Mitten

While I did decide to scrap the stock I was working on, I have still been knitting. In fact I don't even feel bad about missing a day of knitting last week with all of the progress I have made. Only about an inch left in the thumb and my fist mitten will be done.

Unplugged and Unknit

Well, here we are, back to the land of technology. With the harsh weather in our area we ended up losing power for a bit. First on Wednesday night we lost power in the middle of cooking dinner. Fortunately for us it was closer to the end of cooking dinner and we were able to still eat the meatloaf, mashed potatoes and corn. The potatoes were a bit lumpy and the corn was not quite hot enough but the meatloaf reach temp so it worked. We were only out for about 2 and a half hours before the power came back on but it was tough to keep the kids calm and get them to bed in the dark. The power was on all night and then went out at about 7 the next morning just after Brian had finished his shower. Poor Jake was in the shower (after jumping in after Brian was done with it) and it freaked him out a little. We got everything sorted out and Brian headed off to work. 

I am really glad that our gas fireplace works without electricity (wasn't sure it would come on as you do so by flipping a switch on the wall but it did). Were it not for that fireplace we would not have stayed warm enough. The power stayed off all day and I am really glad that we don't make a bunch of TV part of our daily routine. Yes of course I let the kids watch TV but I try not to let them ever have more than 2 hours a day so that made filling in that time from our normal routine not too bad. Cooking was a bit of a challenge and I had no coffee but my wonderful Brian brought us dinner home and picked me up a camp stove and some propane. We played board games on the floor by the fireplace with the kids and had some wonderful family time. The power was still out throughout the night and so we fired up the camp stove for boiling water (coffee oh sweet coffee - thank goodness for the french press).

It turns out that we were one of the lucky areas that got our power back on around 4pm that day (Friday) and oh it was so nice to feel that furnace kick on and my poor fish were on the brink of suffocation without the aerator going but they pulled through too.

On the knitting front I got my minimum stitches knit on Thursday but alas on Friday I did not knit a single stitch...I have decided to give up on these socks. I dropped out of the test knit ion Wednesday night as I knew I would not be able to meet the deadline. I also have finally come to accept that I detest cabling. I don't mind it if I have to pick up a cable needle every so often but when I have to cable on every single row I can't stand it. Now I know to think carefully and thoroughly examine patterns that contain cabling so I know which ones to avoid. Now the difficult task it to decide which socks I DO want to knit as I am sure I want another pair of socks on the needles.

Will all of the goings on this weekend and how I am feeling right now I am not sure what was knit on what day but what it boils down too is that this is where I am at on the sock and I have made sure to knit at least one row per day (have not attempted today's row yet). I think I have knit about 18 rows since I last posted about it.

This weekend was busy - Saturday it started snowing which caused some problems for my folks getting here but they made it safe and sound none the less. The kids and I met up with them at Toy R Us so Jacob could pick out his birthday present. Then we headed home and ordered pizza for dinner. Abby had started running a fever and throughout the night she woke up about every 10 - 15 minutes (oh how I wish I was exaggerating that). All day Sunday she was calm, quite, tired and at times, downright groggy (absolutely the opposite of Abigail). The kids took it easy all day and I did not even make them get out of their jammies. My brother and his wife came down and later in the day Brian's mom and step dad came too and Jake opened gifts and we had cake. Today I took Abby into the doctor and it was confirmed that she too has pneumonia. I did not know that pneumonia could be communicable, but I guess so. I also started feeling ill today (runny nose and fever is all for now thank goodness but if I start having a cough I'll be calling a doctor). After doctors it was off to the pharmacy for antibiotics then to the deli to grab a quick lunch and drop some by Brian's office so he could have lunch too. By the time we got home, had lunch and I got the kids down for a nap I was wiped so I had a little lie down on the couch until it was time to make dinner.
My darling Jacob came up to me after waking up from his nap and said "why are lying down mommy?" I told him "Mommy doesn't feel very good right now" So he sits down next to me, starts rubbing my arm and says "is there anything I can do to make you feel better?" All I could do was say "how about a hug" and gave him one - it was that or start crying with how sweet he was being. About 2 minutes later after I had got myself sat up and prepared to do some workbook stuff with him he walks up to me and hands me a glass of water "for you to feel better mommy" I have the sweetest kid in the world.

