DIY Halloween

My office has a great tradition of dressing up each year for Halloween...even when it doesn't fall on a work day. We usually get at least 60% to participate. And given we are an office of attorneys and legal staff, I say that's pretty good!

I've dressed up every year for the last nine (gulp) years. I'm a big fan of found costumes. I usually either raid my closet or B's closet, or incorporate something I have into my costume (like the year I used my graduation gown to be Harry Potter). I've also sewn costumes a couple times (like the year I came as a tea bag).

Anyway, this year (after a lot of deliberation - I decided on our costumes the week before), I decided to come as a Zookeeper from the San Diego Zoo. Only this zookeeper's had a rough time with it. I had planned to make Elliott the bear to my keeper, but B came up with the idea of making me the bear cub surrogate. (I still love the idea that it's someone's job to be 'mom' to a bear or a gorilla or a cheetah. So cool!)


For my costume, I added an old khaki work shirt to some green cargo pants and hiking shoes. B made me some awesome stickers to serve as zoo patches. Then I had fun 'beating myself up'. I drew red lines on the back of my shirt with a fabric pen and cut slices into the shirt to make a couple paw strikes. I put fake blood on some bandages and wrapped my head and my arms a couple times. We also had an old leg brace from when B broke his knee a few years ago, so I wore that and added some camo bandages...because if I really were a zookeeper, I'd wear camo bandages.


As for Elliott, I basted some homemade felt to the front of his brown jammies (mostly to cover the rock and roll dinosaurs on the front) and added some felt toe pads to the feet. Then I knit him a Teddy Hat (Rav link) from stash yarn. Elliott really needed a new hat for our San Diego winter, so this was a good two-purpose knit.

Although, how much Elliott will enjoy wearing a bear hat for the rest of the winter remains to be seen. See below for a couple notes (* and **) about this 'photo shoot'.

The hat pattern is really for an adult, but I knit it on smaller gauge yarn to make a smaller hat. I also knit the hat about an inch shorter than the pattern called for. All in all, on size 7 needles, I knit it with just under one ball of Knit Picks Main Line in Cocoa. I added the felt ear tufts to tie it into the bear suit.

And guess what!?! I won the contest for most original costume! This is the first year I've won anything, so my ribbon and smurf lunch bag prize was especially sweet ;)

Hope you all had a very happy (and safe) Halloween. I love seeing all your costumes!

* First up, the cute embroidered onesie is courtesy of Mamieknits. So cute!
** Second, right before I took this photo, Elliott, Jenny and I were getting settled on our blanket during one of our weekly visits to Balboa Park when a couple of strangely familiar faces began crossing the grass in front of me. It took a couple seconds for all my neurons to fire, but then low and behold, I realized it was Lolly and Kris! She stopped about the same time and we were both like - hey is that you? Talk about a small world and such a totally random encounter! They had spent the day at the zoo and, I have to say, I can't wait to see their pictures!

Dying for some lace, settling for some toys

Given that most of my knitting time is sporadic at best, I've had to carefully select projects. They either need to be massively long basic rows like the November Ruffle Wrap or simple enough that I can always tell where I'm at. Unfortunately, I've really been itching for a good lace project. But the thought of repetitious lace doesn't do it for me right now and I just need to be realistic about anything too involved. My solution? Knitted toys.

I know apples and oranges, but they really have done the trick!! I've been cranking these suckers out like there's no tomorrow. They've really turned into great low attention span knitting projects. They are usually in small pieces that require enough shaping to make the simple stitches interesting. So its helping to reconcile the challenging with the realistic.

It all started when my aunt was flipping through my Charmed Knits book and spotted the Errol pattern. She, like me, is a big Errol fan and I had totally forgot that pattern was in the book. She hadn't knit in quite a few years, so she asked if I'd help her get reacclimated. I realized the easiest way for me to do this is by making it myself. I talked her through the pattern and we both knit up the parts separately. We then got together for a 'making up' party...during which we laughed hysterically at the wonky birds we came up with. This is my Errol:

definitely more penguin than owl

Pattern: Errol from Charmed Knits
Yarn: Cotton Ease in Violet and Lime
Needles: 6 and 7

and this is hers:

way more owlish if I do say!

