domesticana

The Latest in Baby Knitting

This isn't exactly the latest, considering I've been pretty delinquent in my posts for the last, I don't know, year. So, here's a little backlog of my baby knits. Wendy encouraged all of us online knitters to knit from our stashes in 2007, and I was surprised to find how easy that was for me, especially when it came to baby sweaters when so little yarn is involved. I had to supplement here and there, and naturally I didn't avoid buying more yarn, but it was such a pleasure to think of something I wanted to make, go dig around for a bit and come out with the perfect yarn. The experience encouraged me to recognize two things about myself: I am a yarn cheapskate of the highest order and I don't mind hoarding. So, I've decided to buy my yarn at sales, if at all possible, and knit from my stash whenever it's reasonable to do so. Sounds easy enough, right?

Twinsets

My very dear friend Roberta had twin girls last spring, and I was absolutely beside myself knitting these two matching sweaters. I happened to have just the right amount of my 'Dusty Rose' Rowan Handknit Cotton in my stash, and I ordered the 'Pistachio' colorway to match after I found those cute Robeez at a local shoe store. I previously knit this pattern with Kollage Yarns Cornucopia, and I must say the cotton yarn knit up so much smoother than the corn. These sweaters were such a joy to knit, and I was thrilled to receive this adorable picture of the two babes all wrapped up a few weeks later.

Evie's Sweater

A few years ago, I started the Polka Purl Dots Vest and abandoned mission about halfway through. I was still fearful of patterned knits and I chose not to do the polka dots, which in retrospect was probably why I left it sitting on the needles for over two years--so mind-numbingly boring. Anyway, a good friend of mine, and former Seattle knitting buddy, Valerie, was having her second baby, a girl, and I wanted to knit something for her that wasn't too pink or girlie. I started knitting the sailor sweater (next in line here), and about 3/4 of the way through I decided it was all wrong. Too bulky. Too masculine. Not detailed enough for my knitting friend.

So, I went back to my stash and found my abandoned, pretty blue Svale silk yarn (still on the needles--I knew I had that size circ), and started dreaming up something totally different. I flipped through some stitch books, settled on this simple repeat, ripped out the Svale and just started knitting. It's so liberating for me to not use a pattern, and I loved the final result. It was feminine and sweet without being prissy, and after I heard the baby's name, Evelyn Rose, the rose buttons really put the icing on the cake for me.

Sailor Sweater for Cody

As luck would have it, I needed a baby boy's sweater for my cousin in Utah, and my previous  work in progress was just the thing. I found these cute pewter, sailboat buttons (sorry about the picture) at my not-so-local yarn shop, and it all came together. I bought a bunch of Debbie Bliss Merino Chunky a few years ago, on sale naturally, and oh-so-barely had enough for this. You can see in the picture that the cream stripes narrow out on the sleeves--um, yeah. It was stressful. I had about 3 feet of each color when I was done with this one. Again, no pattern here, but it's essentially the same sweater as the one for Evie. And yes, weaving in the stripes was a pain in the ass. I need to learn how to weave them in as I go...

Sasha's Bear

After finishing all these sweaters, I was keen to throw in the towel and send my friend Nicole something store-bought. But then I found the Bobbi Bear pattern and this super-soft Inca Organic Cotton Yarn, and thought, what the hell. The pattern calls for Blue Sky Cotton, which creates a very smooth, perfect looking stuffie, but I couldn't resist the handspun look of the Inca. The bear needed a little something around his neck, which came out looking a little stretched. So I whipped up this little garter-stitch scarf, and voilà.

Trellis Sweater

After a short hiatus from baby knit-land, I started this adorable Trellis pattern from Knitty. My friend Rachel is due in April, and we celebrated with a blessingway this weekend. After all my baby knitting last year, I was so excited to be able to deliver this one in person. I just loved everything about this pattern: the shawl collar, the simple yet complex-looking cables, and the way it all came together. Again, I used yarn from my stash: Rowan Pure Wool DK in a sweet dusty green. I think I used size 5 addi turbos, but I lost my needle sizer thing and can't be certain. Rachel loved it, and it was so fun to be with her when she received it.

Unblocked?

Our baby-making trials continue... Shortly after I wrote my last infertility-related post, we were all sitting around chatting after dinner at my good friends Rachel and Justin's house. In addition to being a concerned friend, Justin is also an osteopath and a family practice MD, and he started quizzing me about my test results from our fertility doctor. I told him about my unexplained tubal blockage—no previous infections, STDs or endometriosis—and he perked up.

Him: Have you ever had a head injury?

Me: Yeah, a couple concussions. What does that have to do with anything?

Him: Have you ever had any one look at your pelvis alignment?

Me: Well, not really. What does that have to do with fallopian tubes and head injuries?

