o hai, I am super pregnant. 33 weeks, 5 days.

As I'm posting this, I'm 34 weeks and 1 day - which means that my due date is less than 6 weeks away. !!! It feels like this time has flown by, although as we get closer, it moves a little slower. ha. I'm also moving a little more slowly - my energy level is down a bit and it's just a little harder for me to get around and get comfortable. But overall, I'm doing great! I still feel good, and the littlest schmoo is jumping around like a crazy boy. We can't wait to meet him!

The start of the new year always makes me (and other knitters) want to look back at our knits for the past year. So here are mine:

2009 finished knits. and one crochet project. ;)

Lots of hats in there, baby and adult sized, and a couple of sweaters and shawls, and of course tons of baby knits! I have a few more projects in mind for the littlest schmoo - I hopefully still have some time to knit, and I certainly plan to take advantage of it. I have yarn for this adorable vest
and also this little sweater from Phildar Tricotez Calin Fall-Winter 2009. (so many cute things in that magazine - I had to order the French version from Phildar, but my French is good enough to translate. I think.) I'll probably make a few more hats, too, just because they are fun and fast and useful and also adorable.

I realize that I might not finish everything I want to knit before the baby arrives, and that's okay. I also realize that my knitting time might be limited after he is born, and that's okay too! I like to line things up just in case. hahahahaha.

So, things here are good. We've got all the necessary items to bring the littlest schmoo home, so now we're focusing on the part where he's born! We've taken a tour of our hospital, and we're working with a great doula and an awesome midwifery practice, and I'm getting more and more excited about things every day. I'm also practicing lots of meditation and positive thinking - I'm a super anxious person by nature, and so it's helped me a lot in this pregnancy to breathe, and focus on the good, positive things that can happen (instead of dwelling on what-ifs, which is my normal way of doing things.) It's really helped to calm down my anxieties (or most of them, anyways.)

On a super sad note - those of you who follow me on Flickr or Twitter or Facebook already know that my father passed away unexpectedly on December 15th. My dad had a stroke 8 years ago and wasn't in perfect health, but he'd been doing really, really well, so it was a pretty big shock to our whole family. There isn't ever a good time for someone to pass away - it always feels so completely unfair - but it was especially hard for us since the baby is due so soon, and my dad was so looking forward to meeting him. But I'm so grateful that he got to see me super pregnant and share this pregnancy with me and Jacob for the time that he did.

Me, Dad and Cat in 2006.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and a great New Year's. We have so much to look forward to in this coming year, and I hope the new year brings hope and happiness and joy to all of you, too!

Otherwise, I feel great! I've been doing prenatal yoga twice a week, and it's been such a good experience. I've never taken any yoga classes before, and this has been an awesome introduction. I'm actually thinking about picking up another class because I just love the way it makes me feel - I'm feeling strong, and more relaxed about things, which is a big deal because o hai I am so anxious normally.

I'm 16 weeks now - we'll be getting our 20 week ultrasound in about a month, and then we find out if it's a boy or a girl! We definitely want to know, and man, I am excited about the ultrasound. We've had two this whole time - one at 5 weeks and one at 7 weeks - and we still haven't had one where the baby looked like, well, a BABY. so we're both really looking forward to seeing the tiny schmoo.

yep, I've got a belly now.

What else is new? I've been knitting a bunch on my Smock , and I'm getting there! I need to take a picture - I've almost finished the back and it looks like it will fit me, even as my belly gets bigger.

I've also been sewing here and there - I've started a few quilting projects. One is a string quilt, using the fabulous tutorial by film in the fridge and two jelly rolls of the Hello Betty fabric line from Moda:

string quilts are so. fun.

The squares are about 4.5 inches, which means I'll need approximately eleventy million to make an actual quilt, but I'm having a blast with them.

I've also started some log cabin squares:

Wonky log cabins!

These are also so fun. It was hard for me to pick fabrics at first, but I'm trying to just relax and see what looks good and not stress too hard about it. Both of these projects have potential as baby quilts, or wall hangings - who knows? I'm really enjoying making the squares right now.

ooh! I want to tell you about our new rug too. So I got an email way earlier this year from someone at csnrugs.com, saying they were interested in sending me a free rug of my choice if I would do a review on my blog. I was kinda thinking about, but then I mentioned it in passing to Jacob, who was all, UM YES DO THAT PLEASE, we need a freaking rug for the front hall. So! we agreed, and we picked out this rug.

It came almost right away, and it's actually pretty awesome. It's not the softest rug (it's made from cactus fibers), but since it's in the front hall, I think it's okay.

new rug.

It got dirty after about one week due to a sick doggy (poor Bella), and we were able to clean it super easily with water - you can't even tell anything was wrong with it. Our hall is a pretty high traffic area, and it's holding up very nicely after a month. And as a bonus, Bella absolutely freaking LOVES this rug. She lays on it constantly - it's kind of like her home base in the den.

o hai, this is MY rug

So, we're super happy with this rug. Thanks to csnrugs for sending it our way!

I'm off to knitknitknit and maybe sew some more. Hope you're having a great weekend!

