Three Months Old...No, Wait...Four Months Old

Our sweet girl is three months old. I feel busier now than I did six weeks ago, strange though it may seem. I guess it is partly because I am now able to get out more with Junah and so my expectations for what I can accomplish have grown. Things don't always get done, though. There is always laundry, especially since we're using cloth diapers. Sometimes I manage to get the dishes done, but while I'm making dinner, so the dishes pile right up again. My husband does as much as he can while working six days a week. He is still the cleaner of the bathroom for which I am very grateful. And the fact that I am still home with my daughter means so much to me, and it is a gift that he is giving to our family.

We were just talking tonight, after I managed to get our over-tired girl to sleep by nursing her in the sling, about how glad we are that I didn't have to go back to work six weeks ago. It seems to me impossible that anyone can do it, at least with a first baby. I feel like we are still trying to get our feet under us, and can't imagine both of us coming home from work, after a long day, and trying to get everything done and still care for our child. Who is just so sweet...

I have managed to squeeze in some knitting time,
which is good, because I went a little overboard
with my knitting acquisitions last month.

Several great books and some Knitpicks needles

Several balls of Peaches 'n Creme, that I just had to order after
getting Mason Dixon Knitting from the library. I really
want to get some Euroflax linen yarn now, too, but that is a bit
more than $1.50 a ball.)

Cascade 220 Superwash for socks (The brownish color
was for my father-in-law's Cinco de Mayo birthday). I vow to
never again make socks that are handwash only. Too much work (for the sock washer).

Lots and lots of luscious Malabrigo in one of the new, true
solids, Chestnut. I'm finally going to make that hourglass
sweater for myself.

And, since I understand that Malabrigo is something of
the poor woman's Manos, I've got to try the real thing.
Three skeins to make a winter sweater for Junah.

This is my haul from Jimmy Bean's Wool. Four skeins
of Blue Sky Alpaca Organic Cotton in Sand for a simple
cardigan for Junah. I've knit up all the pieces, it took less
than two skeins, but have yet to sew it up. I started but need
to redo what I've got done because it just doesn't look good.
Hopefully I'll finish it before she grows out of it. And I've been
longing to make the denim pants from Last Minute Knitted
Gifts since I first purchased the book (before I was even
pregnant) and finally have the yarn. It's Rowan Denim in the
color called Nashville. I also ordered the one skein of Lorna's
Laces Shepherd Sock shown in Cranberry. The other two
skeins I already had in my stash. I'm thinking of the chevron
scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts.

And I love extra goodies. These are the little treats
I received with my Jimmy Bean's Wool order. Candies
and a color card for the Blue Sky Alpaca Organic Cotton.
Nice, thanks Jimmy Bean's.

So, all of those purchases and here it is, a month later, my daughter is now sixteen weeks old, and what have I done? Still not sewn up the cardigan, worked a few rounds on the pants, and let pretty much everything else languish while I increased another stash. My fabric stash, that is. I've been sewing. And loving it. My little diningroom, or a third of it, to be more accurate, has been transformed into a sewing room. My sewing machine is sharing space on our diningroom table with our microwave and I've moved our telephone stand to make room for my ironing board. It's a tiny little space for sewing, but it works.

I've purchased diaper flannel, birdseye and PUL to make cloth diapers and covers; linen and cotton for skirts for me and outfits for Junah, and a nearly unmentionable amount of accessories to make sewing faster, easier and more fun. The accessories category includes the book Sew What? Skirts. I love wearing skirts, especially during the summer when it gets so hot here. Shorts are okay but I increasingly feel like it is hard to find flattering shorts, especially if I expect them to cover my bum (I accidentally purchased a pair of shorts at Target that have "lowest rise" emblazoned on the inside of the waistband, and let me tell you, it is a good thing that shirt hems have dropped recently...).

