Lapping currents lay your boat to ground...
Lost is back. Oh my goodness. Even a new mommy has made time to watch it. In 20 minute increments, but watch it I did. I love that show.
Scroll down for knitting!
Rough Waters.
We had a ROUGH week here at HEK. The Bug had a really rough week. His acid reflux was acting up and his medical mommy was too stupid to realize his med dosing needed adjusting until he had symptoms again. So sorry, Bug. I will try to be a smarter mommy in the future.
The HE MIL came to our aid and stayed three days and helped SO MUCH. Thank you, Carolyn. You rawk.
Things are (dare I type) a little better and the Bug seems to be much more comfortable and sleeping and eating better. Thank goodness. I hated seeing him so miserable.
This boy is feeling better.
Another FO! WOO WEE!
It took 9 weeks to sew in a sleeve. But! Sew it in I did. The husband swecker is done!
Of course he insisted on action shots.
So the only standing still shot is the back:
I am pretty pleased overall with it. I am still wanting to tweak the neck a bit, but otherwise I'm happy. Of course, had I re-read Becky's post, I would have seen how she tweaked the neck. Blast!
Yarn: Phildar Pegase
Needles: US 7
Inspiration? Fluffa! She knit the same one for her hubby.
In the process of making it, I did have to make an alteration. Initially, when putting it together, it produced what my husband deemed "man boobs":
To fix this "unsightly" gynecomastia, I added underarm gussets. What I did was to open the underarm seams to create a diamond shape:
Then, I knitted a diamond shape to match, and sewed it in:
I'm pretty pleased with the results! I also, as I always do, modified the length and sleeve lengths to suit the hubby. I used a sweater he had that fit him well as a model. Hooray!
Scaramouch, Scaramouch will you do the fandango...
First, thank you all SO MUCH for your kind words and advice about the Bridie buttonband. I have decided to take Julia's advice and frog it, and try to knit it without sewing it on as I go. I think she is right about me stressing and wonking out my own stitches because it's so close to the seam, and because I'm anxious about it.
High Energy Contractions.
I will try to thank each of you personally, but we had a little High Energy Baby scare so it might not happen... and if so I'm sorry.
The bottom line of the story is that everything appears to be okay.
Wednesday I woke up with weird low abdomen/groin pain. I was having some Braxton Hicks type contractions but wasn't worried about them. But the pain bothered me all day and I wasn't sure what to make of it. Being a medical type I tend to not get too bent out of shape about these things.
I had a massage, a dentist appointment (I blame my dentist - ha!), and knitted with the girls after a short nap. After knitting I went to the grocery store, but while walking around I had more and more discomfort. Since the Kroger is next to the hospital I work at I stopped in, and called my OB.
She wanted me to get checked, so we then went to Labor and Delivery where I got IV fluids, drank more fluids, and was on the fetal and uterine monitors.
They did a test new to me since I finished training, a fetal fibronectin test, which when negative is a pretty good predictor that a person will not go into labor for the next two weeks. Mine was fortunately negative.
This is good, because I was definitely having contractions on the monitor, and my cervix is 1 cm dilated which is a little unusual. (Sorry, High Energy Dad, for too much information). Anyway, even though those things are so, my OB felt confident I could go home. But, they think I was dehydrated, so I have to really keep up with my fluids. I had been doing well with them, but I do know I hadn't had tons of water the last few days. (Dehydration often causes preterm contractions.)
And, I have to keep my feet up when I'm not at work. But at least I can go to work.
So, let's all say a collective little prayer the High Energy Baby will stay put for at least 5 - 6 more weeks. Stay baby stay!
Poor HE John had to hang out with me until about 2:30am. I was fine, but I'm sure he's exhausted. Poor guy.
And of course there was knitting.
So while HE John and I hung out in the hospital, I knit on his Phildar sweater. He said, "You can't knit with that IV in your wrist! Can you?" I just gave him the look we'd all give him, and commenced knitting. Pul-lease.
The phildar sweater has reached monstrous proportions - because I decided to seam one side before finishing the front.
So THIS:
...is what I'm lugging around. At least it's warm in my lap...
Here' s a close-up of the seam. No wonkiness here!
Thanks again, you all, for the pep talk. Especially my kid sister, who rocks.
Science or God will save us...
That's from an Atlanta group called the Lindsay Rakers Band. You can listen to them here. I hope to see them soon, they are playing here Wed night but I unfortuntately have to work.
Sorry it's been so long, you guys! I think of things to blog everyday. But then I balance the checkbook, or some other menial task, and it just doesn't happen.
Also it could be that:
1) I have to study a year's worth of articles before the baby.
2) We are painting two closets and installing closet systems in them. Our clothes are in boxes in the front room. FUN. TIMES.
3) We are having the basement tiled, painted, and shelves installed next week. Which involves cleaning out the basement and getting rid of stuff, and organizing. And preparing. And having old furniture hauled away.
