I did it!

I got an e-mail today from the Master Knitting committee chair, telling me that my resubmits passed and I have officially conquered Level I! I immediately ordered Level II (and we'll see how long it sits before I get it started...). I can't decide if I'm dreading or looking forward to knitting the required argyle sock. For Level III, you have to design an aran sweater - I'm definitely looking forward to that!

Sydney's week of spring break is almost over. It hasn't been too bad, other than the fact that she refuses to let me sleep in at all. An Owen has gotten into the habit of napping in the car when we go pick her up (we'll often leave early - as soon as he starts to get crabby - and just sit in the school parking lot while I knit and listen to a book on CD). This week his nap schedule is totally off. Yesterday we went on a morning playdate and didn't get home until 12:30. So Owen took his "morning" nap from about 12:15 to 1:30. He didn't go down for his afternoon nap until after 5. That makes it really fun to get him to sleep at night... He has been more horrible than usual at night, anyway, because he has a little cold and has wanted to nurse constantly. I haven't had more than four contiguous hours of sleep in almost a year. Isn't that supposed to make you insane?

Owen learned how to clap yesterday. It was so cute. He started in the morning when his random arm waving suddenly caused his hands to connect, and he figured out that he could make noise that way. Last night, when we were watching the American Idol results show, he would start clapping (and grinning like crazy) every time he heard the audience applaud. It's so fun watching him grow up! I love this age. Sydney, on the other hand, has entered the age of incessant questions. I try REALLY hard not to get irritated, but it's so annoying when she asks the same question (and gets the same answer) twenty times in a row. Right now she's sitting on my lap, grabbing anything she can reach off of the desk, and asking "What's this, mommy? What's this? Does it go here? Is it for this?" I always said that I wasn't going to be irritated by the "why" stage - that I loved that inborn curiosity and wanted to nurture it as much as I could. While I still feel that way about the curiosity, I do wish that she would accept my first answer more often. And not insist on repeatedly asking me things I either can't answer because I don't know, or can't answer because I don't know how to put it in 3-year-old terms.

Now Sydney, who is sitting playing with some stuff on the desk between my hands, is telling me "Hey, don't bother me. You shouldn't bother me. You can't just do that again, okay?" Well, at least I know she's listening to SOMETHING I say...

Next I have a shameless plug for the hand-dyed yarn that one of our knit-alongers, Erin, has just started selling. She'd sent me a hank of it at the beginning of March and asked me to test-knit it for her. I was supposed to finish a pair of socks by March 31. Well...I didn't get a pair done, but I did get a whole sock done! And here it is:



Here is a close-up of the foot:



Isn't it purty? The pattern is my own, and I'm not sure what's going to happen with it yet (Blue Moon has it right now, but I still haven't heard a peep from them). If you like it, I'll let you know once it has a home. Anyway, the yarn knits up great, feels great and doesn't pool. So any of you sock knitters who hate pooling, get over there and order some C*EYE*BER Fyber from Mama-E!

No sock updates today...I'm going to save them all for the big end-of-month update on Saturday. So check the sidebar, and get any last-minute March socks to me by tomorrow night!!!

I'm still here!

I know, I know, I've been pretty sparse on my posts lately. I've got all these furtive little projects going on, and Owen is napping less and less. Things will get better, though. I just ordered myself a new laptop, so I'll be able to compute from the dining room table instead of the office. The office is, sadly, unbabyproofable. I've tried, but apart from chopping Owen's arms and legs off, I haven't discovered anything that will keep him from crawling around under the desk amongst all of the cords. He's turning into the kind of kid who prefers to do anything he knows he's not supposed to. And he likes to give you a big ****-eating grin while he's doing it. I guess I'll forgive him, since he has started walking in earnest this week. It's so funny how he does it - he's totally off balance, so he'll shuffle-step forwards with his arms up by his head (he looks like a little ET) until gravity gets the better of him and he falls on his hands and knees. The whole time, he's laughing like a maniac because he's so proud of himself. It's very cute.

Yesterday, I was sitting on the couch working on the Mag Knits design, enjoying some relative peace and quiet. Sydney comes running in to tell me that "Owen got someting he's not 'posed to." I followed her to the kitchen to find this:



I tried to act stern, but how could I? He was so pleased with himself. Note to mommy: Owen is now old enough to grab bowls full of Annie's Arthur pasta (i.e. glorified Spaghetti-Os) off edge of kitchen table. Must remember to clear 6" safe perimeter before leaving him alone in room.

I've discovered another wonderful reality television show. No, really! It's "Number One Single" on E! and it follows Lisa Loeb (remember her?) on her quest to find a man to settle down with and have lots and lots of babies. I've watched three episodes and decided that I want to marry her. Which ties in nicely to the other show we've started watching, which is HBO's Big Love (about a polygamist family). I was thinking perhaps Bill and I should convert ourselves to fundamentalist Mormons (not to be confused with LDS Mormons, who don't believe in polygamy) and go ask Lisa if she'll marry us. I decided not to bring it up after watching last week's Big Love episode, during which Bill muttered under his breath "Who in the heck would want three wives? One is plenty." Although he might change his tune for Lisa Loeb... Anyway, she prefers men, and so do I. Since I'm not going to leave Bill for her or change my religion, I guess I'll have to settle for buying her new album and nurturing my non-sexual little girl-crush from afar. Even if you don't think Lisa is cute as a bug's ear, you might be happy to know that she actually had knitting content on the most recent episode. She and her sister meet up with Vicki Howell (of Knitty Gritty fame) to knit at a New York LYS. Woot!

Now that I've got that out of my system (whatever THAT was), on to the sock updates!

Stariel finished her Sockapaloooza socks to earn another brownie point.

Cece finished some Parade socks for a brownie point.

Helga knit up some baby socks, modeled in the most adorable pose by the most adorable baby!

