Can’t Blog, Twins are Home

or, “This Post is a Segue.”

Almost a week ago, our twins were released from the hospital. In the intervening days, we packed up our little house in Okinawa, shipped our stuff through the mail, and hopped a flight - all six of us! - back home. Max was spectacularly airsick, and the stewardesses (I’d say ‘flight attendants,’ but the Japan Airlines ladies are very much stewardesses) were very sympathetic once I’d managed to convey that it wasn’t swine flu.

It’s very, very good to be home, and we’re all settling down into our new schedule. I’m even getting enough sleep at night to avoid zombie-brain in the morning! However, I am not doing much else aside from just dealing with four kids and a house that’s been empty almost two months. (Big thanks, and I cannot say this enough, to my friends who cleaned it while I was away.) So, I have no new projects, no awesome pictures, and very little interesting content to fill this post.

My spam, on the other hand, has started telling me jokes. I have no idea why. They’re a mish-mash of the terrible and the hysterical, and when I read them to Greg (with a thick fake Russian accent) we both burst out laughing. Here’s a sampling:

‘Here is new joke! Why did the rabbits go on strike? They wanted a raise in celery!’

‘I have fresh joke for you! What do you call a cow with no legs? Ground beef!’

‘Wanna joke? Why didn’t the turkey eat very much? Because he was always stuffed!

See? Spectacular. At any rate, hopefully we can find some time for crafting in the new rhythm, because I have some things I want to get done before the boys grow too big for them.

From the Pumpkin Patch

It’s October, and something strange is growing in the pumpkin patch.

Strange, yet utterly adorable. The boys have been moved in to share a bed with each other, and are more are less disconnected from stuff. We’re still not sure how long they’ll need to stay in the hospital, but things are moving in a good direction.

Perhaps I will post the pattern for the pumpkin hat later. Before I go, though, how about another gratuitous baby shot?

BABIES!!!

Just Some Finishing Left

So, I logged on and realized that, once again, I haven’t blogged for nearly a month (although for once, I had more than enough to blog about). I deleted a record number of spam comments in a variety of languages - even some jokes - and now I have something to show off. Just a couple of projects I’ve been working on all year … now they’re almost finished.

And, not to brag, but I think they’re some of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.

Our twins arrived this week, more than a month before their due date. I don’t even have blog pseudonyms picked out for them yet! (Despite that, both of them weighed 5 pounds and change at their birth. We are all impressed.) They only need a little bit of finishing up before they’re ready to come home with us - probably about two weeks in the hospital - and then we will be on our way back home.

Max and Charlie are over the moon.

I’ll try not to wait so long for the next post, this time.

Oh, Hi!

Things have been incredibly hectic over the last few weeks, but I’m writing to you now from the other side of our plane trip. That’s right, we’re down here by the hospital in muggy sunny Okinawa! So, while I haven’t been able to muster much energy or interesting content for the blog this last month, I now have time. Lots and lots of time.

Also (interestingly) I think I’ll be able to work on some projects! I had anticipated not really doing much knitting or crocheting down here since the hot and sticky weather drains me of any desire to cover my lap with wool, but the cottage we’re staying in requires us to keep the air conditioning on all the time to prevent the growth of mold. Let me just say that 21C is a lot cooler than you’d think. We’re going to be glad when our trunks show up and we can pull out the sweatshirts we packed for the trip back home.

Anyway - here we are! Now we just have to wait a few weeks for the twins to get here.

Gemstone Goodies

So, I got some fun things in the mail.

Malachite, amethyst, lapis lazuli, and cultured freshwater pearls - not to mention some shiny gold beads and findings and a very nice set of red jasper focal components.

Fire Mountain Gems is a fun place to shop.

I also picked up a spiffy beading board:

which is AWESOME for laying out necklaces. Instead of just stringing beads to see how they look, you can measure how long you want your necklace to be and start in the middle, working your way to the fastening. You can also lay out more than one strand at a time, which is massively useful, since trying to design a multi-strand necklace on the fly is far more complicated than one might expect.

So, I made this today…and I like it. :)  Max is pretty smitten with the hearts, too.

In other news, a Hitler cat has been hanging around our porch for the last three days. The kids, of course, have gone nuts over it and it’s been almost all I can do to keep them from rushing out “to rub it.” Now, I don’t have anything against cats. I like cats. (I’m also allergic to cats, but that hasn’t stopped me from being friends with cats in the past.) I do, however, have serious qualms about letting my kids go ‘play’ with a random stray cat that just hangs around and stares at us. Hopefully it will move on quickly, and this will soon be but a happy memory.

It occurs to me that the sliding door needs washing.

WHAT?! No Blogging!?!

For a MONTH!?

Oh, the shame. (I’d like to think that the sheer quantities of spam I had to slog through when I got back was sufficient penance, though.) We’ve been keeping busy, let me tell YOU…

With summer finally really here (aside from the perpetual rain, of course) we’ve been taking advantage and enjoying the great outdoors. I’ve rarely seen an ‘outdoors’ so beautiful as the landscape here  - I feel like I’ve said that a thousand times, but it’s true - and so we enjoy getting out in it.

Of course, that’s not all I’ve done over the last few weeks; we’ll see what I can dig up to show off over the next few days.

That’s One Down

The sun has come out around here, by which I mean - the sun has FINALLY come out around here and it looks like we’re finally going to get some real summer weather. I forget still that when the seasons change, a gigantic wind comes in and literally blows the old weather system out of here. (It’s pretty awesome to watch the massive cloud blanket break up and blow away, even if it’s rough to be outside at the time. Poor Charlie got an eyeful of gravel dust because the boys could not wait to play outside in the sunshine until the second or third day, when the wind’s exhausted itself.)

