A Wish for Hogswatch

Dear Hogfather,

For Hogswatch, I don't want anything for myself this year. All I really want is for the box of goodies to make it to Wolf in Afghanistan at lightening speed. It would be nice if the balaclava I knit for him arrived in time for him to make good use of it.

I made it using leftovers of Eskimo from when I made the wolf jacket. It's so soft that Vova thought it was cashmere.

I guess he could still use it as a hand-puppet, if it's not cold by the time it arrives.

By the way, I found something called 'slow synchro' flash under the manual setting on my camera. It works much better than the nuclear-blast quality of the normal flash.

Here's wishing lots of beans and sausages to all the good boys and girls.

Love,

Bonnie

Baby Boom

A dear friend of ours was in town last weekend to celebrate a big birthday with his family. He mentioned his daughter was due to deliver at any minute. That was my cue to whip out another last-minute baby bonnet. I went with green and purple this time since I didn't know the sex of the baby. 

The little girl was born in time to make an appearance at her grandfather's birthday party. Both she and her mother looked great.

Since the last one seemed so big, I did one less row of increases and knit only two inches across the top instead of three. I also made the strap only four inches long. This one looks more like 0-3 month size. I happened to notice my gauge in Stockinette was 20 stitches over 4 inches instead of the recommended 14. That would explain the larger size.

Several months ago, I bought a bunch of mother-of-pearl buttons in various colors at Tuesday Morning. One of those happened to be a perfect match for the purple in the hat. The yarn is Falk from Dale of Norway, which is washable wool. I think it's cruel to give new parents any type of baby garment that isn't machine-washable. 

It's a good thing I have a good supply of machine-washable yarns since there are more babies on the way. I have a friend due in February and three co-workers due in April.

I meant to do that...really

Ha! You didn't think I would make it back to post again so soon, did you? I have to admit I'm a bit surprised myself.

I finished the bonnet in time, early even. I wove in all the ends and sewed on the button Sunday night. There was no feverish finishing on the bus Monday morning.

You might notice the band around the top is not solid garter stitch like it's supposed to be. I fell into the meditative flow that is stockinette stitch, but then also automatically went back to garter stitch a row or two later. Did I rip back and make it all garter stitch? No, of course I didn't. It became a design feature of alternating stockinette and garter stitch.

Speaking of design features, making this pattern in two colors instead of one was a bit fiddly at first. I knitted in green up through the first increase row. Then I added the pink on the next wrong-side row. If I had thought ahead a little, I would have wound the green into two separate before starting this little adventure. Unraveling half a ball of yarn, cutting and rewinding it while knitting is not one of the more fun things I've done in my life.

 I could have stranded it, but I didn't want to. That would make it a much slower project, for one thing. In all honesty, I just wanted to keep it simple. So, I used a simple intarsia technique, crossing the contrast and main color yarns at either end of the row. 

The right-leaning increases were leaving big holes, so I knitted those stitched twisted. I wrapped the yarn counter-clockwise around the needle before I pulled it through the stitch. Otherwise, I followed the instructions in the book for the increases.

The pattern gives measurements for the finished product, but that's not really useful unless you have the average head size memorized for babies anywhere from newborn to 12 months of age. I went down a needle size and a yarn weight and still ended up with a hat that fits my four-month-old. I made the strap six inches instead of the stated seven, which I think was still a little too long.

My co-worker loved it and thought it was perfect. I'll probably make a couple more of these since I have other co-workers who are expecting. They may or may not have the same "design feature." We'll see.

I'm an Ambitious Girl

There's a big to-do list in my head for today. A little voice tells me it's probably too big for one day, but there is no success without an attempt. I've been away from the blog for far too long. This little post will let me put a mental check mark on something on my list. Vova takes care of the baby while I'm at work, so when I'm home caring for him takes top priority. I love that people read my posts, but not as much as spending time with Axel. That includes cleaning up poopy diapers.

Jenny asked about the reference to the Doggie Booties pattern in the translation of the Car Booties pattern. Not to worry; all the instructions you need to make the little cars are in the translation. However, if you'd like to see Marina's page, click here. I feel guilty for not having answered that question sooner even though I'm back back at work full-time with my killer commute.

