the albatross

finally, some photos of "the albatross", aka my norry fair clapotis.  may it win me a ribbon.



this photo makes me look like i'm taking a leak.  or getting frisked.




the albatross as a wrap.  very lovely, with nice sheen.  a nice wrap for warm weather.




the albatross as a scarf.  nice, but i think i like it better as a wrap.  but a scarf is a nice option to have, spesh under a blazer.

the albatross was knit with ester bitran linares, a cotton/viscose blend.  lovely sheen and color, but an absolute witch to knit with.  and i'm not alone - if you read the reviews of projects knit with this yarn, the major complaint is that it is extremely splitty and finicky to knit with.  amen!  i guess i should research the yarn before buying - it would have saved me some heartache!


i hate taking pictures of myself showing off my FOs.  for one thing, i just have a problem with my body image.  i am no julia roberts.  but dear Bob, look at my belly.  never mind the kiddos are a year old!  and i suppose i shouldn't take pictures after i've taken a bath (hence the wet head) or a sunburn (after a day at the pool despite copious amounts of sunblock).  and i know i should take photos during the sunlight hours, but that's hard to do when no one is home to help me (except the kiddos and they can't take pictures very well;  nor do i want them to break my camera!)

my question for you:  how do you take aesthetically pleasing photos of your FOs?


ETA - the yarn i used to knit the albatross.  my brain is on channel Z - my bad.

one albatross down...

clapotis blocking.  one day, i will have my own craft room, and i will have space for blocking my FOs.

now i have to finish my jaywalkers.

happy clappy linus - knitcroblo day 6

i consider myself a pretty adventurous knitter.  my projects range from the most basic dishcloth to felted bags to my UFO ubatuba sweater.  i love knitting socks and baby blankets.  but my most favorite FO is also my most cherished, something i made during a very dark time in my life.

two years ago hubby and i finally got the green light to get pregnant.  we had to put our plans for adding to our family on hold for a year while i worked on getting some personal health issues under control.  to our surprise, we got lucky on our first month of trying, and we were elated.

our joy turned into sorrow when we learned that our baby, whom i had named "ani", had died at 8 weeks gestation.  for some that may seem like an unfortunate minor blip but for us, after a year of waiting and a miscarriage prior to conceiving the boy, the news was devastating. questioned whirled in my head...what if couldn't i get pregnant again?...why couldn't i sustain a pregnancy?...was the boy really our miracle baby, and we should just be grateful to have him?   we gave ourselves a deadline.  since the boy was turning 5 and we wanted to have a baby before he went to school, we decided that we would keep trying until christmas, and then give up TTC and concentrate on our only child.

we started trying again, except this time month after month would pass without a BFP.  on top everything, the anniversary of our first loss, on All Saint's Day, was looming, the EDD of ani on New Year's Day was on the horizon, and i felt more frantic, depressed, and left behind as friends announced their good news of family additions, and i dodged the "when are you going to give the boy a brother or sister" spiel that every know-it-all seemed to give.

during this time i had a prayer shawl group at my church.  we made shawls that people could borrow to keep warm in church...and if someone wanted to take one to give to someone in need, that was fine too.  i thought, i really could use my own prayer shawl, becos i was hurting and scared and wanted something to wrap around me for those times i just wanted to feel safe.

after reading through books and magazines, searching for my perfect shawl, i decided i would make a clapotis.  this scarf/shawl/wrap is one of the most popular and most knitted projects on knitty.  clapotis was simple enough to knit, yet the drop stitches added an exciting challenge to the work.  i calculated how much yarn i'd need (the original was knit with lorna's laces, but i needed a yarn that would suit my pocketbook), and while at KDO i found the perfect yarn:  crystal palace merino 5, in soft purples, blues and greens.

i set out on my shawl.  the pattern was meditative and easy to knit.  the dropped stitches, normally a fear for most knitters, actually felt liberating as i would drop the stitch then watch it rappel down the fabric.  clappy, as i had named my shawl, grew and grew and grew.

on Halloween, i had about 2 feet of clappy left to knit.  i really wanted it finished for ASD, so i feverishly knit on it around the clock.  i even took it to church and sunday school and pounded it out (mom scolded me for that - she didn't think it was appropriate.)  late on november 1, i cast off clappy, wove in my ends, did a quickie block job and wrapped its soft goodness around me.

the boy wearing clappy:

i wore clappy everywhere - to church, to knitting, to the grocery store.  i wrapped clappy around me at home when i was watching tv, reading a book, knitting.  clappy really did make me happy.

after a while i decided i had to rename clappy.  clappy sounded dirty (who wanted to be named after gonorrhea?)  so i settled on linus, after the peanuts character, whose security blanket could be anything he wanted it to be.  linus was my wrap, scarf, shawl and blanket, and the name really did fit!

november melted into december and ani's EDD was in front of me.  the christmas holidays are always my favorite but this year i was dreading them.  i felt lonely that instead of welcoming a new baby, my belly and arms were empty.  i had looked forward to sending my christmas cards with a picture of the boy holding the baby under the christmas tree (i was certain i would deliver before christmas, as the boy had been 3 weeks early, i had assumed the next baby would be too).

a funny thing happened.  christmas eve and day passed and i felt this curious calm.  new year's eve and day came and went, and while i felt sad, i also felt very very tired.

a couple days later i tested and found a BFP!

a couple weeks later, my doctor found not one but two tiny heartbeats fluttering inside me.  SURPRISE!

and eight months later, after my first ride in an ambulance and during a heavy thunderstorm, william and laura entered this world five weeks early (how did i know that was going to happen?!).  and when i tried to sleep through the pain and discomfort of major surgery and the fear and worry for my two precious angels in the NICU, i wrapped linus around me.

