I know the answer - I haven't had any time to knit a maternity sweater! - but after ripping a seam on one of my favorite store-bought normal-sized (and cashmere!) sweaters, I'm asking myself again.

Luckily, it's just the seam that came apart when I tried to squeeze my 8 month pregnant body into it (I was able to wear the sweater two weeks ago, darn it!). I think I may be able to weave it back together. Until then, no more regular sweaters for me. To paraphrase Plankton from SpongeBob Squarepants: "It's becoming increasingly obvious. I can deny it no longer! I am big."

With all the baby preparations, I've fallen behind in my design commitments. I absolutely had to take a couple days off to get the baby room ready though - if wee one came early, I'd be behind on my work and she'd have no bed! But now that her room at least looks like her room (no more office, no more computers, but I still have to unpack several boxes of baby stuff and then move my yarn stash!), I could get back to design work. Which meant finishing a sweater in a week. Thankfully, I'd had the pattern all worked out. And my knitting friends came to my rescue with knitting and notions!

I hope you'll be seeing more of this sweater sometime later this year. We'll see!

No not the baby, the book!

the cover's still in final design stages,
but the final version should look similar to this

Yes, I've been working on a book - Charmed Knits: Projects for Fans of Harry Potter - (when boys and baby on the way have allowed me) for the last year and it's almost time! And what a time it is - the book should come out in May and the next Harry Potter movie and book are both coming out right afterwards in July. The book is chock full of fun HP patterns by me and other designers I'm sure you know, as well as many knitter/fans turned designers you might not know. Stay tuned to this blog for details and some sneak peeks of the projects (and maybe even a pattern preview)! And you know we're going to do some Potter-knitalonging 'round here, right?

After I finished the big sweater design project that was hanging over my head, I started trying to think of a simple and easy project to start knitting to relax: a fun pinafore for baby maybe; a little matinee coat; one of those post-pregnancy sweaters for myself.... Then that evening while I was putting him to bed, S asked me, with a sad little look on his face, if I could start knitting his blanket that night. Okay, project picked.

S had previously insisted that the blankie look exactly like his old one and now he was focused it being red and blue and having "a pattern". He would talk about a blue stripe then a red stripe then a blue stripe and I was worried that he wanted me to do the lace pattern in intarsia with blue and red stripes. Aaack! But then when he explained it again that night, I realized he was talking about patterns like they do in kindergarten: as a color sequence - just red, blue, red, blue, red, blue. He didn't want any of the lace he said; it just had to have stripes. He told me I could look through my books and find something with that pattern and that would be fine. So I did.

I found this cool afghan pattern in Sarah Dallas Knitting. It's called "Block-striped Afghan" and is miles long and uses a bunch of colors S didn't want, but I'm paring it down. S has approved one long red strip and a second strip with a blue, red, blue, red, blue, red pattern. I picked out more Lamb's Pride (yes, he stayed adamant that it be knit out of Lamb's Pride) and he's so excited to see it started!

It's not anywhere as long as his first blankie, but at 36", it'll be plenty big. And best of all, it's got the long garter stitch edge that S loves to run through his fingers so much.

Oh and while I was leafing through that book finding the blankie pattern for S, I found one for wee one too. She'll be getting a version of this lovely "Three-textured Afghan" with subtle checkerboard patterns. I picked out Cascade 220 and Ella Rae worsted wool for it in colors as close to the original as I could find. I'll adjust the size like I'm doing for S's blankie - absolutely no bigger than 36" square.

But it's going to be so pretty!

PS - Many of you have asked in the comments how I care for the wool blankies. The boys' original blankies are also 100% wool and not superwash. I just wash them in the bathtub in lukewarm water when they need it. I like to use a wool wash like Soak that you don't have to rinse out to prevent the temperature change and squeezing that often happens when rinsing and can cause a little felting. But even when I used regular old Eucalan, I didn't have any problems with the blankets. I roll them up in a towel or two to blot out excess water and then lay them out to dry on a couple of bathmats. Give 'em a day to dry thoroughly and they're ready to return to their messy little owners. Yes, Virgina, you can wash wool - just not in the washing machine!

Remember ol' jess, which I knit for my mother but she didn't end up liking the fit of? At the beginning of my pregnancy, I was looking forward to wearing it as a maternity sweater and now it's just perfect!

I wear it all the time. I have a couple of other sweaters that are still big enough for me to fit into (all store-bought sweaters from the big sweater era of the 90's!) but this is the only sweater that doesn't make me feel all bulky and big and blechy. The shape is more like a shawl than a some tent-like sweater and the cotton angora is light but still cozy warm.

I'm so glad that jess finally found her calling!

I've picked up the baby geek sweater again finally! The intended recipient is approaching six months now and since he's a big boy, I've got to get this sweater done now!

