Day 16: Why Is This So Easy?

Crafty Pursuits
The knitting has been on hold for a few days in favor of sewing, so I could make this dress:



DD is very happy with it, though only time will tell how much wear it will get. The hem is a lot straighter than it looks in this picture! It has some growing and moving room for sure -- but one of the things I like about kids at this age is that they look great in anything! If you've read past posts, you know DD's crazy about purple, and this dress is an attempt to replace a previous favorite purple dress that is being rapidly outgrown and has been so well-loved it has its own map of permanent stains... you get the picture. Vital Stats: New Look (Simplicity) Pattern #6309, made in cotton quilter's calico with satin ribbon trim. Has a zipper in the back, but otherwise quite easy.

Ever seen the movie Kiki's Delivery Service? The dress in question is a "Kiki dress," and it even formed the basis of DD's Halloween costume last year. I love the movie, originally done in Japanese by Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke) because it avoids the Disney/Hollywood formula of good vs. evil, and is slower-paced than many American kids' movies. More like real life, in other words, though there's adventure as well. It's about a young witch in traning who, at age 13, must leave home and find her own way for a year as part of her training. There's adventure, self-discovery, supportive family relationships, chances to talk about cliquish social behavior by some adolescents, and so on. It's not a movie I thought a 3-year-old would particularly enjoy, but I don't find anything objectionable in it, and she experiences it at her own level.

Fluttering On
The daily BabySteps from FlyLady have been pretty easy these past few days. I've been carrying on with the routines established so far, and have added making my bed in the morning (my half, really, since I'm usually up before Tim -- maybe he'll catch on!) and doing a mission from Kelly each weekday. The missions are tasks of 15 minutes or less, and they focus on more detailed cleaning and decluttering in a different area of the home each week, known as that week's zone. The idea is that if you do each zone for one week each month, along with various types of daily clutter control, things stay more or less company-ready all the time. The other daily BabySteps have involved reading essays available on the FlyLady web site.

It's a little disquieting that it feels easy. But I guess that's what the Baby Steps are all about -- it shouldn't be overwhelming to establish these habits! I'm finding that with things far less cluttered, it's easier for me to see what needs to be done (like taking out the trash or recycling, or moving something to the garage, etc.) and just do it. When things were more cluttered, these tasks would get lost in the clutter and neglected. Things are in good enough order now that I actually find I've spontaneously done some of Kelly's missions before she assigns them. Cool.

One part of the before-bed routine FlyLady suggests has been extremely helpful, with DD attending preschool for the first time: laying out clothing for the next day. We have to get an earlier start than we have for our various activities in the past, so DD and I agreeing on what she will wear the next day, and my thinking through what I will wear, has been a great source of peace and efficiency in the morning. We need all of those that we can get! I'm hoping that since we're establishing some good routines now, things won't be quite so crazy when the new baby arrives.

Wish me luck! I wish you the best.

Day 12: Finding My Needles, My Family Room, Myself

Here it is, Day 12 of the FlyLady BabySteps process (I took a break in the middle to get more sleep into my schedule), and things are going great. Yesterday's BabyStep was to add a page of inspirational quotes to my control journal -- the notebook FlyLady suggests to keep track of routines and other important information. Here are a few of mine:

• "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." -Eleanor Roosevelt
  (guarding against judging myself according to the expectations of others)
  
• "Housework done incorrectly still blesses your family." -FlyLady
  (guarding against perfectionism)
  
• "Don't try to catch up -- just jump in where you are." -FlyLady
  (guarding against overwhelm)
  
• "Why do I want to do this?" -Me
  (looking at my own goals rather than anyone else's shoulds for my home and family)
  
• "I can do this." -Me
  (go, me!)

Today was easier: Keep doing what I've been doing, and delete all the emails in my InBox from FlyLady. Check.

Meanwhile, I've been using my decluttering and room-rescue time to work on the family room/my office in the basement. I have cleared out more than 20 boxes of stuff in the last six days and organized it on those great shelves we installed. I ordered some magazine files and paper storage boxes, now on the way, to corral runaway piles. I might need a few more miscellaneous containers, but it's looking good! I'll show you some pictures once I get things containerized.

I'm ecstatic to have all my knitting books, yarn, and tools -- plus the same for quilting and sewing -- in one place! And I found my set of double-pointed needles!! (You can see some of them in the photo below - they're KnitPicks Options metal double-points.) That might be the best find yet, among many great finds in all those boxes -- missing toys, CDs, tools, craft materials, and much more. And now, there's actually space for the couch we want to put in the family room for lounging, sleeping, and watching the occasional video together. Hurrah!

Okay, victory dance done for now. Here's some calmer stuff:



Working on some cotton/suede slipper socks for DD to wear inside at school. The kids get muddy on the play yard there, so they change to slippers when they come inside. The plan was to use some blue and purple (natch) Mission Falls 1824 cotton for these, but after several tries, I just couldn't get it to be soft enough to feel right, so I'm using some KnitPicks Crayon, also cotton, from my stash. DD heartily approved the rainbow color scheme I have in mind. Should be suitably psychedelic. The slipper soles are from my LYS, Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins.

Finding myself? Well, my husband Tim has been reading a book called The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play, by Neil Fiore, and he's sharing choice bits with me as he reads them. One bit he shared yesterday is the effort to move from "push" motivations (I have to, they're making me, I should) to "pull" motivations (I want to, my goal is, I'm deciding to). Most people are much more eager to start or carry on with a project if they're motivated by "pulls." It goes well with my quote above, "Why do I want to do this?" The answers to that question are illuminating and motivating. And I have to tell you, unpacking is usually one of my very least favorite jobs. But now, I want to do it -- I yearn for it! -- because I'm tired of using the corner of the living room couch as my office. Once this family room/office is usable, I'll be able to do my email, bill paying, blogging, and other computer stuff there while DD plays in the family-room part. It's almost a room of my own. And frankly, I'm a little envious of my husband's office! Tim works from home, so he needs more stuff and space than I do for my desk work, but darn it, I need some too! Now I'm getting it. So there! ;)

Another Finished Object and Free Pattern: Menschkin Child's Hat

Yesterday, with DD still recovering from her cold, I had several hours to knit, so I made this:

[Added 11/29/07: DD has been wearing this hat for her hour-long outdoor playtime at school for a week now, with temperatures around freezing, and she has willingly kept it on and been warm enough. Success!]



