Sideways

Voilà: another little baby something!

I have very little to say about Judy's Grandmother's Baby Sweater (published in Greetings from Knit Café), except that at some point I was skeptical I'd like the result and then surprised myself by loving it. Slip stitch patterns do this to me.... they kill me in the process of making them but win my heart over as soon as I finish them and forget how many times I had to knit-tink-knit (I don't understand why I have difficulties with slipping stitches; I just do).

Really cool about this sweater is that it's reversible. The back (or is it the front?) looks like this:

I suppose the big bow has to sit on baby's belly unless it's tummy time; otherwise the back is too bulky to be comfortable. For the sake of comfort the designer moved the sleeve seams to the outside as not to irritate chubby cute baby arms.

Nifty!

The cardi is knitted from one side to the other, and the sleeves are added last.

Further specs:
Yarn: four skeins of Debbie Bliss Rialto in a shade of purple not adequately captured in any of the images
Needles: US #5
Size: 6 mo per pattern, but yarn/needle size substitution resulted in a smaller sweater, fitting perhaps a 3-4 mo old babe (that's what I'm hoping anyway)
Mods: I added a panel of garter stitch to the front (underneath the bow)

It took a surprisingly long time to finish the sweater, not because the pattern was difficult, but because I was distracted by some fabulous books. More about those later.

In other news: Today I broke my pinky toe.

Ten on Tuesday: Ten Favorite Health and Beauty Products

It's been a while since I've participated in Carole's group blogging enterprise, but this week's topic caught my attention. Beauty products! Love 'em!!

1. La Roche-Posay Toleriane Riche Facial Cream saved me as a teenager, and I'm still a Toleriane fan. I used to have pretty bad facial eczema, which sucks at any age, but it really sucks if you're a teen. I used to get prescriptions for this stuff, now I buy it myself and use it religiously as soon as dry-skin season starts (that is, heating season). It helps with dry, blotchy, itchy skin. Love it!

2. Foundation used to be a big problem because of aforementioned eczema, until my dermatologist suggested (somewhat hesitantly) to try Teint Idole Ultra by Lancôme. I haven't touched any other foundation since then, and because I'm so happy with it all my other make-up products are Lancôme as well. (I don't use make-up often: only when something important is happening at work, when I go out, and when I have one of those I'm-the-ugliest-duckling-in-the-world days and need a confidence booster. I usually use some pinkish blush, a little bit of green eyeshadow, and brown mascara. I'm pretty minimalistic.)

3. I hardly ever use lipstick but love lip gloss. My favorites are Aveda Lip Shine (in color Beet Root--which is no longer available online *gasp*) and C.O. Bigelow's Mentha Lip Shine Vanilla. For less glossy but moisturized lips I use Burt's Bees Beeswax Lip Balm (in a tin) or plain ol' Blistex, either with a hint of color or, in weather like today's, the medicated kind.

4. Constant companion: Herbacin Kamille hand cream. It's one of just a handful of East German products that survived German unification and is still manufactured today--and available in North America, for instance at Whole Foods and on Amazon. This is the best hand cream, like, ever.

5. Chanel No. 5. Nuff said.

6. After a hot bath (a Saturday morning essential) I like to pamper myself with Weleda Lavender Relaxing Body Oil. I love Weleda products, and for the Bean I got the Calendula Baby Oil for future baby massages.

7. I have seriously cracked heels year-round. Neutrogena Norwegian Formula Cracked Heels helps--as long as I don't forget to use it (which I do most nights). It's no longer on the Neutrogena website, but I assume the company's new Foot Cream is identical.

8. Redken Extreme Conditioner makes for very soft and silky hair, but recently I replaced all shower/hair products with paraben free stuff. The Whole Foods brand lavender shampoo and conditioner don't leave my hair quite as soft, but (hopefully) healthier!

