A Needle Pulling Thread

There have been months and gnashing of teeth. It has been a hard thing, this break from blogging, but I have done it. I still have back-blogs half-finished, just waiting for me to remember what needs done to finish them. I will get back into the groove with time.

On the homefront, though, I can tell you that life has gone on. Though the upstairs nursery/spare room construction is still not totally constructed. It has studs and, trust me, that is a vast improvement to where it was a few weeks ago.

All the plans I had for maternity leave, those went out the window, along with a lot of other plans, including the timeline for second story construction. They were good plans, but it is important to know when to re-prioritize and the fact is: work and family come first. I did finish the husband's Dr. Who scarf in time for Halloween:

The girl was also decked out in her knitted finest and ready to exterminate:

And now, 9 months later, months since I have returned to work, she is decked out in her sewn finest because I, the-one-unable-to-sew-a-straight-line, I, dear readers, have learned to sew.

This just goes to show you that with initiative and the right book, anything is possible. Even if you have the hand-eye coordination of an intoxicated mole. My right book was Making Baby's Clothes by Rob Merrett. What set this book apart as perfect for this beginner was the step-by-step guides with each pattern. Each step has a handy illustration so a newb like me can see what the heck Merrett means when he says things like "pin the outer yoke to the front and back panels of the dress, matching up the outer edges of the armholes with the reference dots on the yoke."

I have no idea what that says but when I did what the illustration looked like, it all worked out fine. The pattern I used, by the way, is a plain version of Chiquita Charm with bias tape made from the dress material used for the sleeve holes and a second material used for the yoke and flounce. I also hemmed the flounce instead of finishing the edge with bias tape. I rather enjoy how it worked out, even if I had to rip out the yoke three times before I got it (mostly) right.

The patterns in Merrett's book are cute, varied, and tackle-able for a beginner. I did find the sizing to range a little large. The dress I made was sized for 9 months and my daughter is wearing 12 month stuff now and it's still a little big for her. Up-side: it should fit for a long time to come.

Maybe it will fit her when her nursery is finally finished...

More Baby Knits (and Construction)

Well, I'm in labor over here and have been for a week. Alas, it's early labor so I'm just biding my time, wondering if this day will be the day these contractions start kicking it up a notch. My hospital bag is packed and every morning, I have to take my toiletries out of the bag and then put them back in. It's a barrel of frigging monkeys.

The good news about the baby wait is the upstairs is not ready for her to be here yet:

Baby's room

Baby's closet

Guest room

And all together

Granted, since the taking of these pictures, the plaster and debris have all been hauled out to a dumpster, but it's still not exactly a heartening site.

On the knitting front, there has been much progress. I finished my Her First Party Dress, blocked it, and added a cute little black ribbon with white hearts on it that my husband actually picked out.

I didn't knit this one up like it was stated on the tin, mostly because I don't understand why anyone would knit this flat when it is clearly an in-the-round sort of design. Thus, once I finished the yoke of the dress, with all it's cabling, I converted the rest of the pattern to be knit in the round. I also changed the bottom ruffle from what it was to a cable that sort of matches up with the yoke. A little pearl button from my mason jar o buttons and voila.

This dress is packed in the hospital bag, along with a matching hat I created the pattern for that the blog will see in due course. I don't have pictures taken of it yet because it only just finished blocking.

I also finished a quick little Washcloth I knit mostly to use up bits of worsted weight cotton scraps. It worked like a charm.

I also used up a skein of self-striping baby yarn I got on clearance but really ended up not caring for a great deal to make some Essential Leg Warmers and a matching hat. With the hat, the leg warmers look at least a little less strange.

Finally, there is the baby's Dalek Costume. The dress is the Mummy's Little Dalek Jumper but the hat I created the pattern for myself, and I'll be sharing it with the general public soon. I think I'll wait and see how it actually fits on a baby's head first.

Of course the knitting is far from over. In fact, I have already started on the Doctor Who scarf my husband requires to complete the baby's dalek ensemble. Then, of course, there will likely be frantic Christmas knitting while on maternity leave.

For now though, it's just a lot of waiting. Oh and contractions.