Not that I'm complaining - after all, our last trip was to St. Croix! We went for a week to visit the Virgin Islands Sustainable Farm Institute (VISFI), see old friends, and relax. Jacob was actually there through a grant from his work, but I got to tag along as well. YAY.

so relaxing.

The folks at VISFI are doing awesome stuff - their mission is to educate about sustainability and they are totally working with the community in St. Croix. And Nate, who is the program director there, is an old, old friend - we grew up in the same neighborhood! It was really fun to see him again and see this totally awesome place where he works and lives. We stayed at the farm for three days and ate delicious food and met great folks and relaxed. and I slept. A LOT. I mean, there was a hammock on a porch, people.

We also spent lots of time on the beach. We got to go snorkeling a bunch - and visited Buck Island, which is an amazing national park with a HUGE coral reef. It was so beautiful!

The pier in Frederiksted.

o hai I am snorkeling!

Amazing Buck Island.

It was a fabulous trip, and I'd love to go back to the farm again! (except for the outhouse. I do not want to go back to the outhouse.) More pics on my Flickr - there are three sets labeled St. Croix.

So what else is new? I've been sewing and knitting, although my sewing frenzy has slowed down a bit. I have a bunch of patterns I want to try and some great fabric to use, but I just haven't had the energy lately. I did manage to put this one together:

Trapeze Sundress from Weekend Sewing.

And, I've been working on pretty, pretty Ishbel. I totally heart this pattern.

Ishbel, almost done!

AND, we're getting a free rug! CSNrugs.com is sending us a rug - we picked it out - so we can test it and review it. oh yes. We've been looking for an area rug for right by our front door, and CSN Rugs has a bunch of great area rugs to choose from. We got one that's all natural fibers, and I'm excited to see how it looks in our house. Bella is also excited to lay on it. I'll be posting a review once we get it in the house and try it out.

So, that's all I've got! We're going out of town one more time this weekend - to go to the wedding of the fabulous Kelly and Matt! It's going to be super fun times.

After I had some small successes with the Spring Ruffle Top, I decided to branch out and try some other clothes. I started with a skirt.

This is from the book Sew What! Skirts. It's a book without actual patterns in it - you take your measurements and draft your own pattern using the formulas they provide. It works pretty well, because you don't have to worry about picking the right size pattern - you just have to take your measurements right!

A-line skirt.

I totally recommend this book - I see myself making many more skirts using it.

So, after the skirt success, I got excited and decided to try for a dress. My first try was a dismal failure ... documented here ... but I decided to chalk it up to the pattern and fabric and try again.

The second time resulted in a wearable dress.

Simplicity 2925.

I learned a lot on this one - I put in a dress zipper, worked with curves, discovered that my upper and lower body are NOT the size in Simplicity dress patterns, and just got more comfortable trying a commercial pattern. I've already worn it to work!

And then I sewed a few more dresses:

1. 365.2.155 simple sundress for me., 2. Simple sundress., 3. Simplicity 2587, 4. Simplicity 3778 - without sash

The top two dresses were made from a free online pattern, Heather Ross's Simple Sundress. If you are on Flickr, you've probably seen this dress and heard lots of discussion about the pattern. For me, it was one of the easiest things I've made thus far, but I did have to wing on a few things, mainly the seam allowance (there isn't one in the pattern) and hemming the dress (there isn't a specific way mentioned in the pattern.) The shirring at the top is created by hand-winding your bobbin with elastic thread and using that along with regular thread. Despite those things that could possibly cause you trouble, I still think it's a good beginner pattern, because it's basically just two pieces of fabric, shirring, and voila! dress!

Commercial patterns are still very hard for me - I hate cutting the pieces, and all the fiddly bits that go along with it. But, three of the dresses on this page were sewn from commercial patterns, and I'm slowly learning to not be afraid. Simplicity has been my friend - the easy Simplicity patterns are actually easy - or easier - and I've been able to make wearable garments so far. All of this is to say, be not afraid if you want to try to sew clothes! Obviously all of these dresses have issues (sketchy zippers, uneven hems, and oh lordy the raw edges on the insides!!), and I still have a lot to learn, but I'm feeling more confident with every piece I sew. and OMG I am having so much fun.

Lest you think I've TOTALLY abandoned knitting, I have a finished knit too!

Featherweight Cardigan!

I finally finished this sweater, and I love it. (More details on Ravelry if you're interested.) It's perfect for wearing in the air conditioning in my office and I think it will be warm when it's cold outside too. I'm seriously considering making another one - it's just so wearable.

In other news - did you know that I started my knitting blog on June 5, 2003? here's what my first blog post said:

june 05, 2003. 3:18 PM

so here is my first attempt at having a web log. or a blog. i'm really doing this so I can keep track of my knitting. Can you believe how many people have knitting websites? It's a craze of monstrous proportions.

i am a brand spanking new knitter, and i still make lots of mistakes, but i really really love doing it, and i want to get better, so i can knit fancy cardigans and bee-yoo-tee-full sweaters,

and i have nothing better to do at work than surf the net for knitting pages, knitting patterns, knitting blogs.

my left hand actually is hurting from knitting, and probably from typing so much. (because I am a secretary, not because I am a crazy blogger. remember? this is my first one!)
email me with any good patterns that aren't too hard. or anything else you wanna say.

