a couple of finished things

I did manage to complete a couple of knitted things over the last weekend, despite the attack of the late pregnancy angst (triggered in part by the brief visit of rain and clouds that was snatched away by cloudless skies and lots of sunshine. Irritating hot sunshine). The angst has mostly abated for the moment, but of course, it could re-occur at any time. Knitting helps. I should have tried more knitting on Tuesday, when I found out that yes, I am positive for Group B Strep, so I get to have an IV full of penicillin while I'm in labour (which is, of course, preferable to my child catching GBS from me and having to stay in the hospital for an extra week--it just means that I don't get to put "no IV" on my birth plan). That was an angsty day. I'm also 38 weeks along, frequently experiencing false labour, and exhausted all the time. And the baby's running out of room.

Anyway, I finished this hat for one of my friends. She crochets and doesn't knit, but fell in love with the pattern, so I told her if she bought the yarn and the pattern, I'd knit it for her. The pattern is Rosewater, by tincanknits, from their latest collection, Handmade in the UK. You can get the individual pattern or the e-book from Ravelry, or you can also order the print book. 88 Stitches, my LYS, has the book and individual patterns for sale, so Jules just bought the paper pattern. One-half of the Tin Can Knits team is local (I believe they used to both be local before one of them moved to the UK), so I've met them at fibre shows. The baby cardigan I knit a while ago is one of their creations, and while I don't usually knit blankets, I'm planning on knitting their POP blanket at some point, because it's awesome.

Rosewater Hat, blocking over a plate

Rosewater has one of those lace patterns which requires moving the start-of-round marker back and forth occasionally, so it's not a mindless pattern. But it's not a difficult knit, either. Since I have the pattern, and it's one of my favourite hat styles, I'll probably knit one for myself at some point. This one was knit in a heavier weight than the pattern recommended, so I knit a smaller size to compensate. Next time I make it, I'll use something more like the recommended yarn.

Rosewater Hat, post-blocking

I also knit a diaper cover. This is the pattern Tiny Pants, which is free. It's a pretty fast knit. I used some BFL handspun that I finished a while ago and hadn't made up my mind as to what it was going to be. BFL is usually really soft, so it seemed like a good choice for the baby. The striping looks a little off on the second leg and it blocked out a bit weirdly, but I really doubt that Munchkin is going to care. I lanolinized these when I finished them, since they'll be exposed to dampness once in a while. I'd never lanolinized anything before, so I looked up a few sets of instructions on the internet and went from there. That wasn't a thing on my crafting to-do list, although in retrospect, maybe it's something I should have added. I've heard it can be really nice to have a pair of lanolinized socks to wear at night to moisturize your feet, so maybe I'll do that with a plain pair of socks sometime. In this case, I did it because lanolin helps waterproof wool (which I'm guessing prevents wool from felting onto the sheep in wet weather). The material now feels a little greasy, but I think that's normal. These will probably be too warm to wear at first, but sometime in September, we should be able to dig them out and use them.

Tiny Pants, after the addition of lanolin