Another reason to knit

As if I needed one in this craft-dense time of year...but this is the best kind of reason. As mentioned in my previous post, we are expecting another little one come winter (which isn't quite around the corner yet, is it?). I am amazed at how the time has flown really, and how present this little presence is becoming in our lives - with my obviously growing bump, but also with his not-so-little kicks and nudges we are beginning to witness through the wall of my belly. Last night our littlest one had Will laughing out loud as the two of them played a game of 'poke me and I'll poke you' - you know, where you give one of his tiny limbs a nudge and he gives you a whopping kick right back. I can already sense there may be increased physical rowdiness in our more gender balanced home. Will breathed a slight and subtle sigh of elation when we found out the scales would be tipped a bit less steeply towards princess in our female dominated household.

As for me, I am back in full swing of my prenatal knitting frenzy. It happened when I was pregnant with Ava, but it is even more intense with a couple extra years of knitting experience under my belt. So among the knitting and crafting for the upcoming season and celebrations, some knits to keep this little boy warm when he decides to join us in the cold of Minnesota winter...

Before we knew whether this littlest one would be a boy or girl, Grammy and I found this super-soft yarn while exploring a new (to us) yarn shop in downtown Minneapolis. I fell in love with the color and the subtle sheen, which I think will add a bit of glam to the babe's early wardrobe. I wanted to make a pair of sheepy pants for our babe after using the pattern to knit gifts for some of my favorite little ones - I find knit cargo pants to be rather irresistible. I knit a quick, simple hat with the leftover yarn to keep his precious noggin warm. See my ravelry notes here.

The day or so after we learned the sex of our little boy, I impulsively turned to my stash basket and my other tried and true pattern - the milo vest. This is another simple, reliable pattern with so many possibilities for variation. I could probably make it a hundred times and not get tired of it - and I'm already counting. Here's Ava's milo from last spring. No doubt, gender color palettes these days are so much broader than simply pink or blue (or yellow and green for that unisex look) - and we try to keep Ava outfitted in a wardrobe that doesn't always immediately scream "girl!" (though I admit she is becoming rather picky about wearing only her purple sparkly shoes). At any rate, I felt particularly excited about making something that was clearly 'boyish', so I dug through my stash and found this trio of blue, brown and beige tweed yarns - don't quite remember what they are. My ravelry notes are here.

I am so loving this pint-sized instant gratification knitting! What's on your needles these days?