Knit Update

At 11pm exactly, I cast off and wove in the last stitch on Lady Eleanor. Just blocking, crochet-edging and fringing to go. I need to pick up a Size H crochet hook to finish this off.

Wow. I love it.

Probably most of anything I've made so far.

There's one more UFO that I want to get done over the next week, and I will count myself very successful. But it's being a real pill, so I may get frustrated with it and toss it back in the storage bag.

What to cast on next?

Possum in the Day

I felt for this poor girl (I'm sure it's a mom) when I saw her in our neighborhood the other day as I was walking the kids home from the park. It's a bit how I've felt lately, like I'm not in the right time or place at the right moment.

It's been more than a week since a blog post, and I haven't been doing much knitting either. Lady Eleanor is on the last full row, and I'm dragging my feet on finishing her. I think I'm going to miss this knit. What do you do when you're having so much fun with a project you don't want it to end?

The Cap'n is gone again for work (4 times in the last two months since Little Baby was born), and the boys and I need to find more activities to do. We've hit Air and Space and Natural History twice each within the last month. Toddler yoga and music classes only fill up two mornings a week.

I've started packing for the move next month, but I need to get the place really clean for an open house that our landlord wants to hold in two weeks. The Cap'n thinks magic packing gnomes are going to take care of everything in the next 3 weeks, but I can really only get things done when the boys are asleep. Which doesn't give me any time to rest.

And if you have any good mojo to send us, please keep it coming our way to make sure this house closing goes well on May 31.

Little Baby weighed in at 12 POUNDS, 6 OUNCES at his 2-month checkup, which despite the 4-pound gain, only puts him at the 50th percentile. Yet he's so much bigger than Slim and his 10th-percentile-weighing-self. We'll get an update on him at his 2-year checkup next month.

So let's tally: 1. Moving, 2. New Baby, 3. Work absences (for the Cap'n). We'll forget: 4. Law school apps, 5. Summer birthdays (eek! I gotta plan Slim's party!) and travel.

Boy. I am tired.

A Meme on Mother's Day

Dudes! It's my first meme tagging! And on Mother's Day!

First, a belated Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there. Over the last two years, I've learned to appreciate that much more what my mother, stepmother, grandmothers and step-grandmothers have gone through.

This is the most joyful and the most difficult thing I've ever done. As I told the Cap'n today, many times in my life I've battled anxiety and depression. I've even been suicidal. But since having the boys, I've found more meaning to life. I still get down and still struggle, but now every day has potential and goodness because these two little boys came into my life.

They're cute, but I'll have to post a pic of Slim's new scrapes from face-planting down the stairs of our building. Oy.

Now on to the meme: The rules are to post 8 random, interesting things about myself and tag 8 other people. So here goes:

1. One grandfather was a farmer and the other was a professional wrestler. I think that dichotomy is still present in my genes.

2. It's a running joke in our house that I went to school on the "short bus." I attended a special program at the middle school when I was in elementary school, and then I went to a "special" high school for my junior and senior years. Let's just leave it at "special."

3. Three classmates in my "special" high school killed themselves within a six week period at the end of my senior year, including one on prom night. It's one of two sets of events that formed me as a person.

4. I walked on hot coals.

5. The Cap'n and I got lost in a canoe in the Everglades and had to sleep in the boat getting bitten by helicopter-sized mosquitoes. I don't swim well, and there were alligators around. And I still married the guy. (P.S. We did make it out.)

6. I miss reading. It's been one of my lifelong loves. In fact, the first thing I ever stole was my 5th grade teacher's copy of "The Odyssey." And I still have it. I used to spend whole days just curled up on the couch with a good book. I just haven't had that luxury since having the kids.

7. I randomly quote lines from "A Christmas Story" (It's a major award!) and "The Muppet Movie." (It's a myth! A myth! Ye-th?)

8. I have "The Cat in the Hat" memorized. Handy on long car trips.

Okay, I'm tagging Caroline, Carrie, Laura, Lolly, Karida, Hannah, Sarah-Hope and Maryse. My feelings won't be hurt if you don't do it, but it was fun!

Just Keeping Track

I've been meaning to do this for a while anyway.

Here's a meme I caught at Miss Ewe's to tally up knitting you've done or plan to do. Fun.

Items in bold have been or are being knit.
Items in italics are ones you plan to knit.
Leave the rest plain.

