Ahhh... that's better

Check out my best completed UFO this summer! Nearly 10 lbs of baby boy sweetness, but we call him Gavin. He was born July 28th at 10:13 AM. That's 11 days overdue, not that I was counting or anything.
Oh, and all those itty bitty newborn soakers? Yeah. Too small. (sigh) So each evening after the other munchkins are in bed and we've finished our nursing marathon, I knit a little bit for him. He's got a long torso, and despite being nearly 10 lbs, he's skinny. I'm sure being 22.5" long helps thin out a babe, huh?

I'm finding that I still need to knit newborn-sized waist/hips and just increase the rise. In order to avoid that lovely diaper plumber-crack, we need a 16" rise. I still can't believe my 3 week old infant needs a 16" rise!
These sweet pants are a size small Picky Pants, adjusted as to use the CP waistband, in WWBN Silver Rainbow-- which happens to be one of my favorite colorways. These pants have 17.5" rise and a 7" inseam. I figured if I wanted him to fit into something for more than 5 minutes, I better start knitting things a little bigger. Besides knitting pants for the Gavinator, I've been doing baby sweaters. Here's the Child's Placket sweater from LMKG. It's knit in Mosaic Moon's single-ply Merino-- uber soft and perfect for a wee one, plus, who can resist those rich colors?


After much deliberation on the buttons, I decided to skip them altogether and fold the neck band down to create a collar. I haven't actually tried this on the kid yet, so we'll see if I need to do some adjusting to make that work.

Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot...

July is in full swing and I am feeling every bit of my nearly 39 week pregnant self. Babe's estimated date of arrival is a mere 9 days away, but who knows when he/she will decide to show up?

In the meantime, I'm keeping myself cool in the icy a/c and keeping my fingers busy to pass the time.

Here's a pair of Picky Pants and shorts for a trade with a friend of mine. Pants are 3 ply Targhee from WWBN in Caramel Sundae, shorts are a slightly thinner Targhee from Morwenna at Mosaic Moon in her Lady of the Lake colorway-- a stunning kettle-dyed blend of blues, greens, and teals.



Next I have a pair of striped shorts. Aren't they cute?



Cue Psycho music now! Holy ends, Batman! Anyone feel like weaving these in for me?




Lastly, another beautiful hand-knit, but not of my own making. This was sent to me from a friend this week. Isn't is gorgeous? I can't wait to put a tiny little head in it!

Confessions of a Knitting Blog Loser

Yes, I said it. I'm a knitting blog loser. When I started this in January I had these high hopes for myself. I dreamed of sharing my projects and holding myself accountable for all of those darn UFOs. Of course, what I've accomplished instead is something else that I'm not finishing. Well? Back on the wagon! I'm going to try to post at least twice a month. Are you holding your breath? :) I am.

Here's my plane project from my trip to Detroit.

Yes, I went to Detroit. Adrienne and I, actually. We flew up a few weeks ago to visit with my family, get a husband/kid break, and meet a longtime online photographer friend. This photographer friend, Teresa Anne, did an amazing maternity photosession for me, as well as a few pictures of Adrienne and I for our new website, Cherry Blossom Knits (due to open later this summer).

By the way, what's with all the strange looks I got at the airport? Don't pregnant women fly anymore? Seriously. People were staring at me as if they were afraid I would start huffing and puffing out a child at any moment. I assure you, I was not. 32 weeks is still a perfectly acceptable time to fly. So there.

Back to the knitting.

Here's a close up of the sock. It's done in Socks That Rock "Seal Rock" colorway, and the pattern is Cookie A.'s Monkey, available on Knitty.

Here's some of the non-store things that have been keeping me busy.

Could this be any cuter? I mean, look at those itty bitty socks. Together they weigh .4 oz and each one is about the size of a standard business card. Oh, and yes, that's the highly coveted Dashing Dachs Goldfish yarn. Isn't it gorgeous? Amanda from Sweetiebums is making the little bebe a matching NB shirt with the ever popular goldfish fabric. I'm thinking this little set just might be the bebe's very first outfit.

Here's the lot of my NB diapering knits. I'm thinking this is probably enough, considering how fast those little newborns grow.

Clockwise from the dark green soaker in the upper right corner.

Newborn Undersoaker done in "Olive Juice" wool dyed by me. It's not quite as dark in person as it is in the picture, and I'm thinking this is larger than a standard NB soaker, but I like the full coverage and will probably use it a lot as a nap/nighttime soaker.

The following 3 pairs of shorst are all newborn-sized Picky Shorts with a Curly Purly waistband. First one is "Goldfish" on BFL from Dashing Dachs. Next is "Silver Lining" BFL dyed by Brad of WWBN, and last pair is "Silver Rainbow" BFL, also dyed by Brad.

