Ears make everything cuter

That's my philosophy when it comes to baby and toddler clothes and it seems like that's a popular opinion when you look in stores such as Carter's.

I always love to knit hats for friends that are having babies. There's something about making a little knitted hat for a wee little head that is just so much fun.

I really love making rolled brim hats because it makes the size adjustable and it's easier for kids to put them on. Bean loves her hats, so she's regularly pulling them on by herself (and taking them off).

Over the past couple of years, I've made Bean at least 10 hats of this style. Some have pom-poms, some have flowers, some look like pumpkins, and she even has a Santa hat and a bumblebee hat.

This Christmas, a friend of my husband became a father to a pair of teeny tiny twin girls. (He already had a daughter roughly Bean's age, so the poor man is pretty outnumbered around his place!) As soon as I heard that the girls had been born, I rushed to the store (ok, I waited till the day after Boxing Day) to buy some wool to set to work on some hats. I decided to make one pink, one purple, and to make a striped pink and purple hat for their big sister.

The hats were cute, but I wanted to up the cute factor just a little more, so I knitted up some ears and trimmed them with a crocheted border. The striped one and the purple one are finished - I just have to sew the ears onto the tiny pink hat. I know I'm not quite done, but I just couldn't wait any longer to share them with you!

Knitting Update

At last I have finished JC's sweater!

Well, actually, I finished it almost a month ago, but I wanted to make a hat to match it and I just finished that bit recently. The sweater pattern comes with a pattern for a hat, but I wasn't sure about it, so I elected to make one of my usual hats (I've knitted ~15 of these to date). The pattern I use is designed by Susan B. Anderson and comes together really quickly and with great results. I like the style of the hat because it's forgiving. It stretches a bit, but you can also adjust the length of it by rolling or unrolling the brim.

To match JC's pink sweater, I made a pink "upside-down daisy" toque. It's so cute!!



I also recently made a similar hat in a smaller size in green for my new little step-cousin. Instead of making the daisy, I made little ears and sewed them on! So cute! I should have taken a photo ... oops!

I know a few expectant mommies right now, so I will likely be making these little hats a lot over the next few months.

Bear ears are cute ... what else should we top these little hats with? I'm open to suggestions! :)

Getting Gutsier

Gutsier ... is that a real word? Regardless, what I mean to say is that I'm trying to be a little more brave ... or at least I'm thinking of becoming more brave.

The braveness kicked in at swimming lessons yesterday. Sure, I didn't opt to "slip in" with JC (I walked her in using the shallow stairs), but I DID manage to completely dunk her not once, but TWICE!! I was so proud of myself. Though, I had to laugh to myself when our instructor suggested that we could either just dunk the babies on their own "if we [didn't] want to get [our] hair wet," or we could dunk ourselves at the same time. Let me tell ya - dunking myself at the same time would NOT be a good idea. I would be coughing and spluttering and panicking and poor JC would be at the bottom of the pool, or more likely treading water expertly and laughing at my inability to go below the surface without inhaling half the pool. Yes, sadly, I am one of those adults who plugs their nose to go underwater. Do NOT push me in a pool. I will choke and choke and choke and you will feel nothing but sad for me. It's THAT bad. In any case, JC did a great job with the dunking and I was very proud of her.

The braveness wavered today when I decided to look online for a local yarn/wool shop. I've been inspired by the knitting books I've been flipping through (most notably, Susan B. Anderson's Itty Bitty Hats) and the beautiful yarns they use, so I wanted to see if I could get my hands on some myself. Well it turns out there is a lovely yarn shop not far from here, but I am too scared to go! How ridiculous is that? It seems silly, but I am really intimidated! I guess I'm afraid of spending an obscene amount of money on something that I will massacre and then I'll be even more upset than I am when it occurs with my good ol' Zellers-on-sale-acrylic yarn. Or maybe I'm scared that I won't be able to make intelligent conversation with the knitting experts there. I don't know ...

Ok, and here's one more thing I've been wimping out about: I need to call my aunt and uncle because they haven't seen JC yet. I know, I'm a bad niece, procrastinating like this, but there really is a reason (not sure if it's a good one, but there is one nonetheless). Ummmmmm, so ... they smoke ... a lot ... in their house ... and they live ~2 hours away from us. Usually I would just grin and bear it and just go sit with them because I really love them and want to see them. However, I really don't want to subject JC to secondhand smoke like that and I'm afraid of hurting their feelings. I think I just have to call them and suggest we meet elsewhere like at a coffee shop or something, right? And I guess I'll just have to explain if they ask? That's the right thing to do, right? I'm still not exactly chomping at the bit to call them and do it though. Hmmmm ...

One thing I DID do was go back to my last post and add the links that I was too scared to add. Baby steps ...

Well, now that I've confessed my fears I guess I should make a plan to conquer them (or at least some of them). Here goes:
1) Next week I will "slip in" with JC at swimming lessons
2) I need to practice going underwater without plugging my nose. Perhaps we can go swimming as a family sometimes and I can practice this while my husband swims with JC.
3) I should just buck up and go to the yarn shop. Maybe I can make JC a really nice hat or something. A pattern that I trust will work, so that I'm pretty well guaranteed success with my first real wool purchase.
4) I need to call my aunt and uncle. I will talk to my husband about when we might be able to go visit. Then I will call them to try to make plans.

