Knitting Amber Alert

We interrupt this blog for a Knit Amber Alert. Pictured is the mate of a missing sock in progress. The missing sock is approximately 75 % finished, and has been missing since returning from the hospital with baby. Please contact me with any sightings. A reward of competing sock yarn is offered.

In happier news, I finally finished the little guy's knitted hat. Isn't that cute? The picture doesn't really do it justice, since it looks like it could be the size of a thimble.

Mom, do I really need a cozy hat in August? Dad doesn't keep the air conditioning THAT cold.

Today, it is all about the finished hat.

A Well-loved baby

You can always recognize a well-loved baby. They are surrounded by hand-crafted items. Everyone loves babies, and crafters just can't resist making something tiny and cute for any baby that touches their lives. My baby is truly blessed. Here he is, surrounded by aphgans, quilts, hats sweaters and booties, all knitted, crocheted or stitched with love.

He looks so tiny next to that stack. And confused. "Mom, what are you doing?" Cameras are still new to him. I am just glad that I caught his eyes open. He is such a wiggler, half of my pictures show him turning away from the camera.

And here is my scrap of knitted love for the little guy. One unfinished hat. On the plus side, I did find the missing DPN. I have even been knitting on it, having finally coming to the conclusion that storing yarn and needles in the same bag does not spontaneously produce knitted finished objects.

Just so my stack doesn't look so paltry, don't forget I also made a stack of hand-finished receiving blankets. I received several as gifts, as well, but they are in use or in the laundry, so did not get pictured. You can never have enough receiving blankets for a newborn.

Today, it is all about the knitted love.

He's heeeeeerrrrre!

Little Thumper greeted the world on July 29, 2008, at 9:46 a.m., a mere 5 hour and 46 minutes after my water broke. 8 pounds, 4.2 ounces, with a FULL head of brown hair.

I promise that I will post soon pictures of him, and all the wonderful knitted gifts he received. Just haven't had the chance yet. I don't know what I have been doing!

Today, it is all about the little guy.

Not yet. . . .

My official due date is Thursday, and Thumper has not shown any inclination to enter the world early. My sweetie has become more impatient this past week, but I think that is mostly because it has been so ungodly hot, and it isn't like the poor boy works in air conditioning. I think he was hoping the hottest week of the summer so far would coincide with his maternity leave. Sorry, dear, no such luck.

Just to placate him, I did time my contractions last night. They aren't even painful yet, just a tightening pressure around my abdomen, but you can't tell my impatient father-to-be that. Ok, they are 90 minutes to three hours apart, and irregular. No need to go to the hospital yet.

Meanwhile, I have found a coupel scraps of time and energy to work on my mother's socks in progress. I turned the heel in, um, April, and have a good inch or two finished on the foot. At this rate, she may have them to wear by Christmas. It is just too bloody hot to knit anyway! Even in an air-conditioned house (too cold air conditioning, but that is an ongoing passive-agressive dispute between spouses), even the idea of knitting sounds hot.

Today, it is all about the heat.

Bad knitter!

I went to Sock Club last Saturday, with my giant belly preceding me. (24 days and counting til the due date, if anyone is wondering.) The fellow sock knitters chastized me because I had not yet knit anything for Thumper, other than an unfinished little hat. And even that will remain unfinished for a while, because the last time I went to pick it up, one DPN was missing. Oops. Why don't they sell those in sets of six or seven. It can't come as a surprise that we WILL lose one or two at some point. I want to conduct a search of all purses, briefcases and knitting bags before I break down and buy an additional set of that size.

However, in my knitting defense, I do want to point out that Thumper's little hat is the ONLY thing that I have started in my entire pregancy. It isn't like I have been knitting new projects for anyone else. Everything in my bag was started pre-pregnancy, and is STILL in progress. I honestly just haven't been doing much knitting. Normally, I knit while I do other things: watch TV, wait in line, wait for court, take a lunch break, and so on. These days, when I have an oppotunity to just sit still and rest for a few minutes, I take it.

Does Child Protective Services consider it nelgect if you fail to knit for your child?

Today, it is all about the knitting guilt.

Knitting Black Hole

I am in the knitting black hole. You know, where everything you are working on is in the vague area of half-done. You knit and knit and knit on various projects, and can see no noticeable difference on any of them. Pomatomus, baby hat, Mom's ribbed socks, I have knit on all of them, and they look exactly the same.

My sweetie (though I am mad at him today, so use the term with some annoyance) and I are going camping this weekend. Ok, I can laze around outside as easily as around the house. Just make sure we have comfortable chairs. So this may be a good time to make some knitterly progress, without the pesky distractions of housework and laundry. I don't even have to think about which projects to bring. All of them, of course.

The only thing I have been finishing lately is the flannel receiving blankets. Four down, last one half finished.

Well, I am "finishing" on little Thumper too. Eight weeks til his cast off! We won't talk about how I currently resemble a hippo.

Today, it is all about the blackness.

Admissions of a Slacker

I should be ashamed of myself. I realized today that it has been NEARLY A MONTH since the Yarn Harlot came to speak, and I have yet to blog about it. Or anything else, for that matter. I am a Blog Slacker. My three regular readers (if there are that many) must have been horribly disappointed in me this month.

As it turns out, no harm has been done. I have vivid memories of the evening of knitterly delight. I carpooled with three other enthusiastic knitters. We, of course, wanting a good seat, arrived three hours early. They had less than 100 chairs out, and didn't seem to notice that half we already filled. Nonetheless, we scored several front row seats off to the side. See?

We met a charming woman behind us, who doesn't knit but was saving seats for her do sisters that do knit. Does that make her a squib? Someone from a knitting family who doesn't knit?

The hours flew by as we chatted with other knitters, ooohed and ahhhed over knitting in progress and in finished form, and waited in breathless (Ok, maybe that was just me, little Thumper presses on my diaphragm something awful) anticipation.

The bookstore people must have finally gotten the hint and set out more chairs. Someone (I suspect a yarn store representative) put out a few welcoming knit-related signs. Finally, she appeared. The famous Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. She was just as funny as she is on her blog, in her books, and in my dreams. I was laughing so hard at times, I thought I would go into early labor. Naturally, everyone wanted to meet her at the signing afterwards, whether they had a book to sign or not. I didn't, but all three of my carpoolers did, and I had noooo objection to waiting in line with them. Stephanie had stated that people "with babies on the inside or outside" could cut in line, I didn't. Though I did swipe a folding chair to use at intervals in the line.

Other than happening too fast, meeting her was a dream come true. We presented the Indiana- themed washcloth (very clever, wish I could take credit for any part of its creation), and even rated a picture with Stephanie's traveling sock. I assume that my giant belly earned the right to hold the sock.

Today, it is all about the Harlot.