Exercise Before Knitting: Odds & Ends

Yes, there's always more baby $#&* around here. I've been told I'm nesting. I'm not - you should see my house. In fact, I am really just trying to make up for the 9 months during which I did no knitting for this baby. I only have a few weeks to catch up! So here goes...

1. Hats from stash yarn:

The top one is Rowan All Seasons Cotton, the bottom is Lion Brand Cotton Ease. Both are too big for a newborn's head. Needless to say, this was part of my stash reduction binge last week when Aaron was out of town. I made a few more but sent them to my Secret Pal for her charity knitting organization so no pictures of those.

2. Debbie Bliss Seed Stitch & Cable Cardigan, missing buttons:

It really makes me mad that I am incapable of taking a good picture of this color yarn. It is a deep red like my favorite red chair background as seen in picture #5. Even when I tinker with the white balance, it looks washed out, burnt red or neon red. Anyway, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. As it turns out, my button holes are too small for my preferred buttons so I'll be searching for more buttons at the store in the next day or two.

3. Clapotis:

This has been finished for a few weeks now, I just haven't pulled it out for a picture. It's a simple clapotis knit in Cotton Plus by TLC. It's a nice yarn in spite of its manufacturer. Really. And it's machine washable/dryable cotton. This is the second clapotis I've made and I think that will be it for a while. I love the end result but I find the pattern terribly dull to knit.

4. Seed Stitch Baby Blanket:

I'm taking a picture of this UFO in order to push myself to finishing it. I need those needles back, damn it! I started this last year for a baby that was due in February and ended up sending that baby a few sweaters because I could not face finishing this dreaded blanket.

I have about 12" done and I would like the blanket to be about 30" long. It is knit in softball cotton so I know it will shrink up a little upon washing. I have a huge cone of this yarn and my well-intentioned stash reducing idea at the time was to knit up the entire cone and then machine wash it. Yes, the blanket would shrink up but if it were knit extra long and then pre-shrunk, it could actually be a useful blanket since it wouldn't need to be hand washed. Well, in practice, I've discovered that this is a giant cone and seed stitch is really dull. If I had t.v., this would be a great t.v. project. I need to crash at a t.v.-watching friend's house for a few days to get this puppy done!!!

In any case, I am working a few rows every day with the hope that I'll be able to finish it before my 100th birthday.

5. Current Project:

Yes, it's another baby sweater, although this one is of my own design using some of that Karisma Superwash wool from the sidewalk sale. This is the back. I have not yet decided if it will be a pullover or a cardigan. Practically all the baby things I make are cardigans so I think I ought to make a pullover. On the other hand, babies have awfully big heads, which is the reason behind making cardigans. We'll see. Stay tuned. If the design turns out to be a good one, I might submit it to MagKnits, Knitty or Knit Picks. We'll see.

Finally, I will leave you with pictures of the wonderful baby sweater and blankets that the women from my knitting group gave me last weekend. As it turns out, they know how incapable I am of knitting baby blankets so they made two for me! And one amazingly constructed baby sweater from an Elizabeth Zimmerman pattern.