I'm not quite sure what happened but we both ended up with crazy big bum pieces and large beaks. She opted not to use her beak and I opted to make my crazy bum piece into bird hips. Mine is also wonky because I didn't worry about gauge. I knew I was using a smaller gauge yarn, so I tried to proportionally correct my row counts, so he didn't end up crazy tall and skinny...it didn't really work, but it doesn't really matter. Errol's wonky and Elliott really hasn't complained:

After the wonky bird, I wanted to make something 'cuter'. I picked out the Grumpasaurus pattern and got to work with some stash leftovers.

Pattern: Grumpasaurus by Kat Lewinski
Yarn: Lamb's Pride Worsted in Wild Mustard and Oregano
Needles: 6

It came out great because this time I followed proper knitted toy technique and knit tightly and stuffed firmly. But it also came out 'spikier' because of the Lamb's Pride. And well, Elliott didn't want anything to do with it. Fortunately, Mr. Grump wasn't homeless for long...Daddy decided he was pretty cool, so he now is living comfortably amongst the Star Wars toys on B's desk.

So, given the success of Errol and the less than stellar reception Elliott gave Mr. Grump, I opted to recreate the Cotton-Ease-easy-on-the-stuffing knitted toy formula. In looking through Ravelry, I came across Fred the Friendly Monster and ended up making Melvin:

Pattern: Fred the Friendly Monster by Yvonne Boucher
Yarn: Cotton Ease in Taupe, Stone and Maize
Needles: 7

And almost as quickly as I was done with Melvin, I cast on for a Happy Sock Monkey courtesy of Rebecca Zelt. For those who know me, you know I have a thing for monkeys...and sock monkeys are high up on that list of cool monkeys. I have even had a fantasy of knitting replica socks then cutting them all apart to make a sock monkey...fortunately, I've found a more 'sane' option in this pattern. I also realized how much I liked knitting the Taupe Cotton Ease, so I'm making a more stylized sock monkey with Stone and Taupe Cotton Ease with Terracotta for the red bits. So far, I have one leg done and I'm about 1/4 way through the second leg.

Best part? ALL of this projects have been from stash yarn and most have been from remnants of other projects. Do you recognize my Celtic Tote in Mr. Grump? ;) So these have also been great projects for our 'reduced-income lifestyle'. I take that back...the best part is making fun things for this little man:

Who (by the way) just happened to turn 5 months this week! Man, where did the time go?

Refashioning...of Sorts...

Okay somehow we missed ANOTHER milestone around here...our last post was post 800!!! How crazy is that!

Anyway, one of the things I have always loved to do, but seldom do myself, is refashioning! I love the idea of making something new from something you already have. (I do this almost every year for my Halloween costume). My sister-in-law in France is particularly good at this and the Wardrobe Refashion blog has a ton of ideas. I have grand plans of doing this on a larger scale someday, but I don't have much space around the houseright now to keep the 'supplies' until I'm suitably inspired. (Although, given how practically every shirt I own is now stained from various baby emitting substances and we don't have any money for new clothes right now, I have a feeling you may be seeing some stain hiding refashioning sooner than later!) But in the meantime, I've completed a couple 'refashioning' of sorts projects to spiff up some previously generated projects for new recipients.

First up, I had made the Debbie Bliss Shawl-Collared Jacket from Baby Knits for Beginners as a baby gift for my niece...only at the time we didn't know if she was going to be a niece or a nephew. My sister-in-law offered to mail it back to me so that we could use it for Elliott, since my niece has long since out grown it. My niece had gotten quite a bit of wear out of it. In fact, not only had she worn it...but she had worn the buttons right off of it! I loved these little buttons. They were super cute, but (note to self) plastic novelty buttons may not always hold up to the demands of a toddler. Since its easier to get notions here (rather than in the small town in France where my niece lives), it came back with just one little button still attached. I wish I had taken a picture before I took off the button and the rest of the broken button backs. But after all I am a bad blogger, so no before shot, other than to show you what it looked like on my niece:

By the way, she may actually be the happiest child...EVER!

