Cubbie cap

It seems to me that baseball cap + small child = cute overload.

You can see E's teething necklace very clearly here.  It's made of amber and I got it from Inspired by Finn back when he was about six months old or so at the recommendation of mamas I met at my local LLL and babywearing groups. I'm not sure if it really helps with teething, but it definitely doesn't hurt.

We had our biggest snowfall of the year so far overnight, all of 3 or 4 inches, I'd say, and E was out helping me shovel again this morning.  With snow boots!

I started knitting a pair of these socks for myself last weekend. I'm making them in to knee socks and don't expect them to be finished before the fall. I've wanted to make them forever - or at least since the pattern came out in 2006 - and I'm glad they're underway, size 0 needles and all.

One more picture of a cutie in a cap!

This picture was totally back-lit when I took it, but through an editing menu in my camera itself that I don't fully understand, I was able to improve it quite a bit.

Pixie Hat: Complete!

After I finished my hat, I started in on a hat for E.  I thought this "pixie" style with a point in the back was too cute.

The green yarn is Socks That Rock medium-weight in the beryl colorway.  I've had this yarn quite a long time and tried to knit it in to a number of things, but most of them just didn't work out.  I find it rather too thick for socks, despite the name.  I realized a third of the way through that I wouldn't have enough of that darn green yarn, hence the gray stripe, in Regia 6-ply (another sock yarn that I find too thick for socks).

 

View from the side:

 

And the back:

Stay tuned for details on Mommy's headband :)

Hubbo put the hat on Mr. E for these pictures, I would have made it a bit tighter, but then, E never likes it when I put his hat on.  Hmm...

If you look carefully, you might notice that in the previous post, the hat isn't oriented in the same way as it is here.  This is the way I intended for it to be worn, but it looks cute either way!

Complete: Selbu Modern

A hat! Not just a hat, a winter hat! Yep, I knit myself a wool hat (and not just any wool, but Shetland wool from Shetland sheep living on Shetland and processed in to yarn there too) in the summer. =)

 

This pattern is called Selbu Modern, and for some reason I always read it as the French "moderne," although I don't think that's what the designer intended. The hat was my first stranded (i.e. using two colors at once) project. My tension is a little wonky in some of the parts that alternated single stitches of each color, but overall I'm really happy with it. Using two colors essentially creates a hat of double thickness, this one is really warm.

The knitting was completed in just under a month, faster than I expected.  I knit like a fiend while E was napping.  The entire hat was knit while he was sleeping - I think I tried working on it once in the car while Hubbo was driving, but E needed some distractions, so that didn't last.

 

Ravelry info is here.

 

Doesn't this rose look like it's just peeping out at you from behind the wall?  The camera's auto-focus had a really hard time with this one, it wanted to focus either on the wall or the bushes in the background.  Luckily I do know how to switch it to manual!  Not as easy as you might think, because you have to set both the camera body and the lens to manual focus on our camera.

Superbaby!

Stepping, Stepping, Stepping

When we were at my parents' house awhile back, Grandpa taught little E how to go up the stairs (we don't have stairs in our little ranch). He didn't do too much with that at home for awhile, but all of a sudden he loves to go up and down the step up to our back door. Sometimes the little guy will lift his leg up high to go down the step too, so cute!

 

At dinner today, Mr. Muffin was having some pureed peas (yum!), and he was really eyeing the dish I was filling his spoon from. I eventually let him see it (he was thrilled), bracing for a big mess. Instead of diving in with both hands as I was expecting, he carefully put one index finger in. Then took it out and put the other one in. Right finger. Left finger. Right finger. Left finger. Then he started grabbing with his whole hand...

I also knit E this little ball. I glimpsed it in a picture on Amanda's blog. (From reading Tiny Muffins, one might think hers was the only blog I read. It is not, although it's a good read.) I dug up the pattern, "Judy's 12-Section Yarnball," on Raverly, and knit it up.

 

Made with yarn leftover from a bunch of diaper covers!

 

It's knit in garter stitch, which I have never been particularly fond of. It's the simplest stitch, you knit each stitch back and forth in rows. Worked up in a relatively thick yarn like this, it does have a certain pleasing smooshy-ness to it. Maybe I'll make a garter stitch blanket afterall one day...

Mini book review: Little Red in the City

My parents got Ysolda Teague's Little Red in the City for me for my birthday (thanks parents!), and it's really great! Despite having learned to knit when I was little, I've never made any clothing other than socks. A sweater's worth of wool is expensive, and I've always been worried about getting the fit right. This book deals with just that issue! Ysolda emphasizes the importance of measurements, she must list close to 20 different measurements that matter, and swatching (of course).

The only negative was that the book has a tendency to focus on pattern adjustments for larger people, comments for skinny people are just tossed in with a sentence or two. One might have guessed that this was the case from the model on the cover, but I was hoping for more tips that would help me personally since Ysolda herself is more or less my size. Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to attempting this neato sweater from the book.

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We visited my in-laws awhile ago, and got this picture of little E with his grandma:

 

  

Forget about "seeing" with your hands, we're into "seeing" with our mouth!  The orange was a big hit, I think because it has a fun texture, and you can smell it through the peel.  We also tried giving him a whole apple to play with, but it wasn't nearly as interesting as the orange.

Just this week, he has also moved on from saying "ahhhhhh" to mainly saying "uhhhhh" and pursing his lips, a little like the fishy face he used to make as a newborn.

Toe Touches

A picture of the elusive toe touches has been captured:

 

This picture was from a few days ago, now E can get those toes almost all of the way to his mouth even with his diaper on. And he's started pulling off his socks like a big kid!

I also finished another wool diaper cover the other day.

 

This pattern is called Vanilla and I love it! It was $5 I think, worth every penny! This is the fourth one I've made, and I've already started a 5th since the little guy has been such a speedy grower. I only had one of them made before he was born, but one of his great-aunts made him a couple more covers, and they got us through until I found time to knit again - thanks Aunt Linda :)

I've been trying to keep the colors gender neutral (not too tricky since I have a pretty broad definition of gender neutral). This one makes me feel like I was channeling my inner Amanda when I picked the colors. It's also great for early March in Chicago - sort of like dirty snow and mud!

Hands & Hats

Starting about a couple of weeks ago, so probably right around the 4-month mark, little E has been really interested in putting his hands in his mouth. Mostly he's chomping on his index finger or sometimes a thumb. He's started to put toys in his mouth too, it's definitely time to be extra on the look out for those choking hazards now!

Tasty hands!

I just finished up a little hat for a friend who's expecting a girl (also a baby E) at the end of February. She requested pink with braids and little ears, I hope she likes it! I made the "preemie" size because my friend mentioned having E wear it for her newborn pictures, but I think it came out rather big. I hope being a little over-sized will be cute! I really like the way the edging around the bottom makes the hat looked "finished." I like the edging (which was crocheted) way more than I was expecting to. Ravelry link for the project here.