Here Are the Goodies

Let me begin with a photo to illustrate my previous point that in December I knit up a storm:

That's ten finished objects! (I had planned to blog yesterday, and make it a Ten on Tuesday post.... Instead I knitted some more.)

It's all baby clothes, and none of these little cutsies took a long time to knit. But before I show you the goodies, lemme tell you that finishing these little cutsies took roughly the same amount of time as knitting them. Between Christmas and New Year's I had to multipurpose our dining table as "finishing station":

Do note that my copy of Sharon Brant's Ultimate Knitting Bible is open to the page illustrating the mattress stitch. I confess without shame that I suck at finishing techniques (which is why some of the FOs didn't get finished until December, even though I began knitting them in October). I don't like to seam, I don't like to graft, I don't like to sew on buttons, I don't like to weave in ends, I don't like to make decorative i-cord loops (y'all see what I mean in a minute). My little knitting marathon taught me two lessons: (1) don't trust Debbie Bliss, (2) read ahead in a pattern for the magic phrase "button band," and if you don't come across it, think of a different pattern or make adjustments to the design.

Re: item (1): Theoretically I love Debbie Bliss. I totally agree with her (and all the other designers insisting on knitting flat and weaving pieces together at the end, rather than knitting in the round as much as possible and thus reduce or altogether avoid seaming) that many adult-sized garments have a much more flattering fit and drape more nicely when knit flat. For a cardigan on which one has worked for weeks, if not months, it doesn't matter that seaming flat pieces together takes an additional two four hours. Now, with a baby sweater the story is somewhat different. First of all, who cares about drape or a perfect shoulder fit, especially since babies outgrow their clothes in, like, three seconds? More importantly, aren't (bulky) seams on the inside a bit uncomfy for little ones? It was soooo frustrating to spend a day's worth of knitting time seaming together that little white sweater you see on the table. Seriously, a stockinette stitch sweater in four flat pieces??

But here it is, Debbie Bliss's Star Sweater:

(The model is my old baby doll. Please disregard the black smear on her right cheek: my techniques for applying mascara have improved over the years, I promise. Do, however, notice the very cool, black-and-white cloth diaper. Yup, we're going to use cloth. That's not out-dated but apparently super hip.)

Complaint (2) is less severe. In a second you'll see three cardis that all came without instructions how to fasten the front openings, leaving me to experiment, rather disappointingly, with snaps and hooks and the like. I prefer old-fashioned button bands, that's what I learned.

From top to bottom: Snug (Cascade Eco Wool), Ribbed Baby Jacket (Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran), and Peach Blossom Baby Jacket (Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino).

Snug in particular is a bit of a disaster, button-wise, and it needs some extra work. The pattern itself is awesome, and before I tried to come up with a way to close the fronts the cardi looked great:

The other two cardigans are held together by snaps; the i-cord thingies and the button are purely decorative.

I love the Peach Blossom Jacket so much I made a bonnet (Top Down Bonnet) and a pair of booties (Oh Baby! Baby Booties) to go with it, and I'm super happy with the set!

The booties are so darn cute, and so quick and easy to make, that I knit a second pair to go with the Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap (both made of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino):

The Sweet Baby Cap is totally awesome, in fact, it's so awesome that I made it three times. But only to get the size right... the pattern is sized for a six month old baby, and since I was hoping to make a hospital hat, I reduced the number of stitches from 121 to 91, as suggested by other knitters, but the resulting hat turned out too small (I assume that babies have heads bigger than ten inches? This baby is supposed to be nine pounds at birth). So I tried 121 stitches on smaller needles, and that yielded too big a hat. Since I don't sleep very well at night and am usually up between 3 and 5 am, and since at this point I had memorized the pattern, I made the cap a third time and started with 103 stitches. The hat fits the doll, who's got a 16 inch noggin. I'm hopeful it will fit the Bean! And just in case the Bean's head is smallish, I made yet another hat, the Welcome to the World Newborn Hat (Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino):

You think this concludes today's show? One more, peeps!

That's an Owlie Sleep Sack (Malabrigo Worsted), and if you can't guess how to use it, this should give you an idea:

The doll is bigger than a newborn baby, and I'm hoping the sleep sack fits the Bean long enough for us to take a few pictures. Check out the Ravelry Owlie photo gallery for some very cute, very sleepy babies chillin' in their sleep sacks; really, it was some of these photos that made me decide to knit the sack, even though I'm a bit skeptical regarding its practical value.

If you think I'm tired of baby knits, think again! I had imagined that knitting for baby would be one of the greatest rewards of pregnancy. That my summer and fall kept me too busy to knit saddened me quite a bit, and now I want to make up for lost time. Lined up in my knitting queue are:

That's four more cardigans, a vest, a jumper, a hat, and, in the large bag in the foreground, enough yarn to make a double-stranded stroller insert/sleeping-bag type bunting thingy. Don't call me crazy. I'm fully aware that no baby needs this many clothes, not even if he's a January baby born in New England. His grandparents have sent so many clothes our way that the Bean really doesn't need any handknitted garments. But what the heck?! My only obligations these days are to take 45-minute walks, pop prenatal vitamins, and try to eat healthy food (ice-cream contains protein, right?). Other than that the midwife recommends that I put up my feet and relax. What better way to relax than knit?! And I'm knitting bigger sizes now... for next fall... and... and... and after all, my mom keeps sending skein after skein of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino! Would you say no to that?! The only thing that eventually will get between me and those plastic bags is going into labor.