A Miniature and a Do-over

I've made Rainbow quite a few sweaters and pairs of socks, but lately I've been focusing on outwear for winter. I thought I'd start things off with a hat so that we can match (sort of) when it's time to go home from the hospital.

Pattern: Koolhaas (Ravelry link) by Jared Flood
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Super Sport (100% superwash merino), colorway Winterberry, approximately half a skein
Needles: US 1 (2.25 mm) Knit Picks circs, magic loop
Started/Completed: November 2/November 5

I'd seen a couple baby-sized Koolhaas hats on Ravelry, so it seemed possible to size it down. I followed the pattern exactly for the woman's size but knit the whole thing with a size 1 needle. As far as I can tell, it worked out perfectly -- though I think it'll look a lot cuter on a baby's head than it does on a pair of my socks!

There was plenty of yarn left over (this was a skein I'd received in a swap several years ago that had been sitting in my stash ever since), so I thought some thumbless mittens would use it up. I ended up making three sizes, the idea being that Rainbow can grow into them in her first few months.

The "pattern" for these was totally off the top of my head -- twisted 1x1 rib for the cuff, stockinette for a certain number of rounds, and then decreasing every round as if for a sock toe and grafting the last few stitches together at the top. I still have some yarn leftover, so perhaps there will be a matching pair of booties in the future as well.

Now, as to the do-over. I know many of you thought that I should make a mate to the enormous Ugg bootie, but I'm not sure you realized just how big the thing was. I seriously don't think it would have fit Rainbow until she was well into elementary school, at which point I don't think she would want to wear baby booties. I also wasn't very happy with the floppiness of the fabric; it just wasn't what I had in mind. But I still liked the pattern, and I remembered that I had some yarn leftover from my Ivy League Vest in similar colors. I got it out, along with some much smaller needles, and I think you'll agree that the result is much better:

These booties will actually fit a baby! Much, much better.

Can You Spell FAIL?

Some time ago, I came across a pattern for baby booties that look like Uggs. I printed out the pattern and filed it away. About a month ago, I found some Crystal Palace Cotton Chenille at Natural Stitches in the perfect colors, and this past weekend, I decided to try to knit up a pair.

I started out using the specified needles for the small size but found that the resulting fabric was way too loose. So I went down a couple needle sizes. A few hours of knitting later, I had this:

Looks cute, right? Unfortunately, there's one small problem. It's not so small. Here, let me show you what it looks like with my cell phone for scale:

These are so not the size of baby booties. Needless to say, I'm not going to make the second bootie. Heck, I didn't even weave in any ends or do the ornamental stitching with the fuzzy novelty yarn.

Fortunately, the other baby knitting finished up in the last couple of days went much better:

Pattern: Baby Genius Burp Cloth from Mason-Dixon Knitting
Yarn: Lily Sugar'n Cream (100% cotton) in colorways (from left to right) Strawberry, Playtime, Landscape, and Natural Ombre, one skein each
Needles: US 6 (4.0 mm) Addi Turbo circs
Started/Completed: October 25/November 2

These are a little smaller than specified in the pattern (the ombre skeins of Sugar'n Cream have less yardage than the solid skeins), so they may be a little small to serve as burp cloths. If they don't work out in that function, I think they'll make some excellent washcloths.

Little Girl Green

You all know how much I love green, so it's probably not surprising that I had to knit my daughter a green sweater.

Pattern: Helena by Alison Green Will, summer 2008 Knitty, 6 month size
Yarn: Crystal Palace Merino 5 Solid (100% superwash merino), colorway Lichen, approximately 3.5 skeins
Needles: US 6 (4.0 mm) and US 2 (2.75 mm) Addi Turbo circs
Started/Completed: October 10/October 31
Mods: omitted one repeat of the lace patterning and substituted buttonholes for ties

I wasn't terribly excited by this pattern the first time I saw it, because I didn't care much for the ties. Then, though, I saw Jess' version, in which she omitted the ties in favor of buttons, and I knew I had to knit it for Rainbow.

I'd used this yarn for an earlier sweater I'd knit for the baby and really enjoyed it, and when I found it marked down for clearance at Natural Stitches, I couldn't resist. It's squishy and soft and has excellent stitch definition, and I just love the color.

