Wow. We found something really cool today, and we’re not ready yet. Dangit. So Nate is trying to speed up our mortgage broker, and I’m talking with the realtor about pricing and such.

We’re not ready for this, but I can’t help hoping it works out.

When we walked through it today, the owner was there, which I was annoyed by at first, but she ended up being quite helpful and friendly.

The house is gorgeous (on the inside, the outside is heinous), the bedrooms are big, there’s an incredible space for Nate’s office, and they’ve done gorgeous, high quality remodeling throughout the whole thing.

The funny thing is that after we left, I asked the realtor what the strange smell was when we first walked in. Was it cigarette smoke? Not quite. Was it incense? Not exactly.

The realtor got a funny look on his face and said it was neither.

Oh.

Well.

Ok.

Yup. Naive little me doesn’t quite recognize the smell of weed.

I hope it doesn’t linger when their stuff is gone.

Um, yeah. I haven’t been knitting a whole lot. Stuff has been going on. Mainly it’s me feeling better and doing other things. Also, Nate has decided we’re ready to start looking for a bigger house! This is very exciting to me, and although we aren’t ready to put ours up for sale yet (things to fix), we’re looking to see what’s out there and to get a feel for our price range.

But, here’s the sock, a little bigger.

Well ok, that’s both of them. I somehow figured that the stripes would be more random, not repeating like they apparently do. If I had known that, I would have tried to start them in the same place in the sequence, but I don’t care enough to change now.

The house we’re going to look at this afternoon is a very large ’50’s rambler with a daylight basement that Nate is all excited to decorate/furnish/renovate (modest modifications). He was watching the Incredibles last night, and flipping through design magazines he had stashed to get ideas. He’s always liked that style. Fortunately, there are a lot of ’50’s houses in the small geographical area we’re willing to consider. We don’t want to go very far.

I got permission yesterday, so here is a little photo journal of our wedding dress hunt on Saturday with my sister.

Actually, since I have a lot of pictures to show, and since my bandwidth is through the roof because an apparently highly travelled pattern website has linked me, and I’ve been getting a ton of hits from it for a few weeks now, I’ll show you the chosen dress, and include a link at the bottom of the post if you want to see some of the others I really liked.

First, here’s an unfortunate shot of my sister standing in front of 12 of the 16 huge boxes of dresses we went through.

and here is her friend Melissa, me in the middle, and my sister in front of one of the two or three large racks of hanging dresses we went through.

Lots of dresses. Fortunately, my sister’s friend and her mother-in-law are bridal pros, and made very quick work of it. And the winner is…

The lighting in the house we were in wasn’t great for pictures, so I’ll just have to tell you that what really stands out about this dress, aside from the fact that it looks like it was made for my sister’s body and is a natural extension of her skin, is the spectacular way the crystals sparkle.

You’ll just have to believe me, and in August when I’m flaunting wedding pictures, you’ll get a better look. She’s having a day wedding at a beautiful golf resort outside of Portland.

I’m happy with how high the dress sits in the front. It really annoys me when a bride looks like she’s serving herself up, spilling out of her wedding dress. It seems wildly inappropriate to me.

Just because you’re in WHITE, doesn’t mean you don’t look like a floozy.

Fortunately, my sister feels the same, so I didn’t have to bite my tongue which, as I’m sure you know by now, does not come natural to me.

Now, to tie this into knitting….

I’d always assumed I’d knit a beautiful bridal shawl for my sister when and if she ever married, and my mom, likewise.

In looking at this dress, and considering the crystals, (which won’t be kind to the laceweight merino I’m used to dealing with), what in the heck can I knit for her that will match the style?

I’m coming up with a big “nothing”.

I know I’m only a couple weeks into it, but so far, the 3rd trimester has been the easiest. I can eat vegetables again without getting sick. I don’t NEED sugar every second (although I’m still eating more than I should, but at least I don’t feel like an addict). And I’m doing things.

Like yesterday, I moved the bunk beds in the girls’ room which was phase 1 of the reorganizing that has to happen in our tiny bedrooms to accommodate a 4th child. Then, so as not to “overdo” it, I spent the rest of the day working in Veronica’s scrapbook.

Saturday, I made a long car trip to Oregon and back to be with my sister while she was trying on wedding dresses. It ended up being about 8 hours of driving and I vacuumed out the car first!

I’ve been making dinner, a respectable dinner, almost every night for two weeks, going on three.

This morning, I’ve already bathed the dog (hallelujiah! he reaked), and we’re heading out to the mall to pay a couple bills.

I’m showering more often. And last week, after wincing at the prospect of paying almost $4 for a loaf of mediocre bread, I baked bread again, which is something I’d mostly given up the last few months, as I’ve been so tired and sick. I hope to do another batch today.

It’s so nice being productive again, and I hope it lasts, since productivity as I see it will end once the baby comes and I turn once more into a “milk-on-demand”, and my favorite, “walking and bouncing to soothe the fussing” machine.

Today at the mall, if Veronica decides she wants to stay and play a bit, I’ll knit more on the second sock which has been pretty neglected since Friday, as I’ve been able to do more than sit on the couch and knit.

I’m dying to show you the wedding dress my sister picked out on Saturday, but I haven’t got permission yet. I forgot to ask.

