In Which the Pirate’s Pants Are Troublesome.

Yarrrgh.

No, that wasn’t strong enough. YARRRGH!

There, that’s better. What is this yarrrghing all about, you may ask? Well, I’ll tell you, because YAARRGH. I finished knitting both legs of the babypants. With the waistband stitches safely on waste yarn and the ends nicely woven in, I was only a little nervous as I tossed them into the washer. On hot. To deliberately shrink them.

The shrinking, as it turned out, was not a problem at all. The problem was that one of the pieces of waste yarn snapped, and waistband stitches went frolicking about. YARRGH! I spent a tense hour putting them back together, with the pants still wet from the wash. Cold wet cotton on my lap, cold wet yarn which didn’t want to go anywhere, especially not back into the proper stitches. Size 00 aluminum sock needles were very handy here. I think I got them all the way they were supposed to be – and if I didn’t, well, it’s on the inside and no one will see. As long as they don’t unravel, I’m fine with it. (I looked. The last stitch is a little loose. The rest of them are just fine. Woohoo!)

With the stitches recovered and a fresh piece of waste yarn holding them, I gleefully threw the pants legs into the dryer, then pressed them to an even size. I was so gleeful that I failed to take note of the difference between the front and back of these pants, and embroidered the front pockets, fly and button onto the backs, and the back pockets onto the front. YAARRRGH! I did not notice this until attempting to seam, which is not going smoothly because I don’t think in three dimensions and the instructions are a bit lacking, and I’ve never seamed anything where the seam was supposed to show before, and YARGH.

Instead of having completed pants, I have picked out all the embroidery, stitch by stitch. There are two separate, unembroidered pantslegs here. Her due date is tomorrow. YAARRGH.