Thankyou all for your kind words. Today we still have 10 embryos - 8 grade one and 2 grade two, which is a far better result than we had dared to hope for. I was so excited I got out of bed, washed the dishes and did four of loads of washing (poor Jesse has to hang it all out)!

Also good was the sudden onset of the ability to sit up again last night. You know what that means don’t you? Yep, 4 repeats of the sock and the start of the heel flap. This sock thing is getting to be quite fun.

My Dr lost count of how many follicles I had. He guessed about 30, but isn’t sure he actually did that many. From that I got 11 eggs and a fairly strong conviction that he was trying to kill me in the process. His lovely bedside manner confused the point somewhat but in the end I realised that given his excellent reputation and the exorbitant amounts of money he stands to gain from my referring my friends to him, he probably does have my best interests at heart.

Today we have 10 embryos. Should I be well enough by Monday, should any of the embryos have survived that long, we will be putting one back. I am unable to sit in a chair today, so that is the extent of today’s entry. Thank you all so much for your kind words and support. The knitting news should resume around the same time I can comfortably sit in a chair again.

We got the house we applied for, we will be moving in about a week and a half - which should keep me nicely distracted through the waiting phase of the IVF, should we be so lucky as to make it that far. I also emailed every Rowan distributor listed on their website (apart from the UK folks I contacted last time) and The Knitting Garden has the right dye lot, so Shedir may yet be finished as planned.

Do you think they will let me knit my sock while I am waiting around in my hospital gown for my procedure tomorrow? I think I may be really wanting my sock right about then.

Would you look at that, two more repeats of the leg. I was going to ditch this sock, try a different pattern with the other ball and then rip this if I liked the second option better. Just goes to show that sometimes it is worth trying once more before giving up. I am getting gauge (hooray!), so I suspect that it is not going to fit. I realise it’s hard to imagine, but I know a few women with bigger feet than me and they are on my Christmas knitting list so if it doesn’t fit I do have options.

This yarn is so darn hard to photograph. My camera really doesn’t like the colour and I haven’t the faintest idea how to help it cope. I wish I could get a close up of those tiny stitches, they are so small and so regular that I find myself chortling stupidly to myself every time I stop to have a good look at them.

Oh and aren’t these markers pretty? They match the sock quite nicely don’t you think? Thanks again Jen.

And finally, for those of you who are interested my egg pickup will be Wednesday lunch time, turns out this IVF thing is for real. We should hear whether we got a house we just applied to rent around the same time. Big day Wednesday.

I have stalled. I am not sure if it is the pattern, if it is fertility drugs are yet again getting the better of my knitting or if socks are just not my thing, but one repeat into the main part of the sock I stopped knitting about 36 hours ago. The cuff was a pain in the backside, I had to count stitches after every single row, there were whole rows of purling, which with my style of purling is a misery on DPNs (I actually quite enjoy knitting on DPNs, but not purling). I was so glad when the cuff was over and yet one repeat into the actual sock and I have lost all interest.

Oh and I am worried about size too. I seem to be getting gauge, though it is a little early to tell for sure. If I am getting gauge then the sock will be 9 and 1/3 inches unstretched, which from what I read is a bit too close to my actual foot measurements (9.5 to 10 inches depending where you measure). However the pattern repeat is 12 stitches, making the next size down 8 inches exactly - which would be rather too small for my rather large foot… Perhaps they will make nice bed socks?

I will try to take a photo later today, what I have done so far is rather pretty. That is something.

I am just saying is all. If you have some amazing method for purling continental style on DPNs please share because what I am doing, well it’s only just workable.

I cast on my sock, it’s making me happy. I found a tip somewhere to cast all the stitches onto two needles held together and then slide the needles apart so you have half the stitches on each needle and then redistribute onto the extra needle/s from there. This worked really well and I am kicking myself that I forgot to book mark the page, it had lots of other sock knitting tips which may have turned out to be equally useful.

I spoke to Wendy at Jo Sharp’s studio, apparently my swatches are now en route to the mill with a request for an explanation. It doesn’t look like my yarn problem will be resolved any time soon. My Rogue is, I think, dead in the water. Perhaps it will be my first sweater next autumn, I guess it will depend on the effectiveness of the IVF and the timing of a successful transfer. I feel kind of sad and edgy about the whole thing, like I have forgotten to do something important and it’s about to bite me on the ass (I am talking about Rogue here, not IVF, or am I?).