Wish me luck!

Oh, and here's a question for ya:
How important is it that I shower JC at the pool after each swimming lesson? I've just been drying her off, dressing her and taking her home and then bathing her after she wakes up (and I shower while she's sleeping). I sort of figure that showering in chlorinated water without properly washing won't do much to get the chlorine off her or any other thing that the showers are meant to remove. Am I way off base here? All the other moms seem to shower their babes after swimming, but I just don't understand the benefit. Help me out here.

And another 2.5 months ...

So it seems that I am not so religious about generating posts. Now we can all see why my diaries are half-empty (or half-full depending on how you look at things).

For awhile there little JC was sleeping on my lap a lot, so it was easy to type; however, she started being awake more (NOT complaining - she's a lot of fun!!), so I didn't have a lot of time to post. I would have blogged during naps, but somehow I think my hubbie might be a bit disappointed if we had to live in a pig sty with no food while I blogged away ...

So, to catch you up on things a little:
1) JC is now 3.5 months old and appears to be teething. She's chewing and sucking on anything ... bibs, receiving blankets, fingers, arms, toys ... you name it! She can hold her head up quite well now, and she can roll over a bit now, too! We even heard some first giggles this week :)

We started swimming lessons last week and they were great! She LOVES the water, especially when she's on her back with her hair wooshing around her (she has a lot of hair for a 3 month old!). She was the only babe in a reusable swim diaper (AppleCheeks, purchased from Re-Diaper), and the only little girl without an actual bathing suit. When I noticed the bathing suit thing I felt embarassed for about 1 second, then realized how silly that was! Are baby bathing suits comfortable? Are they easy to put on? Do they really keep them warmer? My answer to all of these questions was NO. Not to mention, I doubt that JC is self-conscious about such a silly thing, so I decided I wouldn't waste my time worrying about it, nor my money buying a little piece of spandex to torture her with. Swimming lesson #2 happens this afternoon. Hopefully JC's 2nd impression of swimming is as good as her first.

2) My parents gave me a pattern book, knitting needles, and some yarn for Christmas in hopes that I would knit a little pink cardigan for JC.

I learned to knit a few years ago after my paternal grandmother passed away. I remembered her always knitting for babies in the family and my cousin was pregnant with her first child, so I suddenly felt compelled to learn to knit and to create something knitted for the new little being. Well, after some very frustrating attempts to learn to knit from a book, I gave up and taught myself to crochet instead. I crocheted a beautiful baby blanket for my cousin's son and all was well.

But, it wasn't long before I decided I would get back in the saddle and attempt knitting again. I tried a scarf and finished said scarf after messing up the gauge royally and making one of the largest scarves known to humanity. The next project was a smaller scarf, which curled up because I didn't realize that stockinette stitch results in curled up work if you don't help it out by bordering the edges a bit.

Anyhow, since that time, I got pregnant with JC and decided it was time to get it right with knitting. I borrowed Susan B. Anderson's Itty Bitty Hats from the library and set to work on a baby hat. Well, it turned out marvelously and I ended up knitting about 12 hats!!!! Go me!

So I started this sweater for JC and things were going well until I messed up and purled when I should have knitted or knitted when I should have purled. Said unfortunate error occurred on New Year's Eve while my hubby and I were watching a movie (we don't have cable, so weren't watching countdown shows). When I discovered my error, I promptly fReAkEd OuT, cursing and swearing. I remember ripping the knitted work off the needles, stabbing the unsuspecting loveseat with a knitting needle, and biting through the work, stretching it with my hands while I growled like an out of control yahoo. My hubby was pretty alarmed and tore the pink mess from my hands, and insisted that I calm the heck down. (And then the clock struck 12 and it was 2011). Yes, I transitioned into this new year, (quietly) screaming (JC was asleep upstairs), crying, and ripping apart yet another knitting disaster ... good omen? Not sure ...

Since that time, I have googled TINKing so that I can now fix my knitting errors in a civilized manner and have managed to complete the back panel and one of the two front panels for JC's little pink cardigan (as pictured in the above rather dark photo). Last night I made an error and fixed it without any freakouts (not even a single curse word!). I am relieved, and so are the loveseat and my husband. I'll let you know how the rest goes ...

3) I borrowed some crochet (and one knitting) amigurumi books from the library and I'm really excited about making a hot air balloon for JC's room, some birds, some bees, and maybe even some airplanes (all of which will hang from the ceiling). I can't wait to get started, but I need to focus and finish the great pink cardigan first. Also hoping to knit up a little hat for my step-aunt-by-marriage's son-to-be ...

4) Starting to think about going back to work and what that will entail. A friend recently started a blog and wrote an inspiring, yet confusion-provoking post about doing what you love. I love my career, but am still new to it and am overly impatient as to where my niche will be. As much as I love my career and have the education to back me up, part of me wishes I could knit, crochet, sew, cook, bake, run, and mother myself a living rather than doing work in a traditional sense (not to say that none of these qualify as work, just saying that it's not where my education lies ...). I guess I just need to be patient and things will sort themselves out.

5) So ... I'm clearly blogging, but I'm sort of shy about said blogging. A little hesitant to link my blog to others' blogs and to websites because I'm not sure I'm ready for others to read what I write. So why am I blogging rather than keeping a diary? GREAT QUESTION! Maybe I shouldn't worry so much about what people think ...