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!

The socks are finished!

And I've started a new pair, even though I wasn't really feeling it.

But first, the socks I've finally managed to finish: I got the Rick socks off the needles and into a cold bath on Wednesday night. It seems like once I was able to get past the frustration of having had to rip out a week's work made the second time around go a whole lot faster. It also helped that I followed the freaking chart. The best thing about those socks, though, is the color. I had no idea when I bought that yarn at Sock Summit (two years ago!) that I would love the color so much. I'm sure it has to do with their being dyed with indigo and other natural dye colors. There's a softness to the colors that I find really appealing. Since I have to send these socks away, I'm determined to have something for myself in this yarn. As soon as I have a few bucks, I'll order some more from the folks at A Verb for Keeping Warm, maybe in DK-weight, and make myself a cowl or a shawl or something. I also like how squishy & soft these socks are after washing and blocking. I think my aunt is really going to love them.

The new socks are Stephanie van der Linden's It's Tea Time, knit from the skein of Sanguine Gryphon Skinny Bugga that I purchased at Sock Summit (actually, all three pairs of socks my mom guilted me into making came from yarn I bought there). The color is Golden Orb Weaver, which I knew I had to buy as I had just seen that cool tapestry at the Art Institute of Chicago at the beginning of that trip. These socks seem to be moving along quickly due to the simple knit/purl patterning and absence of lace and left/right charts. The yarn is knitting up beautifully. One sock has a hint of pooling, but I think it will be alright. There's not much I can do about it anyway. It's not like I'm going to rip back 4" of leg if I don't have to. If I'm especially diligent, I could finish these in less than three weeks and then I can knit whatever I want with NO DEADLINES. Right now, I don't know what that would be, but I'm thinking it will be a new spring sweater for myself.

Anyway, that's all I have for now, Friends. Until next time.

The socks are done. Long knit the socks.

I finished the Elm socks last week and immediately cast on the Rick socks from Sock Innovation. I'm knitting the new socks from A Verb for Keeping Warm Creating sock yarn in color No. 9. The colors are a gorgeous indigo and lovely purple that's knitting up into beautifully mottled socks that I wish were going to be mine, but are probably going to belong to one of my aunts in Japan.

You see, my mother is pretty sneaky. When she was here for a visit last Thanksgiving she asked if I would make her a pair of socks, and I said I'd do it as soon as my Christmas knitting was finished. Then she asked if I would mind making a second pair for my aunt, who just loved the socks my mom had given her (that I had knit for mom). How could I say no to that? Someone who appreciates my knitting definitely gets more.

Anyway, I had happily finished the Elm socks, and happily started the Rick socks, when my mom called to check in. "Oh, I'm working on the second pair, and as soon as they're done, I'll put them in the mail to you."

"Great! Are you making a pair for me?"

I thought I had been making a pair for her. Turns out I was making a pair for each of her sisters, so now I'm on the hook for a third pair of socks. That will probably be knit from Skinny Bugga. That I'd intended to knit up for myself. But I like knitting. I like knitting. I like knitting even better when I get to knit for myself again.

Until next time, Friends.