Cabling!

I am so excited! I'm starting to learn how to do cable knitting. I'm starting out by making a cabled basic hat/toque. The good thing about cabling is that most baby boy clothes/vests etc.. all seem to have cabled patterns (all the ones I like anyway), and so now I'll finally be able to make something!! I find that baby boy clothes are hard to come by because they always look pretty feminine. My goal is to learn it... use it. :)

The Epitomy of Cuteness

So here I am knitting up all these big people mittens, then I thought that they would be a perfect gift for my 9 year old niece. So... I started making a "small" pattern. Well.... they're turning out WAY too small for a 9 year old, but they're so cute!!

No one in our family is that young, so I'll likely sell them later on etsy or something, but every time I look at them, I just go.. "awwwwww".

Knitting for babies = FUN!!

I may not be a mom yet, but through friends, I am immersed in baby culture.

Apparently cloth diapering is all the rage, and new mommies are going gaga over diaper covers, and soakers.

I've wanted to try circular knitting for a while, so I figured making baby longies is perfect. They don't take too long, are relatively easy to knit, and to top it off, I bought a stitch book so that I could try to customize the look of the patterns.

This is the result of them so far, they're coming along pretty well! I used 100% Canadian Wool because apparently wool has great absorbency properties. :)

I customized the bottom of the legs with a checker pattern that you can see here:

After I do a stitch count, I may also do this pattern at the top of the pants, but it will depend if the pattern will work with the amount of stitches I have.

Hopefully if I get better/faster at making these, I can start selling some stuff on Etsy. To get it to this point took me 2 days, but.... I had to start over several times, and I've never used circulars before.... :)

Optimism

Well as a second more ttc related post, I am happy to report that I've been feeling a lot more optimistic this week about all things baby. My doctor pushed back our appointment now to October 7th, which is kind of annoying but not having to stress about appointments has been nice.

I started charting temps again this cycle, and I find I'm not obsessed with everything as I usually am. I am hopeful that maybe we'll get lucky this cycle, but if it doesn't happen, then I guess it doesn't happen. I feel better with that outlook, then the do or die outlook I've previously been sporting.... so not hot.

Baby Knits!

So, I've decided to start knitting baby clothes to sell on etsy. I've been knitting mittens to give away as Christmas presents, but after the third pair, I'm ready to do something else. I've been searching around for good patterns for diaper covers and pants, but everything seems to be straight knitting, and I want a challenge.

I've never knit on circulars before, so I'd kind of like to find something that I can do with those. A friend of mine just made a pair of soakers, and the pattern was awesome, I may or may not snag it from her. Muahaha

Here are some things I have previously made. :)

Wavy Baby Blanket:

I got this pattern free off of ravelry.com (crochet), and made this blanket for my friend and gave it to her at her baby shower. I'm really happy with how it turned out, though I forgot to take a pic of the final product (doh!)

I made these baby booties, this is the first attempt. I also made a pair out of the same material as the blanket above, and they were really neat looking. Gave them to the same friend since it matched the blanky. :)

Crochet squares blanket:

This was intended to be a much larger blanket, but when I got to the end of the pattern, I decided to stop there, so now it's just a throw. I'm currently making a king size blanket in a different pattern, it should be done..... oh... some 100 years from now. ;)

Mittens!!

These are the mittens! I just learned how to knit with double pointed needles, so I think they turned out awesome considering. I also have another color to make in red. I used 100% Canadian Wool for these, they are warm and toasty. I may have to knit another pair to put in my own stocking!!

Sometimes, I am the green monster.

There are some days where everything just seems impossible. You think that you have all your ducks in a row, but when you take a closer look, you see that not all of your ducks are ducks.

When this moment of clarity hits, my first response is to feel angry. I feel like I've been cheated of an easy way to live life carefree. It seems like everyone around me gets whatever they want, and I don't ask for much, but still have to struggle for the crumbs when everyone else gets the whole pie.

I try not to look at life that way, but sometimes it's just hard. We're struggling enough with just trying to find the "right time" to have a family, and just as we think that we've got it figured out and we're moving forward, there's always something that seems to come up and bite us in the butt... an unexpected bill, a phone call, a contract at work...

There's so much that is already so difficult in life, why does having a family have to be so difficult too?

A Little Load Off My Mind

Today, my boss told me that after November 2nd, my contract at work will be extended for 6 months. This is very good news. I had hoped for a longer contract, but I'll take what I can get if it means that I don't have to worry about it for a while, and that my husband and I can continue with trying to get pregnant with just a little less stress on the horizon.

That being said, I'm stressing out something awful right now waiting to hear what will happen at my husband's neurologist appointment. They are/have been testing him to see if he has multiple sclerosis. Last appointment (3 years ago), they said they weren't sure if that's what it was, so we'll have to see with probably more testing. His appointment was at 9 am, and it's 10:48am now, and I'm on edge just waiting for a phone call. I know we won't really get any more definitive news today, but it still makes me nervous.

Oh life... is bigger... It's bigger than you (R.E.M.)

I think I need to slow down when the rest of the world wants me to move faster.

My husband and I live fairly well, and on our main incomes, we make enough to pay all of the bills, but to give ourselves extra for fun, we work harder and longer.

I work 37 hours a week at my day job, then I go home to work on Freelance work pretty much from the time I get home to the time I go to bed. I have acquired quite a few clients to keep me busy at home over the years, and sometimes, it can truly be overwhelming. It can get to the point where I just totally lose interest in doing it at all despite the money that it brings in.

My husband is fine with me letting some of the work go so that I can just relax when I get home, but with my current job situation, it’s not really beneficial that I do so. Once I stop doing the work for my clients, they’ll go elsewhere and if this job doesn’t pan out, then it would be good to have them to fall back on.

That being said, I guess I just really need to “hang tight” until November, and if they renew my contract, I can re-evaluate the side-work that I’m doing, and maybe just unwind.

I work hard, I really do, and I think I need and deserve the break, even if that means losing the clients in November. I can’t see myself working this hard for the rest of my working life. If I kept this up, then when I have kids, I’d never have any fun with them because I’d be too busy, and I’d be grouchy all the time and that is just not what I want the future to be.

I just wish I could land my main career/main job so I didn’t have to worry about all of this. Or maybe I’m just worrying too much about everything and I should seek counselling.

Who knew life would still remain so confusing heading in to 30?

Clomid Round 1 = Fail

Though I won't fully know the results of Clomid (ie.: whether I actually ovulated) until the 24th of September, because I had to push back my appointment, I do know that this round was a fail.

We won't be doing round 2 of Clomid until November-ish. I want to find out what the outcome of my job situation will be before we immerse ourselves in more monitoring appointments. So for September and October, I'm going to put the focus on my job. We're still going to be TTC, and I'll be charting, we just won't be doing any medicated cycles.