Vintage Thursday - Lacy Baby Jacket

I'm pleased to present another knit from the Columbia Minerva Rock-a-Bye Baby book that I introduced last Thursday. This little jacket also came in a set - I could have made a matching blanket (you can see a bit of it in the upper right hand side of this picture) and a bonnet, but I only wanted the jacket.

Yarn: Caron Simply Soft in black

I have difficulty photographing black. These pictures make the jacket look a little faded - but that's actually sheen. And you can't really see the detail of the laciness very well, either. That's partly because the yarn I used was very soft (hence the name "Simply Soft") and partly because it's an acrylic, and as you know, acrylics don't tidily block.
Nevertheless I'm very happy with this knit (it looks better in person!). I chose this yarn because I wanted something hard-wearing like acrylic but I didn't want it to be scratchy. I was introduced to Caron Simply Soft by Vegan Pi several years back when I lived in Boston as a vegan option, but aside from it's vegan-ness, it lives up to it's name and washes well. I'd chose it over some wool blends on the market. The openness of this pattern also meant that the yarn being 100% synthetic wouldn't be a big deal, since there'd be plenty of ventilation.

Home Again

I'm in the process of moving back to my home town. I'm driven mainly by the current economic situation and by the abundance of family up there. But there is some appeal in other areas.

The walk down to the beach.
A blackbird in the briars.

The beach. It's a lot warmer than it looks.
My husband looking at the beach. :P
Me and V.

Vintage Thursday - Mock Cable Baby Cardigan

I've got this idea (since I have so many vintage patterns - and use them) of having one day a week dedicated to something vintage. I have randomly selected Thursday.

Knitting Vintage for V.

I got a whole slew of knitting magazines from my grandma that ranged from 1944 to the mid-1980's. Some of them are interesting just to see the amazing fashion differences between then and now (like anything from 1975. Really. What were they thinking?), but my favorites are the baby patterns from when my dad and his siblings were little. I have about five of them, and this is one of them:

It's got a good variety of patterns, as you can see below (click to enlarge):

I particularly liked this Mock Cable Baby Cardigan. It calls for a worsted weight yarn, and comes with a matching bonnet and blanket, but I skipped those.


I used some burgundy Encore I had left over from the Nursing Sweater I made Sibling #5. I had left over buttons to match, too.

V. seemed to like it.

Winter Baby Accessories

I've gotten on a bit of a fine gauge knitting kick lately, and part of the result is this set of accessories I made for V. for next winter.



Pattern: b18-5 Hat from Drops Design

Yarn: KnitPicks Stroll in Buckskin, unknown hand-painted merino sock yarn from a bargain bag from Paradise Fibers (something which I did on a whim when I was first pregnant, and would do again - the yarn I got was awesome! But alas! this skein did not have a label. )

Needles: Size US 2

This hat is a winner. Everywhere I go, everyone loves it. And most of them are gobsmacked that it was hand knit. (I think that's because of the gauge.) The brim folds in half, so it's actually twice as long as it looks in the photo. It took what seemed like forever to knit that many rows of ribbing in a tan fingering weight yarn, let me tell you. But the tediousness was so worth it. Check it out:
If I were to make this hat again (and I might!) the one thing I would do differently would be to place scrap yarn in the stitches meant to be picked up to knit the ear flaps. Picking up 20 or 30 stitches all on the same row is one thing at this gauge, but needing to do it again so that everything is balanced and straight! ...Well, let's just say I learned. (I had brief, flickering moment where I thought knitting the ear flaps by picking up stitches was a hair brained idea, until I saw the results and got to use the hat. Doing it this way means the ribbing can be folded down for extra ear coverage on really cold days. Those Swedish know their hats!)

Since I had such a cute hat, I needed a cute scarf.


Pattern: B14-16 scarf (Gotta love those imaginative names Drops uses for their designs, eh?)

Yarn: Same anonymous hand-painted fingering weight merino yarn as I used for the hat.

I love, love, love this scarf. It was an easy knit and a rather clever one, too. It's in cinch to get it on the baby, too, because I don't need to tie or button it. I just slip the end through the hole. I like how it mimics the garter stitch styling of the hat as well - it looks like they were meant to go together.

These mittens are in the same pattern as the scarf:

They're not done. All I need to do is add the thumbs, but by the time I had two of them I was a bit burnt out on the whole accessories project. I might finish them one day, but by then they'd probably be for a younger brother or sister to V., and not V. herself. Such is life!

