Classic Striped Cardigan

Marled Stripes and Flower Buttons

So the knitting did continue... although slowly.  But I've finished our new babe's striped cardigan and it's blocked and ready to be grown into.

I totally fell in love with this pattern the first time that I knit it.  It's constructed from the bottom up and knit in separate pieces until the underarm decreases.  (For a striped version, this is the point at which you want to be careful where you stop your striping.)  And after the two fronts, back and two sleeves are knit to the underarm point, they are joined and the raglan decreases begin.  And the knitting continues until you reach the collar.  It is SUCH a clever way to construct a sweater... I'd try it on an adult version, but I'm not sure how well it would work with shaping and my currently addled cognitive skills (I'm blaming pregnancy brain – isn't that convenient?)

Ready to be grown into

I ended up having plenty of yarn, and was a little bit worried about running out of the red.  I consumed more of that, as the ribbing for the hems of the body, sleeves, collar and button band are all done in red.  But I finished with enough to spare.

The small fry helped me pick out some matching flower buttons, and we used some contrasting blue thread to pick up a little color accent.  What fun it was to knit this.

Finished knit

And I'm day dreaming about the coming days with a new babe in hand, and a bit less water retention.  This pseudo carpal tunnel thing is not much fun for someone who likes detail work as much as I do. Soon enough, I'll get my wish... less than three weeks left until my due date.  Cross your fingers for me.

Knitting (with pins and) Needles

Third trimester fun is revealing itself in some very manageable but subtle ways around these parts.  And I'll open by saying that I feel great.  And I'm cruising through this pregnancy with little to no issues which is such a huge blessing.

The funny and somewhat ironic thing is that I'm retaining a little water, which is pretty typical. And it's so minimal that I likely wouldn't even notice it, except that it's giving me carpal tunnel symptoms.  Which is putting a serious damper on my knitting, sewing, typing, writing, pretty-much-any-repetitive-fine-motor activity.  And so my productivity is down a little because between every second and third row, I'm icing my wrists to get feeling back in my thumb, index, middle and half of my ring finger.  (How funny is that?)  It's not painful, it just feels a little like my fingers are asleep... that "pins and needles" sensation and my ability to gauge how tightly I'm grasping something is a little off.   I'm dropping things a bit more often that I used to too.

Conch Shell hat for the babe.

But the knitting marches on... just a little more slowly.  I managed to finish the conch shell hat from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Opinionated Knitter.  It is such a clever pattern and pretty finished object.  I ended up using the Purl Soho - Super Soft Merino that was sent to me from my Squam friends... aren't they lovely?  It used up nearly the entire skein, and I modified things only by selecting a smaller needle size.  I used US 8s.

And I've cast on another Classic Cardigan from Debbie Bliss in the two skeins of Ella Rae that were also sent from Squam.  I love, love, love this pattern... It's a bottom-up raglan and is pretty easy to stripe as long as you pay attention to your stripe stopping point before you join the backs, fronts and sleeves...

The beginnings of a classic baby cardi

Pretty isn't it?