Folks, I’m here to tell you about a serious problem that can affect (almost) all knitters.  It can make the seemingly most innocent, obvious of tasks the hardest, and can guarantee that even simple jobs fail. 

Knitting while pregnant.

I know, I know, it doesn’t seem like much.  “A fetus sucking the life and energy out of me?  How on earth can that affect my knitting?  Pshaw!”  you say.  Nope, it’s true. 

Knitting+Baby=Dumb-de-dumb-dumb-dumb!

I used to joke that when I got pregnant with Jakob, I got dumb.  Them smarts never came back after delivery, and this blog has shown ample evidence (see: the waste-basket incident of ’07).  Well, getting pregnant again has made it worse.  I’m at the point where I have to literally say things out loud to someone else for confirmation in order to make sure I’ve “got it” (two plus two is four, right?) and have been laughed at repeatedly by friends and family…Yannick mostly.

Remember how I said I spent the guild meeting Tuesday night swatching for the Queen of Cups socks?  And how the gauge was spot-on, for both the stockinette and lace portions?  Yeah.  About that.

The pattern is written in two sizes: narrower and wider.  The narrower is supposed to stretch to an 8″ foot; the wider to a 9″ foot.  I had my trusty tracing of my mother-in-law’s foot with me, glanced at it, saw 9.5″ and thought perfect, I’ll knit the wider size and the lace will stretch open beautifully, as if it were blocked.  And so I did.  I cast on last night, did the ribbing and got halfway through the first lace repeat when it dawned on me…the sock looked kinda big.  Like…fitting Yannick, kinda big.

See the problem?  Can I admit here, among friends, that it took me half an hour!!! of staring at the pattern, remeasuring my gauge and stretching the wip in my hands before it occurred to me WHY my spot-on gauge, perfect knitting would, in fact, be too freaking big for my mother-in-law?  I actually turned around to Yannick and said, quite dejectedly, “I’m an idiot”.

(For those who might be pregnant I’ll spell it out- her foot is only 8.5″ wide.  It is 9.5″ long.  Ergo I should be knitting the smaller size).

I’ll restart tonight after I decide if I’ll end up going to prenatal aqua.  The baby is getting heavy and pulling uncomfortably, and walking isn’t so much fun.  I know I’ll feel lighter in the pool, but am not sure if I’ll manage to bring myself to actually go.

While I had the camera out last night, (for the sole purpose of embarassing myself publicly with the above photo), I squeezed out a photo of the big, brown, plain sock.  Enjoy:

Boring, eh?