C is for Cup

Ok, so I'm late again and it's a mug, not a cup, but I had to show off this new-found rescued mug from my parents' house.

Why, right? Why rescue this cup/mug? I love tea. And this mug is really big. I'd say it holds more than 20 ounces. Upwards of 80 inches of snow has fallen so far this winter, and it's only February. That calls for a lot of tea. This mug makes me giggle, too.

Baby Love

I reckon it has been over a week since I posted. Things are going well. Our son flew through the surgery like a champ. We were there from 9:30am to 5pm, so it was a long day, and we were both happy to be home. He actually spent the morning at preschool today, the first day he has been there since the surgery.

The surgery had an immediate effect on his sleep. The first night I went to tuck him in, I put my ear to his face to make sure he was breathing. In contrast to before the surgery, when we could hear his sleep apnea episodes from downstairs. We are so relieved that he is getting sound sleep now.

Our daughter also may need the surgery, but we are watching and waiting right now. Her tonsils are very large and her sleep is also interrupted, so she may need them out sooner rather than later.

Knitting Content
I've always thought those wool diaper soakers were so darling. But I never wanted to cloth diaper my children. (Please, no flaming me for that. Save it for BID in Ravelry, K?) So when my good friend Alison recently said she wanted to try wool with her second babe, I jumped right all over that. This is the Curly Purly Soaker:

It's not quite done yet, so technically a WIP. I still have to do the one cuff. These are extraordinarily quick and easy. This one is made of discontinued Chester Farms Pride of the Flock, which has built-in lanolin and is undyed. So now her baby can be an accurate Revolutionary War re-enactor. Or something like that. Just kidding. But at least his soaker might match his poop.

I did not do such a hot job on the grafting, however. I *will* get better at grafting. I figure that's mostly a part not many people are going to see on a very young baby, though.

There's also another knit in progress for another baby, and unfortunately I can't show that one because it's a gift for another friend (blogless) who reads this blog. Sorry!

There is something else I'd like to alert you to. I know some people who read this blog have young children. If you have tiny-person clothes packed up in your basement, or attic, would you please consider sending them to Mel, a doula in South Africa, who is giving them to new mothers? Otherwise, if they run out, sometimes the babies go home wrapped in newspaper. And I can't think of many more sad things than that.

Sweater & Surgery

This is a drive-by post to upload photos of the finished sweater. I love it so much. It has replaced my pregnant Wallaby as most favorite knit item yet. I tried two new things on this sweater: applied i-cord and a zipper. This was made with 100Purewool 3-ply merino. Decadent stuff. If you are enterprising, you can find some for sale on some swap boards where mamas congregate because they often use it for diaper soakers and the like. You can also find some co-op buys out there for it. It's very soft.

That is a Melissa & Doug "Princess Mirror" she's holding. Sigh.

Our son is scheduled for a tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy tomorrow. We only just scheduled it today. But we had waited two weeks to see the ENT, who subsequently said today, "These need to come out. Now." So. An update will come again when possible. I'm looking forward to getting our happy go-lucky, well-rested son back.

B is for Buried

Somewhere between 12 to 18 inches of snow. Another snowstorm and we'll have to dig out the poor mailbox.

They don't call it i-cord for nothing.

I believe it was Elizabeth Zimmermann herself who called i-cord "idiot cord" because any idiot can make it.

Well, I can now tell you that it takes a special idiot who is very applied at the idiocy to make applied i-cord.

Children's Neck-Down Cardigan, Knitting Pure & Simple
100Purewool 3-ply in "Orchid", 2 skeins (24" chest)

I couldn't get a good close-up shot of the applied i-cord, but let's just say it has been a challenge. I first bound off in i-cord at the bottom and then decided to motor on around to the front edge, where I ran into problems. I think slipping the first stitch on the fronts of the cardigan was a bad idea because that elongated first stitch not a great area in which to pick up stitches. I was slipping the first stitch in an effort to keep that edge clean and allow for better pick up of stitches, but now I see it's just leaving fewer stitches to pick up and making the i-cord too short for the edge and pulling it up.

I'm making this sweater (oh, it's pink!) because I recently got two more skeins of 100Purewool 3-ply and could not fathom the idea of not knitting it immediately. The stuff is that nice. And although, technically, I wasn't sure I had enough for this sweater, I made it work. I decided I would take this opportunity to learn two new things: applied i-cord (hah!), and putting in a zipper. I do have some rudimentary sewing skills, so I'm hoping the zipper business won't be so difficult. Maybe I'm deluded, because I didn't anticipate applied i-cord would be that difficult, either.

Durn it.