Baby baby...........

OK so I mentioned the earlier baby boom, so the past couple of weeks I have been getting myself fully prepared for the arrivals. This involved earlier knitting of hats and bootees but my next mission was for something more substantial. So while venturing up to Iknit to pick up my umbrella swift I also picked up the two sublime baby books for their baby merino cashmere silk DK. (Thats a bit of a mouthful.)I was only supposed to be getting one but I couldn't make a decision so ended up buying them both.



Don't they just look gorgeous. I was really pleased with the number of totally knittable designs in here although most jumpers / cardigans take 3 balls for the very smallest size. I guess that's why I ended up getting both in the end as I felt that it covered everything I could possibly want for a newborn. (There are a couple of girls tops that only take two 50g balls.)

Anyway baby number one arrived nearly 3 weeks ago now - shade blue and shade pink is on her way as mummy went in for her induction yesterday. So time to finally commit to the first design that I was going to knit


I decided on the Vintage Car Jacket but in blue.



I took the finished article around on Wednesday and it was very gratefully received.





I have also being knitting ahead for my new niece. I chose this design to knit for her so that I could use two balls of the RYC cashsoft that I bought at Getknitted in January.



This has also now been finished and a suitable button selected from one of my LYS.



I am really pleased with the way both the sublime and the Cashsoft knitted up and the fact that I could substitute yarns quite sucessfully on this occaision. This has not always been the case! I still haven't fully committed to swatching and I know I should. I also have to mention how I loved knitting these up on my gorgeous Lantern moon needles which you can just pick out in some of the photos. These were real luxury knits.

I would love to knit something for myself in the Sublime but I think the amount of yarn that I would need for something substantial would be very costly. I am sure it would be fantastic to wear and feel so soft next to the skin.

One interesting point though is that the baby sublime and the adult is exactly the same in yarn content with the merino, silk and cashmere it is just that the labels are different and the baby is in subtle pastel shades. The adult shades are slightly stronger in colour.

Baby boom........................

Ok there is definately something in the water or someone needs to remove that chair from the staff room as wee little sprogs are popping out left right and centre. Plus there are also family members also about to drop. Having been there, done that, got the t-shirt and had it vomitted on I feel I have some experience to offer, but not today you will be relieved to here. This has put a certain slant on recent knitting projects and knitting purchases. Therefore I have photos to show like this:





and this

I do like to make sure I am organised and have all eventualities covered.

However I did manage to squeeze in this on Saturday at Getknitted.....


.....be it a look a like combination of the above. Maybe it's just baby envy!

I also managed to get one of these...



They are definately not for anything baby at all and are purely selfish and indulgent purchases. I just couldn't resist the softness and the colours of the Fyberspates. Now all I have to do is decide what to knit them into.

Go get knitted..........................................

Well that's what I did on Saturday with a group of other Ravelers. Four of us travelled down by car to Bristol, Robynn, Emma and myself driven by Gabrielle arriving at Get knitted at around 11am where we met up with other Ravelers from around the London and south west area. Some travelled by train and some were lucky enough to have this wonderful Aladins cave as their local yarn shop and hopped on a local bus or even walked around the corner.
On first arriving it was clear that seating may be a bit of an issue. Two sofas were already full and as we arrived so were many others. Ok so we managed to bags the only remaining sofa around the corner from the others. It was later discovered when rummaging at the magazines underneath that we had pitched up at the blokes spot. It is worth pointing out at the furthest point away from this sofa at the other end of the shop was the children's play area! Need I say anymore.
It was great to put so many faces to what up until this point were only Ravelry IDs, these people actually had real names too.

This picture was taken a little later in the afternoon after our lovely lunch but certainly gives a good feel of the day.

So ORK and N0nnah gave Erquesome a little help with colour choice and earned their yarn enablers badges, well done girls.
While this was going on I was raiding the Knitpicks so that I could complete the harmony set that I got for Christmas with some sock needles and some 40cm circulars. These have now been confiscated until my birthday later this week.

Discussions over suitable yarn for something that the Yarnharlot has done were made and colours debated over. This is how some of the yarn ended up here for a decent rummage. I had to confess to not knowing about either this particular yarn or about the pattern - oh well.

And then of course there was lunch.

We trundled off to a lovely little cafe on the same shopping parade called the Dutch pot and I had my first taste of real Carribeann food. We managed to collect Tussahsilk (Jaqui) and Nonnah (Shannon) with us too. Unfortunately the photo I have taken isn't a great one as I didn't quite get everyone in but I did have better luck with Jaqui's camera after I had put half the decorative plant in my mouth so it didn't get in the way! I have to say I hadn't relalised quite how spicy it could be and I was reminded of this on the journey on the way home.
After lunch (quite late I might add) we returned to the shop to munch our way through more of the cake goodies that were on the tables. I can't imagine why I haven't mentioned these before only ever coming second to Yarn! The apple and ginger cake was delicious - thankyou to the baker.
Following a feast of cake Gabirelle indulged in some more enabling where she persuaded Emma to try on one of the knitted samples on display in the store. She then insisted that it be drapped appropriately and although you probably can't quite see her in the picture she is there holding up the pattern book for effective and accurate drapping.

This was an action shot of the drapping, hence the required movements and the small element of blurr.
In addition to my Knitpicks I did make a few further additional purchases which I have not yet had time to photograph. They included some baby yarn that was on sale, blues, pinks and whites depending on what shade the babies turn out. I also picked up two skeins of sock weight yarn aswell as some lovely buttons for my almost finished gloves. Thankyou Emma for your fantastic choice.
All in all it was a fab day and I just want to say thank you again to Gabrielle for driving us all the way there and back, it was greatly appreciated.