On Saturday, Nate took the family out to Snoqualmie Falls. I haven’t been there in many years. It was unbelievably crowded. We hiked down to the bottom (major round ligament pain) and when we were done, Nate hiked back up by himself to get the car to pick us up.

Clark has developed a sensitivity to loud noise. He spent all of the 4th of July with his hands over his ears, and I guess the thunderous falls were too loud as well, though it really wasn’t that loud.

We’ve been enjoying heading out after dinner when the house gets hot and outside is starting to cool off. We typically go to a park for some fresh air and shade.

I carded 4 ounces of my Green Tea batts,

still sampling, unfortunately. I’m testing out a new silk to see how it cards and knits up since my old silk is no longer available. So in the next day or so I should have it spun and I’m trying to decide what to knit it into. Maybe some picot edged leg warmers? Or a hat? Or a scarf? Any suggestions? I’m going to spin it woolen and am hoping to get about 180-200 yards out of it. If need be, I can card and spin more.

I’ve felt a little down this week. Not really sure why. Hormones, or fatigue, or something. Not very sociable.

Please tell me. Because it’s lost, and I’m annoyed.

Liv dyed 4 ounces of superwash BFL yesterday in extremely bright colors. I’d show you, but, well, I still can’t upload pictures. I keep thinking that it’ll “fix itself” at some point. Perhaps not.

She’s half way though the second bobbin now, so I’d imagine she’ll have a plied skein by the end of the day. My undyed fiber stash is suddenly looking significantly smaller.

Now that I have a couple pounds of alpaca on its way to me, I need to find where I wrote out some colorway ideas. Perhaps I’ll be dyeing soon! And I’m hope, hope, hoping that it’s great and I can consider them my new supplier!

I just came home from my 24 week appointment. I only have one, 4 week appointment left, then a 3 week, then some 2 weeks. Then we’ll be into the 1 week appointments. I can’t believe it. At my next appointment, I’ll be starting the 3rd trimester. Wild.

This pregnancy is starting to be fun, now that he’s moving around a lot and I’m feeling a little better. It feels like more than just “being sick.”

Black Sheep was great. Carol and I had a great time. We each bought some dyed alpaca/tussah silk that drafts out SO lovely.

As usual, coming back from Black Sheep has made me want to move forward carding my batts. My friend Stephanie is going to order some alpaca from her supplier for me this week. If it’s nice, I’ll sign up with them and start working. That’s been my problem, waiting for my supplier to get alpaca in stock. I’ve been waiting since December.

I also need help with packaging, and Stephanie is going to come over this afternoon and help with that, too. I’m really excited.

My picture adding feature is still not working. I think Carol’s husband is going to check into it for me when he has time.

The girls are officially on summer break now. We’re going to dye some BFL together that they can spin and prove to me that we should keep their wheels.

Calcifer looks like he’s pulled through. When I get the tank in my bedroom cleaned again, I’ll move him back into his home.

Miriam, the response I wrote to you will NOT send. I don’t know why. I’m running Safari on my Mac, so I don’t think the IE thing affects me. And I don’t have any faroese wool. Have fun with your spinning!

That’s all I’ve got for today.

Sigh. I hate technical computer stuff. I don’t have a clue where to go or how to fix anything. For those of you that might know, here’s what’s happening- I hit the add media icon (WordPress) and a little window comes up with the button “Choose Files to Upload” like it’s supposed to, only when I click on it, it doesn’t bring up the window giving me access to my files to choose pics. I click the button and it ignores me.

So, I’m getting ready for Black Sheep. Doing laundry, making lists… I’m about to start assembling piles to load into my car.

I think Calcifer is getting better. It’s kind of hard to tell. The redness is smaller, but the holes in his head are bigger. He’s still lively and eating. That’s the best sign of all. Nate is too grossed out to look at him, but to me, he seems improved. I don’t think we’ll escape some permanent damage though, if he lives. I can’t imagine how those holes are going to fill in.

Maybe you should be glad I can’t upload pictures. :-).

It is just headgrowth though, not like it’s boring into his skull or anything. That’d be REALLY gross.

