The One Where We Tried to Go on a Date

My mother came out to Wyoming on the plane with the Butterbean and me and stayed with us for the first part of our trip. At her urging, my husband and I were supposed to go out as much as possible while she watched the the children.

All right! We exclaimed, and at the end of the first full day in Jackson, I met my husband at the base of the gondola to go up to "The Deck" for happy hour. I was still stressed out from the flight with a screaming two month old and a clueless gate attendant who told me to put the stroller and car seat in the wrong place, which led to us arriving in the mountains while those crucial baby items sat on the jetway in Dallas. I needed a drink.

Here's the view from the top of the gondola:

So we had a drink each and some sliders and started on an enormous dish of edaname. Some clouds kicked up, which is common in the late afternoon in the mountains. Our waitress stopped by and mentioned that it might start raining in 15 minutes or so. Then suddenly BANG! A black cloud rolled directly on top of us. The wind kicked up and plates and glassware started flying off of the tables.

We ran for the empty deli that operates during the ski season. The wind whipped around so hard that the gondola shut down and the outdoor grill kitchen had to close. However, the bar was still functioning, and everyone got a second round on the house. To summarize: many people, stuck on a mountaintop, no food, much alcohol.

Husband and I gamely plowed through that edaname and a third round of drinks, because, hey, why not. We watched planes land at the airport and exclaimed, hey, there's our car seat and giggled. The people next to us started falling off of their stools. The waitresses started to look a little tearful.

Finally, though, the storm stopped. Look, a rainbow!

I'm still here

Well, actually I'm in Wyoming. Here, look at some pictures while I figure out where my blog mojo has gone.

The Birthday Hat is still going strong

My "big baby" turned five (yes, FIVE, I can hardly believe it) yesterday, and of course we marked the day by the traditional wearing of the Birthday Hat.

See here for the Birthday Hat in years past.

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Baby, It's Hot Out There

It's too hot to knit. There, I said it. I managed to do a few repeats on The Mountain Chickadee Baby Blanket I started in some Bebe Cotsoy (knitting from stash! go me!) but became overwhelmed by the heat, and of course, sleep deprivation.

Michael is, though, actually sleeping about as well as can be expected. He's doing a couple three hour stretches at night, and has done a rare four hour stretch from time to time. Unlike his older brother, he is a big snuggler, and we're finding he prefers to be held for naps.

The heat means, naturally, that modeling knitwear is pretty much out of the question. I did manage to put him in a modified Milo Soaker from Vintage Baby Knits. I adapted the pattern for a newborn by using a DK yarn (Berroco Comfort DK, which means that it's useless as a real soaker, but super cute for a diaper cover) and shortening the torso. Still, I'm finding that "newborn" means these gigantic eight and nine pounders that everyone else seems to have. Michael was 6 pounds, 12 ounces at birth, and at two weeks, was up to 7 pounds, 4 ounces. So lots of growing going on, but I still had to fold down the waist of the diaper cover.

Michael also modeled this garment in my attempt to take a family portrait. Here's the "good" picture:

And here's how I suspect Henry really feels about his brother:

Meet Michael Francis

On May 10, I went to the hospital for my scheduled c-section. Because of the pre-eclampsia, the birthdate had been moved up from May 24. The only cure for pre-eclampsia is to deliver the baby, so it made sense that any potential risk of being born three weeks early -- and 37 weeks gestation is considered "term," not premature -- would be outweighed by eliminating the very serious consequences of full-blown pre-eclampsia.

The surgery went really well. My OB is a family friend who actually delivered my sister 28 years ago. The only hitch in the pre-op period was that I was too swollen for an IV, so the anesthesiologist had to come in and do it. While the spinal block was much scarier than the epidural I'd had with Henry, my blood pressure was low enough that I didn't need the magnesium drip I'd also had at Henry's birth. (The mag drip is to keep a pre-eclamptic patient from seizing and going into organ failure; it makes you nauseated, sleepy, and completely out of it, and I was glad to avoid it this time and be more present at the birth.)

Michael Francis was born at 2:21 PM. He weighed 6 pounds, 12 ounces, and was 19 inches long. He started crying right away and my thought was "Well, there's nothing wrong with his lungs."

But there was something wrong with his lungs. When we got back to the PACU, the nurses remarked that the baby was wheezing and grunting as I tried to get him to latch on to initiate breastfeeding. I didn't think anything of it, as I thought babies wheezed and grunted. I made the nurse tell me what was happening. He was making those noises because he couldn't get air into his lungs quickly enough. He couldn't latch on because it interfered with breathing. After two visits from a resident from the NICU, they made the decision to take him to the NICU for evaluation.

At the same time, I started to bleed heavily, so what happened after that is still foggy. I'm so glad that before they took him to the NICU, we all got to hold him and be with him.

