My daughter is here

Natalia Genevieve arrived on June 11th at 4:34am, weighing 7lb 2oz.



She is the world's mellowest baby (not to mention prettiest!), and I'm pleased to report that she's already gained a pound on top of her birth weight in the two weeks of being with us.

The other stash

That's right. NOT the yarn stash (which is slowly dwindling, as I haven't allowed myself to buy new yarn since *gulp* December!).

The diaper stash. This is what's been consuming most of my time and energy! I'm a horrible person, and the reason I wanted to use cloth diapers is that I wanted to try making them. (For that matter, that's also why we have cloth napkins, and had my husband not gone out and bought grocery bags, we'd have handmade ones of those, too.)

I've been at it for months, finding, washing, and ironing fabric, sifting through patterns, cutting, sewing...and last week, I finally finished!

Presenting, my diaper stash!



These are all pocket-style diapers, made of just two layers. The outside layer is flannel, and the inside is either suedecloth or old t-shirt. I used two different patterns, and made 24 Mama Bird's diapers (size Medium) and 12 RRPs (one-size).

They're stuffed with these, which are layers of terry or microfiber towels sewn inside a flannel casing.



Having pocket diapers is probably going to be a pain, but since the stuffers are sewn like that, I can easily lay them inside the diaper for faster changes, rather than stuffing them in the pockets. Also, this means that when Gnarly gets too big for these diapers, I only need to make the shells -- the stuffers are already done! Plus, we're using prefolds for the newborn period, and those make great stuffers, as well.

Of course, these need covers, so I sewed some (from the Chloe Toes pattern):



...and I knit some (Curly Purlies, Fern and Faerie, and a Warm Heart Woolies wrap):



I also made some cloth wipes (because I might as well use cloth wipes, plus I had scraps):



And a diaper stacker for the diapers to live in:



I recycled as much as I could, cutting up old t-shirts, flannel sheets and pajamas, and towels. I used flannel remnants from other sewing projects, too, and tried to use up the scraps for stuffers or wipes.

Watch her not fit any one of these. Just watch.

Pardon our dust

If you've scrolled through my blog recently, you probably found a whole bunch of broken picture links. This is because, in a fit of misdirected nesting, I moved all my photos around in Photobucket. One of these days, I'll get around to fixing them.

Anyway, apparently being pregnant does not agree with either knitting or blogging for me. I haven't knit as much as I normally do (you know, my frantic several-pieces-a-week pace), but, more unfortunately, I just haven't cared to blog about the stuff I have made, either. So here is a feeble attempt to rectify that, because, by golly, I HAVE been knitting some, and the world needs to know!

This is the first sweater I knit for my daughter. I know, it's totally not girly. I started it before knowing whether Gnarly would be a boy or girl. Plus, for handmade stuff, I'd rather stick to more gender-neutral things, since I'd really like to pass them down to my next kids.



Anyway, the pattern is from Continuous Cables, which I cover badly. Such beautiful motifs! Oh, I just swoon. The yarn is, of course, Paton's. I actually whittled that stash down pretty well with my baby knitting, as I'll show soon.

This was a nice and quick knit, since most of it is just reverse stockinette. I omitted the bobbled border, because, well, I didn't like it.

It'll be a while before this fits her -- I think it's a 12-month size. I figure it'll be fine her first winter, though, when worn over clothes.

By the way, I'm 33 weeks today. So hard to believe that in as little as 5 weeks (and hopefully not less!) I'll have a gorgeous little model for my knits!

And now back to your regular knitting content

Now that I finally feel well enough to knit, I can't stop!

I've made many things, actually, though some need some sewing to be complete, and will post those soon. But first, something I've been meaning to knit ever since I first saw it: Knitty's Sheldon!

I mean, he's just so cute. A turtle! With a big head and a removable shell! Squee! But I never got around to knitting him until now, for a friend's daughter's birthday. My friend loves turtles, so I thought this would be perfect.

And he did not disappoint:



I even followed the directions, and used the yarn called for: Knitpicks Shine Sport.



And here's the famous removable shell, removed!

It's a...

GIRL!!!

A perfectly healthy, beautiful, active little girl! We're thrilled, not least because I really wanted to make the Viking hat with braids!

So you're wondering who the winner is, I bet! To decide that, I made a list of all the comments in sequential order in Word. Then I removed everyone who guess boy (sorry!), which gave me a list of 36 sequential names. I then went to the random number generator and it picked #28, who, according to my list, was Cronnity Lady!

Congrats, Cronnity!

Those of you who picked boy -- don't feel bad. I was CONVINCED it was a boy, myself!

Guess and win!

Yes, yes, I've been AWOL. Hopefully this will make you judge me less harshly!

We've set the date for our ultrasound for February 5th, 2 weeks from today. At this ultrasound, we will hopefully see a healthy baby, and find out the sex.

So place your guesses here! Am I having a boy or a girl? Will I need to knit the viking hat with braids or without? (And believe me, I'll be knitting one of them!)

PLEASE GUESS BY FEBRUARY 4TH!

I will choose a random winner from amongst those who guessed correctly. Winner will be announced on the 6th (hopefully), and will receive a $20 Amazon.com gift card (new knitting books, anyone?).

In the case that the baby's shy, I'll just pick a random winner from amongst everyone who enters with a guess!

Important EDIT: Please, please, please leave me some sort of way of contacting you. A blog where I can comment, an email, a Ravelry ID, something. I won't spend valuable knitting time tracking you down, sorry!

Piece of cake!

I occasionally dabble at baking. Usually I make cookies, and, not to brag, but they come out quite tasty. I make quick breads, too, like banana bread, and every now and then I make candy, like toffee.

But I've only ever made a couple of cakes, and some of those times were from a mix, frosted with store bought frosting. Nothing wrong with that, but I'm a from-scratch kinda girl. I like things coming out of my kitchen to be not from cans. I think it tastes way better, and I'm way more proud of it, too.

So I volunteered to bake my husband's birthday cake this year. His favorite is black forest cake, so that's what I went with (recipe here, but I left out kirsch).

And I think it came out quite well!






So the rosettes are a bit uneven, so what?

And it was delicious. Sadly, the layers shifted around during transport (the party was at his grandparents' house), but I was able to fix it cosmetically. It did, however, squeeze out the cherry filling alot, so it was more just chocolate cake (not that that's a problem). Next time I won't use whipped cream between layers and just put the cherries.

Recipe notes, if you want to try it:

-The cake is very stiff and dense, like a brownie (tastes like a brownie, too). It does not rise. I ended up making two cakes to get 4 layers. Thankfully, the density of the cake makes it very easy to work with for layering.

-The cherry filling is awesome, and would work for pie or tarts or what have you, as well. It's nice and tangy!

-The chocolate whipped cream is divine. Lightly sweet, with more of a chocolate essence than full-out whammo chocolate flavor.

-Again, I left out kirsch. I added a bit of cherry extract to stuff, instead.