Wednesday, February 28, 2007

A WEEKEND’S WORTH OF WORK

Not being a computer genius, I managed to fool things up badly enough on my computer on Monday to create a problem that resulted in me not being able to access either my email or blog yesterday. What a tragedy! It’s a good thing I married a Computer Engineer who was able to fix things up all nice last night for me.

I was pleased to to get the following fixed on my blog over the weekend. I (finally!) have a list of the blogs that I read most regularly – yeah me! And, the links work this time! Yeah me again! As I also gain a great deal of inspiration from other Bloggers blogs, Samantha inspired me to add a little baby growth chart to my blog. It’s a little small because of the size restriction of the side bar on my Blogger template but, if you click on it, it is readable and, I think, too cute for words. Thanks, Samantha!

Here are pictures of the two pattern purchases I promised from my shopping trip last week. Not surprisingly, both contain patterns for wee ones! The first is a cute little pumpkin hat from Fiber Trends. I’d always imagined that my little baby would have a variety of cute hats like this – pumpkins, lady bugs, etc . After all, you want high 'cute factor' when you're out and about with a little one (it might help increase global sympathy when s/he is screaming her/his head off in a store somewhere...).

The second item is Mission Falls’ Wee Knits 3. I have the first two Wee Knits books and really like them. This particular Wee Knits has a gorgeous baby blanket made out of cotton that I couldn’t resist. In fact, this whole book is dedicated to cotton. I will show you the pattern and yarn when that project gets started. My only comment is that, after working with cotton this weekend, knitting with cotton reminds me of…um…knitting dishcloths. I know, Mission Falls would probably shoot me if they found out. However, I really love the colours and the look of the finished knitted projects in cotton, as well as the fact that the fibres are natural. Still, that dishcloth feeling lingers…

At risk of embarrassing myself for my small knitting output in the run of a year (as compared to prolific people like Samantha, Renee and Yarn Harlot), here’s my first attempt at my little baby hat. Cute, no? Well, there’s a small problem with it. This little hat is not knit in the round and, as I’m using cotton, the bloody great seam that’s in the back is a bit too hard for me to be content about using it on a baby’s head. So, this is actually a picture of a baby hat: Part 1. After I get the sweater finished (it’s already cast on and a few inches knit up. Again, I’m not happy with how my increased stitches look so I’m going up to my LYS for some advice before posting a picture), I’m going to take out the hat and knit it in the round to avoid the seam. The jury is still out on what I think about Debblie Bliss patterns as this project is a first for me. After all, Debbie Bliss had planned that I knit this hat and sweater out of cashmerino which, I daresay, would have provided me with a lovely soft 'back of the hat' seam.

Yesterday, my friend H and I had a wonderful sewing day here at my place. We try and get together once a month to sew and chat. I’m working on sewing up wee little pressies for Mother’s Day and a couple of other events coming up shortly. In the near future, if I’m nice, I’ll post creative pictures that won’t give away any secrets to the recipients but still provide interesting blog content.











However, I did manage to get this project finished (the backing and tassel needed to be sewn on) and I'm very pleased with the end result. It's been a WIP for over 6 years and I'm so happy to have it finished that I hope the recipient won't mind that she may have gotten to see it online before receiving it as a gift!


Friday, February 23, 2007


BUMPALUMP

Okay, folks, here I am! Big belly, big chest (for me – ha!) and, apparently, a bit of a big hair day yesterday as well. This is five months worth. I just entered week 23 on Wednesday. Although you can barely see them, I just purchased the maternity jeans I’m wearing in this photo on Monday and I’m am in love. I’m into consignment stores for my maternity clothes and, thus far, have scored very well (see my black t-shirt in the picture as an example) for tops and one dress. However, I have been finding it hard to find pants that fit me at the consignment stores (something to do with the fact that my arse (can you say ‘arse’ on a blog?) is rounding out as much as my tummy). Now I have two pairs suitable for wearing outside the house. We won’t go into what I’m usually wearing around this place but lets just say I won’t open the door to strangers!

I made a mistake yesterday. I went to my LYS. Yes, I’ve been avoiding it. I’m very paranoid about this baby and have only just begun picking up small things here and there as I was afraid of jinxing the whole experience. Anyway, I decided to get my little pregnant body up to my LYS and go looking. I ended up buying yarn for a baby outfit. Naturally I didn’t just buy yarn and will have to post a picture of the two patterns that I also bought yesterday.

