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June 28, 2005
Oh the humanity!
Marie's interview of me is up at Knitcast and while I encourage you to subscribe to Knitcast and listen to episodes 1 though 9, and every episode that comes after number 10, as well as vote for Knitcast at Podcast Alley and become Marie's best friend because she is one cool chick, whatever you do, don't listen to number 10. Then, you will have to hear the wacko accent I have ended up with after growing up in Rochester, living in Brooklyn and then in France where I pretty much only speak English to people who say things like, "Ee want to me free-und hoose."* You'll find out that I am a big dork who is barely capable of conversation in normal circumstances and becomes a giggly idiot as soon as a recording device is in front of me. And no, I haven't heard it yet. I'm on my way to work so I don't have time and I'm too darned scared.
Update: I've heard it now. It didn't live up to my worst fears, but I'm not going into broadcasting any day soon.
* "I went to my friend's house."
Posted by kate at 07:35 AM | Comments (23)
June 27, 2005
Results
To those of you who asked for more photos- I'm sorry. I just can't do it. I felt ridiculous enough having a photo of my belly up there, I just couldn't post more from every imaginable angle. So, about the voting, I could have told you last week that 8 of you were certainly wrong (none of the above! psha!). One of you suggested "one of each" and I was 100% sure that was wrong too. I just wasn't sure about the other 330 of you. Girl was in the lead most of the time and apparently for good reason - break out the pink, we're having a girl! Actually, please don't break out the pink. As unlikely as it is, I am really hoping to avoid light pink lace and ruffles. Soon enough, from what I hear, she'll be begging for pink, purple, butterflies and those creepy rainbow unicorns. I might as well dress her in something a little brighter and more fun (in my book) while I still have wardrobe control. So thanks to all of you for playing my little game. We got a kick out of reading all of your theories... I don't think I look worse than usual because she's "stealing my beauty". Hmmm. Maybe they made a mistake.
I wanted to wait until a couple deadlines went by before touching this stuff. First it started with a little innocent balling. Then, "just a toe." Then I started taking the darned sock everywhere with me. In my defense, the projects that I have to finish for deadlines aren't particularly portable and it's hard to write patterns in the subway. I'm knitting these toe up because I want to use up every last bit of yarn. I'm also using a circular needle again. I was using dpns, but I didn't like the only ones I could find and they were splitting the yarn and I was feeling too cheap to buy another set of 2mm dpns that I would probably just lose, so circs it is.
Posted by kate at 08:30 AM | Comments (26)
June 23, 2005
She'll never be my beast of Bergen
Guess who's sitting on my couch! Kris! The picture shows her with some stuff she couldn't resist at la droguerie, but right now, she's sitting there knitting away. She's not at all a beast, by the way. She's lovely.
PS. I still don't know if it's a boy or girl, so keep on voting if you wish. It may be another full week before we hear.
Posted by kate at 07:06 PM | Comments (7)
June 19, 2005
Lay your hands on the screen
Come back next time for a baby-free post if you're only here for knitting.
I always like guessing if people are going to have a boy or a girl. I'm worthless for dates and weights but I'm rarely wrong about gender. We weren't going to find out if the baby was a boy or girl, but because blah blah blah - insert long story here we are going to know in a week or two. So I figured we might as well have a lilttle fun and place bets while we're waiting. I'm going to give you some information that might help you and you can use it or ignore it or place your hands on the screen or flip a coin or whatever works for you to make your prediction.
This theory is based on sexist assumptions (girls need protection, boys need independence) and therefore pisses me off. Plus, I'm still too small to see if I'm carrying high or low.
I was pretty nauseous, but I'm not sure it was "severe" and my puking was pretty limited compared to some.
See above.
Again, sexism. The baby was pretty active the first time we saw him/her, very active the second time, not too active the third. Now I feel him/her sometimes and it's all or nothing. Some days it's full on tap dancing and others just the rare tap.
