Nesting (and waiting)

So I'm now into my third week of maternity leave, and pregnancy is getting even less fun every day here... But at least I'm getting a few things done here before the little guy shows up, and based on all the cooking, knitting and sewing I've been doing, I think this is what they all call "nesting".

Last week I finished my first quilt ever:


It definitely has some technical issues, so if you're an expert quilter don't look too closely :). But at least it's finished, which I thought would never happen, and the baby won't care--in fact, if he really loves this blanket I fully expect it to fall apart someday, so it really won't matter at the squares don't match exactly or that the quilting stitches are really uneven.

I've also been doing a bunch of knitting, at least as much as my wrists can handle (turns out using larger needles is slightly easier on my wrists than using size 2s, but I've got a lot of sock yarn bits and baby stuff works better in lighter yarns).

I finally put buttons on my Baby Surprise Jacket, and it turned out really nicely:


I washed this sweater by hand, as I usually do for most new handknits, but I ended up throwing it in the dryer because it was drying really slowly, and it was a challenge to keep it from stretching out due to the weight of the water. Luckily it's superwash wool, and it looks like it will go through regular washing and drying just fine.

I've made a bunch of booties with the Blue Steps bootie pattern, which I love because it uses up leftover sock yarn and the brioche stitches are fun to do.






I also used some smaller bits of sock yarn to make some newborn mittens to match--for this pattern, I changed the decreases to make a round top, instead of the original flatter top in the pattern, and I like this a lot better.



I made a hat using my pattern, this time with Tahki Cotton Classic and size 5 or 6 needles (can't remember which size...). Somehow I screwed up the increases halfway through, so it doesn't have the nice swirl, but it didn't bother me enough to rip almost the whole thing out to fix it.



I made more Baby Genius Burp Cloths, one a two-color version in Jarbo Soft Cotton, and one in Punta Yarns South American Cotton on larger needles. For both of these, I changed the stitch count from the original to get what I felt were appropriate sizes. I'm guessing that burp cloths are better when they're bigger, most likely.






I made a Blanket Buddy with more South American Cotton, and I opted not to make a face to save time and to avoid having to worry about pieces coming off.



I also finished a pair of baby socks from more leftover sock yarn. Another pattern I need to write up here someday...



I'm working on a bunch of other little baby things, but I'll save those until they're done. Once I finish some baby stuff here, I really want to start on the Cucumber Top from Knitty--as soon as I saw this, I realized it would be perfect for a summer of breastfeeding and recovering from baby weight. I had to actually buy yarn for this, since DK-weight cotton blends in sweater quantities are not really part of my stash, and I ended up getting Knit Picks CotLin in Raindrop, which is a nice grayish-blue color.

We'll see how my knitting time goes in the near future here, since my doctor expects me to go into labor any day now...

Until next time, happy knitting to all!


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