This is as good a place as any to talk about the baby-sock-brownie-point controversy. Yes, I know that baby socks take a couple hours to make and adult-sized socks take much longer. And they probably should be separated out. I have considered it, believe me! However, I just don't have the time to make things any more complicated than they already are. If I separate out baby socks, then where do the toddler socks fit in? And then I'll feel like footies shouldn't get as much credit as regular socks. And what about the gigantic knee-socks that Erica made for her husband? Or the over-the-knee socks that Julie made in February? Should they get double credit? I just can't make it that complicated. But see? I have thought about it!

You should also know that the brownie point prize isn't some big thing. It will be similar to the monthly drawing prize. So unless you're super competitive and just want to win for the sake of winning, you shouldn't be too concerned with the brownie points. No matter how many brownie points you get, you'll still only get entered in the *BIG* prize drawing once for each month you knit socks in.

Michelle finished some Jaywalkers for her M.

Debbie made some snuggly felted socks for her daughter.

Shelley made some little pink baby socks for a brownie point.

Adrienne finished a lovely pair of socks for her lucky grandma.

Lauren gets a brownie point for a rockin' pair of Socks That Rock socks.

Karen, the baby sock queen, finished three more pairs.

Ragan, whose old blog was eaten last night (eeek!) has a few socks to show us and a couple brownie points earned.

And last but not least, Susan gets and M for a yummy pair of Jaywalkers.

That's all the socks for now! I got a little goodie bag in the mail today containing my yarn samples for the Tigard Knitting Guild Shop Hop, which is a day-long yarn crawl happening at the end of April. Here is the front view:



And here is the back!



Can't wait to make some teeny tiny little swatches with these to see how they knit up. I also got a reveal e-mail from my awesome SP7 - Michelle! Thanks again for being such a fun secret pal.

Remember to get your March updates in by Friday at midnight. You only need to worry about it if you're trying to get your M. Brownie points don't have a deadline since they're cumulative across the entire knit-along. Also, just to clarify, you don't need to sign up again if you're already signed up. The 20th of the month rule is for getting your letter for that month. So if you sign up on the 23rd of March, you won't be able to get an M. But you will be signed up for the rest of the knit-along.

Finally, here is the pic of the March prize, generously donated by Quikeye.



That's all, folks!

Socka-rama-lama-ding-dong

Well, kpixie had Vesper sock yarn on sale today. I, of course, missed out since the house was full of screaming children at the designated sale time. Oh, well. I'm not supposed to be buying sock yarn right now anyway!

You guys have all been terribly busy! Here is another long list of updates.

Mary Beth made the coolest pair of swirly socks.

Helga gets a brownie point for some Embossed Leaves.

StarzAbove finished some lovely Blue-Purple-Red toe-up socks.

Zonda finished some Thujas and is itching to cast on with the Bearfoot she won from Abigail last month.

Ragan (who really needs to change her blog name to "Ragan knits REALLY well - you gotta problem wif dat?") finished some rockin' knee socks for her daughter.

Christy gets a brownie point for some Sooner Socks of her own design.

Jennifer gets an M for some crazy zebra socks for her sock pal. Love them!!!

JessaLu gets her M for some very pretty Oak Rib Socks.

Tina gets her first brownie point for some yummy-looking red slipper socks. I want them!

Karen goes crazy with the baby socks to get 5 (*****) brownie points!

Ann finished a pair of Sweetie Socks and put them in a nice little album complete with progress pics. The birth of a sock! How cool!

Elizabeth gets a brownie point for some Easter Egg socks she made for her niece.

Elspeth finished her Olympic Jaywalkers! Better late than never!

Christine finished some Jaywalkers that were meant to get her a J but instead are going to get her an M. Oh, and she has a knitting podcast, too! I just got it downloaded but haven't given it a listen yet. I've heard lots of good things about it, so I'm guessing I'll love it. Go check it out, all you podcast listeners!

In the midst of some crazy wedding planning, Jen managed to finish some Yukon Leaves socks for her sock pal. And she picked out her wedding dress! So exciting.

Dene has just taken the brownie point lead in a big way. She is knitting baby socks for the Longest Line charity drive and has finished 14 pairs. That gives her an M and 13 brownie points. Wowza! She's actually up to 17.5 pairs, but only has pics of 14 on her blog and you know what a stickler I am for those pictures!!!

Karen finished a pair of Thujas for herself to give her poor Socklings a rest.

That's it! That's some crazy socking, y'all! At the end, I'm definitely going to count how many socks we've all made throughout this knit-along. I bet the results will be quite impressive.

I got my spring Knitter's magazine in the mail yesterday and got a little thrill when I realized that my design is going to be in the next issue that comes! And thank you all for your great comments about my IK acceptance. Bill read a bunch of them and commented that it seems like getting accepted there is a big deal. Uh, yeah! After seeing how you guys reacted, I think he understands a little better why I was all crazy after getting the phone message from Pam Allen.

Aaaah!!!

Guess who I just got off the phone with. Pam Allen! As in, editor of Interweave Knits. They're buying the sock pattern I submitted for the Winter '06 issue!!!! I am so excited. Of course I was a complete and total dork on the phone, but I was a little star struck. I know it's extremely silly, but I just can't help it. I'm gonna be in IK! Yippee!!!

Okay, self-congratulatory, jumping-up-and-down-with-glee section of post over with. I've got tons of socks and a bunch of pics from our weekend and other assorted goodies for you. But first, I'm going to do a little review. I finally dusted off my ipod and jumped on the podcast bandwagon this past weekend. I started out by listening to Cast-On, which was being guest hosted by Sage from Quirky Nomads. She's a crocheter, not a knitter, but she told the most enthralling story of how she learned to crochet from her mom. It was heartbreaking and heartwarming all at once. If you haven't listened to it, do. It also brought me to the Quirky Nomads podcast, which I immediately fell in love with. My more conservative readers will want to steer clear (from Quirky Nomads, not her Cast-On guest spot, which was non-political), but any of you who are crazy liberals like me should definitely go check it out. I also listened to a couple other knitting podcasts, including The Knitting Newscast (which I wasn't as into due to the lack of music and stories) and Knitcast, which is fun because of all the knitting celebs (celebrities of knitting, not celebrities who knit) she interviews. Although the sound quality of her Ann Budd interview was frustratingly bad. Not sure if I had a bad download or what, but it was not good. I'm chomping at the bit to listen to her Kerrie Allman (editor of Mag Knits) and Debbie Bliss interviews.

