Homemade Friday: Gathered Pullover from Interweave Knits Winter 2007

I’m a bit late with this one, mainly because I’m suffering from another COLD OF DEATH or something like that.  I told my husband last night that I blamed the Paleo diet and he thought I was ridiculous until I told him that it was because as soon as I stopped eating mostly Paleo because of sheer laziness and exhaustion and dear lord I’m tired of so much cooking, that I received a wicked cold.  And then that went away.  And then a week later I received a wicked sinus infection. 

So anyway, today during naptime, instead of fight get her to at least stay in her room, I decided to just let her lay down in my bed with me.  I think I slept.  She was still until she got super bored and then started tapping me on the shoulder then giving me kisses and hugs to make me wake up.  And then we went upstairs to her room and had a tea party in her tent because that is for some reason the only place she wants to have a tea party.  

This is not a picture from today, but you get the idea. Tree tent tea party!

So I’m just now sitting down to write my Homemade Friday post.  Every time I sit at the computer Adele decides to fix my hair, which involves de-tangler and a brush and her attempting to put a pony-tail holder in my hair.  Today she got smart and used barrettes.  I’m writing this with quite a few pieces of hair paraphernalia on my head.  Just in case you were attempting to picture me as you read this.

On to the sweater!

(Finally!)  

(I KNOW!)

The pattern is the Gathered Pullover from Interweave KnitsWinter 2007 issue.  And I think that might have been around the time I knit it.  I have no actual memory of the year.  Because I am old, obviously.  But I never wore it much because for some reason I knit it entirely too short.  I’m a bit curvy anyway, and any shirt that doesn’t fall low enough on my hips rolls up toward my chest.  So really, add that to the muffin top and it wasn’t a pretty sight.  I pulled it out this year and wore it once on account of the whole POLAR VORTEX and ridiculously cold temperatures.  I never left the house so it wasn’t that big of a deal that I looked ridiculous.  But I still vowed that this was the year I was going to fix it.  

I still had quite a bit of the yarn left.  I’d bought a couple of cones of the yarn called for in the pattern, which was Brown Sheep Top of the Lamb Single Ply Sport in, uh, brown.  Some brown color.  I’m not even sure where I ordered it from, but I know it was online.  I can’t seem to find the giant cones I bought anymore, so maybe they don’t make them?

I’d used a sewn him instead of the rolled hem in the pattern, mainly to deter the sweater from rolling up.  Didn’t work.  I spent some time one night un-sewing the sewn hem.   I tried to unravel and be careful about all of it but then it became a giant pain in the butt so I brought out the scissors.  I started knitting the new, longer body with size 6 needles because my gauge is always off so I’ll go down in needles to fix it.  I didn’t realize until after I’d done an inch or so that those needles were not the right size.  So I ripped back again and used size 7 needles, which were the correct ones.  (Take notes, kids.  It helps.)

 

I actually knit an extra six inches or so to make it a comfortable sweater for me.  You may be able to see the line of new knitting from the photos.  I can still see it, but I think it’s faint enough not to be an issue.  Eventually it will all look the same.

  

You may not be able to tell anything from the photos because my camera has been dropped one too many times and now refuses to take pictures.  Good times.  So all of these photos were taken with my phone.  And a 3-year-old 'assistant.'  You are welcome.  You can't see it all that well, but I made that sweater she's wearing, too.  It used to be Sebastian's.  It's this one, actually:

I also didn't take a photo of the sweater before I fixed it because I forgot. 

I really like this sweater now that it’s fixed.  It’s fitted, but not too tight.  And I think the sleeves are the best set-in sleeves I’ve ever done.  Mine never look that good so I don’t know what caused these to be like they are.

This morning I decided that I don’t have enough warm things for Adele (because POLAR VORTEX) so I started socks and then realized that she would probably benefit more from mittens as she is not fond of the gloves I just bought her.  I’ve felt like crap so mainly all I’ve done is move from one spot to the next, wherever Adele tells me to go, knitting on the mittens while simultaneously playing duplos.  Or tea party.  Or watching Dinosaur Train.

He said it was 75 degrees there. I hate him a little bit.

Guys.  It was awfully nice for my husband to leave town right in the middle of snowmageddon and icepocalypse and days and days of both of my children being at home with me all day.  And when I had a job interview for a creative, fufilling-type job (it went well, thanks for asking, even though I am very expressive with my hands, but I’m Italian so I’m just in touch with my roots, is what I say.)

