With a burning love inside...
That Spinner's song was playing in the Dunkin' Donuts where I recently had a cheese and sausage biscuit! YUM. In fact, I had two. One for the High Energy Fetus.
WARNING. Lot going on in this post. Just scroll fast to see pictures. ;-)
Preggers Update
Well, all seems well so far. I think I felt the baby move, it was a weird motion like something swimming in my belly. Maybe I made it up. I'm waiting for the real thing.
I get pretty tired easily these days. I cleaned the house tonight and only got halfway through before I was exhausted. This was WITH High Energy John's help. I just finished, and now I want to sleep for 14 hours...
I had a minor fender bender too, (all is fine with the baby, family, don't freak out) just when I had thought, "I'm so glad I haven't had a car wreck while I'm pregnant."
Other than that, all seems well. Here's an 18 week ultrasound shot - just a baby foot. Awwww....
SO. MUCH. ELSE.
Alot is going on around here otherwise. I finished all the squares for a quilt for my niece. It's only taken THREE YEARS. Oh Lord. They are butterflies.
Excuse the post-its. It was hard enough to get on the floor to put them on.
Also, I swatched for Bridie, about which I am VERY excited.
My stitch gauge is on, my row gauge as usual is off, but the pattern looks like it will be okay row-gauge wise. We shall see.
Overall it drives me crazy when I use the yarn the pattern calls for, and the stitch gauge is right, but my row gauge is off. But it happens ALL THE TIME. So now I just work around it. I'd like a good explanation for why this is so, someday.
Elspeth!!!
And I have finished Elspeth!
But first, go look at my buddy Elspeth's AMAZING gorgeous Rowan Butterfly dress. Go look, I'll wait.
Wow.
And now, here's my Elspeth, finally. Pictures by the fabulous Carrie.
And the back:
And a close-up:
Pattern Notes
Rowan Calmer, 4 skeins even though it called for 5. I modified the sleeves by doing the short rows, then knitting an inch, then continuing on, because I wanted them longer.
Also, I used Nona's excellent Left Slanted decrease on the sleeves and am very happy with it. I wish I had found that post for the body and fronts, but at least the sleeves benefitted.
What else? I had to re-crochet the picot edge only once. I had read on other blogs that it was easy to be too loose, and it flared. So after the first time, I would skip a dc each time in the picot and it was much better. Email me if you want this specifically explained.
Lastly, a ridiculous 19 1/2 week belly shot:
Hi. I'm ridiculous.
ALRIGHTY THEN! I'm off to the land of Bon Jovi and Bruce, to hang out with someone much cooler (even than Bruce). ;-) See you after!
Fun weekend.
We had fun times around here this weekend. Sunday was my 34th birthday, and High Energy Mom's birthday was Tuesday. So we went home for the weekend for festivities.
Our initial plan was to camp, but as you can see...
the weather was not so good. A few minutes later...
it really was not so good.
So we went to Mexican restaurant where, conveniently, they had already decorated for someone's birthday...
...and we pretended it was for me.
Here's a gratuitious 16 week belly shot, while in the car.
The next day we went to the arboretum in Asheville, NC and had a fun walk.
That evening, after cake and presents:
we went to see the Asheville Tourists, a Colorado Rockies farm team!
It was very much fun times. Complete with frozen t-shirt contest and the chicken dance. And the Tourists won!!!
While at the game, I ate a lemon-lime frozen ice - YUM - and it turned my lips GREEN.
And I finished another Elspeth front:
and the first sleeve!
And afterwards there was a really cool fireworks show.
We had to come home in the afternoon which was sad times, but HE Johnny took me to Indian restaurant dinner and to see Talladega Nights, which was very silly and funny.
All in all, good birthday fun! And Elspeth is blocking with one sleeve to go...
But I know darn well, that I don't stand a chance...
You have to love a song with the phrase "when you don't care a bag of beans for me." Well, I do, anyway.
UNpopular.
My comments on Rowan and their patterns in my last post might have been a bit unpopular. I'm sorry to be negative. I just don't want knitters to waste their time and money, you know?
I DO have two corrections to make.
1) Maya corrected me, and she is right: You can start a row with a YO. But it's hard to end with one. And in Elspeth I promise they don't want you to.
2) I will take back saying that Elspeth is a BAD pattern. It's not. But the one thing that they need to say, that I think would make all the difference for people, is this:
If you cannot make both a YO and the associated decrease (k2tog, k2togtbl, whatever), don't do them at all. In other words, don't only do the YO or the dec, you will mess up your stitch counts and be in a world of pain. If you cannot do both, just knit in stockinette.