I guess salt is more what I crave. Ice cream and some fruits are the only sweet things that sound good and I have barely eaten chocolate in the last four months, which is very strange for me. Give me something with vinegar or butter and I'm happy.
(I can't believe I'm telling you this) I'm not. Let's just leave it at that.
I hung my wedding ring from some koigu and it didn't move. Frog tried too. It just hung there. He said that maybe it is really a tadpole.
Gosh. Looking at this photo, I think I look kind of big, but nobody even notices I'm pregnant... I had just eaten a huge Japanese meal. Maybe it's yakinikudon and gyoza in there, not baby.
Lay your hands on it (the photo, not the real belly, please) then cast your vote.
Posted by kate at 01:12 PM | Comments (70)
June 17, 2005
mwah hah hah hah!
Look at me! The mad blogger! Posting more than twice in a week for the first time in ages. Ha ha ha! You can't stop me! ...but I guess you can close the window and delete me from your bloglines account if you really want to.
This post is here just to give you some random bits of junk:
1. There were organ grinders walking down my streeet yesterday. They were playing a song that sounded suspiciously like Abba's Fernando, but it wasn't.
2. I bit my cheek really hard.
3. I forgot to tell you about one of the knitting highlights. I woke up at 4:30 am on Tuesday and couldn't sleep. I could only think about knitting so I got up and tried to design a blanket until 7:30 am when I was sufficiently tired and frustrated to go back to sleep for a half hour before going to work. I have a feeling I will be doing this more and more often, as I keep waking up early in the morning.
4. I got to meet the very charming Marie today.
5. When we were in contact before she came over, I lamented the lack of sock yarn in France, so she brought me a mini-store of yarn to choose from and I bought this off of her:
Isn't it loooooooooovely? It's my first Koigu ever. I'm peeing myself with excitement just looking at it. I think it's possibly unhealthy to be this excited about yarn. I'm fighting every urge in my body to get down my swift and ball winder and start some socks for me me me right now now now because I have things I have to finish soon soon soon. grrr.
Posted by kate at 07:37 PM | Comments (17)
June 15, 2005
the past week's knitting highlights
Last Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I made good progress on Tonton Guy's sock while waiting for doctors, at a meeting for knocked up anglophones and on the metro. I turned the heel and I still have a good chunk of the ball left before I get halfway. I only have one ball, so I'm weighing it from time to time to know when I should start the second sock. If they seem a little short, I'll have to add some charcoal stripes up at the ankle or something. In a couple days, I'll put up a photo to show you just how big these socks are.
Friday and Saturday I knit a lot on my top priority project (no photos, sorry). I finished the back yesterday and the design element actually worked like I wanted it to. I was so relieved because as the end of it approached, I was getting nervous that I would have to redo the whole thing. Today I started the sleeves and I decided to knit them both at the same time. I haven't decided if this is the best way to go or not. They go more slowly, but at least I won't have Second Sleeve Syndrome. I love finishing stuff. I just wish I could show you.
Yesterday, Blossom sent me photos of her knitting. I'm so proud, I'm bursting at the seams! Check this out! (Sorry chica, I didn't ask you if I could post these. I assume it's cool. Why don't you get a blog?!?)
I'm dragging her down a slippery slope. She's been buying some expensive yarns and she was online shopping for swifts and ball winders. Poor girl. Plus, she's more up on blogs than I am. The other day she said to me, "Did you see that Blahdablee from the Boobahdoo blog is spinning now." I said, "Huh? Who's that? What?" No offense, Blahdablee. I'm clueless. I don't know anyone. And Blossom, my dear, don't go getting any crazy spinning ideas in your head. I feel guilty enough about the knitting thing.
