From Now On

From now on, I refuse to talk about college football. This is your only warning.

I had to rip out all of the work I had done on the next strip for Baby J's afghan. I was SO pissed. I dropped a stitch, and before I realized it, it had fallen down five or six rows, involving yarn overs and slip passed over stitches. Thank God I was only 23 rows in. Then I got to the same spot and somehow had done the wrong rows at the wrong time, and I couldn't tell where exactly that started. Being the perfectionist that I am, it made be see red and lose faith in all things yarn. That's a bad place to be in, I'm sure you understand.

It was not my night for knitting or anything else. I just wanted to cry. I didn't sleep well last night. I'm in the middle of my Autumn "Everything must be clean and organized and in it's place" mode, but I have no time - read me NO TIME - to do anything about it. I ran errands with Mama and My Darling this morning, which left me sore and tired. I found a stretch mark. An ugly, hot pink, stretch mark on my lower abdomen. I guess that's why I haven't felt so much lately like my belly was going to rip open and have Baby J come flying out. The thing that I'm not talking about didn't go well. And my knitting was not keeping me sane. In fact, it was letting me down. I just need to go to bed and cry.

Update:
Mama helped me clean out and organize my closet. I feel loads better. Yay for organized closets! Now the only clothes in there are my pregnancy ones that fit now. :) I can now see what I have to wear! My mind has found some peace.

Finally Some Photos!!!!

So here are some photos. Finally. The one above is from just after the green strip was added. It's a good close view of the pattern, too. The one below is from just after the blue strip was added. It's hard to see the green and blue since it's a little washed out, but you get the idea. I now have the purple strip ready to be added and the next white strip is half done. HA! I'm making progress rather quickly now, and I may finish it before I burn out completely.



I really love this pattern, but I'm burning out. This is the only project I'm working on (well, actively anyway since the other projects are on hold) and it's getting old. This is how I end up with 10 projects going on at once and none of them get done in any sort of timely fashion. I really do work on my projects. Really. I just work on so many. But now I'm just doing this one, and it's ...... not killing me really .... just wearing a little thin. But I do love this blanket.

Camera Cord MIA

I still can't find my camera cord, and I'm becoming a little desperate. I have the afghan for Baby J half assembled (minus the edging) and yet no picture to show. The last time I showed a photo of this WIP it was a quarter assembled, so now with all the colors it's even more impressive - AND YET I CAN'T SHOW IT OFF!!!!!! So frustrating. I'm knitting like an insane person (if such a thing were possible for a knitter) so I think I may be able to finish this afghan by the end of the month, including the edging. That would be great, because I'm not sure how early Baby J is going to be, and there were a couple of other things I wanted to make him before he's born. Okay, I realistically only have time for one other project, but whatever. I'll take what I can get.

I have been SO good lately. I've wanted to skip work and go yarn shopping. Have I done this? No. I look at my knitting bag, my crochet bag, my almost done quilt still on the sewing table, the other two knitting bags, the hand sewing bags, and I refrain. The urge to cast on is huge! Why? I have some really nice things to work on and yet there are so many things that call to me to cast on! If I give in, then I may never finish a single project. Ever. This is my greatest fear, hence the great restraint. I even have my stash stashed away so I can't see it and have to go to some trouble to get to it. (Do I know how to avoid temptation or what?) But, this whole being good thing sucks and it's getting old. After I finish Baby J's afghan (I swear, pictures will arrive as soon as I can find the @#&%*#$*!$#& camera cord), I will allow myself to shop for and buy and cast on a new baby project. Then I can't buy or cast on until the Christmas crochet is done. (ha HA! That won't take long! The fingers fly over crochet!)

See how good I am? See? I can do it.

Stop laughing. I can do it! Really!

Seriously, if you laugh any harder, you'll need Depends.

Stop it.

Now you're just embarrassing yourself.

It's not that funny. I have will power.

Yes, I do!