9. Entirely ridiculous, but even after ten years in the US I still haven't found (a) a toothpaste and (b) a roll-on deodorant that I like, and I make all visitors from Germany bring Meridol and 8x4 Mild und Soft. The toothpaste is gum-friendly and whitener-free; the deodorant is what my mom gave me when I was old enough to use it, and I've never tried anything else.

10. Ok, I give up. I've run out of "favorites." How about house beauty (i.e., cleaning) products? I love everything Method, preferably when it smells of lavender. The sea minerals dish soup is also awesome.

Happy Tuesday!


***Can you tell that waiting-for-baby is getting boring? I mean, I just took a photo of my toothpaste.***

Gifts!

Two updates, since I'm sure y'all are dying to know:
1. The Bean's EDD (estimated date of delivery) came and went--and nothing! (Which is quite common for first-timers, and except for the grandmothers in spe everyone's calm around here.)
2. I haven't made up my mind yet regarding the lace scarf, mainly because I'm still working on this itty bitty baby cardigan (more about that in a future post).

In lieu of grander news I thought I'd post some photos of gifts handcrafted for the Bean by other fibery folks.

Let's start with these adorable little fish booties that Minh made, which go very well with the summer-y fish onesie she gave us. (And, at least thematically, with the whale-shaped bathtub her husband sent.)

My husband's colleague's wife doesn't see us very often because she lives in California, but we like to go out for dinner whenever she's in town. I was super surprised when her present arrived:

Usually I'm not crazy about things crocheted, but I really love this blanket! I like it better than the one I made for the Bean, which is why hers is in the crib and mine in a drawer.

And finally, a couple of knitted goodies made by another pregnant knitter whom I met on Ravelry:

I have to ask her which yarn she used for the hat--it's heavenly soft! She also sent a gift for "mommy," a perfect little pouch that I've been using daily to keep my knitting tools organized:

In return I made this for my swap partner:

That's the only project for which I know the specs. It's the Knit Picks Little Bubbles Baby Set (sans booties), knitted with Knit Picks Simply Cotton Sport yarn. The knitting was a lot of fun, but weaving in the ends drove me bonkers (the hat alone had 46 ends, the cardi a few more).

And now I shall return to my current project and finish it. (I'm really close. But I've been really close twice before.)

Brain Child

I can't help but brag. Today a copy of my dissertation arrived in the mail, printed on archival paper and properly bound, just as it is shelved in the library.

The stats...

Pages: 403
Paragraphs: 2.186
Lines: 12.333
Words: 136.415
Characters (no spaces): 776.027
Characters (with spaces): 911.634
First day of writing: Oct 6, 2008
Last day of writing: Aug 2, 2010
Days between those two dates: 666
Number of actual writing days: 94
Activities on non-writing days, in order of frequency, from high to low: "nothing" (vacationing, knitting, socializing, working out, cooking...), teaching, feeling guilty about not writing, research related activities (reading, taking notes, thinking)
Average number of words written per writing day: 1.451
Self-imposed goal of words written per writing day: 1.500
Date of submitting the first draft: Aug 10, 2010
Date of submitting the final (pre-defense) version: Nov 1, 2010
Time spent between these two dates revising the dissertation: every waking moment not spent teaching or keeping bodily functions going
Date of defense: Nov 19, 2010
Revisions required by committee after defense: 19 typos, one factual mistake
Time it took to complete final revisions: less than an hour
Occurrence of situation in which this few revisions are required: rare (per anecdotal knowledge)
Post-defense feeling: disbelief
Feeling today: "glad it's over," pride
Estimated number of months by which finishing the dissertation was delayed because author was knitting (a hobby the author picked up in March 2009): three

Lace! Lace! Lace!

While I'm in the midst of knitting another baby knit (cute little wrap cardigan in a honeycomb stitch pattern), I'm thinking ahead and am planning my next project. The Insanity Project is, of course, on my radar, but after I realized that it is knit on US #1 needles (!!!!), and after it took a whole day of knitting to finish just a gauge swatch, I may not start it for a while but give Hubs, the Bean, and myself a chance to get to know each other and develop some sort of routine. (No no no, he isn't here yet.)

