Knitting queue overload!

I can't believe I'm contemplating saying this, but I have a feeling I may be adding too many new projects to a queue that I'm not going through at the same rate.

But that's normal, right? Right? Maybe that's what I just cheerfully refer to as 'my stash', and keep merrily knitting at the rate that I'm comfortable with. Yeah, that's what I'll do. Sorry to disturb y'all!

The most recent addition (and a worthy one I'm sure anyone would agree) is the recently made available "Baby Mine" cardigan designed by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. It's available through Blue Moon Fibre Arts, for the extremely decent price of $6.50. I ordered mine a couple of nights ago, along with two skeins of Socks That Rock Mediumweight (you only need one to make the newborn and six-month sizes, but I wanted to be absolutely certain I'd have enough, just in case) in the colourway, 'Pebbles'. I wanted colours that would suit either a boy or a girl, since (a) we're only going to find out the sex the traditional way - when it comes out! and (b) I'm just not fast enough to knit both a "Baby Mine" and a "Baby Yours" in both pink and blue, just in case.

I've been hoping to knit up a storm during this pregnancy so that Little One would arrive home to at least a couple of completed garments, but I'm at the twenty-week (halfway there) mark, and seem to be still knitting lace scarves for myself!

On the needles right now (she said, clearly avoiding any thought of the WIP Drape Cardigan in a bag in the stash cupboard) is a skein of Noro Kureyon Sock Yarn that I picked up at Tapestry Craft in Sydney, on Pete's and my Anniversary weekend away last month. I'm enjoying the pattern, too - enough to look pretty and a little complicated (to the untrained eye, at least), but simple enough so I can knit it in front of the telly of an evening without too much tinking and cursing.

The colours are so unusual. I love the big slash of hot pink in the middle of all the greens best of all, I think. Here we are so far:And, in other knitting-related news:

Several months ago, I was hopping around, looking at other people's knitting blogs, and came upon "Runcible Spoon", where Andrea's most current post talked about a 'Paying it Forward Exchange'. This is a copy of what she had linked in originally, describing the whole concept...

"I like listening to the Changeling's Knit and Stitch podcast, and when I heard she was looking for someone to participate in an exchange, I checked it out. When I saw the terms of the exchange, I put my hand up straight away to participate.

You can participate, too! The conditions are as follows:

The Pay It Forward Exchange is based of the concept of the movie Pay it Forward where acts or deeds of kindness are done without expecting something in return, just passing it on, with hope that the recipients of the acts of kindness are passed on.

So here's how it works. I will make and send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment to this post on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I do not know what that gift will be yet, and it won't be sent this month, probably not next month, but it will be sent (within 6 months) and that's a promise! What YOU have to do in return, then, is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog. I will now Pay It Forward to you THREE, I wonder who you will be?! Please, be a PIF. You will enjoy it just as much as we do! And, remember— you have 6 months to get your gifts done!

So let me know if you would like to participate, and I will create something just for you within six months from the time of your comment. In turn, you will need to make the offer to three other people. Pretty simple, eh? I look forward to making whatever it is for whoever you are."

So, on the off chance that I may not have left it too late, I was the first to respond on Andrea's comments page... and wondered what might happen next.

Well, I was very pleasantly surprised to receive an email from Andrea earlier this week, saying that her Pay it Forward gift to me is almost ready! It's terribly exciting, and means that I need to be getting ready to make a similar announcement... in the vague hopes that I do get a response, of course...

Watch this space.

Photos

Just a quickie tonight... some photos of a couple of completed projects...

This cardie has been finished for some time now, but I've added photos now because WonderBoy is finally big enough to fit it properly! I mean, it has been knit for a size three so the sleeves are slightly long yet, but because he's grown into such a tall young man, the body fits him well already. When I put it on him, and asked how it was, he rubbed the sleeves and front, saying, "Oh, it's so cosy... Thanks, Mummy!"

These photos were taken on Friday last, when I took him into work. One of the other teachers complimented him on his wee cardie, and he responded, "Is yarn. Yarn! Mummy knitted yarn!"That's my boy.

And these shots are of the completed Linen Print Scarf. I'm so pleased with the way the fringe worked out - it's kinda nice to frog some knitting and end up with something usable!Crikey... the belly's got started already! Or maybe that's the chocolate.

Fortuitous weather

WonderBoy put up with a trip to the RTA today so I could renew my license, as well as our grocery shopping (which he has come to view with distaste, usually saying "No shopping, Mummy?") and a walk up to the butcher's, so we went to the park on the way home.

Did I say the park trip was for his benefit? Silly me.

While he enjoyed the slippery dip, over and over, I enjoyed close to an hour sitting in the sunshine, working on a little summer scarf.