On to the socks...

Emily gets two brownie points for two new pairs of socks - Jaywalkers on today's post and some really awesome stranded socks on her March 13th post.

Julie got an M for a lovely pink pair of feather and fan socks.

Christine finished a pair of Artyarns socks - for herself!

Crazy Sock Lady Nelda finished her fifth pair of brownie point socks - some nice grey knee-highs for her hubby!

Lauren gets an M for an awesome pink-and-orange pair of Jaywalkers.

Carry finished some Tech Guy Socks (minus the tech) for her M. Her sister is getting sent back to Iraq, so keep her in your thoughts/prayers.

Sara finished up some "boring stockinette anklets" for her M. Boring to knit perhaps, but not boring to look at!

Project Spectrum mama Lolly finished her pink-and-red Strawberry Swirl socks.

Tina finished some lovely Magic Stripes socks for her M.

Abigail, who has been very busy, knitted up her M socks and two brownie point pairs! Very nice!

Jaya made the most awesome pair of Gryffindor Stripe socks for her M.

Stariel finished a pair of Dublin Bay socks on St. Patty's Day! Hee hee!

Lisa finished some totally impressive knee highs for her M.

Choomon finished another pair of super-secret-can't-be-shown-here socks for a brownie point.

Hege finished a great pair of green-and-blue socks for her M.

Karen also has some super-secret socks that can't be shown, but she will be posting them after she gives them to her daughter on her birthday, April 11 (which is also my darling little Owen's 1st birthday!). I will tell you they are very cute!

Wendy gets her 8th brownie point. Yes, you heard that right...8th! For these little lovelies:



Brianne gets a brownie point for her Tornado Socks.

Eva gets an M for these great Trekking socks:



Kristy finished some Fixation socks for her hubby for an M:



Adrienne gets another brownie point for these Glad Raggs socks:



Whew! I think that's all of them. See what happens when I procrastinate? And I really should be working right now... Things seem pretty mellow at the moment, though. I got the Knit Picks sample socks done yesterday, and they'll be ready to send off after they're blocked.

(Here's an unblocked pic. It's not a new pattern, or new yarn, so I don't think it's a big deal to post a pic here. It's Bev Warner's Twisted Socks pattern, knit in Burgundy Essential, and I love them so much it's going to be hard for me to part with them!)



So now I don't really have any looming deadlines until the Mag Knits pattern at the end of April. I have some math to do before I start it, and I've been putting it off to work on my New England socks.



I made a little progress at knitting night last night, despite having to frog about six rounds due to a big snafu in the front lace pattern. I'm not sure what happened, but it wasn't pretty.

Before I forget, for those of you who were asking about SSK and how to make it nice, there really isn't any kind of magic secret. She said that you need to really "baby it at the tip" of the needle and make sure you don't stretch it out when you are knitting it. I think the secret is practice, practice, practice. Although I find that now that I'm aware of it, my SSKs are already looking better. Not perfect, but better than before!

I got a couple nice little packages in the mail this week. First, these little lovelies from Jillian, who was my swap sender in Keohinani's karma swap.



The pink is 100% merino from A Piece of Vermont. The blue is from Brooklyn Handspun. I haven't tried either of these yarns before, so I'm very excited! Thanks, Jillian! She also threw in a caramel and milk-chocolate candy bar. She must be psychic - this is my absolute favorite combination. Yummy! So much for the diet...

I also got a lovely little package of aluminum knitting needles from Sonya. Aren't they lovely?



Here is their new home, since I'm loathe to knit on anything but my Denises these days.



I'm not sure if they'll stay here forever (I might try to find a narrower-mouthed container to display them in), but for now they're looking quite nice! Thanks, Sonya! I love them!

Finally, I'll leave you with some pics from our family trip up to Mt. St. Helens on Sunday. The weather was perfect and we had a fabulous time. Since I was a geology major (as a little aside, apparently Ann Budd was, also!) in college, I'm extremely fascinated with all the volcanoes in the area and it's pretty cool to sit there and watch St. Helens steam. Of course I don't want it (or Mt. Hood) to blow, but there's something in me that really wants to watch a big eruption from a safe distance. Kind of like I'd love to be in a big earthquake, as long as I was out in the middle of a field where nothing could fall on me (or me on it). Nature is quite incredible, isn't it? If only it wasn't so dangerous and destructive.

On the way up to the visitor's center, we had to cross the world's scariest bridge:



Okay, so I'm sure there are scarier bridges out there, but this one was high and very loooooong. My hands were sweating on the drive over it. I had visions of the movie Dante's Peak, and the scene at the end where the bridge gets washed away with the geologist guy and his van on it... Needless to say, we made it through alive.

When we got up to the VC, we found snow. Lots of it! Bill immediately starting throwing snowballs at everyone, and of course Sydney had to follow suit.



She's squinting in every single picture because it was freakin' bright up there!!! Here is a picture of the big mountain itself, complete with puff of steam rising from the crater. Too cool!



And here is the whole family, minus uncle Chris (who is holding the camera).



The folks on the left are Sydney & Owen's great-grandparents, in the middle is Grammy and on the right are, of course, us. Even though it looks like it, I'm not really trying to strangle Sydney. I'm holding her shoulders since she's trying to run away and do a little dance.

BTW - thanks for all your supportive comments on my "mommy guilt". It really helps to hear that other people are going through the same thing! It was also great to hear from those of you who were raised or have raised your children w/ lots of tv and/or junk food and you/they turned out just fine.

Rain, rain, go away!

It's raining yet again, even though I can see a patch of blue sky out the window. The only good thing about the rain that has been plaguing us recently is it never lasts very long. It spits for 15-20 minutes, then stops. The bad thing is you never know when it's going to catch you. Walks to the park are total russian roulette.

I've got a bunch of sock updates to catch you up on, but first I'd like to give a big birthday (okay, it's a day late, but what're you gonna do?) shout out to my secret pal (or rather, the person to whom I was pal), who just got my reveal package. So I'm a not-so-secret pal, and the funny thing is she's a regular reader of my blog! She almost joined the sock-a-month knit-along, which would've been really funny. So hop on over and say "hi" to Tammy, who was also one of SP7's awesome hostesses. It was great fun being your pal! I'm so happy to finally be able to comment on your blog, although I am the world's worst commenter these days so don't expect too much!

My secret pal (the one who sent me all those great lace-related gifts) still hasn't revealed herself. If you're out there, I'm dying to know (hint, hint)!

Okay, where was I. Oh, yeah - socks. We've got a good crop here...

Crazy Basket Lady finished a pinky pair of Meilenweit Multiringel 5123's (say that five times fast) for her 2nd brownie point.

Dave finished some lovely blue-and-grey M socks (which I think he might like a little bit) and has some dreamy grey yarn picked out for April. I'll have to check out those Sherman short rows!

New knit-alonger Karen doesn't have any socks done yet, but my, oh, my, check out what she has on her needles! WOW!

Erica finished the most drool-inducing strawberry cheesecake ice-cream socks. Although the thought of eating socks is a little twisted...

Helene knit up some Blueberry Waffle socks for her M.

Choomon finished a pair of top-secret brownie point socks which I can't show to you because she's thinking of submitting for publication. Let me assure you, though, they are MUY caliente!

Quikeye finished a pair of baby cable rib socks for her M.

Roberta finished the coolest pair of tulip-heeled socks. So appropriate for March!

In other knitting news (I can't write a post without using that phrase, now, can I?), I got my Masters Level I stuff back, all evaluated! The bad news is that I didn't totally pass and have to resubmit two things. The good news is that all the swatches passed (and I even got a comment that my stockinette is amazingly even) and the resubmits involved a math error and the omission of the phrase "or size required to obtain gauge" from the needle size section of my cable pattern. Yes, they're that picky! I got some great suggestions, in particular that I need to be careful to pull my yarn forward/back more firmly when switching from knit to purl to avoid having enlarged knit stitches. She also gave me tips on how to improve my SSKs to avoid distortion of the first stitch. I need to practice that one... I sent my corrections off this morning and am anxiously awaiting my certificate. I'm itching to get started on Level 2 (in all that spare time).

I've started listening to Life of Pi (for Knit The Classics) in the car on the way to and from Sydney's school. I really didn't like the book when I was trying to read it (and I can see why as I'm listening to it), but I'm really enjoying it being read to me. The guy doing the reading has a soothing Indian accent and is really fun to listen to. I've got to go hit the library catalog and see what other books on CD they have for me to check out! Moll Flanders is the book for next month, and I downloaded it from Audible since the library doesn't have it on any kind of audio and I didn't want to buy the CD set from Border's for $35. I'm trying to get my iPod in order so I can see if it's easier to find time to listen to it that way instead of only in the car. My iPod, however, is from 2003 and is dying a slow, painful death. The battery lasts a couple of hours now, at the most, so I'm going to have to send it in for a replacement. Before you do that, they require you to measure the battery time in a specific manner. I'm finally at the point where I can play it until it dies (while timing it to see how long it takes), but in getting there, the battery completely died *again*. Stupid piece of #@(*#&!

I actually sat down and read a real book this afternoon for a little while. We're reading The Mother Trip by Ariel Gore for my Mama Discussion Group. It meets next weekend, so I figured I'd better get on it if I'm going to have anything to talk about. It's a really interesting book, although it's in essay form and some of them seem a little too abrupt. She reflects a lot on "mommy guilt" (my term, not hers) and how society is constantly telling you what a bad mother you are, no matter what you do. I also like her twist on the Gertrude Stein quote "It takes a heap of loafing to write a book." - "It takes a heap of loafing to raise a child." I'm all about that!

I really don't think it's necessary to be stimulating your child with activities at all times, or never yell at them, or keep the house perfectly clean. I tell myself that I'm doing just fine, although deep down I really question it. Especially when more than a few of the moms I hang around with have relatively clean houses, don't let their kids watch hour upon hour of television every afternoon so that they can knit or blog, feed their kids home-cooked organic meals while I get so tired of fighting with my daughter about food that I let her fend for herself with a box of Cheerios or (on occasions when I'm really about to lose it) animal crackers (okay, okay, chocolate chip cookies! And not the homemade kind, either - the kind that are loaded with dyes, and additives, and trans-fats).

I wish I could be that kind of mom, but I just don't have it in me. I need to knit. I need to design, to create, to do something that I enjoy. Selfishly. I admit it - I'm selfish. Perhaps I shouldn't have ever had children. On the other hand, part of me thinks that they're going to grow up just fine in spite of what I do to them. I don't abuse them, I hug them a lot (even if I do yell at them more than I should), I'm there for them when they need me (I think). I'm especially torn on the television issue. There are new studies coming out all the time that tell you what damage television, any television, will do to your kids. But I like television! We watch a lot of it in this house. It makes sense that Sydney would want to do the same. She plays plenty, does art projects, goes to preschool every morning, and gets read to for an hour or so before bed every night. She gets together with various little friends three or four afternoons a week. But she loves her television. Am I scarring her for life by not denying her this pleasure (which also gives me time to do my thing without constant pestering interruption)? And what about Owen? Children under the age of 2 aren't supposed to watch ANY television. How the heck is that going to happen? Am I condemning him to a life of poor reading skills and general idiocy because we refuse to give up our addiction to the idiot box? Sigh. The supply of "mother guilt" is truly inexhaustible.

And now I'm off to read a little more Ariel Gore and know that I'm not the only bad mother in the world.

Well, I've gone and done it this time.

I've joined some more knit-alongs. Remember how I said that I wasn't going to do Abigail's Sock Yarn Addicts' Club? Because I can't stop myself from buying sock yarn? Well, I joined them anyway. I was inspired by the bag of Koigu sitting next to me along with the fact that I have this giant bag full of sock yarn:



There really isn't a reason for me to buy more as long as I have this sitting around. Plus, one of the rules is that you can be given sock yarn, so any designing that I do will have to involve me getting yarn supplied or using stash. I can live with that!

Next, I finally realized that I don't have to actually READ books in order to join Knit The Classics. I can listen to books on CD! So I've finally gotten on board over there. For those of you who don't already know, the literary gene is sort of in my family - as in, I'm the daughter of a librarian and two voracious readers. It kills me that I'm not able to knit and read at the same time, so books on CD are going to be my savior. They're reading Life of Pi right now, which I tried to read awhile ago with no success but I'm hoping it will go better listening than it did reading.

Finally, I discovered that Jennifer is doing the coolest little vacation swap and I had to join up. It's such a neat idea, how could I resist? I'll admit it - I'm a knit-along ho.

I made it until 8 pm last night without knitting. It was tough, but I did it, and my wrist is thanking me. I spent the day putting together sketches and proposal letters for the Knitter's Fall '06 issue and for Blue Moon Fiber Arts. For Blue Moon, I ended up including eight different designs, including two socks, a sweater, a tank top, a jacket, a shrug and two felted bags. Whew! I sent it in along with a sweater and sock pattern that are already written (for other pubs, but I sent them as examples of my finished work) and my knit resume, and about two hours later got a response thanking me for my great proposal! No acceptances or anything yet, but she said that the big cheese (Tina Newton) would be taking a look at it and getting back to me next week sometime.

It's pretty interesting, because when I talked to her on the phone, she wasn't all that encouraging. She was nice enough, but she was a little bit distant. After she saw my proposal, her tone completely changed (at least in my mind). The same thing happened with Jill at Y2Knit, and it made me realize how important it is to be extremely professional in my dealings with people to whom I'm trying to sell my designs. That this is a business, but there are many people out there who treat it as a hobby and of those, there are some (not all, but definitely some) who are not reliable. It kind of struck me when I was doing the design for Knitter's. Yeah, I send in a sketch and a swatch. But at that time I didn't really have anything published. I don't think Ziggy was out on Mag Knits yet. But Rick, the editor, accepted the design, sent the yarn to me, saved me space in the magazine, and waited for that sample to come back. It could've been horrible! He had to have more than a little blind faith that I could actually design something that looked anything like my sketch. It will be interesting to see if it's a lot easier to get designs into magazines once they've worked with you and know that you can actually deliver. So my advice to you, fledgling designers, is to present yourself as professionally as possible.

I just recalculated my acceptance:rejection ratio. Out of 42 total designs that I've submitted since I started designing last July, I've had 14 accepted and 16 rejected. That's a 47% acceptance rate (14 out of a total of 30 designs I've heard back on), which is incredible (I was told to expect 10%)! If I want to be really optimistic and take the designs that were rejected but subsequently accepted someplace else, I've had only 10 designs rejected which ups my acceptance rate to a whopping 58%. Of course, I don't have high hopes for the ten designs I submitted to Interweave Knits in December since I haven't heard back yet, but if they all get the boot, that still leaves me with a 35% acceptance rating, and that ain't bad. (Bill, please correct my math if I'm way off - a math whiz I'm not...)

I'm right on the verge of being comfortable telling people I'm a knit designer when they ask me what I do. Once Cast On and Knitter's come out, I'll really feel legit. Thanks to all of you who are my support network and cheerleaders out there in blogland. I love all y'all (is it totally obnoxious for a native Midwesterner to affect a Southern colloquialism after only living in the south for a year?).

Bill decided to shave his beard into a goatee last night:



I was not impressed. I think he looks like either a bartender, or a professional wrestler. Then, just to mess with me, he shaved the mustache part off and just left the chin hair. Finally, he shaved it all because I wouldn't let him leave the house looking like that. What is it with men and facial hair, anyway?

And on that note, I'm off to watch Dragon Tales with Sydney. Thank god for knitting, or I'd have to scratch my own eyes out after an entire afternoon of PBS Kids... Sock updates will be in my next post.

Knit Net link

For those of you who don't subscribe to Knit Net, you can still see my pattern while the issue is up - they included it as part of their free sampler.

http://www.knitnet.com/sampler/current/page13.htm

It's up! It's finally up!

The February issue of Knit Net is finally up. Thanks to those of you who've already seen it and made such nice comments. I was really happy with how it turned out, but I'm biased so it's always nice to hear others' opinions!

A cool coincidence - the designer profile in this issue of Knit Net features Jill & Susan Wolcott from Y2Knit. As in the Y2Knit that's publishing my patterns soon! Jill and I made up an agreement for the first design last night, and she's going to display the sample in their booth at TNNA in June. For those of you who don't know what TNNA is, it's the big needlecraft trade show and is where tons of shops go to pick out yarn, patterns, etc. that they're going to stock in their stores. So it will be great exposure for me. I'm starting to feel like a real designer!

No knitting today, though. I pushed myself a little too hard last night at knitting group (and while watching Boomerang afterwards - Bill's choice, not mine!), and then slept on my left arm funny. When Owen woke me up at 4 am, my entire arm was aching. It's feeling much better now, but I think it needs a little break from the needles. We'll see if I can go an entire day without knitting anything... I'm already thinking "it's not THAT bad..." Maybe a swatch with fat yarn on big needles?

The socks keep coming, fast and furious...

Shelley finished some adorable little boy socks for her M.

Joanna finished some adorable pink frilly socks for her M.

Carol finished her first (and last) pair of toe-up socks.

Virtuella finished a giant pair of fluted bannister socks (with tiny February socks thrown in for scale) for her M.

Elizabeth finished a pair of ribbed Bearfoot socks of her own design, and has the pattern up on her blog.

Siri has been knitting green socks to get her M and her second brownie point.

