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why do i bother?

I get excited over contests (see: Mary Maxim and Interweave’s Poetry Contest) and then don’t win.  Ok, no big deal.  It’s fun to enter and I like the anticipation of the results, so no harm done.  Other than a possible entry fee, there’s no loss to me.

I get excited over submissions (see: Knitty and Twist Collective) and then don’t make it into whatever issue I’ve submitted for.  Ok, no big deal.  I still like the anticipation of finding out if I made it, and the deadlines give me a kick in the pants to get the ideas out of my head and into tangible items.  No loss to me either, as I usually end up with a finished item and finished pattern, which I can then choose to self-publish or put out for free.  (See: Elphie, a free download I offer, that Knitty rejected last year).

I also get excited about other things.  Some of you will remember my bitter disappointment last year when we found out that Jakob was breech, and that I wouldn’t get a chance to have a natural delivery.  I was heartbroken and we even tried a bunch of measures to get him to turn.  Nothing worked.  In the end that was a good thing, as the umbilical cord was loosely around his neck and had he turned things could have gone badly.  Still…while the c-section went like a breeze and the recovery was great, I always felt cheated out of an experience that is a woman’s natural right.

When we got pregnant again I never really thought about the baby’s position.  The odds of having 2 breech babies is pretty slim (I told myself, don’t have any facts on that) and I was really only concerned with whether or not my doctor would allow me to try a VBAC.  Every visit it was discussed, and last time Yannick even came with to finalize our decision.

I had an ultrasound yesterday morning.  I walked in there thinking we’d find out how small the baby was (my doctor’s guess was small-to-normal) and if the baby was head-down, so now we just wait until I go into labor.  Instead I found out that the baby is already 4 lbs 15 oz- which contrary to my first, brain dead thought, is NOT just over 4 lbs.  It’s 1 oz less than 5 lbs.  Which puts the baby in the 91st percentile for size.  And, in what won’t be much of a shock to those able to pick up on the theme of this post…the baby is breech.  And due to the current size, while there is always a remote possibility, the odds of the baby turning in the next 8 weeks is infinitesmal.

So at my regular visit next Tuesday, instead of discussing what goes on during a VBAC birth, I will be choosing my child’s birth date and scheduling another c-section.  Any future children I have will have no option but to be c-sections, meaning I will never, ever be able to have a natural delivery, no matter how many kids we end up having.

I cannot really share how disappointed I am.  I know there are benefits.  I know we will be able to schedule someone to be with Jakob (assuming I don’t go into labor prior to the chosen date/time).  I know it will be safer for both me and the baby.  I know it will give me a few extra days at the hospital taking care of only one child before coming home to take care of two, a house, Yannick and Sam.  I know it’s not the end of the world.

But it’s the end of my dream, and while I am ecstatic to know that the baby is safe and healthy and fine, there is a little something inside me that ended yesterday.  No matter how optimistic I tend to be about every challenge I take on, this is one that no amount of wishing, hoping, praying or optimism will change, and at a certain point will even become a waste of effort.

Jakob is feeling better, still has a slight fever but is starting to get his energy back.  Yannick is doing well and keeping busy with work.  The baby, though upside-down, is otherwise great, kicking the crap out of me and only minimally affecting my ability to sleep and frequency of bathroom breaks.  Life, in other words, is going on as normal, but I am going to take a few days off from blogging and try to accept this latest development.


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who knew?

Who knew – that 105.3 F fever in an 18 month old isn’t a big deal?  Not me, that’s for sure.  The fever and yellow eye gunk (we’d already had the Green Boogers of Doom, and now we have the Yellow Shmutz of Suffering) led to Jakob staying home from daycare on Wednesday.  He came to work with me in the morning and slept in my arms for 2 hours until my mom came to get him at lunch time.  His fever was still rising so she brought him to the doctor for me, and they said he had an eye infection and prescribed antibiotic drops.  They also warned that it could lead to an ear infection, so if he still had fever in 48 hrs we should bring him back so they could check his ears.  Ok. I can handle that.  He’s not eating, and when we put him to bed that night he was burning up, so I took his temperature again.  104.5. 