on chilly afternoons, curled up on a rocking chair on the front porch, i wait for the boy's bus, his ride home from school.  linus keeps me warm, in both a physical and spiritual sense.

about a month ago i decided i would give linus a proper blocking.  pinned to the floor, he stretched nearly half the length of the floor in the computer room.  he was nearly three times his size.

linus has a couple of pulls.  the stitches left from the dropped stitches catch on everything.  but i tuck them back, give the fabric a gentle tug, and go about my day.

of all my FOs, linus, clappy, my clapotis, truly makes me happy.

busy busy busy

i've neglected my blogging duties for the past few weeks in favor of working on the the kiddos' log cabin blankies.  the project energized me and i spent much of my free time (such as it is) knitting it.  i have a lot of projects planned for the next few months, i wish i had more time to work on them.

here's petunia's blanket.  hers has a pink square in the middle:

here's freddie's.  his square is blue:

i'm unsure what kind of edge to put on the blanket.  the mason dixon ladies recommend a mitered edge, like a picture frame.  but i'm thinking of doing an i-cord edge instead, if i can remember how to do it!

i also bought yarns for another poppin blanket and for another clapotis.  i want to make them for exhibition for the bloom fair and for the northumberland county expo.  

the kiddos are growing so fast!  petunia cut a tooth and is crawling.  freddie rolls around more and is pretty close to sitting on his own.  both are eating solids well, although freddie has a bit of a sweet tooth and would rather eat fruit than veggies.  the boy is addicted to mario brothers on the wii, and likes to draw the characters and watch mario videos on youtube.  i can't believe someone out there videotapes themselves playing mario, but apparently some goofs do that.  

here's freddie, dressed like buddy lee:

here's petunia, with buddy lee:

and the photo that started it...the boy, when he was a couple months old.  the photo's grainy becos we took it with our camcorder.  what do you expect?  it was over 6 years ago!

it's spring now and the weather has been gorgeous for the past couple of days.  it calls to be in the 70s for the next few days.  we had some heavy rains last week, but thankfully not to the extent of areas in new england and new york.  

lent and holy week are nearing their end, and easter is in 2 days.  the time went really quickly.  i attended my dad's wednesday services - the services discussed the bible, the covenants, luther's works and general thoughts on what it means to be lutheran and a christian.  the services left me feeling more passionate about my faith and my desire to learn more about the bible.  i got a new one, the green bible, from hubby for christmas, and i can't wait to read it.

today i got some real cooking done.  i made ham and green beans in the crock pot, and matzo ball soup.  it feels good to cook - it's hard to cook when there are 2 kiddos under foot demanding attention.

clappy gets renamed...and i break 40

after about a month of calling my clapotis clappy, i decided to rename it. the name came to me last night.

i usually wear clappy as a scarf. last night i went to choir, and the church was cold and of course, i only had a thin long sleeve shirt on and was freezing, so i wrapped clappy around me. it dawned on me that clappy has so many uses. much like linus' blanket in the peanuts cartoons. he hugs his blanket, wears it over his head, hangs it around his neck. so many uses.

so i thought, clappy sounds kinda dirty, since "the clap" is a slang for gonorrhea. gross. but the more i thought about it, "linus" sounded like a good name for my clapotis. i wear it around my neck, as a shawl, and i'm sure i could use it for a hobo bag too if i tried! so clappy is no more...i now have "linus."

today i swam laps and finally broke the 40 lap mark! it takes me about 45 to swim laps. i do a set of 5 strokes (such as they are): 2 laps with the kick board, 2 laps doggy paddling/no kicking, 2 laps with KB, 2 laps doggy swimming, 2 laps breast stroke/crawl. 5 X 2 is 10 laps, now i'm up to 10 laps X 4 sets. i ache like crazy. but i feel good swimming. now my goal is 50 laps. now, i also use fins and swim gloves, so that helps with the resistance. when i do the breast stroke, i feel like i'm using one of those flex resistance machines. i hope the exercise is helping. my legs have pared down considerably, and my arms even feel smaller - i'm getting guns! (more like pea shooters!) hubby thought my belly even felt smaller. i went down a jean size too (yay!)

i have a long ways to go. for my height (60 inches) i should weigh 100 pounds soaking wet. i'm nowhere near that weight. but hopefully i'm building muscle, so that will help burn the lard that sticks to my thighs and gut. and maybe if i work hard enough i can get rid of the damn elephant that hangs off the front of me.

now i'm 2 days late. twingy boobs. crampy belly. fought crime with hubby yesterday and this morning, and it didn't hurt (like it usually does around AF day - in fact it felt pretty good). i was going to test tomorrow, but i think i'll wait until saturday or sunday. i just don't feel pregnant. of course, i didn't feel pregnant in may either. but i just don't have a good feeling about this cycle.

2 good men...and happy clappy is finished

here's the boy with clappy, then me.

just a quick jot before i get the boy at school...

my grandmother's neighbor died. he was 98 years old. nice fellow, had a beautiful garden, and was very good to my grandmother and my family. it was quite a shock to hear of his passing, but i know he's in a better place now, and prolly growing more tomatoes and pruning his fruit trees as i type.

the other good fellow, depending on the point of view, is barack obama. congratulations on the win. i didn't vote for you even tho i'm a democrat. deep in my gut you just don't feel right. but you've won the biggest job in america, and i wish you the best. i hope you know what you're doing.

happy clappy is done. it took less than a week but i finally finished it after church. i love wearing it and hugging it, and i got a lot of compliments on it.

hopefully happy will make me happy. and lucky.