knitting for baby

It's so fun to have a reason to knit, long before Christmas presents are calling for completion. It has also been wonderful to have some cooler weather in the evenings - makes holding yarn and needles a wonderful thing!

About a week and a half ago, I cast on for this vest, using some gray Lion Brand Cotton Ease yarn that I had purchased on sale somewhere a long while ago. One skein was missing a paper label, but I don't generally see that as a big deal when I'm paying, oh, $1.50 per skein. Especially since the full price on Lion Brand's website is listed at $7.69 per skein. Yeah. Not a bad deal.

So, I forged ahead and cast on. I love knitting with cables, and was so pleased at how the back of the sweater turned out.

Here's the back of the sweater, before ribbing was added to the sleeves.

I chose to knit the 12 month size so that Baby can wear it next autumn all the way through the spring. I'm thinking it might make a really cute Thanksgiving/Christmas/Easter outfit, depending on how fast the little guy grows. I also decided to leave out the buttons at the shoulder, because the v-neck looks big enough to stretch over a baby head without too much trouble.

The vest is made in two pieces - front and back - and then is sewn together before the ribbing around the arm holes and v-neck is added. I ran out of my first skein of yarn halfway up the v-neck on the left side, and joined the new skein. I knit the other side of the v-neck, seamed the shoulders and sides, and only then did I realize...

...these two skeins of gray cotton are two different dye lots.

Translation: the color is not an exact match. It's subtle, but I can see it, and it's frustrating. However, there is no way that I'm ripping out that much of a sweater; I'd have to undo the perfectly seamed sides (thankyouverymuch) and knit the entire front again. Not happening. Not until the next time I make this sweater.

In typical Linnea style, I just continued with the pattern, adding the ribbing at the arm holes. Cute.

Then I picked up stitches for the neck line, knit the five rows of ribbing as prescribed and had a second frustrating realization: there are no instructions for a decrease at the v-neck to make the ribbing lie flat.

This time, I did rip out stitches - but just three rows. I did some decreasing at the point of the "v" - as neatly as I could - and tried to make it work. I think it was somewhat successful.

See? Somewhat successful, almost-flat v-neck trim.

Most of my disappointment at this point is because I had hoped that this little project would be an exquisite heirloom, destined to be passed down from our Baby to his baby to the next baby... as long as it would last. It's really cute, but not perfect. Not a complete failure, but still sad.

I do like it, though. And I'll try again...but not for a while! Now, it's on to other little projects.

fail muffins

Once in a while, I screw up a baking/cooking adventure. I know, it doesn't sound possible, right? Ha!

Yesterday, I was the Master of Multitasking in the Kitchen. I prepared ingredients for crock pot tomato soup, potato and veggie and Polish sausage for last night's dinner, and I made a double batch of zucchini bread. No big deal. Right.

Side note: there are no pictures of this exploit. Imagination is more fun, right?

So, as I chopped up the zucchini and doubled all the ingredients for the recipe, which happens to be hubby's favorite summer treat, I somehow managed to completely skip the sugar. I didn't realize this until after I'd baked 18 muffins and a loaf of bread. I cracked open a perfectly golden muffin, only to find out that it tasted...savory? Cardboard-y? Not even like stuffing or a crouton... just plain old bad. I blame it on pregnancy making me forget the essentials in life: Butter and Sugar.

I cried. Like, all-out wailing for about 30 seconds. The rational half of my brain did eventually take over so that I could put on my sunglasses and drive to pick up hubby, but seriously. This was devastating to me at that moment. How do you even forget the sugar in a baked good? Baked=sweet in my house! What was I thinking?

So I dumped about a cup of sugar into the remaining batter (probably too much sugar), and baked the remaining dozen muffins. I called my mom, who recommended that I try to incorporate the mistake muffins into something savory, perhaps as a stuffing or an addition to meatloaf. I texted my good friend, Sarah, who suggested poking holes in the bread and drizzling simple syrup in to make it all better, and slathering honey on the mistake muffins.

