Christmas haul

Even though most of the presents under the tree seemed to be for Owen this year, I did get a few gifts myself once my family arrived a couple of days after Christmas.
These skeins are from the Christmas shopping my mom did at the Rheinbeck Sheep and Wool. The blue yarn is from Cloverleaf Farms intended for a hat/scarf set. The green is some kid mohair that came with a pattern for a lacy scarf.

The real surprise yarn gift came from my sister who did her shopping at Two Sheep. Yes, I was the lucky recipient of 4 skeins of June's handspun "Jennifer" yarn!!!! I'm thinking maybe a pair of mittens for myself with this beautiful yarn?
Owen also made out well with knitted gifts. His doting grandmother, who only learned to knit last April, made him a beautiful blanket. Aunt Nicole knit him a teddy bear. He also got this adorable hat, bootie, and blanket set from a coworker of my mom's.

Socks!

Look what I managed to finish! I actually got up to the toe decreases when my water broke so I was very close to finishing and managed to finish it while the baby was sleeping the other day.

It may be a while before I have another completed project. I haven't yet figured out a way to breast feed and knit at the same time ;)

I really am enjoying my role as a mom despite being a sleep-deprived milk machine. It certainly helps that Owen is the cutest little boy ever.


Here are some more pictures of him:
I didn't knit the Christmas hat for him. It was provided by the hospital.

The blog you've been waiting for!

I'm proud to announce the birth of my son Owen! He was born on December 15 after 9 hours of labor. Unmedicated labor, I might add. He was 8 lbs 1/4 oz and 21 inches at birth. He's just perfect and I'm already so in love with him. I'm looking forward to making him many cute knit clothes to wear!

Here he is at home trying out the beautiful blanket Grumperina made! (he looks a little grumpy himself, but I guess that's appropriate)

Secret Santa is done!

Looks good, eh? You'd never guess that I had to rip the bastard out twice. First too big, then too small, finally just right.

Hat 2

I started secret santa hat number 2. Last year I made a hat using the coronet pattern on knitty.com. I decided to make similar hat, but with just the basic left cross cable.
I thought this hat would be a good exercise for me as it requires grafting using the kitchener stitch as well as picking up and knitting stitches, two things I need to practice.








The grafting went pretty well considering there were knit, purl, and cabled stitches to align.

The picking up and knitting went even better. I'm finally really getting the hang of it. The purl side attached to the right side of the cabled band because the band will be flipped up to knit side when it is finished.

Now that the difficult parts are finished, I expect this hat will go very quickly. Perhaps one could even finish it while in labor. (hint, hint, Baby!)

One down...

Don't get excited.... I'm still pregnant. Sigh. Sitting on the couch and knitting is about all I can do these days. I actually finished the first secret santa hat 2 days ago, but just finally got around to taking a picture of it.

I am pleased with it. It is super warm and cozy. I haven't started the second one yet as I'm trying to decide what I want to do with it. For this first one, I just followed the basic hat pattern in Ann Budd's book. I really like the hemmed edge for hats. I added the bobbles just to make it interesting and because I wanted to learn how to do them.

Secret Santa strikes again

Gah! Just when I was feeling great that I had finished all of my Christmas shopping before the baby comes, I get an email from my uncle letting me know that the family secret santa is happening this year despite the fact that I am giving birth imminently and my immediate family all plan to be up here with me and the baby and not in NJ where the rest of the family lives. Anyway, I am the secret santa for my cousin K, and Dave is for my cousin G. K and G are both female in their mid-twenties. I do not know them very well, but I do know that they both have heads. So what did this call for, but a quick trip to Webs to buy some reasonably priced, bulky yarn for making hats. Valley Yarn Berkshire Bulky at $4.99 for a 100 gram skein fit the bill nicely. The color selection is extensive too. We finally settled on eggplant for K and olive for G.

Now, I've knit many hats already so each time I knit one, I like to challenge myself in some way by learning a new technique. This time, bobbles caught my eye. I was intrigued as to how to make them. They turned out to be pretty easy. I did a bobble rim around the hat. My only concern is that I hope they look cute and not dorky. I'm beyond caring at this point though.

So far I am very happy with the yarn. It is knitting up nice and fast on size 10.5 needles. It will be a very warm and cozy hat.

Package!

Oooh! Look what arrived in the mail yesterday evening! I had been forewarned that something was on its way so I very excitedly tore the package open.

To reveal....

Let's see -- it's a great design, beautifully knitted and sewn, thoughtfully made machine washable... That's right! It's a gift for my baby made by Grumperina! Thanks, Grumperina!








Pregnancy update:
As of yesterday morning I was 70% effaced and 1/2 cm dilated. Things are starting to happen! My midwife said she doubts I'll make it to my due date (the 19th). Baby may be enjoying the blanket very soon!