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Tomorrow: what Little Man did to the sock…….

Those of you who are mothers may or may not have gone through this, but with a new baby I’ve found I usually have three different types of days:

1. Frozen to my rocking chair, not dressed until lunch, one disaster after another until I am left a sniveling and exausted mess. (Wednesday was one of those days)

2. Super-mommy-goddess in which I manage to cook real food ( not just re-heat) do laundry and GET STUFF DONE, all while my baby sleeps or nurses in my sling. (Today, so far, has been one of those days).

3. The usual day, which is a little bit of both.

Of course, with two kids now I’m more likely to get a #1 and less likely to get a #2, but it sure was nice to have a #2 kind of day today, especially with today’s rain!

On my goddess days (or moments) here’s how I knit:

Thank God for baby-slings. Frankly, I’m mystified about mothers who don’t use these. Knittybaby spends many happy hours sleeping or nursing in here, and then I get both hands to eat, do laundry, vaccuum, entertain Little Man, and yes, even knit!

My sling is a Zolo Sling. I love this thing! Not only is it cute (they have lots of fabric choices) but it is light and even has pocket for your keys, wallet, or of course, a sock-in-progress. Girls, if you plan to have a baby (or just had one) get a sling! There are lots of different types (just search for baby slings or baby wearing) and it does take a good week to get used to them, but stick with it. You will get the hang of it and it makes for much happier baby and mama. My hubby even has one.

So what have I knit?

Squares for Warming Grace. If you haven’t visited Cynthia’s site yet, be sure to see what she is doing to help her niece, who is ill with lukemia.

These are 5 inch squares, knit in a cotton/angora blend by Artful Yarns. I’m sending them off this weekend.

I also finished up Knittybaby’s socks, but need to re-take a picture, so I’ll get that up another day.

So I make this smoothie for Little Man and myself that we call “Meanie Greenies.” I have no idea why we call it that other than the fact that all the spirulina I throw in turns it bright green. So we each have a glass and we’re sitting at the table enjoying our drinks and Little Man starts to get a little playful with his beverage, blowing bubbles and the like, spattering all over the place. Then he decides that he needs to pour it back and fourth into two glasses. My motherly powers sense disaster from this activity, so I go to intervene and end up spilling it myself, all over the table.

At this point Knittybaby decides he was mistaken and really wasn’t sleepy after all, so I go to pick him up and find a dishrag and I hear Little Man yell, “I can lick it up, Mom!” I come back to see my dear son covered in green smoothie: face, shirt and his long hair, with bits of flaxseed stuck all over him. All with Grandma and Gomme due in just a few hours and an already trashed house. I have to say, he looked so funny that my sense of humor took over and I was unable to get mad, so I just threw him in the tub.

Knitting content? While Little Man was soaking his green stuff off, I was able to peruse the 2005 Spring Knits all while nursing Knittybaby in the bathroom. I need a real chair in there. Do you know how uncomfortable it is to nurse a baby when the only place to sit is the toilet seat cover? Anyway, I re-read the article on brioche stitch. Has anyone tried a project using that? I haven’t tried it with needles yet, but everytime I read about it my mind gets all twisty.

Another contest, this time by Kat: five places you’ve knit other than home or a knitting store. See if you can guess the theme…

1. Walking up and down, up and down the flightline at EAA’s Airventure.
2. In the hayfield behind my in-law’s farm, watching Hubby and Little Man fly model airplanes.
3. At our campsite at Airventure. (We go every year, by the way).
4. At numerous small airports, watching airplanes with Hubby and Little Man.
5. Not to be too theme oriented, at parent-teacher conferences, while waiting for parents to talk to me. Since no one usually talks to the music teacher, I tend to get a lot done.

Did you figure it out? Hubby loves airplanes (small aircraft and homebuilts) as much as I love knitting. While I find airplanes interesting , I can only look at them for about 20 minutes before I start to get figetity. Having knitting means we are both happy.

Moving on from the contest, Knittybaby is one month old today!!! I forgot to say thanks before to those who left me notes of congratulations, I appreciated it. I can hardly believe it’s been a month. He already has changed so much already, and is starting to have more awake time now, which is fun. I’m starting to feel a little more settled in. Thank goodness for all the friends who have brought us meals, and that the weather has been beautiful so Little Man can play outside. Spring is a great time to have a baby!

Also, thanks for the SP8 advice. I think I’m going to give it a try!!

Not much knitting action here….Knittybaby seems to be going through his first growth spurt and Little Man is having a hard time sharing his mommy. I’ve been spending a lot of time nursing my baby and trying to keep my Little Man from feeling left out. Needless to say, I could use a couple of extra arms! (And a lap) Luckily, the warm weather is helping in that we can get outside. I don’t know what I’d do if it was January.