Free Pattern: Menschkin Child's Hat

Yarn: Artyarns Supermerino in colorway 108 (a worsted weight yarn), held double. I used almost all of 2 hanks.
Needles: I used US size 9 needles (5.5 mm) for the hat and size 7 (4.5 mm) for the earflaps. You'll also need a darning or tapestry needle and a small crochet hook.
Gauge: My gauge was 4.25 st/in in stockinette with doubled yarn. For the earflaps, it was 5.5 st/in in garter stitch with a single thickness of yarn.
Size: The hat fits my daughter's head (20-inch circumference) with just a little growing room.

I usually prefer to knit in the round, but I haven't found my set of KnitPicks Options double-point metal needles since my move, so I used some Takumi bamboo straight needles and worked back and forth.

CO = cast on (I used long tail cast on, nice and loose)
P2tog = purl two stitches together
SSK = slip one stitch, then another, as if to knit. Put the left needle back through the front of both stitches and knit them together from this position. Or use whatever decrease makes you happy and tell me about the results!

Main part of hat:
Holding two thicknesses of yarn together and using the larger needles, loosely CO 90 stitches. Work back and forth in K2, P2 rib for 2.25 inches (right side rows *K2, P2, repeat from * to end; wrong side rows *P2, K2, repeat from * to end). Then work stockinette stitch until hat measures about 5.5 inches from the bottom edge. (If I had it to do over, I would have made it 1-2 inches deeper, or even 3 inches to allow a good turned-up cuff -- but with deeper ribbing in that case. The earflaps were added because the hat didn't cover DD's ears! I might also have decreased by dividing the stitches by 7 instead of 8, so the ridges at the decreases would lie flatter to the head.)

Decrease as follows, starting with a right-side row:
Row 1: *K9, SSK, repeat from * to last two stitches, K2.
Row 2: Purl all stitches.
Row 3: *K8, SSK, repeat from * to last two stitches, K2.
Row 4: Purl.
Row 5: *K7, SSK, repeat from * to last two stitches, K2.
Row 6: Purl.
Row 7: *K6, SSK, repeat from * to last two stitches, K2.
Row 8: P2, *P2tog, P5, repeat from * to end of row.
Row 9: *K4, SSK, repeat from * to last two stitches, K2.
Row 10: P2, *P2tog, P3, repeat from * to end of row.
Row 11: *K2, SSK, repeat from * to last two stitches, K2.
Row 12: P2, *P2tog, P1, repeat from * to end of row.
Row 13: *K2tog, repeat from * to end of row.

Using a tapestry or darning needle, run one thickness of yarn tail through all remaining stitches twice. Tie to other thickness of yarn tail. Use one thickness to stitch back seam with mattress stitch. Weave in ends. I attached a tassel to the top; use whatever pompon, tassel, or loop for hanging the hat on a hook that makes you happy.

Earflaps:
With a single thickness of your hat yarn and size 7 needles (or two sizes smaller than whatever you used for the hat), CO 3 stitches, leaving at least an 8-inch yarn tail. On each row, knit through the front and back of the first stitch and then knit to the end, until you have 20 stitches. Then knit all stitches (garter stitch) until you have 14 garter ridges (28 rows) from the beginning. Do not cast off. Pin earflap in place with hat on head (to stretch ribbing to size) and sew live stitches to the inside of the ribbing with a whipstitch, about 1/2 inch above bottom of ribbing. Secure end and weave in. Leave the cast-on yarn tail hanging. Repeat for other earflap.

Ties: (Please note: this hat was made for a 3.5-year-old child who knows how to handle ties without strangling. If I were making the hat for a younger or less careful child, I would have extended the earflaps on 7 stitches or so and used a velcro closure under the chin, or -- more likely -- just made the hat deeper before the decreases, and omitted the earflaps and ties.)

I used a different yarn for the ties: I happened to have Mission Falls 1824 Cotton on hand in colors 203 and 404, which just about exactly match the Artyarns colors. I figured the cotton would be less itchy for an under-the-chin tie, so I used it as follows: Cut six lengths of yarn for the ties, each about 16 inches. Group them into two groups of three in a way that pleases you (I used two magenta and one blue for one tie, and two blue and one magenta for the other). Take the three yarn lengths for the first tie. Using a crochet hook, pull an end of one yarn length through each of the 3 stitches at the bottom of one earflap, from outside to inside of the earflap. Pull each yarn length through an entire CO stitch (i.e., at least two thicknesses of yarn, not just one) for sturdiness. Then take the pulled-through ends on the inside and knot them all together (tie a single overhand knot with all three held together). Pull the knot snug against the inside of the earflap, and then braid the 3 yarn lengths. Knot the ends together. Use the yarn tail from casting on the earflap to secure the knot inside the earflap in a non-irritating position (like straight up on the inside) and then weave in the rest of the yarn tail. Repeat for second tie and earflap.

Voila! If you knit a hat based on this pattern, please send (or link in comments to) a picture!

If you wish to pass this pattern on to others, feel free, but please include the entire text from the title to the end of this paragraph. Pattern by Deborah Mensch, published at http://knitmensch.blogspot.com

Finished Objects and Other Things I'm Thankful For

It's been a busy five days since my last post!

