Updates! Gale, Effie, and other new friends!

I know its been a while since I've posted anything. That's because I've been stuck under a pile of yarn and behind a computer desk.

So since I last wrote, I've completed two more patterns in my Hunger Games Tribute Series.

After a month of collaboration with Tami of Candy Skein (check out her blog here), we developed Effie Sock, inspired by Effie Trinket, the effervescent, bubbly liaison between District 12 and the CAPITOL.

We are having a KAL in the Candy Skein Addicts Raverly group from May until July, so please, if you like my pretty ruffled sock, come play with us!

In the meantime, I've also been testing another of my Hunger Games socks, Gale Sock. It just went live today after a month of vigorous testing, planning, editing, and headaches. Finally it is ready for the public. We had a little photo shoot for it today.


Here is the sock on the rocks at the Berkeley Marina....





...here I am looking coy for my "about the designer shot....

...and here is Charlotte Rose, hiding in the rocks. She really really liked the rocks and didn't want to come home for her nap....

....and here are the socks again, enjoying the spring poppies...

This is a fun, addictive knit. It includes 18 pages of thorough charts and descriptions. And only $3 for the month of May. Come on....you know you wanna knit some socks!

New Socks, Old Socks, updates!

NEW MONTH...new sock pictures~!

Here are my finished Peeta's enjoying some California sunshine in my front yard yesterday

Now its on to my next project:

Another Hunger Games sock, this one inspired by Gale Hawthorne, the third leg in the love triangle between Peeta, Katniss, and Gale. It will incorporate cables and A LOT of traveling stitches. Basically, expect a cyclone to wind its way around the leg. For this sock, I'll be using some very lovely Socks that Rock Medium Weight that I purchased at Stitches West. I plan to start swatching the wind pattern sometime in the next week.

In the meantime, I will continue working on my Mockingjay (Rebel 13) Socks

It took me a few weeks to really nail down the mosaic pattern in a way that I am satisfied with. Even now, as I knit up the first sock, I am finding ways to improve this chart, and the overall layout. I guess I'm not able to leave good enough alone.

I just ordered some more lovely Socks That Rock, this time in Lightweight. I've never knit with their Lightweight before...so this will be interesting. I'm planning on knitting a lace sock inspired by roses in literature--Snow White (whose name was inspired by a drop of blood on white snow), President Snow from Hunger Games (who carries a genetically modified rose on his lapel in a pure white to hide the blood smell on his breath) and lastly, but not least, the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland. I was going to title them "Roses for Snow," but instead I think it will be better titled "Painting the Roses Red." The colorway I purchased benefits Doctors Without Borders and can be viewed here on the Blue Moon fiber Arts Website. I am excited to star these socks next month for the Socks Knitters Anonymous "Literature" challenge.

April promises to be an interesting and prolific month :)

Until my next update!

Spring and Mockingjays

This is the view from my kitchen window. I love the almond tree in my back yard neighbor's back yard. It only looks like this for a couple of days before it becomes a riot of blossoms. I prefer the green buds with only a couple of flowers--its so very striking against the red of their house.

My yarn arrived this afternoon for my Mockingjay Socks. I'm not quite ready to start them...I need to finish my Peeta Socks and get the pattern to my testers, hopefully by tomorrow. Otherwise, I may not have the pattern published soon enough for the fans who want to knit them for the movie premiere next month.

But here is my lovely package from The Loopy Ewe. It was packaged so nicely~

This was my first order with this company and I am happy to say I will definitely order from them again in the future. They have an amazing selection of sock yarn, and the yarn arrived so fast! It shipped the same day I ordered it, and even with the post office being as slow as it is around here, I got it on Tuesday, after ordering it late Friday afternoon!

The inside of the package was just as fun.

I think my Mockingjay socks will look amazing. Here is a photo of the yarns and my most up to date design idea. As soon as I'm done with Peeta, these are going on the needles!

Tomorrow I will go over my next planned designs, I have so many things running through my head right now....I could spend several months just designing socks!

Until next time.