So I’ve been trying to decide whether or not to do Secret Pal 8. I’ve never done one before, but I have to say I’ve been coveting all those great boxes I see people get. The whole thing just seems fun, and I’m a sucker for getting anything in the mail. But here’s my hang-up: every time I do a secret pal (usually a Secret Santa) I end up with the lousiest one. In 6th grade, everyone else was getting cool things like neon jelly bracelets. What did I get? A half melted, squished box of Junior Mints from some boy I didn’t even know:-( Then there was the time in college when the accountant in my office was my Secret Santa, but didn’t get the whole concept of it and didn’t understand he was supposed to get me anything. So everytime I sign up for something I have fun buying for my pal but usually come up short on my end. As I write this I’m thinking I sound like a greedy girl! I’m really not, it’s just a bummer when it seems to happen every time. I had actually given up on these until Secret Pal came along.

So what I’d love to hear is about your experiences. Have you done a Secret Pal? How was it? If not, why? Should I try it out or go snag a “Not a Secret Pal” button and go drop $60 at the Yarnery sale this weekend? Right now, I’m leaning towards trying it out. After all, these are knitters here, not 6th grade boys, right?

The boys, including Hubby, are all asleep upstairs, and I have my first moment of real quiet since Knittybaby has been born. I wasn’t quite sure what to do with myself, so I thought I’d get out the heaps of pictures I’ve been saving up. Despite the fact that Knittybaby is not quite three weeks old, we have had actual knitting going on, because what could be more perfect than snuggling with your sweet baby, asleep on your lap, and knitting a sock for him? You can’t beat that!

I love these early weeks, when you get to spend so much time just nursing, rocking, and enjoying this new little person. It is much different this time, as Little Man wants to share my lap too, but we all manage to fit into the rocker together and overall we are all doing well.

So first, my knitting: The garter stitch booties. Way too small, for starters, (I never checked the guage, I know…) and I’m not convinced they are the most practical item. They will be frogged for a pair of Knittybaby socks.

Next we have socks that I started for Little Man back in January. Since then he seems to have grown about two inches and gained about five pounds (or maybe it’s having a new baby but he seems HUGE lately!). There is no way these will fit him, so Knittybaby can grow into them istead. These have been my nursing knitting. How does one nurse a baby and knit? We’ll get to that another day.

Next, a quick hat I knitted up for my friend’s baby. She had her son a little over a month before me, and I missed her shower the other weekend. So this will be going to her next time I see her. I use Knitpicks Andean Silk for this one.

This is the Garter Stitch Jacket from the Debbie Bliss “Baby Knits” book. I started this before Knittybaby was born, and although it is supposed to fit three to six months, it seems huge. I got gauge, so I’m not sure what is going on. I’m ready to start the sleeves so I’m going to do some measuring and see what changes I might make first. I’m using the Rowan Baby Soft I picked up last month. I like it; it feels like I’m knitting with fleece.

Moving on from my knitting, these are gifts that Knittybaby received from my grandmother. Aren’t they lovely? My grandma is the one who taught me how to knit. She made sure that I got a good start, making me practice my knits and purls until I got them right. I credit her with the fact that I typically get nice, even stitches and a steady guage. She has given me a gift by teaching me to knit, and she has given both my boys some beautiful sweaters that I will save to pass on to them once they have children of their own.

These are the icing on the cake: crocheted booties from my Great-Grandmother. She passed away about 12 years ago, and these booties are a legacy of hers. I’m sure that she churned out hundreds of these booties. I’ve inherited about 8 pairs myself from family members who saved them. She made them for anyone she encountered who had a new baby, even if she barely knew them. She loved babies and loved making these for people, and I have fond memories of watching her make them. She is the reason I still would like to learn more about crochet than the basic potholders she taught me to make. She was a wonderful, loving woman and I miss her very much. She would have gone crazy over Little Man and Knittybaby!

Finally, something just for fun. I came across this contest at
Kate’s website and thought it was a hoot. So here is my “cupboard over the fridge:”

It isn’t really over the fridge. We have a pre-fridge house, so instead I just have “the incredibly high cupboard” that I need a stool to reach. So what do we have? First, all the vitamins and herbal remedies that need to be kept out of reach from Little Man, but since they are so high we often forget to take them. They are the only thing that actually comes in and out. Otherwise I’ve got old tupperwear flour containers (I HOPE they are empty!) the dogs toothbrush, a piece of pottery with a wolf on top, and my old asthma measurer (I can’t remember the actual name of it, and my asthma rarely bothers me anymore). Oh, and some rice flour from when I planned on making dog biscuits.

The side view has the popcorn popper that we do actually use, a neti pot, and the espresso maker that makes such bad espresso now that we never use it. I’m sure there is more behind it but I am afraid to look!

This is by far the longest post I’ve done, and Knittybaby is up again and nursing, so I’d better stop here. One thing I am not good at is nursing and typing! So I’m off to snuggle with my little guy and enjoy a relaxing Sunday evening.

The newest member of our family arrived early Tuesday morning with a beautiful and gentle birth! Knittybaby is a lovely 7.3 pound baby boy! Little Man is an excited big brother, and everyone is doing well.

Obviously, no new knitting to report, but Knittybaby wore his red hat home proudly, although he has some room to grow. Posts will be a little fewer and far between as we take some time with our family. But, stay tuned for the further adventures of Little Man and Knittybaby, and how Knittymama still might manage to get some knitting time in with two boys! (Don’t laugh, I know it can be done!)