Afghan
Shawl
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Sweater
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing (unintentionally: the first hat I made Slim fits his teddy bear)
Baby items
Slippers
Graffiti knitting
Scarf
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cosies…)
Purses/bags
Stuffed toys
Jewelry
Gloves
Cuffs/fingerless mits/armwarmers
Pillows
Rug
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Hair accessories

I-cord
Garter stitch
Stockinette stitch
Moebius band knitting
Drop stitch patterns
Slip stitch patterns
Domino knitting (=modular knitting)
Twisted stitch patterns
Two end knitting
Continental knitting
American/English knitting
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Lace patterns
Buttonholes
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Holiday related knitting
Bobbles
Knitting smocking
Steeks
Fulling/felting
Textured knitting
Kitchener stitch
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Entrelac
Knitting and purling backwards
Intarsia
Tubular CO
Short rows
Thrummed knitting

Knitting with metal wire
Knitting with camel yarn
Knitting with silk
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Knitting with banana fiber yarn
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Knitting with circular needles
Knitting with soy yarn
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Knitting with alpaca
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on one or two circulars
Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn
Knitting with dpns
Knitting with cotton
Knitting two socks on two circulars simultaneously
Knitting with wool
Knitting with beads
Knitting with self patterning/self striping/variegated yarn
Knitting with cashmere
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Knitting with linen
Knitting with dog/cat hair (again, unintentionally: Mia's hair is part of everything I make.)

Participating in a KAL
Charity knitting
Designing knitted garments
Publishing a knitting book
Teaching a child to knit
Knitting to make money
Dying with plant colors
Knitting items for a wedding
Teaching a male how to knit
Knitting for a living
Dying yarn
Knitting art
Machine knitting
Darning
Writing a pattern
Knitting for preemies
Freeform knitting
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Knitting on a loom
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Knitting in public

Break On Through

I need to break on through to the other side.

Other side of stress, other side of exhaustion.

There's not been nearly enough knitting on this blog lately, or in real life. One block at a time, I have made it to the two-thirds point on the Lady Eleanor stole. She's going slower as she gets longer, but it is going to be fabulous when I'm finished.

It's hard to knit and sleep at the same time, and with Little Baby up most of the night, I need to fit in more sleeping while they nap.

More photos when I can...

Cute Overload

Little Baby, originally uploaded by vrkdorell.

Okay, by popular demand (of the grandparents), I have officially sent the cuteness quotient at Flickr through the roof. I think this is the page. I like the Flickr function for posting photos to the blog, but I need to fiddle with the photo size settings when it posts. Also, should I get a Pro account to have multiple sets? Anyone? Bueller?

Anywho, I am completely overwhelmed. I need to take deep breath, make some to-do lists and knock through everything. I'm a little freaked out by it all: babies, house, moving, weight loss/exercise plan, etc. Oh, and yeah, I do need to get working on those law school apps for next year.

A knitting blog post I read (can't remember where) said this one time: We don't do anything half-assed around here. It's whole-assed or not at all.

I love that. So we're going at it whole-assed around here.

Hopefully I'm just not making an ass(w)hole of myself while doing it.

FYI, I know I did not post a Weight Loss Wednesday update. I did not weigh myself, but I don't feel like I'm losing anything. I know I did not exercise enough (no yoga...boo), and I was hitting the chocolate.

I did jog a couple days, though, and I could feel the difference in my energy level on those days. So I am going to rededicate myself to the exercise portion of my weight loss plan and try again on the salad additions. Wish me luck.

(The coffeeshop where I am blogging from ((on my free afternoon!! Thank you, Cap'n!!)) gave me a free iced latte and I am about to vibrate through the roof. How is it I can drink Diet Coke day in and day out, and one coffee sends me flying?)

There is so much to blog about, but I'm also supposed to be working on a budget and bill paying. Remind me to show you the baby knit(and quilt) additions next time...

The Heart of Our City

There are lots of things to like about D.C., but there are only a few things that make it "our" city, the place we call home. One of those is Eastern Market.

Yesterday, Eastern Market caught fire and burned. Flames from a dumpster climbed up to the roof and gutted the building.

The Cap'n came home late from work the night before last and woke me up saying, "Eastern Market is on fire. It's gone." I couldn't understand what he was saying. Even after taking a jog down there in the morning, I'm having a hard time imagining living here without the market.

We visit the market at least twice a week. I can reel off each one of the stands in order, starting with the lunch counter: seafood, Union Meat, Canales Meats, pasta, deli, The Sweet Shop, veggies, poultry, cheese, Calomiris and Sons veggies, Market Poultry, and flowers. On the weekends, people come from miles around for the outdoor farmers' stands and flea market.

Flora and Tom at Calomiris always give Slim a banana everytime we go by. Mr. Inman at Market Poultry sells awesome duck, which the Cap'n has turned into the most fabulous confit. The Cap'n also has trained Slim into a real taste for the Russian tea cookies at the sweets counter.

And it's gone.

I've sent a letter to Mayor Fenty to encourage him to live up to his promise to rebuild the market. Now is not the time to debate where to find the resources or funding, it's time to restore the history that our community has lost.

It's hard to realize that you most miss something when it's gone. Now I wish I had taken more photos of the inside of the market so you could see what it was like. I don't have any photos of the fire, but there are some online at the Post.

I want to be able to take Little Baby back there for his banana from the Calomiris stand, too.