Man, am I glad to be back in the world of the internet capable. For the past few days, I've only had the mini-internet thats available on my phone. I saw the spam comments and trackbacks piling up but couldnt do anything about it until now!

The move went pretty well. All of our stuff is now here and is slowly being unpacked from the boxes littering the corners of every room. The furniture is in place and its starting to feel a little more like home now though.

And....the STASH IS BACK, BABY!!

Well, most of it anyway. The fiber stash is still somewhere lost in the garage. I dont know if its all going to fit in this closet--I hope so, though. I think it will be a real sign that the stash is out of hand when it doesnt fit in a largeish walk in closet.

Posted by fruitychick at 01:28 PM | Permalink

Well, of COURSE I fell off the ladder while painting. Was there really a possibility that I wouldnt?

I didnt break anything (thank goodness) but I have a distinct limp and a very sore knee that feels like its clicking around whenever I walk up stairs. At this point, no one could possibily be happier to move from our second floor, two story apartment into a one story house.

Movers are here tomorrow morning, bright and early. I have most of the apartment packed up and ready to go, save the computer and the munch's essential toys.

On the knitting-related upside, since I was forced to sit around for the majority of the day while my knee throbbed, I did get some serious knitting done on the Rogue:

I waffled about the pocket but finally decided to leave it off. The body is now well past the lower cable and I feel like I"m in the home stretch!

Posted by fruitychick at 04:20 PM | Permalink

We closed on the house yesterday morning and spent the rest of the day moving a few boxes over to the house as well as purchasing a gazillion dollars worth of appliances, paint and supplies at lowes. It was quite a whirlwind and I'm glad its all over. I have the keys on my keyring and they will have to pry them from my awesome ninja grip to get them back.

Munch and Mr. Fruitychick just left for their big trip up to Wisconsin for the holiday and I'm going to spend the next few days doing a lot of playing with boxes:

Somehow, I doubt I will have as much fun as the Munch does when shes playing with boxes.

I'll also be painting the most offensive areas....like the (currently) blood red office (soon to be a nice shade of pale green) and these kitchen cabinets:

(munchkin for scale)

They aren't particularly awful cabinets, I guess--but that room is so terribly dark, some nice white cabinets and shiny stainless steel appliances will do the room a world of good.

You know...and stripping the red flowered wallpaper, circa 1986.

Happy Holidays! I'll post some update photos to flickr, in case anyone is interested but I'll be on a short blog hiatus until next week when I'll be blogging from our NEW HOUSE!!! woohoo!!!

Posted by fruitychick at 05:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The new blog design is still being tweaked but this is pretty much it. What do you think? I'm a big fan of simple.

After finishing the turkey butt hat, my knitting bag is sad and empty...

and I just dont know what to work on. The only two projects I have going are Rogue and the Firestarter socks but they just aren't what I'm looking for right now. I want something interesting but easy enough to work on while I watch tv. I stumbled around on Sunday during football and cast on for this sock:

I've been working on them on and off yesterday and today but I think they are destined for a brutal frogging. The pattern just isnt standing out enough for me. I dont hate it, I just dont love it.

sigh.

Then, I thought I had this brilliant idea for a sock but it turned out to be an absolute dismal failure.

Ugh. What a bad idea. I wont even attempt to explain to you the horror that is my grand strategy--but last night, in my lack of sleep stupor, I had grand delusions of sock fabulousness, let me tell you.

So here I am, with hours and hours of knitting done and nothing to show for it. blah. I'm looking for something small, since I already have a big project (Rogue) going--it has to be easily memorizable and preferably without cables since I'm doing a lot of that now. Any suggestions? I think I'd like some socks though I wouldnt balk at a hat. I already have sock yarn balled up though, so using koigu or StR mediumweight would be a major bonus. Any ideas? I've already knit monkey and I hate Jaywalkers.

In other news, we are packing. Again. This will be our FIFTH move in a year and a half. Miss Munchkin is making the most of the situation and has taken up yoga in boxes....

Posted by fruitychick at 03:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I think I need to institute a Spinning Day--and why not start with today?

I've been trying (unsuccessfully--I wont even show you the horror of my failures) to spin a decent bulky yarn. I just always end up with something around 30 WPI no matter what I do. So, I cranked up the tension and slapped a somewhat larger whorl on the old wheel and tried again.

and...its not so bad.

It isnt the bulky singles I was hoping for but I think its lovely and squishy. I'll ply it together as a simple 2-ply and I think I'll end up with what I was shooting for in the end. There are still a few thing spots in my single but, hey, thats handspun.

(Roving is from etsy...lets see if I can go dig around and find the seller)....

