Amazingly, I actually knitted something. What is that something? Well, it's a dishcloth for the husband. Made from cotton (Sugar'n Cream Natural) using Grandma's favorite dishcloth pattern. Ya'll know that one, k2, YO, k, YO, k2. Makes a diagonal square. In fact, I received a beautiful baby blanket using that pattern.
About this dishcloth: I've made him a couple already. The first one he thought was too closely knit and turned out too bulky to use on some items(I used #7 on SnC yarn). So, I've been using #9 or #10 needles and knitting loosely.
Well, last week, I ran the garbage disposal and it didn't run. I thought it was kaput. He investigated and found that the old dishcloth was jamming the mechanism and was a gonner (the dishcloth, not the disposal). I told him I'd make him another one and while he was away this weekend on the annual rafting trip, and while the children were sleeping, I actually whipped the dishcloth out.
As for the rafting trip, he's been going since he was in highschool, and when I met him, I got to go too. Since A wasn't due until May 23, we had thought a month post-partum w/ c-section was not consistent with rafting. And by the time A was born, well, the rafting trip was already all set up. Maybe next year.
Monday, June 26, 2006
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Knitting while Bjorning/Slinging
So, I have another one of those children. You know, the ones that seem like they're easy babies? Sleeps through most of the night, sleeps in the car seat, cries for a reason like hunger or poopie diaper... or in this case, if the baby is set down during the day. What this means is that both my children have been carried around alot while they're babies. I had forgotten that I carried z all the time. I'd also forgotten that we had figured out that apparently, by definition, what we do is called attachment parenting. This means that feeding's on the baby's schedule, sleeping is co-sleeping and very big on the family bed(we try not to do that, but we definitely find children in our bed in the mornings), and the baby's carried whenever the baby wants. And attachment parented babies are usually 'worn' by the parent, usually involving some cloth contraption that straps the child to the parent. I myself own 3 slings, a baby bjorn, and 2 back packs.
The bjorn works well for computer surfing. However, I'm having a heck of a time trying to knit like this. Not that knitting is the most ergonomically task around, but to have to stretch your arms around a baby strapped to your chest is not a good thing. Slings work a tad better for knitting. The baby's a little ball off to the side and you can get stuff done.
Altho' my other alternative is to pop her into her car seat. That also seems to work fairly well. But only sometimes and not for too long.
What am I working on? why I'm working on projects that got interrupted when I went into the hospital. I did manage to knit a bit while on bed rest before, but I had to take a break from just keeping my fingers busy and instead, engaged my brain and did alot of reading.
So, while folks suggest that you should sleep when the baby sleeps, this mom will be trying to knit instead.
The bjorn works well for computer surfing. However, I'm having a heck of a time trying to knit like this. Not that knitting is the most ergonomically task around, but to have to stretch your arms around a baby strapped to your chest is not a good thing. Slings work a tad better for knitting. The baby's a little ball off to the side and you can get stuff done.
Altho' my other alternative is to pop her into her car seat. That also seems to work fairly well. But only sometimes and not for too long.
What am I working on? why I'm working on projects that got interrupted when I went into the hospital. I did manage to knit a bit while on bed rest before, but I had to take a break from just keeping my fingers busy and instead, engaged my brain and did alot of reading.
So, while folks suggest that you should sleep when the baby sleeps, this mom will be trying to knit instead.
Monday, June 12, 2006
Time passing and zero knitting and other ramblings
Can't believe that it's been so long since I've posted. As the title says, I've done nada, zero, zippo knitting. But I have been reading knitting blogs, does that count?
It never fails to amaze me all the folks who knit and blog. How do they have time to knit amazingly beautiful garments on super small needles and tricky yarn in a few days (really, I exaggerate not). And they turn out beautiful? The sweaters, the gloves, the tops and even skirts...what's with that? skirt that's hand-knitted? AND then to take pictures, shrink down to size, then post and write about said garments -- and even write up the pattern, in multiple sizes?!
What's even more amazing are all the multi-tasking multi-talented knitters that also sew. The last time I sewed a garment, I was in maybe 6th grade and I sewed literally a burlap sack dress and ruined my grandmother's sewing machine. It was a rectangle with arm holes cut out. My mother didn't help me 'cause she thought I said a dress for a doll, not one that fit me...so I winged it. Anyway, it looked pretty bad.
