I may have done the Race for Life this weekend, but I have also recently been chasing a Race for Birth. Knitting for newborns is always tricky on the timings. Ok, so you usually have at least 6 months’ notice, but the final deadline is vague at best. Delicate questions about the likely due date can seem a little weird (especially as you seem as nervous as the father when you hear about unexpected hospital checks).

I have a good range of books I use for any clothes, booties or hats. Wacky Baby Knits: 20 Knitted Designs for the Fashion-Conscious Toddler is a good one for the more fun silly hats/boots.

Cute Knits for Baby Feet: 30 Simple Projects from Newborn to 4 Years (The Craft Library) is a good one (unsurprisingly) for booties.

Baby Knits For Beginners and Simple Knits for Cherished Babies are a great, simple, but beautiful range of the basic baby essentials.

Knitting for co-workers’ new sprogs is always a bit political (I take the view that the more I like you, the more time I will spend on you – shop bought takes no making time afterall), and it is always a minefield of choices.

Booties or hats? Blanket or teddy? Do you gender it (pink or blue)? Do you go for pastels or bold colours? Do you risk a theme (Addams Family stripes? Animals?) or go plain? Do you knock out a solid safe pattern or try to make something unique? Decisions, decisions.

At this stage there are two schools of thought: Ask the soon-to-be parents and go in, questionnaire style. Or make what you want, figuring that most things can be used.

It might surprise you, especially after my Christmas knit advice, that I tend to wing it on birthing presents. Experience has taught me that soon-to-be parents don’t really know what they want. They will try to please you by guessing what you want them to ask for. Very sweet of them, but not very helpful!

Time (and loveliness) allowing, I am a fan of the cot blanket. Clothes are very dependent on size (and you have no idea if the sprog is going to be tiny or huge). Newborns grow so fast you can practically see it happening, making clothes a short-lived present.

Blankets are reasonably future-proof and can start as a cot blanket and end as a playmat. I tend to make things that are modular so if time escapes me I can always quit early and still have something ready to handed in.

So here is my latest effort (shhhh if you know them).

I have managed to beat the birth (so no frantic sewing up – yay!). I have chosen an 80s colour-scheme, as the parents are not really the pastel and bunnies type of people. On a side note, it was a bit of a win for me as the squares are mostly made up from those odd 15g balls of freebie magazine yarn, which both allowed me to stash dive for this project and allowed me to use a wide colour pallet (I didn’t know the gender when I started).

Keen eyes might spot that it is basically the drop shadow blanket, but only using black as the edge colour.

So there is now nothing to do but wrap it, write up a care label and wait to hear the happy news!

LouBug

I have so many new things to show you its hard to know where to start.  I think I’ll begin with a new baby blanket design I’ve been working on.

Houndstooth-effect baby blanket

Houndstooth close up

This blanket has been worked entirely in treble crochet with a long treble to give a houndstooth effect.  The pink and purple version is completed and available in my Etsy store and I am working on a green-brown-cream version at the moment.  I am also working on a tutorial for this stitch and will be posting that for you in the next few days.

Wishing you all a lovely day xxx

Tracey

Crochet squares made by the baby’s Great Great Granny

2    From L&T’s window can be seen a great variety of bird life including a Cock Pheasant and his four lady friends, two pairs of Woodpeckers, multitudes of Tits, Nuthatches, Siskins, Robins, Jays, Blackbirds, Dunnocks, Chaffinches and Sparrows.

Cock pheasant and two of his wives

Woodpecker

3    Driving home into the sunset, the sun’s rays were quite dramatic in the obnubilating sky. New word? It was to me too. See this post.