So my sole refashioning task was to add new buttons. But given that this was one of the first crafty things I did after giving birth, it was a large enough task at the time. I was inspired by the wood buttons Nonnahs had added to the BSJ she knit for Elliott, Pine (here), so I picked out some appropriate wooden buttons for the Grandpa Sweater (as I call it) and came up with this:

Now I am anxiously awaiting for Elliott to be big enough to wear it!

The other little 'refashioning' project I did, was to up the style factor on some burp cloths I made 'en mass' prior to Elliott's arrival. I had a couple unused pink ones that I thought might be perfect for Nonnahs' Bean. I had originally left them without any additionaly decoration, but thought Nonnahs would like a little bright ribbon accent:


So with the help of a long nap time, I was able to sew on a strip of ribbon to both sides of each cloth for a complete 'Shannonizing' of these burp cloths:

You may have noticed the colors in this ribbon are very similar to our blog colors...and that was very intentional. Originally I had planned to use a brown and pink ribbon as an accent, but the ribbon was misplaced the day I went to work on this project, so the ribbon was substituted...and I'm actually much happier with this version. Nonnahs loves bright, happy colors, so I think this color combo suits her more.

And finally, since I can't really post a crafty post without sharing a current photo of my favorite 'project' ever, here's Elliott enjoying his Baby Einstein excer-station-saucer-thing:


He's growing up so fast! He turned 16 weeks yesterday (*gasp*) and I'm amazed at his finger and hand control. (I could literally watch his hands move all day!) He is truely fascinated by the world around him and what his body can do. I've also been back to work for the last 4 weeks, which is still an adjustment, but I think its going as well as it could. Elliott spends his days with daddy (who is a student) and then I take over when I get home late afternoon. Fortunately, I'm only working 4 days a week right now (way to go bad economy! ;) so that's making it a bit easier, despite our painfully reduced income. All in all, I consider us truly blessed and I couldn't ask for anything more. Take care everyone and more projects to come!

Return to Crafting

Wow. So there was a blog silence for you! Things have certainly been busy around these parts, so unfortunately blogging has been a bit slow on all three of our ends. And we managed to miss our blogiversary yet again. I still can't believe we've been keeping this girl going for more than 4 years! But I have to say its in large part because of all of you. So thank you for stopping by and sharing your comments, experiences and lives with us over the last 4 years!

As for what I've been up to, I can finally share some of the crafting that has been taking place at my house. After Elliott's birth in February, it took me quite a while to feel adjusted enough in my new role to take on crafting projects. But things have settled in, I feel great and Elliott is an awesome little man. So beginning in the middle of April, I started up some projects. However, since they were for Nonnahs' baking-Bean, they were top secret! Well, I was able to gift the gifties last weekend and can finally share them here.

First up is a little skirt, Caiden's Skirt (Rav Link), that I started mid-January and finished up a few weeks ago.

It was a great little project. It knit up quick, on size 8 and 6 needles, and I think it is totally adorable. As soon as I saw it pop up in my Ravelry friend's activity, I knew Bean needed a little skirt. After my experience getting more than plenty of blue clothes for Elliott, I also knew that this skirt would not be pink. I happened to have a ball of Lime Cotton Ease and paired it with some left over Violet Cotton Ease I also had on hand. The little tie at the waist is optional, but I liked the stylistic detail of it. However, it looked a little lonely hanging out there once I was done. So I improved some little florets:

I made these by crocheting the contrast yarn onto the end of the tie, then chaining up about 4 or 5 stitches then reattaching the loop to the base. I repeated this about 4 or 5 times for each floret. I'm not sure what all the proper crochet terms are, but hopefully I described it well enough.

