Its warm, its blue, its Done!

The finishing touches have been added and everything is looking wonderful. When I asked Angie what she wanted as a knitting present, she answered "Hat" because babies loose heat from thier heads and her little boy is a winter baby. Which is great, and hence created the series of veggie hats. But I love coats and I decided to make her baby the "Baby Einstien Coat" and its finally finished. Starting off with just a few balls of yarn, I ended up with:

Doesn't Really look like a jacket does it? Well its bascially the back, front, sleves all knitted together. This actually hasn't gone through any finishing. Everything was done with a "pickup and knit" which isnt my favorite, but with the slipped stich edging it went easy. So now...then fun part, make it come together and look like an actual jacket! Add the little blue bear buttons and I'm all done! Now ready to finish the pumpkin hat and then Angie's gift is complete.

Confusing

I have entered the world of multiple challenges. This Baby Einstien pattern is a little confusing, and not knowing what typical baby sizes are, or for that matter how big they are when they are how old, means that I am almost completely blind and just following the pattern. My guage is close, kinda depends on if the finished piece is stretched or not, I'm getting the right number of stitches/rows. Its just...I have no idea if it even looks right. Oh well. I guess I'll see when its finished, and either way, it will fit the baby at some point in his life. It just might not fit the intended size. Hrm

Why couldn't it be Saturday

Aside from needing to finish 3 baby items quickly, I feel crappy today. I feel tired and run down. This is the kind of day that calls for soup to be bubbling on the stove, tea sitting on the table next to me, and knitting in hand. Alas, I am at work. No knitting to be had. The nice thing is my current task is going well, although much slower than the knitted hats. Its the baby Einstien coat, in 2 different shades of blue (with little sparkles in them)

This coat is a little weird. The bottom piece is not knit top-down or bottom-up like most sweaters, instead you knit a scarf like object, turn it 90 degrees and that becomes the main sides of the coat. Weird. The really interesting part is that this patten comes in 3 forms: Baby coat, a light adult coat, and a heavy thick adult coat. All are basically the same pattern so if I love the finished project I can make one for myself!

Labor Day Weekend

Labor day weekend this year wasn't filled with camping or BBQing or the normal stuff. It was filled with sitting around. My kitty, Lilu, has some medical issues and was confined to my room for 2 weeks, Labor day weekend was her first weekend out, so I spent it watching her and hoping that nothing would happen... and of course knitting. What this means is that I finished almost all of my hats during this weekend.

So I now have (from left to right) a purple berry hat (newbornish), a little pea (newbornish), a tomato (little bigger), and an eggplant (toddler). I fell deeply in love with the purple of the eggplant, I may have to get a lot more of that and make something of it. But for the moment I'm satisified with what I made. I have a pumpkin and blue jacket to make next before I go back to knitting other things.

Almost done with this baby boom. Only a handful of projects to finish before I can go back to knitting some of my other projects. My skirt, blanket, jacket, and shawl that have been on my to-do list for a long time. Oh well... babies have firmer deadlines. :)

Taste of Colorado

At the taste of colorado I saw two things of knitting note. A knitting booth where you could buy knitted items (sweaters, dresses, jackets, some really huge things that I bet were being sold for a high price) and a booth with some jackets, sweaters and other clothing items. My thought through this whole event: Why do knitters knit such ugly things?! You have the freedom to choose the color, the pattern, the material, why would you do something that looks so horrible? I just don't know.

On the plus side, I finished several hats, I'll post about them soon. I need to download pictures :)

Little Pea Sprout

Viva Starbucks!

From Knitting

So between needing to clean my apartment, make dinner, and relax after a long day at work, I know that things come in the way of me knitting when I get home. I can be dedicated, leave other projects untouched but sometimes that's just not possible. So in an effort to complete my fruit basket on time I have started taking my knitting to work. Now unlike checking out sport scores, updating fantasy football or watching you tube, my hobby isn't something I can hide and do at work. Which is expected, I don't need to get paid to knit, though that would be awesome. But when 5 rolls around and I need to babysit a process, then instead of watching it with one eye and writing a report with the other, I watch it with one eye and K1P1 with the other. The bigger aspect however is: Lunchtime at starbucks.