There are a couple of finished knits lurking in the background. I'm not ambitious enough to try to bring everything up to date today. On the other hand, I'm confident that this weekend I can finish, at least, one little knit for a co-worker who's expecting. She's moving to a different city and Monday is her last day in the office. It's the Baby Bonnet from Joelle Hoverson's More Last-Minute Knitted Gifts. Yes, it probably would be going faster if I had stuck to a single color. My optimistic nature collided with neurotic love of intarsia to produce this little hat that looks like a rosebud with the sepals still curled around it. I'll give more details next time. I may be ambitious, but I do have some sense of time management.

Look what I made!

Well, Vova helped make him, too. This is our son, Axel. He's a beautiful, healthy boy who takes up most of our time and we wouldn't have it any other way.

In this picture, he's wearing the hooded baby cardigan I made for him. I put it on him a lot since he loved wearing it. As I had hoped, it was warm enough to ward off the chill of the air conditioning without giving him heat stroke. Those busy hands had fun fingering the garter stitch border as well as the texture of the yarn. After the second washing, it shrank a bit too much. I'm hoping I can stretch it out again.

The week before he was born, I knitted the one skein hooded baby sweater for our friends in Germany who had a baby girl in June. I really hate point-and-shoot cameras. The concept of fill flash does not exist on these devices. The only flash option these things have leave the subjects in the pictures looking like they were in the vicinity of a nuclear blast. Ahem, pardon my digression.

 The day before I went into labor, I had blocked the sweater and started on these folded booties to go with it. The aunt of the little girl lives here and is also a friend of ours. I managed to add all the embellishments in time to pass the set off to her yesterday to deliver when she goes to visit next week. Hopefully, they will send me a nice picture of her wearing the sweater and/or the booties.

As with all the kid things I make, Vova wants me to make some for him in adult size.

Coping Mechanisms

Last weekend, while trying to distract myself from the thought of having to put Joyko to sleep, I translated and started knitting Marina Klin's Car Booties pattern. The link on Ravelry had gone nowhere for ages, so I was delighted when it finally connected to странамастеров.ru. The Ravelry page indicates the pattern is available in Russian and in English, but I couldn't find an English version anywhere. This really isn't a problem for me since I read Russian as well as a variety of other Slavic languages. However, since I'm a professional translator and editor, I thought it would be nice to translate it for others. Since Marina offered it for free, written with the beginning knitter in mind, I'm doing the same. I added some of my own notes to make it as clear as possible.

Thanks to Marina, I now understand how to do an invisible increase. It was kind of a cross between a "well, duh" moment and light-bulb moment (I don't want to say it was an epiphany) for me.

The yarn is a combination of Dalegarn's Heilo and Falk. I'm not crazy about the color combination, but Vova likes it. I used buttons for the wheels instead of crocheting them. I also did not sew down the roll-brim edge.
Without further ado, here's the pattern:

Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations
k - knit
p - purl
sl - slip
k2tog - knit 2 together
p2tog - purl 2 together
MC - main color
CC - contrast color
garter stitch - knit every row
stockinette stitch - alternate one row of knit stitches with one row of purl stitches

1. Car booties Master Class

2. Cast on 40 stitches in the main color and knit the sole as described in “Doggie Booties” Master Class
  From “Doggie Booties” – Begin knitting at the middle of the toe. The toe is knitted in garter stitch. Cast on 40 stitches. 1st and 2nd rows - knit all stitches. Starting with the 3rd row, add 4 stitches (1 on each end and 2 in the middle) on every other row for 4 rows. Add the new stitch by picking up the bar between two stitches. Twist the bar before knitting to prevent getting a hole and to keep the fabric smooth.

  3rd row –sl1, make 1, k 18, make 1, k 2, make 1, k 18, make 1, 1 selvedge stitch
  4th row – knit all stitches
  5th row – sl1, k 1, make 1, k 18, make 1, k 4, make 1, k 18, make 1, k 1, sl1
  6th row – knit all stitches
  7th row – sl1, k 2, make 1, k 18, make 1, k 6, make 1, k 18, make 1, k 2, sl1
  8th row –  knit all stitches
  9th row – sl1, k 3, make 1, k 18, make 1, k 8, make 1, k 18, make 1, k 3, sl1
  Rows 10, 11, and 12 – knit all stitches.
  A total of 16 stitches have been added.
  There are now 56 stitches on the needles.
  The sole is ready.

