Shifting, moving, changing...

Me at my baby shower yesterday :)  36 weeks pregnant.

In days of late life has been really exciting.  I am blessed in so many ways, and feel so very thankful every day.  To begin with, I am 36 weeks pregnant and loving every moment.  In one week I will be full-term and baby could arrive any day!!  As I write, the wee one has hiccups :) which he/she gets at least 3 times a day since week 32.  I feel really lucky to be healthily pregnant, since I had spinal surgery nine years ago and have ever-since wondered if my back issues would return severely, or complicate my pregnancy in some way.  I really sympathize with Melissa at Sweet Fiber Yarns, who is going through a very similar experience to me when I was her age.  The good news is, it can get better, the pain can go away.

So, there's that news and then there's this:  Not only am I going to give birth to my first child soon, but I am also going to be moving to New York City for five years in September!  This is brand new news for Danny and I, since he just received acceptance into a PhD program two days ago.  This is huge and exciting and, I'm not going to lie, a little daunting, but we are lovers of adventures.  When Danny and I moved to Montreal in 2010 we planned to stay for 2 years while I finished my BFA in Fibres, and then go right back to BC.  In that time we have fallen in love with Montreal, and the many friends we've made here, and even considered living here permanently, or at least for another few years.  It's a hard decision to move back to BC where everything is twice as expensive and the wages are the same.  Also in our time here, Danny entered into a Masters program at McGill (Education and Counselling Psychology) and found his calling.  I've never seen him more engrossed in his work and loving every stressful moment.  So, as you can imagine, this lead him to apply to PhD programs, and lo and behold he got into his dream program, Urban Education at CUNY.  So, off we will go in September with our new little family (including the cat).  I'm thrilled to say the least.  One thing that excites me is the possibility of doing an MFA there in a few years (a girl can dream).

All of these changes have lead me to wonder what will become of this blog here on VY.  I feel like a bit of a fraud blogging from so far away and for so many years.  I never imagined that I would be away from BC for so long.  So I'm thinking of merging my personal, workshops and this VY blog to be one entity.  I'm sure this won't happen for a bit, since once the babe arrives blogging will be the last thing on my mind, but these are thoughts I'm having.  Any feedback from fellow bloggers and readers would be much appreciated :)

Yesterday I wore my lasted FO to the baby shower, below are some better photos.  It's called the Artemis Cowl and I knit it in a dk weight yarn. Some notes on the pattern:  I cast on 10 less stitches and did 4 rows of garter stitch instead of the slip stitch boarder. For binding off I tried something different and did 2-stitch short rows before binding off each pair, in an attempt get a picot look. I really like the eyelets that resulted from the short rows. Has anyone done this kind of bind-off before? Does it have a name?

I'm still knitting my Strathcona.  Knitting lace with dull needles has made this project lag on for much longer than I wanted.  I've also cast on a bunch of other projects, which is not my style at all, and learned that many WIP's does not work for me. 

To solve my dull needle problem I've considered purchasing some interchangeable needles, since buying needles one pair at a time gets expensive.  Also, I'm more convinced than ever that interchangeables are a great investment after learning about the magic loop method, for knitting small circumferences with long circular needles, over at Jane Richmond's website.  It blew my mind a little.  With that said, I really don't know which ones to buy.  So if you have a preference I'd love to here your comments.    Also, below is poll that I made.  I'm hoping to get 100 votes for a good representative sample.