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.
Nerdy one offs
There are a lot of things I do because I’m a nerd. For example, I crocheted this little hat for my kid (and one for a friend of mine’s kid). Points for you if you know WHY I made this particular hat. I still think of the episode and chuckle. I looked for a pattern, but in the end I realized that it was just easier to make it up as I went. I made it for an average infant head – i.e. 13-17″ or thereabouts. It’s double crochet, so there’s stretch.
I also made that circular crocheted rattle, which I rate as “meh.” I need to find better toy patterns. I kinda used a pattern for this, but honestly I had no fun with the original pattern, and I don’t want to insult the pattern designer. Mostly I finished it because I felt compelled to finish. The Kid is welcome to drool on it, in any case.
In other news, last week I indulged my inner medieval nerd and went to an Anonymous 4 concert at Grace Cathedral. Anonymous 4 is four women who are known for performing medieval music, aka polyphony or chant. I spent a lot of time imagining medieval music in my head when I was studying how to read and understand it in graduate school. Since very, very little medieval music has been transcribed and recorded, those few times I’ve gotten to actually listen to something ancient that I spent hours translating/transcribing – well, it’s really an experience beyond compare for me.
Plus, the voices of the women in this group are beyond breathtaking. Seriously, they’re amazing. Plus the acoustics of a huge vaulted cathedral like Grace Cathedral are amazing, particularly with the cathedral’s 7-second reverberation. I’ve embedded a video track below in case you want to listen, but you’ll only be able to see it on my website.
Peperit Virgo, 14th c., by Anonymous 4
Jeremy’s Head
Isn’t this excellent?
He’s described it as his “mid-winter” hat. I told you it was warm.
He looks very mountain man-ish. 
By the way, when I didn’t like my color changes on Draft 1, I went to the Interwebs, and came up with a list of articles how to crochet color changes the right way. I’ll update my other post with the chart with these.
How to Crochet Using a Chart or Graph (includes color change)
Tapestry Crochet – right or left hand color changing. From Carol Ventura, who’s written tapestry crochet books.
How to Switch Colors and Use a Chart – Crochet by April Draven
An interesting yarn-joining/color-changing technique. Russian? Maybe.
