Driving for the hoop....

That is what the baby is doing. I have exactly two weeks until my due date, and the last few days he has been so active, trying to push down that it is kind of funny and scary at the same time. It is endearing, but then you don't want him to come too early. Again, he kicked where the ultrasound monitor was placed on my belly. He always makes the nurses and doctors laugh. My son will have the protective instinct from the womb. :)

One of the things that is so frustrating right now is finding baby products that do not contain bisphenol-A (BPA). Baby bottles are easy, it is the teething rings and other gifts people gave me that are hard to tell. Some you just have to check with manufacturers or guess by how soft or hard the plastic is. For those of you in the same predicament, this link is good to use. Between this and lead paint in everything from China, what the heck are parents supposed to do nowadays? You are basically left with cloth items being the safest toys to use. I guess that is good for a knitter.

I have worked a little farther along on the Baby Surprise Jacket, but not much farther. My back has really acted up this week, so I have been focusing on chores and getting my back better. I was so happy to hear my husband say this morning that he feels this weekend is "...going to be a nesting weekend. I feel like I need to nest." Yay! Hopefully I won't have to remind him 10 times to do the chores we need to get done! :)

If it wasn't for the baby...

...I would have given up by now. Pregnancy makes me stupid. As in, I can't follow directions for anything other than assembling baby gear. (And thank goodness I can manage that, as my husband cannot. He has NO patience for it.) I had to frog back the Baby Surprise Jacket *yet again.* Someone shoot me now. I managed to catch back up to where I was today, sitting on the back porch and knitting in the nice weather. It is too hot for a pregnant lady to be in the sun, but the shade was not so bad.

I also managed to make it up to the Northwoods Fiber Farm sale. I bought some plain old cascade 220 in hopes of finally doing a Noni bag pattern that I bought back at Stitches East, and some Manos del Uruguay in lilac/lavender color to do a sweater vest for myself.

Edited to add: And thanks to my fellow veterans. Thank you for your service to our country. I will never forget you.

So much better...

My back healed up fine by the next day. No pain at all. I don't know how that is possible; it must be some sort of baby miracle. Either the bath and tylenol worked, or the same hormones that make your joints all lose and drop things also helped my back to loosen itself up. All I can say is thank goodness. Because normally I would be fighting the pain for 3-4 days (or longer at the worst case).

I am trying to get my knitting mojo back. I think it is slowly. I am trying to fit some knitting back into my mornings while drinking my coffee and watching the news. Then I can still spend most of my time later in the day still "getting ready for baby" (GRFB). Part of it is some finishitis (DH's socks) and startitis (Baby Surprise Sweater).

DH's socks are the Garter Stitch socks I have been working on forever. I am finally past the gusset and working on the foot. He will be so happy now since the weather was 78 degrees yesterday and I am finally finishing his first pair of wool socks! (Yeah, doh!)

My baby-chemical addled brain is easily tricked by the sketchy instructions of the EZ Baby Surprise Sweater. Bare with me if I sound like a whiner; I honestly don't mean to. I am normally very good at less than obvious instructions that lead to math, hence the engineering degree. I am just easily confused right now and when I have a tendency to set this down for a week at a time, I forget where I was. The colors are actually much deeper and intense in person.

Pattern: EZ's Baby Surprise Jacket

Yarn: Yarn By Mills Worsted Hand-Dyed

(sorry, I can't find the label)

Needles: Size 5, 36" circ Addi Turbos

And my new STR kit came in! It is gorgeous. I will post about it soon.