Domestically Challenged

Sweater Woes

A while back, I became completely obsessed with the Tea Leaves Cardigan by Melissa Labarre and even more obsessed with acquiring a sweater's amount of Madeleine Tosh Merino in the Dahlia colorway; something that seemed impossible at the time. Though once I found the yarn and made a swatch, I suddenly had no time to knit.

Fast forward a year (almost two) and here I am with the yarn and enough time to knit but with body I'm not keen on spending hours knitting a sweater for. To make matters worse, by the time I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight, my maternity leave will probably be over and I won't have any time to knit. Is it foolish to cast on for the size I wish to be in hopes I'll be that small by the time the sweater is done? It seems like a recipe for disappointment.

To make matters worse, I've been fantasizing that my sweater will come out as beautifully as this one by soulemama on Ravelry.

(I want to live inside this photograph. Something about it is so romantic.)

New Life, Old Life

When I lived in Ottawa, I would often go shopping with my friend Kris.  We were at a stage in our lives where we had to stop dressing like teenagers so we developed a code when trying on clothes.  If either of us struck a pose in the fitting room in something a little too young, the other would look over disapprovingly and say, "Old Life".

In my new role as mom, I keep thinking about "Old Life" vs. "New Life", especially because this time in my life reminds me so much of the time I was waiting for my work visa when we first moved to the US at the end of 2008.  It's uncanny how similar my life is now to what it was then. With the exception of newborn care, I spend my days reading, knitting, blogging and trolling the internet.

Another difference is that I have developed a "mom" uniform.  I used to wonder why mom's would show up to the grocery store wearing capri yoga pants, their disheveled hair clipped up in a makeshift twist and what was clearly one of their partner's over sized T-shirts.  Now I know. Nothing in my old wardrobe fits and anything that does fit is reserved for an occasion where I want to be presentable and free of baby spit up.  I can't wait for my clothes to fit again.  I've been forcing myself to go walking every day but what I really want to do is run.  I miss running so much.  When I was pregnant and too big to run without fear of falling, my husband told me that I would run in my sleep. Hopefully next week my doctor will clear me for more vigorous exercise.  Though I keep dreaming of my pre-pregnancy wardrobe, I wonder if I will now consider it "Old Life".  Maybe my new life only holds yoga pants and nursing tops.

In the meantime, I knit. I just finished the Cairn Hat by Ysolda Teague for Sue.  I usually make her socks for her birthday, but there really wasn't time with the baby and all.  I hope she doesn't mind.  Sue is also starting a new life.  She is going to live at an Abbey in Connecticut for a while and I picture her wearing the Cairn Hat to ward off the cool morning air when she goes out to milk the cows.

 

Sue has a smaller head than I do and after "swatching" (aka casting on multiple times and measuring against my own head) I settled on the x-small size, but used the same depth as the M/L size.  The hat isn't a true x-small though as I used Malabrigo Worsted in Pearl Ten and Midnight in Paris on size US 5 (ribbing) and US 7 needles instead of a DK weight yarn as called for in the pattern.  The hat is tight on me, so I hope it will fit Sue perfectly. Happy Birthday, Sue-la!  I hope you find what you are looking for at the Abbey.

Must Knit Faster

The little man is not even one month old yet and already he is 10 pounds. Even though I know I spend most of the day feeding him, I can't believe how fast he is growing.  I made him the Ribbed Baby Jacket by Debbie Bliss, my go-to sweater for baby showers, thinking it would fit him for about 3 months.  Ha! I may have "fit" him for about a month, if it had been cool enough here for me to pull it out during the first 3 weeks.  It was finally a bit cold on our morning walk last Friday and when I put it on him, I was shocked to find that it just fit.  I don't think it will even close over that belly. Luckily the sweater that just came off the needles is in the 6 month old size.  Hopefully that one will last a bit longer.

Ribbed Baby Jacket by Debbie Bliss in Malabrigo Worsted (maybe Polar Morn) on size US 8 needles.

New Baby, New Knitting

Of course, with a new baby comes new knitting.  Even before I knew we were having a boy, I bought some Debbie Bliss Andes in a soft blue. I wanted its softness to be the first thing I put on my baby. Luckily the gut feeling I was having a boy was spot on.

I made an umbilical hat loosely based on the one in Debbie Stoller's Stich n' Bitch.  Following the pattern would have probably ensured the hat would have fit my little guy, but having lent the book to my friend, I just had a to wing it.  I think it may have fit my monkey for about 5 days.

I can only hope that my knits currently on the needles will fit a little longer.

Our Baby

Three weeks ago, our baby arrived.

One part of me can't believe he's here and the other feels as though we've always had him in our lives.  We are so lucky that he has been sleeping and eating so well.  I only hope he can stay this angelic until he moves away for college.

My New Niece

This weekend, my sister gave birth to a beautiful baby girl.  Welcome to the family, Little Baby A!

 

Something That Has Never Happened Before

I have probably mentioned before that my husband isn't too keen on knitting.  Actually, maybe that's not entirely accurate.  He's not too keen on how much time I spend knitting.  In fact, whenever I've asked him what I should knit him, he tells me that he would rather that I use the time I would have spent making him something, doing something with him.  You can imagine my complete surprise when one day, out of the blue, he asked me to make him a beanie.  

I had been looking for an excuse to knit Jared Flood's Turn a Square and luckily there was some Malabrigo worsted in my stash (Paris Night).  As soon as the words were out of his mouth, the hat was cast on and cast off.  It was a really fast knit and I was relieved that it actually fit his giant head.

