We Do, God Helping Us

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Title: No 690 in The Complete Book of Knitting
Author: Elizabeth Laird Mathieson
Lace Pattern: from Ostrich Plumes Triangle Shawl by Mary McCall
Yarn: Koigu Premium Merino #0000, 8 skeins
Fibre Content: 100% merino wool

On January 1, my niece Isabelle was welcomed into the covenant of Christ through the celebration of baptism. Amazingly, she remained quiet and calm through the whole two-hour service, even when the minister doused her head with water. I like to think that the lace christening blanket wrapped her in peace as well as warmth and security. I know I tried to infuse each stitch with prayers and love for all the babies who will be baptized while wrapped in its beauty.

The blanket could have been just another baby gift, but my sister Melody treasured and honoured it, which in turn was a great gift back to me.

Unlike a christening dress, the blanket is one-size-fits-all. And that's important, because the next time we pull the blanket from its box to enfold a child, that child will be the daughter that Shawn and I bring home from China sometime this year. We began the adoption process last February, and our application was logged in China on September 14. We are now in the waiting period for a referral (a photo and information about the child matched with us). Our daughter could be as old as twelve months when we adopt her, so there was no way to knit a dress that could fit both her and Isabelle! Waiting is hard, but I find it comforting to knit in preparation for our daughter's arrival.

Do you, the people of the Lord, promise to receive these children in love, pray for them, help instruct them in the faith, and encourage and sustain them in the fellowship of believers? [The congregation responds] We do, God helping us.

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Melody spent two nights in the hospital after Isabelle's birth, and during the days Mom and I sat by Mel's bed, reading magazines and cooing over the perfect baby and, of course, knitting. I worked on the second red-and-white sock, and my mother pulled out a scarf she's making, from strands of black eyelash and red boucle held together, to match her new red leather coat.

Basically, that's my idea of the seventh circle of heaven: knitting and gabbing with my family. Especially when there's an adorable newborn in the vicinity.

Spending time with Isabelle and her folks during her first week of life was tremendously special to me. Brought back a lot of memories of my younger sibs, Joanna and Ben, who were born when I was 13 and 16 respectively. I realized I've spent a lot of time watching other women breastfeed :-) My mom liked to have company, so I would sit and talk with her. This time around, it gave me time to finish the tiny socks:

They're a little big yet, but I think Isabelle will fill them out nicely after a month or two. The Baby Ull is very cushy for socks: I may have to make some for myself!

I also finished the final seams on the christening blanket. What a beautiful thing it is: warm and soft, detailed but not too delicate. I'll do some full photos with Isabelle when we come back in January for her baptism:

Mom and I spent the week as tag-team cooks, cleaners, and shoppers, making no fewer than three trips to Target and Meijers. And I did some techie stuff like getting photos printed, figuring out the new digital video camera, and starting a blog for Mel.

The best part was watching Mel and Ben fall in love with their daughter.

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On Monday night, my mom took Isabelle downstairs with her so that Mel could get some sleep before the next feeding. She lay down, but then got up again because she was hungry, so we got a little snack. Then Mel was just wandering around, closer and closer to the stairs. Finally I took her by the shoulders. "Mel, you need to get some sleep!" I said, steering her towards the bedroom.

"But I just wanted a little peek!" she said plaintively.

When a sleep-deprived woman prefers to peek at the baby she just left five minutes ago and will feed again in two hours, rather than collapse in a nice warm bed? That's attachment.

Click for a video peek at Belle

Arrival

Apparently the two remaining uncompleted seams on the christening blanket were not sufficient to prevent Melody from going into labour (the blocking must be the ticket). The baby was very considerate of her auntie, though, in waiting until after the final encore of the U2 concert to initiate the lift-off sequence.

Saturday morning I got a call from Mom saying that Melody was headed to the hospital, so I hopped on a train to Kingston and we started the dash for Grand Rapids in heavy snowfall. Thankfully the weather cleared past Trenton. My awesome mom drove so that I could work on this:

With some leftover Baby Ull from my Hedda vest, I worked on tiny red and white socks for this Christmas baby. The ribbing took us past Toronto, I turned the heel in Sarnia, and started decreasing the toe in Lansing. Around 4:10 we saw a tiny spot of rainbow in the sky, a sundog of light refracted by snow crystals. By the time we pulled into the hospital parking lot at 6:00, I had woven in all the yarn ends and put the sock in my coat pocket.

We entered the room to see Melody alone, propped in the hospital bed. "Is there a baby yet?" my mom asked.

And indeed, there was. She had been born about two hours earlier, around the time we saw the sundog in the sky. A most precious girl named Isabelle Jane:

Snowed In

I think you should go ahead and block it so it's ready. I think the weather will prevent us from travelling until Saturday anyway. I'd rather arrive safely and rested rather than beat the baby there. -- My mother

Here's the weather she's talking about:

Not exactly conducive for driving. They didn't even bother telling us about all the accidents on the radio this morning, because there were so many of them (twenty-five, at one point).

This morning I'm thankful that we sold our car last week, and I don't have to scrape it off today. I'm also thankful that I'm working from home, and don't have to go outside at all unless I want to. I'm thankful that I signed my first editing contract today.

And I'm thankful that, with a nudge from my mom, I was able to move on to this:

The blanket blocked out beautifully. 43" square.

But that doesn't mean it's finished! Hear that, baby? I still have to pull out the basted seams and sew them properly, and weave in the ends. So you do not have clearance for take-off yet!

Dilemma

The knitting of the christening blanket is complete! I bound off the final section last night watching Meet the Fockers (and picked up some baby sign to teach to Nephew/Niece Van Arragon. I hear it's all the rage.)

I sewed two of the corner seams before realizing that if I sew them before blocking, I can't stretch them out to the final dimensions. So I pulled those out and basted the seams instead. Now they're quite stretchy (like Melody's stomach!)

To my dilemma: do I block the blanket now, thereby removing all obstacles to the baby's arrival? Or do I hold off until Friday, when I have a speaking engagement that I can't miss (oh, and U2 tickets)? Cause if my sisty-ugler goes into labour, say, tomorrow, then I can't go to GR with my mom! But if she clamps her legs together until Saturday, then it's clear sailing.

Choices, choices ...

Slow: Unfinished Blanket Ahead

Rumours have reached my ears, reporting that I have stopped knitting.

Au contraire, mon frère!

I have merely stopped blogging about knitting. Over the summer. Okay, and the fall. But now I'm back.

My current project involves torturing my sister.

You see, Melody is expecting a baby any day now. Her official due date is November 28, but signs have been pointing to an earlier delivery.

However, as the Yarn Harlot can attest, babies don't come until their blankets are finished. And here's the state of Baby Van Arragon's blanket as of this morning at 11:00 am EST:

Clearly, I have some work to do if I want to put Melody out of her pregnant misery (she complains of having to wear the same two outfits over and over again).

The christening blanket I'm making is based on a pattern from one of my maternal grandmother's knitting books, The Complete Book of Knitting by Elizabeth Laird Mathieson, published in 1947. I adore this book, especially the chapter on bed jackets.

I wanted fingering weight lace in white or cream coloured yarn, something soft but not too delicate. Pattern 690 fit the bill almost exactly:

Not only is the pattern lovely and slightly retro, but it happens to be on the same page as the bunny blanket that was made for Melody as a baby! Talk about good omens.

I made two changes: I knit the centre square in seed stitch instead of garter stitch (sixteen inches of seed stitch at 6.5 stitches to the inch! That took a good month or so); and I knit the borders in Ostrich Plume lace rather than Feather and Fan.

The blanket is made with Koigu Premium Merino, colour #0000 (undyed, thank goodness, because I had to add two skeins to the six I already had, and I never would have matched a Koigu dyelot!). The centre took two skeins, and each of the four border sections uses one-and-a-half skeins. I'm so close to finishing -- only one skein to go!

I can't wait to block this baby, because right now it looks like a pile of fugly. If all goes well, I'll be able to bring the finished product with me to Grand Rapids. My mom and I plan to hit the highway as soon as Mel goes into labour. Wish us all luck!