I’ve reached that point of the holiday season when there is so much to do, holiday or otherwise, that I can’t keep track of it all and I know some things are time-sensitive and I end up so turned around that I don’t know what to do first and thus do nothing.  Thankfully, I’ve learned not to stress about it (too much).  Instead, I am bewildered, I suppose.  I called Matt this afternoon after dropping Z off at preschool just in case he knew something I forgot.  He suggested I do some shopping downtown.  I am burned out on shopping, whether it is for gifts or groceries, so I just went home and played with the baby until it was pick up time.

Now for the randomness:

*It’s so windy!  And wet!  I should make myself a cup of tea.  But I forget to before I make it to the kitchen.  Or I don’t hear the electric kettle.  I’ve heated it twice.

*Finished a small Thorpe for Zander last week.  It took me only three days–what a thrill to finish something so quickly.  I knit the small size using Cascade 220 doubled, and this is a good size for a child.  It’s a little loose on my preschooler but not so it will fall off his head.  I skipped the braided ties because I thought that would be safer on the playground–and they’re easy enough to add later if I change my mind.

*Elinor makes kissy noises with her lips.  And gives open-mouth, wet, baby kisses.  You know it’s love when you don’t care!

*Hanukkah starts on Friday.  We are ready with the gifts but not the food.  Someone needs to go to a grocery store with a real produce section so we can get a heaping mound of onions and potatoes for latkes.  And it’s windy, rainy, cold, and gross outside.  So far…I can live without latkes on the first night.  We’ll see what tomorrow brings (I hear it’s going to be very cold).

*I have had a crisis of coat buying for the children.  It has nothing to do with the holidays but has worn me out on shopping.  It involved going to the mall, in December, which I never do.  The best part, though, is that I found a coat for Elinor in her closet this morning, a coat her cousin passed down.  Hallelujah.  Crisis over.

*I/Zander inherited a UFO from Charlotte–a pair of half-finished socks–which her children outgrew before they ever got to wear.  I finished the first this afternoon.  Here it is yesterday.  The yarn is Plymouth Jelli Beenz, a fun and colorful acyrlic/wool blend.  Zander, my biggest fan when it comes to knitting, is very excited.  We’ve already had one serious discussion about his socks and the dog.  Ahem.

*My freelance work is ramping up again.  I have two projects right now, although one is in three pieces so it’s really more like four projects.  I must pace myself to avoid stressing out because I can only do one piece at a time and if I get behind it will be a vicious domino effect complete with loss of sleep.

*I am knitting Elinor a stocking to go with our other three.  The pattern is Christmas in Tallinn by Nancy Bush from Knitting on the Road.  I’ve made several patterns from this book.  I had to substitute the yarn because no one locally now carries the Dalegarn Heilo I used for the first three, but I am happy with the substitute, Rauma Strikkegarn.  It comes in lots of colors and is sticky, which is great for colorwork.  I may actually like this yarn better than the Heilo.

*The seed catalogs are starting to arrive.  I am thinking of planting more quantity of fewer types of plants next year in the vegetable garden.  Partly to get better at growing the things we love the most and partly because we really need to focus on the flower beds, get them organized.  They were empty when we moved in.  Now they’re kinda weedy.

Good night!

I cannot believe it has been nearly a month.  That word, “nearly,” is an important distinction, like I am making it in before some unwritten deadline.  A month.

Anyway.

I am typing one handed while the baby coos and ogles some red and yellow fish on one of her blankets.  Zander is playing with a keychain that makes fart noises.  Rinse and repeat over the past month.

Good news:  Zander successfully survived to age four.  Elinor is learning how to roll over.  And while we’re thinking positively, the Zauberball socks are three-quarters done and the Urban Aran Cardi only has the top half of the fronts to go.  (Cup half-full, remember–not, omigod whole weeks of no knitting have gone by and I’m ready to do something else with my needles because it’s almost summer!)

My garden, my other passionate (obsessive) hobby, is doing well.  Most things are in — although it’s June and the tomatoes and basil have yet to be planted.  Oy.  I will NOT have the earliest tomato in the county this year, no siree.

See, I added a new vegetable bed this year for asparagus and the tomatoes are supposed to be planted in front of the asparagus because they are good companions and do not need to be rotated like the other veggies.  Well.  Getting the trench dug for asparagus took a writ of Congress, ie, “oh shit it’s Mother’s Day and I haven’t bought you a gift.”  Now the asparagus is coming up despite near drowning by torrential rains, which did kill my raspberry canes and most of my black-eyed susans, but the rest of the bed hasn’t been prepared for tomatoes.