This led him to get out his handy-dandy skeleton and show me how your skull is connected to your spine is connected to your sacrum is connected to your pelvis. He went on to explain that it's possible that if my pelvis was twisted, the ligaments that connect my hips to my sacrum, on which my fallopian tubes rest, could be all mangled and kinking my tubes. Following me? After grilling me about my head injuries (turns out that both times I was knocked out, I was hit in the same spot on the right side of my head) and that time I fractured my tail bone riding my boyfriend's bike, he went to work on me for over an hour.

Turns out, I was totally out of whack. Like really messed up. Fortunately for me, and much to Justin's satisfaction, I am young and healthy and relatively fit, and all my parts popped back into place quite successfully. He has since checked me a few times and concluded that his work seems to be holding. Oh, and that he can't feel any adhesions in my pelvic-fallopian-ovary region anymore. Yippee!

I'd get the dye test again if it didn't cost 800 bucks. But honestly, I'm feeling pretty confident that my tubes are running free and clear now. On top of just feeling different down there (in ways that might be too much information for the internet), my cycles have also spontaneously regulated for the first time in my life. I was sure that I had been getting my period a week early for the past few cycles until I finally sat down and looked back through my iCal records. Holy smokes, they've been coming on every fourth Sunday for the past three months! That's 28 days. I was stunned when my google search for "average length of menstrual cycle" produced that exact number. I've been more of a 35/32/38 day girl my entire life. It feels so good to be average, let me tell you.

And on the other side of the equation, I recently realized that we totally messed up Matt's sperm count test. The directions: not something you want to overlook when you're paying $130 for a test and trying to ejaculate into a very small container on demand. But overlook them we did.

So at the moment , I'm feeling like our situation isn't so dire. In fact, I'm sitting here typing away with two boxes of ovulation predictor tests on my desk. It's such a struggle for me to go into that head space again—the clinical/planning/temperature taking aspect of "trying" to get pregnant. I don't want to get all stressed out about it. On the other hand, I do want to know when the time is prime...

Realistically, I know that our work life is totally insane right now and Matt will most likely be away on business for much of the spring, but I'm feeling really hopeful for the future, how ever far away that may be.

It Must be in the Air

Springtime in Sonoma county is blissful: cool mornings, sunny afternoons and everyone itching to spend the whole day outside. After "quiet time" the other day, we went over to our friends' cul-de-sac for a little bicycle action on the street. When I told Ella our plans, she smiled brightly, with so much generosity in her voice and said, "Oh, those guys are so lucky to live on such a nice street!" Incidentally, we live on a highway.

With the sun still warming us low in the sky, the kids raced back and forth down the street and then spent a good hour playing with the gravel in my friend's front yard. They buried each other in it and filled their tucked-in t-shirts until they looked pregnant and chubby. They were hysterical with giggles and filthy with dust, and the whole scene was just one of those perfect life moments. Nothing special, just a simple, satisfying afternoon.

After the children had completely stretched out their t-shirts with rocks, Ella asked one the of the neighbor boys if he was going to tell his mom about his ruined shirt when he got home. He was balancing on his bike, standing still, when he slowly put his feet on the ground and said, "I don't have a mom." Not quite grasping the gravity in his voice, or maybe she did, Ella responded, "Oh, do you have two daddies?"

Witnessing their interaction from afar, I smiled at her modern assumption and then my heart just broke as he told her that his mother had died four years ago. He just has a dad now, he said. And a grandma. And a kid brother. Only a few seconds passed when they all shrugged it off and went back at it on their bikes, but I'm not so easily distracted.

We seem to be surrounded with breaking families lately. Two of Ella's close school friends' parents are going through difficult divorces (is that redundant?), and another is clearly on the brink. Then we learned that our neighbors/friends are splitting up and moving (separately) across town. On top of all that, a few weeks ago and out of the blue as far as I was concerned, my sister-in-law practically arrived on our doorstep after fleeing the state to escape her husband of 24 years. He had some kind of breakdown, and she had to get a year-long restraining order against him. What is going on, people? Is it something about that pesky Mercury in retrograde? Maybe I'm just finally old enough for all of my friends' marriages to start becoming part of the national stat? It's so depressing.

Despite all of that swirling around us, our life continues to improve and look brighter every day. New, and potentially very rewarding, opportunities are presenting themselves left and right, and Matt is beside himself with plans (and work). He's so excited and pleased and gracious that even his constant distraction with work isn't irritating me the way it has in the past. Finally having a light at the end of this long new business tunnel is definitely improving my patience with his workaholism.

Back to yesterday, after we'd said our goodbyes and packed up her bicycle, I stealthily encouraged Ella to tell me about her conversation with the neighbor boy, pretending I didn't know about his mother. She seemed to take it in stride—very matter-of-fact. Somehow that conversation segued in her mind to her neighbor friend's new living situation, and Ella said, "I wish you and daddy lived in separate houses, like S's parents, because then I would have two houses." I guess S's parents have pitched their separation to their kid as a fun new adventure, worthy of 5 year old envy. I told her that we're all happy living together, but it's nice that S is excited about her daddy's new house. Then she asked if she could have a cookie when we got home.

Apparently all this  it's not screwing with her nearly as much as it is with me!