Wishes: Happiness

I told a friend the other day that when I make something for The Kid, it’s usually a way for me to express a wish for my baby – health, happiness, warmth, safety, that sort of thing. In this case I made bunting, which is a wish for joy.

I also put a little thought into what the baby might like, so this bunting features a complex pattern with high contrast colors, both elements that babies tend to be fascinated with, from what I understand.  Plus there are all sorts of gently waving parts when you turn on the fan. It’s probably hung to high to be interesting at first (I think sight range is initially something like 18 inches) but it will be there for a while.

I’m actually pretty thrilled with how it came out. As you can tell, the room is quite white, and our landlord forbids painting, so I’m looking for ways to inject color into the space in fun ways.

It may also be true that I love rainbow colors.

I’m thinking in terms of wishes these days because of the odd contrast of fragility and sturdiness of babies, and I suppose humans in general. There’s lots I can try to do to help this little person in the world, but there are lots of things out of my control, too. Sometimes all you’ve got is the hope that things will work out okay and hopefully make sense eventually. I’ve had a lot of those moments during the last six months, and at those times I’ve just tried to put my wishes into something I make and hope for the best.

This wish is for happiness. I suppose I am remembering babies watching something or someone that fascinates them with either a big wide-eyed stare or giggling at something. That was always awesome. That’s what I was going for.

Plus, these rainbow colors are quite cheerful. I loved rainbows when I was growing up. It actually made me really sad when therapists started telling people that children who draw rainbows are probably depressed. I was not depressed, but I loved rainbows. Therapists can be crackpots.

This also makes me feel better about color. Anyone who knows me knows that I have strong feelings about how completely inappropriate it is for people to be shoehorning tiny infants into genderized roles before they have a chance to find their own personalities. This often translates into a general distaste for the blue/pink themes that follow you everywhere in the new-parent world. Add to that my general dislike of of pink and pastels in general, and … well. You can tell I’m not really a candidate for 90% of the stuff marketed to parents.

So rainbows and primary colors make me feel a lot better.

If only the rest of the room were as done as this banner. If you looked below this, you’d see about 18 sewing projects on a table where the crib is supposed to be. NOT READY YET. Luckily I have three more months.

P.S. Details:

1 – Yarn: A combination of things. There’s orange and oatmeal from Vanna’s Choice, another orange and green from Red Heart Soft, the blue is TLC Essentials (nasty yarn, that), and I have no idea where the red is from. The label was lost years ago.

2 – Hook Size: If only I’d written it down. But I did not.

3 – Triangle Granny Pattern: I made up the triangle pattern from looking at my inspiration pictur/blog post. At some point I went looking to see if there was a pattern, and on one of Loretta Grayson’s Flickr photos I found reference to a triangle granny from Lee Ann Hamm. It’s pretty much what I did, except I simplified the first two rows. If I make more triangle grannies I’ll write it down this time.

4 – Tassels/SC/Chains: As far as the tassels and connections go, I figured out the tassels as I went, and the whole thing hangs together with a single crochet in the top of each triangle connected by five chains between. Each end has a dangling end of 50 chains. Then I went back and added a second row of single crochet along the whole thing for stability.

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 ….