Bummer

My poor son. I feel so bad for the boy. He has had a fever for several days so we decided to call the doctor. They wanted to see him and after doing so diagnosed him with pneumonia. Which means that we had to cancel his birthday party on Sunday. This made him so sad and that broke my heart. By the end of the day he had come to accept it but still it makes me sad to see him so upset.

That being said I spent my day consoling my son and therefore did not get a blog post done and managed to only knit one row on the sock. So here is the knitting for the last two days:

5 year old in the house!

I did not post yesterday as I was busy running around and doing something called life. Anyway it works out since the knitting progress from the day before was minuscule and not worth photographing and I only knit about a row yesterday so there will be no photo of the same stuff you have been seeing thus far. I am happy that I have remembered to get at least a stitch in a day thus far (at this point I am still getting in at least a row a day but I don't want to jinx it). I am going to have to pick up my pace though as I am on a deadline for this sock and will not meet it if I don't get to it. In fact I only have 9 days to finish this sock so I guess I better REALLY get to it.
In other news today is the 5 year anniversary of the birth of this little monkey:

I can't believe he is 5 already. We will celebrate by letting him pick where to go out for dinner tonight and open  a few gifts from Brian I. On Sunday we will have a party with friends and family at Round Table (Jacob's request). On that note I am off to play with the birthday boy.

Stupid teeth

A few days ago I woke up with an odd feeling in my teeth, like I had slept with shims in between them. Slowly over the next few days one tooth started to be very sensitive to cold and even the act of air passing over it. Anyway long story short I went in to the dentist today and the good news is it's not a cavity. The bad news is it could be worse. It's either a dying tooth (dentist doesn't think this is it and let's hope not) or perhaps the way I grind my teeth at night is affecting it. Either way it will probably cost about 500 bucks minimum to solve the problem (night guard or root canal).
Anyway here is the sock progress for yesterday's knitting:

Moving forward

Progress! This sock is knitting up wonderfully! Can't wait to put them on me feet. Now, back to Battlestar Galactica while I knit.

Did you hear that?

That was the sound of my knitting hitting the frog pond. I finally admitted to myself that the stitch pattern was getting lost in the beautiful coloring of the yarn and because I am testing the pattern for the designer I wanted to be sure her beautiful design could be seen. Also, cables seem to be a bit of a challenge for me so I don't want to go to the trouble of a cable if it can't be seen. I did not post yesterday as it seemed silly to do a progress update on something that lost ground to the point it doesn't exist anymore. On the plus side the new sock is knitting up much faster. I don't know if it's because of the different yarn or because I have started this sock 4 times now (1st was wrong #of sts cast on - this is why designers have their patterns tested - to catch little typo's like this; 2nd was I realized it was coming out too big; 3rd I CO weird and couldn't fix it so here we are on the 4th go). I am really glad I chose to start again. I am much happier with the results.

Two more

As the day before I only knit two rows yesterday but those rows did finish up the first half of the pattern repeat. I worry that the pattern will be a bit lost in the coloring of the yarn. We will see.

Two Rows

Yup two rows is all I got in yesterday so I am not going to bore anyone with another horrible phone picture of essentially the same damn thing as yesterday...Hopefully I make more progress than that tonight...we shall see.

New Socks

So the current knitting is a pair of socks. I am conducting a test knit for a Ravelry designer. I really like this pattern - it is simple enough to be easy complex enough I won't get bored. If you are a wiz at cabling this one is probably a do in your sleep pattern.

Knit one stitch

I have a goal from this year separate from any resolution I may have made. My goal is to knit at least once every day this year. I also aim to post a picture of said knitting to my blog but no promises on that one. Because today is the second of the year there will be an offset so i can show the previous days' knitting each day before I start to knit. More details on this project tomorrow.