Oh, where have all my hand-knit socks gone? (Long time darning...)

While I was pregnant I had to give up on wearing my hand-knit socks because my feet were either 1) too swollen to accommodate their snugness, or 2) too substantial for my shoes to accommodate both my swollen feet and the socks in them. Before long I had to give up the shoes as well (and I still, at eight months postpartum, had flip flop tan lines as proof) and what with all the baby stuff knitting, sock knitting hasn't exactly been foremost on my mind. I confess I have been mainly sporting the thin dollar store sport anklets I got as emergency winter back-ups during the pregnancy, which may have actually saved the four or so pairs of hand knit socks I have from being worn to death.

Witness the (scanned) heel of my cabled red socks.

I knit these socks while I still lived in Boston to replace my obnoxiously red factory made socks that had died an honorable and very final death via my constantly, constantly wearing them. The cabled red socks suffered from a slight miscalculation - they were too loose - but that did not deter me. Especially over other socks in the wintertime. They, too, are now experiencing a fate similar to their predecessor's.

These are my green socks, which were knit on the same principle as my purple socks . I made these out of Artyarns Supermerino back when I first discovered the yarn, and me and Jeanette were on an Artyarn sock kick for a while. I made these two pairs of socks and a pair of deep blue Cowgirl Slipper Socks (for my grandma).

I discovered something about worsted weight socks from this: they may be heavier and warmer than fingering weight socks, but they also leave the impression of the purl side on your feet after you've been wearing them all day as you trudge through the New England snow. This caused them to lose some appeal to me after a while, because that can get uncomfortable. Also, they pilled like crazy!

But anyway, I've darned them twice already, and they just can't take it, since they weren't meant for it in the first place. I still have a small leftover ball of this yarn, and I hope this doesn't squeak you out, reader, but I plan to frog these and make them into something like a hat for my baby or something. I can't waste good merino, and I never had athlete's foot or anything like that, so I think it'll be OK.

My much beloved Funky Socks are experiencing prolonged reconstruction. I only wear a size US 7 1/2 women's shoe, so I usually have some sock yarn left over after a project. I had so much yarn left over after I made them that I could have made a third sock! This finally got the best of me and I decided to make the legs of the socks taller. This, of course, involved some snipping and frogging. So now I have one whole (original) Funky Sock and one like this:

Although it's been in this state for about two years, I'm sure I'll get around to it sooner or later. Right?

Then there's my Fugly Socks. And my other pair of striped socks. Darn, darn, darning they, too, need. Which leaves me with... nothing but the factory made anklets, unfortunately, unless I want to darn all these and have them irrevocably worn out before Halloween. There simply aren't enough of them in rotation for them to last. So I am declaring a moratorium on wearing my hand knit socks until I have at least one pair for each day of the week, if not two weeks.

New Look

For as long as I have had a blog - nay, for as long as I have wanted a blog - I wanted a pretty, well-lit blog. Alas! I am not a graphic designer, or a web designer, nor can I afford one, and while I will toy with html, I am not as keen on presentation as I would like to be. Seriously. You'd think if a person is artsy-craftsy like me it would carry on over into everything. I see it often - Wee Wonderfuls and Posie Gets Cozy are just a couple examples off the top of my head - people who make wonderfully creative and photogenic things on beautiful blogs that make you feel clean and organized just by looking at them. Then I look at my blog, and I just don't have the enthusiasm to center my header, much less figure out how to get the left and right-hand columns that I have so coveted. I've had to settle for a text column and a right-hand links column only. (I don't know why I want two side columns so badly. Symmetry, perhaps? More room at the top of the page for links? I dunno.) It's a lot like where ever I live. My aesthetic has always been functionality.

Until now. Blogger has a new template system that has allowed someone as design lazy as me to achieve 70% of my aesthetic blog ideal, instead of 30%. And with just clicking a couple options. So welcome to the new, aired-out Crisis of Praxis!

Instruction Woes

For some time now I have been designing a slip-stitch beanie. Or rather, I have designed a slip-stitch beanie (and I'm quite proud of how it turned out, too!) but I have been stuck on the simplest way to convey how it is made to someone who is not, in fact, me.

