They’re almost done. Just the toes left. And I’m really glad I started over and made them bigger, because they’re purrrrrrrfect.

In other news, it’s been a week or so, hasn’t it? Since Clark started belly-scooting around on the floor? And now he’s rolling over, crawling (on the carpet, belly scooting on the hardwoods), and pulling himself up to a stand in the crib!

His entire life, until a few days ago, he’d be exactly where I left him when putting him down in the crib when I’d go back in to get him up. And now he’s standing?

I realize that being 11 months old, this isn’t a big deal, but the period of time over which all of these changes occurred is what’s mind boggling. We’re talking days.

He’s very pleased, I’m wary. And sick, still.

(oh, and his outfit has been washed since the picture last week. Strange coincidence he’s wearing the same thing in both pictures).

Well, I’m certain that none of you are surprised that I didn’t do any exercise this week. Between the tailbone injury, menstruating, Clark up at night, and finally getting sick, I didn’t have a break. I ate ok though.

I’m starting to feel the pressure. At our last monthly meeting (with Katie and Gayle) I said that I wanted to lose 4 pounds before our meeting in March. Of course, I don’t remember what I weighed that day, but I think it was 228 and something. So I’d need to be 224 and something, which I haven’t been in a long time. This morning, I was 227.2.

Three pounds.

Can I lose three pounds in, what, a couple of weeks? No.

I mean, I probably could, but it seems silly of me to even consider it since I’ve been trying to lose weight for two months now and have lost a whopping 2.6 pounds. And that’s on a good day.

Pout. Stomp. Stomp harder. Flail arms. Glower.

Sigh.

I’m going to make a shake for breakfast and knit something.

It feels so good to be knitting again. I haven’t been doing enough of it.

I’ve re-knit all the yarn I ripped out of the first leg, and I’m 18 rows away from having both legs done, ready to start on heel flaps.

And I’m sick. Everyone in the house has been sick except for Clark and myself, and now I’ve got it. Bleh. My head hurts, I’m tired, my throat hurts and I’ll spare you the rest. Bleh.

And my bum still hurts from falling on Sunday.

So, aside from the laundry that I desperately need to do, I’m going to sit and knit socks today.

Ok, I suspect I’m not the first person to title a blog entry with that, but I couldn’t help it. It amused me.

SO, here’s the scoop. I got nearly done with the leg of the sock you saw yesterday and decided (I had suspected, but was denying it) that it was going to be too small. Sometimes though, once you get more length on a knitted piece, it all changes. This time, it didn’t. While the sock did barely stretch enough to make it over my heel, I though that it might be better bigger.

I started the second sock on a larger needle to see if it was better, and it was, so I finished the leg and decided to convert the first sock into a fingerless mitt because (I thought) I had an extra skein of yarn in that color.

Cute, no?

Well, I don’t have an extra skein of yarn in that color. What I have is 5 skeins of nearly the same color.

There’s the two balls I’m knitting with right now that are the same color. There’s the single skein that I thought was the same color, and as it turns out, it’s a little more colorful than the skeins I’m knitting with. And finally, there are the remaining two skeins that are a little less colorful, but they match each other.

I’ve contemplated every option I can think of to not have to rrrrrrrip the first sock, and it’s just not gonna fly. The first one has to rip. Not the end of the world, but disappointing to be sure.

Last night, I went to a spinning guild meeting where we were preparing to dye self striping sock yarn. The dyeing happens next month, and this month, we got to wrap the yarn onto a board.

400 yards of fingering weight yarn onto a board. It took about an hour and a half of winding and counting to get it all done. I must admit that as I was doing it, I was thinking that 1) I’d rather spend the time knitting on my monkey sock, and 2) is it really so bad to manually change colors when knitting socks as opposed to knitting with self striping yarn? Or more accurately, self striping yarn that I spent nearly 2 hours wrapping onto a board?

Fortunately, I spent the evening sitting next to Katie (which would make anything more enjoyable). When I shared these sarcastic musings with her, she said that what she was excited about was the imitation fair isle they’d done in the sample, and she was wanting to learn how to do that.