So, skirts. Love the book. I've made two skirts from it and it is so easy! The first skirt I made was an elastic waist A-Line that was a little roomier than I like. I tend to over compensate, I think. But better than too small. The second skirt has become my all time favorite skirt in the world. I've worn it three or four times in the week since I finished it. Actually, the first time I wore it I hadn't even finished the hem but was so in love with it that I wore it anyway (although I didn't leave my house). I used to have a love-hate relationship with the color red. My mother loved it and I hated it. A lot of my clothes were red. I remember a pair of sweats and a sweatshirt I got for Christmas one year...all red. Hated. And what has happened since? Well I was inexplicably drawn to the bolt of red linen (a linen rayon blend actually) at the fabric store. I just had to have some. And now, my favorite skirt? Red. All red.

And, I have to say, I don't think the pictures do this skirt justice. For this skirt I eschewed the bulky elastic waistband for the slightly harder (but still easier than I originally thought) zippered, faced waist. Love. Oh, love. Love so much I took apart my first skirt and put in a zipper and facing. And I have plans for more...

But first I need to finish a dress I'm making for this sweet girl...Talk about love.

Posted at 09:26 AM in barb, clothing, for the love of yarn, kids, non-knitting projects | Permalink | Comments (0)

Four Week Long Post Eight Weeks Overdue

I've been meaning to write this post for sometime, however, I'm still not very proficient at one-handed typing, and I generally only have one hand free when I'm in front of the computer. But, I'm going to try.

I'm pretty happy with the fact that I managed to start and complete five projects in the eleven weeks* since my daughter was born. Yes, two of those were washcloths, but hey, they count any way. And two were pairs of socks, which, if I counted per sock, ups my total to seven. But the project I'm most proud of is Junah's Easter top.

In late March I posted about wanting to recreate this outfit for Junah. I'm not so good at the sewing thing, but fortunately, my sister Jesse excels at it.

While I was at the fabric store buying the pattern for the pants, I spied some beautiful fabric that I thought would be perfect. However, since I was still messed up on postpartum hormones, I didn't buy the fabric but just wrote down what it was, thinking I would send Jesse in to get it and confirm that it was as perfect as I believed it to be. Mistake. She loved the fabric, and was able to see a skirt the fabric store has made out of it as a model, but there was none left. None of our local fabric stores had it in stock. I ended up ordering it from The Heart of Dixie in Alabama. Along with some coordinating fabric, for the heck of it, and some Elvis fabric, because my Nana loves Elvis and I'm hoping to make her a tote bag for her birthday (in July). She might get a kick out of it. Or she'll think it's too silly. We'll see.

For the top, the knitted part of the outfit, I purchased three balls of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in a beautiful light green color. I was able to get the book for the top, Debbie Bliss' Baby Knits for Beginners through my library. The pattern is actually for a "Dress with Eyelets" calling for Wool Cotton (which has the same gauge as the Baby Cashmerino). Since I wanted the dress to look like a long shirt instead of pants I decided to shorten it. Knowing that math would be involved in that, and still being loopy from the hormones, I delayed casting on because I was worried about trying to figure out how to shorten it and convert it to an in the round pattern. Eventually I just went for it, figuring that where the pattern said "knit until piece measures so-many-inches" I would just reduce the called for number of inches. Not the best way, since the dress is knit from the bottom up I should have, I realized later, cast on a fewer number of stitches and done fewer decreases on the skirt portion. Oh well, another lesson learned.

It seemed like a couple weeks went by and, despite my best efforts, the dress didn't get any bigger. A round here, a round there, made no difference. I didn't think I would finish. About a week and a half before Easter I decided I really needed to get going and spent a lot of time knitting while my daughter napped on my lap. Things went well, and more quickly, as the number of stitches decreased as I reached the eyelet row and neared the armholes.