I have one bed still unplanted in my vegetable garden.  I am thinking of either skipping cucumbers this year or putting them, for one year only, in the asparagus bed.  The tomatoes are more important.  And I didn’t plant cucumbers until very late last year, early July I think, and they did awesome!  I missed whatever evil thing killed my other curcubits and the vines did not wear out until October, just before first frost.  I may not have had the earliest cucumber but I probably had the last.

That decides it then.

I haven’t even thought about summer knitting, sadly.  Once upon a time in winter, when I was pregnant, I might have dreamed about knitting a Norah Gaughan short sleeved top to wear over my un-pregnant body but I dare not knit a stitch for myself until Matt’s birthday sweater is done.  Only six months late and out of season… so far.

Most important, I promised myself I would skate through this first year of the baby’s life without guilt or unreasonable deadlines and projects.  I love to make grandiose plans but I have no time or energy for the occassional downswing of happiness that goes with said plans.  I might be panicking a bit about the tomatoes but for the most part I am doing quite well at enjoying things that are working out and letting go of what doesn’t.  There might be something to the whole “living in the moment” idea.

First it was the weather, raining raining raining last month, drowning my yard.

Then it was work, of which I shall not complain, but I went from nothing to three jobs (more really, but only three are paid) in a week.  Work is good, I keep telling myself.  Work is money.

Unfortunately, there is nothing interesting to write here about my job, which is freelance writing and editing and even if I would, I can’t because of the contracts, but trust me.  I work on reference volumes and they serve a purpose but it is not to entertain.

The rain kept me from doing much gardening, although it did not stop me altogether because at some point, turns out, even I am desperate enough to garden in a light drizzle.

The baby has kept me from doing much knitting but the good news is that I finished the first Zauberball sock, started the second and, according to the kitchen scale, I have enough yarn to finish the pair.  Fingers crossed for no more knots!

But nothing stays the same forever.  I am writing here today in the middle of a beautiful spring morning - having watered the young plants and taken photos of all the marvelous things that are growing this year - because Baby Elinor has learned, is learning, how to sleep on her own finally.  For more than six weeks, we have held her while she napped because she would get cold and/or move her arms, startling herself awake.  She has now doubled her birth weight and learned some coping/self-soothing mechanisms so nap time is more restful for us all.

Meanwhile, I have lots of work to do so of course all this blogging, knitting, and gardening is on borrowed time.

Matt is bugging me for his Urban Aran Cardigan, aka the birthday sweater.  Since it’s spring in Michigan that means our hot and humid summer will start any moment now.  I swear he’s jealous every time he sees me knitting something other than his sweater.  I tried to explain that the sweater is a lot of yarn to haul around and I still need the chart to check my progress… and I right now I only knit when we go out because then other people are playing with the baby while I knit furiously on the sidelines (at home, I am working while Matt watches baby)… he says he understands but… boys.

And the older child?  He wants me to knit something for him too.  I should grow a third arm.

Wow!  How cool is it that — by the powers of the internets (He-Man anyone?) — Rhichard of the family behind Koigu yarn found me and commented on my last post?!  He even mentions his Oma and that’s gotta be good luck or something. You should go read the comment.  I’ll wait…

Thanks for stopping by Rhichard!  And hello as well to new reader/commenter JessaLu who recently had a Tax Day contest over at her blog which I totally LOST but that’s okay because this means the universe still believes I have enough yarn in my house (which I why I just bought some half-off orphan skeins of Reynolds Soft Sea Wool and Louet Gems sportweight.  I know!  I just went to the yarn store to buy a birthday present but these were on clearance and I could justify them.  I promise, I had pangs of conscience the entire time.  On the upside, I have spent enough money at this yarn store to qualify for their buyers’ program discount twice over.  Who knew?)

If you haven’t tried it, by the way, Reynolds Soft Sea Wool is awesome for making comfy socks.  Sproing!  Sportweight so you know they knit up twice as fast and something about the yarn and the twist make these extra cushy.  I made these socks for Matt with SSW and it is the only yarn for which he has asked for a repeat.  Downside to SSW for socks - they are not superwash so regular wool rules apply and therefore this is not a good yarn for gift socks to people who are not fiber enthusiasts.

Of Louet Gems, let me wax rhapsodic.  Thy smooth texture, thy rainbow of SOLID colors, thy superwashedness, thy affordable price point…!  O!

Ahem.

Things continue to grow over here, slowly, inexorably…

Urban Aran Cardi…

Garden…

The onions got a haircut a few days ago to encourage stronger root development.  I think I will transplant them soon.  If by “soon”, you mean “before July.”  Life with a newborn moves in slow motion.

