Yeah, who was I kidding? I had to go to the store and make a cake yesterday, I didn’t have time to take and post pictures!

Here’s Abby’s Halloween costume. I forgot I was supposed to make her belt, so I was up at 6:30 before school Friday morning, sewing a utility belt out of yellow felt that I thankfully had on hand. She liked it so well, we made a leg belt, also.

We didn’t have to buy a thing for costumes this year. I love that!

So, we have Nate’s birthday-

It was really fun. Nate brought home Vietnamese steak sandwiches and spring rolls from a place that’s really cheap, and quite delicious. And I didn’t have to cook! Then he and the kids played Beatles Rock Band in the basement.

Today, Abby is better but still home sick,

and Liv has a low fever, droopy eyes, and the sniffles.

Doesn’t she look miserable? Not. She’s just sick enough to whine a lot and make me crazy.

Max is 4 weeks old now.

This picture really shows his color well.

He has significantly more color than I do. I have more color than Nate does. I don’t know where he got it. The weird thing is, he looks like a redhead sometimes. His hair has a bit of red to it, in certain light, especially. The nurse was sure he was a redhead right after he was born. When he fusses, he turns the most shocking color of red at the drop of a hat… My mom has much more color than I do, but she’d never be mistook for a redhead, and I’ve never seen her look flushed. I totally don’t get what’s up with him.

Moving on… Here’s a shot of what I have done on Clark’s socks so far

It’s a very soft yarn and really, really thin. It’ll be interesting to see how they hold up with wear.

And here are my Rosebud socks. I was hoping for a more interesting name, but it fits, and I’m somewhat apathetic. It really doesn’t matter.

You can’t see it in the pictures, I guess because it’s subtle, but I did something neat with the cuff, kind of bringing the pattern up into it. Maybe I should get some sock blockers at some point so I can take better pictures?

Whew! Did I get it all?

In reading a certain comment yesterday, and talking to my sister on the phone today, it appears that on my blog I come across as sounding stressed. I was completely surprised to hear this, as I don’t feel remotely stressed. There are moments a la yesterday’s shower, to be sure, but for the most part, my life is pretty quiet. I’ve made efforts to keep it that way so I can feed my baby adequately and get the rest I need. I suppose that I just don’t write about the quiet moments, because they’re not particularly interesting. I spent 30 minutes or so this morning sitting in my favorite chair, feeding Max and watching the leaves fall off the big maple tree in our backyard, enjoying the contrast between the violent yellow of the fall leaves and the blue sky.

Right now the house is quiet and I’m writing a post while Max sleeps in the sling.

Because I couldn’t get him to sleep any other way, but whatever.

So don’t worry about me. I’m content. Things are going well. I’m enjoying the moment and finding humor in the parts that aren’t so enjoyable.

For the most part.

And I’m knitting more than I have in ages. It’s fabulous.

There are just too many possible titles for this post, so I’m going to do a bunch of mini posts in this one. I have no time to add pictures right now. If you feel like checking back, you may see some added later today. So, here goes…

Are you kidding me?

Abby is sick. Again. This is the third time in the four weeks since Max was born. A couple people have told me they think she has the swine flu this time, simply because it came on in a matter of about 10 minutes. Totally fine to so incredibly sick, it hurts to look at her. Half of our elementary school has had it and recovered just fine, so I’m not worried about anyone but Max. I need to call the pediatrician today to see how much danger he may be in.

Oh, PLEASE stop it!

Clark is a pill. I don’t think it’s because of the baby, he was heading this direction before Max was born, but I’m so tired of the tantrums. We’re getting several a day now, which brings me to my next post-

Well, THAT was a disaster!

I attempted to go yarn shopping last Thursday. While Clark wasn’t throwing tantrums, he made it completely impossible to concentrate on anything other than him. He was only interested in yarn that could be made into socks for him. He didn’t stop talking, or demanding my attention the whole time we were in the store. I finally left with nothing and have to figure out how I’m going to acquire the needed yarn for my mother-in-law. Anyone want a 3 year old for a few hours? He used to be such a peach. I could take him anywhere.

Thank you all, very much

My mother-in-law is doing very well. Yesterday was supposed to be her worst day post chemo, and she says she felt good. Tired, but not sick. We’re very happy.

I’m so proud

I ordered a ball of self striping sock yarn from Knitpicks for Clark’s next pair. I’m enjoying the toe up socks so much, that I decided to try it out on Clark’s socks. I cast on 18 stitches, figure 8 style, and increased to 50. I believe his other socks are all 40 stitches around, but this yarn is really thin so I’m using a size 0 needle, and added the extra stitches. I knit a considerable way up the foot before trying them on Clark to see if I guessed right, and it seems to fit perfectly. Yay!

Oh, and how sick is this? I was so excited to get this yarn. $5.39 for a ball that’ll make a pair of socks for Clark. And then it occurred to me that I’d NEVER spend $5 on a single pair of socks for him in a store. In fact, I’d totally scoff. But somehow, $5 or more on a pair I spend hours knitting myself? Well, that’s a deal!