Today, I announced my next sock design, a mosaic knit color work stocking inspired by

Katniss Everdeen's Alter Ego--The Mockingjay

So now...I'm just waiting for my yarn to arrive. This sock will be knit in three colors--Black and White to represent the Mockingjay, and a rich blood red. The yarn I'll be using is Shibui Sock in colors Abyss, Cranberry, and Ivory ordered today from The Loopy Ewe. I chose Shibui Sock due to the wide range of available colors (I wanted a yarn with a white, red, and black in the same base) and the affordability. You can make this whole pair of socks for less than alot of artisan skeins cost, and you'll probably have some yarn left over.

Concept sketches and swatches to be posted soon.

Sock Design...and other obsessions

May the odds ever be in your favor....

SO I guess its good I don't have a lot of followers, as they would probably think I fell off the edge of the world. Its been a pretty busy year, adjusting to having an increasingly mobile toddler (who is sitting in my lap "helping" as I type this...)

So if you ARE reading this you might be wondering, what have I been up to lately? Well the easy answer is lots of knitting and lots of running.

Recently a friend suggested I read the Hunger Games. I wasn't familiar with the series at all, but she gave it a pretty good review and so I thought, why not? Well I read the entire series in less than a week (took me about 4 days). It was a good and memorable read. Inspirational enough to get my designer juices flowing in my brain again. And so, I began designing. Since my latest obsession has been knitting socks, I am designing socks for some of the characters from the Hunger Games.

If you're on Ravelry, you can go check out my Peeta Socks. They are the first socks in what I

hope will be a collection of socks. I am not sure if these will be a for sale sock or a free sock, but I am thinking having them as a really inexpensive sock pattern once it's been tested and I get the pattern written up properly.

Today I hope to make it to one of my LYS-es to find some yarn for the next sock in this

collection--Mockingjay. I also intend to design a lacy pair for Katniss' sister, Primrose, and something similarly delicate for Rue. Later I may also do one for Katniss that isn't mockingjay related.

I am also currently thinking of designing a series of socks for the Kim Harrison Hallows Series.

Al definitely needs a pair of socks, and I think Ivy, Jenks, and Rachel herself would also make great inspiration. We will see how the summer turns out and what I come home with from Stitches West this year.

COOKIE A CLUB SPOILER ALERT!!!!

If you are in the Cookie A Club for 2012 and haven't yet received your yarn, you may want to stop reading here. I am about to post a picture of our latest yarn.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

This is my second year as a member of the Cookie A Sock Club, and this year, I'm a

moderator for her Ravelry group. Sadly, this doesn't mean I have any kind of special relationship with Cookie A

herself other than a working emailing one, but it's still pretty cool.

Anyhoo, the first recipes and patterns and cookies didn't disappoint. I now have a fortune cookie recipe, how cool is that? Also, I have a wonderful deep choco cookie recipe spiced with cinnamon and chili peppers. With a strong cup of coffee and a bit of homemade whipped cream these cookies are absolutely divine.

On the running front: I joined the LMJS women's racing

team and participated in their cross country events this past summer as part of their open team. I also reached new PR's in the Marathon(3hr 42min) and 12K (57min) distances. Yes, I am one speedy bunny. I am currently working for LMJS as a volunteer pacer for their Oakland Running Festival Training Program, training 1/2 marathoners for their even this March.

The picture on the left is from September, the team celebrated my birthday (and two other team mates) with cake after our 4mi run in Hayward.

Well this is it for me today, stay tuned for more updates on my current obsessions.

My week in pictures--Cookie A, Ysolda Teague, new knitting and new running

January is turning into a banner month for me :D

I got to meet one of my knitting goddesses: Cookie A, sock designer extraordinaire, and the amazing Ysolda Teague, designer of many super cute knits herself, including a new book set to come out soon: Little Red in the City. That's me in the center. I am trying not to geek out in this photo.

