I'm making slow but steady progress on the front of the baby geek sweater and I'll admit, it's getting more and more fun to knit. I line up all my colors in a row just like a kid's watercolor set, dip my needle into one color for one section, then into another for the next section. It even sort of looks like a painting.

Progress is slow because I don't actually have much knitting time these days, as my new job is to is to walk around most of the day and try to show this baby the way out! So no more sitting and checking emails or knitting by numbers for me right now. I'm off to enlist gravity in my quest to have a baby!

Lots of panting here. No contractions, just pants knitting.

The Last-Minute Knitted Gifts pattern calls for rather long legs for the newborn size, even when following the special instructions to knit to schematic measurements and not instruction measurements when substituting a non-shrinking yarn for the denim. (I've never seen Joelle Hoverson, but I'm guessing she's very tall.) With the extra length in the legs, I had to dip into a third ball of the Shine, so now the pants have cost $7.50 to make. Still a bargain though for a fabulous yarn and a cute pair of pants!

I'll be adding some elastic to the waistband before I close the top hem and do the drawstring, since I agree with Elinor that it does help pants stay up better. And I can't help thinking it'll be more comfortable for the baby than really tying the pants snug. Ouch!

A second pair of baby pants is already in the planning stages too. I'm hooked!

The ticker says it's time.... but until things get going, work at the blankie factory continues.

The yellow strip of B's blankie is complete. Boy, did that take longer than the others! It was that seed stitch rib pattern, but I think it was worth it. I like the look of it, although I still haven't quite overcome my dislike of the yellow. It's just not the prettiest yellow in the crayon box, you know. But B is very excited about it and that's what really matters.

Meanwhile, S is loving his new blankie. He regularly feigns tiredness so he can grab some cuddle time with it on the sofa each day.

And wee one's blankie waits...

Shannon here -- and if I'm here, you know what that means!

Alison's contractions started yesterday, and she and hubby headed to the hospital at around seven this morning. They've promised to keep me posted, and I promise to update here as soon as I know more. In the meantime, keep those knitting fingers crossed for wee one's safe and happy arrival!

Update (10:47 a.m.): Just got a text message from Alison with this picture attached:

"Doing some baby knitting while i labor."

Here's hoping the next picture will be of something else small and pink!

Update (1:50 p.m.): The latest text message from Alison reports good progress! She seems upbeat, comfortable (at least comfortable enough to send text messages!), and excited to meet wee one. It should be pretty soon now!

Update: Baby L is here!

She's a hair over eight pounds, and both she and Alison are doing great. Congrats to Alison!

Alison says: "Doing great! Baby L is a joy."

It looks like Alison and the baby will be sent home tomorrow evening, but she's promised some more pics between now and then!

Here's the latest message -- with pictures! -- from Alison... I don't know about you guys, but these are the photos that I was most looking forward to!

--Shannon

The boys meet their baby sister!

They agreed that besides baby L, mommy's room is very boring. B said he liked my pretty dress (ie the hospital gown). And S asked if it hurt to poop the baby out. Love those boys!

- alison

"going home!"

...and with that, I'll hand the blog back over to Alison!

xoxo,
Shannon

mid September

late February

today

Look at those long fingers! Remember how we saw those long fingers in the ultrasound? They really were that long!

And remember the "big head" ultrasound comment? Well, as soon as the baby was out, the nurse actually said, 'I didn't want to say anything while you were pushing, but she's got a big head!' My doctor agreed. Still, her daisy hat was too big to wear home from the hospital, so she should be able to wear all the itty bitty hats I made for her. Phew!

Thanks so much to all of you for the warm wishes and congratulations and the funny comments. I'm still reading through all of them. I'm overwhelmed by your kindness as well as all the joys and responsibilities of having a new baby at home. And a big thanks to Shannon for posting. It was so fun sending all the pics and messages from the hospital!

So baby L ended up arriving exactly one day overdue. Just late enough so that I could finish the long overdue geek baby sweater! In fact, I dropped off the package at the post office the morning I started having contractions.

It turned out to be plenty big for fireman doll, so I'm moderately confident that it'll fit the little boy I knit it for.