The trouble is that I am just clever enough to get myself into trouble, yet not so clever that I always know how to get out. The dilemma in getting the gist of this pattern across to others is that I did not go the simplest route. I could have made the beanie to knit flat like so many striped hats are, so that that it could be sewn together with the pattern perfectly aligned, etc. Or I could have made the slip-stitch pattern come in tidy little packets or modules that could be neatly repeated so that all I needed to do was explain how to make the brim (CO on so-and-so number of stitches, knit ribbing for such-and-such many rows, etc.) and then primly refer to a chart to be repeated so many times before moving on to a solid color crown shaping. (A good example of doing that is the l across crossword beanie in Knitty, although it doesn't use slip-stitches.) If I did a crown shaping at all instead of just having it all drawn together at the top or kitchenered off... you know what I mean.

No, no, no. I had the bright idea of working it in the round. And on top of that, it's not a modular slip-stitch pattern. No tiles, no diamonds, or anything like that, where the change over from one row to the next gets lost in the solid colored between spaces. I went for diagonals. That have to line up at the "seam." And there's a very simple trick to making this appear to happen, that when seen in person seems simple, but is not simple to express in writing for someone who is not sitting in front of me. It's just a little skipping trick. A jump to the right, you might say. But I haven't seen it happen in any other pattern out there, so it's either very clever of me, or a horrible aberration that I should never have attempted, or both.

If I ever manage to get it written up coherently you can be the judge.

Gratuitous baby photo!

Lens Error

The digital camera I got while in school for architecture to take pictures of my projects for my portfolio, the metal encased, medium priced name brand gizmo that I have tested the durability of by dropping at every opportunity - it has, alas, finally broken. Suddenly, out of nowhere, it is showing the words, "lens error" on its display when I turn it on and promptly retracting the lens. (I would show you a photo of the message, but... you know.) It looks like I either need to send it to the manufacturer for repairs or cough up the cash for a new one. And cough up I would have to do. Possibly sell my eggs or something. I think I'll price the repair. But until then, despite my recent vow to try to blog more often, I will be relatively pictureless.

I say relatively because I do have a scanner.

Until next time! :P

Super Simple Ruffled Baby Shrug

As you may have gathered from the title of this post, these are not just gratuitous baby photos. This is about the shrug she's wearing.
As you can see from this sort of back view, it's really straightforward. I wanted something that was not only feminine, but simple and rustic. I think I accomplished that.

Here's my pattern for it.

Simple Ruffle Baby Shrug

Size: 9 - 12 months

Yarn: Paton's Classic Wool (100g, 205 m, 223 yds) Natural Mix

Needles: US9

Gauge: After I knit this up, I decided gauge wasn't especially critical for this project. Paton's Classic Wool calls for US7 needles to get 20s = 4" (10 cm), but I chose to have a looser fabric by jumping up a couple needle sizes to US9. Had I used US7 needles, I probably would have gotten gauge (for some reason, this tends to happen with me), a somewhat denser fabric, and possibly size 6-9 months. So the option of other sizes could be addressed by variously changing the yarn used and the size of the needles, I imagine. Just remember that garter stitch stretches horizontally considerably.

Abbreviations:
PM: Place stitch marker
SM: Stitch marker

NOTE ON BUTTONHOLES: I started mine on Row 3, then made the second one at about 2", counted the number of rows between the first buttonhole and the second, and then placed the third buttonhole after I had knit that many rows. (For example, if I knit 24 rows after the first buttonhole, placing the second buttonhole on Row 25, I then knit 24 more rows and made the following row the buttonhole row. Then I knit three more rows.)

CO 36

Row 1 [WS]: k8, PM, k5, PM, k10, PM, k5, PM, k8, turn.

Row 2 [RS]: *k to 1 st before SM, yo, k1, sl SM, k1, yo, repeat from * to end, turn.

Row 3: k across row, turn.

Repeat Rows 2 and 3 until knitting measures 4" from CO edge, ending with a RS row. Place sts between 1st SM and 2nd SM, and 3rd SM and 4th SM on scrap yarn to be worked later. (These are the sleeves sts.)

Next Row: p3, *yo, p1, repeat from * to 3 sts before end of row, yo, p3, turn. Work in stocking stitch for about 1 1/2 inches (3.75 cm). Cast off all sts.

