Lookee what I did!

I added photos. Its quite appropriate as I've been nicknamed the foto popo just this week. Foto popo? I'm THE moderator for Yahoo! Wool Soaker group. Jealous, aren't ya. LMBO. Anyway, being the popo that I am I had to crack down on the fotos... foto popo. Thank you Patti for always making me laugh till my sides hurt. Wool Soakers are HOT! The wool soaker group is HOT! Paris Hilton is HOT! Just kidding. snicker. Check us out at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wool_soaker_group/ if you wanna be HOT! Tee hee.

Nothing going on in the knitting world. Working through an HTML tutorial right now. Oh Oh Oh, I bought some yarn today... does that count? hehehe

Kack! Me work, nevah!

Well, the yearly bug to work on my own business has bite me again. A business? me? Not really. More like a hobby. I enjoy having things hanging over my head. A little over a year ago I decided to become a business owner. Cloth diapering products, children's clothing, natural parenting, etc... I just can't seem to stay focused long enough to actually accomplish anything. All the while I'm paying all the expenses of having a professional website. Oh, and don't forget the prefolds, Snappi products and the other what nots hanging out in my garage.

So, I gotta learn to do this thing. I've created my own personal sites before. Created my own graphics, wallpapers, heck I even have a year of graphic design under my belt. This whole html stuff is like learning a foreign language... don't use it, lose it. Not only that, but the complexities of shopping carts. *sigh*

Knitting world? In the day of the life of a freak (hint the freak is me) I was fairly disciplined today. My little ones are a little behind in their homeschooling. Even further behind for my tastes. We got in a great day of schooling!!! Yahoo! Tim made a deal with Anna. If she can get to level 6 in her math by January he'll buy her a Nintendo DS. She's so freakin' freaked! Madalyn's drooling over her Gameboy SP as she only has an Advance. Don't even ask me how I got here... knitting, right! No knitting today. Just crochet. I started on a pillow to coordinate with the never ending blasted afghan. Grrr... why can't I come up with a design and have it instantly perfect? A gauge swatch or two would prolly help, lol. Gauge swatches are for normal people. I get bored before I can finish a swatch. snicker. Its amazing I finish anything... ever.

Lil'lily is going through a growth spurt. She's nursing 24/7. I think babies have this maniacal plan... wait till momma wants to do something then pin her down by her boobies! hehehe. With 2 nursing toddlers and an infant it's amazing that I ever get outta my chair. Course I'm getting sneaky. Them two toddlers hunt me down like raptors, especially right after showering. They know I have to get dressed at some point. They stalk me from the shower to my bedroom. I'm getting smarter though. WWF tag team still gets me now and then. I love them so much and I love our quiet time together. Time to cuddle with the wee one now.

Little Miss Piggy

snort snort says little miss Lily. She's been a growing. They all grow too fast! She was 7 lbs even at birth. 6 lbs 11 oz June 1st. Three weeks later on June 22nd she weighed 8 lbs 14 oz. oink oink.

Knitting news... I was able to scrape enough out of the left over Fabu for a scarf for Isabella. She loves it. Grace is now demanding hers. I've been wrestling with another scarf. Shimmer (I think) and Truffles. I purchased only enough for a novelty-style, however I decided on a heftier scarf. I think this is my 5th do-over. I finally was able to come up with a scarf that will get the desired length. It will be narrower than I wanted and looser guage than I wanted. It will make a beautiful gift. I should be able to finish it up today and then work on the afghan a little bit tonight. I will be so thankful when that is done. I can't wait to go *shopping* through my bins for my next fast project. I'm going to have to clear out a bin just for knitted gift items. I should say I need to go purchase a couple more bins. I still have at least one yard trash bag filled with yarn that can't fit into my current stash bins. One would think that 10 large bins would be enough stash yarn.... one would be mistaken though. snicker. Oh, the struggles and agony of those that have more money to buy yarn than time to knit up that yarn. tee hee.

The Joy of Scarves

So, I finished my tank. Totally unhappy with it. The short row shaping is wrong, the overall length is too long, the straps sit wide on my shoulders, and the fitting is either too small or too big. What to do, what to do? That's been my knitting life lately. Eventually I will rip and then reknit making some modifications to the pattern.

I've been inspired to work on some wips and ufos. I have so many stash projects and so many future stash projects just waiting to join my wannabe yarn shop in my garage. I have been working on an afghan slowly. Don't like it, but its a gift. So, I hit my bins and found some lovely Berroco Optik. Knit up a scarf last night. Worked a row or two on the afghan today. Found some Fabu and knit up a scarf today. I think I have enough to knit up another one so I'm going to start on another one tonight.