A word about this Crystal Palace chenille... I do like it. The result is soft and washable and the colors are really awesome. I knit it down on US6's to be sure there wasn't any worming like you get sometimes with chenille when it's not knit tightly. The only thing that bothers me is its tendency to bias. The other baby sweater I've knit with this yarn also had this problem. It really shouldn't be noticeable when the baby is actually wearing the sweater, but it does make measuring and seaming a bit tricky and can make the final product look a little wonky when it's laid down flat.

The Loop-d-Loop pattern was really excellent though. The front was very clearly explained with an extremely helpful chart and the other body pieces were quite simple. I'm really glad that I finally got to make something from this unique book. It was long overdue.

Another thing I finished on the way to having a baby...

The drawstring pants from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts! I just love the color of the Knitpicks Shine - just like jeans, but oh so much softer. They were quick to knit up and someday I think I would like to make them with the denim, but for now I wanted soft, soft, soft for wee one. They're still way too big and long to try on her (and more importantly, wee one is still way too little to tolerate a try-on and photo session), but for now they look super cute sitting there waiting for her.

Wee one gets her blankie.

Wee one wears her LMKG hat.

Wee one wears cutie patootie tiny little booties from fellow Knitsmith, Dana.

Okay, so I'll admit it, I haven't knit but for a few minutes since baby L arrived. There just hasn't been much time where I was both awake and had my hands free. But I'm hoping that this new arrival will help motivate me to find some time.

It's a whole box full of gorgeous Shelridge Farms yarn from The Sweet Sheep (one of the cutest little online yarn stores there is!). I'll be working on a design for them and am really excited about it. This yarn is soooo soft and the colors are soooo awesome. And I desperately need to do some knitting again!

So just what was I knitting while I was in labor? More baby pants, of course! After finishing the drawstring pants from LMKG, I decided this time to just eyeball some babyGap pants and make up a little pattern for pretty pants for wee one. This is how far I got.

These still need their waistband, but all in all, they'll only take two balls of Knitpicks Shine and are going to be so freaking sweet I can hardly stand it!

Now this strip of B's blankie, I really like! The blue Cascade 220 Superwash is totally cool and the pattern of simple squares is very neat and crisp looking.

The stitch pattern, like the rib and seed pattern of the yellow strip, is from a pillow design in Sarah Dallas Knitting. It's enjoyable to knit, with each row of squares being a little goal for me to work towards each time I pick up the needles. Since baby L sleeps at night and screams during the day (which, I have to say, is vastly preferable to the alternative!), that means I don't get to pick up the needles that often. But still, I'm making progress, one row at a time. And B and I are both getting excited for this to be done!

The geek spiral sweater fits! And look at how adorable the baby geek himself looks in it.

Given the intelligence of his MIT-grad parents, this kid's going to be a genius. Which is why this picture is all the more funny!

I'm sure he's contemplating the conservation of matter or something wicked smart like that.

While I was working on my book and making a baby of my own, a couple of cousins had babies. I felt bad that I didn't get to make sweaters for the new little ones. Last night, in one of those moments where baby gives mommy just what she needs to make it through another day, baby L let me get started on a sweater for one of them.

you can tell the sun's gone down because she's not screaming!

If L lets me, I'll be making another Tea for Two sweater from Louisa Harding's Miss Bea's Rainy Day. I really enjoyed knitting the one I made last year and the final sweater is so sweet with the hugs and kisses cable pattern. I'm using some Jo Sharp classic wool in cherry red that I had leftover from a project for the book. I can say from experience that the Jo Sharp yarn knits up really nice, especially in cables. (Oooh, what could that book project be?? Tee hee.)

Oh baby, it feels good to knit a little bit again!

Okay, maybe not a-whole-nother blanket. But there are still more stitch patterns and color blocks in that Sarah Dallas Knitting book that I want to try out.

For example, I adore this little diamond pattern. In the book it's on a beautiful (and white!) laundry bag. But I'm not sure about a knitted laundry bag. What do you all think? Wee one does need a hamper. And I do have a lot of stash yarn (this is some Tahki cotton classic from my stash). Should I do it?

