My little guy is back!

I missed this guy soooo much during the past week and a half.


No, he wasn't away from me. He was teething. His first tooth came through on April 26, two days before he was 8 months old. About two weeks before that, his teething symptoms had just disappeared, so I was a little surprised when it happened.

But the next day, everything changed. The tooth next to it was getting close to the surface, so I guess that combined with his already sore gums and him realising that he can't chew on his hands the same way anymore when his mouth hurts was just too much for him.

So for almost two weeks mama got nothing done. No laundry, no cleaning and yes, no knitting. Just loving my poor little guy.

But now he's back and loving playing with his teeth. And back to being naughty (grandmother was trying to look at his teeth and he grabbed the straw of the milkshake she was holding and was drinking it before she could stop him. He won't drink from a bottle or a sippy cup, but he'll suck a thick milkshake through a straw.... I'm in trouble when he gets bigger.)


Now maybe I can get some knitting done!

SP8 Questions

I'm posting these questions to help my SP get to know me a little. If anything seems unclear, or you want more detail or have more questions, just let me know!

1. What is/are your favorite yarn(s) to knit with? What fibers to you *not* like?
I have always preferred worsted to slightly bulky wool or wool blends and alpaca.Now I'm starting try out finer yarns and cottons etc. Acrylic is fine if it is soft, blended with wool and doesn't have that scratchy cheap-acrylic look and feel.

2. What do you use to store your needles/ hooks?
Most of my straights are in a roll up thingy. The circulars and dpns are in 2 big ziplock baggies.

3. How long have you been knitting? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner,
intermediate or advanced?
I've been knitting about 4 years. I guess intermediate... I'm willing to try anything, but there are a bunch of things I haven't tried yet (steeks, fair isle, complicated lace).

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wishlist?
I believe I do, but I haven't edited it in a loooong time.

5. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath prods. etc.)
For these types of items, I tend to like foody smells (both fruity and baked goods). During the warmer months, I also really like tropical scents, simple florals (lilac, jasmine, gardenia), vanilla and patchouli.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
I do have a sweet tooth, and I guess my favorite would have to be Maple sugar candy. It's always good to try new things, so if you live in another country, or just have some type of candy or snack that is local to you....

7. What other crafts or DIY things do yo like to do? Do you spin?
I recently bought a spindle, but so far haven't had the time to get the hang of it.


8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/ stereo play MP3s?
I like pretty much all music (and yes, can play MP3s). A lot of 80's stuff, girl groups/ female singers, Nina Simone, Etta James, Tori Amos... I'll add more if I think of any!

9. What is your favorite color? Or do you have a color family/ season/ palette you prefer? Any
colors you can't stand?
This one may be a little hard. I guesss my absolute favorites would be in the red/orange/pink family. I also like greens and aqua type blues. Not really tans or dark colors (chocolatey brown is good though...) I'm not sure how much this helps!

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
I'm married with an 8 month old son. We have two cats.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
Scarves and hats. My fingers don't like mittens....(at least they didn't years ago when I last tried to wear them) and ponchos don't look so good on me (big boobs....added bulk up top makes me look like a big rectangle with no waist!)

12. What is/ are your favorite items to knit?
I just tried socks, and they seem pretty fun. Seems like I make a lot of hats.

13. What are you knitting right now?
Right now I'm working on my first socks, Bloom from Knitty, a stuffed pig and I've swatched for Orangina.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
I do, as long as there is thought put in to them.

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum or plastic?
Depends on the size of the project I'm working on. I like shorter straight needles for smaller projects. If it's to big to fit on the short straight needled, then I use a circular..... can't stand the long straights! I prefer bamboo or addis, although I do use balenes or bryspun when doing lace or using particularly splitty yarn.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/ or swift?
Yes to both.

17. How did you learn to knit?
I bought one of the Lion Brand kits (came with yarn and needles to make a scarf and hat)

18. How old is your oldest UFO?
Really? This is bad, but I started the baby blanket from stitch n bitch about 2 years ago. The person I was going to make it for wanted acrylic, and while it is soft, I just wasn't enjoying working with double stranded acrylic. That person got another gift instead.

19. What is your favorite holiday?
Christmas? I don't know, but I looove to make cookies, and that's a great time of the year for giving cookies!

20. Is there anything that you collect?
I have mexicana type pottery and artwork in my kitchen (and other brightly colored ethnic type items). I also have quite large collections of both erotica and cookbooks. I also collect vintage aprons (started collecting table cloths too, but my cats get mad if I try to actually use one and try to rip it off the table!)

21. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns that you are dying to get your hands on? What
knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
I'm always open to trying new things. My LYS has always been out of the Noni carpetbag pattern. I've always wanted to check out a Rowan magazine, and I saw some Phildar mags (with english translation!) on ebay that seemed to have some cute patterns. I just tried socks, so sock stuff is good. I have an 8 month old son, and plan on having more soon, so cute baby patterns etc. are always welcome.

I have a bunch of subscriptions.... IK, Vogue, knit.1, knit simple.... I think theres another, but I didn't care much for the patterns in it, so I may have blocked it out...

22. Are there any new techniques you would like to learn?
I would like to try dying yarn, easier fair isle (like a hat for my son... nothing big yet!) I learned socks on DPNs, so maybe try using either 2 circulars or magic loop...

23. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
Halfway through my first pair. Lots of fun, I plan on making many more! I wear a woman's size 8 1/2 shoe and my foot measures 9 inches both around and long (this was my first time measuring my foot and I wasn't sure what measurements you need, so if you need more than that, let me know!)

24. When is your birthday?
March 8th

Yarn Porn

Well, I figured out how to add the linky button things, so I guess it's time to try adding pictures. And what better way than showing you what my mailman left me yesterday.

Sorry my yarnography skills aren't all that great, but I have more yarn than I care to admit on backorder at various places so I'll have plenty of chances to practice.

Anyway, this is wonderful Makalu Lambgora (80% lambswool, 10% cashmere, 10% angora; 250 g/ 759 yds; 22 sts-24 rows on US6). I have no idea what to do with this yet. But I can't stop squeezing it, so I know it needs to be something right next to my skin because it feels soooo good!

He also brought me this:

All Things Heather sock yarn in "Nile" and "Tequila Sunrise"

Hopefully I can get these pictures to post. Next time they'll be better and I'll try messing around with placement and size. I guess this isn't as hard as I thought..... I should have done it a long time ago!