The Rabbit is NOT Going to Beat Me!

 

I am s....l....o....w....l....y working my way back to blogging and I came across this post saved in my drafts folder. I was totally thrilled to see it. Not because this afghan turned out so well - I actually donated it and all the yarn to charity - but because I was thinking about it the other day and had not saved my pictures to any file I could find.  I started this afghan when I was pregnant with my first son. He is about to turn five. My Great-Grandmother had given me the Peter Rabbit squares (I believe they were originally really scary leg warmers) and with all the hopes and dreams of a new Mom I wanted to make this afghan in her memory. She was a great Lady and I adored her. She was all that was gentle and kind and awesome in my world. She passed away when I was seventeen and the whole town turned up for her funeral. And she would have loved my boys. So, as I anticipate the big five year birthday celebration, I was thinking about this afghan. I had picked up stitches around the pink square and was working it in a stocking-stitch log cabin pattern. I thought it was quite cute and clever though and I was dreading having to knit a back for it (the bunny needed a back). The problem, however, was that I could not find ANYTHING to match or compliment the weird salmon pink. It was the strangest colour. Plus, I was having a boy and i didn't want to have TOO much pink. But other than the brown, very little worked. So I bought cream and brown and LOTS of blue. And I knit away on it. And everyone hated it. Everyone I showed it to thought it was just awful. And not at all practical for a baby. It was universally unpopular. So I fussed. And I pondered. And I took pictures. And I clearly lost confidence. And in a panic of pregnant lady superstition I gave it all away. Looking at these pictures I am HORRIFIED. What was I thinking?!

It's pretty, right?! And cute. And that was a LOT of yarn. And my darling boy, beautifully playing lego while his little brother naps, just looked at the pictures and said "Cute foosh, did you make it?" (foosh is what he calls the afghan I did make for him and has slept with and taken everywhere since he was born). And when I told him the story of how I WAS making it for him and how I didn't think he would like it and how I gave it away he said "That was silly, you should have waited til I could talk. I like it. Would you make me a new one?" I am in the middle of a log cabin afghan right now and am loving it. I actually have a pattern that would give me the Peter Rabbit. And I have a beautiful pink that I could use as the background. And I have a wonderful local yarn shop I'm happy to support and buy more yarn from. So really, there is no reason to say no to my boy. And even though he will likely forget this conversation and wont really want the "foosh" when I'm done, I think I'd like to give it another go. The original title of this post was "The Rabbit is NOT going to beat me" and I think I'll keep it. The rabbit may have won the first round, but my favourite quote is "Remember, the turtle won". So five or six or several more years later, I may still win this particular race.

Ready for the Naming Ceremony

The red Daisy sweater is all ready for Baby P's naming ceremony.

And just in time - it's tonight :)
I decided to go with the baseball buttons because I liked the white and red matchiness of it. And, because I wish someone would do this for me sometimes, skipped the button-holes and went with snaps. 
As I didn't have time to publish this before the ceremony, here are pictures of Baby P and his daddy feeding him to a giant crab. Seriously, that thing was alive and kicking. Don't worry though, Baby P won. We ate the crab less than half an hour later :)

Not so Blissful

Okay, seriously. I give up. I thought it was just me. I thought I was not paying close enough attention. I thought maybe it was a blonde thing. I thought maybe it was a British thing. I thought maybe I'm just a little bit stupid. But I CANNOT figure out the pattern for Debbie Bliss's Diagonal Front Jacket!


I have cast on, knit the whole first PAGE of the pattern and it never lines up properly. Once I had the wrong number of stitches (fine, blonde and a little bit stupid). Once I was doing the M1 stitch wrong (lost in translation? Maybe a British thing). So I looked it up in Ms. Bliss's How to Knit book. Corrected that problem. But still, can't get it right. And I've been trying, on and off, for over a year now.


So yesterday, while baby napped, I cast on for the 10 millionth time and tried again. I was sitting in a good chair with good lighting. I had no distractions. I counted everything THREE times. Considering the cast-on is 247 stitches this was a LOT of counting. I was extra-super-duper careful. And still it didn't work. I think I figured out WHERE the problem is, so I looked online for any reference to errata. Nothing. Here is someone who clearly was able to handle the pattern. She even played with it and made it her own. Not me. Can't even get past the first section of the pattern. For the record, I CAN make the sleeves work. But what good are sleeves without a body?

What is more frustrating is that, while I love photos of Debbie Bliss's patterns I have yet to find a single one that I can follow without difficulty.

I tried making these:

Worked fine except for the heel. Came out FULL of holes and a total mess. Had to go back to Cat Bordhi and Debbie Macomber to finish them at all.

I tried many of the bear patterns in her teddy bear book. Issues with all of them. Have had trouble with a few of the "beginner" baby sweaters too. Must be just me. Seriously. There is a Debbie Bliss Knit-a-long for heaven's sake. I can't imagine that many people looking to be frustrated on purpose.

Yes, must just be me. So I have frogged the project for the last time and have repurposed the yarn for a new wubby for the boy. He is rapidly wearing out the current blanket and will need a new one before I know it. I'm using my favourite pattern for my favourite guy. I guess I'm just meant to find my bliss elsewhere :)

Daisy Sweater for Baby P

My current project - nearly 9 months in the making (NO, not that!) is a little red version of the Yarn Harlot's Daisy Sweater. I'm making it for my friend K's baby. K is an interesting character. She is not a baby person. She is one of those people who will tell a brand-new mother that their darling, minutes/days/week-old baby looks like Yoda. I was very careful how I told her when I was pregnant. She paused fora moment and then asked if she could name the fetus. I said sure. She said that it had to be ethnic (because DH and I are "too white") and she thought it should be named after a dictator, cause babies are "basically evil parasites who take over everything". Like I said, NOT a baby person. So for the duration of my pregnancy she called my belly Ho Chi Minh, or Baby Ho for short. This amused the heck out of my mother, who thinks K is hilarious, and irritated pretty much everyone elseI knew. Personally I chose to go with amused. Mostly because this IS the girl who took me to Paris for my Babymoon :) Got to love her right?

So, when she became pregnant herself I was VERY curious to hear what she would call her own belly. I asked if I could name it but she had a dictator all picked out. Though we call him Baby P for short, the P is short for Putin (bald, tricky, slightly evil). Yup, motherhood for this girl should be interesting.

This is the sweater so far - I just have to sew up, bind off or graft the hood. I haven't decided which one I'm going with yet.















This is how much yarn I have left over. I realised I was going to be short so I sewed up all the seams first and then figured I'd see how it went. I think I will have JUST enough.

Have you read the pattern for the Daisy Sweater? Totally cracks me up. When you have finished all the parts and are working on the neck the pattern reads "if you don't want a hood, BO all sts, and eat chocolate before following the finishing directions for the version of your choice". I love any pattern that has directions for chocolate :)

Then, at the end of the hood it reads "Divide stitches evenly onto 2 needles and graft, OR, if grafting makes you woozy, bind off and sew up". Hilarious.

I haven't decided about grafting versus binding and sewing. I don't think I've ever done it (grafting) before. I pulled up the tutorial on Knitty and we'll see how it goes. Other decision that needs to be made it on the buttons. I got the cutest set at Michael's a few weeks ago and I'm madly in love with both options. Originally I thought I would just go withe baseball theme (cause they match the sweater best):

But now I'm kind of leaning towards the multi-sport option. I just think the football looks a little off. Maybe if I mix them up a little. Too much white with the baseball and the soccer ball together. I'll have to play. Baby P is likely to be athletically challenged anyway (his parents are SMART but klutzy) so it's more for the "boy" theme to make his daddy happy anyway.

Specs: sweater was made from 2 balls of Bernat Softee Chunky. It's very soft and does not require any special washing instructions. Which I think K will appreciate. I used 5 mm addi circulars and I knitted the smallest size. It's going to be large-ish for a newborn, but won't go much beyond the 6 month point. Well, that will depend. My kiddlet is 18 months and only 22 lbs. The sweater kind of fits him. But so do some of his 6 month sweaters so I'm not sure he's a good model. I have a feeling that Baby P will be bigger.