Home Organizing
Tim had most of the week off from work, so we took advantage of our combined energy after a family visit on Tuesday to dig into the mess that is my office and will someday be a family room as well. This is the room with the least storage capacity compared to what it needs, so we covered one wall with wall-mounted shelves. Tim spent about 45 minutes creating a jig for attaching the shelves to the shelf brackets just right, and then did the 12 shelves we installed in about 90 seconds apiece, with me and DD acting as the assembly line -- DD furnishing screws as needed, and me transporting shelves to and from the work area and mounting them on the wall. Since we finished the shelves, it's actually become fun to go through the boxes that have been sitting in that room for, oh, five months now with nowhere to go. We're finding all kinds of lost treasures and getting rid of a fair amount of stuff, too. My yearning for office supplies is being satisfied, and there's space to organize them at last! There's still more work to do, going through the rest of the boxes and finding appropriate containers for magazines, knitting and sewing tools, etc. So it's not a finished object, but I'm grateful for the progress (this, plus the other end of the shelves that I couldn't get in the frame, is something like eight boxes worth of stuff):



Holiday Food, Nice and Easy
Part of the reason we stayed in doing this project on a gorgeous snowy day (5 inches Wednesday morning) is that DD was sick with a cold and fever. That led to another project: instead of going to my aunt and uncle's house in Denver for Thanksgiving, we needed to make whatever food and festivities we wanted today at home. Tim shopped yesterday, we strategized, and we produced a modest but special meal on a family-of-three scale: a brined and roasted half turkey breast, cheesy rolls, mashed potatoes and rutabagas, beet greens, and cranberry sauce -- all from scratch except the cranberry sauce, most of it organic, and a fair amount of it locally grown or raised. Between me and Tim, we produced this all in a leisurely day of cooking, with lots of breaks to do other things like care for DD, knit, post ads to get rid of unwanted stuff, or take naps; and nobody felt like they'd been run over by a truck by the end of the meal. Now that is a day, and a meal, to be thankful for: My kind of slow food.

Did Someone Say Knitting?
Oh yeah, and I finished my Simple Stripes socks right before dinner! Here they are:



They're fraternal, in a degree that makes me happy. Clearly these socks belong together, but no machine could have made them look like this. :)

The next project will be some sewing, a dress for DD to wear to the child dedication service at our new church in a couple of weeks. She picked out the fabric -- purple, of course. In fact, if you look at my newly-arranged yarn basket for knitting projects in my immediate queue (most of which are for DD), you'll pick up on a subtle pattern in her color preferences:



If you guessed that the red and earth-toned yarns are for others besides DD, you are correct!

Having this basket in our newly-cleared stairwell makes me happy beyond all reason. It's like a promise to myself of yummy knitting for weeks or months to come.

(The yarns are, clockwise starting with the red: Knitpicks Swish Superwash in Fired Brick, Artyarns Supermerino in colorway 108, LOTS of Knitpicks Shine Sport in Violet, Trekking XXL in color 180, and Mission Falls 1824 cotton in colors 203 and 404. Oh, and some gray suede slipper soles in the back.)

And the Sleep...
With all this, plus a respectable amount of sleep, under my belt, I'm feeling ready to re-embark on the FlyLady BabySteps quest, starting with Day 10 tomorrow. Today I did my Day 9 decluttering in the family room, a satisfying and high-value target. And while we were cleaning up in advance of the family visit on Tuesday, I did my best to actually put things away rather than stashing stuff in closets or other out-of-sight areas. There is now an immensely satisfying lack of clutter almost everywhere in the house, and the family room/office is improving quickly. A bonus: Having the place uncluttered inspires better putting-away habits. Today when I came to the 2 minutes of putting out hot spots in my morning routine, I looked around and realized it wasn't going to take two minutes. That, my friends, is progress.

I hope Thanksgiving has found you all warm, well fed, and enjoying the company you're in.

Cleaning, Knitting, and Sleeping... but not in that order!

About the House...
My FlyLady efforts have been flagging over the last few days. The next couple of BabySteps called for adding a 5-minute room rescue (clearing a path in your worst room) and 15 minutes of daily decluttering (sifting stuff to get rid of some or all of it) to my routines. I just didn't make the time for it. Yesterday, as I was helping DD get down to sleep, I thought about why, and listened to the messages coming from my body. I was starting to feel a little depressed and short on motivation for anything. I'd kept my basic routines as established going, but adding anything seemed like too much. Why?

"It's the Sleep, Stupid."
My body made itself clear in its own Clintonesque fashion.

Yep, this pregnant body needs more sleep. Something like 9 hours per night plus a short nap seems ideal, but how often do I get that? Probably one day in ten at best. That's not depression I'm feeling, it's fatigue. So I've cut myself a couple of days' slack and decided to take a later BabyStep as my current mission: Establish a regular bedtime and stick to it. I've tried this before, and it's very challenging for this night-owl mom who cherishes her after-DD's-in-bed time alone and with DH, another night owl. But when I've succeeded, life has been pretty beautiful. Getting DH on my side always helps. In one stretch a couple of years ago, we had a deal that I would not scratch his head (which he loves, as it helps him relax and fall asleep) unless he was in bed by 10:30 p.m. That upped our on-time percentage a lot! He would even nudge me gently toward bedtime -- there's nothing like some loving nudges to get me headed to bed a little sooner, especially if they come with help on the night's last chores. We have to become co-conspirators against our behavior patterns that keep us up later than we should be. And 10:30, I'm sorry to say, is probably about right. Wish us luck.

Knitting in Public
I've knitted through a couple of meetings since my last post, and I have turned the heel and started up the leg on the second Simple Stripes sock. Here is the pair:



Alas, for my next two meetings I'm serving as facilitator, so I probably won't get in any knitting there. But there's always church tomorrow. I'll just have to watch whom I sit next to. Last week, when I pulled out my knitting, the person next to me made it clear (very politely) that she wouldn't want to sit next to me if I were knitting through the service. She was there first, so I moved. I can imagine a few reasons she might have that preference, but in retrospect, I wish I'd asked her why, so I could stop the guessing game. In years of knitting in church, I've had that reaction perhaps once before.

So, in my meeting today, I tried a new tactic. I asked before we got started whether anyone would mind if I knit, explaining that it takes only a tiny fraction of my attention, and it tends to filter my contributions a bit, thereby keeping me from butting in as much as I might do otherwise. That was apparently the right thing to say -- I got a wholehearted, "Please do!" from everyone present. Nothing like the right framing, eh?

