Catching Up

My knitting hiatus has gone on long enough.

Dear readers I have been knitting and crocheting (albeit not as often as I wish I could) so let me update you.

I finally finished the mint green baby blanket. Who knew that when I started it over two years ago it would actually go to my own baby boy??

Baby Pi, 3 months old!

Speaking of baby boy, I've done some more knitting for him:

I finished this hat exactly two weeks before he was born. A rolled-brim knot-top cap in Yankees colors, improvised from this Baby Berry Hat pattern. It was huge on him when he was newborn:

Baby Pi, four weeks old!

But just last Sunday it was cold enough for a knit cap, and it fit just right:

Baby Pi, 20 weeks old!

That look says, "Mom, it's bad enough you took me out to Target at 8:30pm on a Sunday night. Do you have to take pictures, too?" Cheeky little devil.

The morning of the day I went into labor, I cast on for a Summer Knit-Along:

Unfortunately, those stitches stayed exactly where they were and, much to my chagrin, didn't decide to knit themselves into the WendyKnits Summer Mystery Shawl 2013 KAL.

So the shawl pattern proved too complicated for my post-baby brain to handle. However, I found a nice simple baby sweater to work up for Baby Pi:

It's Baby Sophisticate by Linden Down. Seamless top-down knits are my new favorites. Seamless top-down baby knits in particular, because they work up so quickly.

Maternity leave didn't go as "planned." I had such aspirations for 16 weeks home from work. I was going to read all of these:

A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin

I was going to write more. I was going to knit every day and finish project after project. 

I didn't understand what it would mean to me to have a baby. Days bled into one another. At the beginning, life happened in increments of two hours. Baby napped, I napped. When he was awake, he was eating or I was reading to him, singing to him, playing with him. And repeat.

Knowing I had only 16 weeks, everything else sort of melted away into the background. I wanted to soak up every moment I could, watching and cuddling my newborn. This little poem excerpt said it about right:

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
For children grow up, as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.

from "Song for a Fifth Child" by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

After those first few weeks, when he napped, I had to clean the bottles, do dishes, make food and eat, run errands. Some days, success meant just getting myself showered and dressed. Other days, I got us both ready and out the door to visit friends and family. "Extra time" meant I could catch up on laundry or cleaning.

Well, I didn't exactly do nothing from my list, just considerably less than I thought I would. In four months, I got about halfway through A Game of Thrones. I also started another baby blanket:

It's just a simple basketweave pattern I improvised.

There it is, we're up to date! What have you been up to?

Mrs. Pi