I worked the back first, and noticed, and corrected for, the yarnover for the buttonhole seemed one stitch too close to the edge. Instead of binding off at the shoulders I held the stitches on stitch holders to be grafted with the front stitches later. The front was a bit trickier since each shoulder strap had decreases on the armhole side and neckhole side and I was trying to get it to match the back which I had fudged a little in order that the entire shirt be the length I wanted. But, I persisted, and early in the Easter week, kitchenered the shoulder stitches. I then wove in all the ends--there were a lot since each side of the neckhole, on both the front and the back, is worked by itself. Once I had done all the nasty end weaving in work I picked up stitches for, and knit, the edging for the neck band. Feeling ever so accomplished, I held up the piece, complete except for the armhole edging, and smiled. And stopped smiling. The neckhole had about a six inch circumference for my daughter's fourteen and a haf inch head (at birth) to fit through.

In a panic I ripped back the neck edging and cursed my stupid efficiency. No way I was going to unpick all those woven in ends. In a brief moment of wisdom I put the thing away and went to bed. Tomorrow is a brighter day and all that.
The next morning I got out my sewing shears and hacked into the top after picking up a row of stitches on a US #1 DPN. Have I ever mentioned how useful I find my #1 double points? I use them often, mostly for picking up stitches after I've had to rip back, or for casting on for a toe up sock. They're great for these things. I think the fact that they're bamboo is crucial, since my metal pair would just slide right out. I usually keep at least two of the needles in my little knitting tools bag, along with my tiny scizzors, stitch holders and markers, tape measure, etc.
Anyway. I did a little math and some quick measurements on Junah, and figured out that if I left out the decreases on the armholes and just did the neckhole decreases, adding a few decreases to end up with the required number of stitches, the darn thing had a chance of going over her head. And you know, it worked. Just barely. I did have to gingerly ease the top over her ears.

A handpainted wooden button that cost me five dollars (since it came in a pack of ten or so buttons, but I just had to have it) and a purple ribbon, along with the super-cute pants super-busy Aunt Jesse stayed up late the night before Easter making, completed the ensemble. And I, of course, forgot to get good pictures of her in the outfit the day of, and so I dressed her up in it again a week (or three, I can't remember) later.

I did get this picture, however, of our sleeping girl starting out on her first Easter egg hunt, in her daddy's arms. In our family all of the kids line up inside after the (hundreds) of eggs are hidden and the youngest goes first.

And since Nana loves to see pictures of all the great-grands together on Easter, Junah was literally taken from my breast after cries of "Junah! Junah!" (think "Encore! Encore!") made me laugh and give her up for this photo. Of course, she needed a little help, hence Aunt Maddie, not a great-grand, just a grand, is in the photo too.

As I finally finish this post I hear my daughter, who is fifteen weeks old today, waking up.

Inspiration for this outfit came from SouleMama, a blog I discovered around the time Junah was born. It is wonderful and maybe a large part of the reason my diningroom has turned into a sewing room recently.

Posted at 10:33 AM in barb, clothing, family, lessons learned the hard way | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sweet Man Socks

There are several posts I keep meaning to write, including one I've actually started about Junah's Easter outfit, but in honor of my sweet husband (who said to me just a few hours ago, "I don't see enough yarn around here. Need to get more yarn!") and in keeping, somewhat, with Sara's most recent post, I'm going to post here about Jason. And his socks.

My favorite wedding picture (oh, it's so hard to pick) is actually a pair of pictures (that, strangely, I don't have framed) taken while we were dancing:

Big smiles and lots of laughter. That's what we had then and have even more of now.

And I love this one, too. Jason's dad took it right after the ceremony.

Jason turned thirty-one last week. We've now known each other, been friends with each other, (except for a a few gaps when we weren't speaking to each other, of course) for more than half our lives.

Last year I made Jason a pair of socks (my first ever pair of knitted socks) out of Cascade Fixation, at a horrendously small gauge, that took me forever to finish. This year I wanted to be sure that I had his present ready for his birthday. So I spent the week and a half before his birthday working on a new pair of socks (and cursing the size of his foot!) whenever I had the chance. Hard to do when most of my day is taken up with nursing (I can knit and nurse, sometimes) and changing diapers and playing with a beautiful babe. And I had high hopes of completing a matching pair for Junah.