So, what's next?

My grad school advisor is completely awesome and, in her awesomeness, kind of scary: she's been nothing but cordial and nice and helpful, always responsive to my troubles and supportive of my endeavors, and yet, until recently I've been a bit terrified of her! I hear that's normal: part of the grad school experience is to be scared s***less of your advisor. Now that we're degree-equals (chuckles) I want to give her a present that makes her forget the times that I stood in front of her stuttering and staring at my feet glossy-eyed. My advisor is a very beautiful woman who likes to dress up with accessories, and I think she'd appreciate a knitted scarf in a bold color. One week after I defended my dissertation I came across Madelinetosh Pashmina, a gorgeous five-ply merino-silk-cashmere mix, and got two skeins:

Although it's a sport weight yarn I'm hoping to make a lace scarf. Not too lacy, because that's not my advisor's style, and so I deliberately chose a heavier weight to give the lace scarf a more rustic feel. I got 720 yards to play with. Big question: which pattern?

For some time now I've been meaning to try either a Nancy Bush or an Anne Hanson design, and here is what a weekend of Ravelrizing and book-browsing has produced:

Bush's Lily of the Valley Scarf looks so simple--until you discover row after row of five-stitch nupps. I suppose I should try nupps to see for myself how I feel about them before I commit myself to a nupps-everywhere pattern.

Or I go for Bush's Lilac Leaf Shawl (with fewer repeats for a narrower scarf): just a little bit of nupping (alas, seven-stitch nupps) at the top and bottom edgings, and vast center field of lilacs in between. The pattern is designed to be used with a laceweight yarn, but Cattywampus's scarf--narrower, knit with five-ply yarn--looks gorgeous, no?

Of Hanson's designs I like the Birnam Wood Wrap. Since I don't have enough yardage I'd have to fiddle with pattern repeats etc. to downsize the wrap into a scarf. Dunno if I want to do that.

Hanson's Tudor Grace and Campanula Scarf have the advantage that they're easy to make (I'd hope): small pattern repeats that look pretty simple. But perhaps they are too simple?

Whatcha thinking? Which scarf do you like best?

Finnish and Finished

If only I weren't in such a rush I'd write a lengthy comment on Finland's maternity package that every new mom receives, in addition to a maternity grant. A-L linked to it, and after I forwarded the link far and wide everyone wants to move to Finland. If I were to write such comment I'd probably mention that, as a German who cares about education, I've been in awe of the Finnish education system since 2000, when the results of the PISA study showed that Germany lagged behind Finland, Europe's #1, by a huge margin, and that my high regard for Finnish schools has led to an interest in Scandinavian social welfare in general. By no means am I an expert, but there's something the Scandinavians are doing right where the rest of us fails.

Let's transition from Finnish to finished, as in, "finished objects" (very clever, ha ha, I know). Two of those I have for you today. First, Debbie Bliss's Carryboo, made of the eleven skeins of Cashmerino (knitted double-stranded, using #8 needles) that my mom sent:

It fits nicely into the stroller, size- and color-wise. The bunting opens up five inches or so on each side, and where the pattern calls for pretty ribbons to keep the front up, I think I'll use snaps instead. Although I have the most awesome sewing machine ever (graduation present from my MIL, who is a talented seamstress) I haven't had any time yet to learn even the basics of sewing, and therefore I won't be able to line the Carryboo, as requested per pattern. My other mods: I knitted in the round until the sides open, and I used seed stitch on both sides, not just one (the pattern calls for just one opening on the right side and instructs to knit seed stitch on that side only). Carryboo is currently soaking in warm soapy water, and hopefully the front will stay down once it has dried--I don't like how the seed stitch edge on the top flaps around.

Since I finished the bunting yesterday morning I needed a quick evening project and went for a simple beanie hat (pattern by Just Jussi, mods by LundenKnits: see my project page for details and proper credit).

