time-space continuum warp

Hello. I am writing to you from the time-space continuum warp known as late pregnancy.

Have you been here? The place where you feel like sleeping all the time but cannot sleep?

The place where you look at pictures of yourself, and the only words that come to mind are, "dear GOD."

The place where each hour feels like six days?

There are 55 days, give or take, until Shamrock is scheduled to make her arrival, and though I tried valiantly, I was unable to avoid this stopover. I'm told my visit will last 55 more days, give or take.

At least I have one of these to look forward to.

Do you recognize Baby Ceci? She's almost five months old. I told Heather that she is the cutest baby in the world, until mine arrives.

Even though I'm stuck here in the time-space continuum warp, I did get to attend the most beautiful baby shower on Saturday. It was for me, if you can believe it.  A group of friends conspired to throw it for me, and I'm still reliving how lovely and thoughtful it was.

It was full of amazing flowers, thanks to my sister, who is a talented floral designer, and who knows the special spot in my heart occupied by the pairing of magenta and aqua.

Baby's breath has a bad rap as being very low brow, very supermarket. And when you pair it with a red rose and a fern frond, it does smack of 1987. But massed together, it's ethereal.

We had amazing food, starting with a brunch filled with quiche, strata, scones, fruit salad, spinach salad, punch, and mimosas. After the (fun, not gross) games and present opening, we had coffee and dessert.  The lemon squares, brownies, coconut macaroons, and berry trifle were... well, let's say you didn't have to twist my arm to have seconds.

This is me not stealing Ceci from her rightful home.  I feel proud of my efforts. They were Herculean.

If you've ever been to a baby shower, then you know the sound 20 women make when someone holds up one of these.

 It's a cross between a gasp and an "AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW." But louder and higher pitched.

Which brings me to my In Threes Sweater, which I just finished last night. Thanks for choosing this pattern. I liked it. It was fun to knit, and I love the way it turned out.

I made the 12-18 month size, but I didn't carefully check my gauge. That's one of the beauties of knitting for a baby who has yet to make their debut. Chances are quite good the garment will fit sometime. Even if it's a little bigger or smaller than you originally intended.

The yarn is Glenhaven Cashmerino Worsted, the colorway is Candyland.

All this needs now are three little buttons.

This evening I'll be starting a pair of pants using the Object of My Affection pattern. I think I'll make one without the skirt first. I'm going to use Petit Fours, because what's the point of polling your readers if you disregard their advice?

I'm excited to see how they turn out.

But I'm more excited to see how Baby Shamrock herself turns out.

whew.

I have finally finished this adorable, but labor intensive, sweater for baby Shamrock.

I do love the way it looks.

But I did not love knitting it, on size 2 needles with sock yarn. I found the pattern...lacking. I made many changes as I knit.

The pattern called for applied I-cord around the entire perimeter. I would sooner stab out my eyeballs. So I picked up and knit a garter border.

When I finished it, my husband examined the underarms, looking to squeeze in a friendly jab of some kind.

Instead, he quietly looked the sweater over and said, "This turned out really nicely."

So there. Mr. Yarnista approved. He loves to be called that. Be sure to do it if you ever meet him.

I was so happy to finish it that I wasted no time at all starting my next project, which y'all helped me choose.

I bought In Threes and scavenged the studio for some yarn. I located some Glenhaven Cashmerino Worsted in Candyland.

It is really just awful to scavenge for cashmere. Pity me.

Thankfully, this pattern is much more artfully engineered, and here's what I accomplished in an evening of reality TV:

I can see why so many of you have made this pattern -- it's highly satisfying to make such efficient progress.

A few more projects like this, and I might get back on track with my goal of making 25 baby things before Shamrock arrives.

I have less than 60 days left.

My next project will be some baby pants, most likely a pair of Wonder Pants:

So now I need help selecting the perfect colorway.

I've narrowed it down to Petit Fours:

Titania:

Rosewood:

Or Forest Primeval:

Weigh in!

Help me choose my next project!

I'm almost done with my pretty, but slightly annoying, sock yarn baby sweater, and I need to have enough advance warning to get the yarn ready for my next project.

