Yup.

Still here. Still pregnant with twins at 38 and a half weeks. Haven't posted for a while because I'm spending a lot of time going back and forth to doctor's appointments and ultrasounds. I am at the hospital for appointments and ultrasounds 2-3 times a week right now...it's all I can do to rest up in between trips! Hopefully something will happen soon, because the medical professionals are getting a bit itchy with my willingness to wait it out. There are some things (not scary things, in my opinion, but medically worth discussing) they are concerned about, so I may end up being induced anyway if Mother Nature doesn't kick in soon.

On the knitting front, I just posted a photo of a whole sweater, handknit, designed by me, etc. and no one even commented on it on my blog! (I did get a couple of nice emails though, thanks!) So, is that because everyone else is so absorbed in the "when will she give birth drama?!" The other option is that everyone thinks it is a downright ugly sweater. I like it though, so here is a bigger photo. :)

Sorry it's not a new picture...I'm not much for snapping photos these days!

More news to come, I hope...just no idea when that will happen. I sort of like the idea that going into labor is one of the few things that we can't plan exactly. It's driving everybody else nuts, but heck, I gave up being in control a long time ago...

Things to celebrate

1. I've made it to 37 weeks of pregnancy--full term with twins! Now I am just waiting for them to decide to arrive naturally, which I don't mind doing at all. I figure the discomforts I know are easier than the unknown ones to come... The good news is that when they arrive, they should hopefully be fully developed. The bad news is that the doctor can't imagine why anyone would willingly hang around waiting, and wants me to be induced. I'm holding out for now. The pressure to have a medicalized birth when carrying twins seems to be pretty big. That's ok though, I'm pretty big now too--I'm carrying around roughly 50 lbs of twins here. I'm hoping I can take it.

2. I've finally finished the red sweater! I started this back in September and described all my yarn choices there. This is one of those "Joanne designs" that will be unlikely to be repeated. I wrote down all my choices, but this sweater took a long long time to do. The mohair boucle on the bottom raced by, but the dk weight yarns for the upper body and the arms took long time due to my swollen hands. Even sewing in the sleeves took me way too long. I designed it to be flattering with a big belly...but I think I misjudged how big a belly I would produce. For now, I think it looks great on this very skinny clothes hanger!

The pin is a special thing on its own. It was a gift from my nephew Nate's mom. She worried it would be a bit too gaudy for me--I tend to wear plain things--but I've been eyeing it for months because I thought it would work perfectly for this kind of sweater. Here is a link to the artist who makes these. They are truly masterpieces of felt. Very quirky and interesting things...

3. We had a lovely visit earlier this week with the professor's brother and sister-in-law. They came to Winnipeg and soaked up our sunny spring weather and we enjoyed their company enormously. They went to see things with the professor, saw Assiniboine Park and enjoyed lots of good food and gelato. They were also very patient with me when I disappeared to take naps all the time. It's hard working shlepping around twins and I need lots of rests.

4. It's "May Long" this weekend-a three day weekend! The professor says things have emptied out at the university and overall, it is relatively quiet in town. I am hoping that means we'll have a lot of good quality time this weekend to rest and enjoy each others' company. Either that, or it means we'll be hanging out at the hospital. Just have to see what happens...

That's the news from here.

new sweater!

I finally finished my Tilted Duster sweater. These photos aren't so good--I was trying to do them myself and used one of the mirrors in my house. The mirrors are on the (original) doors and therefore are about 100 years old. This means that no matter how much you clean them, they are still a bit distorted and spotty at times.

Caption: Sally mainly watched the activity at a distance while I did my photo shoot...

The professor declared my photos "artistic" which was a nice way of saying they weren't that good...sorry about that. If you liked this pattern, you could buy a download of it here. Every so often, I try to knit someone else's design from start to finish to learn from their writing and design ideas. I find it particularly interesting if the design has an interesting construction or if I really respect the designer. (I really respect Norah Gaughan. Her designs are so innovative!) In this case, I used Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran yarn, which is now discontinued. In fact, Jo Sharp yarn is now no longer available in North America, for the most part. Very sad. Some of it was purchased in Australia when we travelled to Brisbane in 2004.

Of course, it is hard for me to restrain myself, so I went into this thinking I'd just knit a black sweater and ended up making changes anyway. The collar and sleeves are knit out of a purple color called "quartz" and I lengthened the ribbing on the sleeves and shorted the sleeves themselves as well. (I have short arms.) The sweater took way too long for me to finish, largely because knitting has been hard with my sore hands. The professor helped me choose the perfect buttons from my large button stash. (The button collection is mostly inherited from his mother and grandmother, but I do frequent building of stash to keep things interesting!)

We looked at gray mother of pearl buttons with a purple tinge, which came in at a close second. They were very dressy and gorgeous, but maybe a bit too flashy. I bought those mother of pearl buttons at an antique shop to match my -second hand-winter coat in the fall of 1991, when I was a freshman in college in Ithaca, New York. When the winter coat finally wore out, I cut the buttons back off again--they've been waiting for the next right garment ever since!

We looked at purple buttons (not a great match) and silver and black buttons (also a bit flash). In the end, we chose some plain black plastic buttons that looked as though a thrifty relative had cut them off of an outfit long ago.

Before I began sewing them on, I blocked the sweater. I usually block things by handwashing and pinning them out to dry. That seemed like a long time to wait and a lot of heavy damp material in this case, so instead, I used a steamy iron to block things. The collar flopped down immediately into a sailor suit collar, and when I put that on, I saw it suited "the big belly" far better than a high collar. I'm saving the buttons for later on, and for now, a pin will do. Temperatures are now reaching into the 50's (10-15C) here so it is a perfect outdoor sweater. I've taken to wearing this frequently now.