To be fair,I would have gone to the event for Cookie A alone (I own both of her books, adore her socks, and kinda worship her in a very unhealthy fangirl kind of way). In fact, if Ysolda wasn't visiting one of my favorite yarn stores (communknitty centers/fibertopias), A Verb for Keeping Warm, I might not have purchased my copy of Whimsical Little Knits 2--and that would have been a mistake because this little collection of patterns is full of real gems, like this one I'm knitting right now:

Here is 2 days worth of work on Damson. Ysolda knit hers out of Malabrigo Sock (always a good choice). Even though Verb had Malabrigo Sock in stock, I decided to go with something different:


The Sanguine Gryphon's Skinny Bugga handpainted sock yarn (80% superwash merino, 10% cashmere, 10% nylon)
A luxuriously soft yarn with amazing hand and drape, it comes in beautiful handpainted colors with a lovely sheen. Its a real pleasure to knit, and at 450yrds a single skein is long enough to complete this pattern.

This will be the first pattern I knit for myself since the baby buns was born (and since a bit before she was born as I was knitting baby stuff before that).

In other news, I'm now officially signed up for the Oakland Running Festival's Half Marathon. I'm now in Week 3 of my training with the Lake Merritt Joggers and Striders (LMJS). This morning, for my 5 mile training run I hit the El Cerrito Hills for a challenging run up Cutting Blvd to The Arlington, through El Cerrito, through Kensignton, down into Berkeley at the Circle, down through the tunnel and out to Solano for coffee at Starbucks. I should have mapped it before leaving--it ended up being closer to 6 miles than 5, but I still managed to complete my run in 1hr (1hr 2min). My goal for the half marathon is to break 2hrs. In my marathons I've gotten close, reaching the halfway point at 2:04-7. I am hoping that a combination of speed and hill work on my short weekday runs will help me meet this goal on the mostly flat course on race day. We will see. I'll keep blogging my progress, and hopefully get some new running pictures up.

Introducing Charlotte Rose--or the story of my hospital homebirth/almost c-section

This rose bloomed during the 4 days I was gone from the house laboring.
It was waiting, welcoming us home when we arrived.

There are two things that I had heard during my pregnancy, neither of them I really took all that seriously.

1--A mother births when she is ready to birth.

2--Childbirth is a state of mind. Visualization is powerful. Mothers have an amazing amount of power when it comes to how their bodies birth.

I spent so much of my energy during this pregnancy imagining worse case scenarios of what could happen during labor. Some of them were actually quite silly in retrospect (like thinking I'd have to birth in a van because there were no rooms left at the birth center). Others were quite serious...like having an invasive hospital birth where I'd end up attached to all sorts of wires and tubes and monitors, have no control over how the birth happens, have a c-section, and be separated from my baby.

I never imagined that the one thing I didn't think of would be the actual problem--that my labor might not actually start as it should. I'd have to face that truth, and almost everything on my birth plan before this baby was ready to be birthed.

This picture on the right was taken on 7/4/10. It is my last belly photo. I was 41wks. My water had sprung a leak at 11:15pm the night before and I was happy, thinking I'd have my little girl in my arms later that day. I had a few contractions, but none that were really all that strong, and none with any kind of rhythm.

My midwife had me come to the birth center that night at around 10pm to be checked out. She confirmed that I was leaking amniotic fluid, but I hadn't actually started to truly "labor" yet. She gave me some black and blue cohosh and sent me home with the tincture, telling me to take another dose or two before going to bed, and to see how it goes the next morning. I had a few good contractions that night, but again no rhythm to those contractions. I went to bed, hoping the morning would bring something new.

Monday, July 5th. I labored at home augmented with black and blue cohosh for the first 4 or 5 hours. I took a 1 hour uphill walk in my neighborhood, and did manage to have some good contractions that were 1-2 minutes long about 4-7 minutes apart. Unfortunately, whenever my activity stopped, the contractions would peter out. My midwife recommended taking goldenseal and stopping the cohosh. Again, I experienced the same kind of pattern, but finally I had some contractions on my own without activity involved. Good strong contractions on a regular rhythm, but too far apart (every 30 minutes).

