Slow Knitting: The Starry Starry Night Socks That Kept Me Going

I always laugh when friends exclaim "you should sell those on Etsy!" over my projects because I'm pretty sure there is no sustainable business model for selling socks that take three months to knit.

No, slow knitting projects are like stately redwood trees, each ring (or row) imbued with depth and character and carrying echoes of the time in which you knit it—good or bad. The last three months have been tough—but these socks help me get through, and I thank them for it.

1. The Big Sock Bang

I first matched this intergalactic hand-painted yarn (Frolicking Feet in "Starry Starry Night" by Done Roving Yarns) to pattern ("Embossed Leaves" by Mona Schmidt from Favorite Socks) during the crafty high of last Me-Made-May. I was still on maternity leave, starting to feel like myself again and amusing myself by trying to photograph the kids and myself in as many me-mades as possible at a given time. Whee, look at us, we're all wearing things I made! Me!

2. Dark Sock Skies

And then I went back to work, and I was just too busy between nursing the baby all night, getting daughter to kindergarten early in the morning and pumping and work and EVERYTHING to take five minutes to gauge swatch what size needles I needed to use (thankfully the answer turned out to be 0, and not 000 like my last sock-yarn project).

3. From darkness, light

Fall came, and with it, misery. In November I started getting—and staying—sick. Constantly, endlessly sick, in a sickeningly familiar way. Our whole family would catch a mild cold, everyone else would get better in a few days, and I would end up bedridden with what felt like the flu—a high fever, aches, horrible pain in my face, unable to breathe through my nose, so hoarse I could barely speak. Over, and over, and over.

I never really recovered fully, but after 2-4 weeks I would slowly start to feel somewhat less awful ... I'd have one or two days of joy where I could slightly breathe through my nose... and then the cycle would begin all over again. Chronic sinusitis strikes again, just three years after the surgery that was supposed to fix it. SIGH.

So in the midst of this misery, I needed something happy I could do while:

• Lying in bed feeling crummy
• Riding the subway to work terrified a nearby straphanger would cough on me
• Pumping and grimacing (I'm glad they exist but breast pumps are the WORST)
• Waiting in waiting rooms — at one point I had 8 doctor or lab test appointments in two weeks.

So I knit my Starry Starry Night socks. I knit while loopy with fever. I knit while feeling sad I had to cancel playdates and get-togethers and miss work. I especially knit after I had to cancel Baby D's first birthday party — it was the first time we had invited lots of friends over to our new apartment, but I wasn't in a state to host. (I don't think he noticed, because: CAKE!)

I just looked down at those little needles and made one loop after another.

And now they are done, and blocked, and they fit, and I love them. And I am getting good medical care and getting better, and I love THAT.

Too bad I chose a high-contrast variegated yarn for such a detailed lace pattern. You really can't see the embossed leaves at all!

This is my happy toes not caring:

I think the little dude loves them too.

I will say after all that slow knitting, I did need a quick-hit palate cleanser. So I've got a chunky-weight neon green alpaca "Wavy Moss" hat on the needles that I MUST finish by TOMORROW — I've lost three hats in the past month and it is COLD OUTSIDE.

P.S. full Starry Night socks Ravelry details here. It's a lovely patttern, but the lace requires care and concentration and chart-reading, hence the slowness. I made them slightly snug so they wouldn't fall down and sag, and so far it is working a treat.

Me-made maternity at 40 weeks + last-minute glove, sock + doll-making

Didn't sew any new maternity clothes this pregnancy but the maternity tops I adapted from the Jalie 2005 T-shirt pattern last time are still going strong

Last time as I approached 40 weeks of pregnancy I was a total mess: impatient, fidgety, worried, nervous, and more, obsessing over whether baby would arrive "on time" or not, and how much maternity leave time with actual baby I would lose as the days ticked by.

This time I swore it would be different, because "babies come on their birthdays, not on their due dates", as my Hypnobabies birthing class instructor told us. Once I started maternity leave (which was yesterday) I would be relaxed, I would be zen, I would catch up on sleep, finish up craft projects, tidy up the apartment, bank some extra meals in the freezer...

