it's may already???

So, I’m not even apologizing anymore. I know people talk of the ‘pressure’ to post when you have a blog, and I do feel it at times as I think, gosh, I haven’t posted in SO LONG. But I’m certainly not getting paid to do this, it’s just something I do, so it just has to happen when it happens. I hope everyone can understand, and I would be surprised if most of you don’t feel the same.

We finally moved into our townhouse april 11 th and wow. First off it was a mess, our closing was moved about 14 times. Ok not 14 but at least 4 times, and we had to change our moving day over and over. It was so frustrating. It was a big bummer that when we finally DID close on our first house ever, we weren’t even excited about it by that point. We were dreading it, waiting for a phone call as we were driving there to tell us to turn around, not happening today (essentially what happened the first time… after we both took the day off of work. For no reason, as it was 3:15 when we got the call that it wasn’t happening at 4... great use of our very limited time off I tell ya) so anyway. We closed and then moved the next day, Wednesday. Thank goodness for understanding movers. And then, it snowed on our moving day. It was great.



Did I mention that ron’s parents were coming up the next weekend to help us paint? It was going to be a week after we moved in, we had a chance to kinda get settled and stuff figured out. Instead, they were now coming up two days after we moved in. it worked out in the end, though we didn’t get as much painting done as I had hoped. Oh, and evie and ron had rotavirus that weekend and then I had it a few days later. And evie and I also had a nice nasty cold which we passed to ron shortly thereafter. And did I mention that our close to new couch didn’t fit into our media room downstairs? HOM furniture thanks us for our business as we bought a table, 4 chairs and 3 bar stool chairs from them, and then 3 days later came back and got a big couch and lazy boy but in the meantime, we have a couch in our dining room. (any twin cities knitters interested in a basically new couch, used for 5 months, then in storage for 6 and then moved to a townhouse that it doesn’t fit into? Scotchguarded, has the stain warranty on it (which is transferable and I believe it is a 5 year warranty so you have just under 4 years of stain protection left? It’s very nice, has a chaise on the end which can be moved to either side… let me know, I can send pics).

But now, a month later, we love it. Our main level and downstairs is painted and the furniture is slowly finding it’s home. We have painters coming next weekend to do our hallways and the stairwell and we may just hire them to do the bedrooms as well as they have great prices and time is money. It’s close to impossible for us to paint with evie around, 11 months old and mommy and daddy up on ladders is just not a good combo. Her naps never last long enough and we’re just sick of painting.

What’s that? This is my knitting blog? Oh yes. Well. Evie’s robin hood sweater/jacket is still in pieces, I intend to wash and block it shortly, sew it all together and then take pics. It may just take a few more weeks until all this moving/painting stuff settles down some. I fell in love with the dollar and a half cardigan and went to needlework and snapped up some cathay to make it. started it at the harlot event. Knitted one ball worth of yarn and restarted it with smaller needles and a different ball. As the harlot says, it would be nice if those swatches weren’t dirty little liars! Got through that ball of yarn and decided to just give up the project all together. I am part of the dollar and a half KAL and I’m seeing all these finished sweaters and it is confirming my big worry about this sweater. The Michelin man effect. I tried to tell myself that it would be fine and I even changed the pattern and was using stockinette instead of reverse stockinette and I just don’t see it helping. I’m not looking for a high maintenance sweater that I need to block all the time or a sweater that I don’t like to wear because I feel it makes me look larger than I am. Blah. So, Evie and I will be off to Needlework to exchange this yarn for something else as I am just sick of it and don’t really even want to see it anymore. I don’t have tons of yarn money right now and I just can’t justify putting $100+ of yarn into my stash with no plans for it.

I have felt like a weight has been lifted from me since I’ve made this decision to give up on the dollar and a half cardi. I have been knitting on it for over a month and feel like I haven’t gotten anywhere, plus I have been worrying about the finished product this whole time and it was just way too much effort during a time that I just don’t have the energy to waste my time like that. I cast on immediately for a huggable hedgehog for evie. Had the yarn and pattern already, just waiting for me to decide to actually make it. it was done a little more than a week later (remember, 11 month old getting into everything and all our spare time is spent painting and rearranging and unpacking and childproofing and…), it was such a fast knit! I loved it! still need to felt it but evie already loves it in it’s unfelted form. :) I think it will be a hit. Just started on Sheldon from knitty. Sheldon is a slower knit, I’ve actually had some knitting time the last two nights and I may just need to find something a little faster, bigger needles, bigger yarn. I’m tempted to finally start my ribby cardi by bonne marie. I have some gorgeous 1824 cotton just waiting to be knit up into it… It may be just what I’m looking for. plus then I can finally make a sweater for MYSELF!

22 days until evie is one year old! Can you believe it? I can’t! She’s such an adorable little girl, she is giving kisses to us all the time. Eating everything in sight, having a blast at school (daycare center), terrorizing/chasing our kitties, etc. she’s pretty much done away with baby food, she wants REAL food! Crawls around like a bat out of hell and cruises around the furniture, cabinets, mommy and daddy, anything she can pull herself up on. She opens every cabinet, drawer, box, bag, anything she can find and of course, empties it as well! :) Once she finds something of interest she holds onto it with her super baby grip and then crawls away with it clutched in her little hand. Such a booger, but we love her so much.