Aw, crap

Unfortunately, all is not sweetness and light over here at Insanity headquarters. Alas, DD2's internal clock is such that she almost never falls asleep for the night until after midnight (sometimes - as in the case of last night - waaaaay after midnight). Moreover, she is not as talented at nursing lying down as her older sister was, which means I have to wake up fully for each middle-of-the-night feed to make sure she gets latched on properly. (With DD1 I barely had to wake up - I just rolled over half-asleep, and the kid latched on practically all by herself.) Therefore, both DH and I are pretty wiped. This is not helping me get over the cold that made its way through my family a few weeks ago - in fact, it has returned, bringing very painful sinus pressure. Nor is the lack of sleep improving my postpartum emotional state. Nor is my postpartum emotional state helping me to deal effectively with a preschooler experiencing (entirely understandable) emotional issues related to the arrival of a new sibling. (Yesterday she thought it would be a 'fun game' to pretend that she was also a baby - this consisted of her pretending to cry at high volume while DD2 was also fussing. I am proud to say that I didn't lose it on her, but it certainly took a toll on my sanity.) So the fun times have kinda slowed around here.

(It's not as dire as it sounds - DH and I have a plan. It involves him putting everything but his job on hold to take over the house while I catch up on my sleep. Things are improving - partly thanks to my parents, who took DD1 for the day today - although I haven't achieved full recovery yet.)

Bayerische socks for moi

I got enough work done on the leg that I figured I could try the sock on and get a pretty accurate idea of how snugly they would fit. Turns out they are barely big enough for me, so I'm not even going to bother seeing how they'd fit on DH. While this does mean that I get to keep the cool socks for my very own self, it does mean that I have to stress about finishing off another pair of socks in time for DH's birthday in two and a half weeks. Ack.

Muppet roadkill

In triumph, I finished off the third ball of yarn last night and started in on the fourth. It was immediately obvious that I was totally screwed.

If you'll recall, I originally bought a single ball of this yarn (thinking I could do a hat and mitts for DD1 with it, or something similar), brought it home, and was told by DD1 that she wanted a blanket made out of it. We then went back to the store and bought three more balls.

Well...this fourth ball I'm now working with is obviously the one I bought on the first shopping expedition, because it is markedly different from the other three. I checked the ball bands, and sure enough...totally different dye lots. You'd think that dye lot would be completely irrelevant for a wildly variegated yarn like this (that was certainly my theory, which is why I didn't even bother to check dye lot when making the second purchase), but nope! Many of the colours that were only briefly transitional in the other balls are now major components of the colourway in this fourth ball, and vice versa. For example, in the three previous balls, indigo would show up for one stitch in between a run of pink and green. But now in this ball, the indigo goes on forever and there's hardly ever any pink. The overall effect is way more pastel-ly and the difference between the end of ball three and the start of ball four is blatantly obvious. To me, anyway. What do you think?


(Apologies for the blurriness of the photo - I was trying to hold a baby and keep the camera steady at the same time. Tough gig.)

I think it's going to stand out like a sore thumb, even though I have only two and a half more pattern repeats to go before starting the edging. (The edging I could live with looking somewhat different. A thin strip of the body at the top, not so much.)

Sigh.

Alright, that's it for the whining from me. My vent is over, please go on about your business as if you never read it. :) Henceforth I will be focusing on the big picture: the sleeplessness will not last forever; DD1 will probably not be scarred for life by her mom's temporary deviation from Fun, Supportive, Understanding, Patient, and Appropriately Disciplinary; the knitting will all work out in the end; and life is, overall, good. Plus, it's a gorgeous day outside.