Could Baby Knitting Be My New Sock Knitting?

I have knit another baby sweater. And not anything especially new or exciting... just another version of one I've already knit.

Pattern- Churchmouse Yarns and Teas 'Easy Peasy Baby Jacket'
Size 6-12 months

I love it. Like... I love it a lot.
And I realized while knitting it, that I also love knitting baby things.

Yarn- Cascade Luna Paints in Shade 9833
2 skeins

It satisfies that piece of my knitterly pie that socks satisfy. I can see progress quickly, I know it will get put to good use, and it's portable- easy to pick up and put down, then come back to.

Hers and His

As I was clicking away on this project however, I began to reflect on when exactly my last pair of socks came off the needles.The answer? Too long ago (aka just over two months ago).

I got worried that maybe my sock knitting had been replaced. It left me hoping and praying that maybe once the darling babe that I'm so anxiously waiting for arrives, my sock knitting will resume. (I've got some sets of feet to keep warm already!)

Earlier in the week however I had an invite to a friend's place. Knowing there would be some sitting around and chatting involved, I grabbed the nearest ball of sock yarn I could find (one needn't look too far in my place). I ran out the door and cast on.

And do you know what I discovered?

Much to my relief, my love of socks has most certainly not been replaced.

Why... Hello socks!

I've missed you terribly.

Feeling A Bit Wooly Headed?

Something nasty has been circulating as of late.



I hope your medicine cabinet is stocked!

It's A Frosty Day For the Circus

My mother has made many comments in the past in regards to her four children and their very different personalities. If there are four seasons, four elements, four humours and four temperaments, my parents managed to make four babies that fell into each ones of those four 'whatevers'.
One might argue that I am the loudest of the bunch. (This shocks you, doesn't it?) I tend to be pretty loud with my voice, pretty loud with my colour selections and pretty loud with my... well, you get it.

My sister Heather (pictured below) tends towards the slightly more quiet side of the spectrum.

These cowls- case and point.

Please note that I am wearing my Dad's shoes in this picture.
My feet are not actually longer than my legs.

A while back, we decided to cast on this project together. I had picked up a ball of Rowan Kidsilk Haze Stripe at Liberty while visiting my other sister in London last November (my single, solitary yarn souvenir of that trip) and Heather was gifted this ball from someone special.

I'd like you to take a moment to notice the mega contrast in colour choices. While I know that this yarn only has five colourways in the range, I'm pretty sure that we both landed the two most opposite colourways of the lot.

The name of Heather's colourway is 'Frost'.

The name of my colourway is 'Circus'.

And I'm pretty sure that my parents (or anyone that knows the two of us for that matter) will acknowledge that the names of these colourways are entirely appropriate to the knitter.

We were just waving to our Aunt who had popped her head up in the window.
But let's pretend that we're waving at you- shall we?

This isn't to say that Heather has a frosty personality of course. That's not the case at all. It's more that her personality, wardrobe and living space have a certain calmness about them, much like that of a quiet and frosty winter morning.

My personality, wardrobe and living space however.... yeah.

You get it.

Right?

Once a bossy older sister, always a bossy older sister

Now despite deciding on the same knitting project together, this certainly does not mean that we chose to go about making these cowls in the exact same manner. We're not twins afterall.

Heather knit her cowl using the entire ball of yarn.

I followed the pattern and knit to the length as indicated- a mere 42".

While Heather had the patience to knit her way through every last inch of yarn, I had to get back to my three ring circus ASAP (and now have a weird little ball of yarn leftover that will languish in my stash for years and years and years until I have another flood and am forced to throw it out).

Huh?

Did someone say circus?

Sisterly Details

Pattern- Churchmouse Yarns and Teas Mohair Bias Loop
Yarn- On Heather- Rowan Kidsilk Haze Stripe in shade 203 'Frost'
On me- Rowan Kidsilk Haze Stripe in shade 205 'Circus'
(Good news is that you don't have to go to London to get this yarn- we have all the colours in stock at the shop!)
Needles- 6.5mm

And for those of you wondering how the wee chicks are making out.

Well... you might say that Mother Nature isn't very kind to any little creature out there while they're going through puberty. 