This sounds hilarious to me now as I sit here at my computer compulsively refreshing statistics on the likelihood of giving birth on any given day (today's probability is about 8%, in case you were curious). I have had three false alarms in the past week that I could have SWORN were the real thing, my parents are staying with us so they can babysit our daughter when the time arrives, my maternity leave is ticking away, and we are all just WAITING waiting waiting. I have never been a patient person, so why start now?

Which is why I am currently slowly knitting myself a pair of gloves with size 000 needles (i.e. needles so thin they are basically pieces of straw that feel like they are about to snap at any moment)...

These are the Knotty gloves by Julia Mueller (free pattern!) in Studio Avenue Six Bellwether Sock I had started knitting a year ago, but they were coming out way too big for my tiny hands on size 0 needles and I didn't want to try and rewrite the complicated chart pattern...

Sub-zero double pointed needles are hard to find (none of my local yarn stores carry them) but I finally located the Blackthorn needles pictured in that top photo at WEBS (aka yarn.com) in sizes as small as 0000, frogged the original gloves, and started over. We'll see!

And I made more baby socks, because, well, why not? These are the free Jellybean Baby Socks pattern from Spud and Chloe in Malabrigo Rios Glazed Carrot, and they took mere hours to make in a nice thick worsted weight. I misjudged foot length so these are too big for a small baby, but huge feet run in both my and husband's family, so I'm sure they will fit before long:

Little Ms. Z and I are also finishing up a few doll projects — a big snuggly mermaid she designed for her one-year-old cousin:

And a superhero doll with flaming red rocket boots for Z herself. The doll's name is Super Ruby (Z's secret hero identity) and she has a theme song and everything. She's going to have curly brown bouclé yarn hair (not pictured):

I'm also getting a last few wears out of my me-made maternity clothes from my last pregnancy, since two kids is a just right for us. (And trying not to be bothered by the people asking me if I've had baby yet, because, well—wouldn't that be rather noticeable?)

OK, back to refreshing those statistics...

The baby knitting spree continues! (36 weeks along)

Well partial bedrest may not be conducive to totally decluttering the apartment or decorating the "nursery" (otherwise known as the cosleeper attached to my side of the bed, since baby will be rooming with us for at least a year), but it definitely helps with the knitting mojo.

Most evenings of late have been spent lying on my left side feeling super-uncomfortably pregnant, watching Marvel: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on Netflix with the husband and knitting some last-minute baby things.

After finishing the orange wool Beyond Puerperium cardigan sweater I blogged about recently, I decided to make a matching hat and booties with the leftover yarn.

The hat is the free Aviatrix pattern by Justine Turner — my version Raveled here with all construction details. It was super quick to knit, has a fun construction method, and should keep baby's ears nice and warm. Again, the yarn is soft, squishy washable merino wool — Malabrigo Rios in Glazed Carrot.

The booties are the free Gansey Booties pattern (my version Raveled here) and while they are cute and a quick knit, they inspired a lot of reknitting and swearing. The directions for the short-rows were not very clear, and I ended up knitting each bootie differently to compensate, so they don't really match. The instructions are to turn at the end of each short row--but not to wrap--and I wasn't sure if I was then supposed to start knitting again with the last stitch knitted, or with the one after the turn, or... am I just reading this wrong?

If I attempt them again, I'll also make the cuff a lot longer to give them a better chance of staying on.

\

Finally, I am almost done knitting the Gift Wrap Baby Sweater by Carina Spencer (Raveled here), a kimono-type raglan sweater with a cool contrast border. I originally had a grand scheme to come up with some kind of TARDIS pattern to take advantage of my blue, black and light grey yarn, but got lazy and just decided to stripe the darn thing. Here it is from a week ago, but I've now finished the border and started the sleeves:

The yarn is Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, a super-soft and washable merino/acrylic blend with a bit of cashmere thrown in for good measure (or good marketing, anyway).

And the panic (and excitement) is really setting in here. I feel really ready, but also not ready at all. And Baby Wood has now suddenly flipped from a nice head-down position to a terrible and uncomfortable sideways/transverse position and refuses to budge, despite all the crawling around on the rug and weird off-the-couch headstands I've been doing as per the Spinning Babies website for "optimal fetal positioning." There's still a few weeks for baby to turn back (and there's always external version) but it's freaking me out a little. Turn baby, turn!

