Uli's Creative Corner

Got my camera out last night and took a couple of pictures for you to see what I've been working on.

First there's a new finished object - the little first size cardigan.  I got the pattern at the Knit & Stitch Shoppe but I understand that it's an adaptation of the 5-hour baby sweater (this one being an example).  It's a basic top down constructed little cardigan with eyelets for the increases.  This one was done with Sirdar Snowflake magic stripes and I love the way it turned out.  It's so soft and cuddly.  I do need to throw it through the wash (probably just hand wash it but the yarn is machine washable - it might not say so on the ball band (can't remember right now) but I have made other things with it like blankets and other sweaters for when Erika was little and I have always washed those in the machine without harm.  Erika got some black felt pen (washable felt pen) on it and for some reason, the cats seemed to have a particular attraction to it while it was on the needles.  But here's a little look:

It's cuddly and soft and cute and the picture is a bit too blurry..... some photographer I am

If you look closely you can see a little dip in the sleeves at about the point where the sleeves would start after seperating body and sleeves.  That dip is due to my dippy ditziness of knitting sleeves on 3.5 mm DPNs and the rest of the body on 4 mm needles.  I'm not fixing it.

Then there's Eris.  I have a hard time typing Eris.  I get it wrong every time I do type it.  It's too close to Erika which I'm so used to typing so I always get it wrong..... mostly I want to type Eriks.  The body is progressing.  Of course, now that I'm just doing round and round and round of stocking stitch, it's not quiet so interesting but it will make a great project to sit through while I take my 3-hour gestational diabetes test on Friday (did I mention I failed my one hour test? - well, I did.... I did with Erika as well and was fine with the 3 hour test but this time, I just feel like saying "what else can go wrong").  I'll get to sit for 3 hours at the lab.  I'll be knitting of course.  I might need to take two projects for some variety though.

The cabled collar doesn't come out very clearly but the colour is fairly accurate

December 1 tomorrow........ got to get Erika's advent calendar up on the wall and filled with chocolate Santas.  She's already very excited.

We woke up to a winter wonderland this morning.  It's very pretty and fortunately for my own personal commute the roads weren't bad at all.  Others travelling in other parts of the area might not have had as easy of a commute but mine worked out just fine.  Erika was so excited.  She even woke up for me first thing this morning so that she could see.  Good that Evan went to the mall at lunch yesterday and picked her up some warmer snow pants for playing outside at daycare.

Not much knitting last night.  We were at the inlaws and had the weirdest combination of dinner.  Vegetarian lasagna, chicken lasagna, chilli and Hawaiian pizza with a bit of salad and some garlic bread.  All came pre-prepared from store to freezer and into the oven.  Now I'm not complaining but why so much different food for 4 adults?  And then we ended up with most of the pizza and the whole vegetarian lasagna (which this type we actually don't like) in our fridge.  Both Evan and I didn't feel very well when we came home.

The poor little First Size cardigan.  I finished one sleeve yesterday when I discovered that I was working on 3.5 mm DPNs instead of 4 mm DPNs.  I thought I was using 4 mm DPNs all along (including for another little project).  Well, I'm not ripping this one.  The stitches might be a bit tigther but I will just let it go.  Now I have to track down my 4mm DPNs.  I didn't think I had 2 sets of 3.5 mm DPNs.  I always thought my short pair were the 3.5 mms and the long pair was the 4 mms.  Go figure.........  So more of my many knitting mistakes I seem to be making.  I think I need to get back to the stocking stitch body of Eris or maybe just knit some socks.  Something I can't screw up too badly.

Gymnastics tonight...... remind me to not take the Mousse shawl as I can't seem to work on that pattern with the distraction of others around me all watching the little kids do their exercises.

As usual, it was a jam packed and very short weekend but we did have lots of fun. 

I came to a couple of conclusions on a couple of projects:

• I really enjoy knitting Eris.  I have divided for the body and have already done a couple of inches on the body.  Seems I'm cruising along with this one.  I probably shouldn't put it done and aside now that I'm working through some of the basics of just knitting a stocking stitch body in the round.  I hope it will fit when it's done.
• The mitered squares capelet still needs to be ripped.  It won't be worn until next spring at the earliest because it's now too cold for something light like that.  So, I'm not rushing to re-knit any of it.
• The good old swing coat........ well, I steamed and manipulated it some more and it still doesn't look right.  It is now in the rip pile and will become some sort of a comfy, very basic cardigan come the new year.  I'm letting go of trying to make it work.  I was looking for someone to tell me to rip it.  Nobody in my intermediate family/circle of friends would.  I was just given suggestions on how to maybe make it work and I tried them all.  Still not happy.  I'm telling myself to rip, rip, rip.  I think I'll get some satisfaction out of that when I do rip. 
• The Mousee Shawl is a totally simple pattern but it takes my full attention to not screw it up so I'm not taking it to gymnastics or anything like that any more.
• I started a little blue baby blanket, the Estonian Lullaby Baby Blanket from Fiber Trends - I thought I'd enjoy knitting it immensely but I'm already kind of borded and I haven't even done one full pattern repeat yet.  With fingering weight yarn and 170+ stitches it seems to be a bit of a slow go.  I will stick it out though.  I just wish I had maybe used a heavier weight yarn, maybe the sport weight or even worsted weight yarn the pattern is also written for.  Ah well, persistence will count for this one.

How is that for a lot of wisdom? Not.......

It's time to get the Christmas shopping started (I want to be finished soon) and other commitments are starting to pile up.  It will be a busy December.

And the "S" word is in the forecast.  I love snow but not for driving.......... we'll see what, if anything at all, actually materializes.

Have a great Monday.

Well, it wasn't a real surprise when I went to the mailbox and found a package from Germany yesterday.  I did think it would be my Elann order but that hadn't shown up yet.  Over the summer I participated in a family sock exchange on one of the German sock knitting lists I belong to.  We put in the sock sizes for the members in our family who wanted a pair of socks and based on the sizes we were assigned different sock exchange partners where we had to knit socks in similar sizes than those that we were to receive.  It was fun and I knitted 3 lovely pairs of socks for 3 different individuals.  We all sent off our socks to one person who coordinatred the whole thing and then she re-packaged the various socks to go to their respective families.  This exchanged ended in September and the packages were sent out around mid to late September.  Now, obviously, everyone has had their socks for ages.  I knew mine had been sent off to my.  I had absolutely no doubt about that but it's been basically 3 months and they never did arrive.  Well, they were in my in-box yesterday.  Thanks to each one of the knitters who so beautifully wrapped each pair of socks and even included some goodies.  Thanks to Marianne, Sandra and Mareike for 3 pairs of really fun socks.  Take a lock at the set:

From left to right:  Erika's socks with a little mini key chain sock, my ankle socks with a lovely fun fur ribbing and Evan's socks with a great little pattern.

Late surprises, especially when you least expect them are just as good.  I was feeling sore and tired when I came home last night and the little box perked me right up.

And today, I probably do have my Elann order to look forward to.  What a lucky girl I am!!!!

As far as knitting goes, I'm totally stuck on Eris right now (I always type in Eriks when I want to write Eris.  I think it's because it's so close to Erika's name).  I'm only 4 increase rows away from dividing body and sleeve.  When I get there, I'll take some pictures.  I'm really enjoying it.

It's TGIF.......... I'm glad.  Enjoy the weekend.

First of all, Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends down south of the border.  Enjoy your holiday and have a slice of turkey (actually I'm a real sucker for stuffing) for me.

Not much is new.  Right now I'm loving knitting on Eris and I'm just working on the raglan increases for body and sleeves.  As the rounds get longer it will take a little longer each time around but so far I'm making really decent progress.  I'll try and divide it onto a couple of needles soon so I can show off some pictures.  Right now, it's just a mess all scrunched up on the needles.

Just wanted to show you Erika's daycare class picture.  She has such a mischievious look on her face which really, truly captures her personality.

I have one of these from every year since she was 1 when she started at her daycare.  I want to make a scrapbook of all these pictures including the pictures of her whole class one day but first of all, I have to track down where all the pictures are.  I think that would be a very nice memory.

I'm feeling very tired this morning but the fog is going away so it looks like it will be a more cheerful feeling kind of a day where we can actually see the sky.

This morning I had my first blood test for gestational diabetes.  The one hour test, which I took today, as I understand is just a screening test.  If you fail, you go on to the 3-hour test from which they will form a diagnosis of whether you have gestational diabetes or not.  With Erika I had to go through both tests because I failed the 1-hour test.  I figure I'll be back in the lab some time next week taking the 3 hour test.  But for now, this test is done.  You drink a very sweet drink almost like orange pop but sweeter.  You get pricked and blood drawn an hour later.  For the hour wait you have to sit around and wait.  At the beginning of this pregnancy I discovered that a new lab had opened just around my doctor's office.  This lab is great compared to the others in our area although it's the same company.  What I like is that not many have discovered it yet so it's nice and quiet and the ladies there are just great.  It's also set up for a bit more comfort and for people like me who have to take this type of test where a wait is involved they have a little room with a soft, very comfy, leather recliner and a blanket if you wish to take a nap.  Oh, it was comfy and I got my knitting out and had a full hour of very nice and quiet knitting time.  Mind you, I was pumped full of sugar and baby was just very active as a result kicking and kicking like he wanted out already.  So if I do have to take the 3 hour test, I know where I'm going.  There's no doubt about it.  And the only good thing about that test will be that I'll have 3 hours to knit.