Nothing special, really. I used some of the Madelinetosh Tosh DK that I had left over from the Baby Surprise Jacket I made over the summer.

On to the next project, which involves photo organization, not knitting. Every time I play with my photos, either in iPhoto or on Flickr, I mess up and some photos on the blog and/or Ravelrey disappear mysteriously. Bear with me if you encounter those nasty "photo currently unavailable" messages... and do share your awesome tips on how to avoid them!

"I don't know much about babies, but I know they cry and they eat and they poop"

So reads dw's comment to Monday's post. Since this is pretty much the extent of baby knowledge that my man and I have acquired over the past months, I am beginning to wonder why we spent a small fortune on childbirth and parenting classes. Let me recount last Saturday's mini-scare: Here I was, lifting stuff, not heavy stuff, just some stuff, up onto a shelf. And suddenly I felt this really intense pain all over my midsection, and it lasted something like thirty seconds. So I went to my betrothed and said, "Love, I don't want to freak you out, but I think I just had a contraction." He's cool as a cucumber in any and all life situations, but what did he do on Saturday? Freak out. He went pale and started talking fast, and then he pushed me into a chair, gave me a glass of water, and told me to stop having contractions because he wasn't ready yet for this. So nevermind the party we had been invited to go to; we hung out at home all evening waiting for whatever else there was to come. Which was nothing. False alarm. Probably just a friendly reminder that my torso muscles were working hard as it were. (Giant belly=really heavy.)

Point of the story: we're ten days away from doom day my due date, but we don't feel ready and keep telling the Bean to stay put. Since there's no way the baby will stay where he is till April, which is, by Hubs' estimate, the time we're ready to have a child, I guess it's good that at least materially we're ready. I'm not interior-designy inclined, so don't judge what you're about to see too harshly, namely the results of December's apartment-mega-rearrangement efforts (it wasn't enough to move every piece of furniture in our apartment, I also moved every single of our 3,000 books, somehow thinking that I'd bring zen into my life by putting them in alphabetical order.) Thanks to our über-generous families, we have really cool baby gear that is now spread out evenly over the apartment.

Let's start in the office, the focal point of which this has become:

There's more baby "entertainment furniture" on the other side... a baby bouncer and an activity gym, and we're thinking of giving the baby a whip so he can properly motivate us to work while himself bouncing his days away.

We moved everything around in the living room to make room for Bean Cage #1:

Bean Cage #2 shares the bedroom with us:

And then there's what was formerly known as the "storage room." In lieu of proper closets we used the spare room, tucked underneath the roof and up some scary stairs, to store junk college papers, a collection of non-functioning vacuum parts, boxes containing God-knows-what, and whatever else we wanted to get out of our sight. With Herculean effort we cleared out half the room and turned the front part into a cribless nursery with a changing table, a storage shelf, and a nursing chair:

As you can see, we couldn't part with junk completely, but we hid it behind a curtain.

I'm totally in love with this little room, mainly because in it is the only chair in which I am still able to sit comfortably:

(That blue thing is a nursing pillow.) Sleeping horizontally has become a bit of a challenge, and usually I end up in here at night for a series of short naps. (Who knew the not-sleeping already starts in pregnancy?)

So, there you got it. Babies cry and eat and poop, and we're here and ready to rock them, feed them, and clean them. Well, one baby, that is.

Next time there will be knitting content again. (Baby knitting. I know I know, it's getting lame. There's light at the end of the tunnel: not only am I planning to dive into fair isle knitting, despite dw's warning, but I also want to knit a lace shawl for my Ph.D. advisor. She had to read my 403-page magnus opum four times and deserves something amazing.)

What's In Your Insanity Closet?

I'm a sucker for fair aisle. I haven't knit but a pair of mittens and a hat using that technique, but whenever I imagine my knitting future a multitude of fair isle sweaters and cardigans pop into the picture. So when I saw Knit Picks' Dogwood Blossoms Sweater kit I had to have it. Seriously, isn't this purty (check the link for much better photos), especially since the kit costs less than eight trips to the espresso bar??!