After dinner, it was time for the last resort--castor oil. At this point, I was becoming quite worried. I was hoping this labor would start on its own without needing this. Also, my water had been broken for almost two days. I showed no sign of infection, but it was starting to get a bit worrisome. In the back of my head I was already thinking "What if I have to go to the hospital?"

We were called back to the birth center later that evening. They checked me out and saw that I was still only 2cm dilated, but I was about 80% effaced. My midwife reached inside of me and stretched my cervix open to 3cm. IT WAS THE MOST PAINFUL THING I HAD EVER FELT UP TO THAT POINT IN MY LIFE (sadly I'd feel alot more pain before this baby made her appearance...sigh). At this point my contractions started to pick up and I was told I could stay. My contractions continued to pick up that evening, and it looked like by morning I'd have my baby girl. So the midwife went to sleep, expecting a long morning while I labored with my hubby, my doula, and an assistant midwife through part of the early morning. The contractions were so hard and fast that I remember whining at one point "no more, please no more." I also remember whimpering "tub...." because they were having no success at filling the birth tub/jacuzzi with hot water. The plumber had turned off the hot water earlier that day when making an improvement to they system and had forgotten to turn it back on, so my doula was trying to fill it by hand by boiling water in a pot on a hot plate--a valiant but futile effort. Meanwhile, I threw up the castor oil and my body started to give up. I needed sleep, so I found a position where the contractions were less extreme and rested for a few hours.

When I woke up the next morning on July 6th, my contractions had almost stopped completely. They checked me out--I had managed to make it to 4-5cm . They were still optimistic that later that day we'd have a baby.

But I didn't progress. They determined I had a posterior baby (facing the wrong direction) and that must be why my labor was stalling. Using two midwives, one working on the inside, the other working on the outside, they very painfully turned the baby, and gave me more herbs (I do not which). I was having some good contractions, so they thought they'd let me try the birth tub. After a bit of time there, I tried laboring on the birth ball and also using a swing of fabric suspended from the ceiling. I could sense the midwives were getting worried because I we were approaching 60 hrs with my water broken and no real progress.

They sent me out for a walk. I walked around Lake Merritt. I also did the large set of stairs in a mini park near the lake, a set of stairs I used for hill training when I was training for my marathons last year. I sure felt like I was in a marathon, but at this point, even with all of this exercise, the labor was getting nowhere.

I was given one hour to turn it around. I tried everything...dancing through contractions, laboring on the toilet, more herbs, laboring on the ball... I was so optimistic that I had progressed. I was certain that she'd be born that evening.
But after all that, when the midwife checked me out, I was back to where I started. My body had closed up and I was only 2cm dilated.

I was told it was time to go to the hospital. They said I would most likely need pitocin, and probably an epidural to help me sleep. All I heard in my mind was "c-section".

That's when my midwife Selena said "we are going there for a vaginal birth. Don't give up!" Part of me listened, but part of me was too busy mourning. Even though I was told it was better I was going when it wasn't an emergency, that I still had options, in my mind I was so terrified of the hospital, always had been from the beginning, that I needed to cry for a couple of hours before I could bring myself to go to the hospital, despite the inevitability of it. I had begun to give up. My spirits were broken and I was resigned to a c-section if that was the only way I could ensure my baby would be born healthy and safe.

If only my water hadn't broken when it did. If only it had waited until my body was and mind were ready to birth. I would have been sent home and told to come back when the contractions really started. I wouldn't have needed the induction.

After being rejected due to overflow at our local Kaiser, we were transferred to Walnut Creek. What I didn't know at the time was that my midwife and doula fought to get me in. We quite literally got the last bed. They wanted us to go all the way to Vallejo or Hayward. That was outside of my midwife's range, as she had other expectant mothers in Oakland that she needed to be able to rush to if something were to happen. If we couldn't get in there, I would have had to go alone with just my husband, and no one to advocate for me.

9pm, we arrived. 12pm I was hooked up to IVs, had my epidural inserted, and the pitocin had started. Now before I get started talking about this part of my labor, I want to say that the care I received from the CNM's and RN's in the Labor and Delivery at Kaiser Walnut Creek was top notch. I was treated well, my midwife was treated with respect, and my wishes were respected as much as was possible in that setting.

