Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
I started a new knitting project–for myself! I received an early Mother’s Day gift in the form of a HiyaHIya 9″ circular. I decided to finally wind up the orange sock yarn seen in my header and start knitting some socks. They’ll be a mother’s day gift to myself.
I wanted a simple, yet interesting pattern. My due date is in less than 2 weeks, so I want to be sure I have something easy to put down and pick up. I decided on Twisted Tweed from schrodinger knits. it’s a beautifully easy pattern!
Tonight, I took a little break from knitting and made 2 cards for 2 people who are having baby girls. One is having her baby shower this Saturday and the other is having her shower in June. I wanted to make sure I had these done before the newborn arrives. i can certainly knit and nurse, but it would be hard to wield scissors and/or an x-acto knife while nursing.
I just need to figure out what sort of envelopements to use. they measure 6″x6″ so I may just have to make something.
Friday, April 25th, 2008
Forgive me for my absence! I had a lot going on. I made 27–27!!– little rice packs as thank yous for the attendees of my baby shower. no, there were not 27 people there, but I made extras, just in case. Those took about 3 separate evenings to make. they were little 3″ x 6″ rectangular packs. I think everyone liked ‘em.
Since then, the household has been a little on edge preparing for our new arrival. I’m currently 37 weeks pregnant! full-term! huzzah! I finished the ripple blanket for my baby and a poofy girly blanket for my cousin’s fetus. I also finished preparing the birth announcements (I made a layout in photoshop and just need photo/s and info; I also made the envelopes), but I’m not quite sure they’re done FOR SURE. I’m being really weird about them for some reason. they look fine as is, but something in my brain says “keep working on them!” maybe a stamp or something will bring it all together.
This brings me to today. While the husband went to a meeting with a prospective employer, I put on a movie for the toddler and went to town making a pair of cloth baby shoes using the Stardust shoes pattern. They were a pain in the butt to make (mainly attaching the back to the sole) but I think they’re ADORABLE!
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008
shorts–
Pattern: basic shorties with a roll-down waist in 1×1 rib
Yarn: Paton’s Classic Wool Merino in “denim marl”
Needles: US 6
booties–
Pattern: Saarjte’s booties in the round
Yarn: Paton’s Classic Wool Merino in “worn denim”
Needles: US 4
Hat–
Pattern: spiral striped hat (no pattern. just cast-on half in blue, half in gray and then spiral the colors up)
Yarn: Paton’s classic Wool Merino in “worn denim” and “dark gray”
Needles: US 6
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008
Bonnet–
Pattern: Feather & Fan baby bonnet
Yarn: leftover Araucania Nature Wool
Needles: US 6
Slippers–
Pattern: improvised crocheted baby slipper with criss-cross straps
Yarn: leftover Araucania Nature Wool
Hook: H/8 (5.00mm)
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008
here’s my updated list of to-do’s before Andrew gets here:
- finish his blanket (90% done–see sidebar!)
- make some rice or flax packs for labor (I’ve sewn a few circular ones and even the long skinny one I mentioned in a previous post)
- finish the next pair of knit shorties (80-90% done–just need one more leg!)
- make a boppy or other nursing pillow. I bought a used, but sanitized “Brest-friend” pillow at the thrift store for $3!
- knit the second arm on the gown & i-cord ties.
- sew some nursing pads
- get my birth announcements ready (so all I have to do is insert a photo/s, info, and print them)
- relax.
so, in the past 5 days, I’ve only finished the shorts and made progress on the blanket. However, I’ve also made 2 pairs booties, a hat, and a bonnet (for another baby). that’s 4 things that weren’t even on my list! The offer was made on the house we were looking at, yesterday, so I suspect I’m going to be knitting, crocheting, and sewing a TON this week and next. I am SO nervous.
Thursday, April 10th, 2008
I’ve made some pretty good progress on my projects the past couple of days. See, we’re in the process of buying a house. We found one we love, but there has been set back after set back and that produced a ton of anxiety and general “OMG WHAT TO DO” in my head. to keep my mind occupied, I tackled my list and even started [and finished!] other little projects.
here’s my updated list of to-do’s before Andrew gets here:
- finish his blanket (50% done–see sidebar!)