I finally came up with a reason to make this adorable owl toy from Lucinda Guy's book, And So to Bed.... (It'll be a gift for a friend's baby.)

This pattern was one of the things that really sold me on this book (I never would have thought that I'd find so many things I wanted to make in a knitting book with a bedtime theme, but as soon as I'm done with this owl, I'm gonna make the Lula doll for wee one, and then there's the cute kid's tank and the long robe sweater and the funny bunny doll with it's own clothes...). Just look at how clear the instructions are for these stuffed animals. Now that's a good pattern!

My only criticism is the standard annoyance that the British designers are all about knitting things flat and seaming them when you could totally knit them more efficiently in one piece. See all those pieces? You're supposed to knit two identical pieces for each wing, ear, etc. and then seam them together. Since I can't think of any reason to really do it this way, I'm not. Just call me another rebellious American!

The pattern calls for Rowan Cashsoft DK and as I happened to have leftovers of just the right brown from a design project, I jumped right in. Fellow knitsmith, Dani, helped out with leftovers of other colors.

I've got the wings (which look exactly like little Mercury spacecraft, don't they?), the tail, and the scarf done so far. But I'll have to wait for more brown yarn to start the body. Wouldn't you know that all the stores are out of this color right now. Grrrr. Still, there are plenty of tiny little "Otto" parts to knit and seam (yes, I still have to do one seam on each of them) and keep me busy until it arrives.

I do believe I like the hugs and kisses sweater (officially "Tea for Two" from Louisa Harding's Miss Bea's Rainy Day) even more in red.

And even wee one looks cuter in her red Cadenza pixie hat!

In case you missed my updated message in the sidebar, yes, there is finally news to report! My master webmaster is working on the database and sign-up system this week. Woo hoo!

We're making lots of changes so that the whole process can be more automated and I have more time to spend with baby L. For example, folks should be able to look up their sock pal's info on their own and even see who needs a sock savior without my having to send out dozens of emails. And we can all post our updates on a sockapalooza blogspot blog that wee one and I have been working on all weekend. Instead of me or sock sisters writing up "tuesday is knitalong day" updates, we'll be having Tuesday Sock Watcher days, where everyone becomes a sock watcher and is invited to post about sock pal socks they've seen and admired in the last week (other than their own, of course!).

Once the sign-up system is all ready, I'll let you know and everyone will have a couple of days to sign-up and get their preferences into the system. After the matches are made, you'll be able to access your sock pal's info through the database and get started knitting!

A few requests:
- let's have a show of hands here: should we have the send-off day be mid-July or early-August?
- send me any sock pattern or sock knitting links you'd recommend so I can add them to the sidebar
- if you are interested in offering yarn discounts to sockapalooz-ers, leave a comment or send me an email with the details so I can put it up on the blog

Let's get ready to sock!

B, number one son, Thing One, and the one who always wants to be first, is being so patient as I slowly finish up his blankie. The two strips of his blankie are both finally done and all that's left is the seaming.

But I haven't been able to get to it for days. I'm not sure how long his patience will last though - I found a long strand of yarn from his old blankie on the floor this morning, so it would seem that the situation is starting to get critical. I'll have to find a way to convince baby L to let me get that seam done soon!

And S, whose heart is even bigger than his dimpled cheeks and who I can tell already is going to be an awesome big brother, wanted to help wee one stop crying the other day so he grabbed the little version of his original blankie and laid it over her. "She can keep my little blankie," he said.

He even offered to bring her his new blankie too if it would help. What a sweetie!

"Look at my new pants!"

With baby L in the sling, I managed to finish the waistband on the baby bell bottoms. She gave me just enough time to sew things up and weave in the ends.

I am so pleased with how these came out. The garter stitch bell bottoms are girly without being too frilly or twee. The pink is sweet without giving you tooth decay. And the Knitpicks Shine Sport was a delight to work with (I still can't believe that the yarn for the entire project was only $5!).

And check it out, they totally fit wee one!

I've posted the pattern on my free patterns page and am now completely obsessed with the idea of cooking up some more baby pants patterns for this yarn. So stay tuned...