updates on belly, booties, and baby on the way!

  

baby booties in Katia Bamboo, Fiber Trends CH-36
Dolly in Classic Elite Bazic from Jess Hutch's Unusual Toys booklet
baby L, wearing her Cadenza Pixie hat

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Now just why has there been so little knitting going on here at the blue blog in the last few weeks?! Didn't there used to be some pretty impressive speed knitting and, um, finished projects to see?

Well, the jig is up: I've been working on a rather big project in the background, which I haven't been ready to let out of the bag until now. Here it is so far:

I'm just starting my second trimester. Baby has stopped making me sick every two hours (ain't she sweet? No, we don't know the sex yet, but the force is strong with this one, so I'm guessing girl), but I'm still pretty low on energy these days. Hey, I'm making a baby here!

So, yes, it's official - everyone is pregnant. There's no stopping this epidemic! It's even made it's way to the UK, go see!

Time for a belly shot, don't you think?

Fourteen weeks along and I've definitely got a baby belly. I've been going through the closet seeing what's wearable and what's not. And you know what's wearable? My Rosebud sweater, which, if you recall, was inspired by a maternity top I had when I was pregnant with the boys.

Poor Rosebud never got any wear. After I knit it and wore it the first time, I felt like I must have knit one sleeve a smidge longer than the other. I had always planned to cut one of the sleeves, take out a few rows, and graft it back together, but it never happened. But now, I'm thinking, who cares?! It's got just enough extra room for my early second trimester belly, so I'm wearing it!

And when I outgrow Rosebud, the Jess sweater I knit for my mom (which she gave back to me because she didn't like the fit of it) will be perfect, don't you think?!

First baby project coming soon!

The super sweet Michelle at The Sweet Sheep sent me this super soft Katia bamboo in both pink and blue to congratulate me on the upcoming baby. Isn't that nice?! I can't think of anything better to use for the first booties for baby. We still have to wait two more weeks to find out if it's a boy or a girl, so let's see if I can get one pair of booties finished for each possibility. I'll be ready!

Awww, the first thing I've knit for baby on the way.

This Katia bamboo/cotton blend really knits up nicely, with great stitch definition. It's been a delight to knit, especially since I'm using my new Lantern Moon rosewood dpns (a splurge from my recent trip to Knit Happens). And I am never disappointed with this Fiber Trends bootie pattern.

I decided to start with the blue, just in case I don't have time to knit another pair before the ultrasound in two weeks. A girl can wear blue, but pink is pretty much no go for a baby boy. I like this blue too. It's not your average pale baby blue. It's so bright, it's almost aqua. And it's soooo cute.

Awwww.

Ribs and i-cord for the boy version. Picot and twisted cord for the girl booties.

A little less than two weeks and we'll know which of these will be for the baby!

Boy booties and girl booties are all ready for the big news. Any guesses? Watch this space Thursday afternoon for the answer!

The boys are so excited about finding out. S is sure it's going to be a girl and B is saying boy. When I told them that we'd see who's right on Thursday, S looked at B and said 'no switching.' They tend to cheat and change their answer once they see what wins. Silly boys.

They learned how to play baseball this weekend.

running to first with daddy

coming home!

Wouldn't a little brother be great for them? Then again, if I had a little girl, I could knit something like this for her.

snapped on a camera phone in a DC baby boutique

I can't wait to find out!

And the ultrasound says...

So glad I went back and made some decent twisted cord for those pink booties!

S was very excited to hear that he was right. And, as predicted, B switched and said he wanted a girl too.

Check out what I'm working on next....

click to find out!

Button and other niceties to come later. Send me an email or leave a comment here if you want to join!

I couldn't resist the girl-baby knitting any longer! After seeing Jess Hutch's knitted robots on the cover of the new Craft magazine, I remembered the little knitted toy pattern book she published last year (it's out of print now, so sorry, I don't know where you can get it anymore), flipped through it, and found this pattern for an adorable little dolly.

A quick trip to the yarn store and I was back home with Classic Elite Bazic in the perfect colors!

