Sunday, April 23, 2006

A word of thanks and a cry for (knitting) help

Many of you have left me very encouraging comments and/or sent thoughtful emails over the past 2 weeks. I want you to know I hang on every word and firmly believe your thoughts, prayers, and positive energy are helping me to heal. The weekend was very good - the pregnancy is feeling more "normal" and I think the only funkiness I feel is a braxton-hicks contraction now and again (I had them quite often with #1). At the risk of heading into too-much-information land, I'll say that the bleeding has slowed to a tiny bit of spotting over the last 2 days (holy moly do I feel like I'm jinxing myself by saying that). We go to the doctor on Friday. Please keep praying! Every day I wake up and thank God I'm still pregnant. That probably sounds weird, but it's what my brain is doing to cope.

I also want to say that I am trying hard to stay positive. In that vein I've been saying "NO" to google (as per Ruth's instructions!) and not looking up "bleeding during pregnancy." Dudes, THAT is a depressing search. I prefer to stick to the stories people tell me of very successful pregnancies that resulted in fat happy babies despite bleeding and other problems. Google-ing the problem only led to me weeping pitifully at midnight as I read sad, sad stories. Not a good idea.

Anyway, it's funny, but I feel in my heart that the baby is going to be ok. Maybe this is just a problem I'm going to have on and off throughout the pregnancy, or maybe the baby and I will grow out of it (my doctor says this is often what happens). But I have had one healthy, perfect baby, and we are at almost 16 weeks now. The risks are reduced with each passing day...which I suppose is why I do the thanking God thing when I wake up every day. I guess I just refuse to give up and get all depressed because I can't fathom not having another healthy baby. So. I pray and try to be positive.

End Pregnancy Talk/Begin Knitting Talk

I have a burning knitting question for those of you who have made Secret Garden (Alice Starmore, The Childrens' Collection), or who at least have the book.

Ok. I am making the 2-3 year size. I have just completed chart C, one time through. But I am confused by the next set of directions. It appears that you are supposed to repeat chart C for all sizes (confusing because you only repeat the other charts for the two larger sizes). BUT, you are instructed to work row 1 and eliminate the decreases. Does that mean you also eliminate the yarn-overs to compensate? Then it says to continue as set, completing chart C. Do you eliminate the decreases and YOs for the rest of the chart?

If you do that I think it throws the pattern off. You end up without the little "holes" in the design. But if you do the YOs without the decreases, you end up with too many stitches. Right?

Because then when you do chart D, the stitch count you want to end up with only happens if you skip the increases and decreases in chart C the second time you do it.

That probably doesn't make any sense. It's hard to explain. Am I just dumb? Is there something I'm missing in the directions? I can't find anything about this on the web, so I'm assuming it's me. If my explanation made any sense to you, please help!

**Edited to add: Thanks to the talented and patient Kathleen of WIP Insanity (she has lots of WIPS! It's insane! Whee!) I have the answer to my Secret Garden chart questions. As it turns out, I don't think it's a matter of me being dumb. Once the concept was explained to me, I realized it's just my pregnancy and stress-addled brain that was preventing me from properly analyzing the charts and instructions.

1 comment:

Jenn said...

I wish I could help with the sweater, but I've got no clue. I am glad however to hear that you're feeling better - my fingers and toes will stay crossed for as long as you need them! (Though it does make it a bit tough to knit that way.....)