See, every so often I do talk about fibery things... I'm now trying to refocus my efforts on the last sleeve of this red sweater, which I first talked about last September. It's a good thing I'm also creating twins over here, because the sweater production sure has slowed down!

I want to thank everyone who left me a comment or sent me an email saying they were sending good vibes in my direction. I really appreciate it. I've felt a bit isolated lately and your notes have been very cheery. I am also expecting to have a very low key celebration this Passover ...very different than the travelling to see family or complicated holiday meals I've made at home in the past. It feels a little strange but as Nina mentions in her comment, "it's all good" --it will all work itself out. (It doesn't seem to be a good time to exert myself in the cooking and cleaning department!)

shot of color

It is downright dreary outside right now...overcast and damp. Roofing has been put off until next week. The painting is almost complete--aside from the carpentry/painting that needs to happen next week. I knew all this would take a while. Some of it has gone very quickly, but some has not. Even though I'm not getting out much these days anyhow, I am beginning to miss leaving the house. (It's hard to leave home when you know someone is coming over at "mid-day"--and by the time that work is done, well, the day is mostly gone!)

I am really appreciating your messages on the blog. Sometimes I write you back via email, sometimes I visit your blogs (Adriene's post on citizenship was really something!) and sometimes, I just read your notes, smile, and read them again. I read them all. Thank you for keeping me company!

I am still doing some writing and editing for work, but am trying to wind this down. I can still type but my hands are very sore most of the time. This, like most of the pregnancy symptoms, will go away--sometime AFTER the babies are born. Between now and then, well, I have to take it one day at a time. From everything I've been told, nothing is likely to disappear in the symptoms department during this last trimester. It's all likely to get worse or stay the same.

One thing I can still do is dye things. A couple of days ago, I handwashed a wool blanket and while I was at it, went on a brief spurt of handdyeing. I started with an old short white cotton blend bathrobe. This was part of a nightgown set I got so many years ago that the rest of the set is long gone. I hardly ever wear robes and in any case, a white robe wasn't so useful in our household of muddy dog paws and spills. I decided that dyeing this might make it useful. I started with some garnet colored dye. (Before you ask where I got it and what I use...the professor used to buy me lots of this dye from here as presents. I have a life time supply of random colors!)

I like these packets of dye because they are self-contained, don't sprinkle powder everywhere, and allow me to dye in a one step, afternoon process rather than a multi-step one requiring mordants, etc.

I started with the bathrobe, but since the dye is an all-purpose one for both protein and cellulose, cotton/poly blends will not absorb all the dye bath. I decided to throw in some wool for fun. I soaked too small bunches of roving (wrapped up gently with rubber bands) in some vinegar. The weird color is because I used red wine vinegar. It was close by and didn't weigh too much for me to lift. (We buy white vinegar in enormous jugs and I now find a full one of these too heavy to lift!)

Then I threw these in the dye pot along with the robe. The white wool is a Romney roving and the natural gray color is a Romney-cross wool blended with a small amount of mohair. It turns out I could have dyed more wool, but I ran out of energy after this so ended up dumping a bit of colored dye water down the drain. That's reasonably safe with this dye, as compared to dumping something scary like copper sulfate-a mordant that fixes dye to fiber- down the drain as someone recently did in rural Manitoba. That harmed their water local water treatment plant and waterways.

In these photos, I included a ball of handspun laceweight natural gray wool/mohair so you can see how the darker color takes up a richer color of dye. I happen to like the rich cranberry color to the right better than the pinkish red...but in either case, this is enough for a spindle full of yarn, or perhaps a contrast color if I am filling up a bobbin on a spinning wheel sometime in the future. The robe came out a deep rose/red color. Ideal for hospital stays and perhaps more forgiving of stains than a white robe.

While all this dried, I had a remarkable turn-around in the mail service karma situation..I think it was all the professor's good luck. Yesterday, the professor was home from work as we dealt with two different things at once. (a painter and a locksmith/carpenter) First, my package of baggy maternity dresses arrived. Hurray!!

Everything I bought still fit (double Hurray!) although it turns out that one of the dresses I ordered, in brown, looks remarkably like a monk's brown cassock. I am wearing it today and trying to liven it up with some accessories. I am also having to put my feet up all the time because my ankles and feet are swelling these days as well as my hands. I usually try to remember to take my shoes off before putting my feet on the coffee table. Please don't think I'm a big slob! This is merely so you can see my oxblood colored shoes...good for livening up dreary weather.

Second, I finally received some black discontinued Jo Sharp yarn that I'd ordered to finish a sweater...back at the end of February. Both the seller and I had just about given it up for lost. It appeared yesterday. This photo shows the yarn (in a plastic bag) along with the black sweater, the red sweater, and some green t-shirts of the professor's -- fabric I am recycling by handsewing into something new and more useful, I hope.

This is the side table in my living room--it seems disporportionately messy. I am stuck on sleeves (second sleeve for the black sweater and first sleeve for the red sweater) and can only knit a few rows a day because of my swollen hands, but it LOOKS like I'm being really busy as a knitter! Either that, or really slovenly...!

If you live in a place where spring hasn't "sprung" yet (like me), I hope this shot of color brightened your day. If you're currently enjoying the end of daffodil season? Well, maybe you should keep that to yourself for a bit....don't rub it in!