Setbacks and Progress

I had a setback in my afghan. The yarn is cotton, and every cotton anything I've ever had (yarn, shirts, socks, jeans, headbands, etc.) have all shrunk even when they say they're preshrunk. So you understand my surprise when the strip didn't shrink. Not even a little. In fact, I think it stretched some. I blocked it flat, but I must have pulled on it. So I remeasured and recalculated the dimensions of my afghan. Um... If Baby J big enough to fit that blanket, then there's no way I'd survive the delivery. I began to be ill. I thought and thought, and finally worked it out. I had to frog back 50 rows and finished off. 50 rows! You should all be proud of me, I didn't cry at all. It did make a difference that all the other strips will only be 200 rows instead of 250. I was able to adjust the dimensions so that it will still be of standard size (36" x 35"). I had to spend time fixing things, reblocking, and now I can move forward again, knowing it will be okay, and actually faster than I thought. So I had a setback, but it turned out to be a good thing. :)

Ravelry Wait (Part 5)

Below 5000! Yea baby!

Well, I must be pregnant.

As if I didn't already know I'm pregnant, I've had two events confirm that other people also know it. Two weeks ago a lady on the street saw the Husband and me walking along. She stopped us with, "Young lady... Are you pregnant?" Imagine my surprise! Even people I see on a daily/weekly basis are hesitant to ask me this question. Actually, they don't ask me. Anyway, I said yes, after all, it's a bit late to look bewildered and/or lie. The shape of my belly is just too clear even if the size isn't that big yet. She then asked if this was the daddy, and again I smiled and said yes. Then she said, "You can tell if he's gonna be a good father by how he takes care of you now. Does he take good care of you?" I was happy to tell her that he indeed does take very good care of me. She then smiled and waved and continued on her way. :) Yesterday I went to the Stash (only decent yarn store around). As I was checking out, the lady showed me the new baby afghan she had just finished and said she highly recommended it and told me the basic pattern. It was a lovely thick blanket and only took her a week to make. And so I told her about my most recent project and how long it's taking since it's 24 stitches by 250 stitches and I have to make about 16 strips. She made the appropriate noises of appreciation over how much time that's going to take and said that's why she doesn't usually do baby afghans. Then she asked me if I knew what I was having. Yep. There's no hiding it now.

Well, there's no hiding it from women. My advisor, however, has yet to ask and doesn't seem to notice. Trust me, he'd say something if he had any clue. That's going to be a nice conversation. I can just hear it now: Are you pregnant? Yes. Are you dropping out of grad school? No. But babies take so much time and energy. Can you handle the pressure? If women can have a family and a career, I don't see why I can't. Especially with my husband and mother actively involved. *Head shake in resignation and disappointment as he determines resolutely that the strain will one day be too much and I that I'll quit to stay home to spend all day gazing adoringly at my baby while my brain turns quickly to mush.* Seriously, you'd think it was 1907. He was similarly amazed that a former student of his, RH, didn't quit to "get a real job" after his wife had twins (children 2 and 3 for them). The fact that RH worked even harder and finished in a year impressed him no end. Why is it that people expect the worst of you and when you fail to follow through on their unreasonable fears they then brag about you like they had anything to do with it? Ok. Rant over. For now.

The afghan is going well. I haven't had time to work on it for the past 5 days. We've been visiting friends and getting ready to go home. I've also been working extra hours on my research while at home since I have some things I want to make sure I can do on my own before I leave the font of all knowledge and rely solely on my advisor of assistance. (Oops, sorry. That jab slid right in there.) Now, since the Husband had to return home (yes without me) to prepare for his conference (for which he will have already departed when I return home in two days), and since I will not be staying at the apartment with the Unreasonable One, I will have time to knit in peace. I'm house/dog sitting for a friend. She and her family left yesterday for Disneyland and they get back on Saturday after I have gone to the airport, so it was very convenient. She knows I love dogs and that I needed the peace.

I can't wait to go home. I can sleep in my own bed. Mama can cook for me and we can chat in person, not on the phone. Mama and I can shop for baby things and plan out some of the baby crafts we'll be doing. I can have my dogs around me. I can work with Murphy to help ease his separation anxiety and get his room ready for crating him while we're gone during the day. I can get ready for TAing my tutorials and help sessions. I can nest. I can get ready for the Fall, my favorite season. I can put away all my wedding gifts and send my wedding dress off for preserving. Mama and I can pick out the new china cabinet. I can set up the new craft/sewing space. I can finish the late birthday present for a dear friend. The list goes on. And on.