Yarn– I used Angora by Elsebeth Lavold. 4 balls for the body, and 1 ball for the edging and fringe. Each ball of Angora gave me about 19 inches of scarf length.

I think this scarf would look great in a soft, worsted weight yarn that doesn’t bloom like angora to preserve more stitch definition. It is still luscious in the Angora, if you choose that route.

Needles– size 9 for body, a 36 inch circular in a smaller needle (I used a 7) to pick up side stitches, and a 36 inch circular in 10 1/2 to knit the edging.

A large crochet hook to help with fringe.

Gauge– don’t have one

Finished measurements– My scarf is 7 1/2 inches wide, and 77 inches long, including fringe

PATTERN–

Cast on 33 stitches loosely.

Row 1- K5, (k2tog, yo, k2) repeat to last 4 stitches, k2tog, yo, k2.

Row 2- K1, (p2, yo, p2tog) repeat to last 4 stitches, p3, k1.

Row 3- K1, (k2, k2tog, yo) repeat to last 4 stitches, k4.

Row 4- K1, p4, (yo, p2tog, p2) reapeat to last 4 stitches, yo, p2tog, p1, k1.

Row 5- K2, (yo, slip 1 stitch, k1, psso, k2) repeat to last 3 stitches, k3.

Row 6- K1, p3, (p2tog tbl, yo, p2) repeat to last stitch, k1.

Row 7- K4, (yo, slip 1 stitch, k1, psso, k2) repeat to last stitch, k1.

Row 8- K1, p1, (p2tog tbl, yo, p2) repeat to last 3 stitches, p2, k1.

Repeat these 8 rows as many times as you like to get the desired length. You can bind off in 2×2 ribbing after row 4 OR row 8.

For edging, hold scarf sideways with front facing you. Along the top edge, with the smaller circular needle, pick up the vertical bars made by the selvedge stitch. Pick up stitches in the same place each time to maintain a uniform appearance. It ends up being about 1 stitch picked up for every 2 rows knit.

With the 10 1/2 needle, loosely work 2 rows in stockinette, (knit 1 row, purl 1 row), then loosely bind off in stockinette, causing the edge to roll towards the right (front) side of the scarf. Repeat on the other side.

For fringe– each fringe is made of 8, 7 1/2 inch strands of yarn. On my scarf, I have 9 fringe on each end.

Trim the fringe to even them when finished.

Now I need to make/write up the matching hat!

Key–

k2tog- knit 2 stitches together

yo- yarnover

p2tog- purl 2 stitches together

tbl- through back loop

psso- pass slipped stitch over the last knitted stitch

I’m pretty happy about how I ate this week. Definitely more healthy than not, and I was able to be productive throughout the week, although my energy crashed each afternoon.

Still no exercise.

BUT, I went to my doctor appointment on Wednesday, and I only gained 1/2 pound over the last 5 weeks! I have no idea how that is possible, but I’m happy with it. At home, my morning weight is back down at 234.5, so really, I’ve only gained 10 pounds thus far in the pregnancy, and I’m at almost 29 weeks.

Good stuff.

How’s it going out there?

I’m sorry I haven’t been good at responding to Health Group comments the past two weeks. I like to respond individually to HG comments, but the last two weeks got away from me.

I’m going out of town now, heading to Portland to be with my sister while she tries on wedding dresses. She’s up from San Antonio, Texas for a few days. I’m hoping to be back tonight, if I can physically handle making the drive twice in a day.

Later.

Yesterday was eventful. I got a lot done on the sock during playgroup,

and we bought new tires for the front of my truck. Why? Well…. I had a nail in each, and the rubber was cracking on one, and my air pressure was about 10, and the tread was very low.

Oops. I thought they looked kind of funny.

V and I ate lunch at a neighboring restaurant while waiting for the tires.

I came home exhausted and continued knitting on the sock. Now the first leg is done, and I’m working on the second sock’s leg.

And now I’m off to a scrapbook workshop. My first. I’m hoping to get a lot done.

Now I’m off to playgroup, and maybe lunch with Veronica.

Last night went really well. Thank you all for your input. As it turned out, I only had 5 ladies come to learn how to knit, (there were a couple seasoned veterans along for the ride), and I taught them the long-tail cast on. I cast on that way, and I didn’t want to teach something I don’t do. I also taught them both the knit and purl stitch, and got most of them ribbing. (Thanks Maggie for the tip).

I started off the class by telling them about our conversation here yesterday, and about how much I didn’t want to hear any negative self-talk. And there wasn’t any.

By the end of the night, I was feeling a bit bad about assuming there would be a problem, but a friend of mine who was there said she was sure it was due to the what-for I gave them all at the beginning of class. She’s probably right, I can be pretty direct.

Lesson learned. Intimidate them before they have a chance to get out of hand. :-).

I also brought a wide variety of finished objects, along with all my Interweave Knits magazines, and a few books so they could see what was out there, and then I told them that everything they see is accomplished by manipulating the two stitches that they have already learned. I saw some eyes brighten at that, and that was rewarding.

I am still working on the socks, although they remain barely more than cuffs. After knitting a bit in the garter rib pattern, I decided that coupled with the color of yarn I was using, it looked too masculine. So I ripped it out and am continuing in the 2×2 rib of the cuffs.

I told you they don’t match.

Also, I’m thinking about getting a negative scanner. Any thoughts?