Adrienne knit these funky Opal socks for another brownie point:



We have another sock pattern quest - this one from Tammy. She's looking for a free online pattern for Trekking XXL yarn and size 1 dpns. She wants a "fairly simple pattern, with some interesting detail." If anyone has any ideas, please leave a comment on her blog. Thanks!

Sock on, everyone!

We're making progress!

I got a couple new swatches done yesterday, which will be going to Knitter's as submissions for the Fall issue, along with the long-suffering Quick To Knit Gifts and Nursery Knits designs. I'm quite happy with how they all turned out, although I'm a little concerned that the felted bag isn't going to dry in time to mail it out tomorrow! I forgot how long it takes the big felted things to dry. Maybe I'll set it in front of the fan for awhile. Right now it's stinking up my office - love that wet wool smell!

I'm starting to wonder if the February issue of Knit Net with my sweater in it is EVER going to be up. For awhile, I was obsessively checking the site every day (even though they send out an e-mail when they put the new issue up), but I've sort of given up. It's sort of anticlimactic when you send something off to be published, and it doesn't show up when it's supposed to. I guess I should be happy that they're publishing it at all, after the big mailing snafu...

I also royally messed up my Spun submission... For some reason, I got it into my head that the deadline was March 20. Yesterday, as I was rereading the acceptance e-mail I got from Tara in preparation for sending the pattern off to her, I found out that she wanted it by February 20th. Oops! Fortunately, the new issue isn't up yet and she's going to slide my design in despite my huge biff. I really need to get myself more organized. Gah!

Bill's company had their Employee Appreciation Night on Friday, so we got to go out for an adults-only evening. They rented out the basement of an old bank building which used to be the vault but is now set up as a ballroom. The theme was games, so they had board games set up on the dinner tables (I really wanted to sit at the table with the Homer Simpson Operation game, but we ended up sitting at the Scattergories table with folks from Bill's department). They also had brought in a bunch of arcade/bar games - there was a ping-pong table, two air hockey tables, a couple of dart boards and a head-to-head basketball game. There was also a putting game, but it was totally lame because even the good golfers couldn't make any of the shots (so someone like me had absolutely no hope without divine intervention). All in all, it was a fabulous time, made even better by the fact that raises and bonuses were announced earlier in the day.

This just in... Bill played in another racquetball tournament this weekend. He won his first game, lost the next two and was playing in the consolation championship this morning. Well...he won the consolation round! We'll see if he gets a trophy or anything. The last time he won the consolation round, they were giving out cheesy little towels as a prize (he was VERY disappointed with that). Congrats, honey!

Since I don't have any pictures of my own knitting that I can show you, I'll let you look at other people's. Here are our socks for today:

Choomon finished a pair of Jaywalkers in a great grey-and-orange combo.

Cece finished some awesome Supermerino Broadripple socks. Love that Artyarns!

Check out new knit-alonger Julia's sock progress! She doesn't have an M yet, but she's got a bunch of great socks on the needles. That does a sock knit-along mama proud!

Sheri's sock post has it all - socks, yarn p*rn, and a very cute kitty-and-kiddy pic at the very end.

I also have a sock-related request from Shetha, who is trying to find a good toe-up sock pattern that uses a symmetric short-row heel and works for a large-gauge yarn (6 sts/in or so - she's using Artyarns Handpaint Stripes). I've just barely ventured into the world of toe-up socks, so I can't really help her (I'm such a traditionalist). If you have any ideas, please send them to me or comment on her blog. Thanks, sockers!!!

Snow, snow, go away

We have been having the most bizzare weather lately. On Tuesday afternoon, we had torrential downpours (like buckets of water being dumped from the sky) and a crazy hailstorm, interspersed with patches of beautiful sunny skies. Yesterday morning, it snowed like crazy - huge fluffy flakes that melted as soon as they hit the ground. This morning, I woke up to more snow. It has stopped for the moment, but I'm not hopeful that the weather will turn nice for any length of time. On the plus side, Sydney had a blast yesterday running around and catching snowflakes on her tongue. I'm so ready for summer!

The socks have been coming in fast and furious:

Lu finished a beautiful pair of Jaywalkers.

New knit-alonger knit_tgz finished a lovely pair of lace socks.

Lindsay finished one totally awesome flamin' hotwheels sock. So cool! But those aren't her March socks. Scroll down to see her completed pair of Blueberry Waffle socks.

Linda finished some hot red M socks and is working on her first brownie point!

Sillyewe finished some "Ugly Socks" (which I don't think are at all ugly, but go judge for yourselves).

Helga finished her Sockapaloooza socks and is working on some Embossed Leaves socks. I don't usually include progress updates, but there is a really cool link on her blog (which is not written in English) that will translate it. Go try it out - it's really funny to read what the translator spits out! Sock news is a few posts down.

Nelda finished a fantastic pair of Trekking XXL socks.

Christy knit up an adorable little pair of baby socks.

Kris finished a pair of Log Cabin socks - love those cables!

Do two half pairs make an M? Hmm... Elizabeth thinks so!



But seriously, they need to be socks you'd actually wear together outside of the house. Where people can see them. Isn't she just the joker?

Melissa knit up some Not Socks for her M. I need to make a few of those! They would be much faster than Nancy Bush's New Englands on size 0 needles...

Now, what would a post from me be without some design news? I'm going to make my first foray in self-publishing, kind of. I'm going to be working with the folks at Y2Knit on a couple patterns to be published in their line. They sell the patterns on their website, wholesale to LYSes and at their own LYS in Maryland. This will be a royalty arrangement, so instead of getting paid up front (like with a magazine design), I'll get paid based on how many of my patterns sell. It should be interesting, and I'll be learning the self-publishing ropes while working with experts instead of trying to reinvent the wheel myself.

I ended up finding Y2Knit because of some Adobe Illustrator classes that Jill, one of the owners, is doing for knit designers. I am now completely obsessed with Illustrator and even sucked it up a few days ago and plunked down $500 for my own copy (I've been using the free demo for the classes). It is just incredible the stuff you can do with it - I'll be able to do all my sketching in Illustrator instead of with pencil, which will be great because you can move the lines around until they're right where you want them, pixel by pixel. Since I am not the greatest sketcher in the world, this will really help me turn out sketches that are not modeled by people who are totally deformed.