After I had recovered enough to face my kitchen full of dishes and fail muffins, this is what I did: I stabbed the loaf of bread all over with a knife (that was fun), and spread some spreadable honey all over it like icing. It melted down into the bread pretty quickly, so I added more and set it aside. Thanks, Sarah, for the good idea.

On to the muffins. I crumbled them all into a bowl, pulled out the Betty Crocker cookbook, and looked up a recipe for bread pudding. I added the requisite eggs, sugar and milk, putting in half a stick of butter to make up for the fact that I don't have any heavy cream to add. I soaked the bread, poured it in a 13x9" pan, and baked it. It now appears to be an acceptable dessert. And I've gone through a dozen eggs at this point.

The loaf of bread is now pretty tasty, though the texture is a bit strange. The sugar-added muffins turned out a bit crunchy because of how much sugar I added - laughable, but delicious, anyway. At least there are a few muffins that hubby can love!

All this to say, mistakes happen. They make me cry. Hubby holds me and lets me get his t-shirt all wet with tears, and tells me he loves me even though I'm not perfect, nay, because I'm not perfect. He's pretty wonderful. And then I'm forced to imagine new possibilities, to try new things, to make cavalier efforts, and to accept failure with sweet, sugary success.

Maybe I'll buy another zucchini. Maybe I'll wait until next year.

it has been a while.

so here goes.

it has been crazy.

this past week, my husband was off from school, so i had some extra help around the house. this is excellent. i'm enjoying not having to do everything at once!

found out this week that my insurance doesn't cover regular doctor's visits. i'm not sick - i just need an appointment. and we don't have vision coverage. and i need new contacts. a new prescription, actually. insurance here in NY is super expensive, and ridiculous. people talk about affordable healthcare for everyone - um, when? and how in the world is that possible?

taking a moment for an attitude check:

i really do have everything i need
i am grateful for my job
i am loved
and it's sunny outside.

pms is such an annoying thing. trying to cope without crying, yelling, or overreacting. or being insanely silly, like i was at worship rehearsal last night. or overeating on sweets. i have kept up the walking-during-lunch-every-day thing at work. so that's a plus, right? it almost negates one piece of candy.

the in-laws are coming this weekend, and i'm excited. i've baked a cake to celebrate their birthdays - dad's on last Sunday, and mom's on this Sunday. it's amazing yellow cake - fluffy, perfectly vanilla-y sweet. i made a round 2-layer, and stuck strawberry jam between the two. the best part? the icing is Hershey's special-dark chocolate. you actually melt a whole stick of butter, add the baking cocoa, and then gradually the 3 cups of powdered sugar, alternating with the 1/3 cup of milk. vanilla goes in last, and voila - amazing. so smooth, so very chocolaty. and great for me being so overemotional and such. it came out perfectly when i iced the cake, so i topped it with heart shaped sprinkles (maybe a little too valentine-esque, but whatever. i like it.), and displayed it on my crystal cake stand...in the fridge, of course. i'm proud of myself!

last night, in addition to worship rehearsal after work (which was good), I managed to clean the entire shower (not fun) and the vinyl shower curtain liner. bleach is my friend. i don't like either of those tasks, but it's over. and stuff is clean.

want to hear about a laundry fiasco? i'm already frustrated that i have to pay for laundry, though i know that many other people do, but this was worse. our clothes went in the washer, with soap, for the right amount of time, on the cold cycle. i came back 23 minutes later to find that the machine didn't actually complete the final spin cycle. everything was absolutely soaked. and freezing. and it was raining outside.

so i squeezed most of the water out of most of the things and i hung them up to dry. here's the most annoying part: there was my lovely, thirsty cotton-loop bath mat in that load of wash. it was so heavily soaked that it was hard to carry, let alone hang. and there was no space. i put it in the dryer on high, alone. it came out still wet, but at least it was hang-able. i hung it up for three days to dry - and when i took it down, it had RUST SPOTS. three lovely lines of yellowish rust. this seems impossible, especially knowing that my metal drying rack is actually painted white. there are no chips in it. it's almost new. but, alas - there are the stains.

i know someone else has to have made a mistake like that.

at any rate, i've been very thankful for my husband's help this week - he has been really amazing.

love.