Things for Bébé

Things are piling up! You know the booties and hat already but thought I made them for my future nephew--but I fooled you; they are for the Peanut (the blanket Green Leaves really is for him, though. I made my boy a different blanket... just keep reading!). The cardigan is my friend Sam's new pattern Greener Pastures, which I test knitted for her and which has just been released.

I really wanted to use Malabrigo Worsted, and I really wanted to use a variegated colorway, and I really really wanted to use Kaleidos, despite (or perhaps because of) the pinks and purples. So the cardigan may not have "boy" written all over it, but I think it'll be super cute over a blue onesie. I used just a tad over one skein and have plenty left over for the super cute Aviatrix hat.

To make up for the pinkish cardigan, I knitted the Peanut a very blue baby blanket.

It's Anne Hanson's Hourglass Throw, published by Brooklyn Tweed, and it is super duper übergorgeous. For the first time I tried Stonehedge Fiber Mill's Shepherd's Wool, and, gasp, after this I shan't return to Cascade 220. It is OMG-squishy and yummy and nom nom nom.

I knitted the blanket while watching plenty of British mysteries, but I can't recall a single plot. The pattern is cables and lace and different WS rows and... and demanding. Not difficult, just eyes-glued-to-the-chart demanding.

This, BTW, is the actual color (I just got Lightroom and am in the experimental phase... I go a bit overboard when it comes to color correction and sharpening... hopefully practice makes if not perfect than at least better):

I played with the pattern a bit to get a square, rather than rectangular, blankie; mods are noted here.

I can feel the Peanut kicking and punching all the time now; even Conrad felt him and almost jumped out of my lap. We're getting ready to meet him. :)

***

And speaking of Bébé, have you noticed the title Bringing Up Bébé in your bookstore? I thought only my mommy circles paid attention to this look-how-seemingly-cruelly-French-women-raise-their-kids book (apparently very differently from Americans, who, according to a recent Time article [complete with controversial cover photo], by and large follow Dr. Sears' philosophy of Attachment Parenting, by which mom never leaves baby's side), but it was mentioned in a very, very good article in the NY Review of Books. and now it's sitting on my night stand. I haven't read it yet; I started with a different book, also mentioned in the NYRoB article, which is an excellent read: should you have the slightest interest in evolutionary biology, the politics of parenting, feminism, the mommy/career debates, or are a mom, or have wondered about what the "maternal instinct" really is--and whether it exists--, I highly recommend anthropologist's Sarah Blaffer Hrdy's 1999 Mother Nature. Great read!

Enough about moms... Happy Father's Day!!

FO Parade

Hallelujah, the semester is over. It's been an exhausting one, this spring semester, with a teaching schedule that tied me to campus from 9 am till 8 pm four days a week, leaving me with very little time for my little one. And that sucked. (Luckily I was flexible in the afternoons and able to sneak in a few hours each day for play and cuddle time.) But we did have a fabulous spring break that we spent with the in-laws in Mississippi, and we also worked a family trip to Chicago around one of DH's conferences--so it wasn't all bad. Not that you know him, but if you did know Conrad, well, you wouldn't recognize him anymore. He's gotten big. And is incredibly talkative, both in German and English. He's awesomely amazing. And fabulously wonderful. And so on.

And now to business. I'm happy to report that after the initial post-baby knitting blues, my old knitting self emerged and has been busy (I'm still waiting for the emailing, blogging, telephoning, facebooking self to return. I've turned into a hermit. A hermit with a toddler).

Anyway, here it goes...:

1.
Let's begin with an entirely unflattering image of moi wearing Cecily Glowik MacDonald's Flyer Cap, one of my favorite hats in the great hat collection Weekend Hats.

Instead of a worsted weight yarn I used two strands of Malabrigo Arroyo (currently my very, very favorite yarn). Love the yarn, but the result is questionable, at least on my head. I think the hat would look better on a long-haired gal. Perhaps I'm hypercritical 'cause DH commented that I looked like I was wearing a condom. Yeah, well.

2.
This is an old FO... I finished it in January and sent it to Tia in Montana, who (almost) shares a birthday with Conrad.

Tia's mom made Conrad a fantastic little elephant in return, and she sent me homespun and -dyed yarn, and a homesewn project bag. Tia's mom is kinda awesome.

Anyway, the "birthday sheep" really is Susan B. Anderson's Lamb, published in Itty-Bitty Toys. I used different yarns and had to fiddle with the numbers to get the proportions right, and I omitted the straws that Anderson suggests using to stabilize the legs.

3.
After a season of cowls and other small objects (see above), a BIG project. I know!! Unbelievable!

This is Laura Chau's Amelia, a pattern I picked primarily because I had the yarn in my stash (Lorna's Laces... yummy yum). I modified the pattern slightly to make both body and sleeves longer, as well as to add buttons all the way down. Unfortunately I was delusional to believe that my pre-pregger chest measurements are still valid, and the cardi is, alas, on the small side. Pfff.

