I just realized I forgot to show you this:

Those pictures were taken back in March when it was still light-sweater weather. Annabelle is much bigger now. How much bigger? This much bigger:

Nobody's more surprised than me, but I started and finished an entire knit object last week. The arrival of cold weather meant Annabelle was wearing the knit hats friends had knit for her quite a bit, and I was fielding a lot of "did you knit that?" questions. I just couldn't stand saying "nope!" all the time, so I went looking for a cute hat pattern. I settled on the Lilly Hat (Ravelry link) and used leftovers from my Very Necessary Sweater.

I made it a bit longer than the pattern calls for so it would cover her ears a bit. I actually think I went a bit overboard on the length, but I'm trying not to over-focus on the imperfections. The pleasure I get from answering the "did you knit that?" in the affirmative makes it much easier -- as does the extremely high cute quotient of the model!

I am, however, knitting a bit. And I finally, finally finished Annabelle's blanket. When I got back to knitting it, I reviewed the rest of the pattern. After finishing the squares, all I really had left was to knit and attach the border, and then embroider the circles. I stalled for a day or two, and then came to a realization: if I wanted to call this blanket done before the cool weather arrived, I was going to have to ignore the pattern. Instead of knitting the border separately and sewing it on, I knit it directly onto the blanket. And this blanket will not have any circles. It's done.

It's not perfect. The attachment of the border is a bit rough, and I'm sure it would look really cute with the circles sewn on. But time passes too fast and my days are already plenty full -- and I'd rather Annabelle had an imperfect blanket to love than no blanket at all.

The only other knitting I've done since then has been a scarf for me, the repair of a hole in a friend's favorite sweater, and several inches on a sock for Jason. There's so much more I want to do, but... did I mention my life is full? Here's two shots from this weekend alone!

I hope your lives are full, too!

I keep yelling the correction at the television every time she says it, but she doesn't seem to hear me.

I started a blanket for Annabelle (nee Cheezit; actually, still sometimes Cheezit!) before she was born, but it suffered the same fate as all my projects: complete neglect. It was the first thing I reached for when the itchy fingers set in.

The pattern is Circle and Stripes Stroller Blanket (Ravelry link!) from Susan B. Anderson's Itty-Bitty Nursery, and the center pieces are done and seamed. All that's left is the border and the crocheted circles. I used Dark Horse Fantasy, which is (*gasp*) acrylic. I have no way of knowing if I've passed my tragic wool sensitivity on to Annabelle, so I'm keeping it at a distance for now. And I wanted something super durable; I want this blanket to get lots of lovin', so anything with special care instructions was out. It's very soft, and while it doesn't have the elasticity of wool it feels pretty good next to the skin.

And speaking of baby (kind of, anyway), here's a gratuitous baby shot.

How are all of you?!

Thanks for all of your great comments on my last entry... they definitely helped me enjoy those last few days before she was born!

Pregnancy can seem to pass very slowly -- at least it has for me. One of the things I did to help the time pass a tiny bit faster was mark off every day on a notepad on my desk at work. When I got into the office this morning, it was quite a triumphant feeling to mark off the last day of the 40th week of my pregnancy. That's right, today's Cheezit's due date! It's been surreal and exciting to see both of my due date buddies have their babies already!

One of the weird pregnancy symptons I've experienced has been a lack of desire to knit. Can you imagine? It's been so distressing. (Fortunately, others have stepped in and produced some beautiful handknits for Cheezit... more on that later.) It's also a large part of the reason that I've been so quiet here -- nothing to show!

The next time I post here, I'll probably have a newborn so I won't make any promises about the imminent return of knitting content. But it -- and I -- will be back. Wish us luck!

Rules:
Once tagged, you must link to the person who tagged you. Then post the rules before your list, and list 8 random things about yourself. At the end of the post, you must tag and link to 8 other people, visit their sites, and leave a comment letting them know they’ve been tagged.

1. I’m an only child.
2. Before starting to knit, I was a voracious reader. This started at a young age. (See #1.)
3. Now that I’m a knitter, I do most of my pleasure “reading” by Audiobook while knitting. It’s a bit slower than reading a physical book, but better than not reading at all!
4. Number 3 notwithstanding, the most recent book I read was a physical book: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. It was worth putting down the knitting.
5. Number 4 notwithstanding, my favorite genre of literature is military history. World War II is probably my favorite subject, but I also really enjoy reading about the more recent conflicts as well.
6. My guilty pleasure TV show is Las Vegas.
7. I was born “tongue-tied” and didn’t have it repaired until I was in the fourth grade. As a result, I didn’t learn to whistle until I was in high school… and though I love music and can generally carry a tune, I’m a piss poor whistler.
8. I do not like it when people arrange for birthday cake and singing at a restaurant. It’s fine when it’s for other people, but the very idea that it might happen to me, well, it kind of freaks me out. (I think this may be linked to a restaurant my family went to when I was a kid where the celebration included clowns and banging on a drum. Though it was not my birthday, the first time I saw it I must have made my parents swear 1,000 times that they weren’t going to come to our table!)

I don't usually do these kinds of things, but since my knitting content is so unspeakably lame these days I figured it couldn't hurt. I am going to break one of the "rules" above, and say that whoever would like to do this meme can consider themselves tagged by me!

Cheezit's a she! Let the knitting commence...

I added pearl beads to the pattern repeat and got to knitting back in March. And knitting, and knitting. As is my usual, I finished up at the last minute, in this case the day before the wedding. It ended up blocking in the hotel room during the rehearsal dinner... check out Jason helping pin it out!

Of course, it was 85 degrees on her wedding day... so a portable air conditioning unit would have been more useful to her than a wool/silk blend shawl. But Jillay is a good friend and a good sport, so she graciously posed for some pictures on her big day.

I have been knitting this shawl exclusively since August, and since Jillay has been known to check on this here weblog I haven't been blogging about it. But I've also been working on another super-secret, off-blog project that's been absorbing a lot of my attention.

This project -- known around here as Cheezit -- should be "done" around March 19, 2008, putting me in the very good company of fellow knit-bloggers Cara and Sarah. We'll find out if it's a Miss Cheezit or a Mr. Cheezit on October 25... feel free to put your guesses in the comments!

Right on schedule, my wonderful sock pal's package for me arrived full of goodies from the heartland.

My pal was Megan (Knitstasher11) from MIssouri, and she sent me the coolest package! First, my socks. They are made from Rowan 4 Ply Cotton, and the pattern is Laura's Fluted Banister Socks. They fit perfectly, and have just the right amount of stretch.The socks came with an adorable scrapbook of where they've been so far -- everywhere from my pal's son's soccer practice, to Arkansas for a business trip, to Texas for the birth of my pal's first grandchild! She also sent two more balls of Rowan 4 ply Cotton, a cute keychain sock-blocker (for mini socks), and some honey-toasted peanuts (mmmm, peanuts). I was spoiled!

So, you might ask, if I got my package on time... why wait so long to post about it? Because my package to my pal was not nearly so punctual! I did finally get it out last week, though, and now that I know that she's got it, I can spill the beans!

I knit socks for fellow DC-area knit-blogger Yarn Geek! She requested socks to keep her feet warm, and I hope she likes them! I included a treat for her little girl and, to feed her Harry Potter love, a book written by a certain knit-blogger all Sockapaloozers know and love. (Why no pictures of the rest of the package? Because I am lame.)

So, another Sockapalooza successfully concluded -- thank you for organizing, Alison!