GAH!

I have to make these!

Mushroom baby rattles!

Cheap and Cute

Next up on the baby stuff parade is the Baby Pullover from Knitting Pure and Simple:

If you have a really good memory, and have reading my blog for a LONG time, you may remember that I made myself the adult version of this sweater in 2006. That sweater was SO easy to make, and in the fall/winter - I wear it more often then any other sweater - it's like my version of a sweatshirt. I found that they had the same pattern for babies - and I knew I had to make it.

Why do I say cute and CHEAP? Maybe inexpensive is the proper word - but I was able to make the 6 month size (I'm betting on having a big baby!) with only one skein of Plymouth Encore! So, forgetting time to knit (maybe 10 hours?) this is a $6 baby sweater. How cool is that?

Now that I have about 7 pairs of baby booties and 4 newborn size sweaters... I'm moving on to more complicated baby things... in bigger sizes. Nothing picture worthy yet, but when I do post? You will melt from the cuteness.

Today = Less Stupid

Aaron pulled the memory chip out in seconds. Apparently, it wasn't that big of a deal, but he is now MORE of a hero in my eyes. Shall we take a look at my latest obsession? To review, I've started feeling the baby kick, which has made it MUCH MORE REAL that a baby is coming out. In 19 weeks. In the winter. With high oil prices.

The obsessive knitting I expected to be doing back when I first got pregnant has kicked in full force over the last week. It started with the fish bootees, and has resulted in 3 more pairs of bootees, and a baby sweater.

These are the Bobble Bootees from 50 Baby Booties to Knit:

These were an insanely quick knit, like maybe 2 hours total, even with finishing? But they look to me like baby 'mules' and I have little faith that they will actually stay on a baby.

Next up are the cable bootees (same book), made out of Frog Tree Alpaca (yum).

For whatever reason, I had trouble understanding a bit of the directions (Using A, pick up and knit 63 sts along end of cable strip, 31 sts on each side of marked row and 1st on marked row). The marked row was in the middle? So I was stuck for a while on if I should begin the pick up in the middle? It didn't make sense, so I decided the author meant to say knit one stitch on the marked row. Then it all made sense. These I feel have some staying power!

Then, packing up for a weekend on Nantucket, I grabbed my other skein of Lucky (the March BMFA SOTM, medium weight) and cast on for a Baby surprise jacket:
This sweater is always a mystery to me! I can never figure out which part I'm knitting until it's almost done. I thought I had the perfect buttons for this.... but I can't find them. Sigh. When I finished, I felt the need to make matching booties.

These are Christine's Baby Booties. When I finished the Baby Surprise Jacket, I really thought I had enough for the booties (about 1 oz of yarn left). I made it through 1.5 booties, and ran out of yarn. Thankfully, at Sock Camp, my petite footed friend handed me her extra Lucky... so I was able to finish these off.

I have one more pair of bootees on the needles, but after those are done, I think I need to take a bootee break! My hands are hurting from the tiny needles and all the fiddly work.

Dumbass

I spent yesterday feverishly knitting on a Baby Surprise Jacket out of BMFA Lucky, in medium weight. I finished that around noontime, and then become obsessed with making matching booties (Christine Baby booties). I woke up early this morning to take pictures and blog about the cuteness.

It is then that Dumbass Cece struck. I have a memory card reader on my computer that sits somewhat like this:

I reached down to put the memory card in the reader, and stuck it instead in the floppy drive. And I can't get it out.

Hopefully, Aaron will come to the rescue when he gets home today. In the meantime, look forward to seeing pictures of 3 new pairs of baby booties, a new sweater and a little baby sweater.

The Bootee Train

Ha! That title cracks me up.

Anyway. This weekend I did a bunch of knitting. I finished up my February Ladies sweater - but didn't get any pictures of me modeling that - so it's a no show for today. I did finish the second Fish Bootee:

These are so sweet - and a perfect pair of booties for the baby of FiberFish. I was joking with Aaron that this baby may be a little spoiled, as the navy yarn is cashmere. And the second pair I cast on for this weekend are silk. I can picture it now.... "Mom - are these mittens an acrylic blend? I would prefer cashmere." Ha.

As I stated on Friday, the pattern is Fish Bootees from 50 Baby Bootees to Knit. I love the pattern - but I must have had 10 ends to weave in at the end! So - pretty fiddly... but they are so small, maybe the total time to make these was 3 hours. And the finished product is not only cute - but appears that it will actually stay on active little baby feet!

If you don't like cute, don't look here.

I haven't been knitting a huge amount for the baby. Mostly because everyone is telling me that sweaters for a newborn aren't really the smartest clothing choice.... and I have many knitter pals that I think I'm going to anger if I knit a HUGE amount of stuff. But last night, I got to thinking... this baby is being born in Dec. And oil prices are wicked high. I got concerned about the warmth of the baby's little feet! Cotton socks will NOT do! So I pulled out 50 Baby Bootees to Knit, and decided to knit my way through the unisex 0-3 month patterns.


