Swallowtail

I've been knitting JuJu, a pair of baby pants to go with the Debbie Bliss cable and moss stitch baby sweater I knit for my coworker whose baby is due in September.

When I chose the sweater I substituted the yarn, using Cascade 220. I didn't pay much attention to gauge because I was knitting the largest size for a baby. Babies grow so quickly - I knew he would grow into and out of it at some point in his young life so it didn't matter exactly how big the sweater was.

It's a different matter for the pants. Same scenario, of course, for the baby growing into and out of it, but I did want the two to fit him at the same time. So, once I had knit the sweater and gotten most of the waist of the pants done, I had a likely child at church try them on. The sweater was too small for him - but the pants were going to be WAY TOO BIG. Sigh. To the frog pond they went.

I started again at a much smaller size. I got past the waist and down one leg. I thought I'd better try it on another child. On this child the sweater was too big but the pants were almost too tight! Dang! Luckily baby clothes knit up quickly. This child's mother tried to convince me that knitting has a lot of stretch to it, that I could keep going with this size, but I couldn't. I frogged and started again in a mid size.

There's no way I'm frogging them this time. But, I did find another child. He would try on the sweater but balked at the pants so I held them up against him to see how long to make the legs. A couple more inches until the edging and then cast off and start the second leg.

Then I just have to sew a zipper into the sweater and get some elastic for the pants waistband and I'm done. But, you know, I've always wanted to make a Zimmerman Baby Surprise Jacket. Maybe this baby will get another sweater as well, unless someone else comes up pregnant.

But, in the meantime... I've been to Victoria, and with my knitting friend Heidi, too. She's another fibreholic like me. Our families traveled together to a wedding and we just happened to plan a couple of visits to yarn stores:

Beehive in Victoria...oh, my, gawd! It was almost overwhelming. So much yarn. I went from one rack to another, squishing and stroking the yarn. By the time I had seen all of what was in there I had seen so many yarns that I wanted that, at the end, I couldn't pick anything out. I did buy some sock yarn and a pattern book (for a baby pattern, I guess for some future baby).

Then we went to Button and Needlework Boutique (I cleverly requested a trip to Trounce Alley without letting on that I knew there was a yarn store there). Now this store had much less in the way of knitting supplies. It was mostly crewel, cross-stitch, etc. But here I wasn't overwhelmed. I found some lovely Indigo Moon laceweight silk in a lavender colourway. $40 for the skein. But it has approx 800 - 905 metres, enough for a lace shawl.

I should be getting back to the Susie Hoodie, really I should. But the lace is calling to me. I visited Beadworks in Port Moody today...I found beads that will go nicely with it. I'm going to finish the baby pants and start something else. It really should be the Susie Hoodie, really it should. But we'll see. we'll see.