Unfortunately one of the banes of pregnancy is swelling, whether it's getting cankles or carpal tunnel syndrome (which causes the ligaments surrounding the wrist to swell up and cause pain, numbness or tingling). Lately, knitting with smaller needles causes pain in my hands and while there isn't any swelling visible, it makes knitting uncomfortable sometimes.
And so I went ahead and ordered a 10" knitting board from Authentic Knitting Board. I used to have the 28" knitting board about 2 years ago but destashed it when I found that all I wanted to knit then were scarves and having a 28" board that you needed to turn again and again on short arms became annoying. So, fast forward 2 years later and here I am with my 10" knitting board and I'm now working on a test scarf with some leftover yarn, which I'm probably going to end another skein of when I run out of the leftover yarn because I have no clue what to do with a less-than-a-scarflette-length-scarf hanging around.
It's not exactly cheating though, right? It's still knitting!
One thing that's pretty cool is that the scarf is so squishy soft because knitting boards create a double-knit fabric. I'm using a bulky yarn and I find myself admiring and squeezing the darn thing again and again it's so squishy soft. I'm actually planning on knitting my adopted brother a thick dark scarf since he starts work at 4:30 am in Manhattan (brrrr!) and he needs a thick long scarf for sure! So hopefully I'll get a loomknit scarf to him before Christmas.
While I'm still on the subject of knitting boards, while I was at Nancy's house last week, she had an old copy of Interweave Knit which had a page devoted to teaching rehabbing WWI soldiers at Walter Reed Hospital how to knit. It featured a photo of some soldiers knitting with needles and with the knitting board! It was awesome - wish I could have had her scan it since I can't find anything like it online.
One thing that I did finish last week was this brioche-stitch scarflette (missing buttons since I have no clue what colors to buy) made from some acrylic yarn. I've been on an acrylic-yarn-kick lately since I don't have any bulky handspun (well, I do but not your normal scarf material - more like art-scarf material) and I figure, with my painful wrists, maybe bulky isn't as bad as fingering weight yarn...
Being an expectant mom has also made me more thoughtful about my decision to use cloth diapers. Leo thinks it's a great idea - until I told him how wool soakers don't need to be washed everyday since lanolin + pee = organic soap (for a time...it does stink and need a good wash and lanolizing eventually).
His family is into everything convenient, which means baby formula and disposable diapers. They think I'm crazy for considering cloth diapers but I am the one having the baby, right?
And I do think about the mountains of diaper waste hanging around for generations in landfills or oceans somewhere and don't exactly want to contribute to that any more than I need to. If I need to use disposables occasionally, I don't think it'll drive me to the edge, but while I am going to be a SAHM (who needs to see clients probably 2 days a week half the day some times), I think I can handle cloth diapering.
It's just a whole different world filled with so many abbreviations that make my head spin - AIO, TIO, PUL - terms I occasionally have to look up still while I explore this not-so-common world. Today, while browsing some patterns for soakers and reading about how to use them (this is where the wool and lanolin come in), I decided to make one diaper cover, sort of jumping into it instead of just looking and thinking about making one.
Here's my first ever diaper cover! I have no baby yet to model it on, but it's missing some buttons and it's made with acrylic super bulky yarn that I had on hand. But at least it gave me the idea on its construction and how it would work even better on double-knit (using the knitting board) using 100% wool yarn!
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