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Full Circle

Learning Ruby on Rails for a work project. There are a million plugins out there and when I search for any given one of them, Google mostly returns blog posts.

If there is a Ravelry for RoR (github?) it needs better search moxie.

Two Hoots (14 actually)

(Must post February knitting before April rolls in, arrrrghhh...)

This sweet little hat reminds me of a beloved children's book, Two Hoots in the Snow, in which two somewhat daft owls "corrected" each others' misunderstanding of that white stuff falling from the sky. (My favorite theory: the big white owl up in the sky was shedding.) I hope to meet this book again someday in a box from my parents' house...

And because 9 cabled owls weren't enough for one month, here are 5 more:

 

This was my Vestuary project, and for a while it lived next to the glider in John's room and I would knit on it while he snoozed in my arms. The pattern is the Owl Baby Vest by Jodi Haraldson. I did have to tweak it a bit (the pattern seems to be off-center, changes are in my project notes on Ravelry. It does seem to correspond well to a "standard" 6-9 month baby sweater, so that's good. (Mind, most babies wear these around age 3 months... John is no exception.)

The hat uses an almost identical cable pattern for the owls; it's written up as Who? by Sarah Amoroso. It is now (I hope) warming the head of a coworker's little boy, Collin.

As soon as the vest was done I cast on for a little blue sweater, also for John, for my March project. I don't think that will get done by tomorrow evening as there are two sleeves and a few more rows on the body to do. (Those few rows are bona fide "black hole" knitting as I knit on the body all evening yesterday and every time I measure it there is half an inch to go.) It's a tidy little sweater though, all logic and smooth sailing, and I'm looking forward to posting (and using!) it.

Boppy Pajamas

Somehow I missed posting this a month ago when I wrote it up. Oops.

Those of you with children, nieces, nephews, grandchildren, or babysitting clients born after, say, 2000 (a guess based on my own babysitting career) are probably familiar with this pillow. It's called a "Boppy" and it's especially helpful during the first couple of months of breastfeeding. John is getting a little big for it when we're on the couch but we still use one for breakfast-in-bed.

I picked this one up at a yard sale and decided it needed a slipcover. Simplicity 4225 seemed to fit the bill and it is indeed a very simple thing. A little too simple -- the opening for inserting the pillow is right smack in the middle of the back panel, rather than along one of the curved seams as the Boppy (TM) cover has it.

This is all well and good until you try to insert the pillow. You know union suits? The kind with the fanny flap -- well, imagine trying to get one on your body by crawling in through the flap in the back. That is the exact technique required to get the pillow into this cover. Buyer beware ;)

February (At Home)

Chinese Chicken Salad

We had some bok choy left over from stir fry the other night, so I improvised a salad for lunch today.

Dressing -- mix these in a bowl:

• 2 Tbsp mayonnaise
• 2 Tbsp Greek yogurt (strained yogurt)
• 1 Tbsp seasoned rice vinegar
• 1 Tbsp spicy sesame oil
• at least 1 Tbsp minced ginger (I like lots, probably closer to 2)
• soy sauce to taste

Combine in another bowl:

• about 1 cup cubed cooked chicken
• 2 large leaves/stems bok choy, chopped
• about 1/2 cup toasted pine nuts (that's a guess, I didn't measure at all)
• 1 scallion, sliced fine
• the dressing

Yummy. You could have this over rice or noodles -- cold or warm -- or rolled up with some extra greens in a wrap. You could also add carrot slivers for color (and vitamin A). I pretty much ate it straight out of the mixing bowl. :)

Happy Year of the Ox, everyone!

Blink and You'll Miss It

"It" being the magical, tiny window of time in which your child fits into something you really want to see him or her wearing.

My fault for wanting to add a hood to the BSJ, really. The sweater was done (ignoring a few loose ends and missing buttons) and too large when John was born -- and then the finished hood is nearly as large as the sweater itself -- and boom, outgrown well past getting away with a few rows added to the cuffs and hem. Guess this is destined for a sibling.

I'll be finishing it up before February 1, anyway, without further moping. I've been inspired by a handful of things: NaKniSweMo'09; Vestuary; the silly amount of yarn and an equally silly number of patterns I've acquired, all with good intentions; the cute little guy in my lap who still doesn't have any handknits from his own ma. So I will attempt to complete 12 knitted tops in the year 2009. True to form, though, I'm bending the rules to include baby sweaters, vests, and the BSJ I cast on last August (hell, I'm starting this thing with two days left in January, why not).

Fortunately this won't require much money as I've already purchased yarn for, or have stash yarn that would suit, these patterns: (heck some even have swatches already)

• Isabella
• Cardigan For Merry
• EZ's RibWarmer
• Sunrise Circle Jacket
• Ultimate Gift (hell no I didn't buy cashmere -- and I probably won't do this one)

and I have enough Falk for a stripey baby sweater, and enough Cascade Cotton Rich DK for a little cabled vest.

Wish me luck! :) If nothing else it'll be a chance to try some new things and learn a bit more.

Felted Unmentionables

If you're not into knitting, crocheting, or breastfeeding, you might as well find some other corner of the internet to investigate today. See you later :)

Mother's milk: one of the wonders of the natural world. However, most mothers find it inconvenient, embarrassing, or just plain cold and wet to carry surplus milk around in their clothing, instead of in their bodies. There are quite a few disposable and reusable products out there, and the Lansinoh disposable nursing pads aren't awful, but they're not that environmentally friendly.* So, inspired by these, I figured something homemade might work just as well.

Prototypes 3 and 1 (left to right):

  

Prototype 3 (green tag) is the one I'm happiest with. Prototype 1 is an instance of these Woolen Nursing Pads, which I found to be too flat and not as thick as I wanted. Prototype 3 is suitably cuppy, therefore it doesn't bunch up in the bra (creating little escape routes for milk no less). Here's a partial profile to convey cuppiness.

  

Here's my version, using Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool (1/4 or 1/3 of a skein?) and a size H crochet hook:

• ch 3 and join to form ring
• (row 1) ch 2; hdc 6 into ring; join to top of ch-2 with sl st (7 st)
• (row 2) ch 2; hdc 2 into each of next 6 st; hdc into base of ch-2; join w/sl st
• (row 3) ch 2; (hdc 1 into next st; hdc 2 into following st) x 6; hdc; hdc into base of ch-2; join w/sl st
• (rows 4-10) continue as above, making one additional hdc per repeat. Tenth row should have 70 st total. Bind off, cut yarn, and weave in ends.
• Felt in hot-and-heavy wash cycle (in a zippered pillow case so fiber doesn't end up in the pump or septic tank). Air dry.

[Ravelled]

For the first 2 days they worked great; now they're noticeably less absorbent and are having a bit of a bath in warm water. I was surprised at how little they itched (just a bit on the first day). They're very soft and in this below-zero weather I am grateful for the extra layer too. ;)

* Yes, we are switching to cloth diapers next week. I wanted to get the hang of breastfeeding before tackling those.

UPDATE:

The lovely and kind Kathleen (author of the comment below) shared her tips on lanolizing woolens in an email, and she said I could share them with you here as well!

Here's the process.  :-)  Lansinoh lanolin is perfect (only the pure lanolin, I think they have some other cream out there, but just USP lanolin is what works for this).

First handwash your pads with a wool-safe cleanser (you can use a wool wash - those are the best, but if you don't have it available or are trying to be frugal, baby shampoo works fine).  Soak your pads for 5 mins in lukewarm water.  Then rinse them in lukewarm water, and squeeze them out (you don't want to wring them, just kinda press them folded over on themselves).  Set
them aside.

You can now lanolinize using hot water, a dollop of Lansinoh and a dollop of baby shampoo.  Microwave a cup of water, and when it's hot enough to melt the lanolin, mix the three together until the liquid is milky-looking and the lanolin is fully melted.  Then fill your sink with lukewarm water and put the pads in.  Pour the milky solution and let it all sit for a half hour.  Drain the sink while holding the pads next to the drain - it helps to get every bit of the lanolin into the pads.  Then all you have to do is roll them in a towel to get out the excess moisture and hang them to dry.

After that, like I said in my post, all you have to do is wash them with a wool safe wash (one note, Woolite will strip all the lanolin out) if they get stiff (just let them dry, otherwise), and repeat the above process if they seem to lose their absorbency or start to smell.  These will also gain lanolin from your use of them, but make sure you spread it thin or you will end up with sticky parts on the pad.  They take a little while to dry, in my experience, so keeping 2-3 sets on hand is good.

And from my experience, Fisherman's wool is kinda dirty, so I clean it really well before I use it, which strips out any oil.  Also, the oil is not just lanolin, but also a processing oil they use when spinning it.

This is the same process I use to lanolinize our wool diaper covers.  I would never have believed it worked until I tried it.  Wool is truly amazing.  :)

Thanks, Kathleen!

Finished/Unfinished

Finished: gestation
Unfinished: raising our kid!

Our little baby is a boy, John, and he arrived in the thick of a snowstorm on December 19. We have decided not to post public pictures; hope you'll understand.

I went back to work on the 18th, having run out of things to do around the house, and had insistent but widely-spaced contractions all day long. I was pretty sure we'd meet the baby on Friday, so we went out to our favorite Indian restaurant "one last time" that evening, and then curled up on the couch and watched a few episodes of MASH. When I went to bed (10 pm) I was just starting to have to use the hypnobirthing relaxation techniques during contractions.

At 1 am I woke up and started breathing through contractions; I headed to the living room so Tim could get a little more sleep. At 2 am I called the doctor to let them know where things stood. Then I took a hot shower and got back in bed to try to relax some more; Tim hit the shower, and we headed back downstairs around 4. It was hard to get comfortable and at 4:20 my stomach decided to protest all the unusual muscular activity. We threw the last-minute things into our bags and headed to the hospital.

I'll spare you the details of the following 14 hours and 20 minutes. :) Suffice it to say that John entered the world in the traditional manner, a very healthy 7 lbs 14 ozs, 21 inches long, and promptly started to outgrow everything. Right now he is snuggled up in my Moby wrap, and starting to wake up, so I've got to wrap this up!

You might be wondering, whither this blog? I certainly am. Knitting time has been severely curtailed, and cooking is more of a survival tactic at this point than an exploration of creative impulse. However, I'll do what I can do keep posting, and to keep the baby from completely taking over the subject matter. Expect to see more knitting-for-kids, though! (And when the weather gets warmer, there will be biking.)

Icebound

Ice isn't the only reason I've been virtually silent the last month... but that's for another post (observing chronological order)!

We had our first good snow when I finished up this Christmas gift, just in time for its photo shoot. Just a couple of inches. I guess that would be around December 15. (Why is the snow pink? I don't know. It was 10 AM.)

This is the Ice Queen cowl from last winter's Knitty. The minute I saw the pattern, I knew how well it would suit my mother-in-law. I finished it just in time to ship out for Christmas (and only because I took the week before baby's due date off from work).

Here's a detail -- I love the beading pattern:

To me, Kid Silk Haze is not the crack some people make it out to be, but it was pleasant slipping through my fingers. I don't recommend knitting it on Denise circulars, though. Actually I don't recommend knitting anything on a Denise circular shorter than 18", as the needle tips don't want to meet at a comfortable angle. So it probably has very little to do with the yarn.

On the 19th, we settled in for three days of snowstorm. Since then it's snowed every week, and frozen hard. When I went to take out the compost the other day, I slipped on the crust -- too thick for my weight to break through -- and fell pretty hard. So in a sense we are a bit icebound until the weather warms up (no sign of that happening this week!)

BSJ Bonanza

BSJ = Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmerman

What can I say about the BSJ that hasn't been said already?

First you knit up a weird hexagon, akin to nothing encountered in high school geometry... then you fold it a particular way, and poof!

Add a couple of seams along the shoulders, and a few buttons, and you have a very cosy and addictive baby jacket.

These were my "traveling knitting" from August through October -- well, alright, they were my only knitting except for a few desultory sock rows. They went to Alaska, Buffalo, hockey, Girl Scout meetings, friends' houses, everywhere but work and church. They are surprisingly quick to knit, in addition to their surprising topologies.

Made for, from top to bottom, Tara Shriram Fisler, our baby-still-to-come (that jacket is waiting for a hood), Liam Johnston-Worthen, and Landon Halcomb.

That concludes the baby-knitting for a bit :) Unfortunately all the WIP are Christmas gifts, so I can't post those just yet! And the main WIP, though not strictly for Christmas, isn't in a photographable location ;)