I'm not a Mum. Please don't read that as "I don't like children". I do. Well, most children. Some are assholes but that's because their parents are assholes and we can't do anything about that. But, I'm not a Mum. And I don't want to be one to more than my fur babies. But that doesn't mean I don't like kids.
This past week I had the chance to be a psuedo mum two my best friends kiddo's. And guess what? Its the hardest thing. Ever. Ever. Ever. I kicked cancers butt and having a kid is harder than that. And I wasn't even on solo duty. I had "sole" custody of the kids for an hour or so when we went to the beach last Sunday and that was hard enough. I had to make sure that the creep-o standing around watching the kids wasn't going to touch them - but if he tried I was gonna karate chop him (HUCKY TUCKY!). For serious.
The hardest part is being woken up in the middle of the night by a child crying. And I can't do anything but rub her back and make cooing noises. And then Mum shows up. And it was amazing. For you mother's out there you probably know what I'm talking about but I'd never witnessed it before. I was in awe. It was pure animal instinct. Mum came in, grabbed her daughter who was in a heap in my lap and in one fluid motion picked her up and curled her into a ball and shut out the rest of the world. I'm hardly doing this justice with my words but it was an awesome moment. My back rubs didn't stand a chance. I get chills just thinking about it.
I don't mean to make a reference between animals and humans insofar as the theory that we haven't come any further than the apes. Obviously we have (opposible thumbs are pretty mandatory with knitting, after all) but it was the motion I've seen in monkey or apes dozens of times at the zoo. Baby is in distress. Mum picks him/her up, becomes a cocoon and dares anyone else to mess with her. Ah. May. Zing.
Anyway, I'm sharing this not only as an expression of my awe at motherhood but also as an excuse as to why I'm so bloody behind schedule on my vest. I had two kids in my house for a week and in the middle of the visit I caught a cold and I was dead at the time. *Side note: I love Eddie Izzard.*
Ok, so I didn't die, but I felt like I might. So I knit socks 'cuz that's my happy place and I pretty much ignored my vest until yesterday. And then I did some panic knitting. And THEN I went back to the schedule and realized that we don't have to separate for the arm holes until NEXT Saturday and I was like "Whew... dodged a bullet there". So this week will be my catch up week.
Before I get to the round up of some of the awesomeness that I'm seeing on IG again this week, I thought I'd share a handy little tip that I shared on the Ewe Ewe Yarns blog for the Penpal Hat KAL that I hosted back in February.
If you're like me and you're not using large skeins (I have 12-50g skeins of Wooly Worsted) there are going to be a lot of joins and I hate (read: LOATHE ENTIRELY) weaving in ends. So I found a join that works in some cases. And happily this project has enough bumps and texture that I can get away with it. This is verbatim from the Ewe Ewe Yarns blog since I already did the work over there so head on over and check out that fun when you have time, too.
**Caveat: I don't recommend using this join where you're going to drop your stitches. Hide it in your cables or other purl sts where you won't have long running threads where a little bump would be noticeable. Ok. You've been warned**
THE MAGIC KNOT
For sample sake, I'm going to use the end of my original color and use a different Wooly Worsted scrap I have leftover from the Stuff It Stocking KAL I participated in this past December so you can differentiate one end from the other.
Lay your working yarn end so that your project is in front of you with the tail pointing towards you (this isn't a requirement in the future but will help for purposes of this tutorial). Next, lay the end of the new ball parallel to your working yarn with the tail pointing away from you. You'll want the two ends to overlap one another by about 4".
In this case, the working tail is Teal, and the new ball is light blue.
Tuck the working yarn UNDER the new yarn so it looks kind of like the number "4".
Pull the working yarn back to the left going OVER the new tail, and back over itself again.
Tuck the working tail under itself.
Pull tight on both ends of the WORKING yarn. The new ball is basically just hanging out with a knot tied around it, not with it.
To work the second half of this join, in a similar style to above, take your NEW yarn tail and tuck it under the working yarn so it looks kind of like "P".
Pull the new tail back over the working yarn, to the right and over itself again.
Tuck this new tail under itself.
Pull this one tight again so that you've now got two knots about 2" apart.
Now here's the "Magic". We're going to pull these two knots together and create a double knot that is almost impossible to break apart. I say almost because if you really worked at it you could do it, but what I guess I mean is that it'll hold up to washings and wear and you'll love not having to weave in the ends.
To create your "Magic Knot" pull on the long ends of both the working yarn and the new yarn.
The two knots will slide together and meet up. You can give a pretty good yank on this puppy and it's only going to make it stronger. If you had your Wheaties this morning, don't pull so hard that you break the yarn. But a good yank'll do.
Once the two knots have become one (like a little Yarn Wedding) I always give an extra tug on each individual knot. To do that, grab the long end of the yarn, and the short bit of the same yarn, and give it a tug. Do it with both ends.
Now, as close to the knots as you can stand... cut the ends off (the short ones... not the working yarn).
I'm usually about an 1/8" away from the knot when I cut the short tails.
Et voila!
You now have a knot that'll stand up to washing and wearing and because of the form of the hat, you'll never see it.
Cool right? I thought so.
Ok, so here's the round up. I'm only this far (38 rows out of 103 that I need to complete to get my 14"):
I'm not very far but I'm LOVING this.
And then there's these two jokers making EVERYONE look bad - and by "bad" I mean creating us all to look on in envy as they ROCK THIS KAL!!!
*insert emphatic crowd applause and cheering here*
And that's another week of progress (or lack thereof on my behalf) on the Heliopath KAL. Thanks for stopping by. Please keep posting your work on Instagram using #heliopathkal or in our Heliopath Kal Ravelry discussion board, and tagging me, @socalmeaghan, and my good buddy @ghostfaceknitter.
Now that I'm healthy after the kids have left I'm going to make a big push to catch up in time for next week when we get to the really fun part and make this thing look like more than just a rectangle.
Keep in mind, to be eligible for a prize, you need to finish your Vest (and post images... not blocked is ok, but ends woven in) by 11:59 PST on Saturday, April 12th. Use the tags above on Instagram or post to the discussion board.
Happy knitting!
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