Baby Crazy Knitting!

While working on Road Trip, Emily and I were both pregnant…and the nearer to the release date the more pregnant we got!

Max and Bodhi are about 5 weeks apart with birthdays in June and July. Picture it now: 2 tired and sick pregnant ladies writing a book with an 8 hour time difference…it was epic.  The best part though? Baby knits!!!

Shortly after Bodhi was born I became completely obsessed with the idea of matching sweaters. I’ve always been a fan but it was suddenly a very pressing need. Jonesies’ Caribou sweater was hot off the needles, so while we were on a photoshoot in the Rockies I cast on for the Bodhi size. It was only a couple of skeins of Brooklyn Tweed Shelter, no time at all really… the same amount of knitting as a hat right? When that was blocking my fingers got itchy. I’d already knit 2, what was one more? Thus this picture was created!

Alexa does excessive amounts of baby knitting :::

Next I had the brilliant late night idea (you might know how that goes) to start a Road Trip wardrobe for Bodhi. She suddenly seemed (in the August heat) like she might need a hat..maybe Stovetop… and what about a Prairie Fire sweater? It’s only a few hundred yards, just a couple of evenings and I would be done!

Instead of getting it out of my system it only made things worse! Well, I had to make another Clayoquot Cardigan to create our Steeking tutorial (no, a swatch certainly wouldn’t suffice), and Apple Pie needed a tutorial too…

It seems there may be more matching knits in their future too, since I mainly choose earthy colours I really only need to knit the Hunter sized version, the other two will happily wear the hand-me-downs. I have visions of Antler and Gramps, maybe Campfire or Flax…the matching possibilities are endless!

Emily’s new knitwear model :::

With Alexa as an inspiration, it was only a matter of time before I started my own stack of baby knits!  When Max was only a twinkle in his father’s eye (what a quaint expression!), I began whipping up little hats, cardigans and blankets.  I felt it was important to prepare for the day when I would have a tiny knitwear model of my own to dress up!  Here are a few of the highlights of his first 3 months (in knits!):

3 Days old… I was surprised that none of Max’s baby-size hats fit him when he was a newborn… who knew they had such tiny heads?!  This is a tiny Stovetop.

So with tiny newborn heads in mind, I knit a teeny tiny Clayoquot Toque (check out the free pattern!), but then I mislaid it for a few weeks… and now it’s too small! Lesson #2… babies heads grow very quickly!

4 weeks old… I designed the Vivid blanket with babies on my mind… and dyed up this blanket kit to make the perfect rainbow blanket!   A contented Max is wearing a tiny version of our free pullover pattern Flax, knit in sock-weight yarn.

3 Months … I think our Flax pullover is a perfect baby knit… it’s fast, unisex and you can jazz it up with stripes, as I have here (it’s knit in Rainbow Heirloom Sweater in ‘young temptress’ and ‘black cherry’)

This lime green prototype version of the Prairie Fire pullover is knit in Rainbow Heirloom Sweater in ‘almost spring’.  The short sleeves make it a perfect layering piece!

Lastly, this isn’t a new knit – it is one of the original baby Antler cardigan samples (knit by Alexa)… but I couldn’t resist sharing Max’s super satisfied grin…

There are certainly more adorable baby knits on the horizon… stay tuned and keep your needles ready!

Some more adorable baby knits…