So I used that last ball of yarn to make a second hat, which matches the rest of the set a little better I think. Now I have an excuse to keep knitting these until I get a pair:

That is shoe number four and I think it might be a match, or near enough, to shoe number three. And there is enough yarn left over to make one more shoe so eventually I may even get two pairs that match. Wouldn’t that be something.

For those of you who are interested my cycle hasn’t been cancelled yet, I think it will probably go through, but my clinic seem less than enthusiastic about my being right, which makes everything a little more stressful than it really needs to be.

Alternate titles considered for this post:

Apparently IVF clinic waiting rooms produce better knitted shoes than Dentist’s waiting rooms…

As much too small as the last one was too big…

I also considered just:

Arrgh…

This is what shoes one and two looked like on Wednesday night post washing (please forgive the crazy late night / bad light photography, would you believe this is what it looks like after colour correction). The cardigan and hat washed beautifully, if only they would dry. Shoe number two washed beautifully - seeming to come out the exact same size and shape it went in. Shoe number one, not so much. It came out not so much a shoe as a floppy mess. Apparently I am unnaturally relaxed about visiting dentists. So I ripped it out while it was still wet, all the better to get the crinkles out and start again.

Figuring that another visit to the IVF clinic waiting room was just what I needed to get a matching shoe I waited until this morning to knit the third shoe. And it is as much too small as the first one was too big, really. The difference is far larger than it appears in this photo.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Perhaps I will wait until after the clinic calls with today’s results before I decided on an appropriate response. If they still want to cancel my cycle I probably will cry. It’s been that sort of week.

The question is, should I try to block the third shoe bigger? Rip one of them, if so which one? I guess it would probably have to be the second shoe because I obviously won’t be able to get a bigger shoe from the yarn recycled from shoe number three. Perhaps I should break out my last untouched ball of yarn and keep knitting shoes until I get two that match? Of course the way this cycle is going there is always the chance that the shoes are just going to keep getting smaller and I will never get a matching pair. At least the baby isn’t due for a couple of weeks, it could take me that long at this rate.

Look what came in the post! A very late birthday present from Jesse. I was so excited when I got the box at the post office, so crestfallen when I opened it and then so annoyed with myself for not being able to happier to receive such lovely books, which where indeed right there on my wishlist. The problem is they weren’t at the top of it, or even close.

Pre birthday I hinted to Jesse, or in fact directly instructed him, that as many as possible of the top 6 or 7 books on my amazon wishlist would be very warmly received indeed. In due course he went off and found my wishlist, not via my blog (which would have given him the right list), and ordered what appeared to be the top 6 books. Bless him. Not so many blessings for amazon. For some reason Amazon’s default view when you find a wishlist is not ordered by priority, as any rational person might expect of a wish list (most desirable things first please), but rather it is ordered by most recently added. So, be careful what you wish for on Amazon. Or at the very least be careful about giving instructions to anyone who might misinterpret your wishlist’s multiple views.

Jesse is going to try making a complaint and return them, but most likely I will just keep these books and hopefully get the ones I really wanted for christmas… They are lovely books but they were more the “Well if I can have all of them…” books at the bottom of the list as compared to the “If I can have only one, let it be one of these…” books at the top.

The rest of the books Jesse has already ordered are yet to arrive. Luckily for me half of the six most recently added books were also in the top six by priority, so the next box really will be exciting to open.

I received more markers in the post! I had given up on the rest of my stitch marker swap pal’s sending markers so this was a wonderful surprise. Aren’t they gorgeous? Thankyou Stacey!

I have always loved Lily’s. Before Isabelle was born (when we spent money more recklessly) it seemed there was always a big vase of Lily’s somewhere in the house. Now I couldn’t say when I last bought flowers, until this week that is. I have been inspired by the beautiful Lily’s at ecOasis, that and they were outrageously cheap.

I finally fixed the sleeve seaming on the Jacket With Moss Stitch Bands. Turns out it wasn’t that much of a pain to do at all and it looks much better now.

