baby, baby, baby

If you don't care for baby items, I recommend skipping this post all together, cos that's all I've got for ya! Apparently I'm in the middle of a baby boom and a ton of friends are going forth and multiplying, myself included :) So I've been knitting, a lot of baby stuff, and it's time to share some of that stuff with you.

First up a little hat and pair of socks for Sharon's newest addition:

Next we have the Baby Surprise Jacket for Kaitlyn's little Cassie:



Aren't those colors so cute together? Who can resist a little brown and pink? Here's something else in a similar color scheme. My coworker, also with child, left to live in Chicago for a few years, naturally she needed a cute ribbed baby sweater for her little one due in October - a sign of my appreciation for her putting up with my daily witterings.



With all this knitting for other people's baby's, I certainly haven't forgotten my own! Last weekend I made 8 burp cloths for the bean (well, I guess more for us). I got the fabric for a bargain from Intercourse, PA (tee hee). I really enjoyed making something really quick and simple, the cloths took no more than a couple of hours to put together - pattern is free from a website called "New Conceptions".



And today I finished the February Sweater (which I mistakenly called the BSJ in my last post - yikes! talk about baby brain).



Not only did I have enough yarn (one skein of STR in Amber) to make the sweater, but also enough to make the matching hat! How cute is that?



Best thing is that I think it will fit....



There are approximately 10 weeks to go before chaos reigns over the Schrodinger household (depending on what the bean decides, of course). I have far too many ideas of what I want to knit, but hoping to at least finish the couple of projects I have on the needles - good knitting and cooling vibes will be appreciated :)

Still ticking away

So it's been a while, with many of lifes distractions keeping me away from the blog. All good stuff though, and the good news is that I get to have a few things to show you. First up, some WIPS.

I started the baby surprise jacket oops, February Baby Sweater [ravelry link] for the bean just before we went away on our babymoon. Yes, it was wonderful, we went to Lancaster, PA - Amish Country, and I strongly recommend the B&B we stayed at for the wonderful hosts and the delicious 3 course breakfasts. Here's a shot of it in progress while away, more is knit now, but I'll save further progress shots until it's finished.

It's being knit with Socks that Rock in Amber - I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the one skein will do it...

The sunset blanket is coming along. I have over 20 squares crocheted so far, I've blocked about half of them. The seaming won't be fun, but I can already tell that the end result will be worth it.


I managed to finish some stuff too though, first up is a gift for Amanda and her little one:


These better-than-booties socks [rav again] needed a matching hat, so I made this one up as I went along, I have no idea how I did it, and I'm just hoping that the little thing fits.

The biggest accomplishment this month is the quilt. Yes! I had a goal of making a quilt for the bean, and I DID IT! And I have to admit that I'm really happy with it.



It took some debate, but I finally decided on an orange binding for the edging, with a decorative stitch in yellow, pretty huh?



On the baby front, everything continues to go very well. I feel, surprisingly, healthy and happy - albeit a little tired - and we are told that all is developing well. Mr B and I have been doing some of the usual nesting stuff (decorating, buying and putting together furniture). I have a ton of projects in my head that I want to get done, but I'm being realistic and recognizing my time and energy limitations, one step at a time.

CONTEST!

No not here! Nothing to see here, go here instead. There's some great fantastic prizes to be won, of course I'm biased since there's something of mine in there, as well as other great creative works, but what are you still doing here reading, go away! Enter Katy's contest she really needs the book recommendations!

Shameless plug

Last week, Mr B. finished making a stop motion animation video for his band, Bellow. I'm so proud of him, I wanted to share it with you. Of course I'm aware this is a knitting/crafting blog, so I don't expect you to share my enthusiasm, but would be thrilled if you do.

5 Random Things Sunday

1. QUILT
I went over to Veronique's a couple of weekends ago, she had kindly volunteered to show me some quilting skills. V is an amazing teacher and she gave me the inspiration and confidence needed to start making the quilt I wanted to make for the growing bean. And I think it's going really well...

I actually have the backing and batting together now, it's just the fun of quilting it all, maybe this afternoon.

2. PIN CUSHION
I used the practice square (wasn't quite happy with one of the fabrics in the first one) to make a little pin cushion, something very necessary with those funny little quilting pins.