HAHAHAHA. that makes me giggle. That also means I've been blogging for 6 years earlier this month. I had plans to do a sappy blogiversary post but then work got busy and I had to travel and I just didn't have time. I just discovered my very first blog posts on my old geocities website a few weeks ago, and it was really fun to read through them and see where I was then. I'm so glad I have those posts to remember that time in my life, and I'm so glad I wrote that first post, because having this blog has literally changed my life - I've met some of my dearest friends through it, and tried many things and visited many places that I never would have otherwise.

So, thank you, bloggy readers, for making this such a fun thing to do for six years. We all have reasons for blogging - and I do it mostly for myself - but it sure is nice to have a fabulous community of people to share it with. Thank you so much!

First of all, I finished my quilty wall hanging:

now we just need to hang it.

I had a really fun time making this quilt. I decided to try free-motion quilting for the first time, and although I had some real issues at first (the major one being that I kept forgetting to put my presser foot down), I'm very happy with the final result.

mmm, crinkly.

I practiced on a little quilted swatch first, and then just dove in on the quilt. It was time consuming and ate a lot of thread, but the result is cozy and crinkly and yummy - I will definitely be trying it again.

There has been other sewing too! I made my first top that I can wear, for real, in public:

The Spring Ruffle Top! Here's the tutorial.

I am so happy with this shirt. I'm such a newbie when it comes to sewing clothes, and the tutorial by Rae of Made by Rae was easy to follow. I definitely did a few things wrong this first time around - I misunderstood how to attach the ruffles and the chest band - but I was able to make it work! But that meant, of course, I needed to make another one:

this one's for Cathy!

She picked out the fabric - isn't it perfect? It's so nice to make a pattern again and fix all the mistakes you made the first time around. I guess that's why it's good to make a muslin when you sew a pattern for the first time (that just means you make the pattern out of practice fabric before using the good stuff.) I should maybe do that. hee.

I also made my dear friend JoAnna a nursing cover!

Yay JoAnna!

She really wanted a Hooter Hider, but when we looked at them in the store, we decided that we could make it ourselves. I used this tutorial and the awesome fabric that JoAnna picked out. It took less than an hour to make. YAY handmade!

o hai! this is a knitting blog! I am knitting too. I've finished one of my raffle prize socks and I'm about a third of the way through the second one. I've also started the Featherweight Cardigan in Jaggerspun Zephyr:

Progress.

I love this pattern! I want to make a bunch of them with all the laceweight yarn I have in my stash. I didn't swatch - bad knitter - and so next time around I might go down a needle size, but I'm hoping this one works out. I'm to the sleeves now!

I have more to show you and tell you, because I went to Maryland Sheep and Wool and bought pretty pretty things, but I need to go get ready for work. I'll post some yarny pics soon!

The Triplets on stage, waiting for their turn.

We didn't win the bee - we made it through 9 rounds, though, and were the fourth runner-up team. The word that got us was "Kinshasa" - it's the capital of the Republic of Congo, and we spelled "Kinchasa", but I will also say that the pronouncer totally pronounced it with a "ch" instead of an "sh" and I think we would've spelled it right if he'd said it right. not that I'm bitter. ;) But we had lots of fun, and we got several rounds of hard words correct, including "quoin" (an architecture term which means the corner stones of brick or stone walls) and "philately" (stamp collecting).

Spelling something correctly before we got booted.

I bet you wanna hear about the prize winners though, right?!?! I've got your prize winners right here! We had a total of 167 entries for the contest. All the entries were entered into a spreadsheet, and the winners were selected using a random number generator.

Prize #1: A pair of socks for YOU, handknit by me: WINNER: Stephanie Hansen

Prize #2: From the lovely Wry Punster Elspeth: a cowl, knit for YOU, in Briar Rose Fiber WINNER: Mary McCain

Prize #3: One skein of superwash merino sock yarn, dyed in a custom colorway (you pick the colors!!) by the fabulous Melanie of Lotus Yarns WINNER: Laura Stark

Prize #4: 11 balls Rowan Yorkshire Tweed DK WINNER: Mai N.

Prize #5: A Baby Surprise Jacket Kit from Schoolhouse Press in Orange and White, including buttons! WINNER: Bertha Crowley

Prize #6: A Baby Surprise Jacket Kit from Schoolhouse Press in Red and White, including buttons! WINNER: Nancy Cardona

Prize #7: A pair of hand knit socks, customized for YOU, knit by the fabulous Mai. WINNER: Carla P. Kipen

I've emailed all the winners - Congratulations to all of you! and thank you so much to everyone who donated - it's for a really great cause, and the Athens-Clarke Literacy Council was extremely excited and grateful for the money we raised.

Now, I'm off to play in the snow!

Snow? in Georgia! srsly!