Still here! Still knocked up!

What a month. What a week. What a day.

* I'm still pregnant. Six weeks to go! Bean is an active little dude all of a sudden, and he likes to try to push his head through my belly button. That's been fun. He loves chocolate ice cream (any food, really), and when Justin and I talk to each other.

* My dad was here for seven days. In those seven days, he and Justin ripped down the basement ceiling and most of the ductwork. Then they created their own new ductwork because our house is crazy and old and the term "standard size" means nothing around here. They also put in lots of great new lighting. All that's left is to put up the new ceiling, which, they tell me, is the easy part. I think that happens in a few weeks. There was also some minor plumbing work for our new washer and dryer (love!). My father is a saint and a hero and my husband is quickly following in his footsteps.

* Justin has been working his ass off getting the house ready for this baby. Shuffling most of the rooms around has required a lot of painting and moving of furniture, and he's done it all pretty much by himself. I can barely stay awake long enough to work, and this kid is painting ceilings at 1 a.m. I don't know how I got this lucky.

* The air conditioner broke yesterday. But it is fixed today!

* Rooms are a mess, storage is every which way, but the majority of my craft stuff is now in the basement and I am so, so pleased with how it turned out. I'm slowing putting away everything, but I do have some pictures to share. Once I find my camera.

* We've had doggie guests for 10 days and poor G is so exhausted that she didn't even get up to greet the air conditioning man. She's now passed out in front of the vent, waiting for the house to cool down.

* I'm exhausted, too. Between house guests and working and trying not to freak out about the general clutter around here, I'm finding it hard to stay awake during daylight hours. Of course, I get my second wind about 8 p.m., which isn't really helping anyone.

* Six weeks! I have no idea what's going to happen after that.

Less work, more yarn.

Since we last spoke, there has been no sewing. A minimum of knitting. Just lots of working. I took on perhaps too much at once, and it all culminated with three deadlines yesterday and two on Monday. I'm learning that my pregnant self is a slower worker than my non-pregnant self, and I'm still entirely too easily distracted. But I made a grand finish yesterday, so at least that week is done.

I've also been trying to figure out how to work gestational diabetes into my lifestyle. I know - I really AM that much fun. I failed my 3-hour glucose test a few weeks ago, and after taking a very good class at the hospital, I think I'm on the right track for controlling my blood sugar. I'm already tired of jabbing myself with a needle four times a day, but I find that I rather like being guided on how and when to eat. I am, however, very tired of nuts. And some days, like today, I'm just not hungry and don't feel like eating anything, especially not beef sticks and cheese.

Stress also affects blood sugar, and we have that in spades around here. Justin painted the den (just wait until you see pictures - the transformation is amazing already) and we're moving my office down there this afternoon with the help of some very non-burly-but-dearly-awesome friends. Then he starts on the basement, and then my dad comes here in two weeks to put up a drop ceiling down there, and then all my craft stuff moves down there and THEN we start the nursery. Well, Justin will. I will sit around and fret and eat cheese and have a little cry.

Nine weeks, man. Nine weeks.

Things I would like to do but probably won't.

Have you ever gotten so backed up on your crafting/housework/schoolwork that you simply can't do ANYTHING? I feel like that right now. My brain is so full of things we need to be doing around the house, and all of that is sitting on top of the pile of unfinished crafts and messy workspaces. Laundry is never-ending, the bathroom could use an exorcism, and my desk is barely visible under all the paper and yarn and books.

I should make a list of things to get done this weekend, little things that will make me feel better. I should. Right?

Please send help.

I am sleeping in my own bed again, and other things.

Yes! The work in the bedroom is done! Of course, we still need to do little things, like curtains and hanging up those dumb blinds again, and loading the books onto the shelves, but we are once more sleeping in our bed and it's delightful. I am so pleased with how it turned out, and Justin even publicly complimented my color choice. He's learning.

Other items of note:

1. Gracie smelled SO BAD today that she had to have a bath. That's not really a big deal except she had a bath only a week ago. I think she got into something opossum-related. It was disgusting. At first I thought I was the one who smelled, but then I took a bath and no, it was definitely her. Now she is wet and irritated with me, but I think she's glad she doesn't smell anymore. Now it just smells like wet dog (which is strangely similar to the other smell.)

