Losing my mind

In anywhere from one to four weeks I will finally reach the third trimester. Apparently this milestone is marked by the rate of baby development and not by calendar date, so it occurs roughly between 26 and 29 weeks. What this means on a practical level is that this kid is growing in size rapidly, and therefore so am I.

Every two or three days I grow enough in size to develop what I think of as “pregnancy walk” where I waddle a bit and can’t get up from chairs, and can’t sleep due to the pain in my pelvic region. Then I get used to it and go back to walking and sleeping normally. Rinse and repeat. It is *almost* comical, but not quite. I tend to start misplacing my sense of humor when I’m really tired.

All this growth, plus the greatly increased kicking that’s going on, has made me much more aware of impending motherhood, which has produced the desire to want to make ALL THE BABY THINGS ALL THE TIME.  My Ravelry queue is looking a bit like a nursery.

From these urges was born two pair of booties and a small hat. There is another hat in progress. You see, I made the mistake of going to a Jo-Ann’’s last week, where I got lost in the yarn aisles feeling which yarn was the softest. I came home with Bernat Bamboo in linen, which is ridiculously soft, and the forest green is some stash yarn. I got lost in the fabric aisle as well – those projects are yet to come.

It’s a really disquieting feeling for a generally logical and non-sentimental person like myself to find myself in a yarn aisle feeling like I’m going to weep at any moment over the unbelievable cuteness of a tiny sweater in some book of crafts that I’d normally find rather pedestrian or tacky. It makes me cringe, thinking of it. I’m assuming all the hormones make most pregnant women behave somewhat kookily, but it’s hard to be comfortable with the level of strange behavior that I’m evincing.

However, it does explain why I came home with purple Fun Fur, lavender yarn called Cuddle (no kidding) and buttons, despite having no idea what to do with them.

Oy vey. And all I went to the craft store for was printable fabric.

Ocean Scarf

Holy cow, it has taken me a long time to get organized to post this!  But here it is, the other handmade gift I made for the holiday. This is a lighter-weight scarf I made for my Aunt Becky which I call the Ocean Scarf (Ravelry link). I was quite sure there was NO WAY I was going to finish it on time, though I tried. I ordered the yarn before Thanksgiving, expecting it to take 5-6 days to arrive so I could have 3 weeks to work on it. Nope. The yarn took nearly 3 weeks to arrive, leaving me with just over a week to finish the scarf. Since I am not a super-fast crocheter, I really had to convince my fingers  to fly to get it done! But I did.

I call it the Ocean Scarf because, well – the colors in the yarn are exactly those you might see on a beach. Witness the photo I posted a couple weeks ago:

You see what I mean about the colors?  I was quite afraid I would not like the pattern of the colors when I started this project (it’s a self-striping yarn when you use it for socks). For the first 15 rows I was convinced it was going to look horrible. Even my husband had doubts. But after about 60 rows or so it made a lot of sense. The yarn is Berroco Comfort Sock yarn in the Southland color way, and it is made of 50% super fine acrylic and 50% super fine nylon.  I am not sure, but it’s possible my aunt is allergic to wool like my mom and I are, so I wasn’t going to risk an animal fiber.

I used a size E/3.5 mm hook. The sock yarn/E hook combo is a new favorite. I’ve been getting tired of bulky and worsted weight yarns. It takes longer to make something with a finer yarn, but I think that’s what I’m in the mood for.

I can assure you I will be purchasing more of this silky yarn from Berroco, and trying their Comfort DK also. It is VERY hard to find good sock yarn in a non-wool. This problem baffles me, because I truly cannot imagine wanting to wear wool socks (my husband and brother are addicted to SmartWool socks, which I think is weird). It is probably a function of my lifelong allergy to animal fibers, but just thinking about wearing wool socks makes my feet itch.  The mental picture I get is of sitting on a horsehair sofa – also quite uncomfortable!  I just wish this yarn came in more colors.

Last but not least – and probably I should have started with it: the pattern is June Gilbank’s Gossamer Lace Wrap Crochet Pattern. I was pretty confused during the first three rows and convinced I was doing it wrong, but I figured out the pattern and from then on it was quick and smooth sailing. I memorized it and whipped through those repeat rows like they were going out of style. It’s a great pattern – I want to make one for myself next. Simple with a noticeable but not too airy pattern. I’m going to go back and make more of her accessories if this is the type of thing she’s going to come up with.

I chose to use a heavier yarn than the pattern calls for. June wrote the pattern for laceweight yarn (hers was alpaca) so her instructions speak about how much the design will expand once it is blocked.  Mine barely expanded at all when I blocked it, which I figured would happen, so I crocheted probably 75 more rows than she suggests to get the length I wanted.  I think she said to crochet about 60 rows beyond the first few … I’m pretty sure mine has about 140 – 150, but I stopped counting. It’s long enough to wrap several ways around your neck, depending on if you want it to be warmer or not.

Well, keep your fingers crossed that old Miriam-pregnancy-brain can keep it together enough to work, craft AND remember to blog. This post has taken since last Wednesday to get together ….

Too many triangles?

In my evenings, I’ve been working on crocheted triangles. It took me a couple of tries to figure out a pattern that I liked, but once I did it only took a couple of weeks to churn out 30 of them – all while watching old episodes of Remington Steele, of course. I should write down my pattern for them. About halfway through I realized that triangles would make a quick and fun afghan, also – so I might have to do that next. Perhaps a purple triangle afghan?!

This particular batch of triangles is destined to be bunting.  You see, I found a picture of this really cute and colorful crocheted bunting that Loretta Grayson made, and decided to make some myself. There was no pattern, but when has that stopped me?

This is a fabulous stash-buster project, it does a great job eating through piles of yarn. Since it’s bunting and will be near the ceiling, no one will be touching it. Which means I can use up that crappy, scratchy cheap yarn I bought when I was first starting to crochet – the kind I despaired of ever being able to use. All it has to do for this project is look pretty! This is one way I’m fitting into my smaller craft closet – by using up supplies!

Now all I have to do is make all the tassels and attach the triangles together using some clever chain stitching.

Oh, and the pretty rainbow bunting is one of the handmade things I’m doing for the baby’s room, sort of a ceiling mobile, I guess. THERE WILL BE NO PASTELS FOR THIS CHILD. I don’t like pastels much. Too wishy-washy. Not enough mental stimulation. Babies don’t do well with colors that don’t have a lot of contrast anyway! I’ve never really understood that whole thing where all the baby yarn is pastel. This seems dumb to me.

This is the part of the year where it gets tough to post my projects because some of them are gifts. I try not to go overboard, but I do like making one or two handmade gifts each year. Last year I made a silk scarf for my mom, and in 2007 an afghan for my grandparents, and in 2009 I went crazy with cookies …