If you’ve read any amount of blog posts on this site, or know me in real life, it’s not much of a secret that I have a passion for sock yarn. It’s hard for me to believe that not everyone is in love with sock yarn in the same way. Not many other weights of yarn are so unabashedly bold with their colors or striping patterns, and when I produce an entire garment out of fingering weight yarn, like my Still Light Tunic, I love the way it seems more flattering than heavier garments and is easier to transition into multiple seasons.
I am newly discovering the benefits of sock yarn stashing as I am starting to make baby knits. When I did a Ravelry advanced search, there were over 3,000 different baby knits (with photos available) using fingering weight yarn. That’s exciting news since I have at least enough yarn to knit about 30 pairs of socks. This might keep me busy with the baby knits for some time.
I’ve been working on Little Sister’s Dress by Tora FrΓΈseth.
I was happily working away on it last weekend until I discovered the math wasn’t adding up and I had the first version, rather than the updated version, of the pattern in my Ravelry library. Ugh. I need to remember to check these things, as well as look for errata at the very beginning of a pattern. Other than that brief misstep, the dress has been flying off the needles at a good pace. I realize the picture above is a pretty awful phone pic that does not capture the color well at all, but meh, it’s what I’ve got for now. I’m making the six month size in hopes of the baby being able to wear it in early spring.
Next up on my baby knits queue is the Clara Dress by Karin Vestergaard Mathiesen. I’ve had this one in my Ravelry favorites for years actually. Unfortunately, the pattern only comes as a kit from the yarn manufacturer. They sell it with some Isager Alpaca 2. I’m not opposed to this yarn, but when I purchased it the variety of colors available was lacking somewhat. There were a couple of blues, grey, brown, and a dark teal. I went with the dark teal, but I’m more likely to make something else out of that in favor of using a brighter skein of yarn from my stash.
My pregnancy is going pretty well so far. Some might even call it easy. Lately my worst experience is just waking up in the middle of the night and being awake for a couple of hours for no reason. I suppose this is ameliorated somewhat by the fact that I can’t stay awake past 9:30 most of the time, so it all balances out.
One thing that I have noticed is that people endlessly give advice and freely comment on what I should and should not be doing to care for myself and my unborn baby. I really haven’t experienced something like this at any other point. Perfect strangers feel free to comment on my body and tell me things I really don’t care to hear. I’m not trying to have a rant here, but it’s a really odd social experiment in a way. I’m trying to mostly look at it with curiosity, rather than anger. As in…”I’m curious that you’re a stranger, yet you feel that you can touch my stomach.” To me, there is probably no other “socially acceptable” time to just touch a stranger’s stomach. It’s a pretty intimate area. I guess I don’t really find this all that “socially acceptable.” Maybe I’m not that friendly after all, or maybe it just weirds me out. I read one site that suggested that I should touch the person’s stomach back to make a point if this makes me uncomfortable. So far I haven’t had the gall to do that and luckily most of the stomach touchers are people I’m comfortable with. I really enjoy Jezebel articles for their feminist bent and level of snark, so I’m linking this one that talks about how to interact with pregnant ladies. Simple stuff folks. If we’re an alien species for you, read that article and take it to heart.
As for other knitting content, I’ve given up on trying to obtain a better photo of some socks that I knit for the fella awhile back. I had some nice ones on my SLR and accidentally deleted them. Other than that, I just keep forgetting to do it. I found a pic on my phone last night and decided it was suitable.
He’s worn them a bunch, and while they probably still look like new due to the durability of the yarn, I’m going to put that baby to bed. More info about the yarn is available here.
I had similar experience when pregnant. But wait till the baby’s there. Everybody will tell you how to care for your child as if they knew him/her better than you will.
This is such a great article you linked to! I had to laugh SO HARD about the picture at the top …
I was quite taken aback when I read what happens to you – I mean, you don’t go touching other folk’s bodies anyway, isn’t it? At least not in the stomach area, face, etc. … People are simply weird. π
Nice to hear that you’re fine! May I ask if you want to know whether you’ll get a little guy or a girl?
Many, many greetings – both dresses you’ve chosen are very beautiful, by the way. π
Love
Julia π
It’s a girl. There are lots of cute things to knit for the little ladies.
I’m so stupid … Sorry. Sure it’s a girl. You are knitting DRESSES, after all … Sorry. Really, really sorry. I was writing this after a REALLY stressfull eight-hour-shift, and my brain wasn’t working … at all, apparently.
I’ll go now … hide somewhere …
That little dress is adorable! Just be warned, though, that when the baby comes you might just wish people were touching your stomach again instead of your little one’s face or hands. I’ve never understood why strangers or aquaintances feel it necessary to do either without being invited by the mother or asking. I don’t have kids, but it’s always made me uncomfortable to watch people converge on soon-to-be and new mothers like that. π
My goodness… the random touchers would send me off on a rant too! The little red dress is absolutely adorable–can’t see what else you dream up with sock-weight yarn π
Super cute– love this little dress! It’s ridiculous that people think they can invade your personal space just because you’re pregnant. Ick!
Love the socks in the picture. The colors are so bright and fun. Glad you could get a pic posted. The dress is adorable, echoing the comments of above posters, I look forward to seeing what else you create. It’s good to know there are other sock yarn hoarders out there.
That baby is so lucky to have garments made out of lovely sock yarn! Man, I wish I was that tiny, because I’d be set for life with all the sock yarn in my stash!
I’ve never been pregnant, but I think that the endless advice will probably continue after the baby has been born. I think that the bright side is that you’ll have a beautiful little girl that will balance out all those annoying buttinskies that seem to plague mothers.
Thanks for that article, too. I like to think I know how to be a decent human being, but I’ll admit to saying dumb things to pregnant women!
Completely off topic, but I was in the gallery in OP today, did you know that a VisComm student created a booklet including some of your knitting patterns? It’s pretty cool.
Hope all continues to go well for you & the little miss!