oh, baby

i finished the set of baby socks i’ve been knitting to give a co-worker. the baby was due a week ago and has not shown up yet; maybe this will encourage her or him to make an appearance. i’m pretty sure dustin will get a big kick out of these, even if he’s not enjoying the wait.

hey baby, come and get your socks already!

for the last pair, shown above in yesterday’s photo, i decided to test-drive the yarn nerd 1500 MHz merino sock yarn that adam sent me over the summer in a fiber trade.

this is the grey poupon colorway he dyed especially for me . . . it reminds me of caterpillars and i’ve been wanting to cast on socks in it for some time. so i decided to swatch it by knitting up the baby socks. and it is just lovely—soft of course, but substantial too. it has a little more heft than i expected and i like that a lot. adam tells me that he cannot get this yarn weight any more, but his 900 MHz yarn is very nice too.

this pair will join the other two that i knit from leftovers

a GI joe or jane pair, and a fun stripey pair. tiny replicas of sox that i have knit for david and myself.

i know what i said about the baby knitting and believe me i am taking a break form the sox starting right now. i mean it.

i do.

hehe. the only problem is, the reason i am sure i can take a break from those is that i remembered i need to make another baby gift. we are expecting a little nephew by the end of january—the first on david’s side of the family. i want to make a blanket, and have been considering several options. but then debbieKNitter said to me last night, “why don’t you just make a baby hypoteneuse?”

and wow, she is sooo right.
i have a whole bunch of DK machine washable wool from K1C2 in duck egg blue that will be perfect. it can go with the stroller we bought for him (omg, you should have seen us—two people who don’t know one thing about strollers buying a stroller. of course, the recipients don’t know anything about them either—yet.).

and then, that’s IT for the baby stuff. at least for the time being. but now i know, baby socks are a great, great thing for me . . i can pull those out of the bag in no time using supplies i already have in the house . . . totally doable at the last minute.

i woke up this morning literally in mid-design; i don’t remember the pre-waking dream i must have been having but certainly i was putting together an aran sweater concept . . . i was visualizing the front as i opened my eyes, trying to decide if it should be a cardigan zip-front or a crew. hmmm.

i even had the yarn all picked out and was revisiting the creamy-white of it, which is actually more of a pale ochre (i like that about it).

it’s a batch of romney/clun forest cross that came packed around my schacht spinning wheel (which i bought used form the shepherdess). i spun it a couple of winters ago into a DK/aran weight yarn. it’s not terribly soft but that’s ok . . i will not wear such a sweater next to my skin.

i have another option, spun around the same time (i was out of work for four months) from a different sheep in the same flock. it’s the same romney/clun cross, but a different white

it’s a tad softer and spun with a bit more twist, which i like. the more yellow one had a lot of VM in it and was not as crimpy so i didn’t get the nice twist i had been hoping for, even though the color is very intriguing.

not that i am in a position to start this project—i’m not. but maybe when my current sweater is done . . . it’s been nice to work on the sweater late at night for a little bit. and because i’m doing that, it’s finally getting done. i couldn’t be more pleased with the progress—slow, maybe, but steady—and certainly much faster than when it sat around doing nothing for over a year. maybe i’ll get some photos of it for tomorrow.

truthfully, i have been pretty lazy about photographing it . . . i hardly give the sweater a thought all day and then it is dark when i do remember it.

i did not start the shawl yesterday, because i had classes, but that’s what i’m headed for after this post is written. i also have not made much progress on the lady cardigan sock (because of the baby socks, which is why i can’t be trusted around those things).

so those two items are a priority for me for the next few days. oh yeah, and melissa asked me please would i write up a pattern for the baby socks, so i will. and i need to start a scarf for judy with this yarn

see?? i do not need to wake myself by dreaming up new sweaters.