Giant teddy bear is kicking my butt

Well, a certain 2 yr old's birthday party was yesterday and I had been working furiously all morning to finish his clothes in time for the 3pm party. It didn't happen. I knew I wouldn't have the trim done for the jacket after I started it Friday evening. It took me no less than 5 attempts to get the pattern down correct. It is supposed to semi resemble the sheepskin you see on sheerling coats, so had a drop stitch loop that you were then supposed to knit back with the next row. I assume that this keeps the drop stitch from just making a REALLY long stitch and to actually make pretty little loops. I finally figured it out, but being 8 months pregnant, there was no way I could stay up past 10pm to finish it.

So, Saturday morning comes around and I finish the length of trim I was making and sew it onto the collar of the jacket. My seaming is really coming along. I'm actually quite proud, and can give all the credit to the awesome video on knittinghelp.com. I also dig through my sewing machine for the box of zippers that I inherited from my mother in law with the sewing machine. I also inherited a box of shoe laces, a bazillion buttons, and a box of various trims, and bias tapes. I'm hoping that there is a zipper in here that I can use, because I really don't want to have to run to the store to get 1, especially since I don't have a car on Saturday mornings (DH takes our only car to work with him at 4am) and the party is that afternoon. I find the perfect little 6" zipper and finish up the jacket. I then decided that I could EITHER finish the trim for the jacket, or make the poor bear some pants, but not both. I decided on the pants and knit non-stop for 4 or 5 hours to try to get them done. My kids are tearing up the living room, and only look up if I hear screaming to suggest a new activity "why don't you play memory game now?"

2 hrs before the party my husband gets home, and I have completed all of the knitting of the 2 pieces for the pants. Yea! I never though I'd be excited to put down the knitting needles and pick up a darning thread to seam. I hate seaming. I pull out my book and realize that unlike every other piece of the bear's body or clothes, it does not tell me how to sew the stupid pants together. It simply says "sew up seams" I am very perturbed with Debbie Bliss for this. I have made due without diagrams, and have learned to follow her infuriating paragraph style instructions, but come on! You have to tell me how to sew these together. I look at my pieces, and look at the bear and make an educated guess. "I think the ribbing is at the bottom of the legs since his legs are much longer than the distance from his bottom to his waist". Makes sense right? Well, I was wrong. It is 15 minutes before the party, I finish my perfect invisibly seams and try the pants on the bear. They don't even remotely fit. Apparently the ribbing goes at the waist to hold the darn things up. I'm 8 months pregnant, I've worked to exhaustion finishing these pants this morning, and at this point I am about to cry. We pregnant women are emotional like that.

I take the bear and his misshapen pants to the party anyway and proceed to rip out my perfect seams in the car. I ask the 2 yr old's father what he wants me to do. Do you want the bear now and I'll give you the pants later? Do you want me to keep it until it's done? As a wonderful friend, and typical non-pregnant man. He tells me not to worry about it. They'll pick up the bear the next time we see them, and to take my time. *Big sigh* so today I am seaming up the pants again, hopefully this time correctly. We shall see in a bit.

On a much brighter note, my yarn came for my Rogue sweater. It actually came the same day I posted last, but I really needed to work on that teddy bear and have not played with it yet. Isn't it beautiful?! Once the bear is done, I can begin my checklist of things to do for the olympics:

1. Measure DH for the sweater. I plan to pick the closest shoulder width and then adjust the arm length and body length as needed.
2. Swatch with my pretty blue yarn to determine which needle size I actually need.
3. Print out my 40 page pattern for easy portability (can 40 pages and a giant sweater really be easily portable?!)
   
4. Sit impatiently for the olympics to begin so that I can start knitting it.
5. Cast on second sock in order to distract myself from the new, pretty, blue yarn sitting in the corner.