So I finished side panel one. Here’s the whole thing:

And a close up section:

I’m not going to bother blocking until I’ve got all four finished so I can be sure they match up correctly to the main panel. So in the meantime the panel is waiting quietly in the closet for the other three to join it. Considering the baby is now due in exactly one week, I’ve realized that the shawl will not be done in time. So, I made a hat:

I have to say, I’m glad I made it, but I’m not super excited about this hat, mostly because of the yarn. It is knit in “Crayon” from Knitpicks on size five needles. The cotton is very soft and feels great, which is why I chose to use it, but wasn’t great to knit with. I’m pretty picky when it comes to knitting with cotton. If I have metal needles I’m usually fine, but I only had size 5 DPN’s in Brittney needles, which are the stickiest I have. So, it was slow going and not the greatest item I’ve ever made, but the baby will have something handknit by me to go home in even if it is not the shawl. It actually cracks me up when I thought I would have managed to complete the entire shawl and a sweater, matching hat and booties in time. Of course, it would help if I could manage to stay awake past 9:00 at night (tonight is an exception) but you must be able to tell I’m tired by my inability to end this post. So I’ll leave it here, happy that I got a hat finished and off to bed I go!

So Matt is working tonight and Little Man was actually asleep by 7:30 (!!!) so I thought I was going to get tons of time to work on the baby’s shawl. Last night I finished up the decreases on the first half of the panel. Tonight the plan was to do the row of yarnovers for the ribbon, finish the decreases and be done with panel one. Of course, I was delusional that it would be that easy, and I am about ready to nickname this the frogging shawl rather than the baby shawl. So the problem this time?

Do you ever get a number stuck in your head, whether it’s for a knitting pattern, appointment, address, whatever…and you are SURE it is right, until you show up at the doctors at 4:00 rather than 3:00, or knit for 8 inches rather than 6? I do this all the time, and the mistake is never in my favor. In this case, I decreased down to 171 stiches rather than 175, tried the yarnover row anyway, didn’t work, frogged back to 177 stitches, decreased again, goofed the yarnovers, frogged again, and here I am 2 and a half hours later finally with a completed yarnover row and one more row of decreases, putting me back at 173 stitches on the needles. I have to say, despite the troubles I’ve had with the shawl, I’m doing a pretty good job of keeping the love in this blanket and not getting too mad about it (which I usually do). I just need to keep reminding myself to CHECK THE PATTERN and remember that whatever number I think it is, I’m probally wrong. But the panel might still be done tonight, we’ll see how long I stay awake.

Speaking of numbers, have you ever been asked this question by your spouse/parter/SO? Last night we are sitting around listening to a knitting podcast of all things (I’ll save those for another day) and out of the blue he very casually asks me this:

“So just how much do you think you’ve spent on all your yarn and knitting stuff?”

Now, I’m not sure what made him think of this. He has been, in the three years I’ve called myself a knitter, very supportive and rarely complains about how much yarn I buy (although he doesn’t get why I always seem to need more needles. “Don’t you have needles?”). He will suggest that I try to use up some stash now and then, but that’s about it. I gave some lame answer like, “um, I really couldn’t possibly guess (sure I could, just go look in the closet upstairs) and he starts throwing out numbers, “$500?”, “$1,000?” and I’m doing a mental tally and wondering “where is he going with this?” The funny thing was he just smiled, shrugged his shoulders and dropped it as fast as he brought it up, although I do remember him mentioning some sort of tool on sale at Home Depot earlier his weekend.

When I take the time to think about how much I probably HAVE spent (and we won’t even go there, you’ve seen the closet)I realize how lucky I’ve been that he actually says so little about it. He’s the kind of guy who will make sure everyone else in the house gets what they want/need first before he takes what might be left over to buy what he needs for himself. Makes me want to ask him, “what was the tool again?”

So here is the center panel all blocked out. The shots are not the best, but for some reason Matt really wanted to take these pictures. He’s been pretty funny about the fact that I keep a blog about knitting. He seems to go back and forth from thinking that his wife must surely be the biggest geek in the world, to being utterly fascinated with it. Personally, I think he’s just jealous that he can’t find any good homebuilt airplane blogs.

Anyway, if you enlarge the pictures you might be able to see my other big goof, that I realized too late to fix. Anyone notice where the ends are sewn in? I’m so used to the fact that when I knit I can pretty much weave them in anywhere, so I just change to a new ball of yarn whenever I run out. Big mistake, as with this stitch pattern they stick out like a sore thumb. If I had changed them at the end (God forbid, I might waste a half yard of yarn!) they would have blended in nicely when I sew the side panels on, but live and learn, right?

As for the side panels, I’ve got the first one cast on, and seeing that it is in seed stitch it’s going pretty quickly, with the problem of the picot cast on, which took me TWO HOURS to do. Granted, it’s the first time I’ve done that, but two hours? Sheesh. We are now about two weeks from the due date. Anyone care to place a bet on whether the baby actually comes home in this blanket? All I know is I’m having a very hard time staying focused, and awake!