So this time I decided to try a different approach, and one that steered clear of sweats (which sound sooooo comfy right now).
I read an article by Gwyneth Paltrow last year where she talked about her seasonal "uniform." She figures out the basic silouhette that she wants to use for a season and she buys a few things that mix or match within that silhouette, and she's good to go. She doesn't really have to think about what she's wearing for more than a few minutes. (Fewer choices seems to be the key here.)
I knew that a good maternity uniform could be key to enjoying this pregnancy. And I knew that I should start looking for one now, because stores begin stocking clothes about 3 months in advance of the season when they expect customers will be wearing them.
For a couple of months I've been pondering this, wondering how celebrities manage to look so good when they're pregnant. And then I realized that their secret is this: they hire stylists to pick out their clothes for them.
Of course they do! Could I find a stylist to help me in the same way? (My brain is justifying things these days that would normally seem completely ridiculous.)
A quick Google search wasn't turning up anything helpful. And then I remembered that Nordstrom offers a free service where stylists can help you pick out clothes for special occasions, or whatever your needs may be. I booked an appointment right away.
The stylist asked me which celebrity(ies) I would like to emulate, and I chose the following three because they're of similar age to mine, they all look really comfortable in these clothes, and they don't look like they tried too hard:
Jessica Alba
Jennifer Garner
Sarah Michelle Gellar
In studying these photos, I noticed something new: they all use "props" to take the emphasis off of their belly! A bright scarf, a big bag, a headband or hat. They also tended to dress in layers: tank tops with shirts and jackets, or wraps around the shoulders.
When I showed up for the appointment, the fitting room was filled with cardigans and long-sleeve tunics, scarves, stretch pants, and big blousy tops. The long-sleeve tunics were great but way, way too expensive ($98 for a t-shirt? Really?). The big blousy tops were too "maternity" for my taste. The stretch pants were great -- really good quality, non-shiny, and comfortable.
Here's a photo of me trying on one sample of my Maternity Uniform, as well as a snapshot of some of the items I ended up buying, which included:
3 linen scarves, 2 cardigans, 1 loose flowy wrap thing, a black maxi dress, black stretch pants, denim-colored stretch pants, a bat-wing sweater thing.
It was really fun and the service was totally free. Plus, even though I ended up spending more money than I probably would have if I'd gone in alone (only because I found more good things to buy, I think), there was no pressure to spend a lot on any one item. When I balked at the very cute, $298 BCBG cardigan, the stylist gave me a knowing nod and swept out of the dressing room to find a more practical option.
It turned out that I needed to knit a few more rows before I could bindoff on my socks so I did that last night and didn't end up knitting on my sweater at all. I have a cool new pair of socks though. I love them so far. I am curious to see how this yarn holds up because I have definitely durability issues with some cotton sock yarns. Time will tell!
These are the Upstream Master pattern from Cat Bordhi's New Pathways book 1. I think it might be my favorite architecture. The increases happen on the sole and there's something about it that makes a sock that hugs my foot well.
I also finished a woven scarf today. I started it waaaaay back in May when I first got my loom and just kind of lost my oomph. I will be teaching the kids at Niels' school how to weave this week, though, so I need my loom for the class and had to finish off the project that was on it.
My sweater continues to grow. I have started the waist decreases but the edges of the fronts continue to increase more rapidly so the quantity of stitches is still growing fairly quickly. I can take it though. I'm tough like that.
My friend Olivia recommended this to me. I think it was after we'd had a conversation about dissatisfaction in life, and how I was feeling stressed and like I didn't have a proper appreciation for the value of "the moment." You know what I'm talking about, right? It's all the rage these days. "Living in the moment." Well, I haven't been able to figure out how to do it.
Anyway, I saw the book again on a blog where a woman lists all the things she has read during the year (some good picks, too) and she reviewed the book, saying that it changed her life. Olivia said the same thing about it. So I put it on my list at the local library.
I'm not very deep in the text yet. Maybe 25 pages? And what's really REALLY annoying is that my version has this enormous font that makes me feel like I'm being treated like a kindergartener. But I'm continuing to read it because the premise of the book is a little crazy, somewhat amusing, and certainly intriguing.
The author says that we're all crazy. Actually, that we all have a voice in our heads that is crazy. The voice that we hear talking inside of our heads (by this I think he means the narrative that plays as we think about stuff throughout the day) is not the real us; it's a crazy person. The real us is something else, like a silent audience that just listens to the babble that we know as thoughts.
This crazy voice is our ego, and it compels us to do (and think) things that are unpleasant and unhealthy. So, if we can learn to dissociate from "the voice," then we can become free of all the stuff that's bringing us down: the endless desire to buy stuff so that we can look good and compete with others; the urge to say mean stuff about other people so that we feel better about ourselves; etc, etc. He references all sorts of religious leaders throughout his monologue, showing how the stuff that they said (in their respective texts) supports his theory. Apparently Buddha is on board with it, as is Jesus and a few others. (Forgetting their names at the moment.)
It's interesting stuff. I'll let you know more when I finish it. But that could take a while, because I usually can't read it until after I've put the munchkin to bed, and it's lights out for me very soon after that, so my pace is about 5 pages a night. Pathetic.
There's that voice again!
So it’s not a corneal ulcer. After more than an hour of waiting - time spent perusing my Vietnam travel book - I finally got in to see the eye specialist this morning. She took one look with her microscope and decided it wasn't an ulcer. She simply found and removed a foreign object from my eye.
So now, instead of needing steroids, she simply has me on some mild antibiotics to make sure the site doesn’t get infected while it heals.
Yay – I’m ulcer-free!
