Going going...

My new private blog has now been set up. Pretty much everyone who asked has received an invite. If you asked to be invited and didn't recieve an email, please let me know - some email addresses were invalid.

I am in the process of moving posts from this site to the new one. I will probably keep some posts here, particularly the ones from when we were last in Colombia. I may even start up my knitting blog again.

If you'd like an invite to the new private blog, send me an email at yeahsoiknit at gmail dot com. If I don't know you IRL, you're pretty much in.

Chao for now...

HEY THERE.

I WILL BE GOING PASSWORD PROTECTED IN ABOUT ONE WEEK. IF YOU WANT IN, SEND ME AN EMAIL (include your blogname and address so I know who you are)FOR AN INVITE. NOTHING HAPPENED, IT'S JUST TIME.

…did ya wonder where I’d gone off to? Is anyone still out there and/or do you even give a crap?

Well, I’m going to just go on the assumption that you do…

Everything’s fine over here – life just continues to roll on at lightning pace and I haven’t had a spare minute for blogging. I don’t even want to tell you how many blog feeds I have pending. I guess my absence is a good sign – I tend not to blog when life is good. And life IS good right now. Seamonkey is approaching two years old and this stage is so hysterically funny that I don’t like to give up a second of my time with him if I can help it. He continues to love music, including dancing and singing (I keep telling my husband that as long as he doesn’t start belting out show tunes and doing jazz hands, it's all good) and his two most favorite shows seem to be American Idol and Dancing with the Stars. He will sit mesmerized while they perform and then clap and cheer after every one. He will sing along to any song on the radio (so far he’s quite tone deaf, I hope that improves soon) but he’s particularly fond of “Take me out to the Ball Game” and “I love my Rooster”. I should put that on video for you to see – the cuteness is unbearable, truly. Other than that he’s completely normal – some days he won’t eat, other days he eats so much it make ME nauseous, occaisional dramatic tantrums and lately he’s starting this weird clingy thing. But no complaints.

Mother’s Day was okay. Am I allowed not to like Mother’s Day now or does that sound horribly ungrateful? I feel like I cherish my motherhood every single day, and the fact that I have to spend such an honorable day shuffling between by SILs house (who thinks she’s my son’s mother) and my mom’s (who usually thinks it’s “Spoiled Selfish Son Day”) just makes we want to scream. If I had my way, we’d spend a quiet day at home, where I’d do some reading, knitting and watching of bad movies. But alas, it was not to be. But know that throughout the day (perhaps between nibbles of high quality chocolate) I did say some small prayers of thanks for my beautiful son, and even bigger prayers for those who are still waiting for children of their own. That part makes me very sad.

Work is crazy. I have two new bosses, one I love, one I’m not sure of yet. I hate having to reprove yourself all over again, but what can you do.

I’m sorry I haven’t been able to comment a lot lately, but please know that I do check in when I can, and I do send out good vibes to those I know need them.

Oh, on the adoption front…we haven’t really moved forward yet. I am still finalizing the agency we are going to use, but we should be starting soon. It’s going to be a looooong wait. There are like 6 Colombian couples doing this at the same time as us, and they automatically jump the line. I am strangely okay with that – I think I’ve learned my lesson that sometimes what you end up with is infinitely better than what you planned on, and it’s better just to let life take it’s course and ride the ride. I have plenty of alcohol and chocolate at the ready though, I know I won’t be this complacent for long.

But summer’s almost here! Wahoo!

There's been knitting...

First, I created a button for a knitting project over at knitting diva - won't you take a second and cast your vote? (My button is the first one).



Second - I finished all the gifts for our friends in Colombia and mailed them off. The mail is not very reliable there, so I'm hoping they get their okay. Since then I've finished a few more things:

Saartje's Booties

Yarn: Wildflower DK in yellow -a fraction of a skein

Notes: Perfect, adorable and quick to knit. A gift for a co-worker.

Nordic Ear Flap Hat

Yarn: Bernat softee chunky in green and blue - part of leftover skeins I had.