Sleeves:
Place sts on scrap yarn on needles. With RS facing, rejoin yarn at armpit, making sure to leave about 4" (10 cm) of tail. k3, *yo, k1, repeat from * until 3 sts before end of row, k3. Work in stocking stitch for 1 1/2 inches (3.75 cm). Cast off all sts. Turn work inside out and use CO tail to close gap in armpit.

Finishing:
Sew on buttons, weave in all ends. Block if desired. (The ruffles will curl up at the edges, so I blocked mine to minimize it.)

Voila! You have a baby shrug!

Oh, hail!

It was raining like the dickens today. Yes siree, we are in the depths of California winter here - some of the hail actually turned to snow on the back porch. True, there was only enough for one snowball, but what do you really expect? As I said, this is California.

Knitting Without Tears

I've been reading Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting Without Tears while nursing the baby down to sleep at night, which has it's pros and cons. The positive side of it is that I am reading something both interesting and educational. I used to be a bookaholic. Okay, perhaps I still am, since the only thing that rivals my yarn hoard is my book hoard, but the point is that before the arrival of the baby I actually had time to amass and read these books, rather than simply amass. They say that when you have a child that it takes up time that would otherwise be spent on other things. This is true for obvious reasons. What is hard to predict, however, is what shape this will take. Some people say that the knitting suffers. I find this not to be the case, especially now that the baby enjoys being in her walker for periods of time during the day. For me, reading as a daily activity got pushed out of circulation. But thanks to our new evening schedule (I wash baby, daddy oils and pj's baby, I nurse baby down to sleep and read while laying with her once she's stopped fussing) I am opening books again. Very good, illuminating books. Which brings us to the cons of the situation.

Knitting Without Tears makes me want to knit everything in her book. Just exactly as she tells me to, and ASAP. I thought I was a pretty knowledgeable knitter, but she really opened my eyes to some fundamental things that I am shocked I've overlooked for so long. Like that backwards loops aren't just for adding stitches at the end of rows or buttonholes - it can stand in for an M1. Simple, obvious, and totally overlooked by me. So here I am at nights, engrossed and gobsmacked by this book, a six month old baby firmly latched on to my boob while I lay in the bed, unable to get up and get to work exploring these sudden revelations.

It is, in a word, torture.

I finished it last night, thank goodness. Now I am waiting for another Elizabeth Zimmerman book in the mail. Because I am a masochist.

Please enjoy the following gratuitous holiday baby photo:

Flower Necklace

I designed a flower necklace for my Etsy shop, The Concept Cat.
It looks fairly basic, but I had to come up with the shaping for the leaves and flowers based on my crocheting experience, rather than on existing patterns, because everything sold at Etsy must be original.
The neat detail to this project is that there are buttonholes all the way down the length of the necklace, so the flower can be buttoned at any point.

I've considered writing this pattern up, but there are some jiggly things I do with the leaves that I am not sure how to explain - they're non-standard moves, so I'd have to make my own abbreviation for each of them, and try to clearly explain them. While I think I am rather good at writing up clear patterns (knock on wood) this kind of thing isn't what I would like to attempt on only one cup of coffee. Or even with the baby in the house. Maybe if I locked myself in a closet with a flashlight, and nobody was home, or knew where to find me?

Well, you get the idea.

Mother-Baby Beanie Set

I got my first Etsy sale, and it was (of all things!) a request for a custom made mother and baby beanie set. It needed to match a striped baby carrier. This is what I came up with:

It's crocheted. Stripes of varying thicknesses were requested, and not being one to turn away from a challenge (recall me saying I learned to knit on varnished and filed shishkabob sticks...?) , I chose to use single, half double, and double crochet stitch rows rather than just making the rows appear wider by doing two or three rows of single crochet in the same color. I did this because I wanted the hats to not be as stiff as they would have been had they been entirely in single crochet. I needed to pay close attention to when it was right to put in increases because it wouldn't just be every two rows, etc. I also needed to have the baby beanie mimmick the mother's beanie enough so that it was obvious they were a set, but not exactly match because the baby beanie used less rows but still needed all the colors represented. I think it turned out well, and fortunately, so did my customer. :)

I included this flower broach to match the beanies as a thank you gift:

Trellis Inspired Beanie

I knit V the cardigan Trellis from Knitty and I felt it needed a good hat to go with it, so I made this using the same gauge, yarn and cables:



View of the crown. I'm pleased with how it came together.


I think it turned out well.

Edited to add:

In fact, I think it turned out so well that I wrote up the pattern. Here it is!