Simple Stripes Sock Specs: the Whats, Hows, and Wherefores

Since this blog is partly a place to track and share gritty knitting details, here is more than you ever wanted to know about the Simple Stripes socks, shown here in their current stage of completion:



Yarn: Simple Stripes, formerly offered by KnitPicks.com, 2 balls from my stash. There doesn't seem to be a color on the ball band. They are 75% superwash wool, 25% nylon. Each ball is 50 grams/231 yards, and the advertised gauge is 7-8 st/in on size 1-3 needles. Guess that makes me a pretty darned tight knitter.
Needles: Addi Turbos, US size 2 (3.0 mm). I meant to be working on size 1, but just discovered I wasn't. Go figure! I like to do socks on 2 circulars for ease of try-on and to avoid ladders -- it works great for me. I tried the "magic loop" with two socks at once on one huge circular, but I didn't like the amount of rearranging I had to do between half-rows, so now I stick to 2 circs. Also, I like the satisfaction of finishing one sock quickly, even though I then have to do the second sock. And the magic loop was partly an effort to save on needle costs. Now that KnitPicks sells Options Needles, which I adore, this is not an issue for me. But I still use the Addis in sizes 1-3 that I bought in pairs before Options came out, and they are great. (NB: I have only tried the metal Options needles in sizes 5-11, so I can't vouch for the bitty ones or the wooden ones.)
Gauge: 10.25 st/in, so I used 80 stitches to fit my size 7.5 foot. Do you know, when I got out my knitting today, these needles actually seemed large to me? What a great feeling!
Proportions: 80 stitches got me a circumference of about 7.75 inches. I used 7 inches as the length from the tip of the toe to the beginning of the heel turn. These are my actual foot measurements -- I like slightly snug socks, so could have used slightly smaller numbers, but I'll be machine-washing these, so I expect a little shrinkage to produce sock-fit perfection.
Pattern: Basic crew sock from Simple Socks: Plain and Fancy, by Priscilla A. Gibson-Roberts, with stockinette for the foot and 2x2 ribbing for the leg. For the number of sts between YOs when turning the toe and heel, I used her percentages for an average foot. In hindsight, perhaps my toes should be considered sharp.
Direction: Toe-up. I prefer to knit socks toe-up for four reasons:

• Knitting toe-up makes it easy to figure out how long a leg I have enough yarn for.
• I like the ease of trying on the sock for custom fitting as I go.
• I often find the leg portion boring, so it's extra-motivating to have it be the home stretch.
• There's no problem with cast-off elasticity because PGR provides graft-off instructions that make an extremely flexible ending for 2x2 ribbing.

Getting the stitches of the provisional cast-on from the scrap yarn back onto a needle after I've completed the toe is a bit of a hassle, but I LOVE the totally seamless finish that results.

I like PGR's short-row toe and heel for simplicity (I had a hard time figuring out the instructions at first, but now, after a few socks, it goes easily), smooth "seams" (no real seams at all, but I mean the increase/decrease line on the sides of the toe and heel) and ease of replacement. PGR recommends switching to larger needles halfway up the ribbing, but I didn't do that this time, for three reasons:

• I like the pattern produced by the self-striping yarn to stay consistent all the way up the leg.
• I don't plan to wear these folded over much.
• They fit fine with the same size all the way up. If they were longer, I would need to do some adjustment with either needle size or increases, but then I'd probably choose a non-self-striping yarn, or at least one with more amorphous transitions.

Joins: Against all the advice I found, I spit-spliced the yarn when joining for striping adjustments around the heel. I know, it's superwash. If they start falling apart on me, you'll hear about it here. I really appreciate socks with no lumps from woven-in ends, so I took a calculated risk. The joins seemed strong when I pulled on them, and they knitted up beautifully. If it doesn't work out, I guess I'll just avoid joins whenever humanly possible, 'cause I love superwash for its softness and machine-washability. (I do put the socks in a lingerie bag, partly to make it gentler on them, and partly so I won't miss them and put them in the dryer by mistake.)

So, future-Deborah and gentle readers, there you have the Whats, the Hows, and the Wherefores for this pair of socks. May they be useful. And readers, if you've tried the PGR toe/heel and have another you love just as much or more, I'd love to hear about it!

I'll resume FlyLady details in my next post. Rest assured, I'm still fluttering and taking it slowly.

Pulling things together

Okay, so maybe mine is not to be an every-day blog. I'd rather have quality over quantity, eh?

It's been a busy time. We're busy deciding on a preschool for DD to attend a few mornings a week, and trying to make that transition sooner rather than later so she can get well used to it before DS/D#2 arrives April-ish. In the meantime, my need for sleep is catching up with me. I've been struggling to get 8 hours or more per night and dragging through many days, and I just read in a guide from my midwife that 8-10 hours, plus a nap some days, is a typical need for sleep during pregnancy. Time to revise expectations a little and go with the flow. It'll be good practice for having a new baby.

So... knitting has been slower, and FlyLady BabySteps almost fell completely by the wayside yesterday. Day 7's task was to add laying out clothes for the next day to my evening routine. Well, when I fell exhausted into bed, I realized I hadn't done it, so I thought through what I needed to wear and exactly where it was. Lucky for me I have a very visual memory. So things weren't laid out this morning, but getting dressed was still nice and quick, which was good since I woke up late. Ah, blessed sleep!

One reason I forgot to lay out clothing is that the list of things to do each day was getting a little long to hold in my memory. FlyLady has obviously been there, because today's task is to start a control journal -- a 3-ring binder with some paper for keeping track of routines. We are warned to do this in pencil, and just to do it, without letting our inner perfectionists get in on the action. So I am going, right now, to get my old Control Journal and write my current routines on new pages in it.



Back now. I'm so glad the instructions are so straightforward and warn against perfectionism! I could just see myself wandering around for half an hour, producing typed pages in sheet protectors, etc. That took about four minutes. Here you can see my new before-bed routine page. Underneath, in the dividers, is all the old stuff from the last incarnation of my Control Journal. I'm going to studiously ignore all that until I'm done with the BabySteps, and possibly forever. Opening it up and trying to get straight back into it was, I believe, my downfall last time around. Oh, and that stuff all around the journal? One of the migratory hot spots I'll be putting out tonight or tomorrow morning, which is currently residing on my coffee table. Looking at it, I actually know where just about everything there belongs. What a relief!