3. Join a contrast color and knit 6 rows of garter stitch (knit all rows). Knit another 8 rows of garter stitch in the main color.

4. Divide all stitches into 3 parts (23, 10, 23)
Details: sl1, k21, k2tog, k8, k2tog. Turn work to wrong side. Continue to knit the middle of the bootie: sl1, k8, p2tog.

5. So that the lines of decreases stay pretty and even, k2tog on the right side and p2tog on the wrong side. Turn the stitches as necessary so that they are not twisted after knitting.

6. Turn the work again – sl1, k8, k2tog. Continue knitting this way, decreasing stitches until there are 13 stitches left on the sides. There are 36 stitches total (10 in the middle and 13 on each side). Knit to the end of the row (13 stitches, which are left on the left needle). Break MC yarn, join CC yarn.

7. This is now the beginning of the knitting that resulted from the wrong side of the work. Begin purling CC: sl1, p12. Join a strand of white and begin knitting the “windshield” of the car. Leave CC for now.

8. Knit the windshield across the next 10 stitches. Knit 10 rows of garter stitch (here the garter stitch is purled every row). Now we decrease. Decrease the first stitch of each row on the 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th rows. There are 6 stitches left in the windshield. Break the white yarn.

9. Continue knitting in CC. The first 13 stitches of the row have already been knitted (worked on the wrong side). Pick up and purl 7 stitches from the side part of the windshield, p6 on the top of the windshield, pick up and purl7 stitches on the other side of the windshield, purl the remaining 13 stitches.

10. Knit another 10 rows in Stockinette stitch.

Skipped the part about crocheting the wheels.

20. When sewing up, sew vertically only to the main color.

21. Run a line of reenforcing stitches around the top of the main color. If you do not reenforce it, the sock will constantly twist during wear.

22. Continue sewing up the bootie.

23. You can put a driver in the car, if you like.

No One Will Write to the Colonel Anymore

This morning, we went to an appointment we really did not want to keep. Last Friday, we found out that Joyko's kidneys were failing. Our vet told us that he would die in a few weeks if we did nothing. She told us there was no guarantee even if we took steps to treat him. Vova called a friend of his in Germany who is a vet for a second opinion. His friend agreed with everything our vet had told us, but added that kidney failure makes the dog miserable and that it would only get worse.

We've known for some time that we would most likely face the need to put our beloved Cocker Spaniel to sleep. Vova and I both had hoped and dreaded that we would wake up one morning to find he had passed in his sleep. For about the last two months, Joyko had been having accidents in the house, no matter how often we took him outside. This is not a good sign in a dog as well house-trained as Joyko. We moved his bed and food and water bowls to the sun porch so that it would be easier to clean up the puddles of pee. He seemed to be drinking a lot more water than usual. Then, one morning, I found him lying in vomit in his bed. These symptoms spurred last Friday's visit to the vet. They also sparked many a conversation between us about how we would know when we would need to put him down. We also talked to our friend Ma Beagle about it. She noted that a lot of people oppose euthanasia for pets because they say it's playing God. She pointed out that, on the other hand, no one considers it playing God when we give them medicine or perform surgery to prolong their lives. 

We have all these euphemisms:  "put down," "put to sleep," even the technical term "euthanize" avoids directly confronting the fact that one is killing one's pet. During one of our conversations, Vova asked me, "If it's not callous for pets, then why is it callous for humans?" Aside from the fact that some believe it's not callous for humans, the answer is simple. Pets are like children that never grow up. We make all their choices for them. They do not choose what they eat, whether or not they exercise, what kind of bed they sleep on, etc. We owe it to them to make good choices on their behalf. That doesn't seem like a big deal when we feed them high-quality food, buy them temperpedic beds, give them regular baths, or take them on daily walks. Knowing when life becomes a burden for them is the hard part. Having the strength to relieve them of that burden is the big deal. Knowing that Joyko did not have long left and that those days would be increasingly miserable for him did not make our decision any easier. He still loved us and wanted to be with us, even though he didn't wag his tail anymore when we petted him. I think he held onto to life because he loved us so much. What we did for him today was take his burden from him. We essentially said to him, "We know you love us, but you don't have to do this anymore. We love you so much that we won't let you do this anymore."