Sun’s rays

quilted squares

quilted patches

quilted patches and edging

I have had a really lovely week making this week. It has been unusual for me to be able find the time and I have thoroughly enjoyed it,,

When I sat down on Monday afternoon to cut out some selected squares to make a patchwork baby or cot blanket I really didn’t expect that I would be able to finish it by Tuesday night.  But I did.

squares sewn together

I have a couple of hand sewn pentagonal patchwork quilts part made. One is in red & white and the other is mixed and they will become a large bed throw eventually but I have wanted to make some patchwork cushions and children’s blankets for ages and my chance came up during this quiet week.

all the squares sewn together ready

It has been very satisfying seeing it take shape so swiftly, I’m mostly used to having to grab an hour here or a moment there. Choosing the patterns and laying them out so that the squares all work together is a lovely therapeutic process and it is very easy to understand how addictive patchwork becomes.

quilted edging

Each piece of fabric has a story, which came to mind with each square that found a place on the blanket. It might have been repurposed from something else, it might have been an off cut, or a car boot find, it might have been a bargain that my mum got or a piece that I have bought just because I like it. Some of them even have a second story having also been made into something by tinyinc, be it a blanket, cushion, letters on an apron or bunting. I love finally finding uses for these fabrics but I also love my fabric stash.

the finished blanket

I will do other cot blankets in different colours but it seems that my stash is dominated by pink at the moment so I concentrated on those so it appears that it my be for a little girl.

Made with two different shades of blue and a simple white double knit wool makes this blanket super cosy for baby! Lets hope he likes!

I love making these blankets so if you or anyone you know is expecting a little bundle of joy why not drop me a line and I would be happy to create something just for you!

Humbugbuttonbeetle@hotmail.co.uk

Until then, I am trying not to have too many sleepless nights worrying about things!

Since I have been off work, my bump is definitely growing – which is as i expected, due to a combination of not needing to hide it anymore and the fact that a growth spurt is normal at this stage.

Tony and I had a mini spending spree last Friday, when we went to our favourite shops of the moment, Mothercare and Babies R Us. We bought some I Love My Bear themed stuff, which was on 3 for 2 – a fleece cot blanket, a cot bumper and two flanelette sheets. We also bought a bottle steriliser kit (Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature, as they are to work alongside breastfeeding for when i express) and, most exciting of all, a Fisher Price rainforest bouncer chair (see picture)! It is one that Tony has had his eye on since we first ventured into Babies R Us many months ago and we have been having fun playing with it!!!

I do think that bubs may find it a bit scary and overwhelming at first (!!) but you can remove the archway over the top and introduce it gradually. You can choose to have it “baby activated” so that when she kicks the toys that hang down the lights come on and it plays a tune (may have the potential to drive mummy and daddy insane though… we didn’t quite think about that!!)

We have also been thinking about realistic plans for after she is born. In my ideal world i would love to give up work altogether and become a full time mum, have another one in a year or so etc etc. But realistically, we just can’t afford our ultimate. So, we had a long discussion about it yesterday and have the bones of a plan. At the moment it involves me going back to work at 6 months (yikes) and doing 3 days (ideally, 3.5 days worth of hours condensed into 3 days actual work). Those days would then be covered by Tony’s mum one day (as she has offered this) and by Tony another day, presuming his work are ok with him doing 4 days per week. The other day would be nursery. Tony isn’t that mad on this idea but personally I don’t think it will be a problem, as long as we choose the place carefully (and, of course, all the good ones get booked up). I really, really would hate the idea of putting her in nursery for 3/4 days a week or more, but I actually think that one day a week will be beneficial really, as it teaches babies to be social and interact with others from a young age. I vividly remember when I went to nursery (ok, i wasn’t 6 months old) and I absolutely LOVED it. Tony is more apprehensive because he never went to nursery himself, but he admits that when it came time to go to school he found it very hard to adjust as a result. Anyway, there is an extra day that needs to be catered for, and that seems like the best (or only) way to do it. To be honest, it wouldn’t even be a full day as Tony would be able to collect her after lunch when he finishes work anyway. Hopefully, work will be accomodating to my 3 day per week request… fingers crossed!

I don’t think until now either of us realised how expensive and difficult all this was going to be… not that for one second we would change it! I think we were both using the denial technique thinking that things would sort themselves out somehow! But I was reading the other day about how a lot of nurseries are booked up until next September, which made me realise that we have to make some decisions fairly soon. There is a Sure Start nursery near us which has just opened, which has an open day on September 14… so I think we will pop along there to see what that is like – how bad the waiting list is and how much it will dent our pockets!!