Later:
Ahhh, the first sock is finished -- and perhaps more importantly, I've cast on for the second! No Second Sock Syndrome for me.



The hot spot is out, and DD and I spent 10 minutes working to clean up her disaster play area. Not done, but much better. We agreed to do a little each day, FlyLady style, until it's neat again.

Hot Spots

There are three hot spots for me today.

First, there was the muscle pain in my sides (?! -- okay, I remember it from last time around, and I'll take it over back pain, but what's up with this?) from sitting too long today with my big belly bump: church, and then two hours of Ultimate Frisbee spectating. I think we tried to do too much today, judging by how cranky I was by the time we got home. A nap helped.

Second, there was the hot spot I tried cleaning up for two minutes (?! -- so short!) for Day 6 of FlyLady's Beginner BabySteps, in addition to all the previous steps. It was my kitchen island, a recently commissioned structure -- really two Ikea cabinets back to back -- that hasn't seen service as a kitchen prep area yet, because it's such a natural spot to put things down when we come in the back door or clear the table for dinner. Hot Spots are places where the clutter takes over if you don't tame it. So, two minutes was not enough to conquer this hot spot, but I think I reduced it by more than it gained today.

Finally, and most happily, there was the warm feeling of getting my foot into my nearly-finished first Simple Stripes sock!



I have enough yarn for about two more stripes. Then I might splice in some of what I took out for the heel, if it doesn't seem tall enough. I'm happy that the stripes stayed just about the same width in the ribbing as they were in stockinette -- the sock has a consistent look to it, and it will stay up!

I hope there are more warm socks, sweaters, and cuddly folks than pains or messes among your hot spots this November. Cheers!

A Good Saturday

Today was a good day. DD and I went on a long walk/trike ride around the neighborhood this morning and then visited with friends, while Tim did background research on stacking our washer and dryer to give us a little more room in the laundry room. Then DD put herself down for a nap (will miracles never cease?) because she didn't want to do it my way (potty first). During her nap, Tim and I jammed on mounting shelf hardware to the wall in our basement family room, and we made great progress! I should be able to do the rest solo while Tim does his day job.

And I am soooo tired. Early bed tonight will be a must -- Tim has a tripleheader in his Ultimate Frisbee league tomorrow, and DD and I will go to church and then try to catch Tim's third game.

So without further ado, here's today's knitting progress:



The sock now fits beautifully. I'm a little concerned about having enough yarn left for the leg, but I saved some colors I cut out to make the stripes work around the heel (see that cute narrow tan stripe in the rear view?), and I may use those, even if they're out of order, rather than settle for less than a full crew sock. I opted for ribbing -- guess I'm just that kind of gal. I've been drooling over the images from the knitalong from Favorite Socks: 25 Timeless Designs from Interweave (now on my holiday wishlist), though. Maybe some of those patterns will be my introduction to knitting socks beyond ribbed crew socks. I just got some Trekking XXL in the mail (below, color 180), and I'm looking for a great pattern to try with it, though I think it would also make very happy crew socks!



FlyLady BabySteps Turn Inward for Day 5
FlyLady's Beginner BabyStep today is a more contemplative one. Besides continuing with dressing to lace-up shoes, shining my sink, reading a few email reminders, and looking at my sticky notes (check, check, check, and check), I wrote down some of the nagging, negative voices I hear in my head, and write down positive statements to answer them. This stuff is a little tender to share right now, but I will say that it wasn't the downer I expected. Writing down the negative messages only gave concrete form to what was already running through my head every day; it was almost as if I were taking control of the messages by forcing them into words on the page. And writing the positive statements was a bit of a rush! It turns out I don't spend much time in deliberate, positive self-talk. I'm thinking about posting some of my positive statements somewhere where I'll see them once in a while -- not so often they get stale, but often enough to get a lift from them and remember to say encouraging things to myself!

Day 4 and Do-Overs

It's been a day of do-overs. We just had a heat-exchange ventilation system installed, and poor communication from the person who did the specifications for the system to the guy actually doing the installing meant the installer had to redo several parts of the job. Fortunately, he gets paid by the hour, and we were paying a fixed bid, so the only people hurting from this transaction are probably the ones who slipped up on the communications in the first place. Also fortunately, it is now done!

As in home improvements, so in knitting. The sock was a little too short for my foot, especially with some expected shrinkage in washing, so I frogged the heel and did it over. I made some improvements in the process -- there were two places where I took out sections of yarn to get the stripes the way I wanted, and this time around I spit-spliced the yarn instead of leaving ends to weave in. Now, if only I were paid by the hour! I'll post a photo when there's more to see. Now it fits like a slightly-loose dream, which should snug up after a wash or two.

(Here's a nice explanation by Morcatknits of how to spit-splice. Oops, Morcat says not to do this with superwash wool... Well, it seemed quite strong when I did a test pull on it, so we'll see. Perhaps this will be yet another learning experience for me.)

FlyLady's mission for Day 4 of the Beginner BabySteps is to write my routines so far on sticky notes and stick them on my bathroom mirror and above my kitchen sink as reminders.



Check. (Sorry about the blurry.)

I've done a couple of five-minute room rescues, one each day, to cut the clutter in my living room and kitchen. It's exhilarating how much improvement can be made in five minutes, and when the timer beeps, it leaves me wanting to do more! But I'm already ahead of schedule doing these at all, so I'm restraining myself. I figure wanting more is way better than feeling burned out.

Finally Loving Yourself

Joanne made a good point in her comment on my last post. Looking back, I'm surprised I haven't mentioned it yet. This whole getting-the-house-and-life-in-order thing? It really only makes sense and works if you're doing it for yourself. Not for your mom, or your partner, or to keep up with the Joneses. And while I've been a habitually untidy person most of my life, I actually do harbor a desire to live differently. I get tired of walking into my cluttered house, losing things, and not really knowing where some things go. And though I do have people over, when a new friend visits for the first time, there's a little embarrassment about it.