I spent a lot of time this evening googling for knitted and crocheted flowers. I didn’t find much that appealed. I had been thinking of a number of smaller flowers along the bottom half of the sweater but in the end I decided that the gorgeous flower from Marnie’s Frog Pond was far and away the best option. And as it happens I did have scrap yarn in suitable colours, well stash yarn if not scrap yarn. The colours aren’t that accurate in this late night photo but I think the purples go beautifully with the green. The question is - is this the way to go?

If I stick with this flower the plan is to sew it down with beads, use pearly white heart shaped buttons, or possibly round shell buttons and leave the Hat and Shoes plain. Though I will be turning the shoes into mary janes by adding a little moss stitch strap, with matching button, to the shoes. Is it too much or not enough?

This is the last of my holiday photos. The holiday knitting was all about footwear - Moss Sitch Shoes and this Spearfish sock. Yes, I am finally working on the sock again. I had finished the gusset as we drove to Murwillumbah early on Thursday morning for a blood test. Who gets up at 6:30am on the last morning of their holiday? Apparently IVF patients do. It was a complete waste of time as the results didn’t turn up until after the test I had the next morning back in Sydney. Though we did have an amazing breakfast at a cafe in Murwillumbah that made it seem all worthwhile.

Anyway back to the sock. As we headed off to the airport later in the day I pulled the sock out and checked the pattern one last time as I imagined myself madly knitting through the instep of the sock. Just as well I did check. Turns out I had been a little over enthusiastic with the gusset and decreased my way down from a large to medium sized sock. I spent the journey to the airport ripping out the last 10 rows or so of decreases and painstakingly picking all those tiny stitches back up. Oops.

Now I really am ready to knit the instep.

While waiting for my bloods and scan Friday morning I seamed the first shoe. I wasn’t sure I had seamed the toe of the second shoe that well so I tried distributing the toe ease differently with this one, which turned out to be a big mistake. So I ripped it out and re-did it the same way I did the second shoe and now they match. Sort of. Apart from the size difference that is.

So apparently waiting for the dentist and waiting for bloods and ultrasound at the IVF clinic do not share the same stress level rating. Who would have thought? Can you guess which shoe I knit in which waiting room? I was actually a little surprised.

I choose to believe it will block out.

These shoes are really cute but way too open on top to ever stay on a baby’s foot. I am going to have to add some sort of strap or ribbon. I am also feeling more tempted by the minute to go back to the plan of decorating this set with flowers, or maybe even butterflies. The only thing stopping me is that I don’t have any scrap yarn in suitable colour/s. I feel a visit to the yarn store coming on.

Pattern: no pattern, just some strange guestimations based on gauge and other baby hat patterns
Yarn: Jo Sharp Silk Road Aran in Quartz, Alabaster and Ricepaper
Needles: a set of Bamboo DPNs and a 40cm Addi circular, possibly 4.5mm

I finally attached that pom pom. This time I put the two ends through stitches either side of the hole at the top, rather than through the hole itself. I then tied them together as tightly as I could and wove in the ends. It is sitting much more firmly atop the hat than the first attempt. And it goes beautifully with the Big Bad Baby Blanket, if I do say so myself (the hat that is, not just the pom pom).

There are some nice photos of ecOasis on their website, but here are a few more for good measure. This was the nicest place we have ever stayed, stunning environment, complete peace and quiet, gorgeous chalet, wonderful food delivered to our door… Everything was just perfect.

Mount Warning (Wollumbin) at sunset as seen from ecOasis.

Climbing Mount Warning

Mount Warning is absolutely beautiful and we are a very sad pair. I stopped half way up, well half way through our climb, so a quarter of the way up the mountain, to call my IVF clinic. Jesse felt the need to make a video call before we turned around and started back down the mountain. We had no less than three phones with us on our climb - my phone, Jesse’s phone and the CDMA phone he felt the need to buy in order to go on holiday and still have phone and internet access. And I must point out that this is the second time Jesse has bought a CDMA contingency phone, the last one he gave away after not using for over a year. Perhaps we should keep this one - now that you can get high speed internet in the middle of nowhere…Well you can if you are preapred to run virtual PC on your mac.

As I said, a sad pair, ready to do just about anything for internet access. And yes he has been working on holiday. It would’t be a holiday with Jesse if he didn’t answer an emergency call or three. But still we have had a wonderufully relaxing time and the walks have been simply stunning.