Last-Minute Baby Sewing Binge (Before Being Stuck in Bed) — With Tools and Robots!

Up until last week, the only item I had actually finished for Baby Wood was a single pair of Better Than Booties baby socks (the green ones shown above, Raveled here). Then I looked through my stash of newborn and tiny baby items and completely panicked, because I have almost NO gender-neutral clothes for tiny babies (what if we have a boy?!), and very few warm winter clothes (Z was a summer baby).

I made a thrifting expedition and scored 15 cute little second-hand gender-neutral baby things for $26, but dressing baby in store-bought clothes isn't as SPECIAL or FUN as putting him/her in something me-made, now is it?

So I ramped up my baby knitting queue... and last Sunday, while the four-year-old was visiting her grandparents, I went on a bit of a mad sewing binge, tracing, cutting and sewing seven little itty bitty baby garments in one day--more than I've sewn in one day ever, and more than I've sewn for months total. AND all the fabric and patterns had been in my stash at least four years, or were secondhand, so—SCORE FOR STASHBUSTING and CUTTING UP OLD CLOTHES TO MAKE NEW ONES.

Mainly, I wanted to make some cute, snuggly, special baby outfits for the new one to wear home from the birthing center.

Set #1: Orange overload: A little cotton kimono knit top with contrast ribbed bands and cuffs in an orange tool-themed print with matching pants and hat, plus an orange merino wool side-buttoning cardigan and little wool booties (in progress).

• The kimono top and pants are from the wonderful New Conceptions Baby Essentials layette sewing pattern set. Kimono tops are great for pulling over big wobbly newborn heads, and I love that the sleeves and pants are finished with cuffs instead of hems—I highly recommend this easy and versatile pattern. The main fabric is a soft cotton interlock with a tool pattern I bought ages ago from the Fabric Fairy, and the navy and orange ribbing were from a Sew Baby ribbing color assortment. I made the newborn size, and sewed everything but the top hem and the pants waistband on the serger.
• The super-simple hat pattern is part of Kwik Sew 2433, another great knit baby clothes layette pattern for rompers, jumpsuits, hats and booties.
• The side-buttoning cardigan is the Beyond Puerperium cardigan pattern, a fun and simple raglan sweater (the newborn-size Puerperium is free, but I bought the version with more size and yarn weight options). The yarn is Malabrigo Rios in the color "Glazed Carrot", a soft, washable, squishy worsted-weight merino yarn. (Cardigan raveled here with full details).
• The in-progress booties are knit from the free Gansey Booties pattern in the same yarn, and I have an earflap hat in progress (the free Aviatrix hat pattern) as well to finish off the ball.

I just love the tool pattern on this fabric—perfect for a little girl or boy from a family of makers, crafters and builders!

And aren't these buttons pretty? I do not want to talk about how much they cost, but I got them at La Casita Yarn Shop Café, an awesome local Brooklyn yarn store:

Next up:

Set #2: Gray and red and blue with a robot: Another knit baby set, plus a red cabled cashmere cardigan hoodie.

• The kimono top and pants and hat are from the same patterns as set #1. The main fabric is a super-soft cotton/rayon rib knit I cut out of a top from a giant bag of second-hand maternity clothes I bought for a song from a local mom (I have plenty of things to wear for the next 6-8 weeks, don't worry). Immediately after it was done I decided it was too boring and needed an appliqué—my husband suggested a robot would be just the thing, and I think he was right.
• The red cashmere cardigan hoodie is my TNT baby hoodie from Kwik Sew's Sewing For Baby—this is my fourth version. I cut it from a super-soft designer thrift-store sweater that had some stains and snags. The best part was I didn't have to attach any sleeve cuffs or bottom waistband—I just cut the pattern to include the original ribbing. I stabilized the front facings with bright turquoise petersham ribbon from Pacific Trimming and applied blue snaps from Sew Baby. I was going to put an appliqué on this piece too, but decided it didn't really need one.

Don't you love a pretty piece of petersham or grosgrain in a sweater? (And no, I haven't finished applying the inside snaps yet).