And so today a big Knit Picks package arrived. In it were a standard letter-sized instruction booklet of twenty pages and lots of yarn:

Sooooo exciting, right? Which is why I ran to the Hubs. But instead of doing an enthusiasm dance, you know what he said? This:

"You better put this into the insanity closet."

Huh?! The only meaning I could deduce from this cryptic remark is that my wonderful husband thinks I'm crazy. Now, after reading the instructions I might agree that there's a little bit of truth to it, but Dude!, be a bit less discouraging!

In any event, I've been mulling over the concept of the "insanity closet" all day long. I think mine contains this other fair isle sweater kit that I bought last year, the yarn that I got to make Nancy Bush's Crown Prince Square Shawl, and possibly a small number of other perhaps-too-ambitious projects. *sigh*

Though I do think that I may be able to make this cardigan just in time for me to have lost the baby weight (don't ask, and I won't have to lie) so that it fits. I've decided that's going to be a year-long project (losing the weight, that is), and perhaps my knitting resolution for 2011 could be to finish one large fair isle project. (Either Dogwood Blossoms or the other one that I have, which technically isn't fair isle but a traditional Norwegian pattern--or is that all the same?). Hmmm... I have to think about it.

And while I do so I'm engaged in mindless knitting. In the most boring mindless knitting there is: stockinette stitch in the round. Once my mom found out that both my brother's girlfriend and I were pregnant she went on a Debbie Bliss shopping binge and got enough Baby Cashmerino to make two of these:

Now, she turned out to be rather busy this fall as well, and while she started the Carryboo for grandson #1 (baby Paul Alexander was born December 14, yay!), she neither finished that one nor started the second Carryboo. Instead she sent the yarn my way, and since Wednesday I've been knitting my fingers bloody to get it done in time. This is what I got so far:

Don't let the picture fool you; this thing is gigantic! At this point the bunting (which I knit in the round, not, like DB suggests, flat) could multipurpose as a strapless top for someone not-so-slim.

Oh... and you know what? Just as I was searching for the Carryboo link (see above) I came across pattern corrections: apparently the bunting is supposed to be much, much narrower! That makes perfect sense, but now it's too late to go back. I still have the upper back and hood to knit, but probably I won't bother lining the Carryboo (because I don't know what to do with fabric and needle).

I keep you posted. In the meantime, why don't you tell me what's in your insanity closet?

Here Are the Goodies

Let me begin with a photo to illustrate my previous point that in December I knit up a storm:

That's ten finished objects! (I had planned to blog yesterday, and make it a Ten on Tuesday post.... Instead I knitted some more.)

It's all baby clothes, and none of these little cutsies took a long time to knit. But before I show you the goodies, lemme tell you that finishing these little cutsies took roughly the same amount of time as knitting them. Between Christmas and New Year's I had to multipurpose our dining table as "finishing station":

Do note that my copy of Sharon Brant's Ultimate Knitting Bible is open to the page illustrating the mattress stitch. I confess without shame that I suck at finishing techniques (which is why some of the FOs didn't get finished until December, even though I began knitting them in October). I don't like to seam, I don't like to graft, I don't like to sew on buttons, I don't like to weave in ends, I don't like to make decorative i-cord loops (y'all see what I mean in a minute). My little knitting marathon taught me two lessons: (1) don't trust Debbie Bliss, (2) read ahead in a pattern for the magic phrase "button band," and if you don't come across it, think of a different pattern or make adjustments to the design.

Re: item (1): Theoretically I love Debbie Bliss. I totally agree with her (and all the other designers insisting on knitting flat and weaving pieces together at the end, rather than knitting in the round as much as possible and thus reduce or altogether avoid seaming) that many adult-sized garments have a much more flattering fit and drape more nicely when knit flat. For a cardigan on which one has worked for weeks, if not months, it doesn't matter that seaming flat pieces together takes an additional two four hours. Now, with a baby sweater the story is somewhat different. First of all, who cares about drape or a perfect shoulder fit, especially since babies outgrow their clothes in, like, three seconds? More importantly, aren't (bulky) seams on the inside a bit uncomfy for little ones? It was soooo frustrating to spend a day's worth of knitting time seaming together that little white sweater you see on the table. Seriously, a stockinette stitch sweater in four flat pieces??