Today's highlight is I listened to the newest knitcast and got dragged into the world of Get Knitted and I've spent the last two hours trying to convince myself that it is unreasonable to order yarn. But I can't get any of these yarns in France! No, Kate, you can't but you don't need any yarn. But they are so pretty! No! Step away from the computer. But... No! (I'll see you later, I'm going sit here and fight with myself)
Posted by kate at 07:41 PM | Comments (5)
June 13, 2005
Where the sun don't shine
In our current apartment, we have no room for anything, especially yarn. That's why I was so touched when Frog cleaned like a maniac the other day just to empty out a drawer for my current projects. When you live in an apartment this size, giving up what little space you have is better than flowers for saying, "I love you" (there's no place to put flowers anyway). It was sweet, but look what happened:
There's still more mess in the drawer and this is after I extracted three pieces of my top priority project. Yes, I guess I could have put a little less yarn in such a small drawer. Yes, I probably could have reballed the balls that were becoming a little rebellious. I was just giddy with my new square foot of storage and wanted to take advantage of every inch of it. I didn't think my yarn would use this opportunity, alone, in the dark, to comingle so much.
The yarn is the least of our worries right now. We also have no place to put a baby (don't bother suggesting a drawer - you are looking at one of the two drawers in the house). Soon enough, the baby and my magical expand-a-butt will be taking up enough space that I will probably have trouble squeezing down the hall. We're definitely going to have to move. Before, we were talking about moving and taking an extra room so I could have an office. Now, for obvious reasons, my priorities have changed, but Frog still keeps talking about my "bureau de tricot" and has even imagined contraptions for storing yarn, needles, the ball tickets he's always finding, etc. As charming as his enthusiasm is, I'm not holding my breath that we will have the time or energy to build a custom knitting storage system. Does anybody have a brilliant system for storing their yarn? Ideally, I would like to have big bins, or the vacuum bags I already use for the mass of my stash, and some sort of smaller bin, box, basket for each project in progress. That way, I won't be able to lose them, and they won't be having orgies in drawers which force me to spend hours unknotting and reballing or just shutting the drawer in denial of the problem.
Posted by kate at 09:58 AM | Comments (20)
June 06, 2005
fun?
I decided that I really needed something to knit for fun so I finally started the socks I had promised to Tonton Guy to celebrate his retirement and 60th birthday. I sat and knit like a maniac at a family function on Sunday (the pétanque game was too competitive for my taste) and got pretty far. But Tonton Guy has really big feet. Even though the yarn is thicker than your average sock yarn, I think they're still going to take me a while and after a few hours of knitting them I was getting a little bored. I might need a second "fun" project to take a break from my first one. I'm not sure what it should be. I've got an itch to knit some lace so I might tackle one of the Heirloom Knitting patterns I have. Or I might not.
Posted by kate at 07:45 PM | Comments (11)
June 03, 2005
Method and Madness
I've been inspired by people like Felicia to try to have lovely photos on my blog. But already, I'm failing miserably. My desire for nice photos today was thwarted by my stronger desire for a nap, which made me miss the remaining daylight and resort to bribing Frog to take them. Oh well. I'm not going anywhere. Hopefully you won't either and will get to see my nice photos when I finally start taking them. Here are some crappy photos that will have to do for the time being:
This is how I keep track of my rows in pattern. I hang a marker off of a stitch every 10 rows. Or if the increases or decreases are every 8 or 14 or whatever number of rows, I do it that often. It works quite well for me. By the way, I use the markers that I talked about in this post.
My orange shoes are too boot-like for summer. My green shoes give me blisters the size of silver dollars, and my shoes that are covered with flowers (no photo) are just falling apart. I decided it was time for a new pair of shoes. I'm ridiculously picky when it comes to comfort (must be), heels (too clumsy to wear them), style, price, etc. but I decided there was nothing impractical about pink shoes and that I would suck it up and pay full price while they still had my size. I've been wearing my orange ones with whatever I have on, so why not pink ones? They aren't quite as stylish as I was hoping for, but I think the pink makes up for it. I may never buy brown or black shoes again. And oh, yes. That is my gorgeous bathrobe I'm sporting. Stylin' no?
Posted by kate at 09:00 PM | Comments (20)