The entire staff at the veterinary clinic was very kind. Ma Beagle went with us to hold our hands. The patient advocate explained that the doctor would give Joyko a pre-sedative shot, which would sting a little like when we get a shot. Then, once he was sleepy, the doctor would give him the euthanasia injection. She asked if we wanted to stay with him during the whole procedure and we said we did. Then the doctor and technician came in. He let out a little yelp when they injected the sedative. The doctor said it would take about ten minutes for it to take effect. She and the tech left the room then. They had barely closed the door behind them when it was clear that the sedative was already working. He began to stagger and stumble. He went behind my chair and lay down. I petted him until his breathing sounded strange. His nose was pressed against the wall, so I moved the chair and gently moved him away from the wall. He sounded okay again after that. We took his collar off and petted him some more. Then the doctor and the tech came back in. They said it was good that the sedative had started working so quickly. They lifted him up onto the metal table, which was covered in a thick, torn blanket. The doctor was not able to find a good vein in his rear leg, so she switched to one of his front legs. It seemed to me that he had already stopped breathing by the time she finished giving him the injection. I was certain he had by the time she put on a stethoscope to check for a heartbeat. She announced that he had passed then told us we could stay in the room with him as long we wanted. She said the muscles would begin to relax, which might result in the body spontaneously urinating, defecating, or exhaling. He passed so peacefully and so quickly that I'm certain he was ready to go. I'm sure we did the right thing, even though it hurt us so much. I'm also convinced that the burden of our grief is worth the suffering we took from him.

They let us keep the blanket that was on the table. We used it to lift him into a box we had brought from home. Ma Beagle helped us carry him out to the car. The drive home seemed very long.

We dug him a grave next his buddy, Aristotle the Cat. We laid him in his grave with the blanket from the vet's office and covered him with a towel we used to use to dry him after baths. We filled in the grave, then covered it with heavy rocks so that none of the wildlife would dig him up.

Joyko was a dog of good humor as well as a good sense of humor. Ma Beagle and her family nicknamed him "the Colonel" after the dog in the movie The Aristocats. This is my last love letter to him.

Happy Father's Day

Not that we pay much attention to this kind of holiday, but I still thought it would be nice to say it. Once again, I've been walking around with all kinds of witty and interesting blog posts in my head, but no time to actual write them down and post them. While trying to get the house and everything else ready for the baby's arrival, my hobbies have taken a backseat. By the way, today's entry will be bilingual. Inspired by Sandra and Lisbeth, who both blog in English despite it not being their native language, I have long wanted to do the same. That is, blog in one of the other languages I know. I have been telling myself that I'll do it the next post, but I never get around to it. I might not do it every post and I do intend to vary the second language.
I made a couple of things for Axel, the baby I'm growing in my belly.

First, there was Lyric by Laurie Lee in Art Yarns Cashsockay. Somehow, I managed to screw up the decreases, even though the pattern is easy. It doesn't interfere with the structure or the aesthetic appearance, so I'm not too worried about it. I also should have made the i-cord longer. I was impatient to finish it, which only made it harder to tie into knot in the end. My sister gave me this cashmere sock yarn two or three years ago when I first learned to knit socks. I saved it at first because I did not want to waste it on my fledgling efforts. Then I wanted to save it for something special. I can't think of anything more special than a hat for my firstborn. Whether or not he'll be able to wear it remains to be seen.

The next thing was the Easy Baby Cardigan by Diane Soucy in Noro Chirimen, colorway 16. The pattern is really easy with variations for either a hooded or a collared version. It works great with self-striping yarn, too. This cardigan is knit with the top-down, seamless technique, which I've never tried before. I absolutely loved it. The only slight difficulty was getting the striping on the sleeves to match up with the body. I only had two skeins when I should have used three. If I had had a third skein, I would have made the sleeves longer and matched the stripes better. I just need to weave in the ends and sew on the ties. The yarn is also great. It's a soft cotton/silk/wool blend. The texture varies since the fiber content varies throughout the yarn.

Сегодня Я решила что наконец Я нипишю свой блог на втором языке. Меня вдохновили Сандра (хорватка) и Лисбэт (норвежгка) которые пишют блоги на английском языке ни смотря на то что они носители других языков. Я вязила две вещи моему ребёнку который ещё ростёт в чреве. Первая была шапка из кашемировой пряжей. Моя сестра подарила мне эту пряжу два или три года назад. Тогда Я только что научила как вязать носки и Я не хотела терять её с своим неграматным пытанием. Потом Я хотела сохранить её для что-нибудь особенно. По-моему не бывает ничего особеннее шапки перворожденною сыну. Вторая была жакет с капюшоном. Он вяжется с верху и без шовов. Я первый раз испольовала таким способом и мне очень нравится.