I would love to have the kinds of habits that result in a house where I feel ease, or even pride, when showing someone in for the first time. So I'm approaching this as a scientist, if you will. The preliminary results from my first flight with FlyLady are promising, but I still don't know whether long-term maintenance of the habits I want will work for me. This current attempt at getting (slowly, with baby steps) back into the FlyLady groove is my way of doing that bigger experiment in the best way I can figure out. And it's for me -- though others in my life certainly may appreciate it!

FlyLady (aka Marla Cilley) originally adopted that handle because she was a fly-fishing instructor. But after she started her housekeeping email list, one of her readers suggested that FLY should stand for Finally Loving Yourself, and FlyLady picked it up and hasn't looked back.

So... about Day 3
Today's instruction is "Do what we have already done." This pushes my "faster, faster!" buttons, but I'm going with it. So, dressed to shoes: Check. Sink shined: Check. And to keep things interesting, FlyLady also asks Day 3 flybabies to read this essay and to spend 2 minutes reading some of the emails that came today from the FlyLady crew. Check.

I'm noticing that with this deliberate, relaxed pace, I've gone from dreading my next move-in chore -- putting up wall-mounted shelves in the family room -- to being eager to get started. (I need to wait until the contractor finishes putting in a heat-exchange system today so there will be room for the initial rearranging that the shelf installation will require.) This has to be a good sign!

And the knitting...
I got in some good knitting time last night and at DD's class this morning, and I have turned the heel on the Simple Stripes sock. Here 'tis:



I'm torn about whether to continue upward in stockinette or 2x2 rib. I guess you'll have to tune in tomorrow to find out! I know ribbing works from past efforts, but I'd sorta like to see this stripe pattern continued the same way up the leg, and ribbing is bound to look different. Suggestions welcome -- ever knitted a stockinette-only (ribbing at very top only) sock in this gauge that you were happy with?

How Blogging Prevents Sports Injuries...

I just had a bit of an "aha" moment about why blogging about BabySteps is helpful for me. Here's the insight:

I spent several months following the FlyLady program a couple of years ago. Since then I've made a few attempts to get back in gear, after letting my new practices lapse. I think that what unifies those unsuccessful attempts is that I tried to do everything at once. I had been able to do it before, so why couldn't I just jump right back in?

BZZZZZT. Thank you for playing, you may sit down.

I think that forming and solidifying good habits, including effective housekeeping, is a little like building muscle mass. You don't start off bench-pressing 200 pounds (at least I don't!). But if that's your goal, you start where you are and take small steps forward as you get stronger. My consistent-housekeeping muscles have atrophied, and I have to build them back up slowly if I want to be strong enough to carry the full set of routines in the long term. I peeked at the first 14 days or so of Baby Steps today, and found myself thinking, "Gosh, I could do all that today! Why should I wait?" The answer: I need to avoid the housekeeping equivalent of a sports injury that could bench me for weeks and possibly end a promising career.

So why is blogging helpful? Because anyone who reads this, including me, can tell if I'm rushing things. I need to do one day's work in one day, and blogging about it holds me accountable. (Of course, it also keeps me accountable for trying to follow the steps at all!) If I really MUST do something more on a given day, I can always unpack more boxes from our move. But I'll do it in 15-minute chunks, with rest in between, and keep checking in with myself about what I really have the energy for, and what's more likely to burn me out and hurt my progress in the future.

Day 2: Shoes

On Day 2, FlyLady's Beginner BabySteps say to get dressed to lace-up shoes first thing in the morning. With shoes on, hair and face taken care of, I'm ready for anything. I don't usually wear shoes in most of my house, but I'm gonna give it a try for this month and see if it helps. So: lace-up shoes:



Check.

The purple socks are in honor of a need for laundry, though purple is also a special color in the FlyLady world.

Knitting on the Simple Stripes sock continues:



And I'm enjoying using my clean kitchen. I'm trying my mom's modus operandi: put away things Right. Away. No waiting/resting first/getting distracted. It feels weird, but then there's this clean kitchen staring back at me, and I think I could get used to that.

The 31 Days of FlyLady

Do you think starting a blog inspires one to do things that might be fun to blog and/or read about? This is not an idle question. Because having started my brand-new knitting/whatever blog yesterday, now I find myself inspired to take on a quest.

Specifically, I feel like my house is a mess. Not quite a pigsty, though some might disagree. We don't have hoarding disorders or anything, but we have never been particularly tidy people. And hubby Tim has a pretty high standard for what he's willing to bring visitors into, in terms of tidiness and cleanliness. (I have standards too, but less shame.) Things are particularly bad right now because I've been sick with a cold the last 5 days and basically doing nothing whenever I could get away with it. Being pregnant, I don't like to take much in the way of symptom-relief drugs, so I mostly sat in my closed bedroom with a humidifier going, slept when I could, and knitted and read knitting blogs when I couldn't sleep. Some of this time was also spent feeding and playing with my daughter, age 3, but Tim took up a lot of slack there. He also mostly fed the family while I was sick. Thank you, Tim!!

So, we have a lot of what FlyLady calls CHAOS going on -- that's Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome. Ever heard of FlyLady? Back when I was first working her system a couple of years ago, I described it to friends as a sort of remedial course in basic housekeeping. Not for people who don't know how to sweep a floor, tidy a bedroom, or clean a bathroom, but for people who have a really hard time integrating those sorts of tasks into their lives on a regular basis. That's me, in spades. Maybe I'll write more on my theories about why I am this way in a later post. For today, let me just say I'm climbing back on the FlyLady train to see what I can do by taking baby steps from here (CHAOS) to there (a home I can bring people into anytime, with at most 15 minutes of picking up toys before it's presentable).

I wanted to post some "before" photos of the clutter I'm talking about here, but Tim talked me out of it. I guess inviting whatever fraction of the blogosphere eventually makes it here to view our current CHAOS was a little much for his nerves. Frankly, listening to him, I got a little paranoid myself.

