Plague house

I should have known how this year's March Break was going to go when DD1 came into my room on Thursday morning complaining of a sore throat and nausea. She was running a slight fever too, so we kept her home. Fast forward to that evening and she was experiencing a full-on stomach bug at both ends. Then congestion and a cough set in. Meanwhile, the fever was bouncing up and down (it would be fine in the morning, but then come back by the evening). I tried my level best to separate her from everyone else in the family, but sure enough, yesterday DD2 and DH got it; fortunately with just the fever and throat/cough, not the stomach nastiness. I am waiting with bated breath (and horror) for this nastiness to hit me and DD3. DD1 is only just starting to get over things now.

Needless to say, my planned trip into the office with my kids to visit with my co-workers, show off DD3, and hand out baby gifts, is not happening this week. Not that I haven't been working on getting things ready anyway, though! We have a completed Kitty Woobie:

We have a completed Tea Party Frock:

front:




back:

And we have a completed-thing-for-my-boss-that-I-can't-show-you-now. (But I'm really pleased with it.)

I also gave up on the garter stitch yoke vest from my last post, because I became pretty sure that I wouldn't have enough yarn. Instead, I grabbed some leftover Patons Kroy Socks FX I had in the stash... (the purple one on the right)

...and started doing the vest pattern with that instead, using 3.25mm needles to account for the thinner yarn. (I figured this would give me a more newborn-size garment instead of the 1-2 years size that the pattern as written is supposed to give you.) Unfortunately, I ran out of yarn two rows before starting the skirt of the cardigan. Also, turns out that it's got rather a lot of pink in it, and I'd like to make it more gender-neutral because I don't know what the co-worker I'm giving this to is having. So I'm thinking I might just come up with another idea altogether for that gift.

Which means I'm kind at loose ends for something to do right now. The responsible thing to do would be to get back to my "12 in 12" challenge. As you may recall, I have chosen the challenge of making 12 design submissions in 2012. And to that end...I'm kinda considering putting together a book proposal.

Zowee. I really must be coming down with something.

The unbearable cuteness of baby things

Thanks for the comments from my last post on the adorableness of my baby's new hat! I have to say that every time I put it on her, I am enchanted all over again with how sweet she looks in it. (It doesn't hurt that she is very squishy and nibble-able.)

In other adorableness, I discovered some really sweet patterns while reading through one of the Ravelry forums a few weeks ago. They're for a kind of toy that seems to have come into vogue since the last time I had a baby, as I'd never seen such a thing until my co-workers gifted me with one for DD3: it's basically a stuffed toy head attached to the middle of a small baby blanket. The patterns I found are by Kris Carlson and she calls them "Woobies". She's recently published an ebook with instructions for eight of them (bunny, bear, giraffe, cat, lamb, monkey, puppy, zebra), and they were all so adorable that I had to buy it. How adorable, you may ask? Here's the giraffe one, shared from the designer's Flickr site:

SO CUTE!!! Anyhoo, flash forward to earlier this week when I was looking for a gift to knit for a co-worker who's expecting in June. Some months before I went on my own mat leave, she and her husband had gotten a kitten - a gorgeous little grey fuzzball. And it suddenly occurred to me, here I am with a bunch of Woobie patterns I'm trying to find an excuse to knit, and 40 balls of a grey cotton/acrylic blend I recently picked up from my LYS's bargain bin, and an expectant co-worker with a grey cat, and...and...and...

Blanket part is done, right now I'm just working on the head.

Also expecting is my boss, which I'm really happy about (except for the part where she'll be on mat leave when I return to work). She's due in May, and apparently it's a girl. She tells me she's going crazy with the pink hues in the nursery, so I've started designing and knitting something with pink in it. I'm hoping to publish it somewhere, so no details or pictures of that yet, but I'm super pleased with how it's coming out so far.

And hey, as long as I'm thinking of co-workers and their babies, why not do more? One of the guys on my team had a baby girl a few months ago, so I'd like to make something for him. (I'm seriously considering the Tea Party Frock by Justine Turner.) And one of the contract guys on my team (assuming he's still on contract with our team, of course) is expecting his second child fairly soon, I think. I'm planning a visit to the office to show off DD3 next week - maybe I'll be able to finish all this off in time? So far, so not-so-bad...today I even started the "top down garter stitch yoke vest" by naganasu for the contract co-worker:

Don't know if I have enough of the red yarn to get through the yoke (I have another colour planned for the bottom of the vest), but I guess there's only one way to find out!

And finally, to cap off all the cuteness: