Busy baby, no time to knit

It's incredible how much time a small child takes.  She's generally a very easygoing kid, but she still requires so much time and attention that I've sadly been neglecting my knitting.

However, I've managed to get a few things done.  First and foremost is the last edition of Little Seasonals.  It's available on Lulu now.

I am extremely proud of this one.  The patterns inside are really something!  There are two cowls, a pair of mitts, and a pair of gloves.  I had fun designing the gloves.  They are a 3-in-1 design with a plain glove and a handwarmer that can be worn over the glove or alone.

Teresa designed a wraparound cowl with a button (it's pretty and I want to knit it for myself).  My cowl slips over the head and is a complicated-looking but actually very simple braided cable design.

We are talking about possibly putting the four books together and creating a special edition offering all sixteen patterns at once.

Also, Lulu now offers epub conversion so an ebook can be offered in the iBookstore and on the Barnes and Noble website.  I am now in the (probably slow) process of modifying the original books to match their specifications for conversion.

In other news, Little Knit is teething.  She is 4 months old on Saturday.  That's making my mind boggle a little.  On the one hand, it's already four months??  And on the other...it's ONLY been four months??  It's going so fast and so slow all at the same time.

And in final news...we have no hot water.  That sucks!

Swatches, sketches, submissions, and knitting

I'm getting back into the swing of knitting.  It's easier on the days that Abby naps well.  Truthfully, I should be cleaning the bathroom right now (I'll do that as soon as I'm done this post), but I wanted to get one more swatch done while she napped.

I have a confession to make.  I'm actually a very bad artist.  I'm not actually much for sketching.  I swatch and knit.  I don't really sketch my designs.  However, sketching is a necessary part of design submission, so I am learning to do it.  I am sketching a bunch of gloves, but I had to sort of cheat.  I took a photograph of my hand and turned it into a sketch in my photo editing software, then I shrunk it down, printed it off, and traced it to use as a croquis (fashion blank).  I'm still terrible at turned stitches into drawings, but I think I can get the point across with excessive labelling.  I did discover inthis process that sketching makes swatching easier.  A small 4"x4" square combined with the drawing is ultimately less work than knitting a small sample for every project.  It also gets the point across nicely.

I'll be pounding out about 35ish of these designs over the next month or so, to include with my book proposal when I resubmit.  I don't plan on the book being a 35 pattern book, but I'm hoping that having a large selection of possible patterns will encourage a publisher to pick up the book. 

It's an entirely new process for me and not at all the way I usually design.  I suppose everyone has their own process.  Mine is to get a picture in my head and, because I don't draw very well, just start knitting it.  In all honesty, that's how I did the Sense and Fashion handwarmers for Jane Austen Knits.  I did the design before the "sketch", and was very nervous about my submission as the sketch was really incredibly crummy, so I just included the entire glove as my swatch.  ;)

If I'm going to continue getting really serious with my designing, I might actually take a fashion drawing course.  There's one offered at the local college.

Happy baby

This face makes it all worth it!  The waiting, the infertility that came before, the tears, the pain, the hopes, the prayers.  The swollen ankles, the stretch marks, the gallstones.  The sleep deprivation, the walking, rocking, bouncing, begging her to please sleep.  The fight to learn how nurse, the feedings at 3am, the late nights, the early mornings.  The complete lack of time to knit because she just wants mommy to hold her.

When she smiles and you know she's smiling at YOU, you want to move heaven and earth for her.  I keep waiting for it to become normal, but it doesn't.  Every time I see her, awake and happy, tired and fussy, or sleeping peacefully in my arms... it doesn't lose it's magic. 

Jane Austen Knits

I have been absolutely DYING(!!!) to make this post and show off these pictures.

Jane Austen Knits is now available for download in electronic format.  It will be hitting the shelves at your local bookstore any day now.

In it, you will find a pattern by yours truly:  Sense and Fashion Handwarmers. 

Jane Austen Knits volume 2 is scheduled for 2012.  Yes, I will be submitting again.  Fingers crossed that I make the cut.  I expect the competition will be a lot stiffer this time around, since many new designers who did not know about the first publication will be submitting to the second.

