Val-on-time Sweater

Val-on-time Sweater
Originally uploaded by Sesser

Knitting content! YAY!

A friend, by the name of Val, is expecting her first baby. She's due today. She's hoping to have the baby BEFORE Valentine's day. We all hope, for her sake, that the baby comes before then.

I finished this sweater, which I nicknamed the Val-on-time sweater just about a week ago. I sewed the buttons on last Monday night and took it to her last Tuesday.

I am legendary for being late for everything. Ask any of my friends. I try hard and I am much reformed from my teen years but I'm still notorious. My mom used to say I was "slower than cold molasses running UP a hill in January." Oh, yes she did. And I would have reason to be upset if it weren't TRUE!

I am the last to finish a meal at the dinner table. I am the last mom to get my boots on when leaving the library. I am always running out of the house with makeup to put on in the car or a bit of toast to eat on the run. You get the picture.

I was really nervous about knitting a sweater for this baby. There are some that say that a baby will not come until its knitwear is ready. I didn't want to bear that burden of responsibility. I like Val. I didn't want her to hurt me, so I put my nose to the grindstone and knit on this almost exclusively from the time I bought the yarn (at my LYS boxing week sale) until it was finished.

And so, for once, I'm on time with something. I finished this sweater before the baby arrived, so I've done my part to encourage this child to come out into the world.

If the baby decides to wait a couple more days, perhaps it is because there are some other friends who aren't quite done with their projects for this wee one.

But Val, don't worry. I'm sure everyone else is just darning ends right now. That baby need not worry about being cold. S/he can just come on out into this world and know that s/he will be warmed by lots of love knit into warm coziness.

You just go ahead and do what you need to do.

Haiti

Today I was thinking that while I have lived through two natural disasters ('98 ice storm and 2003 hurricane Juan), nothing in my experience could ever compare to what the people of Haiti are going through right now. All of my first world "problems" are trivial in light of the suffering of so many people.

Last night, my baby slept in a warm bed, between his mama and daddy. He had milk to drink. He ate cereal this morning. His daddy played the guitar and sang to him this morning. He visited with a friend today. He got a new book. He napped in a cozy bed. He played with his toys. He had his diaper changed. He had a nice supper. He had a warm bath. His mama sang him songs and now he's sleeping.

When my baby cried today, it was because he was frustrated about crawling. He cried today because he had a burp that wouldn't come up while he slept. He didn't cry because his mama wasn't there, or because he was hungry or hurt.

And so tonight and every night, I will hold him close and be thankful for his tears, his laughs and his diapers. And I will whisper some prayers for the babies and their mamas and daddies in Haiti.


The Yarn Harlot has thrown up the Knit Signal, (like the Bat Signal, but for knitters), encouraging us to make donations to Medecins Sans Frontiers. She is also encouraging us to mark our donations as being directed to "Greatest Need" or "Emergency Relief", as this will enable MSF to use the funds to continue work in other areas as well as in Haiti.

If you are interested in making a donation to another registered charity, the CBC has compiled a list HERE to which you can refer.

If you are able to donate, MSF and many of the registered charities listed on the CBC website are a great way to go. If you aren't able to donate, please, say a prayer, light a candle, send some love, some light, some words their way. I'm sure that Haiti can use whatever you've got.

ETA: This note from Mimi at The Loop in Halifax:
Steph--I'd like to throw in a plug for The Loop's fundraiser for the Red Cross. We're accepting donations of lovely yarn all week, and on the weekend of Jan 23rd & 24th, we're going to sell off the donations (and more), with 100% of the proceeds of the sale going to The Red Cross Haiti Relief. So next weekend people can do some de-stashing and stash enhancement and help Haiti at the same time. Details are here:
http://www.theloophalifax.ca/

Thanks Mimi - what a great way to raise funds!

Tiny parade

It's time for a tiny parade of finished objects.

First the Turn a Square hat by Jared Flood. Ravelled Here

What a satisfying pattern. I kept knitting so that I could see where the colour changes would be. The yarn is Brown Sheep Nature Spun and Noro Kureyon.

Next up, the Simple Yet Effective Shawl by Laura Chau. Ravelled Here

I've had this silk for years and after several unsuccessful attempts, finally found a pattern (or rather, an "unpattern") that suited it. I purchased the yarn at London Wul and don't recall if it ever had a lable. It's lovely, though. And quite resilient, considering the number of times I've knit with it.

Last for now, but certainly not least, my second Balsam by Ilga Leja. This has been finished for quite a while, but this is the first chance I had to get a photo of it. I had the pleasure of knitting a sample of this pattern for Ilga. It's an addictive knit and I really enjoyed making it again. Ravelled here.

Now, in other news, somebody has two teeth:

See? Say, AAAAH, Mogrunt!

And he's not afraid to use them:

and not just on toys. He has taken a liking to his little girlfriend's head! Little C is two months older than him, so she can hold her own, I'm sure. The Mogrunt just gets so excited to see her that he starts making "brrrr, brrr, brrr" noises with his mouth and then he leans in, reaches for her head and tries to NOM it! The first time he did it, all I could think was, "Oh, please, Mogrunt, don't be THAT kid!" He hasn't managed to bite her and I don't think he can get his mouth open wide enough to chew on her head anyway, but it still makes my heart stop a little - even though Little C's mom is laughing too.