A few hours with the Knitsmiths and I had the little body almost done! She's so cute, I can barely stand it. Next up, buying some safety eyes and starting her little yellow dress!

In fact, Knitsmiths was a flurry of doll-making this weekend. Lisa was working on Jess Hutch's Kate doll from Knitty and Johanna was getting started on this cow doll (with crocheted udder!!) from a Bouton D'Or pattern book. What fun!

(Two posts today! I gotta make up for yesterday, I know.)

Poor Dolly still has no eyes - I just can't seem to be able to find the time to get over to the crap store to buy some (see my previous post) - but I did manage to knit her little limbs.

It's kinda cool making baby parts on a doll while making baby parts in the womb as well. Here's how wee one's little limbs are coming along.

Future knitter's hands maybe?

Dolly is done! Lucky for me, fellow Knitsmith Ariel had just the right eyes to finish her off. (You know, those safety eyes are hard to come by! I think she found them on the website Jess Hutch recommends in her Kate pattern.)

Knitting dolly was fun. The tiny parts went fast. Sewing on the limbs was a little tricky, but I just kept at it, trying to get the legs parallel to each other so they would look even. And once I got those eyes on, it was like she was a little person. Seriously, it felt so weird to have my hands in her head tying yarn ends once she had those shiny black eyes looking out at me.

Oooh, you gotta see what Rabid Crafter sent me! These are the cutest booties ever....

she's posted a link with pattern info here

They're crocheted booties that look like mary janes with little ruffled socks. Aren't they adorable?! Thanks so much - I love them. And they were a huge hit at Knitsmiths. I hope they'll ooh and ahh that much when the baby comes!

And speaking of the little girl:

belly at week 19

Obviously my web host has been having some internet problems over the last several days. Sometimes I'm here, sometimes I'm not. For those of you who CAN see me now, here's an update on the baby bump. And just for fun, a direct comparison to the baby bump at week 22 six years ago when I was pregnant with the twins.

 
look I even have the same sweater and background to photograph

No wonder I feel like I'm not looking pregnant yet - I'm definitely smaller than last time. And can you believe it, I had just started knitting!

what's under this blanket thing?

This weekend I had the great pleasure of presenting fellow Knitsmith, Johanna, with a "Circle of Friends" baby blanket (from Last Minute Knitted Gifts), knit for her by about 15 of her knitter friends. It was so amazing to be a part of this project!

It all started out with Dani and I picking out the yarn (Manos Cotton Stria) in the bestest, brightest girl colors ever. (We waited until right after Johanna found out the sex of the baby to get started with the planning!) We made up kits for each of the seven strips with instructions and just the right amount of yarn and sent them out to everyone. It was so exciting to hear that one knitter was done and sending the kit on to another and then to start receiving the finished strips back from everyone.

After about two months (so not so "last minute" actually!), I had all the strips and was able to finally lay them out and see how the entire blanket was going to look. Despite problems with 15 knitters each trying to get the same gauge and cotton being the stretchy fiber that it is, it looked awesome! Something about how those colors line up on the diagonal really catches the eye and keeps you from noticing any irregularities caused by having had 15 different sets of hands work on the thing.

A couple nights of seaming and it was ready for gifting. Oh boy, oh boy!

Johanna likes it - hooray! And here's the blanket with baby tadpole. It's the perfect size!

I would definitely recommend this project to any group of friends (or single friend) wanting to make a gift for someone. It was super easy to knit (garter stitch strips with color changes to create the look of squares) and easy to seam (mattress stitch, whipstitch - I think this thing would look good no matter how you seamed it!). It's great for a big group of knitters even if they don't all have the same skill level or get the exact same gauge, and it's a breeze for the few seamers at the end, since seaming strips is way better than seaming individual squares. It ain't exactly last minute, but it is a really special knitted gift. Here's hoping tadpole agrees!

The boys have new big boy bunk beds! They're so excited. They told their friends at school, my friends at a holiday party, the crossing guard, pretty much everyone we meet.

They even helped Daddy put it together.