I really do have problems focusing on my knitting these days.  I'm in a slump but not in a slump in terms of desire for knitting.  My desire is high and I do find quite a bit of time to pick up the needles.  But I just can't seem to do anything right.  Evan calls it baby brain and I guess, maybe he has a point.  I have made so many mistakes in the last week and a bit and have done more ripping than ever before which is totally stalled any sort of progress.  You remember my capelet dilemma.  I'll rip it soon but Eris is capturing my attention more right now.  Yesterday at lunch my stitch count got off and I ended up ripping my work from the night before and that lunch hour.  I re-started last night and knit a few rounds.  I was on the first short row that also included sleeve and body increases.  I totally forgot about those.  I did notice early enough that all I had to do was knit back rather than rip.  For Eris you also place markers when knitting the collar to indicate the sleeve and body placement.  When I ripped yesterday I didn't think of that at all and had removed my markers already.  I ended up having a collar with no markers and had to figure out by counting rows from various charts and on the collar to help determine where to place those markers again.  Just one thing after the other......  Of course, I also took knitting to gymnastics last night.  The Mousee shawl from Elann.  Very, very simple lace stitch pattern.  I spent more time knitting backward and abusing the mohair than making progress.  Maybe I will really need to start sticking to stocking stitch only.  Round and round and round we go.......

And now I'm starting to fade as the sugar high is slowly fading.  All of a sudden my eyes are very heavy and I'm very, very tired.  Probably not a good time to pick up any complicated knitting.

And it looks like all of a sudden the fog outside has lifted.  Maybe the fog inside my head will lift some day soon, too.

Oh, Elann............. my shopping cart has items in it and is waiting for me to click on the "checkout" button for some of the Peruvian Collection Sierra Aran.  Should I do it?  It's my stash adding.... not that I need any added stash.  If I click "OK" and order some of the Phildar baby yarns, I'm done for the next year.  My only hope for some other new yarn is the Christmas yarn I'll be asking for.  I think I can live with that.  I'm just doing a little bit more thinking.......... just to be sure.

I revived Eris last night.  A long time ago, in the summer, I did the collar and then put it away.  I wasn't motivated to rip the capelet last night so I brought out Eris and picked up the stitches around the collar and got going on lots of short rows.  It is a nice pattern and the knitting goes fairly easy as long as you pay attention to each detailed step.  I will show some progress soon.  I have a feeling I'll keep working on his one for a while until I've licked my wounds about ripping the capelet.  We'll see.... I didn't even frog it yet last night.

Nothing much else exciting is happening around here.  We're still living in a fog and my head sometimes feels just like that, too.

Afternoon Update:

My shopping cart is still waiting............ I feel guilty about spending the money.

I can't knit anything that involves counting any longer and I blame it on baby brain.  Just got to where I thought the end of the short rows were on my Eris yoke and I was 2 rows and 8 stitches short.  I'm ripping..... more ripping.... I can't seem to get anything quite right these past few weeks.  Maybe I will need to get back to simple scarves or something like that.

Just as a quick update on my doctor appointment whine on Friday.......... things are basically the same as they were before.  High reading in the office, normal readings at home.  We checked my blood pressure monitor with the doctor's own readings and it's consistent and accurate so this doctor, as well, is allowing me to continue self-monitoring.  He wasn't as bad as maybe I anticipated from having talked to someone who sees him as well but the wait in the office was very long and the chairs very uncofmortable.  I guess even with all of that, he did put me in the high-risk category so I will be going through extra testing, montoring and ultrasounds.  I will survive...... even though I continue to be very anxious.

To balance the knitting "whine" I'm about to have, I present the little baby aran I made prior to it still waiting for a bit of a soak and a stretch.  With this one, I was too lazy before putting it all together.  The little sleeves at the bottom seem too tiny but the cables do pull in a lot.  There's quite a lot of give there.  The pattern is from a Sirdar Book continaing mostly Aran weight knits for the little ones.  I just can't think of the title right now.  The yarn is also a Sirdar yarn, Supersoft Toddler Aran (or something like that).  Geez, I'm sure descriptive and informative today, aren't I?