Baby…

Zauberball sock…

Surgery complete.  I cut the yarn at the knot and took out the errant chunk of purple so that the pattern would continue back to orange like it is supposed to.  Maybe the knot was the universe looking out for me?  Because if you look back at the photo in the previous post about this sock, I forgot to turn my heel!  Yep, I went straight from the heel flap to the gussets.  How many times have I done this since I took up sock knitting?  I refuse to admit.  This would have necessitated ripping anyway so in a perverse sort of way, I solved two problems at once.

My union break is over and the slavering hordes descend upon me for attention.  ‘Til next time!

Elinor finally arrived on March 18.  Labor was fast and intense but over with in time for breakfast, which I heartily enjoyed - and no heartburn!

We are floating through our postpartum period, enjoying the weather, which is mostly Spring-ish.  I’ve been planting seeds and working on Matt’s Urban Aran Cardi, which has one back and one-and-a-half sleeves.  Sadly I had to rip back a significant portion of the second sleeve a few days ago due to skipping a few rows in one of my cables.  But onward, upward…

More pictures to follow.  I’m writing this one-handed while a half-asleep little girl makes funny faces at me.  I think she has gas.

I found the booties yesterday.  In a basket of yarn so no harm done, eh?

Pattern is Saartje’s Booties, yarn is handdyed Knit Picks sock yarn from a few years back.  It is leftover from a pair of socks I made for my sister.  I think it is superwash but we shan’t take any chances.

I have some white buttons to put on the booties but that is sewing and blogging is more fun so it’s still not done.

In other baby knits: I am working on the second sleeve of the Sweater from Argentina (which is knit in one piece from button band to button band) and I have found a pattern for wool soakers which seems to be popular with Ravelry knitters.  Good enough for me.  I will restrain myself from starting the soakers until the baby sweater is done.  Which may happen by tomorrow.

From the department of Not Knitting: the 2009 garden will officially begin this weekend (unless I am busy bringing forth other life into this world) when we plant onion seeds and decorate our sunny, warm dining room with trays of dirt.  Matt hates it but it is so much more affordable than warming mats and grow lights out in the garage.  I think we will also start a covered planter on the (sunny) back deck for lettuce - a trick I learned from Lori.

This post is not about knitting.  One of my purposes in naming this site Entangled was that I cannot easily compartmentalize my life.  Things overlap and tangle together.  Knitting will be my mainstay here but I will not stop other bits from creeping in.

This one is about gardening, which I am as passionate about as knitting.  I’ve only been knitting for 6.5 years but I have been gardening for 15 years or more (veggies for 7 or 8 years).  Not that I claim wisdom, I just like to get dirty and figure things out as I go.

I have a fairly large organic vegetable garden.  Four raised beds that are 3′x24′ (288 sq ft).  We only moved into this house 11 months ago so the garden is brand new.  There are almost no plants around the foundation so I tossed vegetables in there when I ran out of room.  We hope to get around to real foundation plantings in 2009.

Here’s what I planted in 2008 (* means it was new for me this year):

• cabbage*
• broccoli*
• kale*
• onions (from seeds and sets)*
• spinach
• carrots, several varieties
• arugula*
• mustard*
• potatoes (All Blue*, Russian Banana fingerling, Onaway*)
• peas, snap and shelling*
• peppers, hot, med, and sweet
• chard
• beets
• cutting celery*
• parsnips*
• tomatoes, several varieties
• tomatillos*
• leeks*
• beans, pole* and bush
• squash, winter and summer
• cucumbers, pickling variety
• sunflowers
• sweet potatoes, garnet
• scallions*
• herbs: basil, parsley, thai basil, rosemary, french tarragon, etc etc

Each plant has its own story but today is for overview.  Perhaps the individual stories will trickle out over the course of the long, dark winter.

My star of the year was the cucumbers.  I have tried them twice before and had the plants die.  This year, they went into the cabbage/broccoli bed somewhat late in the season (sometime in July?) and omigod, went gangbusters.  Because, of course, they are related to the mighty zucchini.  I look forward to growing them again next year.  If I get them going early enough, I will probably do two crops because, also like zucchini, the vines just wear out.  Some consider this a blessing but I am up for the challenge.  I have no shortage of pickle-lovers in my life.

My big disappoint of the year was the squash, particularly the winter ones.  Something killed the vines but I was never able to identify what.  I’m guessing vine borer.  I was using row covers but I guess I will do that more religiously next year.  And longer.  And not reuse that bed for any curcubits for four years.

I love to spend my winter dreaming about next year’s garden.  I read books, draw plans, write lists, order seeds, and come April or May, when it starts to get busy outside, I toss all that paper in the corner and fly by the seat of my pants.  I figure the planning is a survival tactic.  In Michigan it is cold Oct-Dec, then snowy or icy Jan-Mar.  One does what one must.