That is, once we got all the pieces. I had to drive back to IKEA to get all these missing screws and bits.

Go ahead, count 'em, that's over 220 missing parts! It took the nice lady at customer service more than 15 minutes to gather them all up for me. Before I left home, hubby had instructed me, "no matter what they give you, count them before you leave," so I went to the restaurant for some meatballs (I'm pregnant, so naturally I got hungry waiting for those parts!) and counted all those little pieces. And wouldn't you know it, I was still 32 pieces short. Back to customer service, more waiting, and then, of course, more food.

Wee one can now claim one of the boys' old beds (now where did we store those side slats to covert it back to a crib??). The latest ultrasound shows her sleeping away, dreaming of IKEA furniture.

It's not just all baby sweaters and baby hats around here. I'm making an actual baby! Time for another belly shot:

And this belly's moving! Check out the video:

click on picture for Windows Media version
(click here for RealPlayer version)

Dance, baby, dance!

I found this sweet book at 7th Avenue Books in Brooklyn and couldn't resist buying it for wee one.

I am learning to smell the flowers from my friends the Knitsmiths, who pitched in to help me make 24 little flowers for this hat for wee one. Yes, it's another hat out of Itty-Bitty Hats. I loved the hat as soon as I saw it, but couldn't imagine myself making it unless I was put on bedrest or something. (By the way, this week I passed the date at which I had to go on bedrest while pregnant with the twins. And I'm definitely planning on doing the remainder of this pregnancy vertical!) The Knitsmiths loved the hat too and said they could each make a rosebud or two (or in Lisa's case, twelve!). I just happened to have Rowan handknit dk in six lovely colors in my stash, so I brought 'em in to Knitsmiths and we made a garden.

The rosebuds are really easy to make, just simple tiny garter stitch strips that get rolled up and attached to the hat. You wouldn't think they could ever look very flowery, but put a little green garter stitch triangle leaf (oh yeah, they made 13 of those for me too!) behind them and voila!

Now I just have to make the hat and sew them all on. That'll be easy. Thanks to all my friends!

In order to move things around and make room for wee one, hubby is giving up his office and I've got to pare down my stash. (Wee one will be housing my stash in a corner of her soon-to-be-room: pretty colors, soft yarn - I think it'll look nice.) Which means I'm going through a major major major stash reorg and purge. I've taken a long hard look at what has settled at the bottom of my stash (oddly, there's a lot of green at the bottom of my stash) and asked myself what I am likely to knit and what I can part with. The things I can part with I'm offering up for sale here! There's lots of sweaters' worth of great yarns and some smaller lots of lovelies too - all at bargain prices! Here's a peek:

This is the link to my sale page with all the prices. You can leave me a comment here or send me an email letting me know which item you want and I'll sell the yarn on a first come, first serve basis. PayPal or check should be fine. I'll try to update the list as things get sold, so you know what's gone and what's still available.

And there's also a grab bag of (almost) freebies!! Peek:

Here's a link to all the grab bag items. You can put your name into the grab bag almost-giveaway by leaving a comment saying you want to be in the giveaway, and in a couple of days, I'll grab a name and grab a bag and send each thing out to its winner. (I'm only asking for a couple bucks for shipping!)

Who would have thought that getting rid of yarn could be so much fun?!

(4:30 pm update: I'm working through the initial batch of emails and will update the sale page shortly. I'll change items to "hold" that someone has already asked for. Once I receive payment, I'll mark 'em "sold". This is so exciting!)

(One week later: Looks like all the yarn is pretty definitely spoken for at this point. I'll let you know if any sales don't go through, but for now, I'll be closing the sale and the list for the grab bag. Grab bag pulls should happen this weekend, so fingers crossed!)

This weekend, my best knitbuddies threw me a huge surprise baby shower.

I was shocked when I walked in and saw all my knitting pals and over a dozen pairs of knitted booties strung across the room like streamers!

So many different booties in different styles and sizes - wee one's feet will be quite literally covered!

