2013 Advent Calendar Scarf, Day 3

Hello:

I am still in So. California.  I hear that Bellevue has gotten very cold, and I can't be smug that I am down here, because it is fairly cold here, too.  It's not as cold as Bellevue, but still chilly.  Perfect knitting weather.

Good thing the weather is so perfect for knitting, because I have been knitting all day and night on the Day 3 section of the 2013 Advent Calendar Scarf by Kristin Benecken.  I start each day's knitting thinking that my problems of the days before are all gone, and the scarf will go smoothly from now on.  O!  how not true.  I actually knit the spacer for this section last night AND the first repeat of the 12 row pattern.  I should have finished everything before noon, easily.  But.

First let me talk about the pattern for Day 3, then I will get to my Life and Knitting woes.

The Day 3 pattern is pretty straightforward.  The only new stitch for me is the double YO or 00

Here is a mini-tutorial on how I approached this stitch.

On the right side, when you come to the 00 in the pattern, you simply YO (or wrap the yarn around your working needle) twice.

This is what it looks like after the 00 (double YO), and two more knit stitches:

When you are purling back on the wrong side, you purl the first YO of the pair:

be careful when you slip the purled stitch from the left needle to the right to leave the other YO on the left needle:

Knit into that second YO:

This is what mine looked like after purling the 00 and then purling the next 2 stitches:

So, if this was the only new stitch, what was my problem?

The stitch markers have to be moved every pattern row (the odd rows).  This wasn't the problem.  I decided to just leave the markers in and move them as needed.  After the nightmare of Day 1, when I thought I could knit without stitch markers, I was keeping the markers in, even if I had to move them Every Single Pattern Row.

I finished the first repeat of the 12 row pattern at about 10 pm last night, and was about to go to bed, when things happened.  It wasn't anything horrible for my brother, but, his night caregiver did not show up.  There was some miscommunication.  I could see the panic on my brother's face as time passed, and no one came.  I texted my sister in law to try to get a phone number for the usual person, but she had gone to bed early, and didn't respond.  My brother was already in his hospital bed, so that was good, but he needs someone to be on hand to move and shift him during the night.  As I have said before, he is paralyzed from the shoulders down, but he still has complete feeling.  He lies in bed at night, and starts to ache in his back and legs and really needs to shift his position.  He starts on his back and wants to roll to one side, but can't move at all.  This is what the night time person does.  If he isn't shifted, he will start to cramp, and it can be very painful.  "We are in big trouble," he said.  "We will work it out," I told him.  "I will sleep down here, and I will do the shifting." 

Secretly, I was a bit afraid.  He is big and can't help at all.  What if I hurt him?  Or, what if I couldn't get him in the right position?  He fell asleep, and at about midnight, called my name asking me to shift him to one side.  I did it.  I straightened his legs and pulled up the covers to help him stay warm.  He gave a sigh of relief and said, "ooo that feels much better," and immediately fell back asleep.  I sat in the chair and dozed.  Every 1.5 to 2 hours, he would wake up and call my name.  I shifted him back to side to back to side to back to side.  Each time he smiled, then fell promptly back asleep.  Soon, I was falling asleep quickly, too.  At 6 am, the morning caregiver arrived, and I was able to leave him in good hands.  I had to wake my niece and nephew at 6:30 and get them off to school.  I thought I would take a nap when I got back, but I had a sort of second wind and just stayed up and knitted on the Day 3 pattern. 

Before noon, I had finished the second repeat. 

Ugh!  when I started the second repeat, at row 3 I had gotten off somehow by 1 stitch and the OO were not stacking up.  I Tinked all the way back to the beginning of the second repeat row 1, and started over.  I was pretty tired and knitting slowly, but I made it to row 12 before dinner.  It still looked a bit odd.  Then I realized that I had somehow repeated rows 7 - 9 twice.  Ha ha I was just making extra work!  I did finish, finally, and I think this is a very pretty section.


Here is what the scarf looks like now:

I am no longer worried about being left in charge here.  I know I can handle things.  I overheard my brother telling his respiratory therapist about last night.  He said that he had been really nervous to have me be in charge, because he wasn't sure I would be able to turn him, but that I did a great job the first time, and after that, he was able to relax and just sleep. 



Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet in need of sleep....