the dotted line

what is going on?!

my last post was published over and over and over again :: apologies if it showed up in your bloglines account over and over again :: after many frustrating attempts, finally got something that kind of resembles what was intended, needless to say I'm not a fan of the changes to typepad's new formatting tools

the bottom of the pile

more at flickr

Since almost all of my time is spent adoring and coveting every moment I have with this little, gazing into those gorgeous eyes and wondering what she'll do next, I have no 'not-ella' photos to share. This isn't to say that there hasn't been anything creative happening. There has been a little knitting. And, admittedly, a lot of thinking about knitting {thanks to ravelry - what can I say? totally mesmerizing...}. Another important development is that my husband finally arrived in Canada, after being stuck at the border for several days, with all of our stuff. And now that he's here, one box in particular is begging to be torn open. The relationship between its' contents and my recent craving is too much to handle. The ravelry queue is also making it ever more tempting to pull said box out of it's hiding place, which I might add is at the very bottom of many other very heavy {but not quite as irresistible} boxes in our newly obtained storage space. For now though, I am determined to finish what's currently on the needles as it is something I'm really quite excited about, despite all other temptation. Something that is inspired by something else, but is different in so many ways. Something that, if it turns out as imagined, might even be turned into a pattern. Did I mention that it's ella-sized? It is. More specifically, it's not baby-sized because baby-sized things don't fit ella - yes, my four and a half month old daughter is almost 18 lbs and is 26" long [97th percentile - eek! no wonder my back is killing me these days!] - the rate at which she's growing [very fast] vs. the rate at which knitting seems to happen these days [very slowly] means that baby-sized things are a somewhat risky undertaking. 

craving

ella's announcements

Oh, how I've missed this space. 

And this incredibly talented community. 

Another long absence has left me craving inspiration, desperate to steal glimpses of all that has been created during this disconnected time. I crave unique fibers, interesting textures, new techniques, colors and non-colors, complex patterns and not-so-complex patterns. I crave the creative process, the starting, the finishing, the repetition held within the formation of stitches. I also crave goji berry + pink himalayan salt + deep milk chocolate, but that's beside the point :) Can't resist that yummy combination of salty + sweet, which is a whole other post - perhaps I should finally do that 'seven things about me' post that I've been tagged for, just so I can talk at length about how much I love combining different flavors {just for the record, I've tried the applewood smoked bacon + alderwood smoked salt + deep milk chocolate and it was actually pretty okay}.

So. My laptop was never found, but I am now the proud owner of a new MacBook and I am quite enjoying the latest version of iPhoto, although I'm really don't know how to use it. Somehow we managed to finish packing and I'm still not quite sure how we did it. It was painful and resulted in very little sleep, which is probably why I don't remember a whole lot and why I keep expecting to wake up and realize that we're not actually finished at all. Ella and I travelled solo for the first time, one-handedly battled the not-so-nice security at LAX, cuddled for the whole four hour flight and arrived in Canada, safe and sound. Until we got to immigration and realized that we didn't have a notarized letter from our lawyer stating that I was allowed to leave the US with my daughter. After much pleading and leaving my husband's number with them, they finally let us through. Ever since, Ella has been having lots of fun visiting with her grandparents and I've been 'catching up' [read:: barely scratching the surface] on the 5,600 unread posts in my bloglines account and over 800 unread emails. Since exploring flickr is a lot less overwhelming, it is turning out to be quite the distraction. As is ravelry, which I finally decided to join in an attempt to satisfy my craving. And because I need more to do, I'm in the midst of creating my queue and fully expect myself to be entirely over-ambitious. What's most important, though, is that I'm having fun. And it's making me a little giddy.