Wow... long time.

Being pregnant is extremely distracting. The summary for those who are not family, and don't get here through Ravelry or something (who are you?), due late February, girl, and looking good in there, altho she is extremely high so I can't eat, which sucks over the holidays, and yet somehow also compressing my nerves such that my legs don't work right. But such is life. Also, uploaded something like six months of pictures to the flickr account. They are not labeled or anything, nor is the last batch, but hey, they are there. I also received an enormous box of yarn on Friday. Mmmmm, purewool.

Bonnets for the NICU

So, as some of you may have noticed, I have been making things to donate to the local NICU and bereavement program. In particular, I love this Ravelry pattern for tiny bonnets. It is however knit, and my skills of a knitter are less than fabulous. So I have written my own crochet pattern for tiny bonnets! Here it is!

Use soft baby yarn (I have been using Bernat Softee Baby, but anything similar will do) and a 4.25 or 5 mm hook, give or take. You want the fabric to be soft and flexible, but guage is not overwhelmingly important. The NICU needs all kinds of sizes!

Ch 6 (7, 8) (Instructions for alterations for ch 9, 10, and 11 at bottom.)

Row 1: starting in second ch from hook, sc in front loop of each ch to end, DO NOT TURN, sc in back loop of each ch for 10 (12, 14, 16, etc) sc in a U-shape. Ch 1, turn.

Row 2: 2 sc in each sc around for 20 (24, 28, 38, etc) sc. Ch 1, turn.

Row 3 thru 7 (8, 9): SC in each sc around, ch 1, and turn. Basically, do one less row than the number of ch you started with after the increase row.

Row 8 (9, 10): do some sort of tiny lovely edging. I like eyelets (ch 2, skip one stitch, sc 1, ch 1, skip stitch, repeat from around), but anything will work. Sc ch3 in each stitch around also looks really cute. Finish and weave in ends.

If you want, you can also put eyelets around the bottom of the bonnet for the ribbon to thread through, but I find it unneccessary, personally.

Weave a length of thin ribbon around the bottom of the bonnet to make a tie. Do not tie any knots or sew it in, just weave it through (in case the councilor needs to remove it).

These are very small – the 6 ch version will fit a head about the size of a golf ball. For larger sizes:

Ch 9 (10, 11)

Row 1: Starting in second ch from hook, sc in each ch to the end. Sc one in middle of last ch. DO NOT TURN, sc in back loop of each ch to make a U shape (17 18, 19 sc).

Proceed as above, except do one more row of sc in each sc (i.e., do the same number of rows as you did chains, instead of the number of chains minus one).

The ch 11 version comes out about the size of a small apple.

It is possible that the pattern will expand to larger sizes, but I have only tested it up to ch 11. If you have comments or suggestions for improvements, PLEASE TELL ME! I have never drafted a pattern before, and while I have tested extensively (thank you testers!) it is always possible I have missed something.

If you want to make some to donate, you can contact your local hospital NICU or send them to the councilor here, at this address:

Utah Valley Hospital
1036 N 500 W
Provo, UT 84606
C/O NICU Common Bonds Heather Walker

Or if you know me well enough to know my address, you can send them to me, or hand them to me if you see me. Happy yarn therapy!

Aaah, enforced vacation

So those of you who follow me on Facebook may have heard that I found a new job, and also that they moved my start date back by a month, so I am faced with either a) working at the hotel for a couple more weeks or b) taking a month of enforced vacation. GUESS which one I picked. And no, it's not because the hotel doesn't want me... the manager has actually begged and PLEADED for me to stay, and said repeatedly that if Teleperformance doesn't work out, I have a job waiting for me at the hotel. I don't think that's necessarily completely true (what would they do with the chick they hired to replace me?), altho this place does have more turnover than something that turns over a lot. But we are going on VACATION. Like four nights in St. George. Mark even made the reservations. I am STOKED.

On a side note, Byron decided he wanted a pleco to go in the aquarium with his giant snail and my crayfish. I wasn't so sure that was a good idea. He had his doubts but decided to try it anyway. The crayfish had a rather expensive snack. So remember folks... crayfish are predatory. Stupid fish.

Shade garden = planted!

We have planters all around our driveway. This would be lovely for my wannabe green thumbery, except for the car port. And the neighbor's car port. Yeah, about 75% of those planters get MAYBE half an hour of direct sun. You know, if I'm being generous. Fortunately I have just discovered that many of my favorite flowers are part shade -- hydrangia, bleeding heart, azalia -- and many shade plants have interestingly colored foliage. THERE ARE SHADE PLANTS! This baffles Byron, but some of the things I've planted will die if they get direct sun. So whoever decided that some of the planters were useless and filled them with wood chips can bite me. Whoever filled the remaining planters with ivy and gravel, on the other hand, has a date with my shovel. I mean, seriously, WHO'S IDEA WAS THAT?!