Here was the original sweater... there is something SO satisfying about cutting up ruined garments to make pretty new ones, isn't there? Not to mention that cashmere knits can cost $60-$175 a yard if you can even FIND them or that new cashmere baby sweaters run $100-$300... whereas this one came to less than $5 in materials:

Here's the robot appliqué in progress—it's just a scrap of bright turqoise ponté, applied with fusible webbing, then stitched down around the edges by machine:

The eyes and heart I embroidered by hand. Which is something I'm really into lately:

And that's good, because yesterday my midwife ordered me onto scheduling resting (basically part-time bedrest) due to some severe swelling in my legs and feet and other assorted reasons. I need to spend half my days in bed lying on my left side, and minimize time standing/sitting. So... I sense a lot of embroidery and knitting in the next weeks, and not so much the sewing machine.

Anyone else been through this? The thought of lying down so much is driving me crazy... I'm a doer and a maker and I've got a demanding full-time job to do and a four-year-old to chase around! And my apartment is so NOT baby-ready, and I know I'll be too exhausted once baby actually arrives to do much of anything but nurse and sleep (when I can).

Bonus photo: my four-year-old came with me to the yarn store to buy the buttons for the orange cardigan, and she insisted we had to make a list first to remember we needed 6 buttons:

Finished: Handpainted Hugs and Kisses Baby Socks (Better Than Booties Baby Socks)

19 weeks in, and I've finally finished my first project for little "Text Message" Wood (as my four-year-old daughter Z wants to call the baby) or "Torch Wood" (as my nerdy husband and I have been referring to him/her). The first sock took maybe a day or two, and then I got a case of the dreaded Second Sock Syndrome and it took me a month to finish the second.

It's partly because I got some really good "help" from Ms. Z winding the yarn, so somehow the inside of the second ball was completely tangled and needing days and days of untwisting and unpicking... (oh how I love my ball winder and swift, but they DO need to be operated in one direction at a time).

This is my third time making the free "Better Than Booties Baby Socks" pattern (this project and all details Raveled here) but somehow these came out gigantic, more of a two-year-old size.

I think my favorite part is that I FINALLY used up a small bit of some of the sock blanks I hand-painted with some talented knitting friends back in 2008:

Yes, that's all I have finished for the baby so far. What can I say? The second-trimester surge of energy I experienced last time around doesn't seem to be materializing, and I think it's due to all the chasing around after this one...

Next up: I'm finishing a cardigan for myself (almost done with the Hetty by Andi Satterlund) and for baby, and a scarf for myself and a hat for baby. How are your fall knitting plans shaping up?

TARDIS sock disaster + swatching my Delancey cardigan

It seems the Doctor and his TARDIS have landed on a planet populated by gigantic adorable toddlers...

Yeah, so, if you've watched any Doctor Who at all (latest episodes available on iTunes if you don't get BBC America), you know that the Doctor's time-traveling spaceship—aka the TARDIS for Time and Relative Dimension in Space—has a curious feature. On the outside it appears to be a small blue wooden British police call box...

But it's MUCH, MUCH bigger on the inside:

Which brings me to my TARDIS socks (full details here, including some mods I made), which, unfortunately are bigger on the OUTSIDE. See how they slouch and bag around the ankles?

They fit fine while I was knitting them (just the right amount of negative ease), but after I gave them a gentle bath, they started to grow...

And now they look good for a second when I tug them up...

But quickly slouch back into saggy baggy land within moments:

I really don't know what's going on here. I used a non-superwash 100% merino wool yarn, and knit them on the smallest sock needles I have (size 0). I've never had baggy socks before but they always had a bit of nylon in them, so maybe it's because these socks have no nylon content?

Anyway, all hope is not lost for my Time and Relative Dimension in Socks—the excellent Tech Knitting blog recommends a fix using elastic thread or an elastic garter at the top of the sock, so we'll see how that does!

Meanwhile, I swatched for my Delancey cardigan by Alexis Winslow. Here's the sketch (on bottom right) as you may remember from my Sweater Showdown decision post:

And here's my gauge swatch:

I'm using stash yarn, so my color scheme is based on what I have available. The main color is going to be the eggplant, and the sets of triple stripes will be in the gray, periwinkle and light purple. The aqua will be for the shawl collar and sleeve cuffs.