The next pair of shorts are newborn Picky Shorts w/ a ribbed/drawstring waist done in "Summer Splash" wool dyed by me. Above that you can see 2 little Gerber shirts I dyed and painted to go with it.

Lastly, a newborn Curly Purly soaker in "Nightlight" BFL, again, dyed by Brad. This soaker was incredibly fun to knit b/c I was "knitting on fumes," as I like to call it. I think I had less than a yard of yarn left when I was finished. As I started the project, I knew it would be close, but throughout the process, I kept glancing at my dwindling ball and wondering if I'd make it. Thankfully I did. Now I just hope the kid is able to wear it for longer than 5 minutes.

Long Time, No Post

Wow. It's been a while.

It's not that I haven't been knitting, just that I've been knitting for the store. Furiously knitting for the store, actually. With all of the Picky Shorts knitting I've been doing, I haven't had much time for personal knitting. I did manage to finish Peyt's dress in time for Easter, though.

Did I mention the snow we got last week? So yeah, she didn't actually wear it on Easter, but at least I got a decent picture of her in it, and perhaps she'll have an excuse to wear it before she outgrows it.

I might cry

So this is supposed to be Peyton's Easter dress. I say "supposed" because it's still up in the air weather or not my child is going to wear it for more than 20 seconds. Yesterday she came into the family room as I was finishing the picot trim on the bottom. This is the conversation that ensued.

Me: Look Peyt! Your Easter dress! What do you think?
P: (eyebrows knit together and eyes narrow)
Me: Isn't it pretty?
P: No.
Me: Don't you like it?
P: No.
Me: (ever the optimist) You're going to wear it for Easter!
P: (very matter of fact) No. (spins on heals, curls in my face)


I might just cry.

(sigh) Moving on.

I actually have a project on the needles for myself. I don't think I've ever done that before, so this is really cool.

Socks!

This is also my first adult pair of socks. I have to say that I never really had much desire for sock knitting. I've always been one of those slightly chunky yarn on size 8-9 needles type-of-girls. The thought of carrying dental floss yarn through my fingers and working with toothpick needles just never appealed to me. It's funny because Adrienne told me that I would love it. She told me that I'd get the hang of it and then I'd love it and I'd loathe picking up big needles. I told her she was insane.

So, now I'm eating my words.

Lotsa Pictures

Isn't this darling?

This splendid collab is for the Fluff Factory Auctions benefiting Autism Speaks next week. Amanda, from Sweetiebums, put together the swing top and gorgeous diaper. Brad, from Wooly Wonders by Nada, dyed his scrumptious Blue Faced Leceister wool to match the fabric to perfection, and then generously donated it for me to knit into the little shorts.

Next we have Crumpets. My story with Crumpets is a long one. I knit this dress for my daughter last year in the most perfect shade of orange. In true Peyton fashion, she watched me knit for hours and then refused to wear it once it came off the needles. Her poor, unloved dress has been hanging out with Andie, my toddler mannequin, ever since.

Later, I agreed to knit 2 of these dresses for the daughters of a friend of mine. Once I got in and realized how over my head I was, I asked Adrienne to take one over for me. I started on the purple, and Adrienne started on the red.

From the beginning, these poor dresses were cursed. The beads we picked out for the bodice took hours to string and resulted in many headaches. I had issues with my cast on, while Adrienne actually broke needles with the weight of the dress. At one point I was knitting the bodice around 1 AM and looked down to see that I had done an incorrect repeat. I tried to frog back to the row before my mistake, but it was useless-- I had to start all over again. And then later, because this dress was on the needles for many months, my friend's daughter grew, as toddler's tend to do, and I actually ran out of yarn! I painstakingly waited the 5 days to get another ball in so I could finish the crochet trim.

All frustration and struggles aside, the dresses are complete, and I'd say they're pretty stinkin' cute.

This is the front of Julia's dress.

And a close-up of the bodice stitch pattern and bow.

And although I didn't knit it, I thought it was worth showing off and putting in the blog. This is Rachel's dress, kindly being modeled by my daughter, Peyton. Yes, I said that right. It's Peyton, wearing the Crumpets dress that Adrienne knit.

(scratches head) Now, why won't she wear the one I knit her?

And the back

"Kink Socks"

Not only are these my first pair of socks, and not only is my anti-sock daughter actually wearing them, but she adores them! She comes home from school and demands that we get her "kink socks" (pink socks). It should also be mentioned that if I knit it and she watched me knit it, she generally wants nothing to do with it, so I'm thrilled that she's in love with her Kink Socks.

Maybe I'll get around to knitting a pair for myself.