At midnight he woke up crying and when I went to soothe him I almost burned myself on his skin.  105.3.  I’ve never seen the thermometer go that high!  When it hit 105 I started crying, then shaking as it rose higher.  Jakob was nearly comatose; instead of crying and pushing to get away from the thermometer he just…lay there…like he wasn’t fully present.  My mind started flashing- what are we taught about fevers while growning up?  High fever=bad, cool baths, brain inflamation, seizures, warning, danger!  I immediately called the Children’s Hospital emergency room and asked who I could speak to to find out if I should bring him in.  They said to call 811 (the InfoSante hotline).  Anyone physically there that I could speak to?  No, call 811.  Fine.  I call 811. 

InfoSante can’t get me off the phone fast enough, warning danger DANGER go to the hospital, do not pass go, he could go into convulsions, he needs to be rehydrated, why am I still on the phone?  So we go to the hospital.  After a 4 hour wait we get lectured for bringing in a child who doesn’t need to be seen.  “Never call InfoSante,” they say, “They’re alarmists and will tell you to come to the hospital for anything.”  “You told me to call them.”  “Well, it’s ‘cus we can’t give info over the phone.”  So basically I’m damned if I do, and damned if I don’t.  I also don’t consider a rediculously high fever “nothing”, but apparently that’s just me.

To recap the rest of the Jakob saga…yesterday I kept him home with me.  In the morning his temperature was only 100 F and I thought maybe it had broken.  He still was barely eating.  At bedtime the temp was up to 103.4 F.  At midnight I snuck in and gave him another dose of Tempra.  This morning it was 104.5 F at 6:45 am and I noticed welts all over his legs.  So I booked him an appointment with his doctor (as they’d asked) and cancelled the appointment he was supposed to have at a photo studio at noon.  I had my 32 week ultrasound this morning so I couldn’t stay with him, so Yannick brought him to my mom and she’s been watching him all day.  She also took him to the doctor for me.  He still has fluid in his ears but not enough to warrant meds yet, and the welts will probably spread over his whole body before leaving, as they are a side-effect of the fever.  Again, if there is still fever in 48 hours we should go back, but we have his 18 month checkup on Monday anyways, so I will just wait until then.  So in the end there’s nothing seriously wrong, but the poor little guy is sick and looks so pitiful just lying there.  The snuggle time is great if you can stand the heat coming off of him.  Luckily he’s drinking just enough to keep from becoming dehydrated.

Who knew – that there would be enough time during Jakob’s nap on Thursday to finish the first Queen of Cups sock?  (Ok, I had a feeling about this one).  I didn’t weave in any ends because if the final verdict is “good fit, slightly too long” I want to be able to change it without too many headaches.

Please ignore my homebrew sock blocker- I didn’t have any pliers handy and my bare hands couldn’t smooth the hanger the way I wanted it to go.  It is clearly not “blocking” the sock, but hopefully making it look more attractive than just lying on the table.

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Here are the first each Queen of Cups and Boring Brown sock.  Neither is my size, so please ignore the fit (and the cat hair).  My inlaws should be back next weekend to help Yannick watch Jakob while my mom, sister and I spend a 4 day weekend in New York City, so I will get them to try them on (blindfolded) and let me know if the sizes are good.

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I was feeling kinda crappy last night so I skipped prenatal aquafitness and instead started the first of 3 Christmas gifts for Jakob’s daycare teachers.  The yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy, in Cool Fire, and the pattern is the Flower Scarf (Ravelry link, non-Ravelry link).  I’m going to have a ton of leftover yarn, which means I can most probably eke a pair of short toe-up socks from the remnants.  Yay!

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One last “who knew” – who knew that this stitch pattern is NOT ribbing??

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It’s garter stitch!  How awesome is that?  The pattern is written as Fisherman’s Rib which is based on 1×1 rib.  But below that the designer offered a garter adaptation that was supposed to look nearly identical.  I really didn’t feel like working ribbing so I tried the garter version – holy crap it IS nearly identical!  I spend almost as much time knitting it as I do stopping to look at the resulting fabric and trying to identify how it does what it does.  Tres cool.  It’s a nice, cushy, thick, stretchy faux-rib, and I think I’d like to try it on a garment edge one day.


