craig, stop reading now

I've been busy this week. Work has been one. long. slog. I am busy gearing up for fall, wrapping up summer, and generally stressing out about the upcoming four months. I have a target every freaking year to meet, and it keeps going up. On the one hand, that's because I keep meeting it, but on the other, it makes for a few nail-biting weeks on the run up to Christmas. I really hate this aspect of my job. In fact, it is the ONLY thing I really hate about what I do. Everything else--the travel, the endless conferences, the schmoozing professors, the planning and freaking paperwork, the publishing I love. The insane demands that the business makes on you and the toll it takes on your self esteem is something I could really do without. I don't like failing. I do a good job, and what I accomplish, I think I do pretty well. But this industry is just getting ridiculous.

Anyway, besides that, there have been shenanigans around Hudson county lately, which have started to intrude on my life. This was waiting outside city hall on Tuesday when I got home to walk the dog.



But there has been knitting! I've pretty much abandoned my two lace projects for this:



One of my very good friends from college is expecting his first baby with his wife, and I couldn't be happier for them. They've wanted this for so long, and they will be great parents. And to top it off, the baby is a girl! So I'm making her a little welcome pack. Spanky got some stuff too, and we're going to send a box later this fall, but first things first--she needed a hand knit baby blanket. I'm going with this pattern, unsurprisingly. I know, I'm so predictable. But I also have to make a blanket later for another good (work) friend, and I'm going to try something different for that baby. I'm enjoying knitting squares more than I thought I would. They go pretty fast. I know the blanket isn't too big, but that's even better, because I also want to make a couple of sweaters and some other stuff for this baby, and if I suck all my energy into a never-ending blanket, then I would be screwed in terms of time. I know exactly which sweaters I'm going to make, and everything else is just falling into place. It's amazing--when I knit the squares for this blanket, I actually do feel calmer and happier, and have more hope than I did when I was knitting the milan jacket or the zig-zag sweater I made before that. It really helps to have a pattern and yarn that you like, as well as a grateful recipient to think of. I like to think of this little baby girl lying on the blankie on the floor of her living room while her parents watch her, or tucked up inside it during the mild, yet chilly Dallas winter in her car seat or stroller. Anyway, the yarn I'm using is Berroco Comfort, and hopefully the yarn matches the bedding they've picked out for the bedroom too.

I have four more squares to knit, and then I need to seam them all up and knit the border, and I think I'll be done with the last four squares by the end of this next week, and the border the week after that, plus I'll have started the next baby present.

Yesterday after work, I went through my stash and pulled out all the odd balls and leftovers that I had which might be good for baby knitting, and I'm going to try to utilize what I have rather than buying more yarn. I had to buy the yarn for the blanket, because I don't have that much of any one kind or brand of yarn suitable for a baby blanket, but I do think I can use what I have left from other projects to make the sweaters. I'm pretty excited about all this. Making do, knitting for this little girl bump, who is so anticipated and loved already, and I'm actually not dreading knitting for the three remaining babies at work (hats for two of them, and sarah's blanket).

So yay for babies! (But please, let's all just take a break, eh?)



Oh, and finally, Spanky and I took a stroll over to the stockinette today to peruse their sale--half off pattern books and 30% off yarn until Labor Day! If you're in JC, check them out. Support your only LYS and get a deal! Anyway, I walked away with the Classic Elite Alpaca Stories, which I had desperately wanted last fall but didn't want to pay for on its own, for $6.00, and two balls of Noro Kureyon that I didn't really want but I couldn't find anything else I really wanted, and I figure at least I can make myself some replacement hand warmers for the one I lost last time I was in London. So, although I just popped those suckers into the stash, they'll be used this fall. I may try to make legwarmers from them, since I've been really jonesing for some. It gets really hard to wear skirts, even with tights, when the wind blows fiercely round the buildings. Anyway, we'll see. But they were only about $6.50 each, so not a big deal. Stella got really hot on the way back, and we ended up taking turns carrying her like the little Sultana she is.