Irish Hiking Scarf: Check!

It's done! It's finally done! After over a year on the needles, my Irish Hiking scarf is complete and ready to be gifted to my father-in-law this Christmas. I can now knit other projects on my US7 circular! Yay!

I knit my scarf out of Classic Elite 03 Tweed and love the way it turned out (these photos represent the colour pretty accurately). I used up just over 2 skeins and have another 2 left over in my stash...maybe I'll knit a matching hat once the Christmas knitting rush is over.

I've grown a lot as a knitter during the first 6 months of my maternity leave. For instance, I discovered that I had been knitting wrong all these years: I used to purl and knit through the back-loop - a habit I was able to break pretty easily. I learned that there are different ways to increase and different ways to decrease and when to use which. I learned the German and long-tailed cast-ons. I learned to pick up stitches around a collar or button band. I learned to knit socks complete with heel-flap and grafted toe. I learned fair isle and duplicate stitch embroidery. Branching out taught me to knit lace. Lopi taught me how to knit gloves and keep stiches live for later thumb-knitting (the way my grandma used to do it). I learned to weave in ends properly. I learned to seam properly and invisibly from the right side. I learned to steam-block. I discovered "real" yarn. I discovered lots of online yarn shops and "I think I'd rather spend the money on yarn" has become a mantra when shopping for anything else.

My Irish Hiking Scarf taught me to cable without a needle and to persevere...that even though it often doesn't feel like it, given enough time and committment, any project is finishable. And for that, thank-you Hiking Scarf!

In baby news, our college friends just welcomed their second child (Theodore) into the world on November 29th. We're going to visit them tomorrow. I wonder if I'll be overwhelmed by how small a newborn is...it's been 5 months since Julian was that brand spanking new and though I think he's still a little baby, seeing a really new baby might make me realise that my little Jujube is growing up. I know he is but I can still be in denial about it can't I?

We're going to feed him solids for the first time tomorrow morning. We wanted to wait until he was six months, but we really think he's ready now (he is 5 months and a week which is close enough isn't it?). He's really interested in watching us eat (he even pretends to chew along with us...too cute), he can sit up in his high-chair and the biggest clue is that he's been nursing every 2 hours for the past few days including 2-3 times a night (in case you're wondering, that's expressed milk in the picture). I think he's ready. He's growing up!