This week’s work-in-progress is a baby!! I have recently learned, I am an aunt-to-be!
Not being one for suspense, my sister has dispensed with the waiting. She’s announced, already, it’s a boy! His name is Marcus. We can expect him in July!
Naturally, the first thing I did was cast on a little pair of socks.
Wee little baby socks are so fun to knit and I had just the right yarn. Cascade Fixation, 98.3% cotton, 1.7% spandex. The most amazing yarn blend ever. The amount of stretch that can be introduced into cotton with less than 2% spandex is phenomenal! Perfect for baby stuff. And cotton…exactly what a summer baby needs!
These little socks are the definition of instant gratification knitting! Done in under 24 hours. The pattern came from the wayback machine, you can find it here! Super easy, top down with a heel flap.
Now, with baby’s first knitwear out of the way, I can start planning all the fun stuff. Goes without saying, I’ll definitely be buying yarn again this year! (I’ll take any excuse I can get.)
I’ve got so many thoughts.
I’m actually anti-baby blanket. It’s a lot of boring repetitive work. You get so much more bang for your knitting buck with a sweater. But, I only have one sister and she’s only having one baby (they checked…it’s not twins!), so I’ll definitely be making a blanket exception here. One with a pocket for a stuffie friend, I think.
Then, I’ll have to knit the stuffie friend. And, of course, a sweater with another pocket for the stuffie friend. and the stuffie friend might need a friend. You see where this is going, yes? It’s just going to keep snowballing.
And that’s before we even get to the whole Auntie Em thing. Flying monkeys definitely need to happen. I’m thinking about combining the ‘quiet book’ idea with a knit block in the Wizard of Oz theme. I want to knit a house, with ruby slippers sticking out from under it. Each side of the house, will have a little activity, like a quiet book. The front door might open with a zipper. Maybe the side of the house will have windows that attach with buttons. Snaps are another idea. More pockets to stuff things in. Maybe an abacus sort of thing with beads that slide around.
Baby’s first ugly christmas sweater? A baby gramps sweater…complete with elbow patches. So many fun hats…animal hats and dinosaur hats. Photo prop diaper covers. Loveys with stuffie heads. Yes, I want to knit all the baby things. All of them! ALL OF THEM!!!
FogKnits 
You are having so much fun! Happy for all of you.
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Congratulations to everyone! The socks are adorable. You’re going to have so much fun bundling Marcus in hand knits!
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Congratulations, Auntie!!! I remember knitting and sewing all the things for my oldest niece, my god daughter. Next up came twins. Still lots of knitting, no sewing. Before too long I had 5 nieces and a nephew and the last two didn’t get much in the way of anything. So pace yourself because you just never know. And remember that blankets fit for years, and sweaters fit for weeks. 😢
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You make a very good point about blankets fitting forever. I’d never thought of it that way! I think Marcus may end up being an only child though. At most, he’ll get one sibling. There’s no way my sister will have five kids. LOL! It’s hysterical to think about though.
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to be fair, that was two brothers who provided me with the onslaught of nieces and a nephew. And my sister judiciously waited until those kids were mostly grown to acquire her daughter, so that last little one got lots of knitted things. :-)
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Have fun with it all :)
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I’ll definitely be following along for your knitting recommendations (as usual). All I’ve ever known is knitting for girls… And while I tried to be gender neutral in the beginning with greens, grays and browns, they have decidedly gone team purple and pink. I’m at a loss as to where to begin for a boy project-wise… but those socks sure do look perfect! Great idea on the cotton spandex blend.
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There’s so many ways to go with boy stuff. I’d likely be doing much of the same stuff boy or girl. I want to do a lot of Rebecca Danger stuff. Her designs really appeal to me because they’re pretty gender neutral and also customizable.
My sister definitely helped my cause with dinosaurs. They’re gender neutral. I’m not worried about running out of good ‘boy’ things at all!
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Congratulations, Auntie Em! Boys are also fun to knit for :) I love the Grandpa Cardigan pattern on Ravelry…but there are so many cool ones. I will tell you that my nephews adore their blankets. They make forts with them and carry them around for comfort…just like Linus :) I made sure to make them much larger than baby size, more like adult lap blanket size, to make sure they can continue using them. They also adore the Rebecca Danger monsters collection. I need to get going on making more of them for them :D
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Rebecca Danger toys are definitely part of my plan! I love her making her toys and they’ve been a hit with all the kids I’ve made them for in the past! She’s got some cute dinosaurs so I’m contemplating subbing some dinos into her ‘monster nursery’ patterns!
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I made one of those baby Gramps sweaters with the patches, for my grandson. It was very cute but he grew out of it so fast, like before I even got it to him because they live in France. With babies you gotta knit fast.
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Yeah, I always go up in size just to make sure it fits for a bit longer. I’ve gotten lucky as many of my baby sweaters have been passed on to 2nd and even 3rd babies. That definitely extends their wear as well.
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I can’t wait to watch progress on all of these projects 😂
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Well congratulations! I’m already in love with the teeny tiny socks, I can’t wait to see what other tiny baby things you make. The activity house sounds really interesting, is there a pattern for that or would you just make it up?
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There are patterns for different types of activity ‘books’ and there may even be some activity blocks out there. I may start with something like that but inevitably, I’ll end up just winging it.
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