I'm also working on my next round of submissions, which means sketching and swatching, swatching and sketching. This is the most fun (and often most frustrating) part of designing, because it's totally creative. It's funny how often I can have something in my head that I think is going to look fantastic, and then when I start swatching it, it's not at all what I wanted. There are so many variables - stitch pattern, yarn, color, needle size... Getting them to all mesh into something fabulous is often a challenge. I do a lot of frogging while swatching! But then I'll find the perfect combo, and it's nirvana. The sun comes out, the angels sing while I dance around the house, and everything is right with the world. If only I could get it to happen more often...

Where do I even start?

How 'bout with some socks?

Adrienne finished some Opal M socks:



Wendy finished her 7th pair of Olympic Sockettes and gets her 7th brownie point. She is well in the lead for the brownie point prize, now!

Emily finished some really cool stripey Regia socks and a pair of fuzzy feet which will earn her her first brownie point.

And now a little message for Leslie - send me a link to your blog, hon! The comments that you've left me don't have your blog or your e-mail addy, so I have no way to contact you. Blogger makes it a little difficult to find folks sometimes, and I definitely want you to get credit for your socks!!! That's a good reminder for everyone to check their names in the sidebar and make sure their link is correct. If there isn't a link, please e-mail me your blog so I can add it. If you just leave a blog comment, I have limited info sometimes, especially if you don't have a public Blogger profile!

Johanna knit some gorgeous jacquard socks for her M.

Whew! That's a lot easier at the beginning of the month than it was at the end! You guys are such great inspiration. I don't mean to constantly be griping about how much work this knit-along is turning out to be. It is so great to find so many new blogs to read, and see so many awesome socks and sock yarns. Life gets a little overwhelming at times, but this sure beats going to the office every day!

I just gave Owen his first cereal bar. He's proceeding to mash it all over his highchair tray (and into his clothes and hair). I can't believe how big he's gotten. My friend Chris with the 5-week-old baby came to knitting group with him last night, and he is such a teeny little peanut. Owen looks like a giant in comparison. And Sydney - she's starting to lengthen out and really look girlish rather than toddler-ish. I guess technically she's a preschooler now and not a toddler. It's so much fun watching them grow up. Before you know it, we'll be going to graduation, and weddings, and having grandchildren... Isn't it funny how life just goes faster and faster the older you get?

Inspired by Larissa's Living-In-A-Poop-House post, I'm posting proof that we are living in a barf house over on this side of town. Owen was delightedly playing with Bill's shoe the other day, and lo and behold, when Bill went over to rescue it, he found this.



That's baby barf in its purest form. It's just about 30 minutes removed from being Earth's Best Rice and Green Beans. Good thing he noticed it before he put his foot in there!

We had our own little poopy incident this morning. I generally change Owen just before we leave to pick Sydney up from preschool, and I usually only allow enough time for a wet diaper. Fortunately, this morning we left early so we could stop at Target first. Well, when I opened the diaper cover, it was one of those explosions where the entire diaper area is covered. I quickly handed Owen a little wooden block, since sometimes he'll lay still for a minute if he has something to occupy him. Not this morning! The block went straight into the bowels of hell - I mean, the dirty diaper. Followed by his hands. Both of them. He was grabbing around down there like he thought I was trying to take his little soldier away from him. My solution to the situation was to throw about 500 baby wipes at it, hoping I could get most of the poo off his hands before he decided to put them in his mouth. I was pretty sure the block would have to be burned in the fireplace, along with the diaper cover... Ah, the joys of parenthood. Good thing they're so cute...



This is Owen's favorite new play place - under my desk. I've tried to put a dam up to keep him away from the cords, but he's going to get back there and unplug everything one of these days (most likely when I haven't saved anything for awhile). Why can't he be more like his sister?

Socks, socks and some preschool talk

Okay, here you have it. The sock update post that has been cooking in draft mode since Friday. You guys are so busy!

Knit Chick had a few February socks that she forgot to tell me about until now, so here are her F socks and two brownie point socks - navy socks for her boyfriend and Gentlemans' Fancy Socks for her Knitting Olympics gold.

Lisa gets an M for her way impressive Pomatomuses.

Jenn finished some lovely brownie point socks just under the wire in February.**

**Note to knit-alongers - brownie point socks are cumulative through the whole knit-along and whoever has the most at the end wins the little brownie point prize. So end-of-month is irrelevant for brownie points, and you're probably better off finishing your socks in the next month instead of trying to finish brownie point socks before the end of the month. Just a thought!

Crazy Basket Lady gets an M for her way cool Easter Egg Jaywalkers.

Ginger gets an M for a yummy pair of Child's First Socks from Knitting Vintage Socks.

Chrissy gets an M for a fabulous pair of Falling Leaves socks.

Erin gets an M for a fantastic pair of Embossed Leaves socks for her lucky ducky Sockapaloooza pal.

Check these out - Michelle made a teeny tiny little pair of sock earrings! I just can't bring myself to give her an M for these (I'm going to add a new rule that they have to fit on HUMAN feet), but I do have to say they are the cutest things ever!

Brianne finished some lovely Trekking XXL socks for her M.

Wendy gets an M for her awesome pair of knitted baby tights. They're technically not socks, but they do have turned heels so they count. Hey, if anyone else wants to knit tights and count them for the knit-along, knock yourselves out!

And Abigail, the generous donator of that lovely February prize, is starting up a new knit-along, a sock stash-along. I can't even pretend that I can knit from my stash and not buy any new yarn, but those of you who could use some stashbusting of sock yarn, go join up!

Speaking of that gorgeous hank of Bearfoot...I just picked the winner, thanks to the handy dandy random number generator, and it is...Zonda! Congrats!

