I can’t believe my little baby is already 4 weeks old! Time switches between zooming by and crawling when you’re stuck hibernating at home for 6 weeks while you can’t drive. I have some cute photos to share, and I hope to have a chance to get someone to hold Henri over the weekend so I can upload some photos here.
(Let’s not even get into the fact that I can’t believe my little 20 month old Jakob is a BIG brother. Words fail me.)
Updates to come, promise. Still adjusting to life with a newborn and toddler, especially the newborn who has his days and nights mixed up. Don’t have many waking hours with the energy to come and sort through photos and put together a coherent post…but will do soon! Happy 2009…
Mommy, Daddy and Jakob are thrilled to present…
Henri Mikail
Born Thursday, January 8 2009, 11:29 am
8 lbs, 11 oz 21.25″
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Baby Henri (pronounced “Henry” but we liked the French spelling) was born last Thursday via repeat, planned c-section. We’re all doing well, and Jakob is wonderful with his little brother and insists on kissing him every time they are within a foot of each other.
The bris was today and it’s been a long week, so I’m off to try and sleep. Birth story and more photos to come soon.
I finally had enough yarn to finish! Woot! Of course, it meant going out in the lovely little (ha!) snowstorm we had today, but it gave me a chance to do some other errands in that mall, so that was ok.
Don’t let me be misleading- the KNITTING is all done. I still have the seaming to do, and for a dinosaur toy that has about 15 or so parts that all need to be seamed and assembled…that is as far as I will be going tonight. I like to finish my projects in one sitting and think it would be creepy to walk into my office tomorrow and see a half-stuffed dinosaur sitting on my desk.
Once the seaming is done I predict I will have used half of the 5th ball of yarn. 450m to knit a 326m project. Oh well. It’ll be soon, now!
(p.s. Mackenzie is too young to read this blog, but his mommy isn’t…so I won’t be showing final photos of the finished dinosaur until after it has been given to its new owner. Need to have some kind of surprise!)
I’m really confused. I thought tonight would be simple- plop onto the couch with my knitting, my notions bag, a bag of stuffing, and a bottle of water. Turn on the TV, watch some junk food and don’t get up until I have a stuffed dinosaur in my hands.
I ran out of yarn again! I don’t get it!
In the book it says clearly “Astra by Patons, 50g skein, each approx 178 y/163 m” then “2 skeins MC”.
Ok, so if we work in meters here, that would mean that for the main color I need 163 x 2 meters which would be 326 meters.
If the information in the book was already wrong for Astra, and the yardage was actually meant to be the current yardage, then that is 161 y/147 m. Needing 2 balls, that would mean 147 x 2 meters, which would be 294 m. Now, I know this isn’t the case- Astra shrunk their balls AFTER this pattern was printed.
Ok, fine. So I need 326 meters of yarn.
The yardage for Smart Superwash, as per the ballband in my hand says “50 g = 100 meter“. That’s why when I first ordered the yarn, believing Ravelry’s Astra yardage to be correct, I ordered 3 balls. 3 x 100 = 300 m…so I should have had enough. Of course as we all know I soon realized that I should have checked the yardage listed in the pattern.
Ok, fine. I’m only about 30 m short of what I need. My LYS has 17 balls left in stock. I buy 1 ball, I have 100 m, I have plenty.
You’d think so.
I have no yarn left. I still need enough MC yarn to knit the bases for the horns and for seaming. Granted, it’s only a few yards, not even close to a full or even half ball- probably less than 1/4 of a ball. But still- look at that photo up there. I don’t have any excessively long tail ends except for the green of which I have plenty. I’ve already used 400 m and NOT HAD ENOUGH to knit what should only require 326 m.
True, I didn’t run these balls through the meter counter. I figured “why bother?” and trusted the ball bands. Now I’m regretting that, as I have a strong feeling that the balls were all wound short. How else can I explain this?
RRR. Back to the LYS tomorrow!
Everything is coming together.
I’m officially on maternity leave, and am looking forwards to a little time off before the baby comes.
Yesterday I got an email response from the Sandnes people about my request for errata- turns out there WAS a mistake in the pattern. They forwarded the corrections to me, and I will be able to continue on Kayla’s Lace Cardigan without (hopefully) any more problems.
