Broken Waters

Thurs. ETA: Still no news.

Wed. ETA: It’s unofficial. Something is happening, but we’re not sure what’s going on. Keep those vibes coming. THANKS!!

*~*~*~*

It’s official — Wifey is going into labor. Hooray!!

Although I’m still contractually unable to blog about the specifics, I can say that Wifey is a surrogate and that Nina is her doula. So go give Nina some love too, k? She’ll be taking care of my girl while I’m taking care of Little Man.

And can I get a big of shout out for the VBAC? Please send all of your strong chica vibes to Wifey’s body. Dilate. Dilate. Dilate. Progress. Progress. Progress.

Favorite Things Monday: Simplicity

These pix are housed in a multi-photo frame that ordinarily hangs in a prominent location in our house. I say ‘ordinarily’ because all of our wall decor has been in boxes since October. This photo set is one that I particularly miss, so it’s a relief that I have access to a digital version.

Taken at Carrie & Hag’s house a couple years ago during a weekend trip to the Cape, these pictures show Wifey and Little Man in a moment of pure joy. On the floor. Being silly. Playing with dishes, as opposed to conventional toys. Laughing.

It shows Carrie & Hag’s manner of living. Rustic. Cluttered. A little bit dirty. Organic. Homemade. Lived in. Loved. Simple.

It shows Wifey’s completely natural relationship with her sister Carrie. Whose house can you visit and feel comfortable in randomly pulling dishes from the cabinets to entertain your toddler?

When your wife is surro-preggie

Wifey: When’s the full moon?
Mafia: Um … let me see [pause for google-ing] … February 2nd
Wifey: I think that’s the day I’m going to give birth.
Mafia: Oh? Cool.
Wifey: Do you have any idea?
Mafia: When you’re going to give birth?
Wifey: Yeah.
Mafia: Nah, I can’t even remember your due date
Wifey: You can’t even remember that I’m pregnant [giggles]
Mafia: Shut up! I’m not doin’ any more laundry for your ass!

Sat. 1/27/07 at 8:32pm

Team MIT – Red Scarf Project

Thanks to the excellent leadership (and postage money and pile of lace cookies) of Katie of The Dilettante Debutante, Team MIT sent off 20 (!) scarves for the Red Scarf Project. 15 of the scarves are pictured here. We also got a fabulous surprise visit from Suzanne, who added that beautiful bias stitch brown/orange/yellow scarf up near the top. Aren’t we awesome?

And here’s my finished Besotted. After blocking, it had such a nice drape that I decided against fringe. Oh yeah — and — I just didn’t feel like it.

Thanks to Danielle for modeling. And providing the camera. And for printing out the cute little gift tags and wrappers. And for bringing a bag that was big enough to fit both her scarf and my scarf on our walk across campus. And for carrying said bag. According to Chris, this makes Danielle my “work wife.” That’s fine with me; let’s just hope her husband doesn’t mind.

I’m heading off to Northampton tomorrow morning, so be prepared for booty from Valley Fabrics, Webs, and Cate. And since I got a gift certificate from Webs for Christmas, I won’t be breaking my Knit From Stash rules. Score!

Random Kindness & Dye

lightweight Socks That Rock in Watermelon Tourmaline
Let’s talk about love. The love of one blogger for another blogger. Like … for instance … when one blogger enters a contest and doesn’t win. And another blogger sends Socks That Rock in the mail, unsolicited, for no apparent reason. Seriously. Love.

With all this love around, I ditched all prior knitting plans and commitments and wound balls and cast on for a new pair of socks for me! I’m so excited, I can barely stand myself. THANKS Frickmeister! You made my day, week, month, year!

don’t make fun of my polka dot socks + pin-striped pants.
it was 6am when I got dressed and clearly I wasn’t awake yet
Then I came home and bathed the Red Scarf. Wash #1: red water

Wash #2: red water

Wash #3: pink water; will this ever end?

