For Baby

I am/have been working on a few knitting projects for MaryRose before she is born. I decided to go with purple instead of pink yarn since Ella is so into pink. I felt there should be some other colors in our household! Also I didn't know how to knit when Ella was born, and she has requested I make her a “better late than never” baby blanket after I am done with MaryRose's and that it be made with pink and green squares. It is sort of funny though, since I plan on calling MaryRose Rosie for short, pinks would have been more appropriate for her. Oh well, who knows what she will like anyway, maybe I will be knitting her orange or brown things in a couple of years.

Here is a little hat I finished and an almost finished baby blanket.

The baby blanket story is a little silly. I started knitting a baby blanket with these size squares over a year ago when one of Andrew's nephews was born. I was using three different blues at the time, but the project sort of stalled out at some point. When I found out I was pregnant I decided to finish it for my baby, and I was determined it wouldn't matter to me if I had an all blue blanket and it turned out I was having a girl. I am much too modern and open minded for that. Uh huh.

Well of course she did end up being a girl, and I found out right after I finished up all the squares. But then I thought maybe those two dark blue patches would look better as a purple, just to lighten it up a little. After all I had months left before she was due anyway! And it did look better, but still... it might look even better if I switched out the four medium blue patches for some white. Then it would be such a light looking blanket, perfect for a new baby. And besides, I still had six light blue squares left, which was half the blanket. So then I put it all down next to each other. But that light blue just did not match the purple. Hmmm, maybe another shade of purple instead? So now here I am, three weeks before my due date, frantically trying to finish this purple and white blanket. Hopefully I will find another little baby to give my blue blanket to!

By the way I got both the pattern for the hat(Garter Stitch) and blankets(Patchwork) from Knitting For Baby by Melanie Falick and Kristen Nicholas. It is such a great book to learn to knit by, I couldn't recommend it more. Elanor's blanket is going to be the Harlequin that starts on the same page as the Patchwork.  

Autumn Frolics

A few weeks ago Ella and I went to the Helmer Nature Center's Harvest Festival. It is a tiny nature center tucked into a residential neighborhood. Apparently my father worked there years ago when they were just opening. It was a bit rainy but we had lots of fun!

Ella got her face painted

And she painted a little pumpkin

They had a cider press so Ella got to make her own apple cider!

All that hard work paid off, she had two cups of fresh cider

Ella made a pencil case with paint and stamps

Before we left we stopped to dance to some live folk music

We also had some fun inside the nature center itself. There was a room filled with animals to meet including a squirrel, bunny, crow, tortoise, tarantula, and a big ball python that sat on Ella's lap! We had a really great time, and since it is an annual event I hope I remember to go back again next autumn.

Big Belly

I have not posted in a LONG time, and I have a big belly now to show for it.

Here it is!

My assistant loves to play around in the background when I am taking pictures

We are 98% certain that this belly is growing a little girl baby. We're pretty sure it is not growing a watermelon, although Andrew has his doubts. When I had my ultrasound at 20 weeks she had her legs crossed, but the tech got a cross section of her pelvis and declared her a female. I was not completely convinced, but it would certainly be easier since there is no hope of a consensus on the baby boy names. If she is indeed a girl her name is MaryRose Jennifer Semel-DeFeo. By the way she is not part of the Spanish aristocracy. She may indeed end up resenting us, but I figure that at least it is symmetrical with the double first and last names! And besides, she is such a character all ready she deserves it. This is what she did when the tech asked her to change position during my ultrasound:

That is her knee up by her forehead....

She never did give the poor women the angles she was looking for, but here is a cute one of her brain:

It reminds me of clockwork cogs

When I laughed at her antics the tech told me to laugh away now, I'm the one who is going to be parenting her for the next twenty plus years. Good point....