For that matter, as soon as I saw how sunny it was, I whipped the buttons on and the ends into the first sweater so I could get a decent picture.

It was harder than it looks to get this shot: the wind kept flinging the sweater up onto me! (Look, you can have the sleeves cuffed…)

(or uncuffed.) I think little sleeves with little ribbed ends are just adorable. Now, the second striped sweater is completely finished except for the ends and the buttons - so as soon as I get my buns in gear and do the finishing work on it, I’ll get some pictures of that one, too.

I Suppose I Might as Well Tell You

Since, given the nature of the blog, you ought to figure it out pretty quickly. When I had my appointment the other day, we had another ultrasound. There was some pretty strong evidence that these babies are…

Boys! (Yes, we did ask the doctor to double-check. Let’s just say the images were pretty convincing.) We were more surprised than anything else, because we had been so sure that we were getting girls. And I am a bit bummed that I don’t get to make flowers and dresses. AGAIN. But do you know how much knitting I would have to do to outfit two girls in everything I’ve ever wanted to make for daughters? A LOT. Like, an impossible amount. So that’s a bit of a relief. Let me say, too, that the amount of mayhem we expect to have with four boys - so young - is both daunting and really, really exciting. It will be a zoo…and I’ve always loved the zoo.

But! Most of you will have just stopped by for the pattern.

Basic Baby Beanie

Materials:

• Lion Brand  Wool-Ease (197 yd/180m
  per 85 g/3oz skein); about 50 yds per hat. Hats shown in Denim.
• H/8 -  5.00mm hook

Gauge: 12 sts x 10 rows in hdc = 4″

Size: Newborn (to fit approximately 15″ head)

Abbreviations

• ch = chain
• hdc = half-double crochet
• inc = make two stitches in next st
• sc = single crochet
• sl st = slip stitch

Note: US pattern conventions used.

Directions:

Do not join rounds.
Rnd 1: Ch 3; make 8 hdc in 3rd ch from hook.
Rnd 2: [Hdc inc in next st] around. (16 hdc)
Rnd 3: [Hdc in next st, hdc inc in next st] around. (24 hdc)
Rnd 4: [Hdc in next 2 sts, hdc inc in next st] around. (32 hdc)
Rnd 5: [Hdc in next 3 sts, hdc inc in next st] around. (40 hdc)
Rnds 6-15: Hdc in each st around.

To finish, sc in next st, sl st in each of next two sts. Finish off, weave in ends.

These hats are very quick to make (I made both of them last night while Greg tried out a new video game), and you could easily make two out of a  ’standard’ 110-yard skein of worsted.

Watch this space for more baby boy items. I’m feeling better.

Answers and Winners

Turtlegirl wins partial credit with the following:

 ”There’s a potential correct guess other than “you’re pregnant”? Congratulations!”

Congratulations to you, Cristi! If you want one of my patterns let me know which and I’ll send it to you.

Of course, full credit has to go to Jennifer for the correct (and insightful)

“You are pregnant with twins and are feeling tired and overwhelmed and are just getting over the shock? :)”

I’ll be sending you an email re: the Toy Bundle, Jennifer. Good eye!

Hmm. Those blockquotes should not be orange. Anyway, here is another pair of ultrasound images, this time from another angle and helpfully labeled by the radiology tech.

Twin A!

Twin B! They still look a bit like aliens, don’t they? Let me tell you, I was NOT expecting that. (The twins, not that they look like aliens. Believe me, I was expecting ONE baby to look like an alien at this point.) It’s still too early to know whether they are boys or girls, but we can tell that they are identical, which means that it’s one or the other.

Anyway. I went in for my first ultrasound about three weeks ago. The doctor poked around a little bit while I watched the screen, but then he kind of pulled up short with a puzzled expression and turned the display away from me. Then he poked around some more and the look on his face can only be expressed as, “Whoa, cool!” Of course, what he said (in a carefully neutral voice) was,

“Well, here’s something interesting.”

Of course, I’m freaking out (what’s wrong with my baby?!) and I said, “WHAT?” Then something about the suppressed grin on his face sparked a connection and I said, “Don’t say twins.”

He stopped trying to hold back the grin at that, and said, “Well, I won’t use that word, but there are two of them in there.”

Goody. An OB with a sense of humor.

Sigh. I kid. He’s a nice guy. Anyway, yes. I’ve been wiped out from nausea and fatigue even before I knew there were two - I’ve been pretty much constantly under the weather since March (when I had my wisdom teeth removed *wince*), actually. The twins are due around Thanksgiving, so I don’t see the rest of the year being much easier. In fact, I’m going to have to fly to another base for the last few months of the pregnancy, since our hospital here does not have a NICU or any neonatologists or perinatologists and they therefore categorically refuse to deliver twins. Which is understandable, since if there were complications all three of us could die, but it still STINKS.

So, um…anyone have gender neutral baby patterns to recommend?

Where Have I Been?

Why haven’t I been blogging? Here is a clue.

Place your guesses in the comment section. Partial credit available (first partially correct answer wins the pattern of their choice). First complete correct answer is eligible to receive a free Toy Bundle! Please make a note if you would not like to receive the patterns, since I know that not everyone who reads this blog crochets…(fine print: make sure you leave a functional email address in the email field so I can contact you if you win.)

 Mom, no fair helping.