Entirely too cute.

Any day now our newest nephew will be born, and in expectation of his arrival, I've been working on a little blanket for him. When we found out my sister- and brother-in-law were expecting, right away I knew that whatever I made would be gender-neutral, not only because it was too early to know the baby's sex, but because I thought the parents would prefer it.

You can almost tell what they're supposed to be.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to make - I've made plenty of hats and stuffed toys for my legion of nieces and nephews, but I was in the mood for something different, so I thought a blanket might be the way to go. And after a good, long Ravelry search, I hit upon just the right one: Villi Pohjola by Terhi Viinikanoja. It was so cute! Knitted abstractions of arctic critters in easy-to-knit squares. The only trick was that the pattern was written in Finnish, so I had one window of my computer open to the pattern text and another window open to Google Translate.

I think this otter is my favorite.

The animals on pattern were a bunny, a reindeer, a brown bear, a badger, a lynx, and a fox. Since this new baby was going to grow up in North Carolina, I decided to modify the pattern to show critters found there. I changed the reindeer to a deer, the brown bear to a black one, the badger to a raccoon, and the lynx to a river otter. All it took was a few sketches on the handy graph the designer supplied and I was in business. The knitting went really quickly as it was stockinette stitch in worsted-weight yarn. Since this was a baby gift, I chose Cascade 220 Superwash for its ease in care. I don't think that new parents are going to want to deal with anything that isn't machine washable.

The fox is pretty cute too.

Once I got the knitting done, the seaming went pretty fast too. I used my favorite seaming tutorial from Twist Collective, and had the blanket put together in short order. Appliqueing the eyes was a different story. I had been putting it off for awhile, because the size of the blanket meant that I was going to have to clean all the mail off my dining room table if I wanted the eyes to look right. Thankfully, a gloomy, rainy day inspired an idea: I'd take the blanket to the coffee shop and work on it there! The tables would be clean, someone else would make hot drinks for me, and I wouldn't have to clean my dining room. Awesome!

And who wouldn't love this sweet bear?

Once all the critters had eyes, it was a lot easier to get going on the noses and mouths. The noses were all done in duplicate stitch (except for the racoon, who doesn't have a nose) and then I used a chain stitch to get nice curves for all the mouths. I improvised the deer's antlers - the pattern called for crocheting them, but my crochet skills are practically non-existent, so I knit them in garter stitch to keep them from curling up. I added some black trim to the fox's ears and called the blanket done. It turned out to be just the right size for a stroller, so I hope he'll get lots of use from it.

I'm not sure the deer is happy to be here.

Well, that's it for now, Friends. I have to get this package in the mail!

WIPs Wednesday? Alright, I'll play along.

I read a couple (read: many) craft blogs, and a good number of them do a WIPs (Work In Progress) Wednesday, so I've decided this would be a good time for me to do a WIP post. Since last time, I've cast on for a couple new projects.

First, I've cast on a new pair of socks! It's Stephanie van der Linden's On The Aran Isle pattern from her Around the World in Knitted Socks book. In a demonstration of learning from one's mistakes, I'm using a yarn with comparable yardage to what's recommended: Classic Elite's Alpaca Sox. I realize that even though it feels like summer here (90 degrees Fahrenheit today!) and that knitting with an alpaca yarn in this heat & humidity isn't exactly fun, the yarn was in my stash and it's the right weight & yardage. I also like the color and I think they'll be very pretty when they're done.

I'm really enjoying the traveling stitches - they're definitely keeping my interest up. I also like the picot hem at the top of the cuff, although it was very tedious working off the provisional cast on. If I were making these socks for myself, I'd probably add enough stitches for another pattern repeat  on the leg, as they're a little snug going around my heels. I think they'll be fine for Mom's delicate little feet.

For a more summery project, I've cast on Anna & Heidi Pickle's Lazy Daisy baby cardigan. I'm knitting it in Cascade Yarns Cotton Rich DK, which is a nice cotton in some very bright, vibrant, saturated colors. It's a free pattern on the Pickles blog (well, the 3-6 months size is free, you have to pay for bigger sizes). So far, it's been an easy knit. The stitch pattern is simple to memorize, and since it's such a tiny, little sweater, it should knit up pretty quickly. I have a couple friends who are expecting babies this fall, but I'm not sure this sweater will fit next Spring. I may have to hold on to it for someone who has a January or February baby. I'm sure someone I know will be having a baby then.

If I have enough yarn when I've finished the cardigan, I may just try to make the turban. It's almost a little too precious, but seriously, what's cuter than a baby in a turban?

I'm also still working on the Kusha Kusha scarf, but it's not as interesting as the other projects. It's just a whole lot of stockinette stitch on bamboo straights, so not a lot of fun. It's good to have during social knitting, so I might just take it with me to Stitch 'N' Bitch tomorrow night. If it ever looks like I've made any progress on it, I'll take a picture and post it here.

Looks like that's all I have for today. Until next time, friends.