2. I need a red cardigan. More specifically, I need to knit a red cardigan. My two cardigans are gray and black (I thought the black one was navy blue but everyone keeps telling me it's black. Whatever.) and I'm tired of wearing the same two cardigans. I'm thinking Featherweight. I already have the yarn in my stash...

3. Speaking of knitting, I'm doing it again. A little, not a lot, but it's there. I'm disappointed that I feel absolutely no urge to knit for Bean. I bought some yarn for a darling little coat, but, well, I don't. I just feel like I don't know him, you know? Is that weird? Shouldn't I be pushing all my other work aside to make things for my unborn child?

4. I'm also reading again. I figured out how to get library books onto my Kindle, which is kind of a pain and kind of illegal, but I'm working with what I have here. I was really glad to hear that Kindle will start working with Overdrive to allow library books on their readers, but who knows how long that will take. I have Jay-Z's book to read, people! Hov waits for no one!

On being popular.

Yes, all the knitting and quilting around here is "quaint," "so old-school," and maybe even possibly "the new yoga." You'd think these relatively small communities would be easy to navigate, controversy-free, and we're all linked arm-in-arm while drinking Coke.

But really, not everyone drinks Coke. Some drink Diet Coke, some drink Coke Zero, and some drink Best Choice Cola. These crafting worlds aren't only about the craft, but about the supplies you use to make said crafts. Every knitter and quilter has a different opinion about what they like, and, especially on crafting blogs, supply snobbery runs pretty rampant.

I'm a yarn snob. I know this, I embrace this, and god help me when I try to explain the value to non-knitters. While I do have a secret love for Red Heart (crocheted blankets only), I am drawn to the soft and squishy things: Madelinetosh, Louet, Blue Moon, Handmaiden, and Fleece Artist. The base of my stash is Cascade 220, a good workhorse yarn that has as many colors as the day is long. Would I knit a sweater out of Lion Brand Homespun (again? That was a disaster.)? No. I'm rather picky about my yarn and I'm okay with that because it makes me so happy.

Fabric, however, is a different matter. In my short quilting life, I have made a quilt from chain-store fabrics, and it turned out great. Since then, I've heard tell of the perils of using non-boutique quality fabrics, and I'm inclined to listen. I don't want my quilt falling apart, and if I'm going to spend hundreds of hours on something, I should at least use quality materials, right? I'm all for that.

What I don't understand is the passion behind a particular designer or print. Yes, I, too, love Lizzy House's Castle Peeps (so wee! so cute!), but would I pay crazy mark-up at the end of a run? Probably not. I don't scour for the fabrics needed to complete a designer's collection. I don't buy entire collections at once. And I really don't understand the whole Denyse Schmidt thing. I love her book - it made quilting seem doable and I've used it so many times - but her design asthetic isn't me. So I'm suprised when I read about people rushing to JoAnn to get her new line of chain-store fabric even before it's officially on the shelves.

Why am I not one of those people? I think I should be, or at least I have the potential to be, due to my yarn proclivities. I like to buy things, pretty things, and they're kind of a trophy for me. Why don't I want an entire line of fabric? Why do I think 'You are insane," when I see others spinning in circles trying to win that final fat quarter on eBay, yet I'll hunt Ravelry long and hard for that particular skein of yarn?

I think it comes down to a few things:

1. I'm really more of a solid fabric kind of girl. I have prints, I buy prints, but I always go to the solids first.

2. Fabric is still kind of scary to me. If you mess up your knitting, just rip it out and start over. But if I make a wrong cut, that fabric is still cut. NEVER TO BE UNCUT. That's terrifying. What if I had some good-as-gold fabric that I mismeasured and cut wrong and then everything was ruined?

3. The thought of cutting into an entire collection of fabric, as opposed to just one I really like, is terrifying. That's why it takes me a long time to get the nerve up to start/work on a quilt.

What do you think? What fabrics are you trying to nab? What prompts you to go to the ends of the Earth for a fabric, yarn, or book? Why is it suddenly "okay" to buy fabric at JoAnn just because Denyse Schmidt's fabric is there? Why am I not sleeping in my own bed yet?