So instead I'll post a photo of one part of our house that's looking decent right now, if you don't look too hard at the fingerprints on the dishwasher:



Our kitchen is, today and many days, mostly clean, sanitary, and usable. You might put fewer things on your counter, and maybe someday I'll get there too. But it serves us all right. And that's a characteristic of how we're living now: usually some areas of the home are in pretty good shape. The trick we're still working on is keeping most of the house in good shape, most of the time. Dare I hope for all of the house, most of the time? But I'm getting ahead of myself.

FlyLady has conveniently established a web page called Beginner BabySteps for people in my situation -- either just getting started, or needing to restart after not working the system for some time. It lays out 31 days of baby steps you can do in a fairly short amount of time each day to get on track.

Day 1
The mission for Day 1 is "Go Shine Your Sink." The idea is that you clean it really well once, and then briefly wipe it down at least daily after that, so it never gets visibly dirty again.

So, without further ado, here are some photos of today's work. I did the rest of backlog of dishes from when I was sick first, so I could see what the sink actually looked like. I'm still a little tired from the last of the cold, so I did it in 15-minute chunks, with 15 minutes of R&R in between. This is another trick gleaned from FlyLady experience. She's big on timers, and they do help me focus.

Here's the before photo: an old, scratched-up porcelain sink with lots of grease and other stuff mucking it up.



Here are the tools (going for relatively eco-friendly and healthy stuff, avoiding bleach and fumes for baby-on-the-way's sake): a flannel rag that used to be someone's undershorts, some creamy cleanser, and some more-abrasive stuff for the tough stains that otherwise would require bleach. Not pictured: the dish towel I dried with afterward.



I spent about 15 minutes scrubbing, rinsing, scrubbing some more, and so forth. The result: still an old, scratched-up porcelain sink, but worlds better than before.



Hooray!

The Rules...
Oh yeah, as I go along with the FlyLady Beginner BabySteps, I'm trying to get myself and the family on board by working out some rules and guidelines we can use to keep things nicer and do less crisis cleaning. Today's rule: when you're done with a dish or cooking implement, deal with it. Get it handwashed, or scraped and put in the dishwasher, before you go on to do anything else. If it really needs to soak, get it soaking. Don't put it off. I ran this one by Tim for his reaction, which was, "So, can you contrast this with what we're already doing?" Good question. Perhaps he's doing a little better on this score than I am so far. Basically, my answer was that I'd like our regular practices to be more like what we do now on a *good* day. Consistency is a big issue for us. And I think FlyLady's program, done right, will help with that. She puts a lot of thought into helping people not burn out or slip into perfectionism. And that's where this rule scares me a little: it may be too perfectionist. So I guess I need to resolve to make this my regular practice, and when I notice we're slipping, to do something a little like I try to do in meditation when my attention wanders: chuckle inwardly, say, "Gee, look at that," and then proceed to get back with the program as best I can without stressing out, SKIPPING the step of beating myself up first.

And the Knitting...
In those 15-minute R&R periods, plus some time last night, I started a new sock project. The pattern comes from Simple Socks: Plain and Fancy, by Priscilla A. Gibson-Roberts -- her basic toe-up sock pattern, sized for my foot (size 7.5) and gauge (10.25 st/in -- ouch! -- on size 1 needles for durability). The yarn is some KnitPicks Simple Stripes that was in my stash from a while ago, when I tried it and found it a little itchy. It still seems itchy, but I've had some experience in between with superwash wools softening up after washing, so I'll try at least one sock to see how it does. They aren't selling this yarn anymore; this may not bode well. But I want to do *something* while I wait for the yarn I need to finish the baby blanket to arrive. Wish me luck. And if you don't mind itchy socks, maybe I'll have sock swap material later on!

Why Blog? Why Knit? Why Mensch?

I've been reading a lot of blogs by knitters and spinners over the last week, being sick at home and needing something to occupy the half of my brain that's not working the needles as I knit. I just read an entry in Yarn Spinner that got me thinking again about blogging. She posed the question to her readers, why do you blog?

My husband Tim has had a blog for a while. Sometimes I read it, sometimes not. He blogs about political stuff and other semi-random thoughts about the world. Sometimes I think he blogs about stuff that I don't have the patience to talk about with him very much. I think I wrote an entry or two back a ways under Menschkin's Mama or some such, but I've lost track.

But me, I haven't had much impulse to blog, journal, or whatever since I kept a regular journal for a year when I was 13. Boy, it's kinda painful to go back and read that now. But I keep it around, partly so I'll have a point of reference when I have adolescent kids of my own. And one of the comments in Yarn Spinner's blog got me thinking about that. The commenter wrote that she blogs partly as a record of her all-too-short life, for her kids, etc. as well as herself.

As a mom of one, with one on the way, I can identify with that motivation. I may wait for my kids to discover my blogs on their own rather than pointing them toward them -- just to give myself more time without the feeling that someone will be looking over my shoulder immediately -- but I can make sure they find out about them, assuming I continue long enough for the record to be worth reading for them.

So, here's a little bit about me at this point in my life. My real name is Deborah Mensch. I live in Boulder, Colorado, where I recently transplanted from the San Francisco Bay Area, California. I was in the Bay Area for 15 years, ever since I graduated from college. This move has been a tough transition. Our last address in California was in a cohousing community, which was a real godsend for me as an at-home mom of a 10-month-old, at the time we moved there. Even compared to our previous neighborhood, which was pretty kid-friendly and rich in other parents, living in cohousing was cool. It was like the best parts of living in a dorm for my somewhat-introverted self: I could walk out the door at most times of day and find someone for me and/or my kid to talk or play with. Impromptu playdates were easy. Child care exchanges were fairly easy. Back in the old neighborhood, I could make playdates, but it always seemed like a bit of an ordeal. Schedule around everyone's life. Then hope the date doesn't get cancelled due to someone being sick or whatever else. If it sticks, get in the stroller or car and get to the playdate. Wonder when a gracious guest would think it's time to leave. And so on.