Ironically, after I mentioned here that I was finding the sock yarn sweater, particularly the underarm, problematic, my husband has decided to do the following whenever I am knitting on it:

Him: "Wow, that's looking really good!"

Me: "Oh, thanks. It's coming along."

Him: "I love that colorway! It just knit up so nicely!"

Me: "Thanks. It's Vivien Leigh. Named after the beautiful actress."

Him: "Yeah, it's too bad that underarm just looks so bad. I'd hate for our baby to wear something with an underarm that looks like that. She is going to find that totally unacceptable, because she'll be spending a lot of time inspecting the underarms of clothing, like all of our other babies have done. Are you sure you can't rip it out and redo it a fifth time?"

Me:

He apparently finds the eyebrow of death amusing enough that this joke must be repeated with regularity.

If you're not familiar with my eyebrow of death face, you might be interested in this post.

I recently sat next to a group of unruly teenagers in church, who were not with their parents, but who were being disruptive by whispering, laughing, and ripping up offering envelopes into shapes of animals. (Hello? You guys are 17? My nine year old sitting next to you is far better behaved.)

I calculated my options, which included confronting them, standing up and yelling, "I HAVE HAD JUST ABOUT ENOUGH OF YOU!" while pointing to the offenders, patrolling the aisles for similar looking people who might be their parents, and using the eyebrow of death.

The eyebrow of death, which is silent but highly effective, won. I swept back my bangs, arched my left eyebrow to an epic height, and stared them down. It took four seconds for the boy sitting nearest me to notice. He stopped ripping the envelopes and stared straight ahead. The girl next to him continued to giggle, and he elbowed her and pointed to me. In turn, she elbowed the girl sitting next to her, and the three of them sat quietly for the remainder of the service.

The eyebrow of death is one of the best things I learned as a teacher. I intend to use it forever.

OK, back to my knitting project. Here's what I've got it narrowed down to:

The Eloise Eyelet Cardi:

In Threes:

Ribbed Baby Jacket

Like Sleeves for Babies:

Cascade:

And Dragon Skin Baby Sweater

Once I decide on a pattern, I'll be able to choose a colorway.

What say you?

68 days of baby knitting

My baby will never have 25 hand knitted things.

Because mama has fallen woefully behind schedule. Maybe someday Shamrock will be able to forgive me. How did my other babies make it to the ages of 9, 7, and 5 without having 25 knitted things before they were born?

It's a mystery.

I was sick, did you know that? Like, really sick with the flu. I had to cancel a teaching assignment I had been looking forward to for a year. I have never done that before, and I won't lie: tears were shed.

Knitters, being some of the nicest people in the world, made me feel less despondent. When people heard my classes were canceled because I was too sick to travel and my doctor forbid me to leave my bed, I got many messages saying, "I can take your class another time. Your health and the baby's health are much more important."

While I was sick, I was too sick to knit. Do you know how awful it is for someone who never has idle hands to sit and do absolutely nothing? Consequently, I am even more behind on my knitting.

But I am making progress on this sock yarn sweater. I adore the way Vivien Leigh knits up (this is Springvale Sock). ADORE it. But as it turns out, sock yarn sweaters take much longer to make than worsted weight sweaters do. Imagine that.

And at this juncture, I'm going to withhold the pattern info because I am very annoyed with the pattern, and don't wish to steer you towards making it. And I also don't want to upset the designer.

I hate the way this underarm  and mid-back is looking. I have, however, ripped it out three times, and this is exactly how it is supposed to look if one follows the pattern directions.

The beauty of baby knitting is that babies don't care. And someday I will probably look back on this project and laugh about how worked up I was getting over the underarm of a sweater that a tiny person with 20/400 vision will be wearing.

So I'm going to let it go, rather than redesign it, since it's modular, and I would also have to rip out the sleeves in order to fix the back.

I think I need a nice, quick baby project after this one. Suggestions?

design your own spiral blanket

Lots of you have written asking about the pattern I used to make this.

(You can see more pictures here.)

So I made you a tutorial. Because I like you and I wanted to.

It's free. You can download it now, if you want.

Download the free tutorial here.

I also put the info up on Ravelry, since y'all would just ask anyway.

You can make this blanket any size and with any weight yarn. The sky's the limit.

Can't wait to see what you come up with!