So don't feel too badly about those pictures you have kicking around the house from your 'ugly ducking' phase.

We've all got them- even these guys.

It's A Love/Hate Thing

I have a fondness for things that are love/hate. You know? Anything where people rarely go 'Yeah... I could go either way on that', the debating is just too fun!

Things like... Olives.

And Birkenstocks. 

And Camaros. 

All things that I love dearly, but make many people feel woozy with dislike.

Two more things that make my heart sing (and others hurl) are granny squares and day glow colours. So when I saw this cowl on Purl Bee, I thought to myself  'LYNN! DON'T PUT THAT CROCHET HOOK AWAY JUST YET!'

And I got right to work.



It helped that I had some retina searing hot pink languishing in my stash, which made me feel a little less silly about 100% stealing Purl Bee's colour scheme- it was just too hard to resist! It was time to put that hot pink yarn to good use, and away I went, off and running, clearly still in the thick of some kind of crochet-binge.

All hail the hot pink and the granny square.

Or should I say in this case, 'granny cowl'?

Info For All You 'Lovers' Out There

Pattern- Two Color Cowl by Purl Bee
Yarn- 1.5 skeins of Van der Rock Yarns (no colour number on label- also looks like this company is no longer) and 1.5 skeins of Shibui Sock in shade 402 'Sand'
Hook- 3 mm

It's a granny square, but it's a tube! HELLO FUN TIMES!

OH! I just thought of another real love/hate thing with people!

Day glow nail polish.

China Glaze 'Pink Voltage'

And I'm pretty sure you know where I stand on that one.

Cherry Blossoms in High Park on Sunday afternoon

Happy cherry blossom season everyone!

Herring-Baby

So... Yeah.

I wasn't kidding when I said that I started another one.



As soon as I finished my colourful version of this exact same blanket two weeks ago, I felt pangs in my heart because I didn't want it to be over. So true to my word, I got right down to it.

In less than a week I had completed two of these. Record breaking- right? However, it did take a nice cup of tea and visit with my dear sister on Easter Monday to get around to sewing in all the ends on this one.

I opted for black and white not only because I was smitten with the photo of it on the Churchmouse Pattern, but also because I just wanted to try out a more affordable option. As much as I adore the colourful version, no matter what yarn you use, you need at least ten balls. That can be pricey even if worked out of the cheapest of the cheap yarn.

So here you have it.

Black and white.

My hairdresser became an aunt about a year ago and kindly visited the shop to pick up some supplies for the new babe. She worked away on a beautiful knitted blanket in some fabulously broad black and white stripes (as requested by her pregnant sister). While some might wince at the thought of such a stark contrast on their most precious wee one, people are digging it.

Myself included.

Looks a little bit like herringbone if you ask me.
And herringbone on a baby makes for one trendy little person.

Shall we call this 'herring-baby?'
Info (that you really actually already know if you read this about a week back).

Pattern- Churchmouse Yarns and Teas Vintage Crochet Blanket
Yarn- Berroco Comfort Worsted- only four balls! Two black, two white.
Hook size- 5mm despite the pattern telling me 4mm.

So to all of you crocheters out there...

Have a baby shower for a set of twins next week?

You can do it.

The babies will thank you.

Just To Top It All Off

This post is for all of you out there who turned your nose up at me for not blocking this poor little baby sweater last week. (I know you're out there...)

I'd like to show you that not only did I block the darned thing...

I even knit a 'sweet' little hat to go with.



Pancakes anyone?

Cuteness Overload

This Easter weekend, my parents welcomed a few more additions (52 to be exact!) to their always expanding family.

Peep! Peep!

The Easter Bunny was very good to those parents of mine this year.

I know it's already been said here once... but I'm going to say it again.

I hope that you all had a wonderful Easter weekend!

It's A Wool-Friendly Easter Out There

Is it just me that has noticed how much sheep related Easter candy is out there this year? I've seen sheep all over the shops, and have even been gifted some.

Naturally, I dig it.

Sheep-y M&Ms, courtesy of Mom. (Thanks Mom!)

Laura Secord Sheep, courtesy of Aunt Lynn. (Thanks Aunt Lynn!)

And uhm... Tulips.

This knitter also loves tulips.



Wishing you all a very Happy Easter!