4.
A baby blanket, again??? Yes. This time it's my older brother my older brother's girlfriend who's expecting, and she wanted something green. Voilà, Green Leaves!

I linked the project to Jared Flood's Wool Leaves, although I stumbled across the leaf pattern in a stitch guide before discovering Flood's design, and made up my own. I love the result; it's such an easy and fast knit and uses only 3 skeins of Cascade 220. Yay!

5.
Another baby knit, because I had so much fun knitting the blanket... This is Lovinia's baby set. Lovinia is an elderly knitter who frequents "my" LYS, and one of the teachers there wrote up the pattern from her baby beret and booties. I used one skein of Shibui Sock and am totally in love with the outcome.

I have two more projects drying on blocking needles, and I'm really, really excited to start wearing them! And showing them off here tomorrow. :)

Little pink Munchkin

I'm going to start with the most recent FO, since I can't trust my memory to recall all the things I knit the past six months. Not that there were that many, it's just that my memory has taken a turn for the worse. (Still pregnancy brain? Really?)

It's a baby project, no surprises here, but I made it not for Conrad but for little Edie, the now eight-week old daughter of my BFF. I believe Edie and Conrad are linked cosmically: My BFF called the day before Conrad's birth and left a message that she had news. Because of the time difference--my BFF met a Brit, married him, and is now lost to the UK, much to my dismay (although I am happy that she's happy, naturally)--I couldn't call her back but emailed her, saying I'd return her phone call the next day. Well, a couple of hours later I had to email her again and let her know that I would not return her phone call but be in the hospital instead. Anyway, it was a whole week later that I finally talked to her, and the news--you guessed it--was that she was pregnant with little Edie. Since then we've been planning the happy couple's wedding (Conrad & Edith, that does have a nice ring to it, doesn't it?).

Before I'm going all chatty on you I'll show you some pics of (my version of) Amy Swenson's Munchkin Blanket. The second I saw Amy's pattern on her blog I was, like, yay, I gotta make that, too bad Conrad's got two five blankets already.

I bought the yarn in March or April, long before my BFF knew the gender of her baby, alas, I knew it would be a girl. (Just as I knew my baby would be a girl and our friend Miranda's a boy. Now look at us, I got Conrad and Miranda's Valentina is soon turning two months. Ha.) At any rate, I was right about Edie, but I was lost in the mom-to-a-newborn universe (=utter chaos) and unable go to my LYS, so I ordered a bunch of Cascade 220 online. Bad mistake, since the two hues of pink and the two browns I had ordered didn't go together. So I ordered more pink and some off-white. And then I ordered even more pink, because the second shipment of pink wasn't to my heart's content either. Eventually, though, I got four colors that work. (There's a little nagging voice in my head that claims this still isn't a great color combination, but hey, I'll just ignore it.)

I can't really give any specs. I used a different yarn, ergo had a different gauge, which messed up the stitch count of the borders, so I modified the pattern slightly. That's about as detailed as I can recall things. However, I do remember that I loved knitting the blanket! It's worked in four triangles, each from the outside in, and the borders are added at the end. There aren't any seams but hundreds of picked up stitches. My favorite part: it's all garter stitch. I love garter stitch (which is why I bought EZ's Knit One Knit All--oh my, could I please, please have more time to knit? I adore some of those patterns. That, BTW, was the only knitting book purchase in the last ten months. It's so sad, I'm totally out of the knitting-world loop. Which fantastic books and patterns have I missed, tell me!).

Look at me, I can't keep my mouth shut (hands still?) once I start writing. However, I better stop. I'm in the middle of Christmas Photobook Madness. Everyone in the family is getting books with a gazillion of Conrad photos for Christmas, and putting together those photo books is about as time-consuming and frustrating as ironing multiple sets of sheets, three weeks' worth of button-down shirts, and 4.000 diapers, which is the other thing on this weekend's to-do list. (At least photo books tend to impress more than ironed laundry, that's their redeeming feature.)

One more Munchkin photo...

Gifts!

Two updates, since I'm sure y'all are dying to know:
1. The Bean's EDD (estimated date of delivery) came and went--and nothing! (Which is quite common for first-timers, and except for the grandmothers in spe everyone's calm around here.)
2. I haven't made up my mind yet regarding the lace scarf, mainly because I'm still working on this itty bitty baby cardigan (more about that in a future post).

In lieu of grander news I thought I'd post some photos of gifts handcrafted for the Bean by other fibery folks.

Let's start with these adorable little fish booties that Minh made, which go very well with the summer-y fish onesie she gave us. (And, at least thematically, with the whale-shaped bathtub her husband sent.)