I also wanted to gift Nonnahs a set of these little Gerber long sleeve wrap shirts. I LOVED these shirts for Elliott. They are perfect for Southern California as little cardigans over onesies or other short sleeved tops, since most of the time you don't need to be bundled up, just have something on your arms to keep the breeze off. But the plain white 'cardigans' were aching for some embellishment. These took on many different incarnations in my head and ultimately I decided that some appliques were in order. I was inspired by the lady bug that Melissa did here for this one:

Elliott was kind enough to model them for me :)

Only I made it a little more stylistic using some scraps I had leftover from Nonnahs' wedding quilt. I also used some of the leftover black to make this bumble bee:

I used some yellow scraps from this quilt and repurposed a little shear scarf for the wings. They were both super fast and easy little projects and I was able to do all the applique work during one of Elliott's nice long afternoon naps. (I love when these happen! I just wish you could count on them!)

Anyway, I have a few more 'refashioned' projects to share as well as a couple new knit projects but clearly given the amount of my blog content lately, I'll be posting about those separately!

Bedrest Yarn Challenge

Bedrest will do some crazy things to a normally sane person...which I'm not really claiming to be. I have in the past decided to do semi-irrational or bizarre things with my crafting projects. And being confined to one's house for more than 6 weeks will certainly fuel such behavior.

So the background on this challenge is this: Last April or so, I started the Jo Jo Basic Crew Sweater from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms as a shower gift for my boss who was pregnant at the time. I picked up 4 hanks of Bernat Soy Natural Blends (two Flax, one Seasalt and one Celery) at our local Michaels. The idea being that I would knit the sweater from the Flax and Seasalt (she was having a boy) and then knit booties or something else with the Celery. I picked out this yarn because it was 'non-knitter-friendly' (i.e. washable and soft to the touch). It was also on clearance for $2 a ball (i.e. a bonus). The problem was that I ended up hating the yarn. It was crazy slippery as well as had the occasional knot or strange over-spun bit that I couldn't splice together like wool. I had to start new strands each time I came across one of these blemishes. It was a pain. Around this time, I also started having major problems with my hands. So I decided to sew her gifts instead and retire this sweater.

I previously mentioned that since I'd been home, I was busy finishing up stalled out projects. I looked at the 3/4 finished Jo Jo Sweater...realized I was also having a boy...and decided to finish it up.

Pattern: Jo Jo Basic Crew Sweater from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms
Needles: 4 and 5
Yarn: Bernat Soy Natural Blends in Flax (1.5 balls) and Seasalt (.75 balls)

But then I realized I had a full ball of Celery left as well as some decent leftovers in the Flax and Seasalt. Now, normally, (given my *love* for this yarn), I would have just donated the rest of it. However, I needed something to preoccupy myself so...I decided a hat for our boy was was in order. I flipped through my books until I found this lovely three-color option, which I made 'newborn' smaller using my smaller gauge:

Pattern: Bobbled Topper from Boho Baby Knits by Kat Coyle (by the way...this was the first time I knit out of my lovely signed copy of this book and I can't wait to knit more! Thanks Kat for a great book and thanks Nonnahs for getting it signed and giving it to me!!)
Needles: 4 and 5
Yarn: Bernat Soy Natural Blends in Flax (.3 balls), Seasalt (.25 balls), and Celery (.2 balls)

Now obviously this didn't use up all the Celery, but it did get most of the Flax and Seasalt out of the way...but not as much as I'd hoped! So back to Natural Knits and I knit up a modified stripe beanie hat like so:

Pattern: "Modified" Boy Beanie Hat from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms
Needles: 4 and 6
Yarn: Bernat Soy Natural Blends in Flax (.2 balls), Seasalt (.04 balls), and Celery (.4 balls)

This used up the Seasalt and was left with a couple yards of Flax and about .4 balls of Celery. The bootie pattern from this book is cute and I thought I would have just enough Celery for the booties and could use the rest of the Flax for the contrasting tie, so again, I cast on...