There were other knit gifties too, like this gorgeous Baby Kid shawl (that I've been dying to make for myself - now I don't have to!) and the giant "Cheeky Monkey" toy from Zoe Mellor's Knitted Toys (both of which were knitted by the amazingly talented and generous Dani).

There was a cute and classy baby shrug and bonnet set for wee one (knit by Shannon) and enough books for me to keep her in cute and classy knitted items for a while!

Even the boys got the perfect gifts...

And thank goodness for the clean-up crew S loves pink!

I had one last ultrasound yesterday. The technician said the baby was doing great, everything was right on track, and went on and on about how good things looked. Then just as I'm getting ready to go, she says, "big head." Nooooo, don't say that. Those are so not the words a woman wants to hear a couple weeks away from delivery.

I'm trying to ignore what that comment means for delivery and have returned to the hat factory to make more hats for that big head. (Some of you asked about the sizes I've been making. I made two hats in a newborn size on an 11" circular needle, but all the rest have been in a 0-6 month size and knit on a 16" circular. They should be large enough for her big head.) To prepare for hat class tonight, I knit the white hat for the rosebud wreath up to the decreases.

Eeeek! Looking at all these knitted hats and finishing the last few I've still got on the needles is not helping me keep my mind off that big head.

neglected knitting in bookcase

No knitting this weekend. Each day I tried to do a little bit of preparation on the baby's room (so far she's got a changing table and a wardrobe, but no bed, no bookcase and hubby's desk and computers are still in the room with her). I'm not able to get too much done because as soon as I'm vertical, my belly hardens into a solid ball and it pretty much stays like that. Non-stop Braxton-Hicks contractions! I'll do a little and then by the afternoon, I'm so exhausted from all that contracting that I end up sitting or lying on the sofa for the rest of the evening. Still contracting of course, but not as often, just every time she moves, or I move, or I touch my belly, or have to pee, or drink something. So only then - ha, ha.

And now, no more leaning over this computer. It's making me contract.

The baby knits books have a new home - in wee one's bookcase. Since she's sharing her room with my yarn stash, she'll be sharing her bookcase with my book stash too!

All my faves are there, like Rowan Pipsqueaks, Phildar Tricotez Calin, Itty Bitty Hats, Jess Hutch's Unique Toys, and the Miss Bea books. And don't worry about wee one, thanks to my friends, she's already got an awesome selection of books!

So what are some of your favorite baby (knitting or otherwise) books? Anything wee one's bookshelf still needs?

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."

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!

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.

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.

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!

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!

Or at least a knitwear model.

wee one in her grossmutter sweater

in her baby shrug from Shannon

in her LMKG bonnet from Shannon

in a sweater Oma crocheted for daddy 35 years ago

Who has time to knit when there's the knit pligg to watch?! (Info here and a faq here.)

And I couldn't even knit when I was away from the computer at knitting group. I brought the baby, of course, and for the first time ever, she slept through knitting group.

Unfortunately, my knitting was stuck underneath her in the stroller! Note to self: take knitting out first before walking baby around to lure her to sleep. After letting her sleep for a half hour, I risked it and jiggled and jostled her around finally succeeding in slipping my knitting out of the basket underneath her. And what do I find? Well, I always keep the knitting bag packed with one easy project (my latest hugs and kisses sweater) that I can pick up at anytime. The last time I worked on it though, I finished up the ball of yarn that was in there. Did I remember to put a new ball in the bag. Oh no, I didn't! So no yarn in the bag. And no knitting. Grrrr.

But when knitting stuck under the baby gets you down, the knitting stuck on the baby can always cheer you up again.

Her marshmallow bonnet and mary jane booties!

Wee one's socks that rock booties (from fellow Knitsmith, Kris). She's making her way through all those beautiful booties my knitbuddies made for her!

The finished dolly bag is living up to its name by holding the dolly doll I made for wee one back in October. It's exactly the right size to hold her. So it's official, the purse will go to wee one for holding her little girl things.