OH! I didn't mention that I bought a bunch of patterns of baby knits! They are too adorable. They're Dale of Norway/Dalegarn pattern books. *Swoon* Okay, need proof? These will be on the needles by the end of September:

NOTE TO SELF: It is important to remember that I have responsibilities to fulfill and that my family and friends will want to see/talk to me sometimes.

Not all the patterns will work, though. Like this one:
After all, I don't think Baby J would much appreciate wearing a dress, no matter how gorgeous or how sweet it would be of me or his Nana to spend all that time knitting it for him. Those photos would likely end up missing one day. ;)

Ravelry Wait (Part 4)

Under 6000!

Working Hard and Hardly Resting

My advisor aggravates me! Damn absent minded professor syndrome! That's all I have to say about it.

Baby J scared me this week. He wasn't moving much. He's usually so active that I think he must be doing gymnastics in there every couple of hours. But this week he moved only a few times a day. So yesterday I woke up and was a bit upset. But I sat down and had breakfast, and as I did he started doing his normal back flips and karate kicks in there. :) I was so happy. I was pretty stressed out all week, so maybe that put some stress on him, and once I felt better so did he. I also read that babies will go through periods of lethargy, or they'll be faced backwards and you won't feel the movements as much. Whatever the cause, I'm happy he's back to his normal hyper self, even if my bladder takes a beating. ;)

I visited a old friend, Jackie, yesterday, and we had a great time. She as a new guinea pig named Wiggy. Her older guinea pig, Proxie (after Proxima Centauri, haha fellow astro nerd!) is doing well, spunky as ever. I was with her when she got Proxie two years ago. Both guinea pigs are very friendly. In fact, Wiggy just sat in my arms and purred (trilled is more like it). I had a guinea pig when I was a kid, and she always bit me and drew blood. I was always gentle with her, but she still bit me. She was from a pet store, so maybe she hadn't been socialized enough or had been mistreated. When we moved overseas, we gave her to a guinea breeder to take care of. We later heard she was doing very well and had several cage mates of both genders whom she would play with. Anyway. Jackie is doing well, and we had a great time catching up.

A new girl moved into the apartment. She seems nice. She's an art major from Great Britain.

I can't wait to go home. I have a lot of things I want to do and I can't wait to sleep in my own bed again. And I have some dog training to do. Murphy has serious separation anxiety, so have some work to do with him. I need to do some obedience with him and there are some desensitization exercises that should help. We're also going to set up a room in the basement to put all of them in while we're going. We can't actually crate Murphy because he seems to have some severe claustrophobia. Strange. Genuine claustrophobia is rare in dogs, but Murphy clearly has it. Also, severe separation anxiety is pretty uncommon. He didn't have any problems until I left for the summer. Poor baby. Also, I have some wedding gifts to put away, and do stuff with. And a nursery to put together. :)

I'm almost done with the second strip of my baby afghan. It's a good thing I have 19 weeks to finish it.

Mostly Good News

The home front is peaceful again, after a day of fighting. All is resolved. :) I made brownies. Chocolate fixes everything. :)

I get to dog sit and house sit for a friend next week. She has an adorable little dog and she's a sweet person, so I'm happy to do it for her.

One of my collaborators died this week. He was pretty old and had been sick for a while, so it wasn't unexpected. But it's still sad. He was a nice guy and he was very healthy until the last few years. He had a brilliant mind and was a world class mountain climber. He was a cool old dude.

I've finally gotten some knitting done and it makes me so happy. I have a fifth of the next strip done already. Okay, that's only 50 rows, but give me a break here, I'm working on it!

Mama did well in her class. Yay, Mama! And her friends at the office know about the baby now, and are thrilled for us. Her boss was a little worried that she'd leave to become a "full time Grandma". Haha. The woman needs Mama and she knows it. So Mama assured her she wouldn't be leaving.

Okay, back to knitting. :)

Football Injuries and a Rant

So the Husband and I went to a 49er's preseason game against Denver. Denver won after the 49er's failed three separate times to follow through on excellent setups that should have resulted in touchdowns. For a preseason game it was pretty exciting. Clearly there were some guys actually fighting to impress the coaches so get some play time during the season. They didn't just sit down anytime they had the ball like most preseason games. While we were there the sun was setting in front of us, beaming straight into our eyes, so I took the Husband's blue Notre Dame hat. To replace his now stolen hat, I bought him a red 49er's hat to match his red 49er's sweatshirt, which he was wearing. Other than for our wedding, I don't think he's ever been so well coordinated! He proudly wore his 49er's gear, while I proudly wore my Notre Dame ensemble. Now I ask you, who was the sharper dresser? (Although, I do look chubby in that photo! boooooo!)