Workin' Workin' Workin'

Great progress has been made on the afghan for Baby J. I am now almost halfway done with it and I am able to work on it much more lately and at a faster pace. I have completely memorized the pattern now and only have to keep track of what number row I'm on. And yet I want to put it away and not look at it again. I am nearing burnout but still going strong. I took almost a week off already and then worked like a demon and got two strips done in one week. That's pretty good, if I do say so myself. If I can keep up the pace, then I'll be done completely (including border) by the end of the month. Then I can move on to faster projects. Keeping that in mind is a wonderful motivation, but what really keeps me going is seeing it come together. I have the white, pink, yellow, green, and blue strips put together, and the purple will follow on Tuesday or so. It really looks wonderful. I'm a little unhappy about the "loopy" end, but I'm hoping the border will help make that less pronounced. If I ever use this pattern again (note the if) then I'll be sure to do four or six rows of stockinette first to keep it even on the ends.

Now, none of this description helps you at all, because I don't have any pictures for you, at the moment. I took some photos. Then I took more photos. And they're really quite nice ones. But I can't find my camera cord to connect it to the computer. As soon as I find it, there will be some new photos. And you will be amazed.

(And if you don't get the reference of my post title, that's okay. It's from an ancient tv show I used to watch reruns of at 2am when I was a teenager, holed up in my room, refusing to sleep. God, I was such a rebel!)

Diapers

Diapers. Okay, maybe not the most titillating topic ever, but one on my mind lately. As I near the due date - not changed despite Baby J being over 2 weeks ahead of schedule in size and development - I find that I want to work out these details. I have been trying to decide between disposable and cloth diapers. So I finally called the diaper cleaning service to get a price quote and then I did some math (clearly my strong suit). In the end, with the diaper service, cloth and disposables end up being about the same price. But add to the mix that if you launder the diapers yourself, cloth ends up being half the price. And I thought to myself, "Hey, I'm already cleaning up after Tiggy and changing her diapers, why not for my own child?" And then I asked myself if I had a brain tumor and just how much crap (literally) did I feel like wading through? I called a cooler head and the decision is made. We will use the cloth diapers, and we will launder them ourselves. We'll also use disposables when we're out, simply for the sake of convenience and sanitation of the diaper bag. So here's the logic and reasoning behind the decision.

1. Cloth is better on the skin. I have very sensitive skin, and Husband has normal to sensitive skin (prone to heat rash), so Baby J will likely have similar issues.
2. Less diaper rash. Because cloth diapers breathe more, you can smell when they need to be changed sooner, and so you do change them more often. The greater airflow allows the skin to stay drier and therefore less prone to irritation even if the diaper doesn't get changed fast enough.
3. Less landfill trash. I am a bit of a hippy, and believe in conservation as much as possible, and this isn't an unreasonable step to take to keep tons of trash from building up each year. It's not like asking me to live like a pioneer or cavewoman, so I was willing to consider it.
4. Save some money. It's a savings of about $500 a year. While that may not seem like a lot, it's enough to make affording other things a little easier. And with a new baby, I'd prefer to spend money on things that will last and are actually important.
6. We get our own diapers back from doing the laundry ourselves, while God only knows whose diapers we'd be getting from the diaper service. Okay. Fine. They're laundered to be highly sanitary, but that's because you're getting someone else's undies. I don't want my child wearing something that someone else has pooped in. It may be perfectly safe - and I'm sure logically that it is - but the idea is just too gross.
5. We already have to do gross things for the dogs, so it's not unreasonable to be willing to do the same and more for our baby.
6. I don't have to do all the poop duty myself. There are three adults in the household. Husband and I will split being at home during the work week so we can both fulfill our grad student duties, and Mama will be at home on nights and weekends. So there will be times I'll get a break from the gross stuff.

So there you have it. The arguments for using and self-laundering cloth diapers. And here is the latest ultrasound of Baby J: