Meme

I stole this from Heather and thought it seemed like a little bit of fun...

Grab the nearest book.
Open the book to page 56.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

"But if any of us were to chronicle the false patterns, the lulls, the storms of perpetual feeding, the general loony and uncontrollable eating behaviour of a new baby, it would be impossible to make a sensible theory out of it."

From How Not to be a Perfect Mother by Libby Purves

I forgot to mention - When in Rome...

Of course, how could I forget, I visited a yarn store while I was in Rome. Of course, I just had to do my research before setting off, Mr H was very accommodating and led me there to cheer me up on one of my more painful days. The store was called Lana della Vecchia and is at Via del Baullari 3, 00186 Rome.

It was a cute little shop, stuffed to the roof with yarn. The women in the shop were very friendly and one spoke limited English. I think the shop is definitely worth a visit if you're ever in the city.

Of course, I bought some Italian yarns while I was in there. I bought two balls of Laines du Nord 'Medifra' in a beautiful reddish colour (possibly going to be a pair of Fetching for myself). I also bout two balls of a yarn I'd never heard of before - Tropical Lane 'Complice', which is a bulky yarn in a mixture of browns and reds. Very cute, although I have no idea of what it is to become.

While I''m here, I can tell you that my Chevron Socks are coming along beautifully, I'm actually quite miffed that I will be having to give them away, I really am that fond of them. I will definitely be knitting the pattern again, quite possibly using my Harry Potter sock yarn.

Catching Up

Wow, it seems like ages since my last post. Well, I was sick, then I was in Rome (still sick) and then I've just been generally lethargic since I got home.

Rome was really cool, except that I was sick (Crohn's complications - I won't go into the painful detail), so between that and Mr H having a bad back we didn't really get around as much as we would have liked but we still managed to take in plenty. The weather was really great most of the time too, which was a relief as rain was forecast for our whole stay, it only rained twice, the rest of the time we didn't even need our coats during the day.

We also got around to taking some much awaited (so I'm told) "Sarena with Bump" photos. Yes, there is certainly a bump there now and it's not entirely made of chocolate and cake! I seem to be cooking a little acrobat and he's been kicking like mad; I actually saw my belly moving yesterday from the kicks, which was really freaky, I don't know how I hadn't noticed it before! We had the 25 week scan yesterday and everything is looking perfect, so around the 15th February 2009 there will be a baby H coming into the world, eek! I still can't believe that I have an actual person living and growing inside me, that's just so weird.

I have been getting on well with the knitting, despite a very irritating holdup with my Pinwheel Blanket. I decided to do a pointed cast off, like the one on my unfinished Debbie Bliss Circular Cardigan but I managed to run out of yarn for the very last triangle on the cast off, can you believe it?! I was livid! Luckily one of my fellow Stitch 'n' Bitchers has come up trumps and will be donating me a metre or so of the required yarn so I can actually finish it. I love my fellow knitters, I think knitters are generally a lovely bunch of people.

I'm actually really pleased with how the blanket's turned out. I love the colours and think they're a lovely combination and will look lovely draped over little bubs in the pram. I can't wait!

I have also been getting on with my Christmas knitting but it is still far from being finished. I knit Fetching from Knitty.com for my step-mother, using some Grignasco Australia that I had kicking about in my stash. I might knit another pair for a friend of mine but using a lighter coulour as I think the cabling will show up better and there is some reasonably priced Gringasco with an angora mix in the Coop in town.

I am also working on a pair of Chevron Socks for my mother's partner. My only concern is that he is rather colour-blind and so might not actually be able to see the pattern and the colours, hey ho, at least I'll know they're pretty! I will post pictures later when there's more to see.

So, just left is 2 hats, on for Mr H and a friend of mine, something else for my mother that Ican't mention in case she reads this and possibly a pair of socks for my dad. Then I think I'm done. Probably...

More baby stuff and another pumpkin

But this pumpkin isn't knitted. I got all domestic yesterday and made stew and carved a pumpkin. Cute hey? I was really pleased with how it turned out, except that my knife was a bit big and I ended up cutting off part on the house and have had to stick it back on with sticky-tape, but who would know?!

I won't actually be here for Halloween, we are off to Rome tomorrow, very exciting. I would be more excited if I wasn't poorly and in pain but I am hoping that y antibiotics will have kicked in a bit by the morning and that I will be feeling better. I am also hoping that the weather forecast for the next few days in Rome is wrong otherwise I will mostly be wearing a mac and sporting my umbrella. I guess we shall just have to spend our time hanging out in cute Italian coffee shops, no complaints there!

I have knit a baby kimono from the Mason Dixon book. I really love it, I just need to get around to sewing it up, I don't know why I'm putting it off so much, it's knit in one piece so there are only two seams to sew. I knit it using one ball of Cascade 220 Heathers on 4mm needles. There is just enough yarn left over to sew it up and then I need to find some suitable ribbons for fastenings.

I have also started knitting a Pinwheel Blanket by Genia Planck. I am knitting that using 5 balls of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in browns and pinks on 4mm circukar needles. I just hope that 5 balls is enough. I'm also hoping that it's neutral enough, either that or if I end up having a boy, I may find people saying how cute 'she' is but who cares. Not a very good picture I'm afraid but it's not easy taking a photo of a round, flat item on a circular needle. I'm on to my third ball of yarn now, so not too much further to go. It's not the most exciting knit in the world, just round after round of knit stitch, I think I'm currently on 400 stitches but it actually suits my state of mind at the moment, I really don't have to concentrate when I'm knitting this and can just kind of zone out. I wish I did have it in me to concentrate a little more as I would really like to crack on with my Rowan Iceland sweater but at the moment I just seem to be doing the odd row here and there but I guess it will get done eventually, I probably won't be able to fit into it anyway at the moment with my ever increasing belly!

Cutie Booties

I knit up the booties for my friend's overdue baby yesterday. Very cute. Knit from Christine's Baby Booties using Lang Bébé on 2.5mm dpns (set of 5).

Baby stuff and another Christmas FO

I just knit my dad's Christmas present - Skull & Crossbone wrist warmers! Cool hey? The pattern is Skull & Crossbone Wristwarmers by Kara Lyon. I knit them using some yarn from Manor department store (Yukon and Jasmine) on 3.5mm needles. They took me two evenings to knit.

I knit them for my dad because he plays guitar and often wears sweat bands on stage to stop the sweat dripping onto his guitar (nice) so I thought he could do with some funky bands. I'm not sure they will be particularly practical and will probably just go all droopy when they start to get wet but I still think they make a fun gift for him. I might make him something else too, maybe a scarf or some socks or some gloves, not sure yet.

I think I must be getting on well with my Christmas knitting, just my step-mother, Mr H and another gift for my mum for the main gifts (although I might knit up some beanies for my half and step brothers) and if I have time I might add a coulpe of other people to that list. The next project will be Fetching from Knitty.com for my step-mother, just need to choose some yarn, I'm sure I will have something suitable in my stash.

I have nearly finished my baby hoodie, all that's left to do is to sew on the pocket lining, which I'm going to do on the sewing machine (which means it will probably take me forever to get around to doing as I don't really have anywhere to keep my machine at the moment) and then I have to choose and sew on some buttons. It's really cute but the hood is a bit of a funny shape, I think that's a fault in the pattern rather than my knitting. I also didn't do a very good job of sewing up the raglans for some reason but it's mainly the back that's a little messy and I'm not going to undo it now, which is pretty good and relaxed for me, pregnancy must be having a positive effect on me and chilling me out a little. If you said that to Mr H, he would probably start laughing manically, he certainly hasn't been seeing a more chilled me, bless him.

I'm currently on call to go and babysit for a friend of mine who's due to give birth at any moment, she was actually due yesterday and thought she was going to be early so she's pretty fed up at the moment. I really think I should quickly knit up a little gift for the new baby. I think I might make a pair of booties. My friend Annelis made a load of really cute ones and I think I should make a few too...

She knit hers in Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino but the pattern calls for 4-ply yarn and I have a load of Lang Bebe in turquoise, so I think I shall use that.

A quick birthday gift

It's my friend's birthday on Halloween, so I thought, what more appropriate thrifty gift than a knitted pumpkin and here it is...

It was a really quick knit, I knocked it up today. The pattern is Pumpkin by Marnie Ann Joyce. I knit it using some left over orange yarn I bought in Manor last year (used for my knitted carrot for the same friend, I guess I think she has a thing for orange fruit and vegetables!) knit double on 4mm dpns.

I think I might knit another one tomorrow for another friend who's birthday it was yesterday as I know she'll like it.

I have almost finished knitting my Wendy hooded top for baby, I just need to knit the button band and hood ribbing and finish sewing it up. After that, I think I will move onto the Pinwheel Baby Blanket by Genia Planck as I really need to knit some nice baby blankets to fill the lovely pram we bought on Monday to make it nice and warm and comfortable.

We also had our 20 week scan on Wednesday. Baby is doing absolutely fine and seems to be developing perfectly. We're still holding out on waiting until the birth to find out the sex, which is actually quite difficult but we will try our best not to give in! I have no idea myself, when I first found out I was pregnant, I was convinced it's a girl but then for a while I thought, no, it's a boy and now I try not to think about it too much otherwise I'm sure it will drive me insane!

So, I will leave you with our future bundle-of-joy at 20 weeks...