Ethan's Sweater

I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday. I've been a bit absent in blog land as of late. Horrifically busy, you know. It's almost been worse since school ended with a week of intensive rehearsals and traveling leading up to Midwest, which went very well, thanks. It's always nice to see a room full of band directors leap to their feet in applause. And this past week has been a sea of doctor's appointments and family obligations, plus practicing (festival audition tapes must go out SOON) and studying for an entrance exam (yes, I'm already entered. No, it's not my fault I have to take this exam. And, no, I've not really been studying, but I need to.)

Anyway, remember in my last post when I mentioned a surprise baby? Now, you might say to yourself, "Meg, how can a baby be a surprise? There's generally an incubation period for these types of things." To which I would reply, "Yes, of course there is. But a baby can be a surprise if, for instance, it's adopted." Which this little bundle of baby goodness happens to be. I knew that some friends of the family were waiting to adopt a baby. They were this close to adopting one in May, and I promised to knit them something, but I wanted to wait until I knew whether it was a boy or a girl, and while I was deciding on what to knit, the adoption fell through. I couldn't help feeling at the time that my indecision on what to knit had something to do with an unconscious niggling feeling that this was not going to happen. Fast forward to early December. My mom called and said that she had gotten a card with a picture of our friend holding a tiny baby boy, which was a surprise to all of us. They didn't want to announce anything until they knew that he would be theirs because of the heartbreaking situation earlier. Well, the second I knew, I jumped online, ordered some yarn, and cast on. The result: one perfect sweater for a perfect baby boy.

Trellis by Britta Stolfus Rueschhoff

Yarn: 1.5 balls Plymouth Encore in #1232

Needles: US 6 circs

Size: 6 months

Mods: Accidentally on purpose knit one extra buttonhole only to decide when sewing on the buttons that maybe the designer really did know what she was doing when instructing 5, so there's an extra buttonhole, which hopefully the parents will never notice.

It's been gloomy around here lately with a storm expected tonight, so the pics are a bit dark.

I wanted green for Ethan because I like green and his parents are green-type people, but I didn't want a "baby" green. I wanted a grown-up person green, so I decided on this sage-y, medium green. I didn't even know when I picked it that he has a beautiful head of dark hair which will look smashing with this green. I knit most of this on the bus to and from Chicago. I've never knit a baby sweater before, and I've decided that I really need to get to know more babies. Not only are the cute and fun and smell good (unless they've loaded a diaper) but their sweaters are so quick to knit! I really couldn't be happier with this. Now all Ethan needs is a bubble pipe and an armchair and he's ready for the Ive Leagues!