I'm going to knit a 33" bust size (even though my bust is 38.5") as I'm not getting exact gauge. I'm hoping it'll come out around 35", giving me 3.5" negative ease. I'd much rather it be a bit on the tight side than loose and slouchy (see my Not-Goldilocks and the Three Sweaters fitting post for more on this).

TARDIS sock progress + Blue Alpaca Cabled Earflap Hat Redux

Dear Doctor and Clara: I love you. Sincerely, Mikhaela. (P.S. But I still miss Amy and Rory).

I know I said my next knitting project would be colorwork gloves, but then I remembered Doctor Who was coming back tonight and I went for colorwork TARDIS socks instead... More details later when I am farther along. (Two other women in the Brooklyn Burdastyle Sewing Club are knitting them too—they'll probably both finish before I do at my snail's pace.)

The whole stranded aka fair isle colorwork knitting thing isn't quite as hard as I anticipated. The only tricky part for me was just teaching myself to knit English-style with one hand and continental with the other — like jumping up and down and patting your head and stomach and singing at the same time, but doable. The lettering looks a little fuzzy so far so I will touch it up with duplicate stitch as suggested.

And here's the hat I finished while lying in bed after my surgery:

The pattern is 18 Seconds to Sunrise by Tiffany Gallagher and the yarn is Misti Alpaca Chunky Baby Alpaca in Marine.(Full Ravelry details here.) I had already knit this hat before but had to unravel it and add an extra pattern repeat because it was just too tight no matter how I blocked it. This time I added the earflaps and i-cord (aka "idiot cord") tassels and am much happier all round. I feel like without earflaps I either have to knit a hat so big it covers my eyes, or I just constantly tug at the sides to keep my ears warm. I-cord was also new to me and was much simpler than colorwork!

I realize the photos are a bit odd because I am wearing it with a lace camisole tank top thing instead of a coat, but it's nearly 60 degrees in Brooklyn today and I'm still too sick/weak to go out much.

Oh, and little Z wanted her turn to wear both the hat and matching cowl too:

Are you a Doctor Who fan? If so, what do you think of Clara so far? Would you ever do a geeky craft project or are you a bit too sophisticated for that?

P.S. Thank you all so much for your good wishes before and after my surgery! It means a lot to me! I'm still not at 100% (more like 60%) but I am getting better every day and finally was able to return to work.

Chartreuse Cardigan Progress + Blue Ombré Overload Socks!

Rough as it's been around here lately—with no sewing going on to speak of—I've been stealing bits and odds and moments to knit, mostly on my subway commute. And somehow all those moments have finally added up to... most of my chartreuse organic merino Georgina cardigan! (full Ravelry details here).

Here's the back (I'm so into the lace, maybe I should just walk backwards so people can admire it more directly). It looked SO teeny-tiny while I was knitting that many people asked if I was making another toddler sweater... so I'm REALLY glad it actually fits.

Oh, and here's the original sketch for reference, back when I was still dithering over my color choices:

So... the fit is great... the organic hand-dyed merino is soft as a cloud... the design is awesome... BUT... I may not actually have enough yarn left for full sleeves. So—how do you all think this will look with cap sleeves? (There is no budget for an additional skein, though I WILL allow myself to buy proper buttons).

Oh, and if you're wondering why I'm wearing my ombré polka dot dress for these photos, it's because I thought it'd be funny to photograph my ombré dress with my finished blue ombré Waving Lace socks (from yarn grad-dyed by me ages ago):

Though honestly... you'll never actually catch me wearing socks with a dressy dress. I pretty much wear them with pants or SOMETIMES with casual skirts.

They've actually been done for weeks now, but I didn't feel like doing a wool-sock photo shoot in 90-degree heat... here's a sharper look:

I swear the gradation is much more obvious in real life!

Next up in knitting—I think I'll tackle some colorwork. I really need some pretty winter gloves... or there are these cute striped convertible mittens (i.e. the tops flip off to reveal fingerless gloves) from an old issue of Vogue Knitting I know I have lying around somewhere...

How are your fall knitting and sewing plans coming along?