Just call me Auntie.

A couple of weeks ago, on a Sunday night, I was sitting on the couch, knitting gloves and watching Once Upon a Time on real TV for the first time ever. {We recently got an antenna to pick up local channels.} My dad was in his chair reading, and my mom was on the computer. Little did I know that young Snow White's melodramatic acting and temptation to save her mother by letting someone else die would soon become completely unimportant. :)

 

About fifteen minutes into the show, my brother and sister-in-law stopped in. They handed my mom a little white bag and *bam* I knew exactly what was going on here. Cody and Rachel live next door and stop in quite often, but they usually aren't looking suspicious and carrying little white bags. My mom pulled a baby blanket and a pack of pacifiers.

 

I'm going to be an aunt! :)

 

I wasn't going to post about this for a while yet, but frankly I held off as long as I could. I can't wait to be an aunt. More specifically, I can't wait to be the somewhat kooky aunt who always gives books or handmade things as gifts instead of toys. And when she does give toys they're not store bought, but made out of wool felt and embroidery floss. :)

 

Ever since then, my head has been spinning with picture books I need to buy for my future nephew/niece and all of the things I want to make for him or her...clothes and baby booties and quilts and toys and blankets. And oh my goodness...I am going to be an aunt! Isn't it funny how life can change? I can't wrap my head around the fact that this Christmas we will have a new baby in the family.

 

Needless to say, expect to see quite a few baby crafty things on the blog between now and the end of October. :)

 

This is the first project. It also happens to be the first sweater I've knitted. I'm hoping to knit a sweater for myself sometime this year, so it was good to get at least a little practice in. Though I know my sweater will be more complicated and much more time-consuming than this one. :)

I used the Puerperium Cardigan pattern. It's free, fairly easy, and I love how it buttons up the side so it's easier to put on newborns. And technically this is supposed to fit a newborn, though I think it'll work better for a baby who's a couple of months old. I'm a tight knitter so I automatically go up a needle size on most projects, and in this case I had to go up two needle sizes because HL didn't carry the one I needed. So it's probably a bit larger than it's supposed to be.

We won't know the gender for quite a while, so I picked out pink and blue buttons. I haven't sewed them on yet, of course, but here's the girl version of the sweater (above) and the boy version (below).

{I hate those creases on the sleeves that come from my DPNs...my tension between needles, I guess? I'm hoping after I wash it the stitches will even out a bit.}

The sweater came together surprisingly quickly, and it was pretty simple. Just basic stockinette stitch, garter stitch, increases for the raglan sleeves, and such. The only part I was nervous about was picking up stitches under the arm to continue with the sleeves. Picking up stitches has been pretty hit-and-miss for me with past projects...sometimes it looks neat but sometimes I have gaping holes that I have to go back and fix later. I did a sloppy job with the first sleeve and because I had to go back and weave things in tighter, it's a bit bulky in that spot. But before starting the second sleeve, I looked in one of my knitting books for instructions (should have done that before, goober!). That one turned out much better.

 

And can I just say that knitting baby stuff is so much fun? :)

 

 

Until next time,