I mean, I guess he didn’t know all of this was happening when he planned his work trip, but still.  AM NOT HAPPY WITH YOU CHRISTOPHER, ESPECIALLY SINCE YOU WENT SOMEWHERE WARM.

I took both of my children to Target yesterday because I had nervous energy on account of the interview and plus I needed pantyhose.  I don’t usually take my children to stores because I have to spend the entire time telling them that they are not allowed to pick up random items and put them in the cart, and even though they are in the cart it doesn’t mean that I’m going to purchase them.  And then I have to hand over a pile of crap to the cashier and tell him that hey, we don’t want this and my children are heathens and can’t be taken anywhere.  And that happened yesterday.  Of course it happened.  But tears also happened.  As did me telling the woman in line behind me to ram my daughter with her cart to get her to move because Adele was damned if she was leaving the store without a piece of candy. 

I did not buy the candy.  Nor the watch my son wanted that caused actual, unexpected tears.  I mean, yes, he does get upset when I refuse to buy him things sometimes.  But it doesn’t usually end in devastation.  So I am a horrible, horrible mother, even though I bought them the Despicable Me 2 movie because it was on sale.

All of this was in the morning before my interview where I needed to be charming and engaging and professional.  Luckily the children were somewhat calmer by the time I left my them at home with my mother, who was kind enough to come to my house and watch them as MY HUSBAND WAS OUT OF TOWN. 

And today I am cold and possibly acquiring a sinus infection as my eyeballs hurt and my nose is stuffed up.  Both of the children are extremely tired of being cooped up in this house with me.  I had a friend who lives within walking distance offer to take the kids for a bit but the thought of layering everyone up and walking/sliding over to her house on the ice was exhausting.  So maybe not.

Plus Sebastian has a dentist appointment this afternoon.  I do not know if we’ll get there because icepocalypse.

(ICEPOCALYPSE!)

Homemade Friday: A baby sweater, but first let me complain

I am grumpy today.  Like super grumpy.  Like I’ll bite your face off if you ask me what’s wrong because clearly you should already know that I am tired and sleep deprived and just all around IN A BAD MOOD.

I have no real reason for how I feel.  I mean, sure, I haven’t been sleeping well.  But that’s not anything all that new.  I’ve been working out like crazy, which is nice but also exhausting. 

Today has been a lesson in patience, however.  As in, I need to learn to have patience for other people even when I want to yell at them for not giving me back my debit card after they used it last and so I wasn’t able to buy all of the groceries we needed for the week because I only had a small amount of cash and the store I go to only takes cash or debit cards.  Because it really wasn’t his fault, Christopher.

Also, patience for the child who wakes up so early and comes downstairs to tell me that he has dry skin on his foot and needs lotion, which is really just an excuse to get out of bed because he knows he’s supposed to wait until his clock tells him it’s okay to get up because if he doesn’t use the clock he’s downstairs at 5:30 a.m. and that is TOO DAMN EARLY FOR ME TO HAVE TO BE A PARENT.

And patience for the other child who loudly tells me to do things for her instead of asking in a nice way like I’ve taught her.  Nope.  It’s “Mama!  Hold baby!  Mama!  Zip up my sleeping bag!  Mama! WAIT!”

And patience for myself when I forget to bring the proof of insurance into the clerk’s office to pay the car registration.  Or when I try unsuccessfully to shove a too-large package into the UPS drop-off box, almost locking up the whole thing.  And when I realize I have to go to the UPS store instead, saying screw it and eating lunch out with Adele even though it really isn’t in the budget and isn’t that healthy but it was right next to where we were and I was already exhausted and didn’t feel like making one more peanut butter and jelly sandwich on top of the homemade pizza I’m supposed to make for dinner because I make it every Friday because THAT’S WHAT I DO.

(Also patience for myself on account of how many ‘becauses’ I’ve used in this post already.)

But this is a Homemade Friday post and so far I’ve said nothing about the sweet little sweater I made for my friend, Jo Ellen.

Jo Ellen and I have been friends for many, many years.  I think I’ve told you about her somewhere but my computer is pretending that it’s on dial-up and moving at the speed of nothing so I’m going to forgo searching through the archives because I just spend 10 minutes attempting to find a post I thought I wrote about her first baby, only to discover that I started this blog after that baby was born.  Because I am good with dates.

So anyway, Jo Ellen and I became friends over a love of playing guitar and being hippies.  And it’s continued to this day.  I don’t play guitar so much anymore and she lives an hour away from me but I still feel like we’re a lot alike.  And whenever we do get together it feels like it used to, only better because we’re grown-ups and moms and married and totally not complaining about how awful our boyfriends are.  (Boys suck and I hate being a girl!) (That was our mantra for awhile.)