This sock pattern is what I'll call my basic sock pattern, even though I haven't made it very many times. But I've only strayed from it twice. It is loosely based on the Knitting Fiend's Sockulator II (toe-up pattern) since that is the pattern I made Jason's first pair from. Ease isn't included in it so I usually just use it for the length of foot and foot circumference, but of a size smaller than I'm actually making. I've abandoned the backward loop method of casting on (mostly because I can never find the last loop when knitting down the second side of the needle, if you know what I mean) in favor of the figure-8 cast on as demonstrated at Hello Yarn. I cast-on using US #1 size dpns to make the figure-8 loops then switched to the US #3 needles I used to make the sock. In this way I avoid having to tighten the loops on the second needle and am assured a tight, nearly invisible cast on row. Since I'm lazy and was trying to save time I decided to do all of the increases using a kfb instead of the invisible lifted increases the Sockulator uses. And I knew before I even started that I would have an uneven looking toe as a result but I told myself that Jason wouldn't care, would never even notice in fact, and it would all be fine.

Right. The right side of the toe looked fine, but the left looked poopy. Bumpy and uneven and yucky and...I just couldn't live with it. I had to start all over. My problem was that I had been working the kfb on the second stitch and the second to last stitch on each side of the sock. The fix, which looks fine and maybe even neat, was to work the kfb on the second stitch and the third to the last stitch on each side of the foot.

Things went fine. For awhile. Then I realized that I was knitting an even bigger sock than required.

So I ripped back again until I only had fifty-two stitches instead of sixty.

Which was nice because fifty-two stitches is a lot faster to knit than sixty. If I was mathy I might figure out how many stitches I saved myself over two socks...

20" of sock x 10 rows per inch x 60 stitches x 2 socks = 24000 stitches
20" of sock x 10 rows per inch x 52 stitches x 2 socks = 20800 stitches
24,000 stitches - 20,800 stitches = 3200 stitches

Okay, so I'm a little mathy. Here's a little more. I timed myself (when I was trying to decide late that Friday afternoon if i had any hope of finishing the socks before Jason got home from work) and one round took me two minutes (at the speed I was knitting in 2x1 ribbing -- holding a sleeping babe and watching Heroes online) which means I saved myself...

[52 stitches / (2 minutes x 60 seconds)] x 3200 stitches = 1386.666 seconds or 23 minutes

Which I lost tonight doing useless math.

And I nearly finished (finished but for the finishing) the socks before giving them to my Raiders loving husband. The ends were woven two days later. And he loves them.

Oh, and for the record:

Mission Falls 1824 Wool in Raven (about three balls) and Charcoal (one ball) on 3.25mm Addi Turbo Circulars using the magic loop method.

Posted at 10:55 PM in barb, family, gifts, socks & slippers | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's A Beautiful Morning

It's overcast this morning and the ground is wet from the little bit of (muchneededthisglobalwarmingisgoingtogetus) rain we got sometime between midnight, when I went to bed, and seven-thirty when I got out of bed. Yes. Understand that a lot of nursing and a few diaper changes took place during that stretch, however, besides a quick trip to the dryer for a clean diaper, and another to the sink for a warmy-wet, I was in bed that entire time. Amazing.

As soon as I can bring myself to move my sleeping daughter off of my lap I'll refill my coffee, grab my #3 Addi Turbo circulars and a ball of the beautiful green baby cashmerino I got last week at my first post-pregnancy trip to the yarn store, and cast-on for my daughter's Easter outfit. With my sister Jesse's help (she is good with the sewing machine, as opposed to me, I own one and use it sometimes) I am going to try to recreate this outfit.

