I’m furiously trying to finish this little baby jacket before the big baby shower next Saturday. I made the same jacket, from the pattern Easy Baby Cardigan, for another baby not too long ago. This time I’ve added the hood and it’s for a girl. I know it’s not the color we normally associate with baby girls but the expectant mother specifically requested that we all go easy on the pink. As it turned out, I happened to have a ball of my favorite sock yarn, Jitterbug, lying around, and that’s what I used.

This may very well be the last thing I ever knit – sadly. My fingers are stiff with arthritis and I’ve also got tennis elbow. Years of overuse from manic knitting and computer use along with advanced age, have created quite a bit of pain in my right hand and arm. I don’t think I’ll give it up altogether, but I’ll probably slow down significantly.

So what else shall I blog about?

As proof that I still knit socks now and then, I offer these little minis, being modeled here by the big hands of sister Liz. Her friend, Madeline, had a baby girl named Emily about a week ago and these socks are for her. Congrats to mother and baby!

The newest addition and first baby born in our family in six years arrived last Thursday. I had the extreme pleasure of meeting my nephew yesterday. This baby just LOVES to sleep and by all indications is destined to be a dream baby. He has to be awoken for feedings and changings and even manages to doze through lose. Nevertheless he is quite adorable and I look forward to watching him grow. Congratulations!

The Rebecca Shrug is officially dead. RIP. Frogged. Good God did I really start this thing over 18 months ago!?!?!? With high hopes too I might add.

I’ll spare you the boring details but needless to say, it’s already been re-purposed. I LOVE when that happens! Read on…

When Ali sent me a text requesting that I knit her a shrug, in less than a week and in the middles of final projects, how could I resist? I did a quick search for “easy shrug patterns” and the unshaped shrug appeared, on first glance, to be the quickest. At long last, I had a project for the frogged Lion Wool-ease (above).

After a couple of false starts in which I used the wrong needle size (using size 8US instead of 8mm – damn Canadians!) I hit my stride with a double strand of the yarn and Voila! the shrug practically knit itself. I knocked this baby out in three days – in the midst of school projects no less! – but it could easily be knit in a couple of hours.

Shown on Ali is the medium (26 stitches) but I’m considering a larger, roomier size for myself. I’ve got plenty of this yarn left.

While up in Ashland, we did a little photo shoot in Lithia Park. I had no idea how stunningly beautiful this park is and how far into the forest it extends with peaceful deer grazing on its lawns. It’s the Central/Golden Gate Park of Ashland and there’s lots more to explore – I’ve only just begun!

I’d also forgotten how good Ali looks next to a big giant Oregon fir tree.

I presented expectant mother Maggie, the finished baby layette one week ago but I confess that I have been slow to post the finished photos – for a variety of reasons. The jacket was inspired by one I saw on the blog of EarthChicKnits. I thought it was so cool that I immediately cast on and it turned out to be a fun little knit.

I loved that she knit the cardigan from sock yarn so I used the Jitterbug I had left but was a little mad at myself for using one ball to knit the sleepy hollow socks (I originally had two balls). What was I thinking? I ordered more but of course the dye lot didn’t match up. Major lesson learned here. Like they say, make sure you buy enough – MORE than enough!

The other pieces of the layette were improvised and my intention is to post the patterns. Soon. This is where I’m stalled. The socks and hat are simple enough, and I’ve made them both numerous times. But the little leggings were a bit of a challenge to say the least.

I was originally inspired by a pair I saw on BrooklynTweed’s blog but the pattern was nowhere to be found. There really aren’t any baby pants patterns written for magic loop much less for circular needles.

So I will try and overcome my writer’s block and get these patterns to you post haste. After all, I can count on you, dear reader and fellow knitter, to point out any  mistakes to me – and I hope you will!

Well it’s not the surprise you might think it is but I’m excited to be knitting for a baby again. My brother and his longtime partner, Maggie, are expecting a baby in September. The shower is August 1 and hopefully neither one of them is reading this blog.

Mums the word, k?

BTW: You might recognize the wool which has been surprisingly hard to come by lately. Does anyone know where to get Jitterbug these days?

So far this year, in just January and February, I have managed to finish six pairs of socks…albeit *baby* socks. The other orange pair has been given to Baby Reece and the other purple pair were not ribbed (a mistake on my part) and therefore not photographed with the group above.

I decided it is now time to start an adult pair.

The “moss” colored Jitterbug (above) waiting patiently in my stash, was just screaming for another leafy stitch pattern so inspired by the Yarn Harlot’s rendition, I downloaded the Sleepy Hollow sock pattern.  I hope I read the instructions as well as Stephanie did (wink wink).

Feels kind of funny to be knitting a sock from the cuff down…it’s been so long.

I realized I have lots of sock yarn stash.

The lovely Blue Moon Fiber Arts STR came from my good friend Liz Plam who attended the Sock Summit last summer and is in fact a special edition created exclusively for SS09.

And here is some heavenly Malabrigo sock which the ADD knitter used with my favorite sock pattern – Embossed Leaves. I’ve made three pairs with the EL pattern already, even in yellow, that’s how much I love it.

In the meantime, people here in the Bay Area have been grousing about the weather. It’s been rather heavy lately this being an “El Niño” year but I think it’s great. Everything is so beautiful green and growing like mad. Spring blossoms are everywhere. Plus it reminds me of the awesome Pacific Northwest which I miss. So the rain makes it feel like home and it’s wonderful weather for knitting. Liz even got out today and did some weeding.

More rain is on the way!

Thanks to Antwan for taking a few minutes at halftime to model the latest baby sock for me. More to come.

2/8/10: I just learned that Chrissy Gardner has published a book entitled Toe-Up! and you can find out more about the book at its website. I took a class from Chrissy a few years ago in Portland, Oregon and she is a fabulous teacher, sock knitter and designer. So if you’re interested in learning how to knit socks from the toe up, Chrissy’s book would be a good place to start.