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update to last post

The good news is that the sock is still progressing quite fast.  I’m about 12 rows away from the toe decreases, but am stopping for the night ‘cus I’m too tired to continue.

The bad news is that by the time I picked Jakob up from daycare he was really burning up.  He was so lethargic that when I took him out of his car seat at home, his eyes were unfocused and glassy, and when he laid his head on my shoulder he never raised it once until we got up to his room, not even during taking off his coat or mine or anything.  He’s never been like that before, and I decided immediately that I was not going to make him stay up and eat supper.  There’d be no point- he’d be passing out in the high chair, and why would I make him stay up the extra half hour and force food into him when sleep would do him more good?

Instead I brought him up to bed right away and gave him some extra milk to keep him from being hungry over night.  He got some Tempra too, and I put on the humidifier because his nose and eyes were running and he had an occassional dry cough.  The worst is the fever- I could barely stand to touch him because he was so hot!  At bedtime his fever had risen to 103.4 F, which is the highest he’s ever had.  He’s definitely not going to daycare tomorrow, and I’ll determine in the morning if we need to visit the doctor.  His (amazing) doctor’s office has late and emergency hours, plus a full clinic with access to his file.  I called them before putting him to bed and they said it would be ok to see how he is in the morning, and that it’s not so much the high fever that is a risk in kids, but how suddenly it comes on.  The Tempra would help to lower the fever so if he were able to sleep over night it would be good for him.  Luckily so far he’s been sleeping pretty soundly, with only the occassional whimper or cough.  I just went in and changed his diaper and refilled the humidifier, so hopefully he’ll be comfortable enough to sleep straight through the rest of the night without waking up.


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and so it begins…

I just got my first phone call home from daycare.  They noticed Jakob’s eyes looked glassy after his nap so they took his temperature, and it’s 100.4 F.  It’s not superhigh, but it’s high enough to warrant a call and to ask if I want them to give him Tempra.  (I don’t- his bedtime is in less than 3 hours and the Tempra dosage is every 4, so I’d rather give him a dose before bed).  It turns out 100.4-ish is their cutoff for keeping a child home, so if he is still feverish in the morning then he won’t be able to go in.  Luckily my mom is retired now so if I do have to keep him home, I’ll bring him to work with me in the morning and my mom will pick him up at lunch time after her hair appointment, and she’ll watch him for the afternoon. 

I’m glad it was easy to find a solution but I sure wish he hadn’t gotten sick now, since yesterday and today were the best 2 days he’s had at daycare so far.  He cried when Yannick dropped him off yesterday, but apparently was cheerful, playful and in a great mood the rest of the day.  This morning he didn’t cry when I dropped him off, and other than having a fever, they said he’s been wonderful today too.  I really hope to not have to keep him home tomorrow, and possibly set back his progress, because I already have to keep him home this coming Friday for an appointment we have in town.

—

Ever have a knitting project that seems to go so slowly, and yet, so fast?  The Queen of Cups socks are like that.  I started over with the smaller needle size, and the size I’m getting is perfect.  I did the ribbing and 18 rows of the leg, and then couldn’t bring myself to touch it again all weekend.  I don’t know what’s come over me (baby?!) but most nights I have to force myself to pick up the needles.  Once I do- I whiz along.  But the motivation to pick up the project isn’t there. 

Yesterday I kept dreading picking it up to work on, because I kept imagining it would go slowly.  And yet- while knitting wasn’t the only thing I did yesterday – I also washed, dried, folded and put away 3 loads of laundry- including Jakob’s laundry basket which should count as 2 because a full basket of tiny clothes takes forFREAKINGever to fold, made guacamole and Greek salad, tidied up, visited Maaike and her brand-new, adorable son Gabriel, and showered – I still managed to knit through the leg, the heel flap, turn the heel, and am about 3/4 through the gusset decreases.  Tonight Yannick has bowling and Jakob goes to bed at 7…which means the socks and I have a 3 hour couch date with Greg, Peter and Elliot (or Cyrus , Patrick and Eli, depending on which lineup I choose to watch and which to tape).  What do you think the odds are that I can have a completed sock before bed?


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apparently…

…Mondays in my house are for knitting baby hats.