Here we go: The Fiber Den. Its nice stuff-nearly 8 oz of Merino for 21 bucks (at least when I bought it quite a while ago. Its been marinating in the stash for a long time.)

I think Munchkin approves of the Fridays are for spinning concept:

I've been trying to get some knitting done (instead of spending every free minute adding things to my Ravelry queue). I've got another sleeve for Rogue nearly finished:

I'm really loving the Rowan Yorkshire Aran Tweed, despite it being less than soft. Its perfect for the heavy coat like Rogue I was envisioning.

I also happened to be sitting at my computer when I got an email from The Loopy Ewe announcing a sneak up. I had a gift certificate burning a hole in my account and I scored two skeins:

(Apparently I need to get out my camera manual and find out how to adjust the settings--those yarns are on the same backround, yet it looks so different when you see them side by side....)

On the left is Sheepaints in Briar Rose and on the Right is Dream in Color Smooshy in Forest? I think? The Smooshy is destined to be a pair of the ever popular Embossed Leaves Socks from IK. I've tried the socks before but the yarn was just far too busy. Hopefully this yarn will let the pattern shine.

On the house front--we got a counter offer from the sellers and we are accepting it since it was very near what we offered and, frankly, we are up against a wall and need to move in asap so we aren't in much place to negotiate. Inspection is Monday at 1. Hopefully the inspector wont say "run, run away from this house before the roof falls on your head!!"

Posted by fruitychick at 02:30 PM | Permalink

The house hunting yesterday was fruitful--we found a great house in a good neighborhood. It does need some interior work (can you say wood paneling in the living room and dark red flowered wallpaper in the dining room?) but its nothing I haven't done before and I'd like to be able to pick out all the tile and light fixtures myself anyway.

We have already made the offer and are waiting to hear back. The people have already moved out so we are hoping for a quick closing. So am I stressed? Of course.

Stress=knitting so I've got some progress to show you:

Here is the shell (or carcass, I guess) of the Turkey Hat. I dont have any stuffing handy so I haven't started the legs yet but I'm guessing this hat will be finito tomorrow. Woohoo! I love FO's!

Its a little on the big side. I swear my gauge swatch lied like nervous parent when asked about the tooth fairy but I think its going to be ok. I'll forgo to the ear flaps and call it a day. Gauge will not thwart me this time!!

I've also started replugging away at the second Rogue sleeve. I forgot to do the turning row but I'm ignoring it. I've pretty much decided on knitting the cardi modifications but I am still a little undecided about the pocket. I love pockets in sweatshirts but I also dont like the idea of adding bulk to that area of the body. I'll probably ditch the pocket but I have a whole 1/2 sleeve to waffle about it, so who knows.

Posted by fruitychick at 03:18 PM | Permalink

The house we were trying to buy isn't going to happen. It was nearing foreclosure and though we made a (full price, I might add) offer, the bank has decided to go ahead and foreclose on the house anyway. Of course, they couldnt tell us this immediately, it took them a week.

The problem is that we are staying in this apartment short term--as in, we signed a three month lease that is up at the end of this month. It is already November 6th and we are at square one as far as house hunting goes. We are headed out tomorrow and absolutely have to put an offer on a house even if we don't find a great one. We won't even discuss if another house falls through because of a horrible inspection or just one of those things that sometimes happens in house deals.

Needless to say, I am freaking the hell out...

I've been in knitting panic mode. I worked about four inches on the firestarter cuff and started Munchkin's Turkey Butt Hat for her Thanksgiving trip up to Wisconsin (pattern is actually the Chicken Viking Hat but I'm knitting it a darker brown and I'm going to add those little white things that go on turkey cuffs--anyone know what those are called??).

Anyone want to bet on whether or not I'll finish it tonight while I sit up, unable to sleep?

Posted by fruitychick at 06:32 PM | Permalink

I love being surprised. Not that I always should be, sometimes I just forget and then something (perhaps something I even planned) turns out to be a surprise.

This weekend, Mr. Fruitychick took Friday and Monday off from work to spend a long weekend together. I knew this planned time off existed but I didnt know it was going to exist this weekend--until, oh I think thursday night. Anyway, it was a lovely surprise. Mainly we just vegged around here and caught up on sleep (as an aside--how long does it really take to "catch up on sleep" after you've had a baby? Munchkin is nearly a year and a half and I still feel like I could sleep for weeks...then again, she is still getting up in the middle of the night so maybe I'm not making as much catching up progress as I thought). We also journeyed out and went to the library where Munchkin had an absolute ball. She will sit and flip through books by herself for an hour if left to her own devices and will listen to you read her a book all day. Needless to say, she was absolutely amazed by the library. We went on Friday and again yesterday because one trip to the library is not nearly enough....