I feel like I'm accomplishing some with my knitting. In reality, its like a drop in a bucket.... errr a drop in a rain barrell. Lol.

As a side note, I have a fan! My hubby tells me that he's glad my fantasy shop doesn't exist. Too funny. I guess I will have to hide my yarn indiscretions even from my blog. Just kidding, really honey, that yard sized trash bag of yarn has alwaaaays been there. snicker.

NAK

Nak? Nursing at keyboard. Little ones are so precious. Granted bigger ones are as well, just fewer precious moments and more *interesting* moments. Today was filled with mommy's back moments... which means much more whining and testing than usual. Yesterday I went shop-hopping. I think I went to 8 different yarn shops yesterday. Woo hoo! Now I want to knit, buy yarn, knit, and oh yeah, buy lots more yarn, hehehe. My fantasy yarn shop would carry every yarn and pattern I could ever desire, before I desired it. Tim, my hubby, has to be thrilled that no yarn shop like this exists.

I now have this strong desire, want, neeeeeed to work with Mango Moon sari yarn, Lorna's lace weight yarn, and Fibertrends estonian lullaby blanket. I'm thinking of one of Rowan's classic yarns or possibly Classic Elite's Premiere (?) for the blanket. What to do, what to do. Life is way too short for all the yarns I NEED to knit with. Not too mention my 30+ ufos and my 5+ years of stash projects.

I ordered some bfl wool today to try out on my soakers. I still haven't even tested all the different wools I have. Oh well, thankfully the stash game is over. hehehe.

Back to knitting

Yahoo! I finished my clapotis. Eventually will get photos up... someday. I also was able to finish all the knitted foods I wanted to for Madalyn's 8th birthday. Knitted foods? Check 'em out at www.wildcrafts.net/catalog .

I'm currently working on the Shapely Tank pattern from www.whiteliesdesigns.com . I'm using Rowan Calmer for this tank. I think I may need to pick up another skein to finish this. I am about 1/4 done with back. Finished the front about a week ago.

Wooly Wonder Forums is having a Stash game. It ends June 17th. I really thought I would finish more before the end of it. I guess getting ready for Lily and then her arrival kind of set me back a tad. Oh well.

WIP Completed! Lily is here!

My biggest WIP is now done. Lily Mae arrived May 24th, 2005. She's such a precious little thing. So, wanna hear her entry story? Here goes...

We decided to go with a midwife this time around as our last pregnancy went 100% perfect. Who knew it would take me 6 tries to finally get a normal pregnancy, lol. With Lily, I had started contracting and my cervix was changing earlier than what we were comfortable with. Unfortunately a midwife is not allowed to deliver before 37 weeks. So we took it easy for a few weeks to try to get to 37 weeks. I was very doubtful that we'd make it come 36 weeks. Of course I finally make it to 37 weeks (May 24th) and am totally certain that I would be pregnant for another 5 weeks. I guess you could say my outlook was pretty negative. Not one freaking contraction, no 'feelings' of readiness, nothing. I had a midwife appointment at 12:30 and for some reason I took all of my labor items with me. I KNEW I wasn't going to deliver soon so it was weird that this would be the first time I had grabbed these items. Anyway...

Midwife asks if I want her to check me and I said yes because I just wanted to know if anything had changed in the last week. So she's examining me and says, "well, you're a 3....4.....to 5 centimeters and 60% effaced." My heart leaps. She then asks me if it would be ok if I didn't leave. I agree as I've gone from 5 cms to delivery in less than a half hour a few times. I call my husband and tell him to head on over. He arrives at 1:30 and we go in to see the midwife again. Not one single contraction. She asks if she can break my water. Its about 2 p.m. when everything was said and done and I'm 6 cm now. My husband and I go for a walk for about a half an hour. 2 whimpy contractions and I'm 7 cm. Tim runs to the store to get some cold beverages. Nothing is happening. I feel like crying because I'm still not contracting. At 3:30 our midwife has a break between appointments and asks to check me again even though I'm not contracting. I'm at 8 cm. I'm in amazement as I'm still not even uncomfortable or even contracting to my knowledge. So I start pacing and start feeling contractions that are 2-3 minutes apart. No big thang. A little after 4 p.m. BLAM-O my first real contraction and boy its a doozy. Midwife starts getting busy with supplies beside me. Second contraction hits and I panic and say that I can't do it. (Big clue for me...as soon as I 'can't' do it we are almost done). Third contraction hits and I push through it. Fourth contraction and Lily's head is born. Fifth contraction and she's arrived!!! 4:25 p.m. 7 lbs even and 20 inches long. 5 painful contractions. How's that for laboring, lol.