Baby Talk

Baby Knitting

I knit a manta ray!

Swim, ray, swim!

But then I flipped it around and folded it a few ways, and poof!

How's that for a surprise?

Pattern: Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmerman (pattern in The Opinionated Knitter)
Yarn: Superwash Merino sock yarn from Maple Creek Farm, purchased at Rhinebeck 2008
Needles: Addi turbos size 5
Started:
Finished: Well, technically not finished yet... I still need to seam up the sleeves and sew on buttons. But I have until March, right?

I'm curious to see how old she'll be when this fits - it turned out a little bigger than I expected. I loved the pattern, though, and loved how it turned out! I see myself making several others at different gauges so she'll have one for many seasons. Next up, though, I think is a February sweater (ravelry link) with the purple sock yarn from Rhinebeck. I'm thinking if I make it pretty small, it might be the coming home outfit, but we'll see...

Baby Sewing

It's true, I've starting sewing a bit, too. Cloth diapers, of course!

For a teeny tiny bum!

This is my first cloth diaper for the snarglette. I used the Kwik Sew pattern to cut out the pieces, and then winged the construction. I made it an All-In-One (AIO) by adding a waterproof (resistant?) layer, and a sewn-in soaker. I've bought lots more fabric, and a couple more patterns, as well as downloading several free ones, so I've got lots of fun sewing experiments to look forward to!

In fact, I've already made my second one, but I made a Medium size, which appears to be completely enormous... as in, she may be potty trained before she can wear it, but it was good practice!

I had a lot of problems with my sewing machine on the first one - the bobbin kept skipping and I could not get the tension right. I contemplated taking it into the local repair shop, but first I actually read the manual (*gasp*). And found out that my machine had special bobbins. And I was of course not using them. So instead, I went to the local repair shop and bought some special bobbins, and my second diaper went off without a hitch. Problem solved - hooray!

Baby friends

So, you might have seen that Cara was down here in DC - something about a date with a rock star. Anyway, Dan & I took the opportunity to meet up with her and Georgie. We had a great lunch and awesome conversation. We talked carseats, strollers, and assorted baby gear, and then compared pregnancy symptoms - basically, the stuff that no one else wants to hear about :). And of course we had to compare our bumps!

Fetal twin powers activate - DC style!

Hooray for a fabulous time with friends who are going through the same thing you are!

Baby symptoms

So this pregnancy stuff is pretty hard. Guess what... I've thrown up twice this week. Which is to say, I'm 2/2 days. Yes, I'm 22.5 weeks. Yes, morning sickness "should" be over by now. Guess I'm one of the "lucky" women for whom this is just going to keep going. Hopefully I'll still get over it at some point...

Also, I'm having a lot of pubic symphsis pain. Now this is a relatively "common" symptom in women who are in the very advanced stages of pregnancy (say, 35 weeks and beyond), but again it appears I'm a "lucky" one who got it early! According to my doctor, it will probably keep on for the rest of the time... Yay!

In good news, the baby is moving and kicking all of the time now, and even Dan has been able to feel her. She seems to generally be breech (which she was at the ultrasound), and the kicks are really low down. I'm fairly obsessed with feeling the kicks with my hand, and that means that I spend some time with my hand lodged in my waistband, just like Al Bundy:

Attractive!

The kicking is a great feeling, and very strange at the same time. I honestly thought it would be a lot more distracting and break my concentration, but I just find myself maybe smiling a bit more, but just carrying on with conversations or doing whatever I was. There's definitely an activity pattern - she's pretty quiet when I wake up (although one morning I did have the very bizzare feeling of being kicked while puking), then perks up a little bit mid-morning, and then there's another big pulse of activity right after I eat lunch. Actually, any time I eat something, it seems like my blood sugar spikes and she responds. The next big jump fest is in the evening and at night. It's really no wonder that newborns don't sleep through the night - we're totally conditioning them to be active then. I wonder what would happen if I stayed up all night walking around (which generally puts babies to sleep) and then laid down during the day to let her wake up... Maybe I'll try it if I am home on leave before she arrives :)

Tomorrow is my next doctor's appointment. I'm seeing a new doctor this time - it sounds like I'll have one of three (or four) doctors in the delivery room, and I would like to have at least met them first. So this is doctor number two! Fingers crossed that all goes well!

A Cardigan for Arwen

Arwen

Pattern: A Cardigan for Arwen by Kate Gilbert from Interweave Knits, Winter 2006
Yarn: Artfibers Ming - 50% wool, 50% silk
Needles: Knitpicks Options, 9 for the body, 7's for the neckline and hem
Started: April 2007
Finished: October 20, 2007

Comments: I love this sweater! I'm so glad I splurged on the yarn for it - it's super soft and shiny and lovely. I have experienced some pilling (especially after wearing it all weekend at Rhinebeck with bag straps rubbing over it), but it's nothing that a little shaver action won't fix.

In case you can't tell, I heavily modified the collar and neckline (the original has a hood with the cable running up around it. So... I mitered the cable (using the instructions from Viking Patterns For Knitters) and then knit the cable until it met, and grafted it at the back of the neck.

Can you see my grafting? I can

I also bound off the stockinette part so that the cable would have a nice gentle scoop up the neck. In retrospect, I might have bound off a bit too much, because the neckline is much more of a boatneck than I expected, but it doesn't bother me enough to rip it out and fix it :). I added three hooks and eyes on the front for now - next year, when I don't have a baby belly anymore, I will likely add hooks and eyes down the entire front. Right now, though, the fronts don't meet, and the extra hooks would just catch on things!

Fancy mitered cables!

The sleeves are the perfect length. They're a tiny bit snug, if I wear a long sleeve shirt underneath, but perfect over a t-shirt. I lengthened the body a bit, too, so it hangs to my hips. There was some drama about running out of yarn, and ripping out the back and reknitting it, but all's well that ends well! And this ended well - I love my Arwen!!