grumpygirl

Sleepy, hot and hibernatey

l've been so sleepy this week. I woke up at 6am on Tuesday morning and then made up for it by going back to bed at 9am. When I woke up at noon, it was totally surreal. I mean, that's practically half a work day! And I was still sleepy.

The other thing different about this week is how hot I'm been. Everyone assumed that I was experiencing the 'regular' preggie symptom of being hotter than usual, but I hadn't until this week. I popped into see some old work colleagues and was sweating before I left the building.

Then I went on a hospital tour and boy do they keep those areas heated! We mostly wanted to check out how much room for luggage we'd have - I mean 4 days for 3 people, one of whom is supposed to be super chucky - that's a lot of clothes! Luckily we learnt quite a bit more than that. One thing I did forget to look for was locks on the doors. Makes sense that they don't have any, but it does freak me out slightly that anyone can walk in off the street and into your room whilst you're sleeping.

And this morning, I went to the Australian Breastfeeding Association's shop and was sweating there too! Hard work, trying on tops. It took forever for my purchases to go through. They weren't really up on the knowledge and efficiency with the cash register thing. Just because I've suddenly got all the time in the world doesn't mean they can take it!

I've also been getting increasingly hibernate-y of late. I don't want to talk to a lot of people. Mostly just people with whom I've been in close contact with later in the pregnancy. I guess it's the familiarity thing. Plus fewer explanations.

Onto knitting news, here is the finished raglan cardigan knit in one piece, sans buttons.
I've only knit three buttonholes at the top - and the first won't be needed at all. I kinda just made up the neckline as I went on. The short-row shaping at the neck was touch and go for a while, but it seems to have worked. And I didn't mean for there to be a collar, but hey, it seems to work. I've just finished washing and blocking this, Pebble and the placket-neck pullover (which seems to have grown substantially). All three are now drying.

Oh, and I've just cast on Sharon Miller's River for R. Was going to start something ages ago, but I couldn't fine the right project and yarn. It had to be wine-coloured. Finally settled on Kidsilk Night in a new colourway Port and remembered about River. I've not knit with this version of Kidsilk before - but it suits the recipient, who is far more 'blingey' than me. At least it's silvery rather than goldy. The dark red is slighly more purple than it looked on the internets, but it'll be fine. Once sorted, I had to wait for the yarn to arrive and then had to go buy 6.5mm circs. Can you believe the pattern calls for 7mm needles? I normally knit Kidsilk Haze on 4.5mms, so this should be a quick knit. Here's hoping.

Move, baby, move

Blood pressure down slightly to 128/88, so still a slightly high diastolic pressure. I just need to look out for swelling of hands and face, headaches and visual disturbances, just in case it is pre-eclampsia. Less likely though.
Also, it turns out the belly's funny square-y shape last night and today is due to the Bump suddenly deciding to move into the posterior position at this very late stage. If it doesn't move back, it may increase the changes of it coming late. And oh, probably a longer and more painful labour. Yay.
Hopefully, the baby will behave true to form and come good at the very last moment.

Misc knits

I haven't washed this yet, but it looks pretty good, huh? The second skein does look different though. Oh well. It's much more obvious here than in person. Once again, my gauge was a little off. Even though I knitted the smallest size (0-6m) and used a 4mm rather than 4.5mm needle, it still ended up being a size larger. Next time I knit with this yarn, I'll have to alternate between two skeins and use a 4.5mm for better drape.

What am I knitting for the Bump now? Hopefully something small enough to fit it in the early winter months. I've only got 2 balls of this Jo Sharp DK, so am hoping it'll go the distance. It's got pretty good yardage of 135m per 50g ball, so the odds are pretty good. Plus, less than a ball has been used for these so far:

I will probably finish it tomorrow or by Thursday. At which point I'll cast on a vest - haven't made the Bump one of those yet. I'm so glad I'm finally over my knitting procrastination.

The good light in the house has finally afforded me with the opportunity to finally take a photo of the blocked crochet blankie for Majella. Will probably gift it this weekend.

Pebble

I had to force myself to finish this last night.

But after I did, I fell in love with it (how could you not?). The original pattern by thriftyknitter was inspired by Jarrod's Cobblestone, but I had to modify it because well, I dislike buttons almost as much as seaming. And I'm using aran weight, not DK. So I used the pattern as a starting point and made the rest up as I went along.

