The Baby Surprise Jacket is done! I finished it during the SnB Christmas party last night and put the buttons on as soon as I got home. I let him try it on for a few pics but it's his Christmas knit so he'll have to wait until Monday to wear it for real (he must like it though as he had a fit when I took it off of him). As much trouble as I had with it I'm really happy with how it came out. I used an i-cord cast off instead of casting off then adding applied i-cord (seemed like an unnecessary extra step to me) and carried it around the neck and bound off the cuffs with it as well. I really like the stripes and I think it was worth the extra ends I had to take care of. The buttons are a set I had initially bought for Lucy but decided against using and I think they match great. I used two skeins of red and not quite one of the gray Brown Sheep Superwash from the stash so it was a pretty economical project and should wash up well when M gets stickies all over it like he does. I eased the width in when I blocked it so it'll fit him now but it'll take a lot more stretching so he should be able to wear it for a while, it's pretty long right now as well and I had to turn up the cuffs for him.


When I do this again I think I'll cast on the full number of sleeve stitches rather than doing one big increase row like the pattern says to do as I got a bit of a funny bump where the increases made the sleeve a lot wider. On a short sleeved BSJ I don't think I'd mind so much but on the long sleeve it makes for a sharp change in the sleeve shape that I was able to mostly block out. On another long sleeve one I might spread those increases over more rows to get a more anatomically correct arm shape.

M's first haircut.

What I said about the BSJ being an easy knit, I take it all back. I don't know what my problem is but I've had to rip this thing three times already. I keep ending up with a wonky stitch count and having to find where I added or missed an increase, this is the curse of the invisible increase I guess. At least finally it's starting to make sense to me how it'll go together in the end. I think I'll have to end up edging the entire thing with applied I-cord as the spots where I've joined new yarn aren't the neatest but I'll see what it looks like seamed up before I commit to anything. I'm also wavering on whether I want to put in the buttonholes or skip them and get a zipper instead, lots of knitting to go before I have to decide. I may still knit this again but maybe in a solid or vareigated yarn instead of the stripes; I've been dealing with the ends as I go but it still makes for a bit of a puckery edge.

The weather has been all sorts of weird around here for the last little bit, way warmer than it seems that it should be in Canada in December. It's not quite snowsuit cold out but it also isn't warm enough for a little person to be out without mitts so I took a break from gift knitting yesterday to make these little hand cozies for M. They knit up super fast, the pair took part of the afternoon and he loves them. They took less than a third of a ball of Lamb's Pride Superwash so I'll probably make him at least one more pair in case they get lost.


I also started an EZ baby surprise jacket for M for some mindless knitting, it's allover garter stitch so there's not much thinking. She's right when she wrote that it doesn't look like anything while you're knitting it. As it is I'm not sure it's going to fit him, I'm having a difficult time visualizing how it's meant to go together but I figure if it's too small then I can try again with some other yarn (or different stitch count or gauge) and use this as one of the baby gifts I'll need to be knitting coming up. Two of my favorite ladies are expecting and I've been invited to a shower for another gal so I figure I can't lose with this one either way. I'm about half way through and I've used less than one skein of yarn altogether and I have a total of five in the two colours so I will definately get at least two BSJ's out of the yarn (plus M's mitts).

M is walking everywhere now and he's taken to going to the door and calling "wahhhhk" to anyone that'll listen. He takes either O or I on a walk down the hallway to the end of the building and back at least ten times a day, oh so proud of himself. He's got a new word as of Saturday too, "bayyyyby". O bought him some foam wash for the bath and he gave me a puzzled look when I pumped some in his hand in the tub so I told him "it's baby wash, for washing babies" and he said "bayyyby" with the proudest toothy grin on.

First I'm going to start by applogizing for what a bad blogger I've been for the last little bit. There's been so much going on outside of knitting around here that the time has rushed by without a moment to stop here and let everyone know what's been going on. Suffice it to say that it's been a stressful little chunk of time but I'm feeling now like I can get back to the blog and show you some of what I've been doing. The teeth are mostly sorted out for now until the new year when I'll go back to have everything completed for good.

Part of the reason for my absence was the untimely death of my sewing machine, no less than four days after the warranty expired. Seeing as how one repair shop felt it couldn't be fixed at all and another was ready to charge me more than I paid for the machine to fix it I felt it best to let it go. Unfortunately I was in the throws of doing a bit sewing project for my LYS and making bags for my gracious donators at the time. I'm ashamed to admit that I was left a blithering crying mess by it's demise. Luckily it was mom to the rescue and I got my birthday/Christmas present early and I love her, the new Mrs. Stitchy is an amazin improvement over her predecessor and I'm excited to maybe have some more adventures with her in the new year when all this gift knitting is over with.

Speaking of which the gift knitting is a bit slow going. I had 13 names on my "to knit for" list, 8 I absolutely have to get done and 5 that are gravy (if I get to them great but I'm not going to kill myself over them). So far 3 essentials are done, and I'm about 50% with 2 more. One gravy gift is done and a second should be done in the next day or so. This has been a lesson in quick knits!