As for the mods I made, doing one less repeat of the lace was both because the sweater was measuring where it should be without it and because I was worried about running short on yarn. Because I'd gotten the yarn on clearance, I knew it was very unlikely I'd find more. It turned out to be a good move, because I had enough to knit both sleeves (I finished the body first) but probably not enough for another lace repeat. I also worked three buttonholes into the button band, although only two of them are meant to be buttoned. The top is meant to stay open and be purely decorative.

My favorite part about this sweater? The picot hems. I grafted the hem at the bottom using the live stitches off the needle, but I bound off the sleeve hems and tacked them down afterwards. The latter method seemed to work a bit better in getting the edge to lie flat, but a good blocking helped immensely.

Sort Of

There hasn't been much spinning talked about here in the past month because I spent nearly all of it working on one yarn. I started with this yummy braid, 4.2 oz. of 50% merino/25% silk/25% bamboo that I won as a prize in the Tour de Fleece. It came from Kristin, so I knew it would be good. It was even more delicious to spin up than I expected.

Because of the shininess of the bamboo and the strength of the silk, I knew I wanted this to be a two-ply laceweight yarn. I resigned myself to many, many hours of spinning in order to get the yarn I wanted, and in the end it took several evenings' worth of plying to finish it, even to the point of staying up past my bedtime this past Thursday to finish the last of it. Despite the sore back and the occasional boredom with spinning the same thing, I did get the yarn I wanted. Well, kind of.

The colors blended really nicely and my spinning and plying were fairly consistent. My only complaint? The yardage was not nearly as high as I was hoping -- only approximately 538 yards. I was hoping I'd get somewhat closer to (if not more than) what I got the last time I spun laceweight. I guess I didn't spin my singles nearly as thin as I thought. Still, though, it's a very pretty yarn, and I'm happy with everything else about it.

Up next on the wheel? Another three-ply sock yarn from some superwash merino, also from Kristin. This braid is a bit wild, so I'm excited to see how it turns out.

I spent most of yesterday at Natural Stitches with my wheel and managed to get the first bobbin done (incidentally, while the Mister and my father were painting the nursery!). I'm hoping to get this yarn done before the fiber for the next All Spun Up spinalong shows up in about a week. Perhaps that's a bit ambitious, but I'm running out of spinning time and am determined to get as much in while I can!

The Complete Set

The Knit/Wit family is officially ready for its holiday foot portrait (just as soon as the last member joins us, that is).

I finished Rainbow's last pair of socks yesterday and was reminded again how much fun it is to knit baby socks, especially because I can finish a sock in a couple of hours.

These are the usual pattern, but sized down to be newborn socks (i.e., I used size 0/2 mm needles, did 12 rows rather than 20 on the heel flap, and thus did fewer gusset decrease rows). These are plain ribbing, to match the Mister's, and are likely to fit her when she's first born, unless she's born with extraordinarily long feet, in which case she'll go right to the cable twist socks. At any rate, we will all be toasty this December in our yummy Malabrigo socks. I even have a little bit of yarn leftover, so Rainbow may be getting a pair of matching thumbless mittens.

The baby knitting is continuing, so expect to see some more projects finished in the next week or so.

Soft, Blue, and Twisted

Thank goodness for fall sunshine over the weekend that finally allowed me to photograph this project in a way befitting it.


Pattern: Koolhaas by Jared Flood
Yarn: Intention Yarns, 100% pure local wool, colorway Family, less than one skein
Needles: US 6 (4.0 mm) and US 8 (5.0 mm) Knit Picks Options
Started/Completed: October 14/October 18
Mods: none

When I received this yarn, I knew it would be perfect for a Koolhaas of my own (you may remember that I made one last year as a gift). The yarn was a softly spun, slightly felted singles yarn, heavy worsted weight, in a blue/purple colorway with a few hints of pink. The full skein was 200 yards, so I had plenty for my hat and have a fair amount left over. It knit up very much like Malabrigo, although it's not as soft.