I'm finally ready to start the final piece - that crazy swirly front. It starts from the center with little triangles in each color and then increasingly larger triangles picked up and knitted off of those.

The tiny center pieces, all the picking up stitches and weaving in ends, uh, not fun. But the larger it gets, the better it's going. I can do it! And I'm hoping that baby sweater class at the store will help me keep me motivated. If only wee one will wait until I finish this little knitting commitment!

look, even the crazy knitted boot has a home!

The stash is now finally at home in wee one's room! What an undertaking it is to move your whole stash. I had to put everything on the bed for a day while the storage unit was moved down to its new spot.

it all fits on a queen sized bed - that's not so much, right? - heh, heh

Yikes! It seemed like I'd never get it all put away, but little by little, I got it all back in the cubbyholes. Then I could finally hang up all the sweet little booties my knitting pals made for wee one.

and these are just the ones that will fit her in the first few months!

Now I feel like her room is finally finished and ready for her.

Happy Valentine's day!

I'm up early unable to sleep after a long day of kid dentist appointments, new car shopping and buying decisions, and teaching. I didn't have a single moment yesterday to sit down until late evening and then what I really needed was some blankie knitting warm fuzzies.

Thanks to my knit fix, the second strip of S's blankie is now well underway with the blue, red, blue... stripe pattern coming out nicely. S saw the red strip blocking and has already asked if I'm going to end up sewing the two together. So smart! He says he likes it and it's just how he wanted it, but I'll have to wait and see if it really captures his heart the way his first blankie did.

Get this: when I picked the boys up from school yesterday to bring them to the car dealership to help pick out a new car, S said we had to go home real quick for him to get something. I thought he wanted a quick treat or drink - or the inevitable poorly timed bathroom stop - but instead he rushed in and grabbed the little version of his old blankie and brought that with him to the dealership. Surprising, strange (since he never uses that small blankie), but nice.

I couldn't resist starting wee one's blanket! S's isn't done yet, but since I'm still well under the "90 day yarning" deadline, I let all that pretty pink tempt me and cast on.

This is actually the start of the second strip. The purple wasn't calling to me quite as loudly as the pink, so I'm starting with pink and block pattern number two. There will be three different block patterns - one for each color section - and let me just say, doing a little pattern is turning out to be much slower than knitting all that stockinette on S's blankie!

Luckily wee one doesn't know about the 90 day rule!

I guess I'll find out, as I have been asked to knit a second version of the design project I knit up and finished just two weeks ago. I'm one week and four pieces in to the reknitting. Will I make it before wee one comes?

(sorry, no pics on this one!)

The knitting job is perfect for me during this resting and waiting phase of the pregnancy. We finally have a new car that we can all fit in and all the final touches are done in baby's room, so I am completely in rest mode until wee one decides to show up. Knit one, breathe two... for as long as she lets me.

S has been ready for his new blankie for days. He could see that the second strip was almost done and would ask me every night if I was going to sew it together. He'd tell me that if I finish it while he's sleeping, I should slip it in his bed and take his old blankie out. What a big boy! I was so proud of him, I made sure to spend some time over the weekend to finish it up.

The crochet seam was easy and fast. I had to redo it a couple of times to deal with the two strips not being exaaaactly the same length, but it was still a breeze. Sarah Dallas really has me sold on these strip-style blankets - so much more pleasant to knit and piece together than an afghan made with dozens of squares! And voila, finished blankie...

S loves it! He wanted to cuddle with it right away on the sofa and try out the edging.

Then he got his old blankie and brought it down to give to me for safekeeping. He talked to it as he carried it down: "I have a new blankie and you are tearing apart. I'm bringing you to mommy." I'll be wrapping it up as a keepsake from his childhood.

So that's one blankie down and one very satisfied customer.

Right, I didn't even get the whole question out before B asked for a new blankie of his own. I saw him sitting on his bed the other day snuggling with his blankie and I went up to him, gave him a hug and asked if he still loved his blankie. He said, "yes... (pause)... I was just going to ask if I could have a new blankie." And I said, "of course." Well, it's only fair, right?

B described what he sort of wanted and it was very similar to what S has and wee one is getting, so I went back to Sarah Dallas for another afghan pattern to use. B only wants two strips, two colors, so I'll be using one of these Half and Half Afghan patterns from the Sarah Dallas Knitting book.

(I've got to tell you, I NEVER imagined that I'd knit so many things out of this book! And never so many blankets. It was a pretty book, and, I'll admit it, sort of an impulse buy and once I had it, I wasn't really quite sure why I'd gotten it. I leafed through it again a couple of weeks ago though when I reorganized my knitting books and that's when all the blanket patterns caught my eye. And since I was in the market to knit a couple of new blankets, it was really serendipitous.)