Naturally, the first pair I picked was the Fish Bootees:

Yes. They are THAT CUTE. This morning, I went into my yarn room to find the right yarn, and I started to sweat a bit that I didn't have the right colors (naturally I wanted to start them RIGHT THEN). I dug around in the stash, and found a small bit of STR Heavyweight in Sunstone and then the navy Cashsoft DK. Perfect. The little lines on the top and bottom are supposed to be yellow - but I think it looks good in the same color as the fish.

Onto bootee #2!

Pretty Things

First - this is total insanity! 3 posts in 3 days!

Moving on.

I'm plugging along on my February Ladies Sweater, and it's just SO pretty. And it fits me really well!

I'm doing little 'just past my elbow' sleeves - as they are really wide. Too much longer, and they would be annoying. Plus - I'm using that Cotton/Angora yarn - so I'm assuming I'll get a bit of growth when I start wearing it.

The other pretty thing? In November, I planted a huge amount of lilies in a new garden. I carefully watched them grow, made Aaron build a fence around them so that the dogs wouldn't rip them out of the ground, and am daily spraying them with this soap water to keep the beetles off. Now that they are blooming - I find the work was totally worth it.

Hurrah for pretty lilies!

Stitch and Pitch

So, MONTHS ago, my bud Amanda mentioned there would be a Stitch and Pitch at the Lowell Spinner on July 7th. Did we want to go? Sure - what the heck. I always forget how much fun I have when watching a baseball game. Even though it was super hot yesterday - we were pretty much in the shade the whole time - so that was good too.

I knit on the new sock:

Hung out with my pals (please note that I love them more than myself - because the picture of me SUCKS - but they look nice.. or at least double chin-free)
And! We met Jess and Casey from Ravelry! I forgot that they live in the Boston area! They were so nice. I was joking around with Casey that he was all famous and I was the paparazzi:

They were really fun, handing out pins and stickers.

Oh - and the hot dog tally? Only one for me... but the Gator Pit really did put on a good meal! I was really happy with the whole night - thanks to Amanda for telling us about it!

Little things

Today, Aaron and I went in for the 18 week ultrasound of our little one. I know a few of you would like to have baby updates - so here is the latest baby picture:

I know it will be surprising to many that my baby would be uncooperative (hahahahahaha) but turns out we need to go back next week, because the baby was facing down , and there were a few critical shots they couldn't get with the baby's position. The good news is they saw all of the important bits (heart, brain, liver, kidneys, bladder, stomach) and all were doing the right things. They just need a few more shots of the heart. Hopefully the baby flips so we can get that next week.

And nope - we don't know if we are having a boy or a girl. We are saving that surprise for the delivery room!

In actual knitting news, I started on my Summer of Love Lace socks last night, and made a lot of progress:
Tonight I'm going to the Lowell Spinner's Stitch and Pitch, and wanted a fun sock to knit on. The Feb Ladies Sweater is no longer portable (I'm on the sleeves) and it's going to be wicked hot tonight. This is fun knit! I was actually intimidated to start these, as you knit the lace back and forth and then connect it all - and it wasn't a big deal. And the rest of the sock is plain of stockinette.

I'll update tomorrow with baseball pictures! I paid extra for the 'all you can eat' section.... so also I'll keep a tally of the number of hot dogs consumed. Baby likes hot dogs.

Much Needed Long Weekend!

Working in technology, there are times when we are CRAZY busy, and times when we are slow. This week, in addition to being the last week before a major software release, we also had some problems in production. So it's been insane. Which is only making me look forward to my long weekend even more - which starts tomorrow! Like last year, I'm planning a trip to the cabin, but this time, bringing some friends along.

Knitting friends. Happy sigh.

So - I've been getting my projects lined up. First, I'll be seeing Mom, so wanted to bring her socks. I finished those up last night.

After making those Not So Ugly Socks, I picked these up. I started them 5 or 6 years ago! Whenever it was the Regia was wowing us with the new and exciting self-striping yarn. These colors are all my Mom's favorites, and I even remember starting these as a present for her (maybe for Mother's Day?). But I never finished. I moved away from the whole self-striping thing for a bit. But making that last pair of plain old socks reminded me that plain old socks are perfect for movies, doctors offices, and sometimes, even bad traffic! These are 62 stitch socks on size 1 needles, with a heel flap. Mom will love them.

Also in the knitting bag is my February Ladies Sweater - which I'm loving. I was freaking for a bit that I wouldn't have enough yarn - but now I think I'll be OK. I have about 8 inches of lace to go:

This is a fun knit! The lace is interesting enough to hold my interest, but not super complicated that I can't watch TV or whatever. This is what I'll mostly be knitting this weekend.

But, I also wanted to get another sock on the needles. I'm going the the Lowell Spinners for a Stitch and Pitch on Monday night! So I needed something small. I'm going to work on the lace top for the Summer of Love Lace socks (from last year's RSC):
I loved this yarn when it arrived, just never got around to knitting it. I just want to get the cuff done this weekend, so I have the easy stockinette part for the baseball game!

OK - I'm ready for a little vacation! Let's go! (Guess I have to wait for the work day to be over first. Sigh)