My only complaint about the yarn was that it turned my fingers a little blue as I knit with it. A fair amount of blue dye did come out in the blocking wash; I'm hoping that it was just excess that wasn't rinsed very well. I'll have to play around with the hat for a bit to see if there's still blue rubbing off before I wear it. If there is, it will be getting another bath with some vinegar.

I really enjoyed the pattern the second time around and found it a little faster to execute. I still screwed up the first round of the decreases (which I'm pretty sure I did the first time, too) and had to tink back a bit, but once I got past that minor hiccup, it was smooth sailing. I love how smoothly the design flows into the decreases at the top of the hat. It's a very architectural look, which isn't surprising, considering the design's namesake.

I'm definitely planning on knitting this again. In fact, I think it might make a very cute baby hat done in fingering weight.

If there aren't enough cable twists for you in my hat, how about a comlpeted pair of baby socks?

These are my usual pattern, with cable twists just like my socks and made from the leftovers with size 0/2.0 mm needles. They were started last Thursday and finished on Saturday, easy peasy. We officially have family socks!

Whoosh!

If you're wondering, that's the sound the past week made as it went by. Yes, it's been crazy, which is why the blog has been silent. I'll spare you the boring details, but rest assured that I have been knitting in between the chaos.

Like, for example, the pair of socks I finished last night at Hurricane Knitting:

These are exactly the same as the socks I finished for the Mister a couple weeks ago, except that I decided to spice up the ribbing with some cable twists. (And, obviously, these fit my feet and not his.) One sock twists to the right and the other twists to the left.

I have a fairly generous portion of yarn left over from the two pairs (somewhere in the vicinity of 40 grams), so I'm going to make two pairs for Rainbow -- one pair with cable twists like mine and one with plain ribbing, to match the Mister's.

I think that most future sock knitting will be exclusively for Rainbow, as a matter of fact. The reason? In preparation for getting the nursery put together, the Mister finally cleared out some drawers in our bedroom dressers for me, and I discovered that my sock drawer in the other room is close to filling two drawers now:

Looks like I'll be doing something else with all the sock yarn in my stash!

A Chill in the Air

Well, it's official: Fall is here. We've turned on our heat and I've broken out the storage bag with all my handknit accessories. I even got out my Tangled Yoke Cardigan (which, fortuitously, has enough ease that it still fits, provided I don't button it all the way) to wear to work today. Unfortunately, it was hotter than Hades in my office, so it spent most of the day on the back of my chair where no one could admire it but me. At least it kept me warm on my walk to and from work.

Progress on Helena has been fast and easy -- I'm nearly done with the body portion -- so last night I decided to put it down for a while in favor of a little something for me. I had wound up a skein from an earlier Intention Yarns club shipment earlier in the week, and last night I cast on for a Koolhaas that I intend to keep for me. I made it through the ribbing and one full repeat of the yarn before I put it down for the night.

This yarn is a lovely, slightly fulled singles yarn spun of local wool and (I believe) solar dyed by Miss Violet. It has a look very similar to Malabrigo, although it's not quite as soft. The intention for this particular skein was Family, which seemed to me a very appropriate sentiment for the moment. Unfortunately, Family is rubbing off on my hands a bit and making me look a bit like a Smurf. A vinegar bath will be in store for this hat when it's done to avoid any potential Blue Forehead Syndrome.

A Little Loopy

There's no end to the baby knits here chez Knit/Wit. The most recent used up the July shipment from the Rockin' Sock Club, which was a bit too bright for my feet:

While I didn't want this for socks for me, I thought the colors would be perfect for a bright and cheerful sweater for Rainbow -- specifically for her going-home-from-the-hospital outfit.

Pattern: Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock Lightweight (100% superwash merino), colorway Garden Daze, one skein
Needles: US 5 (3.75 mm) Knit Picks Options
Started/Completed: October 2/October 10
Mods: omitted the buttonholes and edged the sweater in applied i-cord, including button loops

I love the look of applied i-cord around this sweater, and for this version of the BSJ, I decided to use it to my advantage. I've never been a huge fan of the buttonholes in the sweater as written (mostly because I'm never completely sure which side they should be on), so I used the i-cord to create button loops near the top of the sweater. The buttons came from my big bag of mixed buttons; they're a simple black plastic, nothing fancy.

