Contrary to what you may think from the lack of posting I have actually been knitting this week. But there is only so much you can say about market bags in one two month period. I think I have said most of it already and the pictures would be so not thrilling that they aren’t even worth taking… Also I have been somewhat preoccupied with endless appointments for ultrasounds, specialist opinions and precision timed jabs in the butt…

The most note worthy thing that has happened this week is that we finally seem to have found a new sleep schedule for Isabelle and it is WONDERFUL. She is currently sleeping (roughly speaking) from 6:40pm to 6:10am and subsequently not napping. I don’t think she has ever gone to bed this early or slept this long. It adds a lot of flexibility to our days to dispense with the nap, and removes all that angst about timing the nap just right to ensure a reasonable bedtime (reasonable used to be 8:30 - still SO late!). Knowing she will go to sleep easily, on time and sleep well makes some crabbiness in the afternoon absolutely tolerable, though mostly she has actually been in a better mood than usual, just tired. Keep your fingers crossed for us that lasts…

Yesterday I cast on for a third market bag. This one is actually for me! I am using the left over yarn from the Booga Bags I made as christmas gifts. I am doing this one with the same alterations as the blue and brown bag I made for mum, i.e. with a rectangular base. Tonight I seamed up hole in the base. I forgot to photograph the seaming of the first rectangular base I made, and did a rather clumsy job of explaining it as I recall, so here are some pics.

Isabelle and I went to one of our favourite parks today. She was very patient while I had a good long walk and I was very patient while she climbed trees.

I wore Kate.

Pattern: Kate - Phildar #406 / Printemps 2004 Familie
Yarn: Rowan All Seasons Cotton in “Dim”
Needles: 5mm Addi Turbos

The blocking went well and provided just enough extra length that I will leave it as is. I am very happy with how this turned out given that it is the first piece of clothing I have knit for myself and I will definitely wear it, but probably not that much for reasons pertaining to sunblock and bras. I knew it wasn’t practical when I decided to go ahead and make it. Denial is what gets us through the day, an old friend of mine often said.

Kate is blocking. Kate is a bit short (as suspected) so there is a lot riding on the blocking… Though really she is only a tiny bit short and my biggest concern right now is whether I will (or will not) be able to come to some sort of bra arrangement acceptable enough to wear her often anyway.

This is what is left of the four balls I used. Seems like a shame to start into the last ball to add just one more inch. Not that I have anything else to do with one ball of All Season Cotton in Dim, I really don’t know what my problem is but apparently I have one.

See that twisted stitch, and the loop from the end of my short row that it isn’t hiding? I saw it just as I was carefully examining the tension of my grafting a few rows further up. That twisted stitch was pretty much dead center of the front piece, about half an inch below the neck band. Unpicking grafting is not my idea of fun.

So Monday I tried Becky’s method for the neckband on Kate and it was terrible. First I agonised over how many stitches to cast on. The front piece had 34 stitches to be picked up, the back had 26. The pattern calls for 40 stitches of neckband to be matched to those 34 stitches of front 34 stitches of neck band to 26 stitches of back with 16 stitches of neckband for each shoulder. I just could not figure out whether I should I cast only the 16 stitches called for in the pattern for the shoulder and thus end up with a neckband 14 stitches smaller than the pattern, or should I cast on some more - giving bigger shoulder straps and the right size neckband? I cast on a few more at the shoulder than the pattern called for, but less than enough to give a full sized neckband. I used the button loop cast on, which was excruciating to do, every stitch needed to be oh so carefully straightened and tightened and shaped just so, the yarn just didn’t want to slide though once the loop that was round my thumb was moved to the needle. I knit about half the neck band using two 5mm circs as I didn’t have a short enough circular for the job. My knitting was suddenly loose and sloppy and there were clearly too many stitches on the shoulder.

So yesterday I ripped it out. New approach. I knit the neckband separately from the top down (as called for in the pattern, but with only enough stitches to have 16 per shoulder and exactly the right number to graft the live stitches of the front and back pieces to the band. I also went down to a 4.5mm needle. I didn’t have a short enough 4.5mm either, so I tried the magic loop technique for the first time - which worked just fine, though my neckband was a bit big to magic loop easily on an 80cm circ, so I had to be very careful about how I managed my loops….

When the band was done I cast off the shoulders as called for in the pattern and I have grafted the back piece to the neckband. So far so good. Tonight I will graft on the front and (hopefully) do the side seams.

Yesterday was a particularly productive day, not only did I spend four hours knitting/finishing as described above (how DID it come to take FOUR hours to knit one neckband and graft 26 stitches?) I also waded though a whole bunch of “first day back to normal life” jobs and bought myself a convertible bra so that I can actually wear this thing, when it’s done. Assuming it fits. Which may be a big assumption. I have fears I may need to chop the bottom off and add a few inches to the middle.

And for those of you who are more interested in Isabelle than my knitting (you know who you are) I just have to tell you that she is in developmental overdrive right now. Not only has she started drawing recognisable shapes, learned to pedal her bike, improved her swimming (she started DIVING, I kid you not) but she has also figured out how to make tunnels with blocks over her train tracks. I built the big “houses” in the foreground but all those little ones grouped tightly together she built herself, unassisted. Wow.

Would you look at that, I finally got past the end of the third ball of yarn. As I happily knit away after ripping it out for the second time I made a decision. There would be no checking of 10cm blocks of stitches this time. When I was back to the point I had decided there was a problem first time around I got out my calculator instead of my pins. When I was done with the measuring tape I did the math and found that the entire section of stocking stitch was exactly the size it should have been. I suspect that if I had done this the first time I may never have ripped it out, then again I had decided to check my gauge at that point because the stitches looked visibly different to the back. I have lofty goals of having Kate done by tomorrow night, that may be overly hopeful. It’s nice not to feel worried about whether I will get something done “on time” after all that christmas knitting.

I am planning to finish the neck band as described by the ever amazing Becky, assuming I can figure out one of the recommended cast on methods.