Boing! Thump!

Did you hear that? That was me jumping on the bandwagon. What prompted this fit of unoriginality in me? Well my friend M and his wife H surprised me by having a baby. Now I say “surprised” in the most tongue-in-cheek way. M and H have produced kids like clockwork: every two years in June or July a new addition to their family. The first four kids are a girl, a boy, a girl, and a boy. Last fall, I was talking to M on the phone (they live in Austin) and I jokingly asked if H was pregnant. He said yes. Then I teased that baby #5 would most certainly be a girl. (M and H never find out the gender of their children in utero.)

Well, M and H had baby #5, a girl, in mid-July. From their track record, I knew that this would happen even before H got pregnant—it wasn’t a surprise at all. But for some reason, I chose to ignore the impending arrival. When I heard the news about the new baby, I realized that I needed to knit something. Fast.

So for M and H’s newest bundle of joy, a February Baby Sweater and a Vine Lace Baby Hat.

Pattern: Baby Sweater on Two Needles (actually, I used only one circular) by Elizabeth Zimmermann and Vine Lace Baby Hat by Sandi Wiseheart
Yarn: RYC Cashsoft DK, color 520, 3 balls
Needles: 3.75 mm (US 5) for the sweater and 3.5 mm (US 4) DPNs for the hat

Comments:
In complete lemming form, I paired the hat with this sweater after seeing it on Guro’s blog. It just reinforces the fact that I could not think for myself on this project.

The sweater pattern is not difficult. It should have been knit in a few hours with no problems. However, this is me. I made an easy sweater hard:

* After knitting four or five rows, I decided that the front edges would looks so much better if I used a slip-stitch selvedge. So I ripped and started over.

* After knitting a few rows past the first increase row, I decided that the increases looked better on the wrong side of the work. So I ripped back to two rows before the increase row and increased on a wrong-side row instead of a right-side row.

* Apparently, my mind decided to take a vacation when I started the second sleeve. The sleeves start by casting on 7 stitches on each side of each sleeve. I managed to do this properly on the first sleeve. But I cast on stitches only on one side on the second sleeve. That’s right: I followed the directions correctly THREE TIMES and then screwed up on the fourth time. Rip, rip, rip.

But all in all, I’m happy with the project. Despite all my foibles, I still managed to finish the two items in three days. Cute, fast, and PINK! Thanks for having a girl, M and H!