As you can tell from the photo of the yarn above, the colors are way off in the shots of the sweater. In real life, it's shades of pink, green, and yellow.

I've now knit this pattern more than half a dozen times, yet I still find it enjoyable and I still need the directions. I'm also convinced that I interpret the directions slightly differently every time, but it always seems to come out okay, so I have a feeling that this is not the last BSJ to come off my needles. I'm looking forward to seeing Rainbow in this little jacket in December!

A Happy Blanket

I've been waiting to share this with you for a bit. It was completed a while ago, just before we moved out while the floors were being done. I blocked it during our brief visit home between polyurethane coats and then had to wait until we were back in the house to unpin it. This morning I finally got some good sunlight for the photo shoot.

Pattern: Baby Chalice Blanket (Ravelry link) by Lykkefanten
Yarn: Dream in Color Classy (100% superwash Australian merino), colorway Happy Forest, less than two skeins
Needles: US 8 (5.0 mm) Knit Picks Options
Started/Completed: September 9/October 1
Dimensions: approximately 2' by 3'
Mods: none to the knitting, but I charted the pattern from the written directions to complete it

I'm quite happy with how this turned out. The lace pattern reminds me of thistles or asparagus spears (the latter no doubt because of the color I chose). I followed the pattern as written and blocked it somewhat aggressively to open up the lace, with the resulting finished product measuring just slightly larger than specified in the pattern. This will make a nice stroller blanket for Rainbow, although it's a little lighter than I thought it would be. If I were to do this over again, I'd either use smaller needles (and perhaps add repeats to keep it the same width) or a heavier yarn for a thicker fabric. But that's not to say I'm disappointed with my yarn choice -- DIC Classy remains my favorite worsted weight yarn when I'm up for a bit of a splurge.

As long as we're looking at green things, here's the beginning of another sweater for Rainbow -- Helena -- that I cast on for yesterday at Natural Stitches. I'm through the raglan increases and should be getting to the fun lace part soon. I'm not in too much of a hurry on this one, though, as I'm making the six-month size.

And, it is Sunday, after all, so to keep spinning in the mix, take a look at what finally arrived earlier this week (after I waited only about five months):

Variations on a Theme

It's Wednesday, and unfortunately I didn't make it to knit night tonight, but we are back in our house, so things are good. We won't be able to move the furniture back in until probably the weekend, but at least I can sleep in my own bed.

But you're not here to hear about my house or my furniture, you're here for the knitting, right? Okay, well I have some knitting for you in the form of some finished Man Socks (tm).

This is the first pair of the trio that will be our "family socks" this winter. I decided to start with the Mister's, because his are, of course, the biggest and the most boring. I thought I'd at least jazz up his usual preferred pattern by doing a 2x2 rib all the way down the leg and on the instep.

Because this yarn was a little on the thin side, however, my standard recipe for man socks needed a little tweaking. I started with my usual needles (US 1.5/2.5 mm) for the leg, but the stitches looked a little loose for my taste, so I went down to US 0 (2.0 mm) needle for the foot. I also decreased the total number of stitches from 68 for the leg to 64 for the foot.

I made the heel flap rather long, resulting in what felt like the world's longest gusset.

The full details:
Pattern: 2x2 rib worked over 68 sts for the leg and 64 sts for the foot
Yarn: Malabrigo Sock (100% superwash merino), colorway Boticelli* Red, less than one skein
Needles: two 12" US 1.5 (2.5 mm) and two 16" US 0 (2.0 mm) Addi Turbo circs
Started/Completed: September 21/October 6

This morning I cast on for my socks, which will be exactly the same except smaller (obviously) and with cable twists instead of ribs. Judging from how much yarn was left over after completing this pair, there should be plenty for at least one pair for Rainbow. Perhaps I'll make her a pair to match both variations!

*Yes, that's the way it's spelled on the label!

The Black Purl

It's Sunday, so it's time to show off my latest spinning. This was a bump of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Wool Top that I picked up at Natural Stitches during the Tour de Fleece spin-in back in July. It was five ounces of superwash merino in a beautiful black/purple/gray colorway called Black Purl. I spun it up into a three ply that's about an aran weight and approximately 235 yards.