I enjoyed this project so much more than I ever thought I would. I'm thinking of making some more dolly bags for friends' little girls. It would make a sweet present for a toddler (and be much less time and yarn intensive than a sweater!). It could also easily be sized up to make an adult purse. I think one more repeat of the pattern across and up would be enough to make it usable.

There is one change I would make to the pattern though. I don't like how the diamond borders and the cables actually touch for four rows where the diamonds are the widest.

I would definitely cast on 4 extra stitches to each side and place them as extra purl stitches between the diamond and the cables. The diamonds and cables could remain the same size, but when the diamonds are at their widest, there would still be one purl stitch separating each one from the cables on either side. It might be that the addition of these four stitches on each side would mean that the whole bag would take more than two balls of handknit dk and that's why they aren't there in the pattern. I had some extra yarn, but quite possibly not enough for this adjustment. It's just a little detail that bothers me as a knitter/designer and generally uptight detail person. The bag knit according to the pattern and with the included yarn really is super cute even without my change. Perfect for all the little dolls in your life!

Remember how all my crafty friends made dozens of booties for wee one? Well look at what wee one has now...

shoes from kaya's kloset!

These are the cutest little robeez-style shoes that Johanna has just starting making. She gave me this last pair for my birthday (yesterday!) and they are my favorites of all.

She does custom orders too, so with the fab fabric I brought back from my NYC weekend to make baby dresses, wee one can have matching shoes. Can you stand it?!

The cutest feet in the world (thanks in part to the Knitsmiths)!

Wee one's loving her t-bar heart booties, knit by Terri.

My mommy made me a dolly that I love to cuddle with.

And my mommy sent me my new favorite, favorite, favorite sewing book Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts. I pretty much want to make everything in this book. Everything! And thanks to my quilting class and my success with the Bend the Rules Sewing book, I've become deluded enough to think I could make most of them too.

Almost exactly one year ago, two of my best friends threw me an amazing baby shower where all my knitbuddies made baby booties for wee one. This Saturday, I got a little payback when I got to go to one of those friend's own baby shower and bring a gaggle of itty bitty hats from the Knitsmiths.

My offering was the marshmallow bonnet, which I knit in Blue Sky Alpaca's most incredibly soft Handspun Organic Cotton. It's practically like cashmere, but no animal fibers (Shannon's allergic)! I knit this same pattern for wee one over a year ago but it must have happened in some baby-brain haze because I didn't remember anything about how it was constructed! The other hats are (almost) all from the Itty-Bitty Hats book, including a Stars hat from Johanna, a Marley hat from Thea, a pink stripey hat from Colleen, a Bunny Tails hat from Dani, and an Upside-Down Daisy hat from Lisa. Shannon was surprised and happy to be remembered by all her old Boston buddies.

I also did a little sewing for her new baby. Baby's grandmother is an incredible quilter, so I was pretty sure that baby would be all set with beautiful quilts, but when I happened to come across a fabric panel of one of Shannon's favorite children's stories, The Little Engine that Could, I knew I had to make her a little fabric book. The panel wasn't made to be a book - there weren't the right number of blocks and they weren't in proper page groupings for a book - so I had to do some finessing to make it work. Plus, it was all very, very basic blue check and Shannon is having a fabulous little girl, soooo I had to gather up fun and fabulous coordinating fabrics to pretty it up a little.

Despite the myriad difficulties that arose while I was making this (like the final book being too big to fit under the presser foot of my machine!), it was a pleasure to make. Whenever I got frustrated, the happy little train's chant of "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can" helped spur me on to finish it.

Lastly, the big present for Shannon's baby... see if you can recognize it....

Yes, it's an unfinished hemlock ring blanket! I tried my best to get it done in time. I had even started the bind off, but there was no way to get it blocked before the shower, so I wrapped it up as nice as I could for the ceremonial opening and then snuck it back into my bag to take home to finish. More pics of it blocking, etc. to come!

Best wishes to Shannon for the last couple of months of her pregnancy. Thanks for giving me a reason to make these wonderful projects and the opportunity to pay you back for my own awesome baby shower. We can't wait to see Cheezit in her little hats!