Later than evening, the nurses got me in a wheelchair and we went down to the NICU. Michael was in triage, on a ventilator, which was very hard to see. They treated him with surfactant, and took a culture and x-ray to check for pneumonia. I won't go into all the details -- I'm not sure that I'm ready to talk about the details -- but in summary, he did have pneumonia and spent seven days in the NICU on antibiotics.

The NICU is a scary place, but it's full of amazing nurses who I'm pretty sure are angels in disguise. If the Rapture HAD happened yesterday, I know they would have been taken instantly.  While Michael had some setbacks (for example, we walked in on Thursday to find he was put on a feeding tube when he'd been taking a bottle just fine the night before), he improved almost every day, and I knew that we were much, much better off than pretty much every other family in that NICU. Slowly, I got better as well, after a frightening incident on Wednesday where I almost fainted in the NICU as a result of my heavy blood loss.

We brought Michael home a week later. Because this is a knitting blog, I have to show you that he came home in not the romper I'd knit (too big!) but with the sock yarn scrap blanket I made.

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Pants

I had another "We may have to send you back to the hospital" incident this week. I'm 36.5 weeks pregnant. The baby has dropped and it hurts to walk. I'm tired. My back aches. And my brain power seems to have gone bye-bye.

In summary, all I can manage is to sprawl out on the couch, watch Glee, and knit baby pants.

A soaker from local friend Maggie Broderick's Knitting Wool Diaper Covers from Start to Finish, knit from scraps of Malabrigo Worsted.

Bad iPhone picture of Elizabeth Zimmermann's February Baby Pants, knit out of half a skein of Brooks Farm Solo.

Two days left!

Under the Porch

Some kittens from under the porch

My mother had this tough old broad of a Manx cat named Feather. Feather was our Cat Matriarch. Every few years, she'd give birth to a litter of kittens (please, no Bob Barker Flames; this was a barn cat in the 1970s). Before she went into labor, she'd disappear, usually under the porch, and then emerge a few days later with the kittens.

That's the way I'm feeling. Nature is telling me to get under the porch.

But there's only so much hiding one can do with a family to take care of. Henry and I have been watching Dancing with the Stars, and I've been sitting on the couch casting on for every sock pattern imaginable while he explains the complexities of Lightning McQueen to me.

Well, this was unexpected

So about two weeks ago, I went in for a routine OB visit and mentioned that I had a headache and that my hands had swollen up to the point where I looked like I was wearing Minnie Mouse gloves. Because I'd had pre-eclampsia with my son, the midwife took one look at me and ordered a barrage of tests. Suffice it to say that I took a day off work and spent it voiding into receptacles. I stopped by the hospital on Good Friday to get more tests done and then I went off to work, only to be called back to the hospital two hours later. I spent Friday, Saturday, and half of Easter Sunday in the hospital under observation for pre-eclampsia.

Pre-eclampsia can be some pretty scary stuff.  Fortunately, the doctors determined that my case is mild -- so far -- and sent me home to rest, while moving up the date of my c-section. I'm being monitored pretty closely, and with a few exceptions, I've basically moved back and forth from my couch to the hospital for the last ten days.

This leaves a lot of time for knitting, which you'd think would be great! My first response to the new due date for the baby was to panic, not because the baby was coming early or because I couldn't get the room ready, but because I had no hat for the baby to wear. Hey, we knitters can compartmentalize like nobody's business. So I made a Sweet Baby Cap out of Baby Ull and some sock yarn scraps:

Then I had to finish a bunch of other stuff. Ordinarily, I think this would manifest itself by scrubbing out some cabinets, but since I'm not allowed to do that kind of thing, I have to sublimate the nesting instinct into knitting.

I'm almost done with a test knit for Cosy:

 

I finished another In Threes for my friend's daughter's birthday:

I put buttons on the Rhino Romper I made for Malabrigo March:

And I finished the knitting portion of the Baby Albert KAL I'm doing with my mom:

 

No, I'm not freaking out or anything. Nope.

The winner is....

Diane, chosen by the random number generator.

Diane wins a skein of Schaefer Yarn Anne, a merino/mohair/nylon blend with a whopping 560 yards in the put-up. Diane, let me know how you'd like me to get the yarn to you.

The voters unanimously declared that the romper was the way to go! Thanks, everyone.

Talk Amongst Yourselves

I'll give you a topic. Does winding sock yarn help take the edge of Startitis or does it make the dread condition worse?

(From top left, Cozy Fierce Scummy Girl Socks that Rock for the Breaking Hearts KAL in the Socks that Rawk group on Ravelry, Dream in Color Smooshy in Tea Party for the Eiki Japanese Relief shawl, and the current Rockin' Sock Club colorway.)

Discuss.

Don't forget to comment on my Bringing Home Baby issue to win a skein of sock yarn. Leave a comment by 6:00 PM Eastern, and I'll pick the number via random generator on Tuesday.

