Marie's Not Pregnant Anymore

Georgiana Leigh was born this morning at 3:10 A.M, on her due date.

She is 7 pounds even, 18 inches long and nursing well.

Marie did it with NO EPIDURAL. She's my hero.

I don't have any pictures but I hear she posted one on Facebook, which I am not a part of.

Yeah! Congratulations Marie!

Successful Resizing

You may remember the last Seed Stitch Hat I made and liked, but was disappointed because it was too big to truly be in infant hat. If not, just click on the link. Go ahead, I'll wait for you - I don't mind! Okay, so now that you remember that hat, I have successfully resized it by using a sport weight yarn rather than a worsted weight and using smaller needles (sz. 6 rather than sz. 10). It worked!! I really like it and it is just the right size.

And it looks really good with the sockabooties that I made out of the same yarn...in my humble opinion, of course!

Now I need some suggestions from the knitters out there. I still have 5 or 6 ounces of this yarn, which is quite a bit. What else should I do with it?

Alright. On to the next project.

Sockabooties

These did turn out cute. I like how they are a cross between a sock and a bootie. The directions were confusing to me at first - especially the w&t (wrap and turn) which I had to try a few times before it made sense and worked right. It was also hard to pick up the wrapped stitches when using a purl stitch. I think the very last time I did that last night, I found a way that is easier. Of course by then I didn't have to do it again in the pattern! I am amazed that these are both the same size and actually look like the pattern, too! It was my first time to ever knit in the round using 5 double point needles. It wasn't actually as hard as I thought it would be!

I think that I am going to use this same yarn to try that seed stitch hat in again with smaller needles. This is a baby yarn, so it is much thinner than the one I used on that hat before. These booties look to be about the size I remember the boys feet being when they were born, so hopefully the smaller yarn and smaller needles will give me a matching hat that is also the right size for a newborn. I'll let you know how it works!

A Weekend To Remember

What a crazy weekend.

We drove up to St. Augustine on Thursday. After we got there Del almost immediately went golfing with my dad and Pastor Ronnie. Then on Friday he went golfing AGAIN with the same two people. Mike and Meagan came over and I got to meet Zoe.

They went home for a nap and came later for our 4th of July/Shabbat event. I got to hold Zoe a lot...practicing you know. She's got such long toes. An indication to me that she's going to be tall like her sister (Mike's REALLY tall). It's so funny how short and chubby my kids' toes are and how long and slim Meagan's kids' toes are. I think genetics are so fascinating. Anyway, it was really fun getting to have a wee one sleep in my arms. Ella and Sarah loved being able to hold Zoe and Meagan was quite brave in letting them. They were so careful with her. What good big sisters they are.

LOOK AT THE CUTE BABY!!!!!

On Saturday we spent most of the day looking for rash guards and swim shorts for the girls. I really want these type of swim suits for them and they are next to impossible to find. I want to order these from Land's End because after our big waste of time on Saturday I'm convinced that Land's End is the only place with reasonable rash guards and swim shorts. Can you believe we drove around for 6 hours looking for these things? Want to know what I got out of that trip?

FABRIC!!!

We ended the day with a visit to Joann's and I bought this fabric and some rick-rack and I want to make a toddler's clothing set to *maybe* sell in my Etsy-shop-that-has-nothing-in-it. Isn't it cute fabric?

Her Confidence Grew

Feeling bolstered by completing a pair of knit booties, I decided to tackle a hat I had a pattern for. I was a bit nervous because it has seed stitch, which I had never done, and decreases, which I had also never done. But I was feeling confident and decided to go for it. And it worked!!!! I am just smiling from ear to ear about this hat! It isn't perfect, but it is the first thing that I have done that hasn't either been in all garter stitch or in all stockinette stitch. Or that wasn't a rectangle in shape, for that matter! Check it out:

A few things I am disappointed about: I think there is too much seed stitch before the stockinette starts. I think it would look better if the seed stitch looked like more of a brim and not the main part of the hat. Also, it is bigger than I want. I really wanted it to be infant sized (which is what the pattern called it) but they apparently think that my baby is going to come out with a 17" head since it has a 16" diameter. Heaven forbid that should happen! So I know how to adjust a pattern size in crochet, but I am nervous about messing with the gauge because of the decreases. They are perfectly spaced right now. One idea I have is to use smaller yarn and smaller needles to change the size. This is a worsted weight washable wool and was done on size 10 needles. I am thinking about using a sport weight yarn and size 6 needles, then following the pattern as directed and seeing how big it is. I would really only have to do several rows to know what the finished diameter would be so it isn't like it would be too much wasted time if that doesn't work. Anyway, the whole thing was done in 2 days! I am just so pleased that I decided to try it.

Now I want to try other bootie patterns. I have been looking online and found a few that I like. One that I really want to try is this one. I even actually already figured out how to do the crochet provisional cast on that it calls for!! I looked for a video of it on the knitting help web site, but they didn't have the crochet method and the one they had was so confusing! I couldn't get mine to look like hers. Then I found this. Now that one made sense! Since I have crocheted so much longer than I have knitted, this was right up my alley! Anyway, I'll let you know how the booties go. I have found about 13 patterns for booties and hats that I want to try...I already placed one decent sized yarn order at www.knitpicks.com and I now realize that there are some other needles I could use if I actually make those...I am thinking I should have added them to my previous order because I didn't quite spend enough to get the free shipping, but if I had added the needles, I would have made it! Oh, well. Lesson learned.

Oh, dear. I have a feeling this wee one will have quite a variety of hats and booties...

Woo-Hoo! I Can Knit!!

So knitting has been my Achilles heel. I start projects, but get frustrated and confused and just stop. Months and months ago, when Marie first posted the pattern for the knitted baby booties that she just sent to Meagan, I decided to start a pair too. They looked cute and easy. No increases or decreases, garter stitch, squares only...I thought, "This, I can do." And I did! When I was on vacation this last week (which you can read about here if you want to), I made these booties:

Aren't they just adorable?? I used the washable wool that Marie gave me last summer. It is leftover from a sweater she made Caleb, and I had *just* the right amount of the dark green to finish a pair. I didn't want to add the flower detail since I am having a boy, so I just crocheted a chain stitch in light green around the top for a bit of detail. I am really happy with how they turned out. Plus, I just bought an outfit for the baby at an outlet store, and just look how well they match:

Come January, I'll show you his picture in the outfit with the shoes - as the outfit is a 3-6 month. But if history repeats itself, he'll be wearing that size in no time!

Thanks, Marie, for the inspiration and the yarn!!