- make some rice or flax packs made for labor (I’ve seen a few circular ones and even the long skinny one I mentioned in a previous post)
- finish the next pair of knit shorties (80-90% done–just need one more leg!)
- make a boppy or other nursing pillow. I bought a used, but sanitized “Brest-friend” pillow at the thrift store for $3!
- knit the second arm on the gown & i-cord ties.
- sew some nursing pads
- get my birth announcements ready (so all I have to do is inset a photo/s, info, and print them)
- relax.
#s 5-8 are still not done. I need some more double-sided tape for the announcements and I need some old receiving blankets or other flannel for the nursing pads. I can’t relax. nope!
Thursday, April 3rd, 2008
Pattern: Saartjes bootees
Yarn: Araucania Nature Wool
Needles: US 6 DPNs
Mods: knit in the round using mods from Hello Yarn
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
I didn’t know how to knit or crochet when I was pregnant with my first son, Nathan. I first learned how to crochet when he was around 7-8 months old. I started with a simple granny square blanket that turned into something awful and then I progressively realized there were tons of patterns online. I used the internet to learn how to read these patterns and eventually I bought a book (The Happy Hooker by Debbie Stoller). After over a year crocheting, I bought a “I Taught Myself to Knit!” kit and attempted knitting. I didn’t quite grasp the concept of pulling loops through other loops without a hook, so I ended up putting the kit away for a while. I continued crocheting and blah blah blah and then I got the desire to learn to knit AGAIN. I pulled out the kit and tried and failed AGAIN. it wasn’t until I found out about http://www.knittinghelp.com that everything finally *clicked* and I made a successful swatch. A whole new world was opened to me and I’ve made many many pretty things since.
Now, I’m pregnant and I’m just on a roll with the baby things. I had a few weeks of anti-craft when I was nauseated everyday and didn’t want to do anything. Since that ended, though, I’ve knit quite a few things for my fetus. His name is Andrew, by the way–the fetus. I just can’t seem to get used to calling him that. We haven’t decided on a middle name, yet.
I’m adding to the baby knits stash and am going to buckle down and finish all my planned projects, in the next few weeks.
First, some roll-waist shorties. I got the inspiration for the roll-down waist from a Flickr friend, mama_anna. it’s pretty genius! I’m not a fan of drawstrings, so I love it. plus, I think it extra-stretchiness will mean he can wear them for more than a few weeks (hopehope!).
Pattern: none.
Yarn: Araucania Nature Wool
Needles: US 6
Next, a gown that’s almost done. A friend of mine put one on her daughter when she was a newborn and I thought it was just precious! I didn’t have a pattern, so I just did a top-down raglan, back and forth in stst, then I joined it in the round where I thought a waist might be. I continued knitting in the round until it was about 20″ in length or so.
Pattern: none.
Yarn: Bernat handicrafter cotton
Needles: US 6
Probably my favorite part about the gown are the buttons I made. I used a Dritz button making kit and they were really rather easy.
my list of to-do’s before Andrew gets here include the following:
- finish his blanket
- get some rice or flax packs made for labor (I have this killer idea to make a long skinny one with extra fabric at the ends, so I can tie it around my waist, if I get to experience that lovely back labor again!)
- finish the next pair of knit shorties
- make a boppy or other nursing pillow
- sew some nursing pads
- get my birth announcements ready (so all I have to do is inset a photo/s, info, and print them)
- relax.
I guess this is MY sort of nesting. My husband can attest to the fact that cleaning is just NOT my forte, so you won’t see me 40 weeks pregnant scrubbing my bathroom. Oh no, you’ll see me frantically bouncing on a birthing ball sewing up the last little bit of *whatever*!
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008
I got tired of joomla, so welcome to my new wordpress blog! you can still access all of my old entries by going to http://www.goodknits.com/joomla
I’ll be adding some entries later that are backdated (for example, the pattern for crocheted mary janes), so that the info is still easily available.