I'm not a big eater at lunch though I love lunch food, so I go to Starbucks, listen to one of my books on my iPod (right now its "The Fallen"  very weird but interesting detective story) and knit away with some tea. Then I grab a bagel or sandwich and go back to work an hour later. Almost all of the little Pea Sprout was done at starbucks, only the crown and cast-on where done at home. Now its on to the Berry Hat!

Fruit and Vegtable Basket

So a friend of mine is in agreement, pastel colors for babies...ich. Yeah, pastel colors are nice, easy to deal with, but so boring. Not every mother wants a thousand light blue baby shirts. Therefore I have gone a different direction: bright colors, interesting patterns, small sizes.

Introducing the fruit basket. If complete it will have:

Green Pea Hat
Berry Hat
Tomato Hat
Eggplant Hat
Pumpkin Hat

and perhaps a little baby coat.  Each hat will be in increasing sizes, or at least slightly, to go with the size of the fruit and the growing child. They all have leaves or stems on the top and should all be knit quickly...at least I hope so. I have until Sept. 26th to complete this gift, and include the other little items I was hoping to purchase (thankfully these have no knitting involved at all, your normal baby gifts)

Ready... Set... Knit!

Baby Boom

It seems to me that all of my friends are having kids right now: my cousin (twin girls), a friend in Seattle (boy), a friend here in CO (boy), and a co-worker (girl). Not to mention other co-workers that I'm not close to, or friends of those people who are also having kids. Its wild! But it means I am knitting like crazy to make homemade personal gifts to give to them. Some haven't made it on time, and some..well I still have a little time to get everything done. Here's the to-do list (I'll post photos soon):

Cousin: Alycee
So she was having twins, hates pink (which I agree with) and wanted some bright colors. I wanted to do something that was twin oriented, so I made little shirts in Dr. Seuss fashion. Thing 1 and Thing 2. It took me FOREVER to get the colorwork done on the front. I keep pulling the carry overs too tight and puckering the front. (It seems that everytime I do multiple colors this happens, need more practice I think) Finally I got something that I liked, finished them and mailed them off. I didn't make the deadline for the baby shower, or for the birth for that matter. But they are warm and I beat winter. Here's a photo of the pattern, I need to harass the mother more for a photo of the girls, they have tons to do without worrying about me right now.

From Knitting

Seattle - Matt
This project was probably the first baby project, the problem with that was I got a little ambitious in terms of size. He's getting a two sided baby blanket. On the one side (which is complete) it says "My daddy is a nerd and I love him" on the other side (incomplete so far) it says "My mommy is a knitter and I love her". His wife knits and should love it. Its soft and pretty, I'll be warm. But other babies keep getting in the way. Right now I have it almost done, just have to grind through the 8 inches of solid color and finish it. The finishing is going to be challenging. Still not sure how I am going to do it, just have to wait and see.

Colorado - Angie
I like to be ambitious and with time constraints it seems. The baby shower is at the end of September and I have ideas. She wants a hat for her baby boy, to keep him warm (due in December). So I found a cute hat that is a main color with green leaves ontop. Which gave me an idea.. a series of fruit/vegtable hats of different sizes. One green pea, one eggplant, one tomato, and one pumpkin. And maybe a little coat to go along with it all. (I know, slap me now) This would be combined with a basket of baby odds and ends: bottles, binkies, sippy cups and whatever else I can find. I just hope I can get it all done. I was going to go to the store and get yarn, but the stores close when I get off work or the closer one isn't open today.. alas I must wait another day.

Co-worker - Steven
I've never met his wife, but he's my lead, therefore he's getting a gift. But I have until December (no baby showers to come early) and its going to be something simple, a hat or coat. Nothing too fancy, and I haven't decided yet... more on this later.