Tuesday, October 13, 2015

A baby coat

I've had this pattern, Baby Tiered Coat and Jacket in my queue forever, yet after 7 new nieces I still never bought the pattern. Now that I'm 33 weeks pregnant and finally purchased the pattern and started working on it. The pattern is simple, the design is adorable, and I am almost mad at myself for not buying it earlier and making one for each of those nieces. The only thing keeping me from feeling mad is the fact that 100% of those nieces were born in summer.
So I bought the yarn at an adorable LYS in San Mateo, CA on October 10th. 3 skeins Cascade 128 superwash, knowing that since I'm making the smallest size (0-3 months) I will very likely only need 2, but getting that extra ball as insurance. Wound the wool on October 11th and then finally cast on for the neck on October 12th. I knit the collar through separating for the underarms in one go as my husband napped nearby.
I got tired of sitting, and took a 30 minute walk. When I got back my husband had woken and we decided to watch a movie.
During the movie (Tremors 5, which has a 99 minute run-time and was totally worth it) I almost completed the body.
At which point I put it aside and went to sleep.
Today was busy- on the go for most of the day and when I finally was able to sit down and would have had ample time to knit, my hands and feet were swollen and it was all I could do to just sit on the couch with my legs elevated. I did manage to knit one sleeve and after that I weaved in all of the loose ends that had added up, which means I'll only have two ends to weave in later.
That small ball of yarn in the corner is all that is left of the second skein so rather than deal with an extra set of ends to weave in I just wound up the third ball and will knit the second sleeve with that. I plan on using the leftovers to make a little matching hat and maybe little booties too if I can find a good pattern for it. I swear that if I wasn't pregnant, I would have had this done already! But then again if I wasn't pregnant, I wouldn't be knitting this to begin with...
In other news, I have an ultrasound on Thursday, during which I really hope they don't tell me they were wrong about the gender. Because this little coat is too freaking cute for me to find out I'm having another boy after all!
Oh well. I still need to find some buttons, too.

Monday, October 5, 2015

Finished Object: Etude In Stripes Cardigan

I finally finished my sweater, 5 days too late to enter it into the KAL I was thinking of entering it in. (Knitting Expat's September KAL)

Oh well.

It is loose but still cute, slouchy but not too slobby, big enough to wrap around my entire baby belly (I'm thinking once I have the baby it will look cute belted), and most importantly incredibly amazingly excruciatingly warm.

I am the first one in my house to feel the cold- my husband likes sleeping with the fan on year-round, and I like snuggling under the covers even in the summer. During the winter I try not to stray too far from the fireplace, and will often wear MANY layers- a cami, a fitted tee, a long sleeve shirt, a larger shirt, a light sweater, and a jacket on top sounds great to me and that's in my backyard in California. Let's not even entertain the possibility of going to the snow! This sweater will probably cut out the need for like at least half of my layers, it is so warm.

The alpaca does shed a little, and the contrasting color is actually a mohair blend as it turns out so that sheds a little bit too, and it's not itchy which is a relief. In the photos I'm wearing only a spaghetti strap under it and it feels surprisingly comfortable.

My favorite thing about this sweater is that it was made with 100% stash yarn! That is a great feeling, for sure. I can't wait to pick out my next project. Something about my life now (probably how busy I am!) has transformed me into a mostly monogamous knitter, which is very different for me but also really cool because it seems like things get finished faster. I'm sort of torn between something else for the baby (I have some beautiful purple Simply Soft that I could use), a Plum Blossom Tee for which I have the pattern and yarn already but which simply won't fit until far into next year and why even work on a tee when it's going to be winter!?, or something using my giant pile of Cascade Ecological Wool, or maybe using up the thick black cotton that I bought ages ago which is the softest thing on the planet and wants to be a sweater which would be boring to knit but great to wear. I'm just not sure what project will jump out at me, but either way I have to weave in the ends to my sweater first!