FOs: Boring Mittens, Hat, Hat, Hat Trick, Baby

What have y'all been up to? Me, I completed the ultimate Finished Object. I had a baby.My son was born last week after a routine labor and delivery (if eight days late) and was 9 pounds, 2 oz, and 21.25" long. I feel compelled to say that he's a pipsqueak compared to his older brother, but he's managed to put on a pound in the past 4 days, so we'll see if that lasts. We're all recovering well, and he's been sporting a number of lovely sweaters, both knit by me and by wonderful friends, so I'll put some pictures on the blog soon. If you can't wait, several are already on Instagram, where you can follow me as kinoknits.Now, back to that "eight days late" thing... I was going pretty stir crazy with the waiting, and I didn't want to start any new complicated knitting. I had this hunch that I *might* knit during labor, so I wanted to have something boring and stockinette on the needles. Since I'm not at my own house, I only have a limited number of needles and yarn with me, so my knitting has had to be pretty monogamous. Problem was, I'd finish up the boring project... and have to come up with another.

Boring Mittens

One classic measure of a person's knitworthiness is whether or not they wear things you've knit for them in the past. I caught my brother very quietly and unassumingly wearing a hat I knit for him several years ago out of some slubby handspun. I was new to the spinning game, and the fiber was pretty rough, tangly, and full of veg matter. Yet my brother is still wearing the hat. I immediately assessed that it was too small, since it didn't quite cover his ears, but he confessed that his hands were what was cold, especially during his daily hour of throwing a wet tennis ball for his dog. Off to the LYS. I purchased two skeins of Berrocco Vintage in navy for its wearability, washability, and worsted-weightedness (because I wanted to crank these out). I spent a day knitting the first mitten and writing down what I did as I went. This also involved my brother trying on the mitten at about 17 different points as I tweaked the size, length, thumb placement, etc. (Come to think of it, a time-lapse series of photos of him trying it on at different points would have been pretty cool...) Anyway, I didn't have a pattern but just did a basic plain stockinette mitten with a generous cuff and a thumb gusset. With all my numbers on paper, the second mitten flew off the needles, and my brother wore them to class the very next day.

Jacques Cousteau Hat

Next up was the Jacques Cousteau Hat, which is a free Ravelry download. I've knit two of these in the past - one for my husband, and one for charity. Lots of boring ribbing, then very easy decreases. A beginner could definitely handle this hat, and my husband assures me it's very warm. 

Carpool Hat

As I was knitting my brother's hat, my stepdad hesitantly let me know he'd love a hat... he had not asked before because he didn't want to impose. Much to his shock, I leapt out of my chair with joy and said, "LET'S GO LOOK AT RAVELRY!" I did an advanced search to get an idea of what he wanted. Back to the LYS. This time, I picked up a skein of Classic Elite Wynter (50% wool, 50% alpaca) in hunter green after being assured that he didn't mind handwashing his new hat. I wanted to use every inch of the skein, so I started knitting at the top, then designed a very unfussy hat all the way down to Jenny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bindoff, which was a new technique for me. I played yarn chicken and TOTALLY WON, with 2.25" of yarn left.Because my stepdad is an elementary school principal, I knit it in his school color of green. He has been wearing it in the mornings to greet the carpool line. To my surprise, the hat looks just as great inside out, so I can also see harried and exhausted parents grabbing it on the way out the door to drive to carpool and not having to care which way the hat gets jammed on. Thus its name - the Carpool Hat. I need to type up the pattern and send it out for test knitting, but I hope to have it available for Ravelry download soon. I'll do a separate post with real photos of the hat later... mainly because I haven't taken any yet.

Preemie Hats

At this point I was pushing a week late on my son's birth. Maybe I needed to get some good karma on my side? I decided to use some leftover Quaere Fiber sportweight yarn in Peacock to knit preemie hats. This skein of Quaere was some kind of magic - I had finished a pair of socks (together with another skein) out of it. Then I knit a Christmas ornament. Then another. Then some tube socks for the baby. And then I still managed to get three preemie hats out of it, using every last scrap. I used the Preemie Hats for Charity pattern by Carissa Browning, a free Ravelry download. I followed the striped hat pattern but without ever changing yarn, since my yarn striped for me. The day after finishing those, I went into labor and took the hat trick of hats to the hospital with me to donate.

Baby

And then the baby. Ultimate FO. He's our second, so we're more experienced this time, and everyone has been settling in well. As I said, labor went smoothly, and I wore my handknit Ornaments socks during labor and Contorta socks during recovery. There was something incredibly comforting about wearing these new treasures during this time, instead of the hospital's terrible cotton one-size-supposedly-fits-all heeless grippy sole THINGS. I also read Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's All Wound Up in between contractions. I wonder if her past experience as a doula helped me somewhat? ;) In any case, thanks for all the well wishes. I'm planning lots more sock knitting and some designing over the next month as my new son and I hang out on the couch.