Right now I am pretty excited to start some baby projects. No, I am not sperminated. Thank God. I have a friend and sister-in-law who are knocked up at present. Both are due at the end of the fall. So I wanted to get the arrival and Christmas gifts for the babies done now. I am also working on a wedding present for another friend. She's doing a civil service in January and then having the big top wedding in the summer. I wanted her to have something nice for the civil service so I am making her a shawl.
All these projects and lead to a fairly rare occurance in my knitting - I had to buy a couple of patterns. Usually with Ravelry there are so many free patterns that you can easily find one that fits the bill. This time I stumbled upon two patterns that were not free. The first is a Jared Flood pattern for the Tweed Baby Blanket. Sure, it's pretty simple and I probably could've come up with it on my own but damn, it's a nice pattern and it was only $5.50. I like Jared Flood's patterns and choice of colors. It's very masculine but still pretty. I know that my friend will appreciate this for her baby stuff. I also like the idea of using grey in a baby item... it's never really done and will make the item really stand out. Of course for both women laundry friendliness is a big issue so I had to break down and buy some acrylic stuff. I went with some Baby Bee from Hobby Lobby and Naturally Caron.com Country.
For the wedding shawl I picked the #22 Lace Shawl from an old issue of Knit.1 magazine. Of course it's a Knit.1 that I do not own so for $8.99 I was able to order a back issue. It's very traditional but looks like a fairly simple project, just time consuming, hence the early start date. I found this soft and juicy yarn from Blue Sky Alpacas which is a mix of alpaca and silk. Ugh, it's to DIE for. I think I might just get naked and roll around in it before I start knitting, don't tell my friend. Here are a few photos of other items I've knit up lately...
