Baby leg warmers

To me, little babies look funny wearing little baby pants.  They always look like they are wearing old man pants pulled way up to their chest.  I like the look of a onesie with baby leg warmers instead so I found a free pattern through a Ravelry search.  I realize it seems strange for me to be decking my baby out in wool while living in Florida but, since we are in the panhandle, it does get chilly during the night in the winter and in early spring.  The one I used is called Woolies by Jenny Raymond.  I am about 80% finished with knitting my first one.  It is a very easy pattern to follow. It probably wouldn’t take someone else long to knit a pair of them, but I am a slow knitter and have way too many projects started at once and not enough knitting time to hand out on any given day.  I am using Lion Brand Baby Wool in English Garden.  

It knits up very nicely and is suppose to be a superwash, but since I haven’t washed mine yet I can’t comment as to how well it does yet.  I will post about it once I do.  Incidentally, I am geochick on Ravelry.  

A craft project and an over acheiver...

So, just to see if I could make one, and to see what it's like to use them, I found a couple free patterns online for a cloth diaper cover to sew in order to try out using cloth diapers on my 4 month old.  I took a bit of instruction from both to sew the diaper cover I made.  The base pattern came from here which shows how to sew a fitted diaper with absorbent layers built in.  This one is what I used to cut the fabric with, mostly because it used velcro and has little tabs to fold over the clingy edges before it goes through the washer so it doesn't snag on everything.  I didn't want to spend the money on a snap applicator tool if I wasn't going to be making very many of these hence the velcro.  One still needs a waterproof outerlayer over the diaper this pattern makes.  I did not sew in the absorbent layers as I intended to use old fashioned flat cloth diaper squares that need to be folded to fit the baby.  I also visited a craft blog here that shows how to sew the basic cover I was looking for with a waterproof inner layer and a soft outerlayer.  Her design uses snaps to give the covers an adjustible fit which I did not do.  Here is my end result.

It is a bit big through the legs for our baby right now but I put a cloth flat diaper on her with this cover over it to try it out.  She wet in it within five minutes while sitting on my husband.  The good news is it didn't leak and was super cute on her.  Not sure if I want to go through the time and energy to make more but the option is always there.  At least I know I can make them.

Our adult hens went through a very harsh molt last summer and their egg laying slowed significantly through the fall and winter months to the point we were getting about 4 eggs a month.  We normally get between four and six a day.  Well, within the last week they have started to lay again.  Alot.  Somehow, in two days, we got fourteen eggs from six chickens.  Someone is an over-acheiver.

Baby chicks in my house and a knitting project finished

It was down to 28 degrees overnight here so our week and a half old chicks were moved into my bathroom in a box for the night with a heat light pointed at them.  We got to listen to our kitten lurking around the closed door, poking her paws underneath it all night.

The chicks are just starting to get their wing and tail feathers in to replace their fluffy down and have doubled in size since we got them.

On another note, a while ago I ran across some free patterns from Tin Can Knits from their Simple Collection (which can be found here). They intend this collection to help those who want to learn a range beginner knitting techniques at the same time as have more to knit than just a scarf (although there is a scarf pattern in the collection).  Their patterns contain sizes from infant to adult.  I decided I wanted to make a cardigan for my new baby and decided to use a pattern that let me knit it seamlessly.  (I hate seaming my knitting as I'm not particularly good at it.)  Their cardigan pattern called Harvest was a perfect, unfussy and seamless pattern to use.  It didn’t take too much knitting time to complete and their instructions were easy to follow.  Plus, since I knit the 0-6 months size, it took less than a whole skein of Lion Brand Wool-Ease worsted weight yarn to make.  I used the rose heather colorway for this.

From past experience with knitting projects completed with this yarn, it machine washes and dries well with no shrinkage and gets softer with each wash.  It also fits my baby which is always a plus since I’m not always great with knitting things that are the size they are suppose to be when finished.  

I hope you are staying warm wherever you are.  Thanks for stopping by.

 

Snow day in Florida.

Hi.  This is my first post so I will preface the following by saying a bit about myself.  I live in north Florida and I'm a knitter.  I am a geologist too.  I have two kids (an eight year old boy and a twelve week old girl), a fantastic husband, and too many pets.  My posts will be random thoughts, stuff about knitting, a good book, something about babies (since I find myself in the situation of having one around again), being a working mom, or whatever.  I did say it would be random :)

So this week on Wednesday there was a snow day in the panhandle of Florida.  You read that right.  A snow day for the school kids in north Florida.  This happens almost never!  It was a bit laughable to me honestly.  I'm originally from Illinois and grew up having snow dumped on me for four or five months out of every year.  My yard didn't get any snow.  What actually fell from the sky was a bunch of sleet leaving tiny ice balls every where.  There were icicles hanging from my porch roof which my son thought were the most wonderful things ever since he's ever seen anything like it.  There were pictures on the news of kids making "snowmen" out of the sleet.  Being that this is Florida and the vast number of people here have never driven in snow or ice, a snow day was probably a good idea.  Days like our little snow day give me hope that all my knitting is not in vain!  There will be days I can wear what I knit and not look vastly over dressed for the weather. Tallahassee is both the hottest and coldest place in Florida :)