I'm knitting it from leftover Rowan 'Linen Print' that I used to make a lace top last spring. I think it's been discontinued now, which is a shame 'cause it knits with a lovely drape, and it gets softer with every wash. Once it's done, I'm planning on adding a loopy sort of fringe, and I'm looking forward to teaming it this spring and summer with a crisp white shirt and jeans that have been mucked around with to accommodate my belly as Little One grows bigger!! Speaking of whom, since she or he is due in January (a bit hot for wool!) I ended up buying more Linen Print that I'm going to use in an attempt on an Elizabeth Zimmermann 'Baby Surprise Jacket' for him or her...

Here we are. I'm around or just over the halfway mark.I enjoyed a fabulous two nights away with Pete last week to see 'Phantom of the Opera' for our anniversary (it's been ten years since we met!), and took the opportunity to get over to Tapestry Craft on York Street, where I picked up thisskein of Noro Kureyon Sock Yarn. I've earmarked it for yet another lace scarf (I'm into those at the moment!), the pattern being the 'Fern Lace Scarf' by KnittingPixie (Ravelry link). I'm totally in love with the colours - I first caught sight of the lime, then the yellow-orange, and then had to look a little closer, where I saw *gasp! Oh, joy!* hot lolly-pink! I can't wait to get stuck into it and see how the colours work out.

On another topic, I am desperately waiting/trying to figure out if and when I might be able to get a hold of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's heart-meltingly gorgeous 'Baby Mine' pattern. I've just found the her blog entries for the 'Baby Yours' and 'Baby Mine' jumpers in July 2008, but for the life of me, I cannot link just the one entry! It's worth it. Go and have a look, trust me. I have a little bit of a feeling that Little One might be a wee girlie, and this is just the sort of thing I'd love to have knitted up and ready to wear.

It's a good thing I like wearing hats

... because I have created this weekend, a hat that would have to be titled one of two names:

The Biggest Ever Hat Intended for a Six-Month-Old

or

The Greatest Gauge Cock-Up the World May Ever Witness

I jest not. Our darling Little One is due to arrive in January, which I do admit is quite some time from now. Plenty of time for me to be knitting, calmly and in a planned manner, but 'planned' and 'knitting' are words that for me just don't really go together in the one sentence. I will 'plan to knit', so to speak, but I mean I will plan to knit... instead of doing the washing... while I supervise WonderBoy in the bath... on a trip to Sydney. I don't plan projects, projects tend to find me and demand to be placed at the top of my to-do list.

So, I grabbed a very colourful (not gender specific!), slubby single spun Adriafil 'Baba' from a yarn/tapestry/needlework place nearby, thinking if I knitted into a hat to fit a six-month old, but the time the weather had cooled to winter, Little One would be just the right size to gaze up at me adoringly from under its rolled woolly brim.

Ok, so far so good. I pulled out Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's "Knitting Rules" and had a geez at her recommendations for sizing. I even pulled WonderBoy's baby medical record book and checked to see roughly what size head he had at the age of six months. Now, I would like to make this clear from the very beginning - this is most certainly my fault. As much as I followed the Yarn Harlot's guidelines, I paid little to no attention to the enormously chunky gauge of the yarn I was working with. I mean, I did knit and measure the gauge, but I either didn't knit far enough before measuring or I cannot make a basic mathematical equation work.

I'd say 'a little from Column A, and a little from Column B'.

And here is what the mixture of stupidity, denial and stubbornness got me this afternoon:Part of me wants to rip it up and actually knit a hat for a six-month-old, but the larger part of me that is bored with the yarn and wants to knit something else is saying "Sod it, let's get a skein of Noro Silk Garden and have another crack at it later". You never know, I might end up with a hat for me made of Silk Garden.

Next up, my most recent pride and joy: my "Paris" scarf, knit from the most delicious skein of Hand Maiden wool and cashmere sock yarn...I was able to wear it up to Sydney, the way I'd planned, and I was so thrilled with the way it felt and draped. The colours have just striped and blended like a dream, and I really enjoyed the pattern as I worked it.

Oh, and as promised: another tale of hat woe... I knit this monstrosity for WonderBoy, thinking it would be good to whip up another winter hat for my huge-headed darling boy. Now, I really did research this one. I measured WonderBoy's head and worked on the largest size possible. All I can surmise is that I've knit it tighter than I should have, or possibly on needles slightly too small.

But here it is, on my darling WonderBoy, looking like one of those weird leather gridiron helmets that George Clooney wore in his film 'Leatherheads'...

And yet, he still looks so cute. The necklace-type business he has on there, for those who may be curious is the waistband from an old (clean) pair of my husband's boxers I had just cut up for cleaning cloths.

Maybe the hat isn't so weird after all.