4) We are registering and buying baby stuff. So far, a carseat, a crib, mattress, changing table. This baby is EXPENSIVE. I'll remind him when he's bad.
5) We are trying to budget for a nanny. Including the fact that I don't get paid during the two months I take off after the baby, this is causing me a WEE bit of stress. No new yarn for awhile.
You get the idea. It's crazy, but I know if I don't organize BEFORE the baby, it won't happen for like 10 years. So here we are.
And, my Directv died, AS DID Carrie's ON THE SAME NIGHT. We think they downloaded software and it fried our DVRs. At Fedex just a few days later there was a guy there returning his "R15" as well. I think they screwed up BIG. It's fixed now, but it dumped all my programs. Which makes me GRUMPY!
Cure for Grumpiness? Cables.
During my like two hour phone call with Directv, I did this:
This is a swatch for my next project, the "Cabled Jacket" from Debbie Bliss's Cashmerino DK book. Here's the sweater:
It really helped calm me down while dealing with the Directv people. I only swore at little, and I didn't yell at anyone. That's pretty good for me.
Bridie!
And Bridie, she is coming along nicely. Here's the left front:
And then I decided to do something HERETOFORE never done in HEK. Knit both sleeves at the same time:
Unfortunately, this lasted only for this picture. The balls kept getting tangled, and I hated it. So it's one at a time for us here. Since these pictures, I have finished one sleeve. HOORAY!!!
Husband Swecker.
I have the back done of the Phildar sweater for me hubbie:
That's the best pic so far but trust me, it's done. I knitted like crazy while we were camping a few weekends ago, and in the car. That sweater is LONG. Long long long. I really want to finish this and Bridie before the baby. I have three months. Think I can do it????
Would you do it?
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah...
We saw the Flaming Lips last week in Atlanta, and boy are they so awesome! We've seen them before, and I love them so much. It was SO LOUD. I hope the HE Fetus can still hear.
Oh my goodness. LOTS of knitting happening. And it's WORKING right now, which is so fun and exciting.
BRIDIE. I love this pattern. Anna is a genius. Let's talk about it, shall we?
First, I LOVE the yarn. I'm using the suggested yarn, Karabella Margrite, and it's so soft and awesome. I love it.
I have learned the pattern now, so it's pretty quick to not have to use the chart. The shaping is genius.
My row gauge was off, and this concerned me, because as a certain rabbit noted, if you need more rows per inch then the pattern recommends, you can easily run out of yarn. I was afraid of this, so what I did was knit on the back, then I BLOCKED IT with an iron ON THE NEEDLES. What???
And the gauge became perfect, and the knitting so smooth. I am in love. Let's check it out:
Look, you can see the line where I had blocked up to - isn't that crazy??? A huge difference.
So what I'm doing is calculating the math of how many rows I need to get that gauge when blocked. It's working like a charm. And the knitting goes faster, because I'm marking off rows.
Now, the right front:
I had an in-progress picture, but since then I have finished it! Here's the top of it, with the interesting shape:
And here's a close-up of the increasing shaping:
Now, the thing about that shaping is that you increase every row. If you haven't done that before, it's really hard to do, because when you increase, you are often using the row below in some way. If you do a Make 1, you are pulling the yarn between stitches on the row below. If you use a lifted increase, you are also distorting the row below. So if you do that every row, it's hard to get it to not distort the pattern too much. (Here's a web page with videos of different increases.)
Anna, who is amazing, did it with M1s. I never could get that to work, so I used variations of "knit one through the front and back loop" (KF&B) on the neck edge. Sometimes I would knit in the front loop and purl in the back, or vice versa, to keep the pattern. I think it worked pretty well, and the edge will be sewn into the buttonband. Hooray!
And the left front, which I am starting, is smaller than the right, since it fits that shape like a puzzle piece, so it should be quick. I want to finish this soon so I can wear it!
Husband Swecker.
HE John and I have stupid words for things and always distort our language when we talk. Sometimes it can be so cryptic and weird and refers to things only we know or have laughed about that I swear if someone heard us they could NOT understand what we are saying. I'm sure all couples do this. After 14 years, I guess that happens.
For example, we call sweaters "sweckers", and Atlanta "Aklanka", and Sacramento "Saclamento." And laundry detergent "laungry detergalent" and Natalie Merchant "Nagalie Mergalent." And other stupid things.
I have had yarn and pattern to make Johnny a swecker for awhile, and I have finally cast on. It's taking FOREVER, partly cause it is all ribbing and LONG. Snore...
And a close-up of the variegatedness:
This is a Phildar sweater, and Becky made it already for her hubby, and it turned out great. Seeing a real guy wear it, not some model, allowed it to be given the HE Johnny seal-of-approval. Here is Becky's archive about her version. If I recall, it took her many a DVD to get it finished. I forsee that...
Well, friends, I must go. I have a lot of studying to do, as I am trying to finished two years of Continuing Education before the baby is born, so I don't have to do it next year. Hate. Studying. Grrr.