Pattern: Boy's Booties from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms
Needles: 5
Yarn: Bernat Soy Natural Blends in Flax (1.3 yards) and Celery (.25 balls)

But gosh darn it! I still ended up with Celery leftovers!! ARG!! The next pattern in the book was for mittens. Now (and B will most certainly agree with me on this point) this is really where I started to loose touch...just a bit. We live in San Diego. The idea that this baby of ours will ever need mittens...while not on a snowboarding trip...is practically nill. But, I was on a mission! So, I knit a mitten and then got through the ribbing on the second one and ran out of yarn! Dude. I was so close! B was like, well, I think your project is over...and I did very nearly toss the mitten and a half in the garbage...but well, I'm somewhat of a conservationist...and the idea of throwing out a whole mitten did not sit well. So, believe it or not, I ripped out what I did down to the ribbing section on both mitts. Since the ribbing was meant to fold over, I shortened the ribbing section so there was no fold and thus saved that yarn...which was enough for me to make the two mittens:

Pattern: Mittens from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms
Needles: 3 and 4
Yarn: Bernat Soy Natural Blends in Celery (.15 balls)

And that left me with this:


Trash. And if you were paying attention, that also meant that I made a sweater, two hats, a pair of booties and a pair of mittens for $8! Plus, it kept me (in)sane while I was cooped up in our place for the last couple weeks. All in all, a fun and productive little game. The best part being...I don't ever have to knit with that yarn again! Ha!

Boleros for Moms and Babies

Thanks everyone for all of your nice comments on my Tilted Duster! I was actually able to wear it out yesterday and I felt so stylish and cute :) And given that I more or less haven't left either a hospital room or our condo for the last 8 weeks, haven't had a hair cut since the beginning of November (those of you with short hair will understand what a big deal this is) and waddle when I walk...I would call that a success! ;)

37 weeks and counting!

As for me and baby, yesterday marked the beginning of our 37th week! This means that he is officially full-term! *big sigh of relief!* This also means that my doctor has released me from bedrest! While I certainly didn't immediately jump up and run a marathon...8 weeks of laying around does a number on your body let me tell you!..I am gradually upping my activity level. B's been able to take me out a little the last couple days...even if it is just for quick trips to the library or store and it feels amazing! I'm slow and exhausted, but I really don't care :)

In the knitting front, I used a good portion of my time at home to complete some long languishing projects and begin a little personal yarn challenge (a post to come on this soon). First up is the Two Tone Shrug from Fitted Knits that I began a year ago December.

Nothing super intriguing to report on this one. Its a simple, pretty basic pattern that I knit on the recommended needle sizes (8s and 5s). Although if I were to do this over again, I would knit the ribbing on larger needles. I was able to block them out for width, but lost some in length, so it lost a bit of its dramatic effect I think.

The yarn is Manos 100% wool with the body knit from a hank and a smidge of the multicolor brown (112) and the ribbing knit in a little over a hank (literally 3 rounds out of the new hank) in chocolate brown (G).

I also knit up a Baby Bolero from One Skein (on size 8 and 9 needles) with about 2/3rds of a hank of Rio de la Plata Lana del Artista, which is a nice handspun combination of Aqua Green, Chinese Violet and Ceylon Yellow (at least according to the label).

This was a special little project because I bought this yarn from the Green Thread knitting store on our way back from our snowboarding trip to Mammoth last March. That week we had decided to start our family and I picked up this cute gender neutral yarn to make a little something for our prospective baby. I fell in love with the colors on the hank and it continued to delight me as I knit the bolero. I added the picture below so that you could see the color range a bit better. However, the natural light we've had lately is making it difficult to capture the yellows and greens, which are brighter in real life.

I guess that's it for me for now. I will be back to talk about by strange yarn compulsion project as soon as its finished...which should be any day now. In the meantime, have a wonderful weekend!

blender bread, booties, and other misc. crafting

Christmas has come a little early here. Last week we received our Christmas present from B's folks: a new blender...and spent last weekend blending all manner of foods. One of the things this handy dandy machine lets you do is make your own whole wheat flour and then make dough for fresh wheat bread.

