some baby things

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about why I blog and how I spend time online. Blogging feels old-fashioned already, at least the way I do it. I'm not selling you anything, for one thing. I don't get paid for this and no one helps me do it. There are so many things I could be doing better - better photography (I'm working on that, but it's slow going), regular posts on particular topics...that's how all the good bloggers do it, right? Sigh. 

Well, more on that later. As much as I don't want MadKnitting to become simply a parade of finished projects with nothing interesting in between, it's late and I'm tired and I have to go to work tomorrow, so I'm going to leave you with a few pictures of the things I made for some friends who welcomed their firstborn to the world last Wednesday. His name is Oliver, and he was born in the middle of the morning on his due date, which is remarkable in more ways than one. 

Alas, we do not share baby O's penchant for punctuality! While I had these gifts all finished up a few weeks ago, we missed the baby shower due to a round of flu, and we have yet to meet the little guy or present him and his parents with these handmade goodies. 

Item 1: a sweater!

Pattern: Classic Cardigan by Erika Knight. I left off the pockets. Cute as they are, I see no point in pockets for a tiny baby sweater, and I like the clean look of it without them anyway.

Yarn: Dale of Norway Lerke, which I've had in my stash forever. I've made at least four other baby sweaters out of this stuff (this one and this one and these puppies plus a couple sweaters that evidently didn't even get blogged) and I still have some left. I swear I didn't have all that much to begin with, but it's lasting forever. I'd say I'm sick of it, but Lerke is great for baby sweaters, so I guess I don't mind having a little more on hand.

Size: 3-6 months...it's always good to guess on the big side. Babies grow fast and there are only about  three months out of the year you don't need a sweater here.

Item 2: a quilt!

I have to confess, this is a quilt top I made years ago for a different child, but I never finished it. I think my own little people got in the way. So when I heard our friends were expecting a boy, I pulled this out and finished it, which only required attaching the backing, tying the knots and sewing on the binding. As you can see from the pictures, I chose coordinating flannel prints and arranged them in a predictable way. It didn't require a whole lot of creative effort, but I'm happy with the result all the same. Some of my corners were perfect, and some were not. All those corners were covered by the knots anyway, so it doesn't matter. Knotting quilts isn't my favorite look, but it sure is fast, not to mention reliable. I am skittish about machine-quilting flannel backed with fuzzy polyester knit (not pictured) and the knots seemed like a safer option.

Next post I'll share more about the creative process, and the importance of screwing up. But now, it's time for me to get some sleep.