As far as my health goes… I’m feeling much better. I still have a really hard time eating in the morning. And if I do manage to eat, I usually regret it. But lunch tends to sit well. Dinner remains iffy, yet better than breakfast if I’m hungry enough to eat it. My heart has been much calmer. I don’t really know why. Maybe I’m eating better. I should be losing weight since I don’t eat much and hardly snack. But no, losing weight is not something I do. It’s just not in the stars for me I guess.

Anyone have an opinion on rigid heddle looms? I’d love to hear if you do. I’m contemplating the Ashford Knitters Loom (20 inch) and the Kromski Harp. I really want to get the girls spinning this summer. If they don’t, I might be selling some extra wheels I have laying around come autumn. My girls don’t have the patience to knit, but according to Ashford, you can weave a scarf in 2 hours on their loom. I’d like to get them dyeing, spinning, and weaving this summer. It sounds like tremendous fun but I don’t know which loom to get. I’m hoping there will be some on demonstration at Black Sheep. As of now, I’m probably leaning towards the Ashford. Something about it (which could simply be their marketing department) makes it seem more kid friendly. If I love it, perhaps I’ll pick up a Kromski for me. Or maybe I’ll start looking around for a table loom. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

So, for some unfathomable reason (nothing brought it on, it came out of nowhere), I decided it’d be fun to knit a Molly Weasley sweater (the groovy one from Chamber of Secrets) for Halloween. I looked at the pattern in Charmed Knits and it didn’t do anything for me. Then I saw this.

Oooooh. Now that has potential. I’d knit the body of the sweater and just crochet the sleeves. I’d also get the sleeves back up on the shoulders, not hanging off like that. I have some ideas as to the neckline and trimmings, I’d shorten it and make it an A-line at the hips, and I gotta find/make me an apron to wear over it, along with a decent wig… BUT! Wouldn’t it be cool? I think so. And since Molly Weasley is heavy set anyway, I’ll look perfect, if not too tall.

I’ve contacted Gayle, my crochet master friend that I’ve only seen a handful of times since we moved 3 years ago, and I think we’re a go! So, I need to start collecting bits of yarn in different colors. I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to go all wool, or use acrylic, or a mix of the two. I don’t see this as being a very fun sweater to handwash and lay flat to dry, but I don’t like touching acrylic, so the actual crochet experience (which I don’t particularly like) will be far more enjoyable if I have nice yarn to work with.

Fortunately, I already have the PERFECT body color, I just have to figure out how to use it without getting Liv mad at me, as it’s the yarn I was going to knit her cabled yolk sweater with. But that’s been stalled out for a year and a half anyway, and we’d already discussed scrapping the yolk sweater for a cabled vest/jacket thing, and she’s older now. Maybe she doesn’t want pink anymore? Maybe???

So, that’s my latest crazy idea. It may or may not happen, but I think it’d be fun and one of those things I could wear every year.

In other news, I’ve discovered that I don’t particularly enjoy knitting toe-up heels. So the Goldfish Socks are stalled for the moment, I’m probably going to need some hand-holding from Carol. I’ve re-decided that I HATE the colors of that stupid hexagon shawl. I’ll finish it, show it to a bunch of people to get their opinions, then I’ll probably overdye it. Which means I have to knit some swatches to test-overdye.

This is so annoying to me. The color of this Colinette yarn is what made me splurge on it at the store, and then it knit up like crap and I don’t even like the way it feels compared to other mohair laceweights I’ve used.

This is what, 3 or 4 grumpy posts in a row from me? (I just checked, make that 5+).

I’m sorry.

But I really am excited to try my hand at crocheting (even though it hurts my wrist) a Molly W. sweater. I’ve already bought the pattern, I’m just waiting for the PDF to show up in my inbox.

I’m doing better but I’m soooo tired. And Clark is being a pill today. Veronica’s birthday was yesterday,

and we’re having a big family dinner tonight to celebrate. I’m getting plenty of help with the food, but I need to clean my house.

I still have a 3 inch bruise on my arm from the IV last Tuesday.