Honestly, I was too bored to actually test the stamina of the dye. But … as a word of warning: do not wash KnitPicks Swish Superwash in Red Pepper with your silky white ’special set’ from VS.
[oh, the glory of a mental image ... ]

Favorite Things Monday – My Hoosier

For a long time, Favorite Things Monday has languished. The original concept was to focus on the positive, but FTM quickly morphed into whatever sparked my interest on that day. Positive? Yes. Focused? Not so much. Then it fell off entirely. But since it was such a favorite in my little reader survey, I’m going to revive it. Here goes:

This is my Hoosier cabinet. I love it. I love it dearly. My Mom found it at a yard sale in about 1990. It was painted red. [Yes, someone painted it. Oy.] In addition to it’s overall charm, Mom noticed the original Sellers tag, most of the original hardware, the sugar dispenser, the covered tin bread drawer and several original glass spice jars. Recognizing the value of the piece, MafiaMom found a talented restoration pro, had it stripped and refinished, and had one of the glass doors replaced. While the restoration may have diminished its value in the official antique marketplace, it revived this old lady, and brought an antique gem into our family.

Several years ago, MafiaMom visited my apartment in J.P., saw the perfect spot for the cabinet, and offered to sell it to me. At first, I was conflicted. I didn’t love the style. It was heavy and old and expensive and fiddly. But Wifey loved it, so we bought it (and spent the next several years paying Mom in dribs and drabs).

I’ve had Hoosier Cabinets by Philip Kennedy on my Amazon wish list and someday I’m going to buy it. Among other things, it’ll tell me what year my Hoosier was built, which parts are original and give me a roadmap for maintaining my little antique gem. I’ve started hunting eBay for replacement hardware because the old hardware on Ms. 1890’s kitchen cabinets is similar, and when we renovate the kitchen, I’d like to use antique hardware that matches my cabinet. In addition, I’m saving digital copies of vintage ads so I can design my kitchen with the period in mind. Without that classic text about my cabinet, I’ve been completely ignorant of her history. Even without the book, I’ve very recently started to find her history here and there.

Hoosiers are generally considered ‘depression era’ pieces, so I always assumed it was built in the 1930s. But I’ve recently discovered some Sellers advertisements from the early 1900s, and I’m fairly sure mine was built in 1917. I used to envision the kind of family that could afford such a beautiful cabinet during the depression, and I couldn’t relate to their life at all.

But now that my cabinet was born in 1917, I envision a world of possibilities. Was her first owner a wife and mother? A wife and mother and activist? A lady in a boston marriage? Instead of envisioning a woman kneading dough to feed her family, I envision Mrs. Agnes Moray, Miss Janet Fotheringham and Miss Lucy Burns perched on stools over the porcelain counter, writing letters, planning demonstrations, coordinating support for their jailed sisters, succeeding in NY State — not realizing that they would be jailed together at Occoquan. And then I envision them, three years later, setting glass goblets on the porcelain counter, pouring cordials, and toasting their victory.

Little did these ladies realize that 90 years later the same porcelain counter would hold poster paint belonging to the boy child of lesbian moms, and the glass cabinet would house a porcelain mug inscribed with Votes For Women in honor of Alva Vanderbilt Belmont’s sassy hospitality:

Mrs. Alva Vanderbilt Belmont (1853-1933), born in Alabama, grew up as a Southern lady. Upon marrying into the wondrously rich Vanderbilt family, Alva focused her impressive energies on winning over New York Society. Her divorce from William Vanderbilt and ensuing marriage to, even richer, Oliver Belmont caused a sensation. The scandal forced the hitherto sheltered society dame to reconsider women’s position.

When the Women’s Trade Union League in 1909 supported the garment workers’ on strike. Mrs. Belmont personally went on the streets of New York City; into the city’s jailed and bailed out the arrested strikers. This strike was her initiation into the woman’s suffrage movement. She established her own Political Equality League, paid for the office space for a national NAWSA office in New York City, and underwrote a national press bureau for the association. While her sudden plunge into the movement aroused some skepticism, her commitment proved enduring.

When radical Alice Paul broke off from NAWSA, Mrs. Belmont left the NAWSA to become one of Paul’s most significant supporters. It was at her famous home, Marble House, in Newport, Rhode Island that Alice Paul and her cohorts formulated their plan to hold President Wilson and the Democrats responsible for the lack of progress on woman suffrage.

Mrs. Belmont commissioned her own set of “Votes for Women” china for a major Suffrage dinner party at Marble House. When the dinner was over, each guest was given a place setting to take home. “

source

Since I will not be spending $6500 on 4 pieces of the original china ( … don’t think I didn’t consider it … ), perhaps I should start collecting the reproduction Votes For Women china. Wouldn’t that be a wonderful way to honor the history of my Hoosier?