Jen Driggs, call Kim

Well, you don't have to CALL me, but your blog won't let me read it any more because I am not invited. :( And I don't have your email address, apparently (could have sworn I did, somewhere...). Anyway, I would like it if you added me to the approved readers list. :)

Ravelers are kind, generous people

This is all the yarn I recieved yesterday. Birthday presents for my girl! I asked for yarn on the Random Acts of Kindness board to make things for the NICU/bereavement program at the local hospital. Ravelry is the awesome!

This is going to be a dead baby post

So if you are easily depressed, I won't be too offended if you choose to skip it.

Shortly after Emersen was born, I expressed the (to me very understandable) sentiment that I wished I had died, it hurt so much. Everyone around me, panicked, rushed to reasure me that no, I was much better off alive, as if I had died, too, I would miss so much, particularly that I would miss so many things with Elspeth. Her graduation. Her wedding. Nobody realized, I think, that I had already missed all those things with Emersen, and so much more... her birth (the drugged, traumatic ten hours I got does not count), nursing her, changing her diapers, teething, everything. Parents do not realize how lucky they are to stay up all night with a screaming, colicy, teething baby. It is a gift from God, and I missed it all. Today I'm missing her second birthday, and it hurts pretty bad.

Happy birthday baby. I love you.

No job for Kim

At least not yet, and not the data analyst at SirsiDynix. BOO. On the other hand, I am learning to spin cotton, and as soon as it is warm enough to shear I will be getting my birthday present of POUNDS and POUNDS of llama fleece. Mark is such a thoughtful husband!

Waiting is hard.

I was really, REALLY hoping to get a call from Sirsidynix yesterday. Would have been the best birthday present ever, because I really, REALLY want them to hire me! I applied to be a data analyst, and it would be such a cool job... the girls would have to go to daycare, but I would make enough more that we would still be way better off, even with the additional expense. Plus I would have health insurance for the first time in a LONG time. Everybody pray, I guess... maybe they will call tomorrow!

Teeth, and I'm not allowed to watch horror movies

In news that people in addition to me care about, Wehna has finally popped out her first tooth. Lower front left. The one next to it is close too, when she screams at me for trying to look in her mouth I can see it right under the gum, just no sharp nubbing yet.

In news that I find interesting at least, I am not allowed to watch horror movies any more. Yeah, we had movie night in Byron's room and watched Silent Hill. It wasn't bad at the time, I actually rather enjoyed it, but tonight in the silence of hotel graveyard shift I could seriously not stop thinking about the horrible screaming burning things. No more horror films for me. At least not until I get a job with decent hours.

We have been invaded

Our house is now full of soft, fluffy drifts of WOOL. Sheep mostly. Also llama, and some mohair. Mohair comes from goats, and it is soft and squishy. It has primarily taken over the laundry room, where I am washing it ever so carefully in the washer. The black llama had some second cuts tho, so now there is llama hair (short bits of it, anyway) all over Byron's clothes. And the light grey wool took forever to dry, so the variagated llama had to dry on a towel in our room, where it got kicked under the rocking chair several times. Then there's the big bag of dark grey wool that I'm slowly carding out and spinning in the living room. Except my spindle wandered up into Byron's room yesterday, along with several rolags of carded wool. It may or may not still be there. I do however know that Elspeth and Wehna's spindles are lying in the middle of the dining room, where I tripped on them on the way to work.

There used to be a word for what I'm turning into, but I think "spinster" means something different now-a-days. Just wait until I figure out an excuse to drive down by Lake Powell... there's a guy down there selling raw Navaho-Churro fleece for two dollars a pound.

I am so freaking tired.

First Mark had a tickley throat. No big. Then he thought he was dying. Girls still healthy, me still healthy. Mark gets better. All is well with the world. NOW I HAVE THE SORE THROAT. It is not fair! Especially given that I got to be AWAKE for the whole part where I was getting sicker and sicker, instead of just waking up half dead, because I had to work that night. Believe me, it really, really is better to just wake up really sick. That was last night, and here I am again on the graveyard shift. And church is in three hours. And I don't get off for another hour. Yeah, I'm not sure how we're going to do this, but I am very determined to get Elspeth to Primary. Pray.