I also reached my LYS yesterday and found out that they had ordered in a bag of 20 balls of the purple Smart Superwash when I had requested the 3 I’d originally purchased. I only need another 1, and I picked it up this afternoon. The dinosaur will be done a lot faster than the cardigan, so I am going to work on that over the next few days to get another project knocked off my list.
I also had an ultrasound today.
[If you don’t feel like reading a long thought-process ramble about c-sections vs VBACs then skip down to the last paragraph of this post]
I don’t see my doctor until tomorrow, but the gist of the situation is that they are predicting that I am having a large baby. Because of that, the technician’s extremely strong recommendation is to have a c-section instead of risking a VBAC. Part of the reason is, of course, the risk to me in terms of a uterine rupture. However, more disturbing to me is their major concern of the risk that the baby’s shoulders wouldn’t fit and that serious complications could occur during delivery.
Now, I don’t believe the baby’s weight estimate is accurate. I fully believe that the baby will be born at at least a full pound less than they think the baby currently weighs. Regardless of how I feel about that, however, there are 2 things I am fairly certain of:
1. I don’t believe my doctor will disagree with the ultrasound technicians. Therefore I am positive that when I see her tomorrow, she will tell me to keep the c-section date that we’d tentatively scheduled previously. I don’t think she’ll give me an option, say it is my decision, or weigh the odds. I’m pretty sure she’ll say that this is what needs to be done.
2. I believe that the hospital and the ultrasound technicians are confident in their results. Meaning that whether or not the baby actually IS as big as they say, they are sure that the baby is large, and are making the best possible recommendations that they can, assuming that the baby is large.
Taking both of those factors into account, I have decided that whether or not I end up having a choice, my decision has already been made to have an elective c-section on the date scheduled. I am fully aware that many people have had successful VBACs with large babies, and possibly if I were to hunt around I could find a doctor or hospital that would let me try. But it would only be a “try”. I don’t know that I wouldn’t end up in labor only to have it not progress and end up with a c-section anyways. I don’t know that in that circumstance it wouldn’t end up as an emergency surgery. And I don’t know what the outcome would be.
I do know that by making this decision, I am actively doing what my hospital and the ultrasound technician feel is the safest route for me to safely deliver a healthy baby. I am certain that this opinion is going to be shared by my doctor. These are the people that I have trusted with my previous and current pregnancies, and my previous delivery, and I am not about to start doubting them now.
If they said I fell into a “gray zone”, an area of their chart that could go either way…suggesting a c-section but allowing for the possibility of a vaginal delivery…I think I’d be upset. I would feel very unsure about making the “right” decision about what to do. But after plugging all values into the computer I fall so far into the “vaginal delivery is not an option” category that I am completely comfortable with this decision.
Also helping me make my decision is the fact that the baby isn’t predicted to be large “at birth”. It is predicted to be large NOW. But with a VBAC they advise against being induced because of the risk of rupture when you go from nothing into strong contractions. If I were to wait to go into labor on my own, anywhere from today to up to 10 days past my due date, the baby (who puts on about a half-pound per week at this stage) would be nearly 2 pounds heavier than the current estimate (which already states that there is a risk). So why wait around and invite problems?
I wouldn’t say I’m “happy” about this decision, but I am completely comfortable and not un-happy with it. There will always be a small twinge of disappointment for what I’ll never get to know, but not enough for me to deliberately choose to put my child in any danger just to satisfy my own curiosity. I feel like this is my choice to do what is best for the health of my baby (and my own, should it come to that).
So…enough of the heavy stuff. It’s all good! Baby coming soon! I stopped working! I can keep knitting! And between doctor’s appointments (I might have a sinus infection- thanks daycare!) and finishing arranging any newly re-unpacked baby toys, that’s exactly what I plan on doing- parking myself in front of the couch, knitting, resting and vegging during the day…and spending my evenings with my son, enjoying him while he’s still an only child and appreciating everything he brings to our life.
This is the last holiday gift to blog about! (Or, everything you didn’t care to know about the Very Cabley Mittens, in much too much detail).
I’d mentioned Brigitte’s Very Cabley Mittens before, when I complained about the sizing issues I was having, and how I’d basically spent a day knitting to have to undo everything. In the end these mittens were knit waaay too many times. I think the first mitten was knit at least 3 times before I got it right.
