English

Language is one of my passions, along with the things I've already mentioned in this blog (my baby girl, knitting, and books). So when I find a book that tells the story of a language, oh my! This book covers the history as well as the current state (and speculations about the future) of the English language in prose that flows and entertains. You don't have to be a linguist or language enthusiast to enjoy this reading. From the Norman conquest to Shakespeare, to the American revolution, to Indian English, and to the creation of Japlish or Franglais, the book tells a great story of how this language is becoming (if it hasn't become already) the world's lingua franca.

It really is a great book and I highly recommend it for those of you who like reading. 

Love

I am in love.

Being a new parent is tough and my husband and I are learning that pretty quickly. But we wouldn't change it for the world. She's the most beautiful thing is our lives.

I am so in love.

Socks

I'm now working on two different knitting projects: socks and a hat. Originally they were both intended for my husband, but he felt the socks were too girly. Now he's keeping the hat, and I'm taking the socks. There's one problem though, the socks are too big for me. I finished the first one and tried it on, and well, there's a lot of space left once my foot is in. The hat is coming out pretty well, so I think he'll be ok with it.

This is my first time trying socks. I can't believe how long it took me to get the courage to do something like this! Socks just looked so difficult. I was able to turn the heel, but I have a major problem with the double pointed needles in this case. For some reason, where the needles meet the stitches keep getting looser and looser. One of the girls in a knitting group I meet up with suggested tightening that stitch extra hard, but that didn't work. Then she suggested changing the stitches from one needle to the other periodically so that the "in between" stitches would change. That worked better, but after just a couple of rows the same problem would start with the new stitches and overall there's this weird look of bumps. It's driving me crazy! I would really like to find a way for this not to happen. The funny thing is, this has never happened before when I used DP needles.

We'll see what happens when I finish the second sock.

Room

Naomi's room is finally organized. It should have been done a long time ago, but since we moved this past month, it just got done. My husband ended up taking half of her room as his office, but I'm kicking him out of there once she's ready to sleep in the crib rather than the bassinet. He can move his stuff to our room then.

I'm really anxious for her to come. I'm now over 38 weeks and no sign or her even gettin ready to come. It frustrates me sometimes, but I know it's normal and that it could happen from one minute to the next. Still, going to the doctor and hearing that you're barely 1cm dilated, ugh...

I just can't wait to meet my little girl.

Hooray!

I got some books from the university library as well as from the town library. I'm so excited! I normally end up buying books, just so I can take my time reading them. When I'm busy with school I don't always have the time to pick up a book I want to read and just immerse myself in it. So pleasure reading gets delegated to school breaks and I end up buying the books I want when I see them. Besides, I believe having your own litle library will promote even more reading by the other family members, and you can always go back to your favorites.

Now, our economic situation is changing a bit. We're trying to save for the baby, and in general we don't have as much discretionary income as we used to. Buying books has become a luxury, as before both my husband and I considered it a necessity.

All that means is that I have refound my old library cards and started taking books out again. I actually love going to the library. I love being surrounded by books and other readers. I love walking around between the stacks and browsing the titles. I just don't like having to give the books back at the end. They become my friends and I hate parting with them. I hate goodbyes.

Fever

I've caught the knitting bug. I mean, I have been knitting for 3 years now and I have always loved it. I wanted to learn so badly that I taught myself. My grandma and my aunt both knit, and my aunt has her own business based on her crafts (knitting, crochet, embroidery, painting, etc, etc, etc...), but they live, well, very far from me. In fact, they live over 5,000 miles away, and I couldn't ask them to help me learn it. So I taught myself.

Now I can finally manage some different and more interesting projects, and I can't stop! I'm constantly trying to find excuses to knit and new projects to work on. Ravelry doesn't help. And now I find that there's a whole network of people who love to knit around here. It's seriously a conspiracy so that I get nothing else done.

Yesteday I started working on a pair of socks for Fall. It was originally intended for my husband, but they are turning out to girly, so I made a deal with him. I'll make him a more manly hat and I'll keep the socks for myself. I just hope they fit me now, but if they are a little too big, I'll just wear them around the house.

(The picture is of a baby blanket I just finished this weekend)

Waiting...

I am 37 weeks pregnant. This is now just a waiting game.

I am excited to meet my daughter, but I'm also afraid of the big unknown that becoming a parent for the first time is. Will I be a good mom? Can I handle the responsibility of helping another human being grow? It's all a bit scary.

Since this is the first blog, I should explain the title. Baby, well, you read the paragraph above, so you can figure that one out. Needles refer to knitting needles, as I love to knit and I plan on using the blog to talk about projects, difficulties, fun things to make, and anything related to knitting. Dead trees... That's a weird one, I know, but I mean books (paper, get it?). Reading is my oldest addiction and one that hopefully I'll never get over. I don't always have the time to read the books I want, but when I do, it's so wonderful. So I'll be writing about those also.

Now back to my knitting...