oh baby what a week

If you're the kind of person who procrastinates by perusing Friends' Activity on Ravelry (um, not I can be found doing that, like daily, or anything) , you might also be the person who makes up little stories based on what's faved & queued.  And if you are that person, and you're my Friend, you might be thinking "what's up with the  spike in  queuing baby knits?!"

 

An Aviatrix Hat for a neighbor last week. I LOVE this pattern. It's a 3 hour knit.

Baby sweaters&baby booties &little hats & blankets ? Me with the 18 and 21 yr old sons? What's the deal?

 

Meet Zoe Valentina, born last Saturday 1-21-12, my....wait for it...granddaughter ! To answer the questions possibly crossing your mind: yes, she is amazing. yes, I am very young to be a granny. The older one.  With us.  Nope, they get up, not us.  Have I knit a mountain of adorable tiny things for her? um..wellll.... 

Not exactly. I finished this hat. The adorable coordinating booties came out  sized for a 1 year old. While they (the parents, not the too-big-booties) were in labor, I knit a newborn size booty but not yet its mate. There are 2 partially finished blankets, and plans for much much more. I don't know what happened-partly too many other knitting commitments, partly not as much knitting time as usual, partly superstition.

 

Fortunately her great grandma, my mom, came through with beautiful knits: sweaters and hats and this fabulous and already much used cocoon. It is going to become my go-to baby gift knit, it's just so useful and sweet.

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Pretty sure this is the pattern she used, and though I was with her when she bought the yarn, I can't remember anything except we were at Kitschy Stiches and it's superwash.  The matching hat is too big....but she'll get there.

 

 Late night with uncle and slightly sulking American Bulldog.

looking into 2012

Have I ever mentioned that I like to look back over the past year to see if any themes emerged, and set an intention for the new one?

 

 2011's was Embrace the Unexpected. On New Year's eve 12 months ago,  I thought I was downing a tumbler or two of organic cranberry juice but it turned out to be evenly mixed with tequila. whooooeeee! The year followed, rolling out in unexpected and often delightful ways, though sometimes with a slightly painful hangover.
(Awkward segue warning)  F'rinstance I didn't plan to get into a blogging groove and then suddenly drop it.  I'm jumping back in with a Wednesday Wip. On Thursday. Because, guess what? I finished That Reindeer Hat.  And in Tangerine Tango, the color of the year, no less.*

 

About the Fornicating Reindeer pattern:  first, it's a chart. BYOP(attern).** I went with a generic 96 stitch hat, 2x2 ribbing over the ears ,  squared off top, so there'd be some slouch. I improvised  a checked bottom section and diagonals on the crown. The rest was the chart. It's been ages since I knit colorwork. I totally enjoyed it. Note to self: move Sleight of Hands mittens and Muckle Mitts up the queue.

 

Second thing is Reindeer can't Fornicate ***. On the bright side, your reindeer can be randy, screwing, mating, making whoopy, f*cking ... whatever the verb, you'll want to block the hat so the graphics look nice, and not puckery off the needles.

 

It turns out Leo wanted a closer fitting hat, and put it on his head like this. I offered to redo the top  and make it shorter.

 

But he said he's happy as is.

This is one of those zen moments of being a knitter and a parent.  He'd just said 'I really like how the yarn going across looks".  Of course I wanted to grab it and say " you can't wear it with stranding peeking out like that."  But I replied "yay glad you like it". 

I mean, here is a loved one appreciating a handknit, and it's got reindeer doing it, is anyone going to notice how it's folded up?

• • • • • • • • • • • •

* Isn't this aggressive  selling us  a color of the year ridiculous? Google the color and Pantone's flacking it all over the intertubes. What a weird consumer world we live in. (still, it's a shade of orange and I do like orange)

**If you too want to knit a version of this hat, I belatedly found a very nice (and undoubtedly warm)  pattern to go with the chart.  It's  reversible , so you can flash the reindeer or keep them close to your brain while revealing a SFW handknit. I can only imagine its usefulness in a dating situation.

***Thanks Kay for catching the ignorant use of the word. I had no idea it had legal connotations. I was sorely tempted to thank you for being my friend who knows a thing or two about fornication but that just seems tacky. Um, kinda like the hat.....

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