To sum up…I’d knit the cuff on 4mm as directed (and after getting proper gauge) but I found the cuff much too loose. Had I kept going and knit the body of the mitten it might have seemed ok, but I wasn’t thrilled. I changed to 3.75mm needles and got a great cuff, but working the rest of the mitten as written led to a mitten body that was much too tight. I added length but the width was crazy tight- I couldn’t even uncurl my hand, and Brigitte’s hand is about a centimeter wider than mine. At the end of the first day I undid the entire mitten body and kept the cuff from the smaller needle.
That night (Dec 23rd) I redid the mitten body using the 4mm needles as required. This width was perfect, and everything came along swimmingly until I got to the end. Even with the added repeats the top shaping came up too suddenly and it was too short. Twice I had to undo it and and more length. I realized quickly that trying on the mitten as a tube didn’t give me an accurate length, because it pulled the tube up higher than it would sit normally but closing the mitten top would make it actually too short. When I removed the waste yarn for the afterthought thumb and THEN tried it on, the mitten was able to snug down around the base of my thumb as it would sit properly, and actually be shorter than it had appeared before. Once I realized this I was able to measure the length properly while having it tried on with new waste yarn holding the live sts but keeping the thumb hole open.
The second time I had to undo the top and add more length is because apparently I can’t follow a pattern, or count, and somehow I’d managed to mis-align my cables and it looked stupid. In any case, by the time I went to bed on the 23rd, I had one full mitten (sans thumb) and a blueprint for making the second one to match. On the 24th I figured I’d get everything finished up during the day, but I only worked a half-day due to the holidays and since I wanted to get some actual work done (you know, in case I went into labour before going back to work on Saturday) I didn’t really do more than cast on and complete the 2nd cuff. After work I had my hair appointment, but quickly decided that even though I had a good 40 minutes to sit with the color in my hair, I didn’t want to risk my only ball of CREAM COLORED yarn to the Fates. The last thing I’d need is to get some dye on the yarn!
Luckily our Christmas Eve plans were to stay home and veg in front of the TV since we see Yannick’s mom’s side of the family on Christmas Day, and his dad’s side on New Year’s Day, so Christmas Eve is often just us celebrating together. Yannick didn’t mind me knitting (especially since his name would be on the gift too!) and by the time I went to bed on the 24th I had 2 complete mittens. Well, both were thumbless. I should totally have had time to complete the entire pair of mittens and be done…but somehow I’d screwed up. I finished the 2nd mitten and closed the top, laid them side-by-side, and realized that the 2nd one was longer than the first. Visibly and noticably longer.
I spent longer than I should have trying to figure out the mistake, and eventually ripped back to where I knew things were good and redid the top part. For the life of me, I still can’t figure out what I’d done wrong. I was about 4 rows too long, and the pattern DOES have an option for ending on either row 4 or row 8 depending on the length you need, so theoretically I could have worked an extra 4 rows before doing the top shaping…except that would have meant I’d have had to follow the “modified top shaping” instructions, to get the cables to flow properly, and I’m SURE I didn’t, and yet the cables were perfect. I’m still very confused. It didn’t take long once I actually started undoing it, and I did manage to reknit the top before bed. But I still had no thumbs.
The next day (Dec. 25th- talk about close!) I knew I only had to knit 2 thumbs and weave in the ends, I’d had no plans on blocking the mittens like I’d done for the socks. Our internet was down and I had to sit on hold with tech support for a while, so while I sat there I knit, and by the time the call was over both mittens had thumbs and all ends were woven in. I had all 3 gifts nicely labeled, bagged and wrapped by noon, and we weren’t even expecting Yannick’s family to arrive to do our gift exchange until 4pm. I made it under the wire! (As another plus, I now know how fast these mittens are to knit, and how cute they are when knit up. If I ever want a pair for myself, Brigitte’s fit me perfectly so I just have to follow what I did for her. Nice!)
Pattern: Very Cabley Mittens by Kelly Porpiglia (Ravelry link and direct link)
Size: one size.
Yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Worsted Superwash in “White Frost”, 1 skein (which was surprisingly enough, even though I added repeats!)