In cohousing, instead of making a date in advance (though this is still an option, especially among families that have more crowded schedules), I could wander around and figure out who was available to play *now* or in the near future. We could play outside in the common areas of the community, or in one of our houses, or in the kids' room at the common house, or go to a nearby park, etc. Both parents could know that the comforts of home were mere steps away -- this made saying goodbye when we got tired, or needed to do something else, or saw our kids turning into screeching pumpkins, much easier. Sometimes we'd drop in and just play for the 10 minutes or half hour someone had free before a prior commitment. Sometimes I'd invite other kids over to amuse my kid while I fixed dinner. Everything was so casual, there was very little feeling of needing to be a "good host" or "good guest," cleaning up beforehand or providing food or whatever. Sometimes the little friend and/or parent would stay for dinner or a snack, but it was all very free-flowing and easy.

So you can imagine that the decision to move away from a situation like this was a tough one. I had some good friends, my daughter had some good friends, even my less-involved-in-the-community husband had some good connections there. What it took to get me thinking about moving away, besides the prospect of raising a second child in a 2-bedroom townhouse where Tim already didn't have the office-ish space he needed, was the prospect of setting up a new cohousing community that might meet our somewhat different needs better. Coastal California was kind of saturated in the places we were interested in living, so we started looking farther afield, and Boulder County looked good. There was even an available 3+ bedroom townhouse in an existing cohousing community in Boulder, so we could have the comforts of close community while we tried to build the community of our dreams.

Turns out the situation for real estate development in most of the U.S. right now is really bleak. If we build it... we probably won't be able to sell it for the cost of development. Ick. So now we're here for a while, not really planning on moving before Menschling #2 is due in April, and probably not for a year or two after that. We'll see if the real estate situation calms down a bit in the meantime. We have a cohousing community here, but the connections grow slowly. I had a lot of my life energy invested in the last community. We'll see if I can get there, here.

Whoa. That was more than I meant to say about... well, most of that. I tend to leave such subjects to Tim. Well, there you go. It's what's on my mind now.

So why KnitMensch? Well, the Mensch part is easy. I lucked into a pretty cool married name. In our case it's German (human being) rather than Yiddish (really *good* human being), but hey, I'll take it. Knitting came along for me when DD#1* was 3 months old and I needed to rest during her naps but couldn't always sleep. So I'd wear myself out trying to do housework. I needed a hobby that was portable (unlike my former love, quilting), child-safe (also unlike quilting, with all its pins, needles, and appendage-piercing machines!), and could be picked up or put down at a moment's notice (unlike... well, you get the picture). I'd done some crocheting as a child and more recently, but was beginning to get the feeling that knitting held broader horizons for me, or at least the prospect of learning something new, which is what keeps me young. So knitting it was. I remembered the garter stitch I'd learned from my grandma, put DD#1 in the stroller and got myself to the local craft store for needles, yarn, and a how-to book. I haven't looked back since.

I'm sorry to say that I've given away most of what I've knitted so far without even taking a picture of it. My first sweater for myself was such a travesty that it went straight to Goodwill. Never again will I knit a garment from 100% acrylic! It looked great and felt like sitting inside a plastic garbage bag. Now I have behind me something like:

• One adult sweater (to Goodwill)
• About 6 scarves (relatives, friends, did a couple on commission)
• One novelty-yarn shawl
  
• One linen hand towel (Hello, Mason-Dixon Knitting)
  
• About 5 baby sweaters (mostly to DD#1, though one came out too small and went to a younger cousin of hers)
• About 4 baby hats (all for DD#1, saving the little ones for DS/D#2 now)
• One pashmina cowl (from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, for a relative last Christmas)
• Two hat-scarf improvisations, for wee second cousins
  
• One baby blanket for a beloved friend in my last cohousing community whose son was finally born just a few days ago
  
• Myriad impromptu doll blankets and other simple doll garments -- sometimes swatches in disguise, one a consolation prize for DD#1 for not getting the abovementioned baby blanket
• Three pairs of socks, two for me, one for Tim
• One unfinished alpaca/silk lace shawl for whoever is in my life when it's done and can wear the right colors, and one unfinished short-sleeve cotton sweater for me (needs revision; problems with it are gumption-suckers that may leave this a permanent UFO*)
  
• Probably several things I've forgotten, in case this doesn't sound like much for about 3 years of knitting-while-mothering

Now I have a baby blanket in progress for DS/D#2. I bought several colors of Knitpicks' Swish Superwash and improvised a pattern. Yes, the colors are pretty dark. I never got into the whole pastels-for-baby thing as a knitter. I'll post better pictures when it's liberated from the circular needle that's currently transforming it into a very bulky pouch.

I have a couple of recently-finished things I can actually show you pictures of (agh, I *will* get the hang of formatting pictures here someday soon):
Mittens and legwarmers for DD#1, knitted these past weeks in a renewed frenzy of knitting activity post-move (post home-canning season, really), especially while sick the last several days. The mittens are much-beloved, but the legwarmers have been pronounced "tickly." Maybe they'll work better over tights. Both are ArtYarns supermerino. The mitten pattern is from Ann Budd's The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns (I LOVE multiple-gauge patterns, especially for a first try at a new kind of garment), and the legwarmers are improvised after a little swatching to figure out what might work. (The flared, not-in-pattern bind-off works nicely to help DD put them on the same way each time and not stretch out the ankle ends too much. See, you can pass off almost any bug as a feature! Elizabeth Zimmerman said something like that -- I think her only exception was for split stitches.)

Oh, yeah, one more reason to blog -- to get my sorry butt into the habit of documenting my knitting!! :)

Okay -- I've probably traded on being sick for long enough -- now I seem to be on the mend, and it's time to go muck out the kitchen (actually Tim has kept it from going completely to heck over the last several days) and get dinner together.

* For readers who haven't read dozens of blogs, let alone knitting blogs:
DD = dear daughter
DS = dear son
UFO = unfinished object

If I've missed any, try Google for definitions: just type define:word into the search box, replacing "word" with the term you don't know. Over the past several days I've learned a lot about knitting and spinning from Google definitions!