Here's the flour after the blender pulverized the whole wheat berries:


And the dough...which is nothing more than the fresh flour, water, yeast and some honey:


And here's the bread, which was super tasty!:


I've also been doing a bit of knitting, which you probably wouldn't have guessed given my more recent sewing posts. I made a pair of Saartje's Booties (free pdf and on Ravelry here) for a co-worker's baby girl. I knit them out of about a 1/3 hank of Knit Picks Sock Landscape yarn from my stash. These were super fun and fairly simple to knit. The best part was when the little toe took shape - it made me super happy.


I also started a Tilted Duster (Ravelry link) made out of some Rowan Magpie I've had in my stash for a very long time. I think it will be a perfect during-and-after-pregnancy sweater.

I've already knit the back and the fronts and almost one sleeve. I didn't bother with progress photos because nothing is blocked and frankly all the pieces look like nondescript gray rolled tubes at this point. I'm trying to power through the sleeves so that I can get to the skirt as fast as possible. It seems like people have been able to knit this sweater pretty quickly and I really need some longer sweaters now that my normal ones are starting to look short over my maternity shirts.

However, I've also been distracted by the cutest of flannels on sale at Joann's this week:

These are destined to be more burp cloths and bibs...I just can't help myself...They are so cute and so cheap to make!

It's a....

So, I'm sure you are anxiously awaiting the details of Nonnahs' fabulous wedding last weekend, but except for confirming that it was indeed most fabulous, I'm going to let her share the details once she returns from her honeymoon. In the meantime, my plan is to fill in with baby news and baby projects!

We had our 20 week ultrasound last Wednesday and we did find out the gender...Final guesses everyone?

It's a boy! Here is one of my favorite photos:

I love his little frog legs :) Everything seems normal (and boy does this little guy move!) except he has ever-so-slightly enlarged kidneys, so we will probably need to have a follow up ultrasound in another couple months. We've also had the privilege of being stuck in the cycle of 'abnormal' Down Syndrome screening results, which sounds scary, but is really just a probability game. In the end (after a genetic counseling appointment and another more detailed ultrasound yesterday), we've decided that we aren't going to do any further testing and just go with it. I'm not stressing about it and our guts tells us he is healthy. Besides, if his current activity level is any indicator, we are going to have our hands full once he is out and about! Ack!

I also thought I would share a little 20 week tummy update. I took this in Hawaii at one of Nonnahs' favorite beach spots:

As for projects, I finished up my version of the Get Ziggy sweater (Ravelry link here).

I knit the 12 month size with one hank and a little more (maybe 1.1) of Dream in Color Classy in the colorway Spring Tickle on size 8 (and 6 for the ribbing) needles. This was a great pattern! It was also the first baby knit I've finished that actually seemed to be fast to me. Not really anything else to say about this one since everything was straight forward and the yarn was fabulous!

I've also finished up some sewing projects. I made up half a dozen burp cloths using my leftover fabric from my quilt class quilt (btw - I bet these colors make a lot more since now that you know we were thinking about starting our family at the time!) and cloth diapers.

I used this tutorial but without any embelishments (it was hard to find ribbon or bias tape to match all three color sets and I didn't want to buy something different for each one...this was a stash busting project after all!).

I also made another half of a dozen burp cloths from this tutorial (burping cloths) with two flannel prints.

I had planned to follow this other tutorial originally, but was going to modify them without the batting and without the fringe, so when my sister-in-law forwarded me a link to the other tutorial, I just followed that one instead (since it didn't require me actually re-making the pattern piece).

I also made a little travel blanket (instructions courtesy of my friend Cora) with the rest of the duck flannel and a piece of complementary print cotton. Again, I left off any embellishments and just kept it simple.

And while we now know that this baby will be a boy, I'm still planning to continue to make unisex projects because like I said before...you never know what will come next!