Bringing Home Baby

I need opinions.

When I first got pregnant, I envisioned making the Yarn Harlot's Baby Mine or Baby Yours (see her blog here for pictures of both). The sweaters are so sweet and cry out to be put on a brand new baby for newborn pictures and coming home from the hospital.

But my baby is going to be a late May baby. And I have less than eight weeks to go and I haven't even watched for this sweater. Plus I made this:

The Gift Wrap Romper in the now sadly out-of-business Mission Falls 1824 Cotton.

A few Wednesdays ago, I was sick with that creeping crud that was going around, so I took to my bed with yarn and Downton Abbey. Despite the pain that knitting with cotton causes, I finished this in less than a week. I think it is so cute, but is it special enough for the Coming Home Outfit?

Tell me what you would do. In exchange, I'll pick a random commenter to win a skein of sock yarn from my stash.

More Deep Stash Diving and Malabrigo March

I bought three skeins of this Amaroso Malabrigo at least three years ago in the first flush of my love affair with Malabrigo.

 

It tried to be a Juliet, but after three false starts, it went back into the stash.

When Blogless Brooke found out she was having a second little girl, the Malabrigo cried out to become two In Threes. I never get to knit little girl patterns, and the match between pattern and yarn was undeniable.

 

I made a 0-6 month size and an 18-24 month size (which looks like it could fit up to a three year old). I used two and a half skeins, and both sweaters took under a week. 

Happy Malabrigo March!

Deepest Stash

I have, inadvertently, been knitting from my deepest, darkest stash lately. I bought one solitary skein of Brooks Farm Four Play, a wool and silk blend, at the Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival at least three years ago. The put-up at 270 yards per skein is generous, but the "perfect" project never came along, and it's been languishing ever since. The yarn has a delicate sheen from the silk, and the tonal dye is beautiful and subtle.

On Oscar night, I decided that I was just going to use this yarn, and I cast on for 198 Yards of Heaven.  Because I had extra yardage, I did an extra pattern repeat, but ran out halfway through the edging. I also realized one row into the edging, that the pattern made no sense, and when I checked Ravelry, I saw that the pattern I'd printed out a year ago had been revised with a completely different edge. So much for printing and organizing patterns when I see them. I ran out of yarn halfway through the edging, but I like the final results better than the original edging, which looks heavy and takes away from the main motif.

iPhone photo

The whole thing

Obligatory Hipstamatic Shot

Unfortunately, because it's only 270 yards, it doesn't count for 11 Shawls in 2011. Still, other than the pattern discrepancy, it was a quick and easy project and an excellent match of Deepest Stash to pattern.

In the Waiting Room

No, this isn't an analysis of the Elizabeth Bishop poem.  Pregnancy is accompanied by more waiting room time than I ever imagined, and I guess I'm glad that I have more than Elizabeth Bishop's one copy of National Geographic to look at, although with all the electronic diversions we have, there's little chance of the introspective epiphany offered in the poem.

Anyway, I've spent a lot of time waiting. In the past five days alone, I've

• waited over an hour for my OB/GYN to get out of surgery.
• endured a three hour glucose test (at which I FORGOT my iPhone at home, which made me all twitchy. Who knew I had such a need to check Facebook at all times?
• and coincidentally, had two totally pregnancy unrelated doctor's appointments.

The upside is that's a lot of knitting time. The product so far is a "Waiting Room Sock," a plain vanilla top down 64 stitch deal, knit in Hazel Knits sockyarn. I'm trying out Kollage square needles and liking them pretty well so far.

More for that Poor Second Baby

Really, the poor dear. My mother and I started to go through the newborn clothes I'd saved from Henry and we found sleepers with the tags still on them. Still, with twelve weeks to go, I feel like time is running out. I made a huge list of things I wanted to knit for the new baby, and I haven't gotten to so many of them. I'm also feeling like I want to do some complex lace work before Newborn Sleep Deprivation takes over.

But so far, this is my favorite thing I've made for the new baby: Cosy's Baby Eggplant, in the 6 month size, from Malabrigo Worsted in Glazed Carrot and Lettuce.

The Plight of the Poor Second Baby

Poor Second Baby. Traditionally doomed to wearing elder siblings' hand-me-downs and playing with gently used baby toys, they have nothing to call their own.

Except knitwear.

I seem to have managed the fantastic feat of having children of the same gender at the same time of the year, and because I am a hoarder saver, Happyface Hello doesn't need a single stitch of clothing. I went up to our attic the other day to sort through Henry's baby clothes, and it was an embarrassment of riches, thanks to my Gymboree and Hanna Andersson addiction and my mother's exuberance over being a first-time grandma.