Posted at 08:58 AM in barb, kids | Permalink | Comments (0)

One Month

Wow. My one month old daughter is next to me on the couch, sleeping, although it sounds as though she might be waking up soon. Yup, there go the eyes, wide open. I wasn't going to begin a post because I thought she would just wake up the minute I started typing...

Ahh, that was a very brief period of wakefulness...just long enough for a poop and a little "nursies" (gotta replace what comes out I guess). She fell asleep on my shoulder while I was burping her. This girl needs to be burped or else she spits up...sometimes an hour later, but it happens.

Since today is March 19, and four weeks to the day since her birth, my daughter happens to be both four weeks old and one month old on the same day, if you see what I mean. She celebrated the big milestone by staying up until six this morning. And I celebrated by sleeping past noon, something I haven't done in years. Here she is in all her month old glory:

Check out the wool soakers...notice anything different? Yes, those are the second pair of wool soakers I made, only now they have short legs added. What they say about breastmilk poop is true...

Have you noticed also that I am all about poop and use ellipses way too frequently?

And, since this is a knitting blog, I'll post some knitting related content. I haven't taken pictures of knitting in a while, but here are some pictures I took over a month ago.

The pieces of the matinee sweater that is still yet to be seamed up. Not to worry though, I am off the hook as far as needing it to be finished my this coming weekend, as my sister, who is making the other sweater (our cousin is having twin girls) isn't going to have her's finished by this weekend either. So, we'll gift them later.

Fortunately, I made the wise decision to kitchener front pieces to the back piece, rather than bind off everything and seam them. That leaves me needing to sew up the side seams, attach the arms and sew up their seams. Uggh, all that seaming freaks me out.

February eighteenth was my brother-in-law's birthday, and I gave him a pair of slippers, however, I forgot to take post felting pics, so here is an in progress one.

On the same day I finally gave my sister-in-law her belated birthday present, a different type of slipper. I designed these myself, and took (somewhat) meticulous notes so I can write up an official pattern. Which I will do, hopefully, one day. I actually made two different pairs of slippers, the first pair was a protoype knit with Noro yarn (Jess, I want those back, by the way). The prototype looks more like an ankle sock with low ribbing. The pair for my sister-in-law has criss-cross straps and was made with one skein of Patons' SWS in Geranium.

I started this post at 7 PM and it is now midnight. My sweet daughter fell asleep on my lap twenty minutes ago and I think I can now sneak into bed with her and (hopefullyknockonwood) get a few (pleasetwoorthree) hours of sleep before she wakes up to nurse.

Posted at 12:03 AM in barb, clothing, family, gifts, kids, socks & slippers | Permalink | Comments (0)

To Do List

Seam, wash and block the matinee coat before next weekend
Call Courtney
Call Katie
Do the laundry
Wash the dishes
Figure out what to eat now that I've cut out wheat
Change the sheets
Mail scarf to my Aunt Michele
Return extra playmat to Amazon
Order Aristocrats wool soakers
Finish thank you cards
Put away clean laundry
Go grocery shopping for things that I can eat
Remember to do my kegels and sit-ups
Take more walks
Find and keep reading East of Eden
Trim my toe and finger nails
Finish the last of the gifts for my midwife's assistants
Finish writing the account of Junah's birth in her baby book
Finish writing down all of my thoughts/feelings about the birth
Watch the birth video with Sara
Get rid of all wheat-containing food items that Jason won't eat
Continue to be the sole food source for an entire human being

Posted at 06:31 PM in barb, My Life Field Trip | Permalink | Comments (0)

Introducing...

Junah Rae

born at home on February 19, 2007 at 11:39 AM weighing 9 pounds and measuring 21 inches*

My husband and I have, of course, fallen completely in love with her and can't help but wonder at our good fortune. We are so blessed.

On Tuesday, at two weeks and one day, she weighed 9 lbs 10 ounces and, fully stretched, measured 22 3/4 inches long.