The whole idea of coming to the hospital and getting the epidural was for me to rest. But after being hooked up to so many tubes (the catheter being the worst by far--it took them 4 times to insert it properly, and I could feel the discomfort of it through the epidural) the sound of the IV pushing water, antibiotics (because they lost the part of my chart that said I am GBS negative) and pitocin into my veins, and the feeling of that blasted blood pressure cuff going every 15 minutes (most of the time unsuccessfully gathering my blood pressure measurements, followed by an annoying grunt of a beep) I really didn't rest well. I was told I'd get the epidural, fall asleep, and then wake up ready to push. Instead I watched everyone else sleep around me and I felt very very alone.

Not only was I not ready to push when I woke up, by the time they checked me at around 11pm, I had only progressed to 6cm. When I first came into the hospital, I had been at 5cm. This wasn't good. The midwife, who had given me extra time on the pitocin to labor, had to bring in the OB to talk about my options, which at this point pretty much meant prep me for surgery. As Selena, and my doula Gionna spoke to me about the inevitability of my situation, as I was coming to terms with the necessity of the c-section, apparently something was happening in my body that I wasn't noticing. The OB came and did her internal check to confirm what the nurse midwife had determined, only to find I was not 6cm at all. She brought the CNM back for a second opinion--and she was also shocked. She then tells us that she had said I was 6 before to make me feel a bit better (I was really closer to 5.5) but now, not only was I about 7.5, but one whole side of my cervix seemed to melt away as they touched it. They decided to turn me onto my other side, hoping that would help that side open up the rest of the way. They were going to let me continue to labor! I went from having the OB write me up in the system as having a baby "too big" to fit through my pelvis, to having another hour or two to get this baby out.

The next two hours were better than I expected them to be. At some point my epidural stopped working as I entered transition. This was the second time the epidural had worn off--last time I had the dosage adjusted and my position changed to increase the effectiveness. This time, however, I decided to use the pain. I used breathed through the contractions which came rapidly on top of each other. During each contraction I visualized round things, thing that open, that are wide open. I envisioned wormholes and tunnels that end in waterfalls, bags with drawstrings opening, large silver rings, round rings of flesh that opened from the center. As I breathed out I vocalized "O" sometimes, and "open" other times, imagining my pelvis opening and my baby moving down. It was actually the most fun I had experienced the entire labor. I could almost smile through the contractions. I felt my breath and my voice generate a great energy that I could send downward to help the baby, to help me open the rest of the way.

They checked on me an hour later and I had progressed to 9.5cm, the baby almost completely in position. An hour later I was confirmed to be "complete" with my baby ready for me to push (nevermind that we had already figured this out and had begun pushing before the CNM's had returned. We figured, if anything were to happen, with my midwife and doula in the room, there was nothing to worry about.

1hour and 53 minutes later, my beautiful little rosebud was born.

I am very grateful for the help of my midwife Selena, and my doula, Gionna. Without them I do not believe it would have all ended the same way. Selena knew exactly what to say to me to get me to concentrate on birthing my little one (especially important during the pushing phase--I found it hard to remember my breathing with the pain of her head crowning).

Although I ended up going against just about everything in my birth plan, n the end, it was all worth it.


6MONTH UPDATE--Well, its taken me 6 months to post this. I'm not sure why. Life got in the way, perhaps? I needed to think about things a bit before I posted this.

It's interesting how important certain things were to me at the time I started writing all of this and how my perspective has changed so much this half year. In the end, all that really mattered was that Charlotte arrived safely, and that both mama and baby are healthy and happy.

If I were to do this again, I'm not sure I would approach this whole thing the same way. I only feel a little bit cheated in that I wasn't successful with my non-hospital birth. Would I try for a homebirth? Maybe. Do I even really want to think about this right now? Not really. Right now its back to concentrating on my other two passions--running and textiles. More from me to come soon.

Charlotte and Daddy at the Oakland Zoo for Charlotte's 6 mo celebration