Trellis Inspired Beanie Pattern

Size: 3-6 months

Tools: a set of US #7 dpns (4.5 mm), darning needle

Yarn: I used about half a ball of Lion Brand Wool-Ease, so approximately 100 yds of any worsted weight yarn might do.

Unfortunately, I don't have an adequate knitting chart generator to express this pattern, so I've written it out row by row. (If you're familiar with Trellis then it may be helpful for you to know that Rows 9-18 are essentially Chart A. I made a point of generally referring to where the Seed Stitches go, rather than saying exactly where every purl or knit should be, because I found that if you follow Chart A literally the second and fourth repeat of the diamond cable doesn't have it's Seed Stitches match up to the border.)

Some Abbreviations:
LT: k 2nd St on LH needle tbl, then k 1st St tbl and slide both sts off the LH needle.
LC w/ P: sl 2 sts to cn, hold to back, p1, k2 from cn
RC w/ P: sl 1 st to cn, hold to back, k2, p1 from cn

CO 76 stitches, join to work in round, being careful not to twist yarn. Work 8 rows in Seed Stitch.

Seed Stitch
Row 1: K1, [p1, k1] to end.
Every row is the same.

Row 9: *p2, LT, k2, p2, k2, work 7 sts in SS, k2, repeat from * 4 times.

Row 10: *p2, k4, p2, k3, work 7 sts in SS, k2, repeat from * 4 times.

Row 11: *P2, k1, LT, k1, p2, LC W/ P, work 5 sts in SS, RC W/ P, repeat from * 4 times.

Row 12: *p2, k4, p3, k2, work 5 sts in SS, k2, p1, repeat from * 4 times.

Row 13: *p2, k2, LT, p3, LC W/ P, work 3 sts in SS, RC W/ P, p1, repeat from * 4 times.

Row 14: *p2, k4, p4, k2, work 3 sts in SS, k2, p2, repeat from * 4 times.

Row 15: *p2, LT, k2, p4, LC W/ P, work 1 st in SS, RC W/ P, p2, repeat from * 4 times.

Row 16: *p2, k4, p5, k2, work 1 st in SS, k2, p3, repeat from * 4 times.

Row 17: *p2, k1, LT, k1, p5, sl 3 sts to cn, hold to back,sl last p st from cn to LH needle and knit it, k2 from cable needle, p3, repeat from * 4 times.

Row 18: *p2, k4, p5, k2, work 1 st in SS, k2, p3, repeat from * 4 times.

Row 19: *p2, k2, LT, p4, RC W/ P, work 1 st in SS, LC W/ P, p2, repeat from * 4 times.

Row 20: *p2, k4, p4, k2, work 3 sts in SS, k2, p2, repeat from * 4 times.

Row 21: *p2, LT, k2, p3, RC W/ P, work 3 sts in SS, LC W/ P, p1, repeat from * 4 times.

Row 22: *p2, k4, p3, k2, work 5 sts in SS, k2, p1, repeat from * 4 times.

Row 23: *p2, k1, LT, k1, p2, RC W/ P, work 5 sts in SS, LC W/ P, repeat from * 4 times.

Row 24: *p2, k4, p2, k2, work 7 sts in SS, k2, repeat from * 4 times.

Row 25: *p2, k2, LT, p2, k2, work 7 sts in SS, k2, repeat from * 4 times.

Row 26: *p2, k4, p2, k2, work 7 sts in SS, k2, repeat from * 4 times.

Row 27: *p2, LT, k2, p2, k2, work 7 sts in SS, k2, repeat from * 4 times.

Row 28: *p2, p4, k2, work 7 sts in SS, k2, repeat from * 4 times.

Begin decreasing as follows:

Row 29: *p2tog, k1, LT, k1, p2tog, LC W/ P, work 5 sts in SS, RC W/ P, repeat from * 4 times.

Row 30: *p2, k4, p2, k2, work 5 sts in SS, k2, repeat from * 4 times.

Row 31: *p2tog, k2, LT, p2tog, LC W/ P, work 3 sts in SS, RC W/ P, repeat from * 4 times.

Row 32: *p2, k4, p2, k2, work 3 sts in SS, k2, repeat from * 4 times.

Row 32: *p2tog, LT, k2, p2tog, LC W/ P, work 1 st in SS, RC W/ P, repeat from * 4 times.