How I Killed An Hour Today

It went something like this:

The Mogrunt's diaper was wet, so I went upstairs to change it while talking on the phone with Becca:

1. Remove wet diaper, balancing phone between ear and shoulder

2. Put on fresh diaper, still talking but Mogrunt is suddenly hollering loud enough that I can no longer hear Becca.

3. Hang up phone before fresh diaper is fully fastened because the Mogrunt is carrying on and has already peed in the clean diaper.

4. Pull out another fresh diaper, have a look at the Mogrunt's butt and realize he could stand a little sitz bath.

5. Run tub for Mogrunt and add baking soda.

6. Undress Mogrunt and take him to the bath.

7. Let him play in the bath for 10 minutes or so - hoping that the baking soda is helping to soothe his diaper rash.

8. Take the Mogrunt out of the tub, dry him off and start dressing him.

9. Fresh diaper (see #4) is on, diaper cover is on and all of a sudden, the Mogrunt starts to make that face. You know the one. The red face. It's either poop or he's about to yell at those kids on his lawn again.

10. Help the Mogrunt to stand in his crib for a few minutes - also known as: Assuming the poopie position. He loves standing, thinks he is king of the crib.

11. The undeniable eau de toilette wafts through the air.

12. Pull out fresh diaper number 3 and change the Mogrunt. Try not to gag. Try not to say, "ooooh, stinky" as Mr. Happy likes to remind me that it's possible that I'm "shaming" the Mogrunt. Wonder if Mr. Happy's self-esteem is injured when I go on and on after he emerges from the washroom with a magazine.

13. Dress the Mogrunt and dispose of poooooooh.

14. Look at all the dirty diapers in the bucket, realize that we're almost out of clean cloth diapers. Run downstairs with the dirty ones and throw in a load of laundry.

15. Come back upstairs and rescue the Mogrunt from his crib.

16. Wonder if that isn't the faint scent of poo in the air...

Starting with the finishing

Yesterday I went to Fabricville and went a little crazy buying buttons. They had a sale - 40% off. It was sweet. The Mogrunt was content in the wrap and enjoyed looking at the wall of buttons so I might have gone a little overboard. I am in LOVE with wooden buttons so I picked out some for two sweaters and then stocked up. I've always wanted a button stash. When I got home, I was so excited about the buttons that I spent the evening sewing them on the sweaters I had finished for the Mogrunt.

First and foremost, the Baby Yours Sweater by The Yarn Harlot:

Mr. Happy bought the yarn for me shortly after we learned that I was pregnant. He had planned a trip to the Big Smoke for his first "boys weekend" in years. The yarn is the same colourway as the one Stephanie used for the sweater shown in the pattern. It's hard to pick out colours over the phone. :) The size is the 6 month size. I thought I was going to run out of yarn until I remeasured the fronts and the back and realized that I had done far too much garter stitch on each piece. I ripped back and had enough left over to knit the button bands, etc., with lots of breathing room. Knitters take note.

I think that we can safely say that the Mogrunt likes his sweater and perhaps even enjoys his new career as a knitwear model:

Next, we have the Mogrunt's "Alliteration sweater" - called such because it is a Cotton Cashmere Cardigan:

This Debbie Bliss pattern is from her book, "Special Knits". It's the organza edged cardigan. Obviously, the Mogrunt and I thought that he would look a little girlie in organza, so we left it off.

I also modified the button band / neck edging. Instead of knitting the front pieces with garter stitch at the bottoms and as a 3-stitch repeat along the edges, I knit them in plain stocking stitch and then picked up all stitches along the bottom, where the button bands are and along the neckline and then back down the other front piece and along the bottom in the same manner. Then I just did garter stitch for 3 rows, decreasing and increasing at corners depending on their "direction" and inserting button holes as I went.

I was running out of yarn and while I think it could have stood a couple more rows on the button bands, I had no choice but to bind off. Now that the buttons are on the cardigan, I'm really happy with how it looks. Mr. Happy thinks it looks like a sweater that an Indy rocker would wear. The Mogrunt did get a xylophone for Christmas, so he's well on his way to becoming just that.

If you look closely at this photo, you will see that the Mogrunt has teeth. Two on the bottom. Let's not discuss what a big boy he is. I just can't deal with it.

The next thing I want to show you is a sweater that my grandmother made for the Mogrunt. Last year, I called her from my LYS's annual Boxing Week sale and asked her if she wanted anything. When she responded that she would like to knit a sweater for the Mogrunt, I picked up some Cascade 220 and a top-down raglan pattern for her.

My grandmother is 91. She has been knitting since well before any of you were even a twinkle in your father's eye. You could not fit in her house all of the things that she has knit in her lifetime. Despite that, she had never before knit a top-down raglan sweater. She called her younger sister (younger as in 85ish) about it. I talked to her afterward and this is the rundown of our conversation:

Me: Grammy, is that pattern going to work for you? I wasn't sure if you were familiar with knitting sweaters from the top-down.

Grammy: You know dear, I've never knit one like that before, but I talked to Mary and she's done them. So if she can do it, I'm sure it's not going to be a problem.

I would say that she managed quite well, wouldn't you agree?

The Cascade 220 is superwash and it's also beautifully soft. My grandmother knits quite loosely these days, so the fabric is nice and drapes really well.

Can you tell that I'm in love with wooden buttons? I think they are so wonderful. I bought enough wooden buttons at the sale to sink a small ship.

Ok, that's it for me for now. Expect more soon. I can't promise what day, but I'll be back.