Needles: 3.75mm needle and 4mm needle
Dates: December 23 – 25 2008
Modifications: I knit the first cuff using 4mm needles as per the pattern, but it came out huge. I went down to 3.75mm and the cuff was perfect, but the mitten itself was too small. Third time was a charm- the perfect pattern was doing the cuff on 3.75mm and the mitten and thumb on 4mm. I did have to add 2 repeats to the mitten cable pattern, and I did the thumbs on the 4th repeat (of my 7 total) not the 3rd repeat (of 5 total).
As usual you can find my finished (and unfinished!) projects in my “projects” page by clicking the tab up at the top of every page on my blog, and I also have this project in my Ravelry notebook here.
Here are the 3 gifts for my in-laws’ families, all labeled and ready to wrap. I think next year I really have to knit a pair of socks for my brother-in-law, because this is the third Christmas where he’s seen a pair of my handknit socks and he constantly makes comments about being impressed with the detail, the tiny stitches, etc. I felt bad that everyone else got a “made” gift and he got a gift certificate when he seemed to appreciate the work that went in to the socks the most!
I checked the book itself (Family Circle Easy Baby Knits) and the yardage they list for Astra is 178 y (not 161 y like Ravelry) and 163 m (not 147).
Which means I needed 356 y/326 m of the main color. By purchasing 3 balls of the Smart, I only have 324 y/297 m. Luckily, now that I know this, I can be reassured that I only need to buy one more ball and will have enough. (I wasn’t sure how much more I’d need).
I was looking forwards to having big news to share with you. It appears that most of the dinosaur’s carcass has been discovered, and it was looking quite good that the remains of its dismembered corpse would have been discovered, if not by nightfall, then at least by sundown tomorrow. All that remains to locate is the head, horns and arms of the beast…
Unfortunately, this is all that remains of my trusty supplies. Don’t ask me how this happened.
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Honestly, I’m confused. The pattern called for 2 balls of Patons Astra in the main color. According to Ravelry, Astra is 161 y/147 m per 50g ball. So that’s 322 y/294 m needed. I’m using Smart Superwash, which according to Ravelry has 108 y/99 m per ball. My ball band says 100m. I deliberately ordered 3 50g balls – which should give me 324 y/297 m, or just enough to finish. There is no way I can squeeze out a head and two arms from what I have left- the photo isn’t very clear but there is maybe 1/5 or 1/6 of the ball left, maximum.
The only thing I can guess is that Astra has changed its yardage since the pattern was written. In any case, I’d ordered the yarn from my LYS and I have to wait until tomorrow or Monday to see if they’d ordered in only what I’d asked for, or if they have any other balls in this color in stock. Either way I can’t keep working on the dino until I get more yarn. That means both my remaining gift knits are stalled until further notice. I hope this isn’t a portent of things to come for this year!
I think to try and counteract this luck I am going to revisit an old project instead of starting a new one. Almost exactly a year ago I finished the first Sidewinder sock (my Ravely project) and I only need to knit one more to have a completed new pair of socks for myself. I have the yarn, and I have the needles, and I have the pattern. Hopefully nothing will come up to stall this project too!
I still have a few more gifts to get through on my 2008 holiday recap.
On December 22nd I finished up my father-in-law’s Christmas socks. These photos are very boring because, let’s be honest, they are boring, all-brown, all-stockinette stitch socks.
Pattern: N/A I used a basic sock “recipe” from a booklet I got from my LYS many years ago. 2×2 rib for the cuff, stockinette leg and foot, flap-style reinforced heel with gusset, and regular (wedge?) toe.
Size: 64 sts around, and his foot is 9″ around and 10.5″ long.
Yarn: Regia 4ply in color # 1231 (brown), 2 50g balls
Needles: 2.5mm dpns
Dates: October 27 – December 22 2008 (but only took so long because I waited for my in-laws to get back from Florida to try on the first socks for size).
Modifications: None.
As usual you can find my finished (and unfinished!) projects in my “projects” page by clicking the tab up at the top of every page on my blog, and I also have this project in my Ravelry notebook here.
A quick wrap in a care label and one yarn baggie later, and this gift was ready to go too! Once this was done it meant I was finally able to start my sister-in-law’s mittens. I finished these socks around 11:30pm on the 22nd, so the Christmas gift mittens were only started on December 23rd. No pressure!
jeloca.com 