New Stop For Book Tour!

Today the Yarn Harlot announced that she has added a stop to her book tour in Salt Lake City! Woo hoo! Anybody want to go with me?

Beboparebop Rhubarb Pie!

Finally! Another post! How much of a slacker can I be?

A few things before we get to the knitting . . .

My first rhubarb pie! And the first pie that looks as good as it tastes. I usually end up with a mess of a pie that tastes pretty good or a pretty pie that tastes like a mess.

And a couple of house pictures

The living room

The dining room

And the view out the sliding back door

The living room and the dining room are the only two rooms that look good enough for pictures and those rooms are a good lead-in to the local garage sale craze. See the couch in the living room? We got that at a garage sale. It's like new. See the piano in the dining room? We got that at a garage sale. It's a little bit out of tune but otherwise in very good shape. We've also found some baby things, including a crib, car seat, and swing and James has bought a lot of tools. Not tools like hammers and screwdrivers, but power tools; one of the tools is new in the box, never used.

I have never seen garage sales like this before. People take out 15+ line ads for their sales and shoppers start arriving as early as an hour and a half before the sale starts. James got to a 7am sale at 6:30. He said people were grabbing things, throwing money on the table, running to their cars, and running back to get more. The home owner said people had started knocking on his door at 5:30. If an ad lists something you want you have to get there early. By 10am all the sales are pretty well decimated. It is more fun that I can possibly tell you.

Now, on to the real purpose of this blog: The knitting.

I have finished the back and left front of the sweater. The pieces are the same size, the match, and even the stitch pattern matches. This feat was not accomplished without some frogging but we don't need to talk about that. My current concern is that I'm not yet half way done with the sweater but I have used half my yarn. But I'm not going to panic. I'll just see what happens. I've put the sweater aside for the past few days because I don't want to do another 7 inches of ribbing.

As a result the blanket is going like gangbusters. When I started the sweater, I was finding the blanket a little tedious. But now after the fairly simple stitch pattern of the sweater the blanket seems fun and interesting. I have 40 rows left and then I start the border. I may try to finish the body of the blanket this week. Maybe.

In the current issue of Interweave Knits is a pattern for the pea pod baby set. Yes, that's the same leaf pattern that I'm using in my blanket. I'll finish the blanket first. I swear I will.

And it's a . . .

Girl! The doctor wouldn't say that with 100% confidence, but he had a pretty clear view and he said a boy would have been very obvious.

Can't tell what that picture is? Don't worry. I can't either. The doctor said it's a leg. (The long white line is the femur.) The baby is big enough that only portions of her body fit into each picture. The only parts I could make out during the ultrasound were the spine and the heart. James, of course, claimed to see everything clearly.

I know that someone who reads this blog will be pleased to hear that, according to the ultrasound my due date is October 3rd.

Hello from Wyoming!

I've put off posting long enough. There are so many things to tell you that it's a little overwhelming, so I'm going to start off small.

First, Knitting
The baby blanket hasn't progressed very far but I've finished the back of the sweater and started the left front. I also knit a pair of baby booties just because I wanted to finish something. I really want to make another Knitted Babe, but I've resisted thus far.

Moving
We're almost completely moved into the main part of the house. I'm finishing up the office and the bedroom this week. All of my yarn made the move safely. In fact, the only broken items we've found thus far are two pictures and a lamp and that is due to poor packing, not poor moving. The current challenge is figuring out with is in each box. Most of the remaining boxes are labeled "Books" or "misc." We have a lot of books but in this case anything made of paper is considered a book: printer paper, magazines, files, post it notes. Opening each box is exciting, but a little annoying too. Especially when James thinks I know where everything is.

Baby
The baby is having an all-night party in my belly, which is kind of annoying. Until it stops. Then I start poking the baby or eating ice cream, which is the best way to get the party started again. Tomorrow, if the baby cooperates, we'll find out if it's a boy or a girl. I'm sure you'll be hearing more about that.

Sally
Sally is settling in nicely. It took a few weeks for her to realize we're staying here and she still gets very upset if we leave her alone. She loves the back yard but she is very good at escaping. Last week our next door neighbors invited us over to their house. I thought it would be nice to let Sally play in the back yard while we were gone but by the time we got to the neighbor's front door, Sally was trotting by on the sidewalk. The neighbors have a couple of dogs so they very graciously invited Sally into their house as well. That had to be the best night of her life. At one point she was laying the floor, exhausted, a huge smile on her face, while the neighbor's dog chewed on her legs.

That's a very quick update. Sorry no pictures this time. Soon. Soon there will be pictures.