 

The baby blanket I had been working on for my sister did not knit up quite so fast.  This is partly because I was relying on my memory for how I had knit the blankets I had made for my nieces.  At the very least, I thought I had written in the pattern book how many stitches I cast on - the number called for in the pattern seemed much too wide.  I also forgot how many rows I had knit in the past, which led me to rip out about 40 rows from the bottom when I decided that the placement of the monogram would make the blanket much too long. Almost like a beach towel.  It all worked out in the end, even if I did stuff it down to the bottom of the knitting basket because I didn't want to deal with the measuring, ripping and re-knitting. 

Now that the baby blanket is complete, there is nothing really standing in the way of knitting for my baby; aside from the unbearable pressure to make my baby nice things. After hours of trolling Ravelry for boy patterns, I finally found something I thought was just too cute: Mini Moustache Sweater by Kasa Amend (althought I think it's a bit on the feminine side). 

Unfortunately, the pattern has been taken offline while the designer does some modifications, but I'm wondering whether I could just use the picture as inspiration and wing it.

 

 

I even have the perfect mustache chart ready.  Last Fall, before visiting Jess and Steve in Calgary, I made them each an Incognito for wedding presents.  I changed the mustache a bit because the one in the pattern seemed too wide.  Of course, I couldn't leave out their little baby, so made him a finger mustache:  

 
Wish me luck on my modifications.

What's your favourite baby boy knitting pattern?

Blog Worthy

It has almost been a year since I last blogged, but so many blog worthy things have happened lately that I want to make sure I capture them here.

1. I am pregnant!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is me at about 4 months.  I have had a bump for a while now, but I am still getting used to it.  Of course now I am left wondering, what does one knit their own baby?  The pressure to knit amazing things is so great that I haven't cast on a single stitch.  No pattern seems to be good enough.  Hopefully that will all change when I know the sex of the baby.  In the meantime, I am working on a baby blanket because...

2. My older sister is pregnant

G and her husband are expect their third child sometime mid-Spring.  They don't know the sex of the baby (not for lack of trying)so it's kind of a race to see who will have the first male grandchild.  This means I'm making a yellow blanket.  Even though I swear off making baby blankets every time I'm midway through one of them, I always cast them on because they are so loved by the babies.  My younger sister told me that Lil' D has been dragging hers everywhere like Linus. Which brings me to #3....

 

3. My baby niece walked by herself first time on February 15th. 

Yay, Lil' D!

I really should make her a cute little sweater.  I've had the yarn to cast-on another Owlet sweater since before Christmas.  I have been so busy making hats for Pinch Knits that I should probably cast it on a next year's Christmas present now.  Which brings me to #4...

4. Pinch Knits hats will be featured in a Swag Bag at the Pre-Oscars Boom Boom Room Celebrity Gifting Suite!!

I am really excited about this, even though it could end up leading to nothing.  Please let me know if you see my mohawks in US Weekly or on the streets of Hollywood.

 

Yarn Stalking

Some time in February, I became complete obsessed with the Tea Leaves Cardigan. I think I saw a picture of it on Never Not Knitting's Ravelry project page and I was a goner. I was completely in love. I looked at every single photo of this sweater on Ravelry and decided that I wanted to make it in Madeleine Tosh merino. Thinking back, it was a pretty ballsy decision considering I am very particular about wool and had never touched this yarn. In fact, I didn't even know anyone who had touched this yarn who could report back. Luckily, every thing I had read likened Madeleine Tosh merino to Malabrigo so I wasn't too worried. The other thing that sold me on this yarn was that colourway of the most perfect, deep shade of purple was named "Dahlia".

My only problem was that I couldn't buy it anywhere. I checked out all of the online retailers linked through Ravelry and none of them had the yarn in Dahlia. Nor did they have any of the back up colours I liked (and I had back up colours for my back up colours). I googled online retailers with the same result. Where was all of the Madeline Tosh?  Every day I trolled through the same websites hoping that someone had gotten an overnight Madelinetosh shipment.  It took a few weeks to convince me that I really couldn't buy it online and I began to stalk people's stashes on Ravelry.

Only one person had enough Madelinetosh for my sweater. In fact, she had 8 skeins, two more than I needed. Perfect. It only took a few days of stalking before I fired off an email to Nancy asking whether she was willing to part with her Madelinetosh - she hadn't indicated she was willing to sell or trade. I waited with bated breath...for an hour before she replied. Yes, she would sell it and she didn't even want to charge me a King's ransom. I was over the moon.

 The next challenge - Sizing

Dahlia unfortunately doesn't photograph very well. She is a lot more red than this picture would lead you to believe.

Is the Suspense Killing You?

I made J's baby an Owlet Sweater!

Kate Davies' pattern was such a fast knit and, as you know, I love that Malabrigo worsted weight.  My only worry was that J would hate the colour. Luckily, she never let on if she did. I can't wait to see the wee one in this sweater next Fall. In true serial knitter fashion, I'm already planning my next Owlet. Hopefully this will not lead to another MacDuff-style knitting jag!

Project Notes
Pattern: Owlet by Kate Davies, 6 mo. size
Needles: US 7
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in Lettuce
Alterations:
I made the increases on the sleeves as follows:
-knit one row after ribbing
-next row, increase 4 stitches evenly around the row
-knit one row
-repeat last two rows until 12 stitches have been added

I think J is one of the cutest pregnant ladies I've ever seen. Look at that little basketball tummy! Definitely something to aspire to.

My girls were here at the beginning of April to celebrate shared birthdays and to have one last hurrah before the babies (not that anyone else is pregnant yet) arrive. Now that we all live in different parts of the continent I only get to see my ladies at weddings.  Here's hoping we will keep up these reunions!

(Roomie B, who as you know is amazing, rented a Mustang convertible for this trip. You can see the soft top at the bottom of the photo. Cruising around in the convertible with the top down was amazing. Note to self: If I settle in California, must invest in a convertible).