Well, I think my knitting funk is official. I've barely knit other than my few appearances at Knit Nite. Don't get me wrong--I know I'll return to knitting. Its like a favorite food you will always have a taste for.

I dont know why I go through periodic knitting funks. This time though, there is quite a slew of reasons:

1. Its summer. Its hard for me to sit down and knit something when the temperature outside is nearly 100 degrees. I'd much rather spend my summers out in the pool with my daughter or in the garden watering my poor tomatoes who are struggling to endure the heat. I hope I can get at least one tomato off my three plants...

2. The pregnancy. I never expected this to be an easy pregnancy and its certainly proving me right. I've got all the side effects (exhaustion, morning sickness, soreness...) as well as all the preventative measures and medications I'm taking to keep me and the baby healthy. I take several medications a day with the prospect of more added this week; my new doctor is quite aggressive and, while I am extremely thankful for that, its hard to see the pile of prescriptions add up. I'm trying to lay as low as possible and keep my strength up so I can do the fun things with the Munch. I'd rather slide on housework and home cooking than not have my play time with her. As of today, I am 8 weeks, 3 days. I still have quite a ways to go but I'm hoping I'll begin to feel better when I get to the second trimester in a few weeks.

3. Other hobbies. It seems as soon as I stop knitting for a moment my mind begins to wander to other things I love to do. One of those things is reading. I've read dozens of books and its really refreshing to want to read again. I suffered massive burnout after grad school and just in the past year or so have I managed to get over it (of course, Harry Potter was totally exempt from that--I *always* want to read those books.)

I've also been playing a lot of boardgames with my husband. We both love boardgames and when Munch was small, we rarely had time to play. Now that she is older and her sleep cycles have (mostly) normalized, we have some time between her bedtime and ours to sneak in some quality time playing games. Our standby is usually Carcassonne but we've been trying out some new games lately, the most recent of which is Reef Encounter. We barely finished a game (due to the end of naptime) but it could easily become one of our favorites.

So what do you do during a knitting funk? Do other hobbies begin to invade your time or do you take a break from everything?

Posted by fruitychick at 08:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Sock Wars 3 is kicking my butt. When I got the pattern last week, I realized the yarn I was going to use (KPPPM) was all wrong so I switched to a new yarn (Regia). I reswatched and finally cast on for the sock.

I worked most of the leg of the first sock before I realized I had somehow misread the (very clearly written) pattern and missed an increase so my pattern was incredibly wonky.

So...I restarted with a different ball of Regia and, after making the same miss-an-increase mistake, am now a measly 4 rows into the leg of the first sock. I am already starting to live in mild fear of the mailman. I have given up the idea of taking someone out this first round and am now just trying to selvage my sock knitting mojo. I feel like I really need to get a little farther on the sock before I'm killed and have to send it off to the next knitter.

And, of course, the only real oomph I have for knitting is to cast on for a baby item. Nevermind the other dozen projects that are lying around...

Posted by fruitychick at 08:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

First off-thanks for all the well-wishes! We were thrilled to find out the news and I have my first appointment tomorrow so I should know a tiny bit more.

Sock Wars 3 is kicking my butt. When I got the pattern last week, I realized the yarn I was going to use (KPPPM) was all wrong so I switched to a new yarn (Regia). I reswatched and finally cast on for the sock.

I worked most of the leg of the first sock before I realized I had somehow misread the (very clearly written) pattern and missed an increase so my pattern was incredibly wonky.

So...I restarted with a different ball of Regia and, after making the same miss-an-increase mistake, am now a measly 4 rows into the leg of the first sock. I am already starting to live in mild fear of the mailman. I have given up the idea of taking someone out this first round and am now just trying to selvage my sock knitting mojo. I feel like I really need to get a little farther on the sock before I'm killed and have to send it off to the next knitter.

And, of course, the only real oomph I have for knitting is to cast on for a baby item. Nevermind the other dozen projects that are lying around...

I hate pictureless posts, so here is a cute one of the Munchkin. The Mr and I use our excellent parenting skills to build bubble headdresses on the munch during every bath. This is one of the more impressive ones of late.

Posted by fruitychick at 08:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Happy Mothers Day to me!

Quite an unexpected and nice Mother's Day surprise, don't you think?

Posted by fruitychick at 07:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

My knitting spurt over the weekend didn't last long. Not because I didn't want to work on Juliet but because we started a slightly larger project: rearranging all the books in the house.

2 trips to ikea and 13 boxes of books donated to the library, we finally got them all to fit on the wall-o-bookshelves.

I'm totally in love. The picture is a little washed out but, in person, the colors are really striking. I wanted something a little different for the books and I had long ago seen this picture on flickr and knew I had to be a total copycat. I'm glad I did though I wish I had more colorful books than I do. We have three entire rows dominated by black and white books. Kind of boring.

The bottom row is wicker baskets that serve as all of munchkin's living room toy storage, by the way. Maybe some day she'll outgrow living room toys and we'll be able to recapture the book storage space.

What do you think? is it nutty? the Mr's concern was that it would make it difficult to find books on the shelf but we are mainly browsers--spending a long time choosing a new book rather than going to the shelf with a particular book in mind. I think he likes it in the end though.

Posted by fruitychick at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Mr. Fruitychick and the Munchkin have flown off to St. Louis for the day to attend my sister in law's wedding. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it because of my craptastic back injury. I'm sad I won't be there--I haven't met her fiance/husband or her new stepdaughter (who remarkably looks quite like she's related to the Munch).

I'm making the most of my time at home though. I haven't accomplished a single productive thing and I couldn't have loved the day more.

So far, I've:

1. taken a nap. Seriously--a nap! I never get to take naps!
2. eaten lunch. A hot lunch--eaten on a whim. Usually my lunchtime is dictated by Munch's nap schedule but today I just made myself lunch and ate it--WHEN I WANTED! It was great!
3. Read. I got a bit into Rapture Ready!: Adventures in the Parallel Universe of Christian Pop Culture. So far, its pretty entertaining. I like these memoir type books though the author is certainly no Tony Horwitz, my favorite author in the memoir type genre.

I've been reading a lot lately--even joining a few book groups on GoodReads. I've been introduced to some pretty good books in those groups and I'm excited to see what the selections are for the upcoming months. I also joined a 50 book challenge for 2008. So far, I'm doing really well. I think I've finished 10 books in the last 13 days or so. I'm on a roll, baby!

4. Knitted!! Really! and you thought this blog was going to be sadly fiberless forever!

Its Juliet from Zephyr Style, one of my favorite pattern producers. Their instructions are always clear, customizable and fun. And they have exceptional customer service. I've ordered patterns and stitch markers from them and they've always been super quick to ship. The stitch markers are excellent--if you don't have a set of thier raglan stitch markers--get thee over there and buy some! I've used them a gazillion times.

5. (almost) Swam. Our pool is so close to being ready to swim in and I could not be more excited. I went out and stuck my feet in and convinced myself it was warm enough to get in. Somehow it cooled a bit by the time I got out there in my suit so I chickened out but a few more weeks people and I'll be a-swimming. I LOVE Texas!

6. Watched TV. I never watch TV while I'm home with the Munch. If its on, its tuned to cartoons (namely, Backyardigans and WordWorld. If you have a toddler, I have no doubt you know those two shows). I've watched a couple of shows and even a movie--Trekkies.

All in all, Its been a great day. I feel really recharged and ready for a little more relaxing this evening. The munchkin and Mr. get back tomorrow morning so I don't have a ton of time left to myself but I'm ready for them to be home. I miss my little family!

Posted by fruitychick at 08:35 PM | Permalink