Here’s the Mission Falls cotton that I bought for a little baby hat and cardigan. The baby is due in June and I’m knitting it small in hopes that it will be suitable for summer and/or early fall.















Here is the book that I’m using for the hat and cardie pattern.









Here is the pattern. Isn’t it too cute for words? The yarn called for in the pattern is a Debbie Bliss cashmerino aran so my version won’t drape quite as well as in the picture but I’m hoping that it will be nice anyways. I hope cotton isn’t too harsh for little baby skin – what do you think?




I have got to be one of the loosest knitters on the planet so here is swatch number one, a full ½ a needle size smaller and…







Here is swatch number two, a full needle size smaller than the pattern calls for, which turns out to be just right for me.

The other thing the helpful ladies up at my LYS helped me with (thanks, Joanne!) was to design a baby blanket. I had seen one that my aunt did for her grandson and really liked it so asked here for the pattern. However, either she sent me the wrong pattern (sorry, Aunt J, I’m sure this is my fault) or, more likely, the pattern that I received from her just doesn’t match what I remember it looking like. Either way, I’ve decided to make up my own pattern using a moss stitch border and a basket weave interior. I love the look of more lacy baby blankets but am afraid that I’ll get our baby’s wee fingers tangled up badly/hurt in those holes so I’m going for a more ‘solid’ option. I will also post a photo of the Patons Astra yarn I’m using for this blanket. I just love the colours and am hoping Astra is good for washing due to ‘spit ups’. Wow, the things I now have to start thinking about when I plan a knitting project…

I’m still having some problems with the new blogger. For example, it ‘forgot’ my profile picture in the transition and I only just got that back yesterday. You may also notice that the link under ‘blogs I read’ (which is FAR from complete) doesn’t work yet. Any hints in that area would be appreciated. However, I LOVE how you can download more than one picture at a time AND more than four pictures on a post so there is some silver in the cloud!

Now that I've realised that I can post more than four pictures at a time, I may have gone a bit overboard in this post. My apologies but I was having fun playing! Off to walk the border collie and knit a hat!

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

PUTTERING AROUND

Yes, I know, I’m a bad blogger. So negligent in fact, that Renee had to send me a comment to check and see if I was okay. What a sweetie! You gotta love this knitterly blogging community when a fellow blogger blogs to check up on you!

Just three days from the end of my wonderful Newfoundland trip, I ended up in bed with a very bad cold – cough, fever (only to 100.4 F so not too serious – just serious enough to make me miserable), aches and pains. I even tried to change my flights from departing on a Wednesday (Feb 7th) to the Saturday but was not able to do so. As much as I was enjoying having my mother take care of me while I was sick, I had a doctor’s appointment and an ultrasound on Monday the 12th and didn’t want to miss/reschedule those. I managed to make it back to Montreal from St. John’s without my ear drums hurting too badly on the 7th as planned and DH was at the train station in Ottawa to pick me up after my very early flight. He brought me home and put me to bed for the weekend.

During my doctor’s appointment on the 12th, I learned that if you’re sick enough, you can be given antibiotics when you’re pregnant. It turns out I had bronchitis! And, it’s amazing how much better I felt after even one day of taking antibiotics. I’m only just starting to get my groove back now after my week of medication but my energy levels are steadily going up, although I still sound like a seal when I cough,. Hurrah! I think I’m back.

Before I left to go home (to a Newfoundlander, ‘home’ is always Newfoundland and Labrador. Where I live now is ‘where I live now’), I made a goal of finishing sewing up my sweater so that I’d get at least a couple of weeks wear out of it before my bump got too big (not to mention the opportunity to show it off to friends and family). It’s official: my bump is now too big. Here is my dress form (was I ever that small?) modelling the completed product. I started this sweater in May of 2005 so it is embarrassing that it took this long to complete. However, it is complete, perfectly wearable, and I love it! I also learned from A to Z about knitting from this project so now feel confident to go ahead and start many other ones without ‘sweater fear’! I am very proud.



And here is a little glimpse of the bouncing child incubating inside me. No guesses on the gender, please! We don’t want to know until the big day so all bets are not to be forwarded this way. Feel free to keep your own tally and let me know how you did afterwards!


Thanks for caring, Renee!