*she wasn't quite stretched out all of the way, so we're guessing she was actually a little longer

Posted at 01:12 PM in barb, family, kids | Permalink | Comments (1)

Update & 11 Days!

I've gotten a lot done since my last post...but there is still a lot more to go.

The ballet-style slippers for my sister-in-law have not been touched. Same with the wool soaker that just needs a few buttons. And the single sock is still single.

I've finished the gifts for my midwife and other birth attendants.

I almost finished the first fingerless glove (hand/wrist warmers from last minute knitted gifts) before I decided to switch to a different yarn. I changed from the Noro Cash Iroha (called for in the women's version of the pattern) to the less expensive Araucania Nature Wool Worsted that looks like the Koigu used in the men's version of the pattern. I like the look of the men's version better -- the rib pattern looks better than the offset-rib pattern in the women's version.

this is the third time I've used the calorimetry from the most recent knitty. This one is for Kristie, our childbirth educator and our midwife's student midwife. She'll be attending the birth, too (fingers-crossed that she's not working at her other job when I have the baby).

And two facecloths for Donna, our midwife's assistant:

And last weekend I made these, my sixth pair of slippers. And this pair is for me! I love them.

And since I've been meaning to post this picture...a circle of slippers. The first five pairs for very happy (and warm footed) family members.

I've managed some work on the matinee coat from Debbie Bliss's Simply Baby for my cousin.

and the baby's blanket is finished except for some ends that still need to be woven in. Once I've done that I'll wash it and it'll be ready to welcome the baby.

Finally, the list of things to do before the baby comes has shrunk...a little.

My due date is just eleven days away...wow! The baby has dropped in the last week or so. My husband thinks I'll have the baby tomorrow but my guess is that I'll go late and deliver on the tenth or eleventh.

My long list of things to do or buy or knit or sew is full of things that aren't critical. Yesterday morning I woke up at five AM (after not going to sleep until after midnight) and couldn't fall back asleep because I kept thinking of all the things I had to do. I got out of bed and finished up some of the more important things. Today I completed work on one time consuming sewing project that I really wanted to get done before the baby. I made nearly thirty "warmy-wet" wipes (flannel reusable baby wipes) and four receiving blankets for the birth. The blankets were made from one cut-up king size flannel sheet while the warmy-wets were made from old flannel pillowcases and some flannel from my scrap basket.

Today I finished a big knitting project that I can't yet reveal here...I don't want the recipient to see it here before I gift her with it.

Tomorrow I hope to shorten some curtain panels I bought at K-mart to cover the small windows in each of our bedrooms. That and putting elastic in a pair of drawstring pj pants of my husband's will complete my sewing projects.

Next week I have to work on my neice's computer and continue with my knitting projects in a prioritized order: sister-in-law's slippers, brother-in-law's slippers and the matinee coat. And wait for the baby who hopefully won't come between Monday and Friday (my mom is going out of town).

and for fun...crazy pregnant ladies

Posted at 10:07 PM in barb, family, gifts, kids, non-knitting projects, socks & slippers | Permalink | Comments (0)

Happy New Year!

I haven't posted since I've been off work, and you know, the longer I wait to post, the harder it gets to sit down and do it. But this morning Fletchersmama told me to at least post pictures of what I've been working on. So here goes.

First for the pictures of the items I had no plans to make...

calorimetry x2 (hi dad!):

a nice felted bowl:

a single sock:

a wool soaker (missing half of its buttons):

Now for the items that I planned to finished before the baby is born...

fingerless gloves for my wonderful midwife:

yarn to make calorimetry again, this time for our childbirth educator (who is a student midwife and will most likely be at the birth), and more yarn to make facecloths for our midwife's assistant:

more yarn - two pairs of slippers (one pair for me and one pair for my youngest brother-in-law) and a matinee sweater (for my cousin who is due with twins in April--my sister is making the same sweater in a different color):