Row 33: *p2, k4, p2, k1, sl1, k2tog, psso, k1, repeat from * 4 times.

Row 34: *p2, k1, k2tog tbl, k1, p2, k1, ssk, repeat from * 4 times.

Row 35: p2, *k1, LT, p1, p2tog, p2tog, p1, repeat from * 4 times.

Row 36: *k3, p2tog, p2tog, repeat from * 4 times.

Row 37; *k2, ssk, k2tog, repeat from * 4 times. Cut yarn. Using daring needle, thread yarn end through remaining sts and close off top.

Drawing a day #1

Here it is:
Alas, I am rusty, in art and photography. I don't know if you can tell, but the above is a rose. It's not a real rose, but a cloth hair clip rose that I snagged off my dresser at 8:15 in the rush to get something drawn. It may have been a little too ambitious, because it took me until I was nearly finished to be warmed up. Just how long has it been since I have drawn anything? I know I was pregnant at the time, and the baby is now four months old. So at least four months, if not longer. Oh, my. Well, hopefully tomorrow I plan ahead a little more and draw something I am a bit more proud of?

A drawing a day

To keep some sense of motivation going, I'm beginning a new scheme on this blog:

A drawing a day.

This daily drawing will have certain perimeters:

1) it will be exactly 3"x3", because I am hopelessly anal and anything larger would take me a couple days (Ok - I exaggerate slightly, but the gist of it is I need to not paint myself into a corner here and shoot for something attainable);

2) it will be completed and posted by 9am PST;

3) it will be drawn, of course.

I had the baby

As you can see below. I had maternity leave, I used it, and then on the third day back I got laid off.

On a positive note, now I have more time to knit. With the baby. :P

Knitting Away

Before it's too late!

I'm a lap knitter, so it's only a matter of time before the lap becomes a hindrance to my knitting. Much crocheting has been ferreted away for such an emergency.

Yesterday, I:

• had to make myself breakfast, because the boyfriend was up and down all night with stomach pain (we have no idea why, but it's mysteriously gone now);
• as a result, I ate half of a piece of cold vegetarian lasagna with about 1/4 cup of milk;
• but I did manage to pack lunch, which I ate all of: a piece of lasagna, a Muenster cheese/mayo/ sprouts sandwich, and two carrots;
• brought a box of instant organic maple oatmeal to work for emergencies;
• ate a serving of it right before going home;
• had more lasagna upon arriving home;
• cast on a baby sweater;
• told the boyfriend the fetus is named Bubba.

Today, I:

• rousted the boyfriend out of bed to feed me at 6am (He is supposed to make sure I eat right! No shirking!);
• ate a two egg omelet with spinach, mushrooms, Parmesan cheese, two slices of wheat toast, and a cup of cafe au lait (you see why I get him up? :P);
• supervised the Packing of My Lunch while I did dishes;
• implemented the Grocery List on the Fridge Plan;
• had two carrots and two pieces of celery, basically all morning;
• drank a cup of doctored Earl Grey;
• drank a glass of water;
• had 1/4 of an avocado/sprouts/Muenster cheese/mayo sandwich (I think those carrots and celery may have done me in!);
• am contemplating having a boiled egg before leaving work;
• was pleased to hear at lunch that the Grocery List on the Fridge Plan is working.

In a way, I am training a stay-at-home-dad, because that is the sort of guy my boyfriend is. He cleans much better than me, and he's good at (and seems to enjoy) doing all the grocery shopping, with some direction (which I am hoping to slowly remove so that he will act independently), and he's not as equipped to deal with structure imposed from external sources as I am. He agreed that part of his participating in this pregnancy is looking after my nutrition, because I am terrible about remembering to eat, etc., but I am finding that I am having to gently impose this half of the time, or else he tries to sleep. I think that after a couple of months of this, he will have a pattern worked out and will be on automatic. That'll be handy if I am practically useless myself from nausea, fatigue, etc.

Knitting

The baby knits are under way. In fact, I must confess that they were begun before I was actually pregnant. The following items were knit the month before:

KnitPicks Crayon beanie in what I thought was a newborn size, but turned out 3 month old size. Oh, well. Good thing I knit this:
KnitPicks Comfy beanie in Blackberry colorway.
I still have half a ball of yarn from either beanies, which I will probably make socks or mittens from.
This is a baby jacket knit with Reynold's Odyssey. I am in love with it. It needs blocking and buttons. I figure I have... 8 months to get that done?

