news, resurgence and meditations.

I hung up my blogging hat in May and it is now December … where has this year gone? The past couple of years have seen many changes in our small family, as well as turmoil, grief and sadness. However, we have also been blessed by love and happiness – as well as health and laughter.

As I sit here and contemplate these things, I am thankful for the meditative time during which I am knitting. It has been a constant and reliable time in my life these past months. I celebrated a dear friend’s life while knitting a cabled toque for his newly widowed wife this past month (which I will be sharing in a future post). It will be in the mail for her shortly to keep her warm through this cold Toronto winter. There have been many stitches dedicated to the wonders of new life – baby knitting! – these past months. As well, there has been a little bit of selfish knitting – completely and totally intended for me. And there have been toddler sweaters (also, shared in future posts) – fun and quick knitting with a fraction of the stitches of an adult sweater that have been particularly fun to photograph and then have him wear.

Where does that leave the blog? Well. As soon as I ‘hung up my blogging hat’ I knew that I would miss sharing here. I didn’t realize I would miss it as much as I did. The past couple of months I have been contemplating how to re-start the blog in a way that will work for our life as it is now. I have decided to put all expectations to the side and post when I can. No schedule. No pressure. I have much to share with you and I can’t wait to update you on them all.

Shall we start with the most exciting & happy news? That seems most appropriate, yes?

Yes, we are pregnant again and due in April 2014. We are very excited. No, we don’t know the gender – it will be a surprise again just as J was in July 2012. I have been doing a small amount of baby knitting, although not all of it is for Baby No. 2.

The first was another Aviatrix Hat by Justine Turner. This is for Baby No. 2 and was a pleasure to knit. I have knit about 4 of these but this was exactly the same as one I had knit back in the Spring for a friend. It turned out beautifully and I have included all of my modifications here.

Next, I knit a special little toque for my brother and his expecting (and lovely) wife. They are due in January 2014 and although this is not newborn size, I hope it will be wearable for their babe for a bit longer since it isn’t newborn sized!

This is the Baby Amanda Hat by Gina House. It is the most lovely pattern – I knit it up in Sweet Georgia’s Superwash Worsted in Wetcoast Winter (the Vancouver Olympic 2010 colours).  I knit the whole toque on 4.00mm needles, which created a nice tight knitted pattern. It is super stretchy so I hope this comes in handy for a growing baby head!

Onto the not-so-baby-but-still-kiddo knitting: A friend at work has a lovely little girl, aged 2. She asked me to knit her a toque. We chose Malabrigo Mecha and she gave me free rein with choosing a pattern saying I was the expert and she trusted me! Whew – pressure! No, just kidding. I chose the new pattern, Cranberry Sauce by Brittany Tyler. Choosing an adult pattern required some resizing and crown decrease tweaking – all of which can be found here – but the finished results were perfect for Lily.

J of course needed some toques for winter – particularly with our unseasonably cold November and December we’ve been having here in southern BC. First, I knit him up Little Scallops by Maria Carlander. What a great little pattern! I used scrapes in my stash and loved the results. He’s grown a little since you last saw him:

He also *needed* a new Christmas toque so I knit him Barley by tincanknits, which I was really happy with when it was finished. Again, my modifications can be found here.

Sorry for my closed eyes but you can see he’s a total goof – as he grows, we are seeing quite the little personality: Jovial and lots of fun. And a little mischievous!

I hope this finds you and yours gearing up for the Christmas season and enjoying your knitting.