Scaring the Muggles

This one’s for Lucia.

That’s Danielle and me KIPing over lunch today at The Stata Center, a major thoroughfare at MIT that was brimming with muggles. There were several second glances, a couple raised eyebrows, and a few smiles. Certainly some of these brainiacs will become bankers. May they remember this day.

The Red Scarf haul-along

Back in November, Katie suggested that the MIT Stitch & Bitch do a mini-knit-along during IAP (aka January) to create scarves for the Red Scarf Project. Of course, the idea was a big hit, and lead to an official event in the IAP calendar. [clearly we're famous now]

Despite not posting about it, I’ve spent the last week knitting away at a Besotted Scarf in KnitPicks Swish Superwash in Red Pepper.

As of right now, the scarf is about 32″ long. I’m getting 15″ out of each ball, and since I only have three balls, this scarf will be 45″ with no fringe. I was hoping for a teeny bit of fringe, but it’s already fairly short, so I can’t spare the extra yarn. Oh well.

While I feel great about participating in this project, I also feel silly about walking around with cold hands because I refuse to 1) buy mittens or 2) stop the scarf and risk not finishing it in time, so I can make mittens for myself. Am I being totally ridiculous? Yeah, I thought so.

But if I slog through to the end of this scarf monogamously (despite the siren call of my Arwen and my cold hands), my reward will be to knit a pair of mittens (or a hat?) out of the most beautiful handspun that I got from the recent MIT SnB holidaze yankee swap (note to self: explain why I’ll never participate in another yankee swap). But I’ve also signed up for the Green Sock Along over at Knotty Bits because I have two skeins of the most incredible green sock yarn from my generous birthday presents and I can’t wait to cast on. But what about Wifey’s Icarus or Hag’s socks or Mom’s poncho or my Eris or Little Man’s cornflower sweater, you ask? Yeah … I should get back to those, huh?

Clearly monogamy is difficult for me. And clearly, I’ll have no problem knitting from stash until the end of September.

- Bruise update: it was measured, and it’s larger, and more colorful (eeewwww!). there’s a new photo, and the old photo has 69 views, which scares me a little.

RandomKnitty

Body
Bruise = very deep purple, arnica slathered (thanks Kat). With all those comments, I Felt The Love.
Sinuses & Lungs = congested, infected, loud, raspy, medicated.

On the Needles
Red Scarf Project = not secret, but not yet blogged. Yet 2/3 finished.
in the Besotted pattern = much love and adoration.
in KnitPicks Swish Superwash = nice, but a bit splitty, especially when frogged.

A Knitter’s Mad Libs
It was a sassy day. I decided to stay in doors and work on my A Cardigan For Arwen. Oh Shit! This pattern is green! I have been hardly knitting this 4 days now. It’s going carefully. What a wagon! I decided to move on and work on my bra. That is a much tighter knit. Only when I was knitting, I made a hose. Now it looks like a drug instead of a bra. I’m so loud. I guess I’ll have to frog and skip it again. Those are the perils of running.
*source: Knotty Bits

Knitastrophe

This photo was taken a couple weeks ago after our first real snow. Little Man is such a good helper, and this is our basic weekend M.O.: I pick a household project and Little Man helps me. At some point he’ll realize this is a racket. But for now, I get some companionship and a little assistance.

However … hold your breath … this is the last time my Celtic Cable Cap was seen in the wild. I know. I know. It’s hard to fathom. It’s a travesty of knitterly justice. Perhaps I lost it. Or perhaps the felting monster made a wee mistake, was too terrified to fess up and shoved the offending piece deep in the trash underneath some old oatmeal. Or perhaps I lost it. I probably lost it. [frown]

The Lesser Knits
With my hat missing and temperatures dipping into the single digits on my ass-crack-of-dawn walk to the train, I broke down and wore in public the formerly beautiful hat that my deceased MIL made for me (now irrevocably stretched out) and the first pair of mittens I ever made. Oh the shame.

To see if I’m really ungrateful, shallow and silly, here’s a poll:

Icy hell

Have you heard about the ice storms that slammed the northeast this weekend? Wanna see something really really gross? Go see my brand-new 10″ x 6″ bruise. Note: not for the faint of heart.