Baby Überraschung Jacke

I mentioned on Wednesday that I have a colleague from Germany who's having a baby. Since she was in our knitting group for a year while in NY, I decided to knit her a baby surprise jacket. I don't know if it was the olympics or the theme of the previous work shower gifts (destinational onesies), but I decided to do the sweater in the colors of the German flag. I ordered yarn from Elann last week and have been waiting impatiently for it to arrive (not because elann's service is bad, but because I stupidly had the yarn shipped to the office and I've had two packages never arrive). The yarn came today. I cannot wait to cast on. I include the swatch from elann's site because my pic of the yellow is way off. It's sort of in-between these two.

Now, to find some really cool buttons. I'd love it if I could find some German flag buttons. Hmm, maybe a trip to the store for polymer clay and I could make my own (kind of goes against the point of using cotton for washability).

36 and 1

I turned 36 at 4:04 this morning. I'm a bit bummed to be at work and I want to just yell at everybody to leave me alone cuz it's my birthday and I shouldn't even have to be at work, but the rest of the management team is either on week two of a three week vacation, in India on business, or driving their daughter back to college.

It makes me sad that the specialness of birthdays wears off when you're between being really young and having all those great milestones and getting really old when it's a feat to still be around. I was conflicted about birthdays before that anyway. I have two younger sisters and our birthdays fall within one month of each other, mine being smack dab in the middle (two weeks and two days after one and two weeks and one day before the other).

But, I get to have lobster for dinner tonight and I'm ordering dessert, and I don't care if Hubby tells the waitress and they embarass the crap out of me. B will get a kick out of it.

Hubby gave me a lovely gold bracelet to replace one he'd given me years ago that is now a kinked mess. B also gave me a lovely bracelet earlier in the week. I call it my topography bracelet because it's all letters and numbers. (I wore it to work today.)

I finished the first seeing stones sock last night. I cast on for number two this morning. I think I need to make them a bit longer than this. My toes do not like being squished at all.

a heel sprouts

I finished the toe last night and I've started putting the stitches for the heel back on the needle. I had knit them with some scrap yarn so I could easily pick out the right row. (I prefer the afterthought heel because I'm too lazy to learn how to wrap a short-row heel and a flap is impossible when magic looping.)

In other news, I had to rip out 12 rows of raglan shaping on M-i-L's Ariann. The eyelets weren't matching up. I ripped back to three separate pieces and discovered that I'd not cast-off enough on one sleeve and was missing a decrease on the other. I really, really want to finish this sweater. I started so early and so well and now it's dragging.

Another friend from our nearly defunct office knitting group is expecting. She's taking her last trip before the baby next month. (She worked in our NY office for a year, but is German and is back in Germany. Funny how she goes back to live on the same continent as her husband and gets pregnant.) I'm planning a baby surprise jacket. I'm anxiously awaiting a package from Elann so I can get started. I'll post a pic and the rationale behind my color choices once it gets here.

reaching the toe

My re-boot of my seeing stones picots is at the toe shaping. Of course, I got my replacement Harmony needle in the mail yesterday. If I'd put off re-starting, I wouldn't be having floppy socks. Oh well, I'll use the new harmony for my Thimbleberries yarn. I got the superwash. It's very pretty and will be my next pair. I'm going to swatch it to see if it will take a pattern.

We had a good weekend at the shore. B is getting braver and braver in the ocean. Yesterday, he let me sit him down so the waves could crash on his shoulders.

We did have a little meltdown about B's not eating dinner Sunday that lead to no boardwalk rides and an early bedtime. However, we had excellent cooperation yesterday, so we did do rides after lunch before we left. There was little to no carrying on as we drove away, too. A big change from last time when we had miles of tears. I'm sure the lollipop had nothing to do with it.

scary good mood and get your red yarn ready

I'm feeling really upbeat today.

For a few reasons I think:

1) Long weekend down the shore

2) B's been a great cooperator since we got over a horrible Monday morning

3) Yaz works funny, I get half a cycle of cranky and a week of great, when I should be cranky

4) I'm going out to lunch with a colleague and friend today

I'm going to try to milk this for all it's worth. The drive down to the condo might be really bad tonight.

In other news, the Red Scarf Project will begin accepting scarves September 1 through October 31. I've got one knit up that I started for last year's project and never completed. I've kept a bag of RSP-appropriate yarns at the ready. Think I'll cast on another when I finish M-i-l's Ariann.

pleasant surprise tinged with regret

When I got home from my workout at the "gym" last night (I have to use quotes, it's one of those 30 minute circuit training places and I can't call it a gym with a straight face, I should just call it exercise like B), Hubby had B upstairs, bathed, in his PJs and they were finishing up book reading. Usually, I'm happy to have finished dinner and gotten him upstairs by that time (7 pm). Hubby plopped him in front of Bart and Lisa and I ate my take home salad. When I was done, I joined be on our bed and then finished the bedtime routine. He was in bed an half hour early.

I really had to beat down some ungrateful feelings about the whole thing. Hubby wasn't comfortable with a lot of the childcare when Billy was an infant, so I did the vast majority. No without resentment at times. Now that Billy's older, Hubby's a lot more comfortable with handling the childcare and as he takes on more responsibility, I'm having a hard time relaxing and enjoying my free time. Instead of feeling usurped and unnecessary last night, I should have relaxed and enjoyed my meal.

My head, such a mixed up place.

Of course, now I'm thinking I should make Tuesdays a regular exercise night. Hubby can take care of B like last night, but he can also finish the bedtime routine and I can go join the Union County Knitters group from Ravelry!

back to school

Hubby's applied for an MBA program. St. Peter's University has a special program for his employer. They offer discounted tuition and hold some classes in the building. His employeer will cover 100% of the tuition for any class in which he gets an A, 75% for a B, and so on.

He wanted me to write his essay for him. He got away with getting his girlfriends to help him with his homework in college. (We didn't date in college.) Actually, this trend goes way back, his grandmother used to help her kids with their homework (one of her eldest son's papers was 50% researched by her).

I told him I wouldn't do it. I said if he couldn't write a one-page essay on his own, he probably shouldn't be taking the classes anyway.

He did it himself. I proofed it for him and only had to make minor changes (mostly punctuation and random capitalization). I thought it was pretty good for a guy who's not written an essay in 14 years. He did a nice job tying in the idea that the political landscape may cause his job to become obsolete (he's in health insurance and really dreads universal health care but doesn't listen to me when I tell him Obama's proposal is not single-payer).

I was thinking about grad school for myself, too. My industry is continually outsourcing. We're having a lot of our publications managed overseas. I joke that I may need to look into property in Manilla in a few years.

I'll have to wait. Hubby's only planning on doing one class a semester (they do 4 semesters so he could complete in 3 years if he takes classes year-round). I can't see us both handling coursework at the same time. The program I was looking into is online, but a 4-YO and mommy and daddy both with homework? So not going to happen.

feeling better

I felt better after working out last night, then I finished off the second sleeve to M-i-L's Ariann. Body joining to commence tonight, if I don't work on my tunic that needs altering. B made me a picture last night. He and Hubby had dinner at a diner while I was working out. Hubby drew the heart. The rest is all B. I've got it hanging on my wall. Dude's been a bit moody since we've been back from the Shore.

head space

I don't seem to be in a good head space these days. I changed BC to yaz in the hopes it would help my cyclic mood swings. But, I've been in an almost constant crappy mood.

I have been knitting a lot.