The only hiccup in our outing was when I overstretched the ligaments in my abdomen (ask me how it was a ligament) while trying to let someone by me on the bus back to the BART station. I can tell you that the round ligament pain I've been having is nothing to whatever the hell it was I did to the ligament. I thought maybe I'd torn it, but today it feels okay, if somewhat more sore than normal. Damn changing body.

I love Baby J and am thrilled to be having a baby, but this whole pregnancy thing is very inconvenient and uncomfortable at times. All those women who loudly proclaim how much they loved being pregnant and how much they miss it must not remember what it was like. I don't hate it, mind you, but it's annoying far too regularly. And seriously, morning sickness is just awful! Thank God I'm done with that! One friend of mine was only a little nauseous in the mornings, but me... well, it was bad. Projectile bad. All day. Yuck. Anyway. I really have been healthy, so I shouldn't complain, but I'm human, so I will occasionally. ;)

Finally, Some Progress is Made!

I finished the first strip. It looks rather bluish in the photos, but it really is white. The edges are rolling somewhat even after stretching it due to the stockinette on the sides. I'll block it to check the length when I get home. It's still in the range of average sized baby blankets, so it should be fine, but it is 250 rows. Now I'm doing the next color, because I got tired of looking at the white. I need variety! I also decided to do a purl cast on. It looks better and will be easier to pick up stitches from for the edging. And the edging... I can't decide if I want to do it all in white, a color, or cycle through the colors. Okay, so Baby J will be a boy, but that doesn't mean the edging has to be in blue. I'm leaning toward cycling through the colors, starting and ending in white.

So I got all this done, despite the home front drama. Not with Husband. Him, I can talk to and come to compromises with, and he won't take advantage of me. Not so with this person. I think my blood pressure has gone up at least 10 points. Baby J is still moving normally, so it doesn't seem to have put any real stress on him.

Ravelry Wait (Part 3) and Baby Afghan

I'm under 7000 now in waiting for Ravelry!

The baby registry is set up now. We didn't really put in a whole lot of stuff, mostly just necessities. I didn't get the afghan strip done the other night. I ended up needing to make it longer than I thought for length. I should finish it tonight and start the next one. I'll take a photo of it before I block it.

Ravelry Wait (Part 2)

There are now only 7271 people ahead of me on the Ravelry waiting list! And there are more people behind me in the list than ahead of me! Yay for progress.

I've been working so hard on research lately that I haven't had much time for knitting. And I really want to be knitting pretty much all the time to work on my baby afghan for my own baby. :) Today however, I was able to spend a whole hour just knitting. Ahh.... Luxury! I'm going to finish the first strip of my afghan tonight come hell or high water. Then I'll take a photo and post it. :) Life is good.

It's a boy!

The image is a little fuzzy but that's his little face. We also have lots of images from various directions (in 2D and 3D) that show absolutely that this is a boy. We've told the grandparents, now we're going to make up announcements to send to people. He seems very healthy and is VERY active. He was moving a lot during the whole ultrasound. I thought I had been feeling him moving all the time, but it seemed too much, so I was beginning to get a little paranoid. But after the ultrasound, it's proven. He's just an active little scamp. :)

The End of Dogs

The dogs are going to die. I am going to kill them. He got at my stash of yarn. And they played with it. And ripped it to shreds. Yarn was strewn from one end of the living room to the other. In bits. They never, repeat NEVER, go after my yarn. When I'm home. But I'm not home. I'm in California for the summer. And so they go for my yarn. And so they must die.

Stash on the Brain

Okay, I've made a decision about my stash. (My stash may be thousands of miles away, but it's still cluttering up my mind.) I am using it up, even if I have to make a large number of ugly scarves that I can give as gifts. Big Needles, here I come! I thought about selling some of it, but I bought this stuff with hopes of finished projects, and darn it I want some finished projects. (Where's my fairy godmother?) After that, I will only buy yarn for specific projects. I can have 100 projects going at once, right?

Non-update

Okay, I'm a slacker. At knitting. I've been working instead of knitting. I know, what was I thinking? Obviously my priorities are totally messed up. I promise I will get some professional help.

On the bright side... Ravelry says there are only 7878 people ahead of me! That was a big jump in just a day. I wonder if things are becoming streamlined now. I won't have a chance to take photos of my stash and other completed projects until after the summer is over and we're back home, and I may get the invite before then. Oh well. I'll get to it asap.