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*!