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Last Sunday night I decided that I wanted to knit something girly.  We still don’t know the sex of the baby, and everything I’ve knit so far has been unisex, on purpose.  But what if we have a little girl?  I was really struck with the idea of having something frilly and feminine that I made for her.  I knew just the project- a lacy little bonnet from a book I already owned.

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As soon as I’d grafted the toe on my father-in-law’s first sock I ran upstairs to my office to find the book, because I knew there was no way I was doing anything else the next day but knitting a girly hat.  Only- I couldn’t find the book.  I’ll spare you the recap of my repeated mad dashes through the house, but suffice it to say that after searching my office 10 times, the basement 6 times, and various other rooms in the house 5 times each, I finally found the book, 2 minutes before I collapsed into bed, in the office of all places.

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My original yarn choice was a vintage ball from my grandmother’s stash.  I liked the idea of my grandmother’s yarn adorning my (possible) daughter.  I wound and measured a few options but single, unmatched ball only had 120-140 yards, and the pattern called for about 240 yards.  I had to give up on a wool blend and dove into my cotton bin.  That’s where I found this Tahki Cotton Classic yarn that I’d won in a blog contest a few years ago.  I had 2 full skeins, each had about 108 yards.  I also had a few other colors, so I knew that if I ran short at the very end, I could bind off with another color of the same yarn.  Perfect!

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I didn’t want to use ribbon ties like the original pattern, so I went through Ravelry looking for cute knitted flowers.  I chose these flowers from a free online pattern and deliberately left enough yarn lengths for the tails so that I could work a twisted cord from them without having to reattach yarn (and have a possible weak point).  I made the twisted cords about 7″ long so they would be long enough to tie under baby’s chin but still be shorter than the 12″ safety standards for cords and babies.

Strangely enough, even with working the flowers and ties with the main yarn, I only used 3/4 of 1 skein.  I have no idea how that happened.

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I didn’t block it because it’s 100% cotton and is going to adapt to the baby’s head anyways, so why bother.  I’ll wash it with the other handknits shortly before the baby’s birth, and if we have a boy then this will go in the gift pile.  Someone will have a girl, someday.

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I love the flower on the back of the bonnet- too cute!

Pattern:  Lacy Bonnet by Erika Knight (Ravelry link), from Knitting for Two.  I used Flowers in Bloom by Alison Reilly (Ravelry link) for the flowers.

Size:  one size.  My guess is about 6 months, which will put this at a perfect cotton summer bonnet (if we have a girl)

Yarn:  Tahki Cotton Classic, 100% mercerized cotton, about 3/4 of a ball.

Needles: 3.75mm and 3.5mm

Dates:  November 10 2008 – this took under 4 hours including finishing

Modifications:  I added the twisted cord ties with the flowers on the ends, instead of using a ribbon.

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 for the hat, and here for the flowers.


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a finished- no, unfinished- no, FINISHED hat

Look- I made a hat!

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Jakob is officially in daycare.  Last Monday was his first day, and while there are still some kinks to be worked out as he gets used to them and they get used to him, all-in-all it has gone very well.  Some mornings he runs into the class before realizing he’s not with me and starting to cry, and other times he cries and clings and reaches out so pitifully when the teacher manages to pull him away, that my heart hurts for a few seconds.  When I pick him up he’s quick to adapt, crying at first as he runs to me, but the second he’s in my arms he turns on the charm, grinning and waving good-bye and blowing kisses to everyone around.  He’s also been more cuddly than usual but I would never complain about that!

At his “school” there are cubbies for each kid where the parents leave changes of clothes, outdoor shoes, sippy cups, etc.  I need to leave a hat for him.  It occurred to me that I didn’t have a hat for him!  Sure, he’s still got some baseball-style caps that fit him, plus that fisherman’s looking thing, but all his “Winter” hats he grew out of last year.  So last Monday I went to spend some knitting time at Maaike’s and swatched for a simple ribbed hat.

Note to self: listen to Ann Budd.  Ann Budd knows from what she speaks.