Then I felt silly, because I don’t particularly care for the imitation fair isle patterns in some self striping yarns, and was planning on skipping that part in my own dyeing. However, the appropriately placed imitation fair isle would warrant an hour and a half or more of winding yarn onto a board, and I can see how it would make the process more necessary.

I’m not exactly complaining. I’m excited to see the project through, and it’ll be fun to do with the guild. (My first foray into dyeing, which is something I REALLY want to do). But I somehow didn’t think it through enough to realize that making self striping yarn with a pegged board would involve a lot of winding.

Monkey sock! Monkey sock!

This thing is FUN! It’s an easy knit, not remotely boring, and looks really neat. I have strayed from my usual sock strategy which is to do both socks at relatively the same time on two separate needles. 1 cuff, 2 cuff, 1 leg, 2 leg, 1 heel flap, 2 heel flap, etc. I was so excited to start on the stitch pattern with this one, that I went directly from the cuff into the leg, and I’m over halfway down already. I need to rein it in and start the second one so they’ll end up roughly the same size.

In searching through my many stashes of yarn around the house (I didn’t realize I had yarn in so many different places), I found sock yarn for about 13 pairs of socks. Many of which are koigu!

That’s so cool.

THEY’RE DONE THEY’RE DONE THEY’RE DONE THEY’RE DONE!!!! I CAN’T STAND IT! THEY’RE DONE! :-() !!!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT??? THEY’RE DOOOOONNNNNEEEEEE!!!

I’m very happy.

My Christmas stockings are done until the season rolls around again, when I’ll knit Clark’s. In case anyone asks, there’s no pattern. These were all fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants, although I kept rough notes. The yarn is KnitPicks Wool of the Andes in 8 coordinating colors.

They’re awesome, and I love them.

I’m still hurting from my fall on Sunday night, although my tailbone is a little better. My hip, however is killing me, and it just popped up today, so I don’t know what’s up with that.

I’ve cast on and knit a bit on a koigu Monkey sock. I’ll show you tomorrow because today, it’s all about the STOCKINGS!!!

(They’re done, you know).

I fell yesterday. Slipped coming out of my bathroom. There was a little bit of wetness on the hardwoods just outside of my bathroom (the girls and I had all taken baths) and when my foot hit it, it slipped forward, my other leg twisted under me and I landed both on the hardwood AND the rocks in the bathroom, hard. I’m amazed I’m not more damaged than I am, but my ankle hurts (my spinning ankle), and my tailbone. Ow. Ow. Ow.

I can sit just fine, but any sort of moving at all… sitting down, getting back up, rolling over in bed, bending… Ow. Sucks.

And the kids are home all week for mid winter break. Abby is finally seeming better from her illness, but Veronica has been fighting a fever since Saturday evening. I’d love nothing more than to send everyone away and suffer my injuries in a calm and quiet house, all by myself.

As it is, I think I’m going to cast on and knit some socks today, very self indulgently.

Over the weekend, I carded and spun 4 ounces of my multicolored targee fleece. I wanted to spin a heavy single to knit into clogs in patches of color, but that isn’t going to work, so I’m spinning singles that I intend to 3-ply.

I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to do with it yet. I’ve spun the dark brown, and I’m thinking of dyeing the lighter fiber before spinning it up. If I lose patience, I’ll just spin it natural and hope for a nice, tweedy look when I ply them.

I’d like to make a simple cardigan for myself out of it, but it might still go into some clogs and a sweater for Clark. Like a little hoodie cardigan or something.

But today, I’m going to hurt, and knit myself some socks.

Bad, bad week.

Sigh.

I’m going to try to do good today, eating my shakes and going for a walk. It’s a beautiful day. Hopefully Clark will sleep well this upcoming week and I’ll feel a little more motivated to exercise.

And I’ll stop eating chocolate. Dove’s dark, individually wrapped chocolate hearts were my downfall.

Regale me. How did you do?

It depends. If the yarn store gets more Sea Silk in the same color, then I’m not halfway done. If it doesn’t, than I am halfway done.

I’ve knit one complete skein, and I have one left.