Oh, and there was the time I was going to sew a dress for myself (having blocked out previous traumatic experience) and didn't realize things like bias cut or super stretchy material or that maybe stripes would not be the easiest pattern to match up for a dress. Again, a disaster. I think maybe the material and the pattern may still be at my mom's house ( 25 yrs later). Naw, mom's most likely thrown it out already.
Speaking of throwing things out, we've got a big project coming up and our basement is full of stuff. That whole thing about Nature abhors a vacuum? Well, apparently so does my basement and shed. They're full of stuff. What's even worse is that we've got tons of empty boxes. I guess the thought was that when we were done with 'it', it could go back in it's original box, but when really, would you put a 8 year old microwave oven back in it's original box? Or the barbeque? or 20" TV? Really, these are some of the empty boxes at our house. To make matters worse, they've been stacked on top of each other, not nested, nope, on top of each other. Maybe it's because both z's dad and I (note to self, now it's z&a's dad) lived for so long in apartments and gee, you never know when you're going to move again and need to put things back in the boxes...NOT. Since our goal is not to move for a very very long time, I think that the appliances will break before we actually need to rebox them to move.
So, this weekend, I donned some gloves (in case of spiders and other crawlies) and did some excavating. I found a bottle of unopened sparkling water from 1998 along with candy and popcorn from that same era. I know it was from that year because it was in a box from 3 jobs ago. I found my college transcript (shudder)...I'm not sure how I got into grad school with those grades. In fact, had I read the requirements more carefully for graduate schools, I probably wouldn't have bothered to apply (apparently, I didn't meet grade requirements). It was a good thing I tested really well on the GREs.
So, what made it out to the trash? Nothing yet. I did manage to get my Alumni sticker out and put that on the car. And I took the pictures. The transcript was too horrid and I put it back in the box to await rediscovery in another 10 years.
It never fails to amaze me all the folks who knit and blog. How do they have time to knit amazingly beautiful garments on super small needles and tricky yarn in a few days (really, I exaggerate not). And they turn out beautiful? The sweaters, the gloves, the tops and even skirts...what's with that? skirt that's hand-knitted? AND then to take pictures, shrink down to size, then post and write about said garments -- and even write up the pattern, in multiple sizes?!
What's even more amazing are all the multi-tasking multi-talented knitters that also sew. The last time I sewed a garment, I was in maybe 6th grade and I sewed literally a burlap sack dress and ruined my grandmother's sewing machine. It was a rectangle with arm holes cut out. My mother didn't help me 'cause she thought I said a dress for a doll, not one that fit me...so I winged it. Anyway, it looked pretty bad.
Oh, and there was the time I was going to sew a dress for myself (having blocked out previous traumatic experience) and didn't realize things like bias cut or super stretchy material or that maybe stripes would not be the easiest pattern to match up for a dress. Again, a disaster. I think maybe the material and the pattern may still be at my mom's house ( 25 yrs later). Naw, mom's most likely thrown it out already.
Speaking of throwing things out, we've got a big project coming up and our basement is full of stuff. That whole thing about Nature abhors a vacuum? Well, apparently so does my basement and shed. They're full of stuff. What's even worse is that we've got tons of empty boxes. I guess the thought was that when we were done with 'it', it could go back in it's original box, but when really, would you put a 8 year old microwave oven back in it's original box? Or the barbeque? or 20" TV? Really, these are some of the empty boxes at our house. To make matters worse, they've been stacked on top of each other, not nested, nope, on top of each other. Maybe it's because both z's dad and I (note to self, now it's z&a's dad) lived for so long in apartments and gee, you never know when you're going to move again and need to put things back in the boxes...NOT. Since our goal is not to move for a very very long time, I think that the appliances will break before we actually need to rebox them to move.
So, this weekend, I donned some gloves (in case of spiders and other crawlies) and did some excavating. I found a bottle of unopened sparkling water from 1998 along with candy and popcorn from that same era. I know it was from that year because it was in a box from 3 jobs ago. I found my college transcript (shudder)...I'm not sure how I got into grad school with those grades. In fact, had I read the requirements more carefully for graduate schools, I probably wouldn't have bothered to apply (apparently, I didn't meet grade requirements). It was a good thing I tested really well on the GREs.
So, what made it out to the trash? Nothing yet. I did manage to get my Alumni sticker out and put that on the car. And I took the pictures. The transcript was too horrid and I put it back in the box to await rediscovery in another 10 years.
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