Well! Things have just gotten away from me lately! (or I have gotten away from things) I went home this weekend to visit my delightful family for my little brother’s birthday. He is only 14, so I get to tease him a lot. “I was on the Internet before you were BORN.” and suchlike. He’s extremely good natured about it, and treats the goofiness of his dorky sister with amusement. The inimitable Greg came with me to Dallas, and (unlike me) he is very cool, especially to a 14 year old. They spent the entire weekend flying drones and filming aerial views of stuff, editing their footage, and talking about stuff that no one else understood.
Flying was a bit of a theme for the weekend, as we were taking Luke to the Red Bull Air Races for his birthday. (I got some cool points for that) Where we were going and even the fact that Greg was coming (Luke loves him) were both a secret until the day before we arrived, when mom let the cat out of the bag :P The stunt planes were amazing, and the tricks they did were unreal. The craziest thing I saw all weekend though was Red Bull’s stunt HELICOPTER. It did barrel rolls and flew upside down! My little brother does remote control helicopter stuff, and his tiny helicopters can do those kinds of tricks, but he was mega pumped to see a full sized helicopter doing them. He is only improving with age, and was remarkably good company all weekend. He’s not a finished thing yet by any means, but you can easily see the awesome adult he’s going to be, even at 14. Happy birthday Luke!
I finished something while I was home for the weekend. (Aunt Chantal, if you are reading this, STOP. You need to be surprised or I will be VERY SAD. Mom is bringing you a present when she comes to visit, and she will KNOW if you are faking surprise.)
Now that that’s out of the way, I can show you. Look!
It’s the best baby set ever. You may or may not be able to tell, but it’s soft merino with a touch of angora to make it fuzzy. The buttons are made of coconut shell. The pom poms are so cute it’s giving me uterus cramps. I’m imagining the little bonnet with its tiny point on a little baby head, with those perfect i-cord ties in a bow. I wanted to knit something heirloom quality in a newborn size, even though they grow out of it faster than a blink. My Aunt Chantal had given away all of her baby stuff after her last (their sixth!) and I wanted the baby of mystery (I called it that because she wanted the gender to be a surprise.) to have something special just for her/him. This weekend I found buttons for each possible gender so I was prepared for any eventuality. I told my aunt that I had a preference for a girl baby, but I had a feeling that she was making me a boy. C’est la vie. I don’t actually think that people make babies just to please me and give me a tiny person to knit for :P The patterns are the Garter Yoke Baby Cardi, Chaussons Mignons, and My Sweetest Friend, all modified for sock weight yarn. (It wasn’t hard. You could do it too.) I used Knit Picks Bare Hare, which is a perfect merino/angora blend, and not terribly expensive for the quality. It took three skeins at $5 each, and so with buttons this whole set cost me less than $20. The thrifty knitter in me is tickled pink that I can get something of such excellent quality for so little. The major expenditure here was time, and it was extremely good fun. I had to learn how to do applied i-cord edging for the button bands on that precious little sweater, and even though it was a massive pain in the butt it was totally worth it. The button bands are perfect. See?
(It’s more obvious without the buttons.) You get a perfectly rounded edge that is both stretchy and sturdy, and learning new techniques like that makes me feel like this wee sweater could last a hundred years and wrap many generations of new babies.
I have to say, it’s a good thing that I finished the sweater this weekend. In fact, my timing could not have been better! While I was celebrating Luke’s birthday, someone else was celebrating his very first birthday, and we are delighted to welcome Matthew Colson McGee into the family. Yay!
(P.S. I do have to add that even though I love all babies equally, I still wish that I could have used the flower buttons that I bought in case of baby girl.)
(P.P.S. I might have had a pretty serious “accident” in the button section of Joann’s. There were airplane buttons.)
(P.P.P.S. I know that Christmas knitting is looming, but this baby lives in Colorado. I might have fallen down and started another sweater.)
(P.P.P.P.S. I am weak.)
(P.P.P.P.P.S. I’m not sorry though.)
