Where have I been?

The blogosphere has been awfully quiet these last few days, and I'm afraid I've been contributing to that vacuum of words. Life has gotten in the way, mostly in a good way at the moment. I kept meaning to blog, but it got too late, or I was tired, or, well, it just didn't happen because the bills needed to be paid or a Netflix movie was waiting to be watched...but I am here now and that will have to do.

Earlier in the week, I got this very nice package from Kay in Vancouver. Kay, I am so sorry for not thanking you sooner. I appreciate your generosity, even if you feel like I am doing you a favor by taking it off your hands. I think you're something like number 97? We're getting awfully close to three digits here!


Speaking of the yarn-burial, I've got four packages sitting here finally ready to go back out to people who are already expecting them. I just got them taped up late last night, so hopefully I'll make it to the post office on Tuesday.

On Thursday night, I did make it to the State Fair for a second time, and had the luxury of meeting a couple of new knitter friends (Hi, Roxanne and Stephania if you're reading!) We had plenty of time to eat naughty food and stare at the knitting. It was good times and I'm glad that I went, but I have to admit that I felt a little sad about leaving my girls for an evening. Which was really weird considering how much I had looked forward to it all week. Anyway, here we are eating pork chops on sticks and caramel-apples not on sticks. From left to right, that's Stephania, me, and Roxanne. I felt like such a loser being the only one without a freshly handknit sweater to put on in the chill of the evening. Oh well - my daughter will be wearing handknit pants this winter.


Speaking of the pants, I am amazed at how quickly the top part has knit up once I joined the legs together. All that time in the car on the way to the photographer's studio the other day (which I forgot to blog about, but it was an hour each way, and he wasn't there because he had spaced our appointment but it's okay because he apologized profusely and offered us a huge discount to make up for it.) But all that time really added up, and I am at the point where I must decide how to handle the waist. I would love to hear any thoughts and/or suggestions. Basically, I see three options. I could knit a tube and insert an elastic band, or I could knit a tube and insert a draw string, or I could knit in eyelets and run a draw string through them. I'm leaning toward the second option, but I'm worried about a bulky knot/bow bulging under whatever dress or top she wears with them. Which makes me lean even more towards the elastic option, but somehow that feels like cheating to me. Should I just get over myself? Here they are.


I need to find a top to go with these pants. What I really want is an overall dress like this one



in a size 5 of 5T. This was her absolute favorite outfit last winter, and she asked for it pretty much every day. And she looked darn cute in it, too. We were both a little devastated when she fell and ruined those stripey tights on the driveway this spring. Old Navy has a similar dress, but it has weird distressed patches on the front that I don't like.

In the mean time, now that the pants are pretty much done, I needed a new diaper-bag project. So I started some new socks, probably for me. This yarn is by Sandy's Palette and it's a wool/nylon single. I picked it up at Shepherd's Harvest this spring. I'm a little worried about how well a single ply is going to wear, but the colors were so enticing, I couldn't resist. It's sort of a wiry, semi-scratchy type of wool, so maybe it will be tough enough to last a few seasons more than merino tends to on my feet.


Here are the day's gratuitous cute-kid photos. First, we have Julie and her friend Maymuna playing in the sand and Maymuna's house. Julie is wearing her back-up outfit after having had an accident on Maymuna's bedroom floor. Sorry, Jen! Speaking of accidents, potty training has sort of plateaued again. She's staying dry through most nights, but not all, and is having accidents mostly only when there is a #2 involved or when she's really distracted with playing. This is all totally normal and I'm not worried at all about it. For those concerned, she is using the adult potty with an insert, and we have a small stool for her to rest her feet on below. She seems happy with this arrangement, and although we had bought a toddler potty, she seemed more interested in it as a toy than anything else, and I have since put it away since I don't want to have to clean it after she does business in it, and she doesn't have a problem with the big potty.



Here are Sophie and her friend Hafsa hanging out in the empty swimming pool. Hafsa learned to crawl this week, and it is the cutest thing ever. Sophie is SO close to crawling as well. She's doing the army-crawl thing, and can move herself to the toys she wants, just not in the all-fours method quite yet.



Sophie and Hafsa were battling over the toys earlier, and it was a hoot. See the drool dripping off Sophie? We've been having major teething issues around here, and I'm sorry to say I think the Hyland's Teething Tablets are a load of bunk. Tylenol seems to help marginally. I have to say that if Sophie were not the cutest baby on the planet, Hafsa would make an awfully good candidate.



Tonight we had some friends over for dinner. I flipped hamburgers on the grill outside in the rain, and it was worth it for the nice, simple meal and very good company. This week is all about planning Julie's birthday party, which is scheduled for Saturday. I need to get to the party supply store and to the grocery store and I need to put together goody bags for our guests. I can't wait to bake the cake! I'm also looking forward to seeing Stephanie in Eau Claire, and luckily it looks like I'll be going in a vanload of other Harlot fans. Knitting road trip!