I'm pleased with how it turned out if a bit disappointed by the yardage. I was planning on using this yarn for a sweater for Rainbow, though I'm not sure if I have enough. Anyone know a good baby sweater using a little more than 200 yards?

I've recently realized that my spinning time is likely dwindling (I doubt I'll get much time behind the wheel once the baby comes), so I felt I had to be very discerning in what I chose to spin next. I picked a fun one, I think: the All Spun Up merino/bamboo/silk I won during the TdF. I'm aiming for a two-ply laceweight (so I should be busy with this for a while).

I love how this fiber shines, so I'll be enjoying spinning it, even if it does take me what seems like forever.

Now, in the latest chapter of the story I like to call "The Joys of Home Ownership," I think I mentioned that we were having our wood floors refinished. We thought we'd planned it out really well so that we'd only have to be out of the house (and moved in with my parents) for a long weekend. Unfortunately, it seems the workmen didn't plan quite as well as we did. The floors apparently soaked up more polyurethane than they were expecting and they ran out (after finishing the first coat at about 9 p.m. on Friday). Then, it seems there are only two distributors in the city that sell this particular polyurethane, and both of them were closed this weekend. So the guys won't be back until tomorrow to do the second coat, which means that we probably won't be able to move back into the house until Wednesday. The Mister and I went over for a bit earlier today to pick up some more clothes (as well as my computer and camera), and I spent a little bit of time with my wheel. I missed it. I'm looking forward to things getting back to normal this week!

Dear Life: Please Slow Down

I don't know why, but lately life has been flying by at a crazy speed. Last weekend was very busy, despite the fact that we both took Monday off (for Yom Kippur). We had our first baby class Saturday morning, had an engagement party to go to on Saturday night, met the Mister's parents for brunch on Sunday morning, and then spent Sunday evening and most of the day Monday in synagogue. Yesterday we went back to work and had a three-hour baby class in the evening, and now we're preparing to move in with my parents for a few days while we have the wood floors on the first floor of our house refinished (during which time I have a high school reunion, we have a wedding to go to, and the Mister is running a 5K). Are you surprised that I'm exhausted?

Amazingly, in the middle of all this craziness, I did manage to finish my brother's scarf. (The purpose of this crappy picture is only to show you just how long it is after blocking.)

Pattern: my own (see below)
Yarn: Cascade 220 (100% Peruvian highland wool), colors 8393/Navy and 7827/Goldenrod, approximately 2.5 skeins each
Needles: 16" US 7 (4.5 mm) Addi Turbo circs
Started/Completed: August 27/September 25
Dimensions: 8" wide by approximately 93" long, excluding fringe

My brother rarely requests any hand-knit items, so when he does ask for something, I make sure to deliver. This summer, he asked if I could knit him a Harry Potter-esque scarf in his school colors for his final year at college. Bearing in mind that brother grows a beard in the winter just to keep his face warm, I figured a tube scarf was in order, with a double thickness for maximum warmth.

I kept the pattern really simple: I cast on what seemed like a good number of stitches to fill up the 16" needle (which turned out out to be 90) and purled the middle stitch and the last stitch to create a fold line on either side of the scarf. I changed colors every six inches and knit until I was just about out of yarn and it seemed long enough (that turned out to be 12 stripes). Were it not for the fact that a half skein of the navy yarn went missing somewhere in the middle, I would have made it even longer, but it turned out to be long enough in the end. I found some leftover navy Cascade from my dad's birthday sweater that I used for the fringe, and then I blocked the heck out of it.

It's now long enough that, if I drape it around my neck, it nearly reaches my feet. It should be sufficient to keep my 6'2" brother warm this winter, don't you think?

Eerie, Pennsylvania

Some of you may be aware of the fact that the G-20 Summit is going on right now here in Pittsburgh. The Mister and I are both lucky enough not to work downtown, where most of the excitement is, but the city does have a weird sense of shut down about it. He drove me in to work this morning, but things seemed okay this afternoon, so I walked home as usual. It was a truly surreal experience. There was very little traffic but there were several news helicopters hovering over my neighborhood, and a small group of protesters (perhaps broken off from the main event) crossed my path when I was about halfway home.