Turning a Corner

Yesterday, Vova and I had our church wedding or crowning (венчание) as it is properly termed. You might ask why we waited until I was nearly seven months' pregnant. The reasons were not only personal, but beyond our control. We had a small (only the two of us and the civil celebrant) civil ceremony about a year and a half ago. Yesterday was a day for which we've been waiting for a very long time.

The whole thing was nothing short of a miracle and couldn't have gone better. For starters, everything went off without a hitch, (except for the required one) even though we planned and executed this operation in less than three months.

Since we've been waiting for this for so long, the idea of the wedding had been floating in my head like some sort of vague, abstract concept. But then the bells began to ring as I walked to the entrance of the church. I felt so proud when I saw Vova's back, standing ramrod straight in his dress uniform just inside the open doors of the church. As I took my place next to him, I thought, "This is really happening." From that point on, I couldn't stop smiling.

The road to this point in our lives,separately and as a couple, has been a bumpy one with a lot of twists and turns. Fortunately, we have a lot of true friends who helped us and loved us through the tough times. It was an unspeakable joy to have so many of them with us yesterday. Everywhere I looked, I saw the face of a person I was glad to see. Things went so well not because we planned everything perfectly, but because our friends smoothed out the wrinkles. Our friend, Jason, who owns and runs Orchard Market and Cafe in Baltimore, surprised us by contributing a delicious traditional Iranian wedding dish to the reception buffet.

My wonderful sister, Stacy, also helped everything go smoothly. Since we were doing this on a budget, I made and decorated the cake. I probably could've done it without her help and moral support, but I'm glad I didn't have to.

This may be the first big event in my life that I've actually been able to enjoy. With all the others, there was so much stress and anxiety leading up to them that when they finally happened, I was just glad to get them over with. That was not the case with yesterday. I'm so happy and I can't wait to see what's behind the next bend in the road.

Slipping One In

Once again, I've got a full day without enough hours to do everything on my list. Paul's sweater hasn't progressed much past where it was at my last post. The weather here in February and early March is so dreary and gray that working on a sweater in gray and gray-blue yarn brought my mood down.

So, I needed to knit some bright colors. I also wanted to make something for my baby. The Newborn Slip Stitch Hat by Polly McEldowney was just the thing.

I used leftover Risata and CotLin from Knit Picks. These yarns are cotton/wool and cotton/linen blends. I chose them for the fiber content since my son will be born during the hottest time of the summer. The idea was to knit something he could wear home from the hospital without getting heatstroke. The pattern was a little too easy. It took me forever because I was bored to tears with it.

The opinions on the hat I received, both solicited and unsolicited, were that it would be too small or that the baby would outgrow it within his first three days. Oh, darn, I'll have to keep knitting for him.

What month is it? Where did this half sweater come from? Why do none of my pants fit?

Oh, right, I've been pregnant for the last three and a half months. I really was not prepared for how tired I would be in the first trimester. How I managed to finally finish the back of the sweater for our friend Paul, is somewhat of a mystery.

After I took this picture for the blog, I realized I made a mistake in the cable on the right side. Am I going to rip it back and fix it? Heck, no! It's not all obvious in reality and it doesn't affect the design or structure of the sweater. 

Besides, I'm dying to start knitting for my baby, which I cannot do in good conscience without making some progress on this sweater. 

The design is Men's Pullover by Sandi Rosner. The yarn is Rowan Big Wool Fusion in Source and Baltic. The pattern calls for double-stranding with a lighter weight yarn, but gives the option for using a single strand of super bulky weight. That's what I happened to have, so that's what I'm using. However, I didn't have enough of a color I felt was appropriate. So, I'm alternating two colors that blend nicely together. The blue peps up the gray while the gray mellows out the blue. 

Just as I was coming out of my first-trimester coma, I came down with the flu. Vova and I took a little trip to Munich, had lovely time, and both got sick the day we came home. You can read a short description of the trip on Vova's blog.