This sock designing thing is FUN!

There’s a reason there are so many sock books out there. It’s really fun to make them up! My rose socks are pretty. I’ve about finished one sock (just need to bind off) and am part way up the leg of the other.

Isn’t he supposed to SLEEP the first two months?

The reason the rose socks aren’t finished yet is because Max is much more awake than I think a newborn should be. He still sleeps a lot, but he also wakes up a lot.

The typical rant from the mom of a newborn trying to take a shower

Yeah. So, here’s how it went this morning-

Abby is quarantined downstairs watching a movie, Clark is watching Cars on the computer, Max is sleeping… I’m going to take a shower. I don’t really know why, other than it’s been a couple days and I smell like old milk. The hot water feels good. I turn it off sooner than I’d like only to hear Max screaming and the phone ringing. I ignore both, figuring that I’d put myself first and get dressed before taking care of everyone else. The phone call goes to voicemail, and within 3 seconds, starts ringing again. Max is still screaming. I continue to ignore them as I’m drying my hair with the towel. The call goes to voicemail, 3 seconds later, the phone rings again. Max is still screaming.

Repeat one more time.

Olivia must be involved. She’s the only person I know that produces the level of drama necessary to warrant four back to back phone calls.

It turns out, that was unfair of me. It wasn’t Olivia, it was coincidental timing of many different things proving that I really shouldn’t ever take a shower. That fourth call, which I dove across my bed to retrieve since it was obviously life threatening, was someone who had just stopped by my house and left meals on the porch. (So the doorbell had rung too, during the 7 minutes or so I was in the shower). She was going to leave instructions on my voicemail.

And WHY did I go through the effort to shower? My hair is still wet, and despite my efforts to protect myself, there’s already a bit of spit up on my shoulder.

I have to go to the store this morning (and I’m almost out of morning). Should I even bother to change my shirt?

Happy birthday, baby!

My beloved is 38 today. He wants an angel food cake, and he certainly deserves one. Which is why I’m going to the store for cake flour and oodles of eggs. (I have yet to buy a store-made angel food cake that’s worth eating, but the recipe in Martha Stewart’s cookbook is divine).

Happy, happy birthday, Nate! You’re truly my everything, and not just because you don’t even make a face when you lean in to kiss your wife who’s wearing the same pajama pants she’s been in for the past three days and smells like old milk.

My mother-in-law has ovarian cancer. We found out last night. She starts chemo today.

Being true to my tendency to do things on a large scale, I have a list of knitting I’d like to do for her.

An Esther Williams hat in something soft and delightful. What I like about this hat as a chemo hat is that the scalloped edge is feminine and I think it’s a softer way to frame a face with no hair than a straight line or smooth edge.

A small neck scarf that buttons around the neck and lays on the upper chest for warmth. (I have design ideas playing around in my head already). My mother-in-law is always cold, even when she isn’t sick and a small scarf like that really helps. However, I don’t know in what way chemotherapy makes you feel icky. Maybe having something around her neck will be irritating? I’ll let her decide.

Fingerless mitts. I know that the man I knit a hat and mitt combo for when he was in the hospital with cancer really appreciated them.

Warm socks, however I’m not going to tackle that on my own. I’ll ask her if she wants them, and what she’d want. Slipper socks, sock weight/normal socks, thick and cushy lounging socks….

Finally, a Log Cabin Lap Blanket. I’ve always loved the pictures I’ve seen of these, but haven’t yet had reason enough to knit that much garter stitch. The neat thing about this blanket is that I think the girls would want to help, and this seems like a great blanket to have them help with. Plus, it can be cheery and colorful in a way that wearable items can’t be. At least, I can’t see my mother-in-law wearing something overly colorful. She likes blue. And blue is mellow.

So, that’s what I’ve got swirling around in my brain. I don’t know how many colors to get for the blanket, how much of each color, how to arrange them, whether or not I actually NEED the pattern or if I can figure it out on my own. It doesn’t look hard… What do you think?

Her prognosis is good. She said that they said that it is very treatable.

I’m loving the semi-solid sock yarn.

They’re really, really pretty. I hope you can see the pattern. We are, of course, looking at it upside down again, so maybe you can’t tell they’re flowers.

I’ve discovered that this stitch pattern isn’t really an “in the round” pattern. All of the stitches eventually get sucked into a decrease, so there’s no place for one round to end and another to begin that doesn’t evaporate eventually. I’m having to be creative now that we’re to the leg and have to knit the lace all the way around. But I have an idea.

Something weird… while my Arctic Wolf socks are warm, I can still feel a little air moving through the lace as I walk around. It’s going to take some getting used to because it feels wrong, knowing you’re wearing a sock, to feel air woosh by. This flower sock has even more lacy holes.

I was up with Max from 12:45 am to 3 am and then again at 6:15. I’m sooooo tired. If this continues, we’re probably going to start making red-eye trips to the grocery store, because the car will definitely put him to sleep.

The time of year when Nate calls a bunch of people together to go to the church and carve pumpkins.