It took just over one of the 100g balls I was using.  I'm thinking I might make a little hat and maybe some bootees or something like that to use up some of the remaining yarn.

And now, look at all the progress I made with the mitered squares capelet.  All of last week (and some) I've been working on the steel blue section of checkered squares.

It may not look like much but there's a lot of knitting in this little piece of grey.  At least 2 1/2 balls of the Merino Sei yarn I'm using for this project.  I'm now at the point where I'm supposed to begin what's referred to as the stepped edge in the pattern.  Basically, square by square, the stitches for one square at a time will be put on stitch holders and later on will form a stepped edge to be finished with more mitered squares.  The checkered pattern I've been knitting are supposed to be 21 stitches to 27 rows.  What moved me to make each square 21 stitches to 26 rows is well beyond my imagination.  Well, I do know what happened - I think there is a tiny mistake in the pattern in that row 28 (when you reverse knit and purl stitches) says wrong side of work but it should read right side of work or something along those lines so I focused on changing squares based on whether I was starting out on a right or wrong side row.  In my organized world,  you would reverse purls and knits always on the right or the wrong side of the work but by making it 27 rows for each square you will actually start a new square alternating on the wrong and then the right side.  I don't know how I couldn't figure this out in my head when I was knitting.  Anyways, this still sounds harmless.  I'm 4 rows short right now and by the amount I have left to do, I might lose another 4, maybe 5 rows.  Would it matter if it's 10 rows shorter.  Maybe, maybe not.......... but the real problem lies in the problem that it's hard to fake the other front piece still to be knit.  The stitches will be picked up along the perpendicular side of the mitered sqaures back piece and the checker board changes from the big squares to little squares into over 7 stitches and 9 rows (I believe that's it) ie. for every big checkerboard square, 3X3 little checkerboard squares will be knitted.  Based on that, I can't easily fudge the number of rows because it all won't match up.  I can't lose a row from each little square or I'll be losing tons more rows than on side #1 and I can't lose a row per every 3 squares or my little squares will be unbalanced.  I can't see a "fudge it" way out of this dilemma than to rip, rip, rip it......  If this makes any sense, if you have any suggestions, let me know.  It's very frustrating but today I'm dealing with it.  I'll probably rip tonight and I'm not sure if I'll start right over and put it aside again.  It's getting too cold out for this little thing and I'm getting maybe a smidge too big to wear it, too - even though I made it while I'm pregnant thinking the lose shaping would work as I get bigger.  Ah, we'll see.  It's not like I don't have other UFO projects that I should also pick up again.  Next in line would be Eris, I think. 

Nothing much else is new.  We're all in a fog out here (for me......... literally and also speaking personally....... I'm tired and not too terribly focused on any one activity today)

Thanks for sending me your "shout outs" on my Frappr map.  Keep them coming.  It's really quite fun to being visually able to imagine where everyone stops by from and it's great to hear from and see some people's faces I haven't seen before.  We can get so centrered on our selves and our little corner of the world that it's kind of cool to look from the inside out and see the near and far reaches of the internet.

Today is my appointment with the OB/Gyn re my blood pressure issue.  I'm nervous as anything and I've got hours to go.  Unfortunately, I'm generally a nervous wreck for any doctor's appointment and this looming appointment was making me feel the same and then I talked to one of Erika's daycare teachers and somehow in the conversation we figured out that she sees this doctor for some issues also.  The good point is that apparently he is a brilliant doctor on the other side of the spectrum, apparently he doesn't have any people skills whatsoever.  Just knowing that has me even more nervous.  I know that I'm a chicken supreme but I've been like this all my life and I don't see it changing any time soon.  Apparently, the office is also always very busy so the wait is long and there are never enough chairs for everyone to sit in the waiting room.  I don't do so well sitting on the floor any longer.  We'll see how it goes.  I guess I'm lucky that my doctors are looking out for me and trying to make sure that everything goes A-OK but it seems there are too many docs involved now.  My family doctor who referred me to this doctor is actually no longer seeing me for the pregnancy as I have moved on to a maternity clinic at the hospital where I'll deliver this little guy.  So now she is out of the picture.  My new doctor at the hospital looked at my records, my history and my own personal blood pressure history of the last few weeks and wasn't particularly concerned but since another doctor referred me to the specialist, she wasn't going to overturn that.  I guess I feel like I'm in a bit of a triangle and of course, I hope that I'll still be able and allowed to carry on as I have been (going to work and trying to take it a bit more easy the rest of the time) after this appointment today.  I have a vivid imagination........