While the munchkin napped and Mr. Fruitychick played on his finally-received-back-from-the-microsoft-repair-department-Xbox, I started a little knitting:

I bet we can all guess what that is, right? I've started Rogue now several times but just never really loved it before--mainly because I seemed to start it when the weather was starting to turn warm again. Not this time, baby. It was 51 yesterday and I'm in full sweater knitting mode. I will finish this thing.

Of course, I might get distracted by this:

(French Girl Patterns--Desiree)

I'm usually not a bulky knit kind of girl but this sweater just calls to me. I heard my LYS was having a 50% off sale on Gedifra this week, so I trudged over there to see if they had enough Gigante to fit the bill....they didnt and I almost caved and bought the full price Rowan called for in the pattern but I didn't. I did come home to do a little browsing and found the Rowan Big Wool in the Garage Sale over at Webs. Woohoo! The sweater will be mine!

There will also have to be distraction from Rogue long enough to knit the Chicken Viking Hat. Munchkin and Mr. FC are heading up to visit his family around Thanksgiving and Munchkin absolutely has to have a brown roasted turkey butt hat for the occassion. Yarn already purchased (cascade 220 from The Woolie Ewe).

I think those are the only distractions I'm aware of now but I'm making no promises.

In the old knits I never blogged about/photographed category this week, we have the Thrummed Socks:

A Fleece Artist kit purchased from Colorsong Yarns, I believe. Knit up during the Great Power Outage of the Winter of 06. It was sooo bitterly cold in the house we could see our breaths. It wasn't until the third day I remembered I had a pair of thrummed socks 80% done in the knitting pile. I picked them up, finished them, grafted the toe and, like magic, the power came on 20 seconds later.

I love these socks though I dont get an opportunity to wear them that often. They aren't really "walking around" socks and it is rarely that cold in our house during the night to wear them. They sure are delicious when I get the chance though. I'm even thinking of making another pair with Merino thrums instead of the kid mohair that came with my kit but I'm not sure what will hold up the best.

Have you made thrummed socks? What thrum fiber did you use? Did they hold up well?

Oh--keep your fingers crossed today. We close on our old house in Georgia this afternoon and as soon as that happens, we can make an offer on the new house we found here! The closing was already pushed back from yesterday and I'm really hoping there aren't any other problems.

Posted by fruitychick at 09:18 AM | Permalink

I have run away from my job. I didnt exactly join the circus (though from the toys currently littering the living room floor, it appears that could be a reasonable explanation) but I quit my job and moved across the country (didnt I just do that a year ago?) to be a full time mom/knitter/cook/gardener/gamer.

After 21 long, cartoon on the portable dvd player, mcdonalds eating hours later, we know live in Plano, TX, just outside Dallas. We are still looking for a house here but we've seen a lot that we like, so I'm sure it won't be hard to get settled.

I've been enjoying my time at home so far--I've been whipping up some great meals and have even managed to sneak in some knitting time throughout the day....

Now that I have internet access during the day and a little girl who takes a (somewhat) reliable nap, its time to dust off the cobwebs and get this place going again.

Posted by fruitychick at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

well, we have finally arrived. The drive wasn't bad at all--miss S and the puppies all slept for most of the drive. The apartment is fine (though small) and now that I have been rescued from the perpetual movie watching by high speed internet and digital cable, my life is significantly better. Usually, I really don't watch this much tv but when there is a sleepy/feeding/fussy baby to deal with, rerurns of project runway look better and better.

the icarus shawl grows slowly but I have a hankering to knit something a little more sweatery. yes, i know, I just moved to georgia, the land of 40 degree winters but I'm figuring I can wear a sweater with no jacket in the winter, right? The only problem is what to knit... I picked up the latest IK and there are a few great ones in there. I really like the cover sweater but the knitters review review of the yarn says its slightly scratchy--so i'm a little wary. I also really like the gatsby girl sweater but I'm worried how my chest will look in it--nursing does some crazy things to your boobs and I don't want to look like, well, a hooker or anything.

I'm looking for something really comfortable and soft... sounds like its time to dig through the review archives for the perfect yarn. I don't have hardly any yarn here with me and mr. fruity has actually encouraged me to get some to start something new....

anyway--i'll post pictures of icarus soon!

Posted by fruitychick at 05:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Its just around the corner. We still have a long to do list to accomplish today but tomorrow, the real whirlwind begins. The packers arrive early in the morning to start packing up everything we own. They tell me its only going to take one day to box everything up--I'm a little skeptical but they are apparently bringing a whole crew of people to my house. Then, on wednesday, they come and load everything up into the truck and as soon as they are done, we head on out to Georgia. Its a 9 hour drive and we are going to split it into two days because of the dogs and Miss S. I'm really hoping she sleeps through as much as possible but this may be a very very long ride if she has a fussy day.

I still think I'm getting the better end of the deal since Mr. Fruity is going to be driving the dogs down in his car while I get the baby and my mom in my car.

So--with all the packing and everything, I'm having to make some tough decisions today. I only have room to take along a few knitting projects and yarn to live in the apartment with us--the rest of the stash is going to go into storage until we move into the permanent house (which could be one month or four, who knows--it depends on when this house sells). So--the question of the day is: what in the world do I take? lace? sock yarn? a large complicated sweater? (we are ignoring that I will probably order yarn online from the apartment as well as stop by one of Augusta's two yarn shops)

Posted by fruitychick at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I told you I've been knitting. I'm pretty surprised at the amount of knitting I've been able to do. Miss S is only getting up once in the middle of the night (sometimes twice--but late enough in the morning I usually just get out of bed) and the hubby has taken his share of her middle of the night super awake periods (actually, probably more than his fair share...). That leaves me fairly well rested most days and I take her naptimes to catch up on phone calls, knitting and some cleaning.

Mr. fruitychick is back to work today--although he is working from home now instead of commuting into DC. He spends most of his day on the phone or the computer and holds her when she is sleepy or just in her quiet/alert periods. She just watches him while he works and makes funny faces at her and that gives me some time to get things done around here and knit a little bit. I know I may be jinxing myself here but having a new baby here just isn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be.

So, with more knitting time than I thought I would have, I've totally abandoned my effort at having a monogamous relationship with a project. I finished Miss S's sweater:

Shown here with Miss S for scale. Its from Debbie Bliss' Baby Cashmerino book and even though I knit the 3 month size, it certainly looks huge. I've heard her patterns are usually much larger than they should be but this seems extreme.

I also have a pair of (boring) stockinette and ribbing socks for the hubby half done. I usually don't have problems starting the second sock but my resolve crumbles when I know I'll have to knit for the extra 4ish inches to make the sock fit his feet instead of mine. They are still in the knitting bag but I'm betting they won't see the light of day for a little while.

I cast on for these socks for me instead:

They are from Nancy Bush's Knitting on the Road. I've made a few modifications to fit my wider feet and smaller gauge. Once you do a few rounds, you get the idea of the pattern and you don't need the chart anymore, so these will be perfect riding in the car to Georgia knitting.

I've also caved and started one of the other projects I've seen around the bloggy world: The icarus shawl.

I love it but with all thats going on, I'm guessing its going to take me about 4 years to complete. I'm enjoying the beginning super short rows where I feel like I'm making progress though.

Plans for the big move are progressing--the packers will arrive on the 8th and will leave with my stuff on the 9th. We will start the drive that evening and make it as far as possible so we can get an early start the next day and not have to contend with DC traffic. If we can get 4 hours that night, then we should only have about 5 hours to do the next day.

How scary is it that there are only state outlines on the mapquest map? It seems so much longer without other roads on the map. I cannot believe I'm going to make this drive with a 6-week old baby and two dogs. Actually--I'm more in disbelief that I'm not totally freaking out about it--one week until I move to a city I've never even been to (in a state I've only ever driven though--never stopped) and I'm feeling really calm about everything.

Did I mention we don't even have a place to live yet? seriously--and yet I'm still calm. I'm wondering if someone hasn't been slipping me some type of drug over the past few weeks...

Posted by fruitychick at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The carpet installers have been in my house now since early this morning. We didn't actually know when they would arrive so we were, of course, caught by surprise. After running around trying to clear the last few things out of the rooms, I sat outside with the puppies and timed the contractions the burst of activity had started while Nick dealt with the carpet people.

While I am happy about having new carpet installed, I am tired of the banging noises. We are having the entire upstairs done as well as the guest bedroom downstairs done--which means that nearly every piece of furniture in the house is currently stacked in my living room.

and you can't even imagine the upstairs bathroom.

Sigh... my house is on the market as of yesterday. I'm glad noone has come by to see it. At least this is the end of the things that will have the house torn apart. I can finally get the rooms situated and not walk into them the next day and see that all the furniture has been pulled away from the wall again.

In other news--I went to the hospital yesterday after I thought I was leaking a little fluid. It turns out it was a bit of a false alarm but she did check me and told me that (a) I am 3 centimeters, (b) I was continuing to have contractions and (c) she didn't think I would make it to my induction date in 9ish days. She also said, "Once you start having contractions, dont waste any time getting to the hospital if you want to have any pain relief. I wasn't planning on taking a three hour cruise on the way or anything but now I have a much greater sense of urgency.

Posted by fruitychick at 03:30 PM | Permalink