But where this kid is going to win out is in the knitwear department. My knitting when Henry was born was embarrassingly basic. I made him a blanket, some simple hats and sweaters, and of course, all of those Mason Dixon Baby Bibs. Happyface Hello is already reaping the benefits of a much more experienced knitter for a mother.

First, pants. My husband has run away screaming from the idea of cloth diapering, but I have been avidly stalking all kinds of patterns for diaper covers, soakers, and longies. Neither of these two projects would actually work for cloth diapering, which requires non-superwash wool, but who can resist knitted pants?

A newborn adaptation of the Milo Soaker, from Vintage Baby Knits, knit in Berroco Comfort DK:

February Baby Leggings, from Elizabeth Zimmermann's A Knitter's Almanac in Malabrigo Rios. I shortened the torso and ended the leg after decreasing to 48 inches. I have no idea if these proportions will actually work on a baby, but the end result is still pretty cute:

Next, sweaters. I bought three skeins of Cumberland Sport at the Miss Babs booth ("Where did Anna go? She's at the Miss Babs booth AGAIN?")  at Maryland Sheep and Wool with the express purpose of knitting the Harvey Kimono from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms by Louisa Harding, and I'm proud to say, I actually followed through! Check out the cute turtle buttons:

 

More to come!

Finishing Frenzy

Recently, The Yarn Harlot wrote about contracting the most wished-for syndrome available to knitters, Finishitis, or the desire to clear out the cavalcade of UFOs from the knitting basket. I have to say, while I am not doing "spring cleaning" again, where I didn't cast on for a month, I am trying to clear the decks before the new baby comes. We'll call it the knitters' version of nesting.

I'm pleased to say that I have used stash yarn for its intended purpose. When I walked into the Brooks Farm booth last May at Maryland Sheep and Wool, I saw two skeins of their Solana that I thought would be perfect for a sweater for Henry. Solana is a heavy worsted superwash, that, amazingly, doesn't feel like a superwash. It has spring and bounce and energy, unlike so many superwash yarns.

After some questioning of the recipient ("Do you want this sweater to go over your head or button up the front?"), I cast on using Ann Norling's Top Down Sweater for Children. I can say without reservation that this is a terrible pattern, and I'm embarrassed, having recommended Ann Norling patterns for years to customers. I've knit others before with no problem, but this one is a dud. The proportions are completely off, and the sleeve directions in particular make absolutely no sense, and, in fact, are apt to make someone new to top-down construction or seamless knitting run screaming back to her pieced Debbie Bliss patterns. It makes the construction of the sweater much harder than it needs to be, and after I realized how screwy the pattern was, I simply knit a top-down sweater, thankful that I knew the basic principle.

I am not crazy about the flashing down the front, but the recipient actually likes it and asked to wear it to school the day after I finished it. So despite a shaky process, I call this project a success.

Pregnancy and Knitting, Part 2

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is a common side-effect of pregnancy as fluid retention increases and nerves are compressed. Repetitive hand-movements aggravate the problem. Guess what is characterized by repetitive hand-movements? Knitting!

And for me, specifically knitting with the shorter needle tips found on 16 inch circulars. I started a hat that my mother had requested on Saturday and knit on it all that day and part of yesterday. By halftime of the Packers-Bears game, I realized I couldn't go on. My wrists ached and the pain was starting to shoot up my arm. I did not knit at all during the Steelers game. (Superbowl, yeah!!!)

The pain is only marginally better this morning, and of course, I'm not helping matters by typing on the computer. I think this is the end of hat-mania for awhile.

I Won!

I never win anything. I'm the person who sits at the prize drawings at Maryland Sheep and Wool, breathless with anticipation and then bitter at going home empty-handed. One year, Yvonne and I got so excited and then disappointed over a Lexie Barnes bag that we ended up bruising each other.

So imagine my surprise when I was one of the prize-winners for the 10 Shawls in 2010 group on Ravelry. I won my choice of Wolle's Yarn Creations Color Changing Cotton. It's a three-ply, fingering weight, 100% cotton yarn. Looking at pictures on Ravelry, it blocks surprisingly well in lace patterns and looks fantastic in patterns like Citron. My choice was Desert Clay:

Steelers Fan in Training

When I found out I was pregnant, I had the same urge I imagine knitters all around the world have: CAST ON SOMETHING SMALL AND CUTE. But, having been through pregnancy loss, I was superstitious and cautious. I allowed myself to make one thing and one thing only, telling myself and my coworkers that it was a shop sample.

Who can resist booties? These adorable things are the classic pattern, Christine's Stay-On Baby Booties.  Knit on US size 1.5 Addi circulars, they took under half a skein of Lorna's Laces Steelers Pride, available exclusively at Natural Stitches. 

I indoctrinate the new members of the Steelers Nation at a very young age. I'm calling this the obligatory belly shot, at the halfway point of 20 weeks. Please note that Steelers gear comes in maternity sizes! We have our priorities straight in Pittsburgh.