So best intentions and all that. My plan was to blog a couple times a week. It’s looking like once will be more like it, if that. But hey – it was MONTHS between my last couple of posts, so a couple of weeks isn’t so bad at all.

Let me bring you up to date on the girls – I didn’t do that last time – and they are, after all, the reason I’m not here. My baby girl turned SEVEN months old last Saturday. Seven months. The first three just about killed me and the second three were only marginally better, but the last month (actually last two) have been a lot of fun! She finally stopped puking every 3.4 seconds around the fifth month and has pretty much tapered off to nothing now. She was what our doctor called a happy puker because it didn’t affect her weight and she would spew with this giant smile on her face, so she wasn’t in any pain. Therefore, we didn’t do anything about it – just lived with puke everywhere. I got really good at catching it all in my hand though. #skillsyouneverthoughtyoudhaveorneed #sorry #iloveagoodhashtag

She stopped puking and instantly cut a tooth which took me completely by surprise! Meli didn’t get teeth until she was nine months old and this little one already has two! She was sitting up on her own by five months (never ever liked being on her back – would try to do situps the minute she was on there) and has been bouncing around ever since. The child does not sit still. On her month birthday last Saturday we gave her her first rice cereal (I hate feeding my kids – such a mess and a fuss and I wish I could nurse them forever – hence the late-ish start on solids.) Almost immediately after she started crawling. Here’s a little video of her taken yesterday:

And today we started music class! I forgot how much fun things can be when you only have one child with you (Meli is staying at home with the babysitter) and that child can’t talk back to you! It was heavenly! We both had so much fun!

Meli is… Meli. She turns, if you can believe it, three in the next couple of months and I love the child to death but she can be very challenging sometimes. She’s smart as a whip and has an incredible imagination. Also, stubborn and fearful and stubborn. She’s the best and worst of both G and I and I can’t believe how old she is. She’s doing great in school after a bumpy start and she’s maturing everyday. Currently she loves all things princess, dinosaur, fairy, Scooby Doo and the Sound of Music. No lie, she has the entire score memorized and will correct you if you dare sing a note wrong. Best of all she loves her baby sister and her baby sister ADORES her. It’s amazing to see how Cali looks at Meli. Chanukah and Christmas were a marked improvement over Thanksgiving. It really was a great holiday season. Here are the pictures of the girls we used on our holiday card:

G is doing well, too. His hip is almost fully healed and while things aren’t perfect they are amazingly better.

And me, while, I’m still crazy. But you all knew that.

Let’s get to the knits, shall we? I wanted to catch up on the kids really for me since I blogged so much of Meli’s babyhood and barely any of Cali’s. But I also want to get back to basics and talk about knitting.

I’ve got a couple of finished projects that I actually – wait for it – logged into Ravelry! GASP!! I know. I haven’t been the biggest supporter of Ravelry, but maybe that’s about to change. Don’t get me wrong – I think it’s absolutely indispensable when it comes to pattern searching and keeping track of your own stuff, especially if you’re blogless. It was always the social thing I objected to. Do we really need another train wreck message board? Maybe I spent too much time on them when I was dealing with infertility. I just think those things always end badly. (Oh and I was thrilled to see that you can upload your pictures from anywhere – not just Flickr. That’s how long it’s been for me and Ravelry!) Anyway – KNITS. Here’s one that I absolutely LOVE:

It’s the Tuesday Night Cowl by Susan Lawrence. Really, once I saw this on Vicki’s blog it was a no brainer! Then seeing Lolly’s gorgeous version and her spectacular knit-portrait, well, how could I not knit this?!? I called my favorite yarn shop owner and said yo! What do you have in bulky? She recommended some Tosh Bulky in Composition Book Grey and the rest is history.

The yarn was really nice to work with – soft and not too bulky and it wears really nice next to my skin. The color is a gorgeous purpley grey. I don’t think it’s a real yarn yet in the Madelinetosh line – or at least not something they carry all the time? I don’t know, but I will say this – if you can manage to find a best friend that also owns a yarn store? Well, then, you’ve won the best friend lottery!

The whole cowl idea kind of hit me over the head too. I hate scarves – I don’t like wearing them. I abhor knitting them. But a cowl? I wear the fleece ones all the time in the winter. Why did I never realize that I could knit a beautiful cowl out of gorgeous yarn and that I would LOVE wearing it? DUH. Seriously. Double duh. I want to make a million of them now. In fact, I knit a modified version of the cowl into an earwarmer/headband type thing because I don’t wear or like knitting hats but will wear something over my ears. It didn’t come out as nice as I wanted it to – I think the abbreviated cables I used lost something in the translation. The TNC has such elegant folds and this just doesn’t. But it’s warm and on super cold days I’ll wear it. I’ve been looking for other headband/earwarmer patterns because I have yarn left over. The cowl only took maybe 1.5 skeins? And t
he earwarmer only used a bit more of a third skein. I’ll let you know how it goes. Here’s a picture of the set:

See how it doesn’t really fold so nice? Oh well. I tried.

The next little potato chip project was the Mini Sweater Ornament from Greens and Jeans.

I have now almost indulged all of my fantasies by having a Christmas Tree in our house this year. I used to always hang lights in the apartment and last year, our first in the house, I didn’t do anything and it was the worst holiday season ever. So this year I decided to go whole hog!

This little sweater was the perfect back into knitting project. I have so many little balls of sock yarn laying around I just picked up one that was bright and pink (I’m fairly certain this is the Hot Flash colorway) and started knitting. The pattern is super easy and only a bit fiddly (because of the size of the sweater and the small needles and stuff NOT the pattern) and next thing I knew I had a mini sweater to hang on the tree. DISCLAIMER – I didn’t actually hang it on the tree because I only got around to weaving in the ends to take a picture. I immediately dismantled the tree after taking said picture. But seriously, I could knit a million of these. I think I will next winter. Maybe one a year until my tree is full. I have that much such yarn scrapage.

There are my two projects! I will knit more cowls, that’s for sure. And more mini sweaters. But in the meantime I haven’t been knitting at all. I’ve been sewing up squares. So far I have just about five done. The first one took me like 10 hours and 20 tries. The next one about five hours and 10 tries. Now, if I was alone in a room I could probably do all four sides in about an hour. Therefore it takes me like three days to do one square. BUT! I’m getting them done. I really love seeing all the colors and finding the little balls of yarn to use to sew them up and thinking about it being finished and wrapping my babies in the blanket – hell – the WHOLE FAMILY it will be that big! I’m excited! I’ve got half the squares blocked and hope to get a little farther in my seaming before I block the rest. I’m doing each four miter square in the order that I knit them. Just a little more crazy to add to the mix.

I cannot finish talking about knitting without showing you a picture of my babysitter’s FANTASTIC garter stitch scarf!!!

I told you all how we found this great babysitter, who the entire family LOVES and how I taught her to knit and now she loves me just as much as I love her? Here’s her first project! For the longest time she wouldn’t bring it over and honestly I started to doubt she was really knitting even when she said she was but I see now that we have another perfectionist in our midst. Look at those even stitches!! I squealed when she wore it over and she was so damn proud and told me how she hoped that people would ask about it when she wears it so she can tell them she knit it herself and I feel like I got my wings a little bit that day because I taught her how to knit and now she loves it and I’m back to loving it and the world is a beautiful thing when you can knit. Okay. I’m done.

This is now officially an epic post! Hope you’ve liked my ramblings! Thanks for reading! And thanks again for all the well wishes and support and here’s to a fantastic ’11!
L, C