I mean, seriously, does it get any better than this? I've got a beautiful baby girl. She's just about to turn one. And I get to make this adorable hat for her to wear.

It's the birthday cake hat from - yes, you guessed it, what else - Itty-Bitty Hats. I've been waiting to make this for wee one for, well, a year! For the cake, I used leftover Lana Grossa Merino 2000 that I bought in Germany to make the cottontail on the cottontail hat. And the yummy pink icing is Knitpicks Shine Sport. Making the icing was so much fun! I thought the crochet loops would be tedious to do but they were just so gosh darn cute, I was smiling the whole time doing it. I was so tickled by them, I had to show hubby the hat after each round of icing was complete: "Look now. It's so cute!" "Yup."

Then came the candle. Again, I imagined this would be fiddly or annoying, but no. It took no time to make and it came out perfectly. That Susan Anderson is a genius!

When the boys woke up the morning after I finished the hat and saw it on the counter, S said quizzically, "uh, is that, uh, a birthday cake hat?" "Yes, yes it is!" "Is it for the baby?" "Yes!" "But she has to wait two more months to wear it." "Nope, her birthday is actually only three weeks away." "Oh, wow!"

A little more than two weeks to wee one's first birthday! She certainly wouldn't notice if there weren't any presents for her, but I got it in my head to make her something. She'll have her new birthday cake hat of course, but although she likes sucking on the candle, that hat is really more for the adults' enjoyment, you know. So what would wee one really like? Perhaps another knitted dolly. She LOVES the dolly I made when we first found out I was having a girl. That and her blankie are her two must-have cuddling and thumb-sucking items. So... how about a little more grown-up doll for my little more grown up girl?

A student of mine from my pinwheel sweater class brought in a doll she'd made from Clare Garland's Knitted Babes and it was awesome! I bought the book right away and was thrilled to discover that except for one pattern for "the babes", the entire rest of the book is patterns for knitted and sewn babe clothes! Love it! What a fun way to use up little leftovers of yarn and scraps of fabric. Oh, I hope wee one likes her. I want to make this, and this, and....

Before I end up on my deathbed mumbling something about rosebud, I figured I should pull out the remains of that rosebud wreath hat I started over a year ago for wee one. You may recall that my knitting buddies were so generous as to make all the little garter stitch flowers and leaves for me, leaving me only with the knitting of the itty bitty hat. Which I somehow didn't manage to finish. The hat I'd started way back then was now way too small for nearly-one-year-old wee one, so I ripped it out and started again. And, to be sure that I'd finish it this time, I went ahead and started sewing flowers on as soon as I had a few inches done.

The original hat pattern (in Itty-Bitty Hats of course) calls for flowers all the way around the bottom edge of the hat and my knit buddies made plenty of flowers for me to do that, but I'm really liking just this little bouquet here. I feel like it's pretty much perfect just as it is. What do you think? Either way, I think it'll be the perfect hat for spring!

Yesterday Grace called my attention to Teeny Project Runway over at Mason-Dixon Knitting. If you haven't taken a look at all the hilarious knits over there, you gotta check it out (Grace's entry was Hedwig the owl in his regal knitted cape). Anyhoo, I just finished up a new knit for wee one and, as usual, she was a very good model in our photo session. But since she's always walking and since she's always after the camera (she broke the last camera after a project photo session in October), I have to stand about 10 feet away from her and take pictures as she walks towards me and the camera. Therefore, all of our baby L pictures nowadays look like a runway show. So this morning I present you with a wee runway show.

First up, wee one in her latest itty bitty hat, the rosebud wreath (well, more like bouquet) hat.

I knit it in Berroco Touche and the flowers were knit by my knitting buddies in scraps of Rowan handknit dk. She's so good about wearing all these itty bitty hats! And a little something extra for the camera please...

Next a stunning sweater dress that was a store sample at my lys.

