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?