Otherwise, it's been an decent pattern. It is a HARD pattern though - it takes a lot of thought. It involves a lot of decreasing or increasing at different intervals on each side, and I highly recommend writing them out so you don't get confused. This is what I do:
I write out all the dec/inc, whichever. "I" for inc, "D" for dec. If there are two, like "D - D" it means dec on each end of the work. If its only on the right, I dec on the right edge, etc. I cross them off as I go, and the numbers to the sides are the stitches I should have left after each dec or inc row.
Without this, I get messed up. A row counter just doesn't do it for me. Also, it seems to go faster when I am crossing off rows. Maybe this is useful to some of you? Maybe not. Works for me.
As evidence.
A completed Elspeth back:
And one and 1/2 fronts:
And I am going to finish the purple sweater today. I will!
At this moment, you mean evvvvvvverrrrrrything...*
So much time, so little to do - strike that, reverse it.
Hi. It's fun to have new things to do and start! Like what? Like this:
Um, yes. Didn't tell you about this one. Well, that's cause we just decided to do it today. Called "Peaches", by Kim Hargreaves. Using the fabulous Cotton Glace I bought off Stashy McStasherton. And here's a swatch:
I love this color. NOW. I know those of you who come here know that's not news. But, it's hard to capture the real color. It's not just a light blue, it has a shiny tiny bit of silvery slate to it. Grey, but not grey. OOOOH. I love it.
The pattern is from A Treasury of Rowan Knits, that a non-knitting friend gave me a few years ago, and so far the pattern is going well, for once. I haven't been able to knit from this book until now. That friend that gave it to me was a dear. I hope he is well.
Elspeth.
On to the not-so-good. This pattern, Elspeth, from Rowan 37, is making me INSANE. I had heard all over blogdom that it was troublesome, but I mean it SUCKS.
It's hard to tell you just why without you seeing the pattern, but suffice it to say the following.
1) There is no selvedge stitch, and it's a lace pattern.
2) They start and stop the pattern in ways that leave you with a yarn over at the end, or beginning. Clearly, you can't END or START with a yo. Hello.
3) Because of this (and because they also start you with a k2tog where you only have one stitch) if you do what they say your stitch counts will be WAY off. You will think you are a bad knitter, but it's NOT YOU. It's a bad pattern.
4) They only show you one repeat and leave you to your devices to figure out where to start again. The X-Tremely cool Jen has great help for this issue.
Here's my beef. And you can skip if you don't want to hear me complain. But if Rowan is asking people to spend their hard-earned money - at $55 a year for membership - we DESERVE well-written and well-proofed patterns. It's that damn simple. What a waste.
That having been said, I am going to muscle it out, because I can, from experience. But I would caution you all about this pattern - if you are not experienced you will probably hate it and spend your time frustrated. It's makes me so mad, too.
Here's a pic of the pattern so far. It is pretty, I'll give those Rowan losers that much:
And a close-up:
She's a super geek, super geek, she's super geeky...
I got a new ipod:
And yes, that is me watching Season 6 of CSI on it. I LOVE IT. I am such a nerd.
I was lucky enough to get a new Macbook to go with it, but haven't gotten to use it much, cause I have to transfer everything from my previous computer to it. But it's pretty sleek. It's black and stealthy.
Almost done with the Vintage Knits purple sweater - one sleeve to sew in. Hooray!!!
*Our dear Lee Ann is convalescing. And we are SO GLAD she is doing so well.
To love you with the sweetest of devotion...
WELL. I wanted to tell you.
You people HAVE to know I wanted to tell you. But, really, I couldn't, we just couldn't, before now.
And honestly, I am having huge anxiety that in the telling I will jinx it.
But, THIS embryo:
Has become THIS 13-week-old fetus. Miracle of miracles. Hi, High Energy Fetus!
The top one is his face in profile, the bottom his body in profile.
And yes, according to the embryo biopsy we had initially, it's a boy.
We almost can't believe it. I can't believe it. Thanks to all of you for your thoughts, prayers, and well wishes. Now I just hope we can be good parents, and that the rest of this pregnancy will go without incident. It's hard not to worry when you are finally pregnant after being infertile. It's so different than for those women who just get pregnant without incident. The worry factor is TREMENDOUS.
In Knitting News...
Since Loll is near completion, thank God, I figured I'd show you what I'll knit next.
Elspeth, from Rowan 37, in Calmer, color Coral (476):
And Bridie, from the fantabulous Anna, in Karabella Margrite.
And here's both yarns. FUN.
I haven't been able to start anything new for a really long time, since I have been desperate to finish current projects. With that in mind, if all goes well, I'll have Loll done this week, and maybe even the Vintage Knits Ribbed Sweater I've been slaving over for some time now.
Of course, I won't be able to wear it till next year. But I'm not complaining. ;-)