Cast-On-itis

Healthwise:

On Thursday evening I was going to clip back some of the roses in our yard...and I fell! I feel like a true dork. I lost my balance and fell off a 2 1/2 foot retaining wall and landed on our river rock boarder and a shrub rose. I hit my right ankle, knee, hip, elbow and wrist. That, along with the thorns in my arm meant I knew there would be some recovery time involved. At the time though, I had no idea that I'd still be limping after a weekend sitting down. Everything except for my knee is fine. What's funny is that there's absolutely no bruising...so it's harder to explain the hurt to the kids. I'm trying to decide how long I go with the pain before I see a Dr. Now if I wasn't bringing all the kids with me or arranging for childcare, then I'd probably go today. As it stands, I'll at least give it a few more days. I'm just praying that this doesn't spell regression for my diet. I'm heavier now than I was at my 6 week check up for 2. So, I've decided to get serious and hopefully be a healthier weight by Christmas. I need to loose 25 pounds...but 3o would be great. I started walking 2 or 3 weeks ago, and combined with healthier eating, I've lost 5 pounds. Now that I'm hardly walking down the hall, I'm definitely not walking the hills in our neighborhood.

Knitwise:

What a small boo-boo does mean...lots of knitting! Since I was in a chair most of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday...I knit tons!

Kimono: There are 9 babies due between September and November in our lives. I'm so glad we're not joining this boom. I'll need gifts for 5 of those babies. Here come the kimonos. I cast on for my first Mason Dixon heartbreakingly cute kimono using some dishcloth cotton that was part of my Gram's stash. I wanted to see what I thought of the pattern before investing in yarn. I like it so far...and I'm glad for 2 lengths of #6's. I started with the short ones...and switched to the longer ones for the sleeves...and now I've got a short needle hold my place on the right front. I wasn't sure of the yardage was when I started because this yarn had no label...and as it turns out I didn't have enough to finish. (No photos of the cream Kimono before it was frogged.) So, I've cast on again. This time using the left overs from my Lutea lace shoulder shell. I'm not sure if this will be an actual gift, or if I'll save this for 2's dolls. I like this Violet color, but I'm not sure about for a baby. If this works out well...I do like some of the other colors of Cotton-Ease for a baby...and that would be a cost effective way to handle all the gifts. I've seamed one sleeve, even though I'm not finished knitting. I'll definitely have to re-seam this side...and I may need to consider another pattern. I hate seaming. Maybe it would have worked better if I had knit in garter stitch...or that would have hidden my seams better?! (That's why I loved the Lutea lace shoulder...only a 3-needle bind-off...my favorite!)

Dishcloth: Since I had the Mason-Dixon book out...and I had some cotton laying around...I decided to see what all the fuss was about. These are fun. I started with small left-over balls, so I cast on with 6 less stitches than called for. Maybe this is knitting I could do when the kids are awake. And we could definitely use some new rags around her.

Another felted bag: M's cousin came over Sunday afternoon. We've been planning this for awhile. She wanted to learn to knit. She chose the Black Beauty bag from Pursenalities. After reading Knitting Rules, I think this is a good beginners project. She learned the long tail cast on, the knit stitch and the purl stitch. Knit in the round on #15's, this bag is worked K25, P6, K25, P6. She's doing great (I gave her some of 2's hair rubber bands for stitch markers) and even if there is a mistake felting is sure to hide that. We'll meet again in a week. I'm knitting the same bag along with her, so she can look over my shoulder and knit with me. I probably won't work on this much when I'm not with her.

Baby Bolero: Since I'd gone to Michael's with F, I picket up a skein of Bernat's Cotton-Tots. It sure is soft. I thought I'd try this baby sweater too. I may try picking up stitches and knitting the sleeves in the round to avoid the seaming. I'm not too sure if that's possible...but it's probably worth a try considering my seaming on the HCBK.

At least these baby knits are quick. So I don't mind having so many projects OTN. But, this leaves me wondering...what really is the difference with having many WIPs, and having all the yarn and the patterns for many projects in the stash???