It was fun. I did nothing but show up and talk to people.

I didn’t even take the pumpkin pictures this year, because it’s pretty much impossible to keep still enough to get a no-light picture that isn’t blurry when you’ve got a baby in a sling attached to the front of you and you’re squatting in a dark parking lot. So Nate did it. He did a great job. I am impressed.

Here’s our annual blog-post-of-pumpkin-pictures. How many years has it been now?

And here’s Nate’s…

If you’re reading this, Cassie, I’m not feeling as grinchy about Halloween this year as I normally do. You can be proud of me. And I love your spider skirt, btw.

If you’ve been around my blog since Clark was born, this next picture should look somewhat familiar, as I took a bunch similar back then. But this is Max, my little sling baby.

I am to the gusset on both of the socks in my next pair. I haven’t taken a picture of them yet, so I’ll try to knit some more on them today and get a picture for you tomorrow.

They’re really nice.

And we’re waiting to hear today as to whether or not I have another chemo cap to knit in my immediate future. Please keep our family in your prayers if you’re one that prays.

Thanks.

On to the next! But first, here are some pictures.

They are fabulously comfortable. Nothing fits like a custom knit sock! In the pictures, they look like they’re stretched a bit tight, and they’re not at all. My Goldfish socks are tighter, a bit snug in fact, but only when putting them on. I’m going to have to get creative with the next pair, since it’s a similar stitch as the Goldfish socks with the same stitch count, to make it fit more like the wolf socks.

I’m about done with the Arctic Wolf socks. I ripped out the bind off and changed the cuff around a few times to get it right. I then had to try to take a decent picture of my own foot, showing the sock right side up without the angle being all weird and vertigo inducing.

I did my best.

So, tell me… Do you like the ears/picot bind off?

Or should I just bind off smooth/normal? I think I like them, but I might just be so proud of myself for succeeding in getting them lined up and not rolling that I’m biased. I had to modify the picots a few times to get them the right size, and I added a purl stitch in the middle of the top of the wolf’s head to keep the cuff laying flat. I like the effect though.

Veronica has been sick, so she hasn’t been able to hold Max much. This has been a source of great distress to her. Yesterday morning I thought she was healthy enough, and we had some extra time before school, so I handed him to her. She was very happy.

And we may have made a happy discovery for Nate. Babies seem to like soft, squishy chests to sleep on. Max is no exception. If he’s happily asleep on my chest, and I hand him off to Nate, he tends to squirm and fuss ’til he wakes up. So last night, I suggested Nate use one of the couch’s throw pillows as a cushion. It worked like a charm.

He stayed content and asleep like that ’til we went to bed. So cute.

Abigail’s home sick again. Not a head cold this week. She has a fever (though doesn’t feel hot to me) and allover body aches. And a sore throat. So the doctor’s office wants me to bring her in so they can swab for Strep Throat. I’m not anxious to haul a newborn and toddler into a doctor’s office with all the germs flying around now. And seriously, if I ran to the doctor every time someone had a sore throat, (like I was told I’m supposed to by the nurse today), we’d go in 30 times a year! So I’m not sure what we’re going to do.

Procrastinate for now.

So, I’m trying on my socks to take a picture for the blog

when, out of nowhere…

WHAT??????

How in the WORLD did that happen??? And why did I not see it before now???

14 repeats back. Times four rows per repeat makes it… 56 rounds I’d need to rip out to fix this enormous hole. OR, I could attempt surgery.

I thought I was so brilliant with the paperclips. They turned out to be completely unnecessary. Here we are, almost done.

The hole is fixed, but I didn’t get an “after” picture. It wasn’t nearly as difficult to fix as I thought it would be. I’m just happy I don’t have to rip and reknit 56 rounds of sock. I’m quite ready to start the next pair, and am anxious to get these off the needles and onto my feet.

I’m sick. Again. Sinus infection. Again. I wasn’t done coughing from my last cold.

Please, oh please let the baby stay healthy, and let me get over it quick.

Abby went back to school today, and Veronica is home sick. She has a low fever. If she has something different, and I catch that too, well, I’m going to throw a tantrum. ‘Cause, you know, those are so productive.

Last night was NOT a good sleeping night. Four, 1 1/2 hour bits of sleep are not equal to two, 3 hour bits of sleep. And I only got three. We sort of skipped the sleeping part between the last two feedings.

Fortunately, I don’t have to go anywhere today.

Yesterday went really well, btw. It wasn’t ’til dinnertime that I got overly tired, and that’s probably only because Nate was at a meeting and couldn’t be home to help.

At preschool/playgroup (it’s very informal), Clark made a pumpkin. He’s unbelievably proud of it.

He carries it all over the house, slept with it last night, and hasn’t shown the slightest interest in eating the candy. His sisters are a different story.

I didn’t get to knit yesterday. The one opportunity I had was put to better use in a quick nap, tho’ it was a tough decision. But I’m trying to be responsible. Hopefully today…

So, what do you think? Do these look like wolf heads to you?