I loved this blossom sweater from Knitting at Knoon the first time I saw it and have recommended the pattern to many customers. It's simple but girly, hip and retro and it's knit in Dream yarn (it was a really nice angora blend from I forget who, but it's now discontinued, which is why the store sold the sample - UPDATE: found it! it's Dream from Marks & Kattens). The sweater is actually a size 3, but with the sleeves rolled up about 5 inches, it makes a sweet little dress. And now a turn...

And lastly, the swimsuit competition. Wee one loves the water! She gets so excited when she sees her little bathtub come out for bath time. So I signed her up for a baby swim class where we can splash about in the pool together. I had to find her wee swimsuit first though (which is tough in the middle of February, let me tell you!). When I brought the bathing suit home, she saw it and wanted to put it on right away. She wore it the rest of the day over her clothes.

Look at her pose!

Finally, wee one in her birthday cake hat!

She enjoyed some real birthday cake (decorated by the boys!) at a little celebration we had this past weekend with grandma.

And was as pretty as can be in her birthday dress, wearing the ribbons from her presents.

The dolly I made for wee one when she was still a little wee embryo in my belly has been her constant companion now for over a year. She sleeps with dolly every night, cuddles with dolly after naptime and whenever she's feeling sad, she brings dolly along in the car for long rides. It goes without saying that dolly's gotten quite dirty in that time. Baby love can be pretty messy, you know. To complicate matters, it's impossible to get such a beloved toy away from said baby to wash it. Well, this week wee one has contracted a nasty stomach virus that's been sweeping through our neighborhood. And poor dolly found herself in exactly the wrong place at exactly the wrong time, if you know what I mean. There was no putting off the bath any more.

I'm gonna wash that vomit right outta my hair....

I thought I wasn't a girly girl. I thought I wasn't going to have one of those girly girls. And yet, my daughter went to drop off her brothers at school this morning wearing her pink emli bonnet and her sparkly pink bolero. And then, she came home and put on this little number I just made for her.

Oh yeah, it's a tutu. A year and a half and I'm already at pink tulle. Oh my. This was actually just practice for her Halloween costume, which will involve a longer tutu. I'd read a few how-to's and tutorials that suggested that these things were easy to make, so I thought I'd give it a trial run. My girl could always use a pink tutu. I bought a couple of rolls of pink tulle online, cut up my strips while the boys were brushing their teeth for bed, then turned on Top Gear (cause that's the kinda girl I am) and made a tutu. I knotted and knotted and it transformed itself into this perfectly frilly pink thing of beauty.

Can you see wee one's hand caressing it? I'm not sure she even knew what it was at first, but she knew she liked it. I asked her if she wanted to put it on and she jumped right in.

Yes, she was a natural.

So, it was a huge success. I have succeeded in making a tutu (Halloween plans still on) and the forces of nature have succeeded in turning me into a girly girl (gender stereotypes will out).

At wee one's baby shower, I got the book Fancy Nancy, which seemed shockingly pink and fancy to me. Are girls really like this? I now know that they are. At least mine is. My girl loves shoes! Only a year and a half and I've seen her try to try on practically every kind of shoe from a way too big rain boot to a tiny Polly Pocket slipper! But her faves are always the fancy ones.

These were her summer shoes:

"Supergirl" crocs (yes, they are sparkly)

And now she's got hip boots for fall:

Pediped Giselle boots

For inside, she's got ballet slippers that my knitbuddy Lisa knit for her and gave me at the baby shower.

Zoe Mellor's stripy shoes from 50 Baby Bootees to Knit

And next, I've got to get her some of these fabulously fancy slippers from knitbud Johanna's soft-soled baby shoe store:

disco slippers!

Ooooh, she's gonna love 'em!

Wee one is two!

Yesterday, she had little friends over for birthday cupcakes and an impromptu dancy party. And today we opened presents, including her new dolly.

She was a little disturbed when she first opened the box and found a dolly that wasn't quite her dolly. But once we got her old dolly and she realized this was a second one and no terrible fate had befallen the first one (something horrible like having her be her original pink color again!), she was okay with it. "New dolly," she said. And then, "two dollies!" Uh-oh. I'd originally made the new dolly so we could wash the old one, but I fear she may have other ideas!