I also started a maternity sweater.

All I have left on the front is the right neckline. It's the Mommy Shrug from Interweave Knits. I bought this yarn about a week before I started the project with the intention of making a maternity sweater, but I had totally misjudged how much yarn I would need. Imagine my horror when I cast on and saw I was about two skeins of Cascade 220 Heathers short! However, I am one lucky knitter, because I went back to the store A MONTH LATER and got three more skeins in the SAME DYE LOT. Whew!

I also bought a shitload of yarn for baby stuff, including my first baby cashmerino:
Seamless baby booties! Size 6 months, though.

Well. This is hit-or-miss, I'm finding. Fortunately, babies grow, so all is not lost! This should just be a lesson to me on the unpredictability of gauge when you think it's not worth swatching for a project that would take as long as the swatch to complete.

Nevertheless, I made a matching hat, which is definitely not newborn size, may be closer to 3 months than 6 months, but oh well again. (I should not make matching sets, but mix-and-match things.)

I'm pretty pleased with it.

Next up - a wrap cardi! In blue! Because I'm not going to find out the sex, and dammit, I will put the baby in whatever color I like!

The Dilemma

Yesterday, I:

• had to get up early to go to some course for work at some hard to get to location;
• only had a sandwich made of two scrambled eggs with mozzarella on top, between two pieces of buttered wheat toast with a cup of coffee;
• thought I’d only get to eat the two boiled eggs that were hastily packed for my lunch (because of aforementioned course required me leaving for work early);
• got lost on the way and had to be rescued by my boss;
• spent about nine hours in a lecture on Cathodic Protection that was occasionally interrupted by 15 minute intervals of eating and peeing (I know, I make it sound soooo exciting!);
• nearly went into a fit when I saw the food spread had little packets of peanut butter;
• had a decaf coffee;
• ate a croissant with peanut butter and honey, some melon slices and berries;
• ate a sandwich made of wheat bread with mayo, lots of Monterey Jack, lettuce, and tomato;
• ate a BIG sugar cookie;
• had most of a large dill pickle;
• ate some egg salad and some more fruit;
• and then ate some more fruit and more decaf and an orange juice;
• was hungry enough when I got home to make myself three pieces of French Toast;
• went to bed.

I am just a tad hungry.

Okay, this is kind of perpetual problem for me – small stomach, fast metabolism. A couple hours without eating and I don’t exactly feel faint, but I do feel like I’m far from being a happy camper. For instance, right now.

Today, I:

• had about a cup and a half of oatmeal with milk and honey and half a cup of coffee with milk;
• went to test for yesterday’s course;
• had two cups of decaf, a slice of banana bread (no croissants! :O), and some melon and berries again;
• ate two hard boiled eggs with nutritional yeast and salt about an hour later.

And now it’s a couple hours after that and I am dying. Dying, I tell you! I ate one of those peanut butter packets I scored from the course smorgasbord (who’d notice?) but that only staved off the hunger for a very, very short while. I have set the boyfriend via instant messaging to making split pea soup, but I won’t be having any of that for at least three more hours.

I’m not sure whether this has anything to do with being about 5 weeks pregnant or not. But the boyfriend has been placed on Feeding Duty. It is now more his responsibility than mine to be sure I eat when I need to eat, with a special emphasis on packing my lunch. (I am notorious for not eating all day because I didn’t bring a lunch, and then being a wreck at the end of it.) There are plans for me carrying a freezer bag of chopped raw veggies to work every day, as well as a couple hard boiled eggs, and discussions have begun about making oat cakes from scratch on a regular basis for snacks as well. And I am taking vitamins. All. Day. Long. (Or so it seems – my multivitamin is not a one-a-day, but a five-a-day.)

I finally got a call back from local midwives. Interviews are being scheduled.

But the real thing on my mind is:

What to knit?!?!?

I take that back

Yesterday, I:

• had oat bran and a cup of coffee for breakfast;
• was too tired/lazy to pack lunch;
• really, really regretted it;
• took a pregnancy test as soon as I got home;
• reheated some eggplant Parmesan and scarfed it down;
• sent this photo to practically everyone's cell phone:

That's two lines which are (believe me!) not nearly so fuzzy in person. So last month I wasn't pregnant, but this month... I am.