At times like these, it's always helpful to have some knitting with me, especially some fairly mindless knitting that can be really soothing. My current sock certainly fits the bill.

This would be the first of the Mister's family socks. The Malabrigo sock is a lot thinner than I'd remembered, so I've gone down to a size 0 (2 mm) needle for the heel, gusset, and foot. I'm maintaining the 2x2 rib on the instep, but other than that, it's just a plain sock. The decreased needle size combined with the Mister's big feet make for a rather time-consuming sock, but that's pretty much why I started with his. After finishing these, my socks and Rainbow's socks will be a breeze!

Speaking of mindless knitting, I am finally on the last stripe of my brother's scarf. I'm going to knit as fast as I can this evening to get as much done as I can, and I'm pretty confident in saying that it will be done by this weekend. Expect to see it complete in the next post (and please hold me to that promise!).

A Feeling of Normalcy

It's been quite a weird summer. Those of you who know me or who have been reading this blog a while remember the days when I always had a pair of socks going. Last year, for instance, I completed 22 pairs of adult socks. Summer, in particular, has always been a productive time for my sock knitting. This year, however, has seen only seven pairs of adult socks, the most recent being knit way back in April. I'm not sure where my mojo went in the months that followed, but when the urge to start my sock knitting again hit a couple of weeks ago, I wasn't about to question it.

Presenting my eighth pair of adult socks for 2009:

Pattern: a variation on my usual 64-stitch stockinette sock
Yarn: ONline Supersocke 100 Circle Color (75% superwash wool, 25% polyamide), color 1053
Needles: two 12" US 1 (2.5 mm) Addi Turbo circs
Started/Completed: September 8/September 17

I say these are a variation on my regular pattern because I added a little extra reinforcement. For instance, I carried the slip stitch pattern of the heel flap through the heel turn. Because of the way the stitches work out in the turn, it has the look of an Eye of Partridge heel.

I added the same reinforcement for the toe by working the "plain" (i.e., non-decreasing) rows as slip 1, knit 1, and working the decrease rows as usual, getting that same pretty Eye of Partridge effect. I think this reinforcement will be especially effective, because the tops of my toes are usually where my handknit socks start to show a little wear and tear.

I picked this yarn mainly because I wanted something fun and self-striping (I knew that I just wanted to knit a plain sock to get back into the groove), but after a few minutes of knitting I remembered that I didn't much care for it. It's a bit on the rough side, though I know it will soften with a couple of washes and wear well in the long run. At least I managed to get the stripes to more or less match up!

And, of course, because I had some leftovers, I had to use them wisely -- in another pair of socks for Rainbow (the usual pattern, sized down a bit to be newborn size, and size 0/2 mm needles):

Slow Spinning

It's been a while since I've done a Spinning Sunday, and for good reason -- my spinning has been going very slowly lately. I'm still working on the Lorna's Laces superwash fiber that I picked up at Natural Stitches way back during the Tour de Fleece. I'm doing a three ply that (yardage permitting) should become yarn for a sweater for Rainbow when I'm done. Two bobbins of singles are spun up (ignore the one in the middle there -- that's just my collection of leftover singles).

I'd really like to finish up the third bobbin and ply this week, but we'll see what happens. At the moment, I'm more concerned with knitting projects than spinning.

And speaking of Natural Stitches and knitting, I made a little stop at the store yesterday afternoon to show off my Mommy Snug and knit with the girls a little bit. At some point in the last week, the Mister (at least I think it was him) suggested that it'd be really cute if I knit matching socks for me, the Mister, and Rainbow for this winter. So as long as I was there, I took a look through the sock yarn to see if I could find something good. Here's what I came home with:

This is the oh-so-yummy Malabrigo Sock in a colorway called Botticelli Red (though I think Titian Red would be a better name). I have to consult with the Mister about patterns, but I'm thinking all three pairs will be something fairly simple to show off the beautiful kettle-dyed color of the yarn. Expect to see a family feet portrait later this year!

The List

First, I have to thank you all for your comments on the Mommy Snug. I'm really quite pleased with how it turned out, and not just because it fits. I think I did a better job than normal on the finishing, which is my least favorite part of sweater knitting. I can't say I like sewing up a sweater any better now, but at least I know I can do a decent job of it when I need to.