3. RAV GOODIES
A few weeks ago the Spiders had some visitors, Jess and Casey (AKA Mama and Papa Rav), came along with Maya and the very amusing Steve, it was fun spending a few hours with them, although I was sad not to join them for drinks, Jess and Casey made up for it with these adorable gifts.



How cute is that Bob pin? I believe that the pins, stickers and other good stuff will (most likely) be available in a soon-to-be Ravelry store.

4. GREEN SWIFFER
I'm happy to find different ways to do my bit for the environment. So when I saw this ingenious swiffer cover pattern in Sassy's Rav queue yesterday, I immediately grabbed some dish cotton and knit one up last night while watching junk telly.



It's got to beat those crappy throw-away swiffer cloths, and it's reusable! I can't wait to try it out - well, actually I lie about that part, but I hope it works nearly as well as being on my hands and knees with a sponge.

5. CROCHET
I'm a little into crochet now too. I started a blanket this week. It's the Sunset blanket (ravelry), and I think it's going to be adorable in chocolate brown and rosy pink.

(more) News and Knitting

The next step with beany baby was to find out whether the predominant color in my knitting (and other stuff) would be:

Pink*

OR


Blue*

Now the rather grumpy technician was quite adamant that we will be focusing on....

Nah, I'll wait until the end of the post before I tell ya (of course it's just a simple matter of scrolling to the bottom to find out).

So in practically one evening I used up the handspun I'd made a little while back, with it I made Ysolda's Urchin [rav link for details].


I haven't worn the hat outside among the "real" people yet, I don't feel I have the guts, and am not sure about me in a beret, but I'm happy with the pattern itself, the simplicity of the short-rows and the loveliness of garter stitch.


Mr B got his wish last week, a Munkee all his own for the bean. As I wasn't sure I'd have enough yarn to finish this monkey, I offered to make a shirt. Mr B. requested orange, his fave color, which also happens to be a Mets color.



While my embroidery skills are a little scant, at least you get the idea, and just in time for the opener too. Details about this Munkee are here [more rav].



Oh yeah, and about the sex:



The tech was very sure we are going to have a GIRL!! Exciting stuff.

* Buttons coming to an etsy shop near you soon.

Land of the toys

Lately I've been on a bit of a toy-making kick recently. Possibly this has something to do with impending motherhood. Mostly I think it's because they're cute, relatively quick to make and perfect for the baby-gifting I needed to do the last couple of weekends. That's not to say there isn't other knitting going on in these parts - it's just not knitting that I can share with you at this time.

Anyway, on to the knitting I can share with you. First up is Elijah [rav link]. This adorable little guy was too much to resist after seeing him on Oiyi's Crafts blog. I actually had to go out right away to find some yarn to knit him with - and I found some no-name acrylic (yeah, there's not a great selection of yarn in Astoria).

I was able to gift him directly to Mum and monkeybaby last weekend at the babywarming - Elijah was greeted with a resounding 'awwwwwww' around the room.

Next up is the toy that Mr B has named Munkee (rav link here). This time I was inspired by Pam's adorable little monkey with attitude. This cute little guy was perfect for me to make up when I didn't really have an awful lot of time but had enough inspiration to teach myself a couple of crochet moves to get him made.



Mr B has been that taken by him that the only way he would let me give Munkee to the child he was intended for was if I promised to make him one for himself the baby. So I'm in the process of making Munkee #2.

I have also started using the handspun I made a little while back to make a selfish knit. I'm just a little concerned that I'm going to run out of yarn, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

An adventure?

Yeah, yeah, I'm neglectful of the blog, but you'll be thanking me if you knew how little there was to share with you. You see, not so much knitting has been happening chez schrodinger, and what little there's been must remain under wraps until they've been gifted. However, I should have shared the wonderful sock that I was lucky enough to receive from the lovely Marie.

Isn't is marvelous? It's the poseidon [pdf] sock (pattern by the talented Elinor). The yarn is Marie's new 3-ply, softspun plus, however, I need Marie to rescue me with the name of the colorway. Look at that heel, impressive!



I want to thank each and every one of you for your sweet comments about my most exciting WIP, I really appreciate it. And I think that your well wishes have gone a long way since I'm feeling considerably better. A little tired maybe, and more than a little fuzzy-brained (quite peculiar and more than a little embarrassing at times), but better, and I like it that way.