A February Sweater for a February Baby

Wow! I had no intention of taking such a long blog holiday! First and foremost - thank you so much for all of your kind comments and well wishes for this little growing baby that is slowly but surely taking up more and more space in my mid-section. I'm currently at 18 weeks and we are set for our 20 week ultrasound in about a week and a half. Initially we were going to wait and see how we felt at the time of the ultrasound to decide whether or not we'd find out the sex. But seriously, picking out names is hard and stressful! So, at this point, we are planning to find out!

Anyway, over the last few weeks I've been busy, busy, busy. Given that a certain someone is getting married this month, my biggest project has been unbloggable. But, I was able to give Nonnahs her gift last night, so expect another finished object post in the near future!

I've also been knitting again. I've discovered the secret to Dis's Happy Hands is continental knitting...exclusively. I had tried to go back to knitting with my right hand after my last break and it was just too much. I now use my left hand for everything, except binding off (I still can't get the yarn out of the way - how do you people do it!?!). I also used the excuse of baby knitting to pick out some fabulously squishy worsted wool yarn - Dream in Color Classy, which has also been very hand friendly.

The product of my latest knitting efforts has been a February Baby Sweater for a certain February baby of mine:

This was my first experience knitting an Elizabeth Zimmermann pattern. While I appreciate that she doesn't spoon feed you line-by-line instructions, I am glad I didn't try to tackle this one as a new knitter. There were several things you just have to know how to do. She provides the ingredients, but you need to put the recipe together. It was a great pattern and otherwise pretty straight forward. I did get a little bogged down with the lace for a while, but I got my mojo back once I realized how close I was to finishing!

I used just about exactly one hank of Classy in the color Cocoa Kiss on size 6 needles (for the main body knitting). I did have to shorten the body by about a 1/2 inch to do this though. The yarn is wonderful! The colors are so great and the mottled nature of the variegation is very subtle and not distracting, but still just as enchanting to knit. I picked out this color first because I've loved it for a long time (and needed a good excuse to buy it!), but secondly because I thought it would be nice for either a boy or a girl. The color would look very elegant on a little girl, but also tone down the lace for a boy.

I've already decided that all the baby knitting I will be doing will be gender neutral because even though we will be finding out ahead of time what we are having, we certainly don't know who will be coming next. And I would like to use these hand knits for more than one baby! So along that line, I wanted to show you the other wee little sweater currently on my needles:

You probably recognize this as the Get Ziggy (Rav link) sweater that Nonnahs did such a lovely job on here. It is such a great little sweater and in this fun green (also Classy in the color Spring Tickle), I think it will be great for a boy or a girl. But I think my favorite part of this project is that when Nonnahs and I were talking about potential baby projects one day, we IMed each other the link for this pattern at the exact same time! Great minds must think alike ;-)

FO: Lucas Baby Set

Yes, I've been knitting! Good thing, too. The year o' baby knits has officially commenced. We are lucky to know a few moms-to-be this year. This suits me fine, as there isn't much I enjoy knitting more than baby gear! This set is for B's cousin's baby, born just last week.

You know me, I love shoes no matter how tiny, so I couldn't resist knitting a pair of booties. For a change of pace, I decided to steer away from the old stand-by and test drive a new bootie pattern.

Lucas Booties
Pattern: Boy's and Girl's Booties from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms by Louisa Harding
Yarn: Pakucho Organic Cotton in Chocolate - less than 1 skein for both booties
Needles: US6

These are so cute and I like that it has the drawstring around the ankle for added security (theoretically - I'll have to get back to you on that).

And far be it from me to cover a person's feet without regard for their head, so here's to another favorite accessory of mine- hats! I whipped up this little thing in no time. I just love the stripes!

Lucas Beanie
Pattern: Beanie Hat from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms by Louisa Harding
Yarn: Pakucho Organic Cotton in Natural and Chocolate- less than 1 skein of each
Needles: US5 and US7

This was my first time working with the Pakucho, but it won't be my last. It's a really good cotton yarn, and of course I love that it's organic.

I'm sorry, but I am a sucker for cute, little baby knits. I may have found my calling...