See, I’m a cocky knitter.  Wait-that came out wrong.  What I mean is, I’m adventurous.  I’m bold.  I’m daring.  I’m not afraid of trying new things.  I’m also not afraid of whipping up a pattern if it will be faster than trying to find what I want online or in print.  So when I decided to knit Jakob a hat I didn’t go looking in Ravelry or in my vast collection of patterns to see what I could find.  Instead I just swatched, made a plan, and cast on.

Let’s forget the fact that my first attempt had too many stitches cast on because I’d forgotten how rediculously stretchy a simple 2×2 rib is.  I remeasured, restarted, and fixed the problem.  I even tried the new version on him when it was about 2″ high, to make sure of the fit.  He kept pulling it off and making angry faces at me, but the width was good, so I settled down to concentrate on the length.

This is where I should have listened to Ann Budd.  A quick glance at the hat page in A Knitter’s Handy Pattern Guide (or whatever it is called) showed that for my gauge, and for a hat of approximately the same size, for a toddler of 18-24 months, I needed to knit until the hat was 7″ long, and then I could begin the crown shaping.  However, my kinda-careful measuring of Jakob’s head told me that from the ears I only needed 4″ to get to the top of his head.  So why would I knit an extra 3″?  Especially in worsted-weight, mindless 2×2 rib?

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Turns out, I should have.  My hat is waaaaay too short on Jakob.  I’d knit a 2″-ish ribbed cuff, then a double turning row, then knit until the hat was 4″ long.  I did some funky decreases for the crown then gathered the last 8 sts and secured.

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You can see here that the hat just doesn’t fit.  This photo was taken with the brim folded down, and it is still too short.  He also still hates it, and it took a lot of squirming, crying and trying to keep his hand away from pulling it off to even get this one crappy photo.

My original title for this post when I started typing up the draft last week was “an (un)finished hat”, because I had planned on cutting off the turning rows and brim, knitting downwards to get the extra 3″, then redoing the brim.  I’ve since decided not to.  Jakob really hates the hat.  He won’t tolerate it on his head, and I’m not going to subject myself to knitting any more navy rib if he won’t end up wearing it.  Instead it will go to the new baby, and if the baby is a girl then I’ll embroider some flowers on it or something.

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I’m pretty sure it will fit the baby.

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Pattern:  Baby’s Blue Ribbed Hat, my own design

Size:  Whatever you get with 108 sts.  Around 18 months, but the ribs pull it in to fit a smaller baby, and stretch out for a custom fit.

Yarn:  Patons Decor in Rich Country Blue, about 3/4 of a ball.

Needles: 3.5mm

Dates:  November 3 – 4 2008

Modifications:  Um…everything, since there was no pattern to begin with.  I did a double turning row to give the fold room to fit up around the thick ribbing.  I also did a custom arrangement of crown decreases to get a star-type shape on top.

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.


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public service announcement

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.

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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:

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Boring, eh?


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i’m weak

I’ve temporarily put aside my FIL’s Christmas socks.  I finished the first one Sunday night.  No photos yet, but picture a large, brown, plain, boring sock.  I was following the directions I’d written out 4 years ago for the first pair of socks I made for Yannick but I had to rewrite them because a) I took out 4 sts (1 per needle) for a slightly snugger fit, and b) it turns out my gauge had changed a boatload in 4 years.  With Yannick’s socks (knit on 2.5mm needles with Regia Color 4ply yarn) my notes said that after knitting 200 rows (from the cuff down around the heel and up the foot) I would be ready to work the toe decreases.  For Marcel’s socks, also knit with 2.5mm needles and with Regia 4ply yarn, 200 rows put me right about the arch of the foot.  NOT where the toes normally go.  Apparently I wasn’t always a tight knitter – who knew?  In any case, I finished the first one (as I said) and I want to wait for my in-laws to get home from Floriday, sometime in the first week of December, so I can get him to try it on and make sure it fits before I knit the second sock.  Kinda kills the surprise but saves me the time knitting something that won’t fit.

To avoid fit issues with my mother-in-law’s socks, I brought the yarn and pattern to the Montreal Knitting Guild meeting last night.  We had some new members there, and Barbara came by with some of her fabulous toys.  (I can’t stop raving about the bat, I’m in love!).  Our featured speakers didn’t show up, so I spent the night swatching for the socks.  I’m knitting the Queen of Cups pattern from an old issue of Knitty.