But here it is, Debbie Bliss's Star Sweater:

(The model is my old baby doll. Please disregard the black smear on her right cheek: my techniques for applying mascara have improved over the years, I promise. Do, however, notice the very cool, black-and-white cloth diaper. Yup, we're going to use cloth. That's not out-dated but apparently super hip.)

Complaint (2) is less severe. In a second you'll see three cardis that all came without instructions how to fasten the front openings, leaving me to experiment, rather disappointingly, with snaps and hooks and the like. I prefer old-fashioned button bands, that's what I learned.

From top to bottom: Snug (Cascade Eco Wool), Ribbed Baby Jacket (Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran), and Peach Blossom Baby Jacket (Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino).

Snug in particular is a bit of a disaster, button-wise, and it needs some extra work. The pattern itself is awesome, and before I tried to come up with a way to close the fronts the cardi looked great:

The other two cardigans are held together by snaps; the i-cord thingies and the button are purely decorative.

I love the Peach Blossom Jacket so much I made a bonnet (Top Down Bonnet) and a pair of booties (Oh Baby! Baby Booties) to go with it, and I'm super happy with the set!

The booties are so darn cute, and so quick and easy to make, that I knit a second pair to go with the Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap (both made of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino):

The Sweet Baby Cap is totally awesome, in fact, it's so awesome that I made it three times. But only to get the size right... the pattern is sized for a six month old baby, and since I was hoping to make a hospital hat, I reduced the number of stitches from 121 to 91, as suggested by other knitters, but the resulting hat turned out too small (I assume that babies have heads bigger than ten inches? This baby is supposed to be nine pounds at birth). So I tried 121 stitches on smaller needles, and that yielded too big a hat. Since I don't sleep very well at night and am usually up between 3 and 5 am, and since at this point I had memorized the pattern, I made the cap a third time and started with 103 stitches. The hat fits the doll, who's got a 16 inch noggin. I'm hopeful it will fit the Bean! And just in case the Bean's head is smallish, I made yet another hat, the Welcome to the World Newborn Hat (Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino):

You think this concludes today's show? One more, peeps!

That's an Owlie Sleep Sack (Malabrigo Worsted), and if you can't guess how to use it, this should give you an idea:

The doll is bigger than a newborn baby, and I'm hoping the sleep sack fits the Bean long enough for us to take a few pictures. Check out the Ravelry Owlie photo gallery for some very cute, very sleepy babies chillin' in their sleep sacks; really, it was some of these photos that made me decide to knit the sack, even though I'm a bit skeptical regarding its practical value.

If you think I'm tired of baby knits, think again! I had imagined that knitting for baby would be one of the greatest rewards of pregnancy. That my summer and fall kept me too busy to knit saddened me quite a bit, and now I want to make up for lost time. Lined up in my knitting queue are:

That's four more cardigans, a vest, a jumper, a hat, and, in the large bag in the foreground, enough yarn to make a double-stranded stroller insert/sleeping-bag type bunting thingy. Don't call me crazy. I'm fully aware that no baby needs this many clothes, not even if he's a January baby born in New England. His grandparents have sent so many clothes our way that the Bean really doesn't need any handknitted garments. But what the heck?! My only obligations these days are to take 45-minute walks, pop prenatal vitamins, and try to eat healthy food (ice-cream contains protein, right?). Other than that the midwife recommends that I put up my feet and relax. What better way to relax than knit?! And I'm knitting bigger sizes now... for next fall... and... and... and after all, my mom keeps sending skein after skein of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino! Would you say no to that?! The only thing that eventually will get between me and those plastic bags is going into labor.