Hope Emerges: Knitting Project #3

As Baby G's birth date drew closer, I persevered.  Not only physically and mentally as a pregnant woman, but also as a knitter.   I went to the library several times a week, perusing the needlework aisle.    Surely I could conquer this knitting thing and make something my baby could wear, or at the very least put her limbs into.   Then I stumbled upon a Vogue knitting book for beginners.  It was pocket size and guaranteed to be easy enough for the most novice of knitters: aka me.    I have to confess that it was not a first grab.  Vogue seems to be at the forefront of knitting patterns, and the name is appealing enough.  The magazine is certainly fashionable.... But each time I'd pick up a Vogue knitting book, I would giggle at the pages!  The models....those designs....that yarn----so eighties!!  Even the new editions had the look of a worst dressed page of it's own magazine.   But there was something about this particular edition that made me believe I could make something in it and make it cute.  I settled on the "Tiny Topper", or baby hat, as I liked to call it.  Hence the beginnings of knitting project #3.  

I also picked up a copy of knit aid, a pocket-size informational knitting guide: love it!  At Walmart, I picked up new swords; even more dangerous than the previous as I had graduated from plastic to aluminum---and from size 11 to size 4!   The design also called for a yarn needle---which was comical to me.   Of course, I went for inexpensive, and cheap (Walmart, duh!), but I had no idea that these things are plastic, ginormous versions of what I was used to "sewing" with.   I thought I had accidentally gone down the toy aisle.    

Anyhow, I began work on my "Tiny Topper" early in June of 2009.  Baby G, or Lily as we now refer to her, was born on June 22nd.  At the time of her birth, I had officially completed one centimeter of K2, P2 ribbing on what would become her very own Gap-like baby hat.  Let me just interject here, that I should have perhaps used a circular needle.   Casting on 96 stitches required needles that were extremely long---four feet it seemed!  I would have to knit in perfect posture and far from either end of the couch to avoid puncturing the poor sofa. 

Lily's arrival was long and arduous....32 hours of labor.   Yet with one miraculous push, she emerged: a bundle of goodness who had been knit together in my womb by the most skilled of all knitters.   Unlike my other knitting projects thus far; she was perfect.  And I was inspired.

After the first 3 months passed and the Fall season had arrived, I got the itch to stitch again ;)  This time I could tell when to knit and when to purl---though if you look closer at my "Tiny Topper" you will see it took several rows of accidental knits on purls, purls on knits before I picked it up.  No worries, I just turn that hat around and no one is the wiser!    And seaming remained an issue for me.  Once again I freehanded it....and simply hide it when Lily is wearing her Gap-like baby hat.   It looks like a bad scar on a fairly beautiful piece of handiwork.   However, I am pretty proud of my ability to embellish---for I also made a pom-pom and added it to the tip-top of the hat :) Please note that a pom-pom was not part of the pattern---pat, pat on my back!  I also learned a bit: I can now increase and decrease stitches! 

Three weeks after I completed knitting project #3, I made another one for my "Martha-Stewart-Friend" and her upcoming little one.  Toushay! (spelling?)  There were some improvements: for instance, the seam only looked like half of a scar!  And I am currently working on a third "Tiny  Topper" for another expecting mama.  LOOK AT ME!  Knitting & gifting.....wow.

And this leads me to where I am today: writing a blog that juxtaposes knitting and motherhood.  I received in the mail today my personal copy of "baby knits for beginners" by Debbie Bliss (no more library fees: yes!).  My journey starts Monday as I begin the first stitches of knitting project #4: a garter stitch scarf.  This will go perfectly with Lily's "Tiny Topper"!  I hope....