Enough of a whine about my medical issues and much of a chicken I really am.  I have two knitting projects with me if the wait really is as long as it is.  One project are my Lorna's Laces Confetti socks and I just turned the heel on the first sock (socks are progressing at a snail's pace for me these days).  The other one is my new shawl project and I started that just because my yarn arrived from Elann.  The pattern is the Mousse Shawl, a free pattern on Elann.  Here's a shot of how far I got last night - I didn't work on it for long.  Just to cast on and get started and then I put it away for the capelet.

We'll see how much knitting I'll get done if there is a long wait.  Evan will be with me for company so that's good.  My biggest problem with knitting at the doctor's office is that because I'm so nervous, my hands get so clammy and then nothing moves very easily on the needles.

Once all of that is over and done with, we're picking up Erika, taking her to the apple store (a nice fresh produce market that she calls the apple store) and then I've asked for a special treat dinner.  We'll still end up going to a kid's friendly place but Evan or I won't have to cook the dinner and since our fridge shelves are very bare right now, that's probably a good thing.  After dinner we'll have an exciting Friday night date at the grocery store to re-stock the shelves.

The rest of the weekend.......... Low Key....  I want to get some sewing done and my #1 goal is to finished the first front panel of the mitered squares capelet.

Enjoy the weekend.

I had the surprise in the mail I was waiting for last night.  I ordered 3 new books/magazines from my favourite Phildar source, Knit'N'Tyme and they arrived yesterday.  Yeah!!!  Speaking of buying more yarn now I have a few more awesome ideas for some new knits I need to add to my yarn buying list.  Of course, they are mostly baby knits but..... what can I say.

What did I get?

1. Phildar Winter 2005/06 Layette - this magazine has great knits for the little tiny ones ranging from some premature sizes to two years.  What I like about it is that there is a good selection of some basic knits that can work for either gender if you just work with the colours and then there are some that are just plain cute and whimsical.  There are a number of patterns I would love to make from this magazine.  For example, look at this zippered little cardigan in blocks of various colours or my favourite among the many cute designs, this hooded little jacket in the blue/tan combination that has really caught my eye.  I saw some blue/tan combinations in little boy sweaters before and ever since then I've felt that I need to do something in that colour combo.  This little one might be it.  The only downside, if you're not comfortable with French instructions is that I was only able to get it in French.  My French is far from perfect.  Actually, I can't remember enough to get by having a conversation but I'm okay with the knitting terms and instructions especially because Phildar patterns mostly seem quite logical and have fairly decent schematics.  I've done quite a few right from French now and every once in a while I get stumped a bit but I usually figure it out and all my projects have turned out.
2. Phildar Tricotez Calin Fall/Winter 2005 - this is another great little Phildar baby book for little ones from 0-2 years.  Again, it's in French.  Same with the Layette, there are a number of little designs that I have my heart set on.  I think I'm pretty much finished with the tiny little infant things my little guy is going to need so I'll have to start picking some of the larger sizes as I further build his little wardrobe.
3. And just for me............ Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton's Noro Revisited.  I bought the book because I'm smitten with the open cardigan on the front cover.  Of course, the size doesn't quite come large enough for me but I think it could easily be adjusted.  But since I also have plans to drop baby weight plus a whole bunch more after February, the sizing might end up being sufficient sooner rather than later.  It's not that far off.  It's made in Silk Garden.  I think I'm going to ask for the yarn to make it for a Christmas present.  There is also one other seater in there that is made from Noro Transitions that I think is quite intriguing.  As well, there are some other quite lovely designs but mostly I bought the book for the jacket on the cover.

It was Erika's gymnastics night last night so I had a solid hour of knitting time watching her use up lots of energy.  She just loves her class and her teachers and tries pretty hard.  She is the smallest one in her class.  I think she is also the youngest but not by much but she is definietly the smallest little one in there.  Unfortunately for me, the parent chairs to watch everything from are very uncomfortable for me at this point in time.  My back and a few other body parts get very, very sore within the first 15 minutes of being there.  But that won't be forever either.  We already signed her up for the semester starting in January.  So while I was watching, I was knitting on the capelet and managed to add at least 2 inches.  As I said, it's a pretty slow go but it is growing.

Peruvian Collection Highland Chunky is up on sale at Elann today.  I have one pattern for a sweater at home that I've been wanting to make from that or a similar yarn.  I know it would be perfect but I'm going to pass.  I can't place an order every day, can I?

Have a good one!!!