I am ready to start the heel on both of my Goldfish Socks.

I’m not feeling very interesting right now, sorry. But I wanted to post something today, since the last thing you heard from me was about being in the hospital.

Thanks for the comments on that BTW. I’m keeping a food log. My heart has actually been behaving since then. I had a mild episode this morning in the grocery store, but nothing horrible.

It’s a gorgeous day, and I’m feeling a little depressed for absolutely no reason. Gotta be hormones. And the fact that my husband is always either working or at the girls’ softball games.

I’m trying to think of something fun to do that isn’t cleaning my house, however I know if I buckle down and clean my house, I’ll be in a better mood and more likely to enjoy the weekend.

Here are pictures of my pretty sock. I tried to overexpose, but that doesn’t seem to work on my camera anymore.

It’s actually a little snug. Not too snug, it feels good but I’m a bit concerned about wear. Carol says that as long as it’s snug around the foot and not heel to toe, I’ll be ok. I’m thinking about adding a couple stitches on the bottom as we approach the heel and gusset. (Do toe up socks even have an official gusset? I’ll find out when I get there). I think two more stitches would make the difference.

UPDATE- I’ve cleaned and swept the dining room, then I practiced a little guitar. My mood has definitely improved. >TMI alert< Guitar still makes me sick, so I don't practice very much. Today was going well, 'till I got carried away and started singing... I almost ralphed ON my guitar, but fortunately managed to hold it back and run to the sink. This is so weird.

SO, I’ll probably do a bit more cleaning and then I’m going to Pen Thai for that noodle dish I’ve been craving for days. Mmmmm, fried tofu. I can hardly wait.

So, my orange sock is too big. I started it at 64 stitches, on size 2 needles. The yarn is probably a tad thicker than Koigu but it is very similar. I’d have to drop down to 48 stitches to go any smaller, as it’s an 8 stitch repeat, and an odd number of repeats just doesn’t seem right. I was going to try 48 stitches, despite it seeming like a small number until I realized that’s the same number of stitches I’ve been knitting Clark’s socks with, on the same needles.

That can’t possibly work.

SO, after spending some time this morning crunching numbers and thinking of ways to alter the stitch pattern (which is in the Harmony Guide, vol 2, pg 51), I think I found a solution that will be “good enough.”

If I widen the fishtail by increasing the repeat to 10 stitches from 8 and cut down to 6 repeats, that’ll probably look the best but only bring my stitch count down to 60. I don’t think that’s enough. So I’m changing the stitch pattern to a repeat of 9 stitches (bringing the total down to 54) by adding one stockinette stitch between each fishtail. It detracts from the lacy-ness of the stitch, but I don’t think I have an option, and after a little swatching, I think I’ll still like it.

For those that are curious, going down a needle size will make the fabric too stiff. It’s about perfect right now. I hope it doesn’t loosen up with wearing like my Koigu monkey socks did.

I can’t post pictures because my computer is not acknowledging the fact that we have wireless internet. It’s all sorts of mess. So I’m on the laptop which is having no trouble at all. But there’s no Photoshop on this computer.

I have a bunch to write about today, and I know it’s been a few days, but I’m much more in the mood to knit the groovy pair of socks I’m working on than to spend time writing an exhaustive post.

SO…. you get the digest version 🙂

First, we’re having a boy! We’re very happy.

Second, I finally got those dumb pumpkins in the ground and they’re flowering.

Third, I finished Clark’s third pair of socks, and they’re really cute and he loves them. I have enough yarn to make two more pair just like the last ones. I haven’t decided if I’m going to. However, whether or not I do, it’s going to wait because…

Fourth, I’ve started my first pair of toe-up socks with that pretty orange yarn Carol and I dyed last week.

They’re going to be goldfish socks and I’m finally knitting that fishtail lace stitch that I’ve liked for so long.

I’m feeling much better. I’m still tired, and my low back is starting to act up as my belly gets bigger. My tolerance for dairy has increased but it’s unpredictable.

School’s almost out and I’m getting really excited for summer!