Theodore's sweater

Baby Theodore is still comfy in his mommy's tummy, but could make his entrance any day. His parents and big brother dropped by on the weekend to lend Julian their Jolly Jumper and boy does Julian love it. He wasn't quite sure what to do at first but once he got the hang of it, he put on a baby version of River Dance. It's a riot!

I cast on for Theodore's sweater after their visit on Saturday and finished it this evening. I used the same seamless yoked cardigan pattern as for Julian's baptism sweater though this one is knit in the smallest size. I just love this pattern.

Now that it's done...on to the second Socktoberfest sock. I've got most of the cuff done and should have some good knitting time tomorrow while waitting at the pediatrician's office. Julian started to squeak when he was about 5 weeks old. It was occasional (and cute) at first and then constant (and worrisome) by around 8 weeks. He was diagnosed with laryngomalacia which sounds scary but is actually nothing more than a soft larynx (voice box) and is usually outgrown by age 2. Well, Julian is 4 months old today and I am happy to report that the squeak is gone. Hopefully he'll get the all clear tomorrow and this will already be behind us.

Cheers!

Neapolitan ice cream socks

One Soctoberfest sock down. One to go. It's a good thing we don't have ice cream in the house because if there were I'd surely be sporting it on my hips!

Don't these look exactly like neapolitain ice cream? They're knit from Confetti Superwash and while I love the colour, the dye is inconsistent with lots of bare spots where the colours meet. Very annoying. Nevertheless, I love my ice cream sock and can't wait to have a finished pair.

I'm looking for a simple pattern for a knitted baby hat with earflaps. I love this beautiful one knit by Julie, but don't want to buy a whole book just for this pattern. I've been looking for a free pattern online and haven't had any luck yet. Maybe I'll try to figure it out on my own (very scary thought...when it comes to knitting, I need direction). We'll see...


Now for the true highlight of my day...
I mentionned in an earlier post that my little Jules won't take naps during the day and is especially fussy this week with the teething and all. Michelle left a comment about how her baby swing had worked wonders for her so I thought it may be worth a shot seeing as nothing else we tried seemed to help.

I did some research at epinions, picked one out, and had my husband buy it on his way home from work. We chose the Fisher Price Nature's Touch Baby Papasan Cradle Swing. As a cradle swing, it can rock side-to-side or front-to-back which I thought was a nice feature. Another nice feature... it matches our living room!

Julian went from fussy to sleepy in under 7 minutes. Love it!!!

Mommy mittens and money laundering

Knitting seems to have taken over my life. I get so obsessed with finishing a project that I go to bed at the wee hours of the night (morning), the laundry is piling up, we're having McDonald's for dinner and the house...well it's needing some attention. So this morning I thought that I should pull myself together and set aside one day a week to attend to household chores. Dare I say it...a NON KNITTING day.

Well I made it to 1pm. That was a dumb idea anyway. Plus McDonald's has it's Monopoly contest going and we're only missing like 30 pieces to win!

So I finished my Fleece Artist mittens, but not before I laundered and machine dried a 10 dollar bill left in my husband's pants! It came out looking like one of those "new" bills you get from the bank machine: crispy clean. There's nothing to this money laundering thing. Really the perma press wash cycle and the fluff dryer setting work wonders. The bill is also spring-time fresh! So if you've got dirty money... LOL!

Kidding aside let me get to the fleece artist. It is soooo yummy. I bought this kit from Ram Wools a few weeks ago. The wool and mohair knit up together beautifully and on size 7 needles it is a super quick (and marvelously satisfying) knit. This wool is so great. My husband loves these mitts. Good thing the colour is girly or else my mommy mittens would be at risk of a mittnapping!

On the baby front, we finally figured out why Jules hasn't been himself this past week. All this crying and fussiness just isn't like him. He's just a week shy of being 4 months old and my husband and I think he's teething. He got red cheeks yesterday and I thought he had a fever but he didn't. I looked up the signs of teething in one of our baby books and he has ALL the signs: drooling, biting down (lots of nursing ouchies these past couple of days ), red patches on the cheeks, runny nose, fussiness, refusing to nurse. Of course it didn't say how long this would last. Though he's got to grow what? like 24 teeth? Is this going to be our life now?

More about my Socktoberfest sock tomorrow. I'm almost finished the first.

Cheers!
A.

I heart stashbusters

I knit a little red hat to match Friday's mittens. A small step for a normal knitter, but a giant leap for me. Hats and I have a bumpy past. They say insanity is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. That's me when it some to knitting hats (in the round anyway).

Hats knit by moi always end up looking like they're made to keep Andre the Giant's head warm (or worse). My first attempt at making one actually turned into a sweater for a gradeschooler!!! Well I never finished it but it could have been a sweater for a gradeschooler... They always look so small in the first couple of rows, I get nervous that it won't fit and start over with a bunch of extra stitches. You think I would learn from this mistake and know better for my next attempt. But no, I repeat this everytime I attempt a hat.

So I was doubtful when I started to work on this hat but I really wanted to get rid of that half ball of cheap red yarn. I had 69 yards left (I measured) and the pattern only required 60. Perfect! But could I do it? Well I frogged it about 4 times, used tiny needles for the rib to try to cinch it some and the fit ended up being just right. Hat success! What a great stashbustin' project. And the red yarn is all gone. Now there's the green ball, the blue, the yellow...

In baby news...
It occurred to my husband and I this weekend that we have now officially entered a whole new life stage. Grandma offered to sit Julian for a few hours on Saturday afternoon and we weren't about to turn that down. So we dropped him off, got in the car (I got to sit in the front seat, whoohooo!) and then since we couldn't think of anything else to do...we went to the mall! And we bought him little froggie Robeez shoes. So cute ;-) Yup, whole new life stage...

Cheers!