I’m going to spend tonight hopefully parked in front of the TV, working on the socks.  My needles (3mm), yarn (Regia 4ply in black) and gauge (for the larger size) worked perfectly, so here’s to hoping that the socks will fit. 

And you all know the other stuff on my never-getting-smaller list of stuff I have to knit; Kayla’s Lace Cardigan, Valerie’s Sweater, Mack’s Dinosaur, Brigitte’s Mittens…it’s endless!

So why am I weak?  Because all I can think about is casting on something for ME.  I really, really, really, really want to start Veronik’s Oblique (from another old Knitty issue).  I keep thinking about it.  I want to wear it. 

I’m resisting temptation so far, but it’s hard.  I wonder…would winding one ball of my Oblique yarn take the edge off?  Or would it bring me closer to the edge?


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and yet more baby knits

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Pattern:  Pinwheel Baby Blanket by Genia Planck (Ravelry project page), available for free from the Knitlist’s website here.

Size:  With this blanket you start at *k1, yo, rep around and keep adding (k2, yo, rep, then k3, yo, rep, etc).  I kept going until I had (I believe) 47 sts between YOs, which would be 480 sts on the needles.  I didn’t want a huge blanket for the crib, I wanted something I could wrap the baby in or tuck over the stroller without having too much excess.  I keep forgetting to measure it, though, to know how wide it actually is.  (I also haven’t blocked it, and don’t plan on it).

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Yarn:  Bernat Softee Baby in White, 1 ball.  I ran out of yarn at the last eyelet row before the border, so while you can’t actually tell, the last 2 rows and the border itself are all knit with the same yarn in the White Sparkle colorway (white with a silver thread wrapped around it).

Needles: 5 mm

Dates:  July 24 – September 17 2008  (until I got close to the end, this was my take anywhere/mindless knitting project, so I didn’t often work on it at home).

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Modifications:  2 major ones.

First I added the eyelet roundss.  After seeing Tara’s Pinwheel Blanket I remembered how badly I’d wanted to knit one, and I decided to knit one for the new baby.  I couldn’t knit it plain, however, as I’d knit Jakob a Debbie Bliss Alphabet Blanket (Rav link) and I wanted to have something that looked at least somewhat as impressive as all those eyelet letters.  I decided on the eyelet rounds and at first I had planned on putting them in on every doubled row.  So, for example, when it was time for an eyelet row, instead of working the pattern row, then one row plain, I worked the pattern row, then one row of *k2tog, yo, rep across.  Then I jumped back into the pattern on the next row.  The doubled row theory had me placing them in the plain rounds after the “k2, yo” row, then the “k4, yo” row, then the “k8, yo” row, and so on.  However, I quickly realized that once I got to “k16, yo” my next doubled row would be “k32, yo” and that would leave a large expanse of stockinette stitch without any eyelets.  Also, I didn’t plan on knitting enough more rounds to be able to go on to “k64, yo” or further.  I decided to work backwards instead, and after completing the “k16, yo” row, I worked until 8 more rounds had been done, threw in the eyelets, then did 4 more rounds, then the eyelets, then 2 more, then the last row of eyelets before the border.  I’d already calculated how wide I wanted the blanket, and thus how many sts I would have, so I was able to plan it out that accurately.

My other modification was for the border.  I knew from the beginning that I’d wanted something that went with the circles and spiral and eyelets, without being too severe (like a garter or moss band, much as I like those) or too fussy (like a sudden lace triangular border, or something).  I knew I had to have seen something like what I was looking for, and sure enough I even had it in my stash- Lucy Neatby’s Faroese Flower Shawl pattern (Rav link).  The border was fun and easy to adapt to this blanket, and gave me the exact look I was going for, plus is something fun for baby to stick its fingers through later.

Oh, and even though this was knit, instead of CO 10 sts and going from there, and tightening the center later, I used the Magic Adjustable Ring technique from Crochet Me and got a perfect, round center start.

Notes:  I’m really, really pleased with how this project turned out.  It was a fun chance to “spruce up” an existing pattern with my own ideas and I’m really happy with the end result.

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.