Started the hat...

(BigAlice, "I'll try to be better" is supposed to be MY line, okay? Heh. That's what I say to myself too much.)

I started the baby hat last night. Because: my sister in law had her first appointment with her "new" (Virginia) doctor, and he determined:
*The baby is definitely a girl (did another ultrasound)
*The baby, at something like 36 weeks, is 6 lbs. 7 oz., which is good, because there was some concern about gestational diabetes. My sister in law went on a fairly strict diet (lower carbohydrates) and that seems to have helped - one of the concerns with this is that the baby becomes very large
*Without giving the icky details, the doctor said this baby might be on the way sooner than expected. He's not concerned about that; apparently he thinks the baby looks "ready" from every measurement he's taken. And I know due-dates can be an inexact science.

(I have to admit, I was rooting for a girl all along. I know, you're supposed to be happy for any kind of healthy baby, but...there are a lot of boys in my extended family)

So I got out the pale green boucle yarn (even though they were pretty sure it was a girl, my sister in law asked for "not excessively PINK please"). And I found my copy of "Stitch and Bitch" and started another Umbilical Cord hat. This has become my go-to baby gift: it's quick, it's cute, it's not overly fussy (neither my brother nor sister-in-law are "fussy" dressers, so I'm guessing their kid won't be either), and when you tell people the name, they laugh. (It has an i-cord extension on the top, which you then tie off into a knot).

And incidentally, this was another St. Anthony moment: I'd kind of desultorily been looking for my copy of that book for a few days, wondering where it was. (Seriously: I live in a 1260 square foot house and there are FIVE different places where I keep knitting books). I couldn't turn it up and was on the point of calling my mom to get her to read the pattern off to me from her copy....when I went back into my sewing room and decided to try ol' Tony on it. And just after I said the little rhyme, as I was looking, I knocked over a stack of magazines...and there is was, in the stack. (Now I remember: I had had it and a couple other books out when I thought I'd be teaching someone to knit, and had had a bunch of magazines out, and I put them away all at the same time). So at any rate: I have the pattern now and it won't be long before the hat is done.

I want to have this done to send out within days of the baby's arrival. The quilt, I think I can wait a little while on - I want to be sure to get the name and the spelling of it right to put on the label. And as it's really almost a twin-bed sized quilt...they won't probably use it on a bed for a while.

I also want to get a nice copy made up (maybe write it out on muslin and sew it to the back) of the "It's Okay To Sit On Your Quilt" poem, (AKA "It's Your Quilt"), which is kind of a nice thing to include with a baby quilt, because sometimes parents don't let kids use things that they think are "for nice." And I'm going to include washing instructions, in case the baby DOES spit on her quilt.

With a seamstress and knitter as a grandmother, and as someone who likes to sew and knit as an aunt, this kid is probably going to wind up with all kinds of handmade stuff. I know my mom is making the baby a winter hat with earflaps. (Not sure how cold it gets in northwest Virginia but the baby will be prepared). And I'm actually contemplating doing a (slightly larger baby size) sweater at some point.