So off we went to the yarn store for yarn. B wanted yellow (of course) and since I've always wanted to use it, I pushed him a little towards the Cascade 220 Superwash and the fabulously fun bright blue. He insisted on white for the contrast edging and there we have it, another blankie ready to be made.

I asked S to remind B of just how long it takes to yarn a blankie. Know what he said? "Uhhh... one day?" Thanks for the help, bud.

I'm on to the next texture pattern and the next pink of wee one's blankie. I'm loving how this strip is coming out.

The first pink pattern needs to be blocked (it shouldn't have that ribby look after blocking), but the second one is just perfect, so sweet and simple.

I really think this is a great idea for a baby blanket, mixing a few bold colors and textural patterns for lots of visual and tactile interest. I sure hope wee one likes her blankie the way that the boys have loved theirs.

Well, I'm cruising on that sweater design reknit I've got to do. So much so that I'm ready to put in the zipper!

Ooooh, which one will I use?

(And just for the record, I too am amazed at how much knitting I am getting done here. Two sweaters and one and a half blankies in a couple of weeks - can it really be that much? Of course, if I were more able-bodied, I'd be doing more housework and activities with the boys, but sitting on the sofa knitting is really all I can muster for a good portion of the day. It makes me think about just how much work I'd really been doing in the last few months if this is what I can get done in that same time. Wow.)

I know he said he just wanted a long yellow strip and a long blue strip and "no pattern", but I was too bored doing the stockinette. Sooooo, I took "no pattern" to mean "no color stripes" (like in S's blanket) and made an executive creative decision to add a texture pattern to B's blankie.

I really felt like this blankie needed some texture. The yellow and the blue B picked out were looking a little too baby-ish to me, and I got the idea that one of the fabulous texture patterns that Sarah Dallas uses in her book might make the yellow look more mature and also maybe boy it up a little. I think the long vertical lines will be very striking. And I'm happy to be doing some seed stitch after all those garter stitch edges from S's and wee one's blankies. I'm not sure yet if I'll add any texture to the blue strip. It might be alright on it's own, like S's long red strip, but we'll see.

B says he likes it, so it's all good so far.

This is what I did during the Academy Awards.

Thanks to the long Oscar show, the baby geek spiral sweater is finally nearing the finish line. The last time we saw the front, I'd worked three sets of triangles, just getting the spiral started. Now I'm through 6 of 8 times around and it's really starting to look like a spiral. To be honest, it's actually rather annoying to knit, but the end result is cool so I'm hanging in there and getting it done.

But oh man, am I nervous that this sweater will be too small already for its recipient. I glanced at my archives and was horrified to find that I bought the yarn for this project almost a year ago! It's pathetic how long it's taken me to complete it! I may have to stay on the sofa today watching the replay of E's Pre-Oscar show and finishing this sweater.

The red carpet and blue chenille - a perfect combination, right?

I was just thinking that the baby needed something blue. Thanks to my friends and family, wee one won't be stuck wearing only boy truck/soccer ball/train hand-me-downs; she's pretty set now with pink onesies and sleepers. And I made her a pink sweater and a white sweater and a purple sweater. But she should have something lovely and blue and girly too.

All I kept thinking about was baby pants, baby pants, baby pants, I gotta knit baby pants. It seemed like a good way to use up a small amount of yarn and when I saw the cool pants that B knit for her daughter and posted here at the baby bumpers blog, I knew I had to try making some. I ordered some blue jean blue Knitpicks Shine Sport (since Elinor gave it such a good review here) and pulled out Last-Minute Knitted Gifts to make the awesome little drawstring pants for wee one. (Check out the ones Mames made here!)

I've already got one leg done. I'm doing a little picot edge instead of the seed stitch to girl it up just a bit and I love how they're coming out! The Shine is sooooo soft it's unbelievable and I think the whole pair may only take two balls (um, that's $5 for a pair of pants, people - that's lower than babyGap prices!).

And then, as I started knitting my something blue for baby, I received a wonderful surprise package in the mail.

This beautiful little sweater was knit by Karen at wooly-minded. It is so sweet! And it's in a beautiful blue-purple shade of Rowan wool cotton. I just love the little squiggles along the edges. I remember seeing them for a while in some of the Rowan patterns and thinking they're cool, but there's no way I'd actually make all those! Thanks so much Karen for such a lovely, special gift.

And now baby will have some blue things. Blue girl things. Blue is good.

How ready are we?

I've even finished wee one's blankie, that's how ready we are!

Here's a close up of the panels of her three-textured blankie. The purple came out really nice. I like the all over checkerboard pattern in contrast to the subtler patterns of the other panels and the dark color and with the lighter pinks. And the red - I can't say enough about how perfect I think that red is. And just the right amount of it. If she doesn't love this blankie, I'd be thrilled to keep it for myself!

And now I really can't think of another thing that she could possibly be waiting on.