Where did my knitting go?

We're 3 weeks in (well...almost 3 weeks).  My knitting deadlines have been shuffled off to the side.  They won't be done any time soon.  I'd like to spend more time knitting, but my hands have been pretty full lately.  Literally.

I will say one thing:  Every new mom should have a baby wrap or a sling of some (safe) sort.  I have a wrap and a sling.  I really like the wrap.  It's extremely useful.  I LOVE my sling!!!  Abby has spent nearly every waking moment in her sling for the last week.  In fact, she's in the sling right now, at this moment, as I type this entry.  She's awake, but she's resting her head just above my heart, which means she'll be falling asleep soon and I can put her to bed to do other important things...like pump milk (moo).

I expect I will be able to start knitting again fairly soon.  The nice thing about the sling is how it leaves both my hands free for doing other things (like blogging and eating).  Right now, most of my non-knittingness is due to the fact that every time I sit down to knit, I fall asleep.  Amazing what sleepless nights will do to you. 

I am hoping Abby falls asleep soon.  I'd like to sleep, too.  The lack of sleep combined with the poor weather and dwindling supply of adequate headache-preventing hormones (must admit, I appreciated that little side-effect of my pregnancy) is causing a headache to hover in the peripheral of my brain.

This coming weekend is Thanksgiving (in Canada).  I have much to be thankful for this year.  Unfortunately, that won't include being thankful for finished projects.  I've knitted a grand total of 10 (or fewer) rows in the last 3 weeks.

Baby Abigail is here!

Abigail Zen Yee was born September 14.  She may have been early (10 days early!), but she weighed in at a fully-finished 8 lbs 4 oz.

My blog posts may decline in frequency over the next few weeks.  Apparently babies are a lot of work.  Who knew.  ;)

Her middle name, Zen Yee, is pronounced "seen yee" and means "beautiful and happy".  She is both!!  I feel overwhelmingly blessed and just thank God for her!

37 weeks and insomnia

"Oh, that's just your body getting ready for the sleepless nights ahead."

I don't get it.  Wouldn't getting ready for no sleep involve sleeping MORE so you are well rested?  I guess I understand the theory.  You have to build up a tolerance to sleep deprivation.  I just wish it didn't come at the cost of my sanity.  I just bit poor H's head off earlier.  He wanted to know if I wanted steak for dinner tomorrow.  Well...how am I supposed to know if I want steak for dinner??  It's not tomorrow yet.  I don't know how I'll feel tomorrow.  He was being so kind, too.  Offering to cook dinner so I don't have to. 

Pretty sure the heartburn will kill me if the insomnia doesn't.  I wonder if it's possible to overdose on Tums?

In knitting news, I'm kinda feeling down and having a slightly less than awesome week.  My book proposal was rejected.  But alas, I will not take no for an answer!!!  I will work on it some more, flesh out a few more details, write a few more patterns, explain the proposal better and resubmit.  New deadline is December 1st.  Maybe January 1st.  We'll have to see how life works.

In the meantime, it could be a blessing in disguise.  I have to get the last of my patterns done for Little Seasonals.  They are done, but the samples need to be finished.  I also need to finish my sample for the Gentleman's Argyle Vest I started much earlier this year.  Again, the pattern is done, but the sample is not.  I might hand off the yarn and pattern and 1/4-done sample to a friend to help me finish it.  I have discovered I do not like intarsia at ALL!  It's so pretty when done, but I do not like the process.  I like fair isle.  I do not like intarsia.  Cables and intarsia together are beautifully complicated.  Cables and intarsia with pregnant-brain are a mind-breaking combination.  Cables and intarsia combined with pregnant-brain and sleep-deprivation is a recipe for disaster...or possibly the looney bin.  But I have got to get this done.  It has taken me much too long!

Sadly, I suspect I don't have enough yarn for the entire project.  I hope I am wrong.

I wonder if I'll manage to finish my nephew's sweater before Christmas?  Or my mother's sweater?  Those are the only two personal projects on the go right now.  I want to knit.  I want to sleep more!