Finishing Pebble has finally inspired to cast on more baby garments. I didn't really want to until the Bump had actually arrived and we knew the sex, but I figure the Child's placket-neck pullover is sufficiently unisex. The Sundara worsted aran is MUCH nicer knit up than it feels on the skein. Buttery yumminess.

Also cast on a few days ago (after being frogged twice) a moss-stitch blankie in Rowan's All Seasons Cotton. 10 balls for US$29 (free shipping).

Incidentally, I have only been knitting from stash lately. It's a lovely place to shop. Even though some things in there mock me.

Btw, the erm, bottle has been handed over. I really need to drink more. Should have test results by tomorrow or on Tuesday when I go back to the OB. I'm not really stressed by it - time enough for that if/when it's required.

A wee bit of excitement

So babe, whilst you've been interstate for the past two nights, I've been really lazy and barely left the house. Apart from today, that is.
I went to the OB this morning and my blood pressure was obviously bored of being a predictable 120/80 and decided to change to 130/90 instead.
This lead to having to give a urine sample to test for proteins. I scored the third box from the left on the litmus test. Don't know what that meant exactly, other than the OB taking my blood pressure twice more, where the higher number came down slightly, but the lower number did not.
I'm to watch out in case my hands and face get puffy as these are also signs of pre-eclampsia which might mean bringing the labour forward.
So just in case, he sent me to the pathologists for this:
and this:

Yep. Luckily I'm home for the next 24 hours and have nothing else to do but collect every drop of wee.
Can you imagine having to do this whilst still at work? I asked the OB if it would be ok if I started after lunch, as I didn't really want to turn up to lunch with the girls with my BOTTLE.
And do you see that tiny tiny opening? Do they not know women don't have penises?

More presents

Some more presents:
And this is what we got with Rosa & Meri's gift voucher with the free $30 of vouchers Myer One randomly sent out to me.

Week 37

Check out this belly at the baby shower last week (start of week 37). A bit blury, but you get the idea of the hugeness.

Bumpy cat burglar

l think I know what has contributed to my recent knitting malaise.
Finding three separate items which have been chewed through. First there is BD's brown aran cardigan which we bought on Inishmore. Then there is the the blue ribbed gansey which has three separate multi-row holes in it. And lastly, this scarf which I looked EVERYWHERE for late last year and finally found last week in the back of the bookshelf, nowhere near the jumpers. Two holes. Luckily it was long enough for me to cut short and bind off again. And then chuck in the freezer overnight.
For a day or so, this was my only WIP, apart from the Pebble vest which has stalled because I'm bored with it. Socks that Rock in Farmhouse. I had started socks for the Bump in this, but it looked far too reggae. So making it for the bro instead. Only I need to wait until he's around so I know how big to make them - I've never knit for 29cm width feet before and I'm not used to using 2.25mm needles, so don't trust my gauge guesses.
Was tempted to do something with all four of these yarns yesterday. Started three of them yesterday and one today.
We have an Aran braid scarf in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, plain socks for me, another alpaca garter stitch scarf for the present cupboard, and another lace ribbon scarf in Socks That Rock in Nodding Violet.
They're all pretty mindless knitting which is about as much as I can handle at the moment. I attempted to knit the Backyard Leaves scarf with the Cashmerino, but I didn't have the attention span the chart. Cables I can handle - I find them so much more intuitive. Now that I have reasons to sit at home and knit, I'm finding it really uncomfortable to do so.
The Bump is having another growth spurt and making it really difficult to sit. It's legs are also far too active and contorting the hemisphere I'm carrying into all sorts of odd shapes. I can't actually feel it moving, but I certainly feel the finished positions. Maybe it's training to be a cat burglar. That said, I'm going to try and have a nap now.

Overwhelmed

We had the baby shower yesterday afternoon and it was so nice to see everybody. You'll have to wait for  the pictures of actual people as they're on Aimee's camera, but I did manage to force myself to catalogue the gifts for the thank-you cards (of which I have 34 to write so far). It was now or never, but I was a little overwhelmed by everyone's generosity and couldn't work out where to start. This is going to be one very well kitted-out baby.

Who'da guess that these orderly cards...

...would represent this crazy mountain of booty?

There are a few more things to come, but let's start - in no particular order:

Smidge

Is this cutting it a bit fine or what? I've managed to stretch the leftovers from Stuart's socks to make a pair of teeny tiny newborns and just up to the cuffs in a pair for 6m/1yo. The plan was to use the leftovers from Kim's socks.


 But the colour is a smidge odd. Oh well. Not incredibly noticeable. And no way was I about to frog.