Many Puerperiums

Knitting recently has been dominated by the Beyond Puerperium pattern by Kelly Brooker, mainly because it's a great pattern (clearly written, for a range of sizes and different yarn weights) and I know loads of people with babies on the way! I'd already knitted three in previous years, plus another one in January, but another four have been added since then.

This one I got on with early as it was for a friend in the US who was due in March, so I needed time to post it too. In the end the baby wasn't born until 1st April! This one used Rico Classic Baby DK, which is nice and soft and machine washable, and

I found some cute duck buttons at Tatters.

I usually knit baby stuff for friends in the order of the babies' due dates... except then a friend's husband got in touch to say he was organising a surprise baby shower and would I like to come? I'd never been invited to a baby shower before, and I usually just knit for when the baby's due. The invite came 2.5 weeks before the event. I couldn't make it to the baby shower, but thought I'd try and get the gift done for the day anyway. Oh, and did I mention that she's expecting twins?!

I thought aran might be a better bet for a speedy knit, and went with a similar-but-different appearance, using a different yarn for the borders. The buttons again were from Tatters, ladybirds on one and pencils on the other. The yarn is Sirdar Supersoft Aran, which I know wears well as I've already used it for some garments for the nephews.

Amusingly her husband offered to come over to pick them up one evening, but they were only just finished that day and in the washing machine at that point so I had to decline. Did manage to get them there in time though, and apparently a good time was had by all. I tried looking for a baby shower card in several card shops, but such a thing doesn't seem to exist (I was rather relieved to discover).

But once the baby shower was past, that meant we were then only four days away from another friend's due date. PANIC STATIONS. No time to go yarn shopping, so this one ended up being Red Heart Super Saver yarn from my stash. I like the way the colours have turned out. It's thicker yarn than the Sirdar Supersoft Aran, and I used bigger needles, so it's more like a 6-9 month size, than a 3-6 month.

Of course, that baby then ended up being a week late, so all got done in time. The reason for the tiny picture is that I took a photo on my Iphone and uploaded it straight to Ravelry, then promptly deleted the picture, so I had to get a copy of it off Ravelry. No close up of the buttons, but they are cute little green ones with a picture of a dancing girl on them (I knew this baby was going to be a girl).

Phew, now all of those are done, I've got a couple of small things to knit, and can plan my next big project!