Sock Sock Sock

I made a sock! The stitches are irregular, you can clearly see where the three needles met, and there are at least two visible holes in it, but it is undeniably a sock.

Or, as Greg so succinctly put it:

“Wow, honey, that looks cool. It actually looks like a sock! I mean, it looks way better than the ones you made before, which were more – ah – ” (seeing my expression) “it looks great, honey.”

And what’s more -

It fits! Mostly. I’m so happy I could cry. That’s all I wanted, I just wanted to make Max a pair of socks. (although I still have one to go. Bah.) I bought the DPNs on Saturday – it seems that Wal-mart does not carry double-pointed knitting needles, and I almost didn’t see the two sets they had at Michael’s stuck up between some huge circulars and a rack of crochet hook cases. Perhaps most people feel it is easier just to buy the socks. I suppose that is true, but they have defied me for two weeks, and so I had to show them who was the boss, as it were.

At any rate, I used a pattern listed on Knitting Pattern Central, the Striped Child’s Sock pattern. I had a hard time with a few parts of it – and I am not even good enough to know whether the difficulties were due to my own inexperience or were caused by a flaw in the pattern. I mean, I don’t know, but it seemed like some of the numbers just didn’t add up in the heel and toe decreases, and some things were poorly explained. I had a bad time with it, anyway, but then again – it was my very first thing ever made on DPNs. I was confused the entire time, excepting the portions where all I had to do was knit around. I’ll get better, though.

In other news, my pattern has been accepted for the December Issue of CrochetMe! Kim said it was too cute to hang onto until the next issue. I promise to respect deadlines in the future! I swear! Hey, guys, somebody smack me if I start muttering about submitting something after deadline again. Deal? Awesome. I’m really psyched, and I’m already hard at work for my cleared-in-advance-with-the-editor submission for the LOVE mid-issue theme issue (Seeeee? Way ahead of schedule, and clearing it with the editor? I’m so good).

Oh, and I still need to make a Mother-in-law Christmas gift. I’m thinking…slippers. Anybody have any favorite slipper patterns? That you don’t exactly need to know their shoe size for? Bother. Maybe a scarf.

Much ado about nothing

Wondering where I’ve been? Oh, I’ve been busy. Very, very busy. Max has been in the emergency room twice in the past three days (although for things that were less ‘emergencies,’ per se, than urgent/acute conditions) and I am exhausted. Exhausted!

We took him in on Sunday night because he was feverish and coughing, lethargic, breathing rapidly…it looked bad. However, after slogging through the emergency procedures for four hours (they get to you less quickly if your life isn’t in danger: great for those who are having heart attacks and such, but it’s so frustrating when all you need is ten minutes of a doctor’s time and it takes four hours) we were told that it was an upper respiratory infection. (Translation: he has a cough) Go home, they said. Treat the symptoms. Lovely. Max, he hates the Robitussin.

So yesterday – joy, joy – the fever disappeared, his energy returned, and Max started getting back into trouble as usual.

This morning, he woke up covered in spots.

Spots?

Yeeees. Spots. Actually, some spots, some blotches. All over. All OVER! Covered in giant red blotchy spots. Oh, dear. Greg had already left for work. I had to call him, get him to come home so we could go to the hospital, and then I spent all day in the emergency room. Again. I am so tired. And once again, after spending five hours in the ER (although we got a lot more attention this time – apparently a toddler covered in spots is more interesting than the same toddler with a fever and cough) we were told that the rash was viral, and no big deal. (Translation: his cough gave him a rash.) What the $%&*#*(%+@!?!? I have never seen a cough turn someone into a freaking dalmation! Then it took over an hour to get a bottle of baby benadryl from the pharmacy. Should have just gone to Walmart or something.

So, to sum up: I have spent over 11 hours in and around the hospital in the last three days, when I could just as easily have stayed home, and Max would have been fine. Of course, I felt better when I was told that the (very alarming) rash was harmless, and when they assured me the cough was not pneumonia. (Hey, I didn’t ask – he just had possible symptoms, so they checked for it. I’m not paranoid. Most of the time.) I guess it’s a price that must be paid to be a mom. *sigh*

On a craft related note, if you’re wondering what on earth I was doing all last week, I have this to say.

Why did I assume that I could simply sit down and design a pair of socks – in knit (my area of lesser competency), no less? Hubris, I suppose; pure hubris. But I have been duly chastened by the knitting goddess, and when next I approach socks I will be equipped with a pattern, proper humility, and a set of DPNs. *sigh*

All of this wasting time and getting distracted by other things has thrown my crochet designing behind schedule. I doubt you’ll see a pattern from me in the next Crochetme – though I’m shooting for the mid-issue – but I’m working on it. Things are going very, very well, too – which simply proves again that the crocheting goddess just loves me more. My mystery pattern will feature (get ready, now) a variety of sizes. Don’t get too excited, though! It’s something very small, but it represents a new era in my pattern possibilities. Yay for me!

So – um, I think I’m going to bed early.

A pattern, a pony, and a pickle…

This morning sees the second of my patterns going on sale here – the ever-awesome Lloopy Llama! Seriously – go check it out.

In other news, the pony has been sucessfully completed!

There he is, standing by a skein of Red Heart super saver for size comparison. Counting the ears, he’s 19 1/2 inches tall! Woohoo! Now, all I need to do is find someplace non-dusty to stash him for two months! I’ve been irresistibly inspired by this project: in the future I can see horses and huge toys of my own design appearing here.

But for now, I’ve got a bit of a problem.

I knit a scarf for Greg’s grandmother, because she taught me to knit last Christmas, and then I made the hat for Greg’s grandfather because he’s nice and I think he’ll appreciate it (every year he takes a trip to the mountains and goes elk-hunting with a pistol. A pistol? Apparently. He’s not as old as his age yet, lol!). Now it occurs to me that Greg’s mother (who lives with her parents) will very likely be offended if I don’t send her a handmade gift as well. Any ideas? Smallish, but still ‘thoughtful’ ideas? Things that won’t be destroyed by the pack of dogs that lives with her? (I think every stuffed animal she owns has been chewed on at least once…)

Please feel free to post ideas and specific patterns, because I really need to get to it…