Jabs and things

Yesterday was nowhere near as bad as I'd feared.  Immy screamed blue murder after it was done, but a feed and a dose of Calpol calmed her down.  And she slept from 11.30pm through to 6am last night, which was lovely!

Oh, and I managed to make this:



It's in the alpaca silk I mentioned before and I'm just glad that the weather is so changeable at the moment as I may actually get a chance to wear it.  I used this pattern , the version for straights, but had to correct it.  
Decrease Row 5 should have knit to the last two stitches, k2 tog after the star. And
decrease row 5 and even row ought only to be repeated 5 times rather than 6. Apart
from that, it's wonderful. Marc has even agreed to me making him a hat
(in a different pattern), so I can't have done too badly. 

Now, the plan for today is to knit the final sleeve of the Baby Yoda Sweater and the i-cords.  Then I need to sew it up and I'm done.  Plus I need to do the tension square for the Kon Tiki raglan sweater.  I'll show you pictures if I manage it all!

A good day

Today has been quite productive, really.  I've nearly completed the knitting part of the Baby Yoda Sweater.  Just one sleeve and four i-cords to go.  Then the dreaded sewing up!  I suppose, really, I ought to try and take the time to master knitting on circulars.  In the same way that I really ought to take time out to get the hang of crocheting.  But that won't be for a while.  I need to sew up the afore-mentioned sweater, plus Alexia's jacket, do another tension square for a raglan sweater I'm going to make Imogen and finish off the hat in alpaca silk from the Natural Dye Studio for myself.  

Hopefully I'll be able to get some of that done tomorrow.  But Imogen has her 12 week jabs at the doctors tomorrow.  And judging by her reaction to the 8 week one, I'm going to be pretty busy with the Calpol.  At least this time we're prepared, though.  Last time the doctor just told us she'd forget about it after two minutes.  She didn't.  She got a fever and was fractious until the wee hours of the morning.  So, if your baby is about to have their immunisation, be prepared.  Get yourself some Calpol.

RIP Uncle

It is with great sadness that I have to report the death of my lovely Uncle Henry this morning.  He had a lung infection which the doctors felt was not safely operable.  My greatest regret is that, for various reasons, I wasn't able to take Imogen to see him before he died.  He had developed dementia some months ago and would not have known who we were either.  I feel like I lost him twice.  Rest in peace, Uncle.  We loved you very much.

Drat and blast!

In my infinite wisdom and equal stupidity, I decided to try and carry on with Keziah's waistcoat last night.  I began this task at nearly midnight, which merely compounded the idiocy.  And I have now, obviously, fouled it up.  Quite magnificently.  The pattern has confused me no end and I now have a mess.  And, frankly, I'm frightened of ripping it back in case I mess that up again too.  There is a significant part of me which is seriously tempted to just unravel the lot and use the yarn for something else.  What smarts is that the wretched thing is labelled as easy.  In whose world is this easy?

On a less annoying note, I have got 4 1/2 inches done of the front left of the baby yoda sweater, so there is some progress there.  If I have any yarn left at the end of it, which is a definite possibility, I may just have to make a matching bib.

I've also discovered that the top I made for Imogen already fits her.  And she looks rather smart in it, even if I do say so myself.

Baby Yoda Sweater

I have recently started working on this.  I'm not doing too badly so far.  The back is completed, as you 
can see here:

It's not actually quite that fluorescent - the flash on Marc's camera has
made it lighter.  I don't think the yarn gods are smiling on me, though,
since I ran out of the first ball of yarn half a row before I was due to cast
off and then fouled up the casting off.  Which meant I had to try and
undo it and try and reknit with a sewing needle.  Which didn't really
work.  But I'm hoping it doesn't show too badly and  am very grateful
that it happened on the back rather than the front!

However, I'm quite impressed that I managed to complete it in a day,
in between feeding the lovely Immy. This was mainly because Marc had
the day off so was able to undertake nappy duty as & when required
which gave me a bit more time. But if I can carry on at this pace, it may
even be completed by the end of the weekend. Unless, of course, I end
up casting on something else in addition, which I'm sorely tempted to do.
There's just too many nice patterns out there.

Does anyone else just feel like trying to knit them all?

Finally!

Well, it's been a year in the making, but I've completed the 'Baby's Top with Moss Stitch Trim' from Debbie Bliss's Step by Step Knitting Workbook at last.  And learnt an object lesson, too.  Your tension changes in a year which means that the front doesn't exactly match the back.  I didn't discover this until making up (despite having been measuring all the way through and having done the relevant swatch etc).  So I had to fudge it a bit with the sewing.  It's a little untidy, but it's my first ever attempt at a proper garment (other than the Elizabeth Zimmerman jacket which I've yet to finish because the zip still hasn't arrived) and I don't think it's too terrible.  I probably ought to have restarted bits of it, but I'm terrified of the whole thing unravelling if I do so I tend to avoid the whole frogging thing.  If anyone has any tips for how to do this with any degree of alacrity I'll be most grateful!

Anyhow, here it is:



It really is nowhere near as blue as that photo suggests. It's a gorgeous shade of teal (and the yarn is Debbie Bliss's Cashmerino - beautiful stuff, very soft).  It's pinned at the bottom because it keeps curling up which will teach me to substitue yarns I suppose (the pattern calls for cotton). But, anyhow, it's done, and should look nice on Imogen which is the main thing.

Speaking of Imogen, I really ought to make mention of my fabulous doula without whom she probably wouldn't be here. Well, she would, but it would have been an awful lot less pleasant/easy getting her here. You really ought to check out her website.  She even has a photo of Imogen on there - how cool is that?  If you want to know more about doulas, then check out this which will tell you all you need to know.

I appreciate that I haven't blogged in an awful long while, but I've been a little busy.  Predominantly, because of this little love



My lovely daughter, Imogen Sophia, was born on Sunday 3rd February at 2.01pm.  It was intended to be a home birth, but after a very long time of pushing with no result (she was stuck), we were rushed to Epsom hospital by ambulance for an emergency ventouse.  Not pleasant, but far better than what would have happened if we hadn't (she was born with meconium and had to be taken into the Special Care Baby Unit).  

And I've finally got back into knitting.  I'm part way through a very lovely Debbie Bliss top for her.  It was intended for Lexie, but I've been very slack and Lexie is now far too big for it!  However, the jacket I started last year (which still isn't finished - mea culpa) will probably still fit her, so once the zip arrives I can finally finish it off.

I'm completely stuck on that waistcoat, too, by the way.  If anyone has the pattern and can help I'll be very grateful.

If I finish all of that, I then have the arduous task of deciding what to make next.