Notes: This is a tad big for seamonkey, but it's thick and warm, and as you can see he doesn't mind wearing it. It was the first time I did intarsia in my life - it wasn't too bad. I actually was able to carry each color in each hand, which was a little fiddly at first. Tension is key, and I need some practice, especially where I was switching needles (I used the magic loop method).

Currently on the needles I have the Chevron Scarf from Last Minute Knitted gifts. You take two skeins of luxury sock yarn in complimentary colors, and switch off every two rows. One row is worked in the "feather and fan" pattern. I did a double repeat to make this wider. I had alot of fun choosing which colors to use - I was in the yarn shop for almost an hour digging through all the wonderful sock yarn. I settled on Cherry Tree Hill Supersock, both are in colors "Earth" - and I found out later that these are "potluck" skeins - they only dyed six of each color at a time. This scarf is a gift for my Billy Joel loving friend for her 40th birthday - obviously I'm late with it - and it's taking longer than I thought. But the colors are totally her - rusty, brown, coppery, peachy...it will look great with her skin tone. I'm not even half way done - but this scarf is over 6 feet long. I want to make myself one eventually, it's a great excuse to splurge on sock yarn.

And the winner is.....

all of them.

I mean, most people did vote for Danica. And a KAL is supposed to have everyone doing the same pattern. But I kind of felt bad forcing you to knit something you may not have wanted to knit. And who says you can't just knit whichever one you like? The whole point of this is to do it together, and I figure you're more likely to stick with it if it's one you really want to make.

But - I do ask that you stick to one of the four. It's fun to see how others are doing the same thing you are - and it is easier to help people if someone else is doing it too.

Also, I've created a separate blog just for this knit along. It's called the "Infertility Sucks" Scarf Along, and it can be found here. We will use this blog to post our progress and cheer each other along. This way we aren't boring all of our non knitting readers to tears with all the knit one purl two going on. So if I know who you are, I have sent you an email inviting you to participate in the blog (it's free to sign up). If you'd like to participate and you didn't get an invite, please send me your email address (mine is yeahsoiknit at gmail dot com) and I will add you. Oh, and if you would be so kind - blog about it and link to the new blog - hopefully more people will join (If anyone is technically inclined and would like to design a blog button - you will be my BFF)

And one other thing. I'm a little worried that I picked patterns that some may find too challenging. I do believe they are all learnable, and I am 100% committed to helping you get through the whole thing, so I really really hope you all stick with this. I will also be posting links to tutorials and other sites I think may be of help to you along the way. Feel free to post a question to the site, or email me directly. No questions are too dumb, and knitters are the nicest people!

Now go out and buy your yarn! Remember, worsted weight, any flavor. I hope you will make this scarf especially for yourself, so pick something soft and pretty. Knitting for loved ones are okay too - but why not treat yourself?

We offically start knitting Monday, October 15th.

I am so freaking excited.

It's TV time!

I came out of a building the other day and saw one of the Cavemen. He was being filmed standing in front of a statue reading a newspaper. For a commercial I guess.

Then I was watching Kitchen Nightmares and found that they were doing a restaurant that is like 2 miles from my house. I've never eaten there, but I might now that it's been redone.

Then I was on my way to happy hour when I passed a filming of 10 Years Younger. Saw the guy in the box but I didn't stop to guess how old he was. It was a pretty big crowd.

What's next? Maybe I'll run into George Clooney somewhere. Well, a girl can dream.

Speaking of television:

My favorite, The Office, has started. And while I'm thrilled that Pam and Jim are finally an item....I wish they would stop making such a big deal about it because you know that all that happiness is going to come to a huge horrible crashing end. I'm not sure if my heart can take it.

I've been sucked into Dancing with the Stars....next week they should really vote off everyone except racecar guy and cheetah girl. The rest is just painful to watch. Wayne Newton is so creepy looking it gives me the willies. With the black hair, orange face and deer-in-the-headlights-I've-had-too-much-plastic-surgery expression, someone should just shoot him and put him out of his misery. The good news is that if you DVR it, you can watch that sucker in under 30 minutes.

