Hang on to your ovaries, people

I'm serious, are you containing them? Because what I'm about to show you makes ME want to go get pregnant, which . . . is really saying something. And then I shake my head like a poodle who has accidentally inhaled chemicals.

Okay, then.





(Scrolling . . . )

I KNOW!!!!

I made most of this hat (Candy Cane by Susan B. Anderson) in November, but then finished it speedy-quick the morning of the Dark Lord's newborn photo session. (A girl from my ward offered to come over and do them for free because she needs newborns for her photography portfolio. And I was like, "Hey, I've got a newborn." Of course, then Christmas happened, so I'm not sure when I'll ever get to see said pictures.)

This is what baby and I did this morning instead of going to church. I did watch Music and the Spoken Word on television though, and put a roast in the crockpot, so I like to think I've still earned some Faithful Mormon Points for the day.

Don't forget about Downton Abbey tonight!

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Good Enough--It's the new Perfect!

One blog I enjoy reading is French Press Knits, written by the girl who created the pattern for those amazing felted slippers that I made and then bragged about. We were pregnant at the same time and she had her (adorable) baby a week before I had mine.

Only, I think she might possibly have super powers, since she seems to have spent the time since the birth of her child whipping up these tiny, precious knitted things for her baby to wear. I have not done as well with the knitting. None of Voldy's projects are finished. The one thing I did complete (remember the hat?) I misplaced during the move so he never got to wear it. This was awesome of me. My mom, at my urging, brought me the yarn to make something for her that should be very simple and easy and fast. In 3 weeks I've gotten as far as the gauge swatch and that's it. It taunts me from where it lives on the living room floor, next to the couch. I don't know how this woman does it. It's not like I even have a difficult baby, but the most I can generally get done in a day is a shower. Possibly with a teeth-brushing if I remember.

I decided, though, that it was time to do a photoshoot, unfinished objects be darned. (Heh. Darned. Just realized what I did there.) So I grabbed the baby sweater I made for my nephew Hudson (now on loan from same) and stuffed my little guy into it. It's kind of a belly shirt on him and his 11-pound-ness, but he still looked precious.

Except I didn't time it well, and as soon as I got out the camera he started fussing. Which is why the sequence of photos goes like this:

Cranky face
Face with Pacifier in it
Pacifier Face with Drooping Lids
Asleep

But behold--still precious and darling. In something I knitted. So there you have it.

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Decisions, decisions

My apologies to anyone who saw a rather odd post consisting of only two pictures in their readers yesterday. I was trying to begin this post and somehow got a little crazy with the Enter key. And then suddenly I had a published post. Woops!

What I was going to say was that I'm trying to decide which baby items to attempt over the next few months. Feel free to weigh in, if you like.

Elijah by Ysolda Teague

I started this little guy a while ago because when I saw that picture my uterus may have possibly just BAM, created a twin right then, it was just that cute. I'm almost done--he only has one arm and two ears to go, and yet I'm so very over it. Am telling myself that I must finish him before I can start anything else. (And here's the part where I see the evil feather-haired Cobra Kai sensei from Karate Kid in my head: "Finish him! FINISH HIM!!!")

shiver . . . that is one cold dude.

Baby Mittens by Kaitlyn Wong

I'm thinking these mittens could be a quick way to use the leftover yarn from the newborn hat. Plus, hi, so tiny an' cute! I'd also like to make a sweater, and I'm trying to narrow it down between this one:

Ribbed Baby Jacket by Debbie Bliss
(image by lotusutol)

and this one:

Child's Placket-Neck Pullover by Joelle Hoverson
(image by Elliphantom)

And then this is really only on the list because the picture made me squeal:

Owlie Sleep Sack by Teresa Cole

(image from Tamara)

It seems there's a debate about how safe these things are for babies to actually sleep in, so the question is whether I'd really be spending all that time to create what could ultimately just be a photo prop. An AWESOME photo prop.

These, though, these are definitely happening:

Legwarmies by Alana Dakos

I have some self-striping sock yarn in shades of blue and brown that is destined to go on some chubby baby thighs. (This is, of course, assuming that the babies I make include some chub and are not instead tiny hollow-boned creatures like Savvy & Co. Although really, if that's the case they probably need the extra warmth.)

Any faves?

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The stash begins

Have finished my first knitted project for the bebe! Ta daaaaah . . .

This is the newborn-sized hat he will wear home from the hospital. Unless, of course, his head remains in the 97th percentile. In which case we will use one of GH's.

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What? Braggy McBraggerson?

Remember that one time when I indicated that I had a Christmas present idea in the works that would make me the most favorite person ever? Well. The idea was good, my follow-through was not so much. (I know. Me, procrastinate? Shocking.)

But still, I want to show what I was up to, now that it's not giving me nightmares and guilt-induced ulcers anymore. I give you the French Press Knits Felted Slipper from French Press Knits.

(image from French Press Knits)

I know, right?? This is the one aaaaaallll the cool knitters were doing for Christmas, if the 3,000+ projects in Ravelry are anything to go by. Daltongirl pointed this pattern out to me around Thanksgiving, because she is a cruel vixen in that way. My heart exploded in my chest, I cursed her for being the kind of hose-beast who would point me to something like this right around Thanksgiving when I was supposed to be all done with the gifts of the Christmas, and then raced outside like a rabid squirrel and stocked up on the necessary yarn.

Now that it's been, oh, eleventy thousand months and I've finished (most of) them I feel it's time to to slap them up on the Brag Wall. They didn't take long at all to knit, it's just that then I had to actually drag my butt off the couch to do things like seaming and felting and attaching of buttons and oh, I feel faint now. Being this lazy is not as easy as it looks.

So here are the end results, with varying levels of success.

As fun as these were to give away, please act as my witness here when I say that I will not repeat such an exercise next Thanksgiving. And if I'm tempted to do it, please remind me that I am speaking THE CRAZY TALK AND NEED TO JUST SHUT UP AND GO EAT SOME MORE PIE BECAUSE THE BABY NEEDS PIE OKAY???

Thank you.

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Eighteen weeks

This last week I appear to have bumped out a bit. A middle-aged man at the library pointed at my stomach and asked, "So when are you due?" I thought that was kind of a brave guess on his part. I could easily have burst into tears and shouted "I'm just bloated, okay????" And then torn off his face and eaten it. You just never know. He also remarked that he hadn't seen me at the library in awhile. Since, you know, I must have been gone somewhere, getting knocked up.


My July 4th weekend was a nice one. We spent part of the time up in L****, watching fireworks and taking Official Family Photos. I also got to have lunch with Desmama and get my hairs cut and colored so I wouldn't have two-inch dusty-bat-poop roots in the OFP.

The highlight for me, though, of the Logan leg was giving my nephew the knitted snake he commissioned from me last month. I dutifully found a pattern, a perfect skein of yarn (Paton's Classic Wool in "Forest") and got started during the Bear Lake trip. When it was finished I stuffed it with dry beans, which gave the snake some heft and body and slither. He turned out pretty cute, no?



I gave him to C while we were all gathered together to watch the fireworks. (I sensibly waited until after the kids were done throwing all those throw-down-popper firework thingies, so as not to compete.) So I gave it to him and was fully prepared for him to admire it a bit and then put it away so he could get back to running around. But I don't think it ever left his hands again for the rest of the night--he really seemed to like it a lot.



Then he wanted to know if I could make him a jaguar. I'm going to go ahead and say no to that.

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