My husband's colleague's wife doesn't see us very often because she lives in California, but we like to go out for dinner whenever she's in town. I was super surprised when her present arrived:

Usually I'm not crazy about things crocheted, but I really love this blanket! I like it better than the one I made for the Bean, which is why hers is in the crib and mine in a drawer.

And finally, a couple of knitted goodies made by another pregnant knitter whom I met on Ravelry:

I have to ask her which yarn she used for the hat--it's heavenly soft! She also sent a gift for "mommy," a perfect little pouch that I've been using daily to keep my knitting tools organized:

In return I made this for my swap partner:

That's the only project for which I know the specs. It's the Knit Picks Little Bubbles Baby Set (sans booties), knitted with Knit Picks Simply Cotton Sport yarn. The knitting was a lot of fun, but weaving in the ends drove me bonkers (the hat alone had 46 ends, the cardi a few more).

And now I shall return to my current project and finish it. (I'm really close. But I've been really close twice before.)

Finnish and Finished

If only I weren't in such a rush I'd write a lengthy comment on Finland's maternity package that every new mom receives, in addition to a maternity grant. A-L linked to it, and after I forwarded the link far and wide everyone wants to move to Finland. If I were to write such comment I'd probably mention that, as a German who cares about education, I've been in awe of the Finnish education system since 2000, when the results of the PISA study showed that Germany lagged behind Finland, Europe's #1, by a huge margin, and that my high regard for Finnish schools has led to an interest in Scandinavian social welfare in general. By no means am I an expert, but there's something the Scandinavians are doing right where the rest of us fails.

Let's transition from Finnish to finished, as in, "finished objects" (very clever, ha ha, I know). Two of those I have for you today. First, Debbie Bliss's Carryboo, made of the eleven skeins of Cashmerino (knitted double-stranded, using #8 needles) that my mom sent:

It fits nicely into the stroller, size- and color-wise. The bunting opens up five inches or so on each side, and where the pattern calls for pretty ribbons to keep the front up, I think I'll use snaps instead. Although I have the most awesome sewing machine ever (graduation present from my MIL, who is a talented seamstress) I haven't had any time yet to learn even the basics of sewing, and therefore I won't be able to line the Carryboo, as requested per pattern. My other mods: I knitted in the round until the sides open, and I used seed stitch on both sides, not just one (the pattern calls for just one opening on the right side and instructs to knit seed stitch on that side only). Carryboo is currently soaking in warm soapy water, and hopefully the front will stay down once it has dried--I don't like how the seed stitch edge on the top flaps around.

Since I finished the bunting yesterday morning I needed a quick evening project and went for a simple beanie hat (pattern by Just Jussi, mods by LundenKnits: see my project page for details and proper credit).

Nothing special, really. I used some of the Madelinetosh Tosh DK that I had left over from the Baby Surprise Jacket I made over the summer.

On to the next project, which involves photo organization, not knitting. Every time I play with my photos, either in iPhoto or on Flickr, I mess up and some photos on the blog and/or Ravelrey disappear mysteriously. Bear with me if you encounter those nasty "photo currently unavailable" messages... and do share your awesome tips on how to avoid them!

Bean Prep

Howdy! I have great news: carpal tunnel syndrome is on its way OUT, and I started knitting again. Hurrah! I still have to wear a brace at night--apparently I sleep with my head on my left wrist--but typing is no longer as painful, and knitting isn't much of a problem at all. Still, I'm taking it easy (the knitting, that is; I don't have a choice but edit the dissertation like a maniac, and that won't change until my November 5 deadline), but slow progress is better than no progress. After two months of a little bit of knitting here and there I finished a baby blanket:

The pattern is Jared Flood's Tweed Baby Blanket, and there's nothing I don't love about the blanket. Love the garter stitch, love the fan-and-feather border, love the yarn (Knit Picks' City Tweet DK), love the colors, love everything. I had dreaded picking up 440 stitches and making an i-cord bind-off, but neither one was terrible.

Today the third trimester starts (?!?!!), and there isn't much evidence other than my growing belly that soon there's going to be a baby with us. So I made my first baby purchase. Just to have something to look at. I've been staring at these all day long:

So cute! Whether or not we'll use these is besides the point. It was an impulse purchase, but since the pair cost less than a fancy espresso drink--which I no longer buy--I don't feel bad about it.

And now that I'm so close to being completely done with grad work and decided not to do anything but knit baby clothes in December, I placed a huge order with Webs to have everything ready for a post-defense knitting marathon. You heard right: a marathon! I'll be in pajamas all day long, lounge on the sofa, listen to NPR, and knit knit knit. How about it? I've been daydreaming about December for weeks, especially once it became obvious that I wouldn't be able to make it to Rhinebeck this weekend. There's just too much "footnote fiddling" to take a weekend off... *sigh*

Here's recent me (already three weeks old and four pounds behind):