Jo Ellen has a sweet, adorable little girl named Elyse, who just turned 3.  Here’s a picture of her wearing the sweater I thought I’d already shown you:

It’s a February Baby Sweater from Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitting Without Tears. 

And here’s a picture of the two of us with our little babies:

I’m pretty sure Adele was trying to nurse here and was also pissed at me because I wasn’t letting her.  Also look at my sweet little baby!

Jo Ellen was due with her second little girl this month, and a bunch of friends planned a surprise baby shower where we all drove to her house, unbeknownst to her, to whisk her off to lunch.  We luckily made it in time.  Sweet little Sarah Jane (or Janey Bear, as I insist on calling her) was born only a week after our visit. 

Surprise baby brunch! 

The sweater I made for Sarah Jane was a lot like the one I made for Elyse.  It followed the same style as the February Baby Sweater, but  had a heart lace design on the body of the sweater.

I was rushed with this one because I was trying to finish some other things as well, so I didn’t have time to take it to my mom to sew the buttons on.  I had to do it myself, which means that they will probably have to be re-sewn.  But Jo Ellen’s mom is a seamstress so I have no doubt that she can find someone to fix it if needed! 

The sweater was bigger than I originally intended, but that just means that she can wear it longer, I guess.  I’m attempting to put a positive spin on it because it really irritated me when I realized what I had done.  I didn’t have any time to fix it.  As it was the sweater was damp from blocking when I gave it to Jo Ellen.  And I had to sew the buttons on during the hour long drive to the surprise shower.   That’s also where I t
ook these photos, which is why they’re a bit blurry.

Hello thighs.  Pull your skirt down, heathen.
(I probably should have cropped this.)

However, I think Jo Ellen was happy with it anyway, in spite of the dampness and possible button catastrophe. 

I haven’t been able to meet Little Janey Bear yet, but I greatly look forward to cuddling that sweet girl.  And giving her Mama a big hug.

(All this talk of babies and sweaters has put me in a decidedly better mood so thanks!)

Motherhood and More: No sick time granted for a stay-at-home mother*

It’s a bit of a cliché now, what with the dawn of mommy blogs and everyone telling everything about their lives, myself included, to a point.  But as a mom, especially a stay-at-home mom, I’m not really allowed to be sick.

I’ve been dealing with a heck of a cold, full of coughing and sneezing and headaches and the need to spend the entire day laying down watching bad TV on Netflix.  I’ve lost my voice, which I at first attributed to a late night at a friend’s house and too much wine, but it lingered longer than I thought it should have.

I’ve been fighting to keep my eyes open intermittently throughout the days.  Sometimes I do not win that fight and my daughter decides to wake me up by poking my eyes.  So that’s fun.

In order to keep myself from coughing all night and waking up my husband I accidentally over-medicated on Nyquil, which, of course, means I took one dose.  But apparently I am not made for that type of medicine and spent the next day catching myself staring off into space, trying to focus.

I suppose I could ask my husband to take off work, but I feel guilty for doing that.  Like, how sick is sick enough?  Plus all that would happen is that I would be stuck in the bedroom without the TV, and sporadically interrupted from sleeping by a 3 year old who likes to jump on people who are lying down and yell “Stop sleeping!  Open your eyes!”

Or there’s always one of the grandmothers.  I could ask them to pick up the kids and let me rest.  But again, they would have to take off work.  And I don’t quite feel like I’m that sick.  Plus it’s hard to admit you need help and to ask for it. 

So no.  I’m not allowed to be sick.  I still have to do what I normally do, it’s just harder and I have to put forth more of an effort because a simple act of fixing a peanut butter and jelly sandwich takes mental strength. 

And I’m not entirely sure my husband believes I’m sick, as is evident by the fact that he asks me every morning if I’m going to the gym to work out.  I’ve thought about coughing in his face to show him that I may not be up to it, but settled for a simple “probably not.”  I assume he’s trying to be encouraging and not irritating, however the outcome is still the same.

It’s dispiriting to look around your house at all the stuff that needs to be done but only have the energy to force yourself to do the essentials.  The essentials being, of course, cooking and cleaning and entertaining children and reading stories in between coughing.  So basically just like every other day, but with less enthusiasm and more exhaustion and sore-from-coughing stomach muscles.

That totally counts as going to the gym, right?

*This column originally published in The News-Enterprise on January 22, 2014.