And could you believe I haven't even watched Grey's yet....I better catch up on the web. Dont tell me what's going on!

Knit Along

Knitting (and crocheting) is a form of therapy for me. My life is crazy and my brain is always going a hundred miles an hour. Clicking away on my needles helps me funnel my energy - having my hands do the moving enables my brain to slow down a bit so I can think. Something about the repetitiveness of the motions puts me into a zone of concentration (or oblivion, I've missed many train stops because of it). Not to mention it is a productive use of my commuting time. That's why I knit now.

But why I knitted "then" was slightly different. The energy I had then was a nervous anxious energy as a result of all the waiting. Waiting for appointments, waiting for test results, waiting to start the next cycle after another BFN. The knitting was the ultimate distraction - I sought out soft pretty yarns - having somewhat of an artists' eye, beautiful color combinations made me feel better just to look at them. I also attempted new and more complicated techniques. It was during my darkest days when I taught myself to knit both a pair of socks and a lace shawl. It was an alchemy of sorts...all the negativity, worry and anxiety were magically transformed into a useful and beautiful thing. It made me feel like a little bit less of a total failure.

I've been reading more about the Red Scarf Project, and while knitting for charity is a great thing, especially when it's for orphans, they seem like they are already up to their armpits in red scarves, and because they need to be gender neutral, they can be limited in design. So I'm going to make the executive decision to nix the charity knitting (you can still donate your scarf if you wish, but it's not the main focus of this knitalong).

I would like this to be more focused on us as individuals - taking the time to sit and look inward and create. It would be ideal if you can find yourself some quiet time for this purpose, but as the mom of a toddler myself, I realize this is not always possible. But if you could somehow get that alchemy going it would be awesome.

So on to choosing a pattern. I wanted to ensure that the yarn required was obtainable from any mega craft store. The options below are all for any worsted weight yarn (like Wool Ease or Simply Soft) which are widely available, and would look great in any color. I also tried to choose things that contained an element that might be new to most people and therefore a bit of a challenge. I hate knitting boring scarves...I fall out of love quickly and the project then sits unfinished. Please remember that one of the purposes of a knitalong is to help each other through the pattern, so please don't be turned off by things that look too hard. Trust me, these are all do-able. And you will be glad you rose to the challenge.

My so called Scarf - an interesting stitch pattern


Irish Hiking Scarf - cables


Column of Leaves Scarf - lace type pattern

Danica - Entrelac (this one looks harder than it is - if you can learn to pick up stitches, you can do this - the effect is stunning - check this one out, and this one and this one) It's like magic - hey magic, alchemy...hmmm.....

I'm open to any other suggestions as well. If you think these are way too challenging, let me know too.

I will accept votes until Monday the 8th. Then everyone will have one week to get yarn. I am proposing to kickoff this knitalong on October 15th, which also happens to be Pregnancy & Infant Loss Remembrance Day.

I hope you will join along! You can follow our progress on the "Infertility Sucks Scarf Along" Blog.

seafishes & starmonkeys

Okay, the etsy shop is up. Introducing:

Starfish15


Uh...you'll see that I obviously need a logo and masthead. Working on it. I had more crocheted stuff than I thought. Be kind...

*UPDATED*

Apparently, (and unfortunately) it's not so easy to just change the name of your etsy shop. So "Seafishes and starmonkeys" will have to wait for now.

THANK YOU TO ALL WHO PURCHASED SOMETHING!! I will be adding things soon - especially the swirl picture frame that was a hit. Be sure to ask me if there is something specific you would like - I love to personalize things for people!

Mel at Stirrup Queens has done it again. She has arranged to compile a list of all shops that are owned by women who will use the funds for infertility treatments or adoption. Please see the link over there on my sidebar. When shopping for gifts (don't forget Christmas is coming!!) I hope you will consider shopping at these places for your needs. You will get a great hand made gift, and will help someone become a mom. Win win if you ask me.