For anyone who is still reading, after all those socks, I've got a few personal updates. The Knitter's sweater is finally done! Hurrah! I had to rip out the collar about four times before I finally got it to my liking, but I think the finished product looks really great. Now for one final blocking, and it's ready to go. Now I get to grade the pattern, which involves lots of math and is one of my favorite parts of doing design. Yes, I'm a big fat geek. Keep an eye out for my name in the summer '06 Knitter's mag - I'll let you all know as soon as I see it and find out what they name the pattern.

I forgot to tell you all about this the other day, since I was so excited in the aftermath of Erica's visit, but Bill and I finally got to go observe Sydney's preschool class. We went in for half an hour in the morning on Thursday, and they set it up to be as disruption-free as possible in the hopes of seeing things as they are every day. We snuck in and sat in chairs over in the corner, and then snuck out after the time was up. It took Sydney a little while to notice that we were there, and I was fully expecting her to yell and run over to us when she saw us. However, when she spotted us, her face lit up but she stayed at her desk and didn't say anything. She kept her eye on us throughout the time we were there but only came over to us once to give us some art that she'd just made for us. It was really cute.

I continue to be amazed at the Montessori method, and observing the classroom continued to drive this home. It was so incredible how calm the atmosphere in the classroom was, with 25 preschoolers in there. Kind of the polar opposite of Kindergarten Cop... Everyone was very busy, but it was so orderly (in a nice, not creepy, way). The little girl in front of us was doing multiplication problems (yes, multiplication at age 5)! All the kids were totally engaged doing their little projects. So different from a traditional classroom. I am so excited that we are able to send Sydney (and someday Owen) to this school. I just love it.

Well, back to work on the work knitting. Keep those socks coming!

Today, it's all about ME!

Now that the end-of-February sock rush is over, I'm going to be selfish and talk about myself this entire post. Okay, first some sock-a-month stuff. And then it's all about me.

I still have several new knit-along members waiting to be added and a few updates. I'm going to take care of that this weekend, so don't worry if you don't see yourself in the sidebar yet! I will get to you - I promise! I just need to take a little break from knit-along admin to keep from going completely nutzo. When I started this, I never thought it would be such a huge success. I'm loving it, but it's work, I tell you! Whew!

Yesterday, I had the good fortune to finally meet a blog buddy - Erica from Bikini Elf! She was in town to celebrate her birthday, and I hooked up with her and hubby Jeremy to do some yarn shopping. Boy, did we have a good time! We started out at Close Knit and petted a bunch of yarn, most memorably the Artyarns Supermerino. I also discovered the Artyarns Regal Silk, which was so incredibly drool-worthy (but also a pocketbook breaker at $25/hank). Mmm! Then we headed over to Knit-Purl where we went completely gaga over their huge selection of Blue Moon yarns. We kept finding little stashes of their yarn all over the store. I'm very familiar with Socks That Rock, but I didn't know much about their other yarns. They've got everything, and it is all gorgeous. I picked up these little babies, along with some STR for my SP7 and some Addis to knit the Knit Picks sample socks on (since my other pairs are currently occupied with the Vineyard Stripes socks).



On the left is Seduction, a blend of 50% merino & 50% tencel. I really struggled with this purchase because the hank was $34 (!!!) but it is just incredible yarn and the hank is 400 yds, which is a good amount of yarn. The yarn on the right is Ziggy, which is a funky cotton. When I was checking out, it was all I could do to keep myself from running back to the wall of STR and grabbing a hank for myself. I resisted, though, since I'm hoping I'll get chosen to do some designs for them and then will get yarn for free. I don't get to keep what I make, granted, but I get to knit with it which is 95% of the fun!

Thanks for a great afternoon, Erica! I had a blast. I'll be meeting a few more of you next month, first in LA (we got our plane tickets - yay!) where I'm going to hook up with Jillian, Jen and Choomon for some KIPing and SEXing, and then back in Portland where I'll finally meet Amanda in person for the Tigard Knitting Guild's Shop Hop. Yahoo! I can't wait.

My work knitting is progressing, albeit slowly. I discovered that I calculated the sleeve caps for the Knitter's sweater totally wrong (this was after they were both knit and blocked), and had to redo them because they were about 4" too long for the armscyes. Gah! They are now reknit and will be blocked today, but March 10th is creeping up on me very quickly. I got a little bit too lax about this sweater, since I knit up the main body pieces very fast, and thought I'd have time to work on these:



That is a small start on the New Englands from Knitting On The Road. This is the current sock for the knit-along, and there's no way I'm going to get it done by the end of the month, what with all the other stuff I HAVE to knit by March 31. What was I thinking? I really like this pattern, though, so I hope to pick it up when things slow down a bit. I know, I know, being too busy is a good problem to have. The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in the Aslan colorway.

Just so y'all can see how the creative mind works here, I've included a picture of my current workspace (the stuff on the right is Sydney's - she likes to "work" with me).



Technically, I am supposed to confine my knitting work to the office and keep the dining room table clear for, well, dining, but I seem to be incapable of doing that. Sorry, honey! I know I promised, but you should know after nearly six years of marriage that I'm totally unreliable.

Finally, here are a couple kid pics. The first one is the kiddos with the kitchen stool, which Owen has learned to climb up on.



Fortunately, he can also get himself down, so I don't need to worry about him getting stuck up there when I'm not in the room (I was trying to get a pic of him up on it, but by the time I got the camera ready, he's climbed back down). However, he's also discovered that he can climb up the stairs. The other day he crawled over by them, and I didn't pay too much attention because I didn't think he knew what to do with them. A minute later I looked over to see what he was doing, and he was out of sight. For a minute, I though he'd crawled behind the couch (which would've been impressive since it's a tiny little opening), but then I peeked around the corner and found him halfway up to the 2nd floor. Little goober! Time to get another baby gate out, I guess!

This second one is a picture of our own Chicken Little.



This was inspired by the comparison made on American Idol the other night between one of the contestants and Chicken Little. Bill found some of Sydney's sunglass frames (which she long ago popped the lenses out of) and stuck them on the boy. I'm glad he's not one of those babies who has to wear glasses, but if he was, he'd still be pretty darn cute!