Oh and my Shedir is in trouble too. The shop that said they had the right dye lot actually don’t have it after all, apparently some sort of discrepancy between their inventory and what was actually on their shelves. They say they are trying to track it down for me but I feel some frogging coming on…

Yesterday I bought some yarn and two sets of DPNs. Today I bought two more sets of DPNs. Tonight I plan to start knitting a pair of socks. It has occurred to me that Spearfish is not a beginner’s sock. I am not going to let that stop me. Remind me of that if I start whining in a few days time.

Many thanks to everyone who gave me advice on sock yarn, I do think I will be ordering some actual sock yarn at some point soon but I just couldn’t bear to wait another week (or more) to get back to my knitting, so superwash merino will have to do for now, which is hardly torture - this yarn is sooo soft.

So clearly I need to confess that I gave Jesse a card for a yarn store with the details of the yarn I might like (including colour number) on the back. It was enough for me that he went and got it! I still think he’s clever, but no, he probably wouldn’t know what to choose if confronted with an entire yarn store and no instructions.

I have spent much of the last 24 hours obsessing over socks and sock yarn. I am thinking about Retro Rib, Go With the Flow, Spearfish and some sort of leaf lace. I have been looking at Kroy socks, the only colour I can be fairly confident I would like is the Regatta Blue used for the Retro Rib shown in IK. Also Sisu I am thinking olive green (9544) and maybe pink (4503). I have been looking at Opal Uni Solids in pink (#11) and green (#40), the pink could be nice but it could be awful, it’s such a fine line with pink and so hard to tell online. There is also Jaeger Matchmaker 4 ply, it’s not sock yarn but can you believe how gorgeous that “strawberry” colour is and “crush” could be the pink I am looking for (if I can believe my screen). Finally there is Lang Jawoll Superwash, but the postage from the only place that seem to have the colours I want is about 3 times the price of the yarn - yikes! Of course I have a hankering to order some Koigu or Lorna’s Laces but I am finding their colours harder to come to terms with online. Oh and I have been looking at Nature’s Palette, which I would love in New Leaf, but they seem to be out of that colour and their shopping cart won’t work on my Mac.

So I am think I will order enough yarn for four pairs of socks (since I have four patterns on my list) I want something blue, something pink, something green and something red. Most likely the blue will be the Kroy in Regatta Blue and the red will be the Jaeger in Strawberry. Any advice on the green or the pink?

I made more stitch makers. These ones are mine, and there are two more sets the same, one for the stitch marker swap and one for posterity.

I also added these to my own collection. I don’t know what I think I am going to do with all these markers, but they are just so pretty. Perhaps this is my way of making up for not wearing jewelry any more?

It’s my birthday today and along with some lovely candles and CDs Jesse gave me 4 balls of delicious Debbie Bliss Wool Cotton in my favourite shade of pink (isn’t he clever?). I can’t tell you how badly I want to use this to cast on a pair of socks RIGHT NOW, it is so soft and so pink, it’s calling me. However, according to Julia this yarn knits up like cotton, not like wool. I just don’t think I want to knit my first pair of socks from cotton or something like it, due both to the knitting and the wearing. Common sense is telling me to stash this for later use as gorgeous baby gift.

In the mean time I have nothing to knit. Yesterday I express posted all of my JS Aran Tweed swatches to Jo Sharp’s studio, they seemed to feel that having a swatch that was on gauge would help their argument with the mill that something has changed. I feel Rogue slipping through my fingers. At best it is going to be a week before I can start Rogue, it may be a lot more, and I was hoping to be finished in a week or two. It will be well and truly spring by the time I am done if I knit it this year and as I am trying to believe that the IVF will work I am sincerely hoping to be pregnant next winter. It just feels a bit pointless knitting a sweater that I won’ t get to wear for 2 years (and that is making the very large assumption that I will be roughly the same size in two years time). I have baby gifts to make, but can’t quite stomach that right now, I have Christmas gifts to make but heck it’s barely august. I just want to knit Rogue or socks and I don’ t have yarn for either.

I have read all of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in the last few days.