Now, on to the list. For a while now, I've had a mental checklist of knitting projects I want to get done before Rainbow arrives, but I thought it would be good for me (and my pregnancy brain) to get it in writing. So let's review what's in the queue, shall we?

First on the list is the scarf for my brother, which has been my main evening knitting project this week and seems to be never ending.

It's just a tad longer than four and a half feet long at this point. I'd originally thought that I'd make it about seven feet long (long enough to suit my 6'2" brother), but it's taking so long -- not to mention that I seem to have misplaced a partial skein of the navy -- that I'm now thinking six feet, plus fringe, might be better. I know I can stretch it out a little more when I block it, and it's so thick and wide that I doubt my brother will wrap it more than once at most, so that should suffice.

Also on the needles is a project you haven't seen, and (surprise!) it's another one for Rainbow. This is the Baby Chalice Blanket (available here as a free Ravelry download) in Dream in Color Classy, colorway Happy Forest. It's not very big right now, but the lace knits up quickly and this will stretch a lot when it's blocked.

What else is on the list (but not cast on yet)?

I'd like to knit two Baby Surprise Jackets for Rainbow, one with the rainbow yarn I spun up during the Tour de Fleece, which is likely to knit up on the big side and so probably will be a sweater for next winter, and one with some Socks That Rock that I'm hoping will come out the right size to be part of her going-home-from-the-hospital outfit. I also want to knit her a Helena with the green Crystal Palace Merino 5 I picked up when I bought the yarn for my Mommy Snug.

For myself, I'd really like to make another Lady Eleanor Wrap with that haul of Noro I brought home way back in April, and I have plans to make myself a Koolhaas with the yarn that came in my last Intentions Yarn club shipment.

And, of course, in between all these bigger projects I'm probably going to be knitting some baby socks, some adult socks, and maybe some burp cloths or teddy bears.

So what do you think -- am I being too ambitious?

Ribbed, for Our Pleasure

It took three days to dry after it was blocked, but it was worth it!

Pattern: Mommy Snug [Ravelry link] by Kate Gilbert, summer 2006 Interweave Knits
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece (80% cotton, 20% merino), colorway 710/Prosperous Plum, 6.5 skeins (approximately 1,398 yards)
Needles: 32" US 4 (3.5 mm) Addi Turbo circs
Started/Completed: August 15/September 8
Mods: I eliminated some plain rows in the front and mirrored the directions for the cuff of the left sleeve when I got to the right sleeve

I thought that I might go crazy from knitting nothing but 2x2 rib, but as you can tell from the span of time it took me to complete the sweater, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. Yes, there were days when I had to stop and rest when my hands got tired of knitting rib with a mostly cotton yarn, but the knitting went surprisingly quickly.

I really can't say enough about this pattern; it's so, so clever. The ribbing makes the garment extremely stretchy as it is, but there are little touches that make the sweater so flattering on an expanding belly.

For starters, there's a series of short rows worked just below the bustline to shape the front piece to fit the top of the belly and prevent it from riding up (because while some people think it's fashionable to show off a bare pregnant stomach, I am not one of them).

Then, for the later months and weeks of pregnancy, there is a button placket along each side of the sweater, allowing you to open it up for even more room.

In addition to these very functional features, there are some really nice touches that add a bit of dressiness -- like the button plackets on the cuffs of the sleeves that are more decorative than functional and the columns of twisted stitches/faux cables at the bottoms of the ribs.

The ribs on either side of the neckline are twisted as well, and the collar is finished off with six rows of stockinette and live stitches that are grafted to the base of where they were picked up.

I wouldn't say that I'm in a hurry to knit a lot of 2x2 ribbing in the near future, but I can say that I absolutely loved knitting this sweater. The yarn wasn't the easiest on my hands at times, but I enjoyed working with it and like the finished fabric. The pattern is very well written and results in an extremely wearable garment. I know I'm going to get a lot of use out of this sweater this fall and likely for a little while after Rainbow is born.

Best of all? I still have two and a half skeins of the yarn to make something for Rainbow! Think I should do a ribbed sweater so we can match?