Babies and Big Kids

As promised, I have a few pics of the other items I made for my nephew-to-be's baby shower. This first one is purposely a little bit big, since I figured Max might wear it next summer on his trips to the beach.



I wanted to make it in a nice, soft cotton blend, so I ended up using Knitpicks Shine for the first time. What a gorgeous yarn! I'm not usually a fan of knitting with cotton, but this yarn has the most beautiful and soft drape to it... I loved it. (Yes, I did go back an reset the sleeves... awful, I know)

The next item started out as a stashbuster. I had a cute pattern from IW Knits called Old World Booties that I thought would be fun to try out, and what I thought was just enough yarn from some other project. As it turns out, not quite enough. I found myself about 4 yards short at the end. But, thanks to the magic of Ravelry, I was able to find Knitfemme, who had the same yarn in her stash, and she was kind enough to send me enough of it to finish. Thanks, Melissa!



Finally, the "throwaway" at the end, which turned out to be her favorite! Again, I had a bit of scrap yarn left over after finishing something (I don't even remember what at the moment) and I decided Max could use a stylin' little skull beanie. It probably took me all of an hour to finish, but it ended up being a big hit at the shower (you can't get the scale from the picture, but that's the size of a teeny little newborn head... too cute). Can't wait til he gets here to wear it in person!!



Speaking of offspring, my youngest daughter decided to take up an interesting sport this winter. Wrestling. Yes, real wrestling... rolling around and grappling hot and sweaty for six minutes. It is apparently a co-ed sport these days. Yes, yes, I've heard all the jokes, "It was a co-ed sport in my day,too, but it took place in the back of a car!" I will admit that her dad and I had some misgivings at the thought of our 12-year-old daughter in that position. However, just a couple of practices convinced me that the wrestling mat may be one of the few places in the world where young men aren't thinking of sex.

It's very rough, which my little tomboy enjoys. And, I have to say, it's probably a little unfair to the guys. They can't win -- if they pummel her and win, it's no big deal - so you beat a girl, who cares? If, on the other hand, they lose to a girl .... well, you can see where it's kind of tough on them. Fortunately, they had great coaches, and they welcomed girls as well as boys to the team. (well, "club", actually, they can't join the JV team until 7th grade, so for this year, they formed a wrestling club for 3rd to 6th graders).

Here's a shot (waiting her turn to wrestle) that I think should be saved for future boyfriends, don't you?



And here's a look at the whole team. The coaches and varsity/JV players who helped out are in the back. It was a great time, and she learned the basics of the sport. So, who knows, maybe next year she'll be looking to go out for the JV team. We'll see.



The last night of their season was last week, and I wanted to do something nice for the coaches. They're dads of a couple of the varsity players who offered to do this on a volunteer basis. Since they're both bald, I thought it would be kind of nice to make them watchcaps in the school colors My eldest told me that would be ok, since they were kind of "old," but that anyone younger would really want a beanie and not "that weird brim." (For the childless among you, dear readers, if you ever get to thinking that you are just feeling too good about yourself, having children is a sure way to remedy that problem. Oh, not for the first few years... they like you then. But soon enough, they'll be saying things like, "You're not actually going to wear that, are you?" Very grounding)



Nothing special about the hats, except that I decided to use them as a practice project for my continental knitting. I've always been able to knit in either style (throwing or picking) but continental purling has been a challenge. And ribbing.... well, that was beyond bothering! But, the lovely Rita gave me a quick tutorial one night at our local knitting group, and I decided that this was the perfect time to practice. So, I knit two ribbed watchcaps almost entirely continental style. (I did switch off when my hands got tired, but that's the point of having different styles to fall back on.) It was actually a great way to learn, and I now feel totally confident that I could do any knitting in either style. Wicked!

So there you go. Up to the minute. I'm off to my mom's house for my sister Tracy's birthday party. My preggie sis, Terri, should be there, too. The only depressing thought is that even though Tracy is a year older, I'm still older than she is. And even though Terri is huge and pregnant, I may still be bigger than she is. Sigh. Can't even enjoy a good gloat.