Nesting Phase 3 - Knitting

My mom was a big knitter when I was growing up, but to be completely truthful I was never into homemade knitwear. She knit me these great sweaters and outfits, but I'm not sure if I didn't like them because they were too scratchy or because none of my friends wore homemade clothes and I didn't want to stand out.

At the grade school I went to we had to wear a uniform, with a traditional school cardigan - you know the one, a solid color body with two stripes in a contrasting color at the elbow of the left sleeve. Instead of buying me one from the school campus store, my mom decided to knit mine. But she took certain, um, liberties, with the design. So instead of having the stripes on my left elbow they were on my right. And instead of having buttons mind had a zipper. Anyways, one day a teacher noticed this and told me I couldn't wear that cardigan anymore (I guess the purpose of having a uniform is that everyone is wearing the same thing, so my sweater somewhat deviated from that). I was so embarrassed - I went home in tears. The next day, armed with a permission slip from my mom, I went straight to the campus store first thing in the morning and bought myself a brand-new school-issued cardigan. Relief!
Anyways, I'm not sure if it's my decreased mobility or the pregnancy hormones, but I was recently struck by the desire to start a knitting project of my own. So I took on this beginner project of a baby blanket (I did the garter stitch version). Only a few days into it I was having such a good time knitting that I ordered more yarn to make another (to try the seed stitch version)! I have also heard that it's good to have an "early labor project" to help distract from the contractions, so I am hoping that knitting could be that for me. We'll see...

Unlike the sewing projects I have been working on I really like the portability of knitting. You don't need to set up a machine, iron & ironing board, pins, thread, bobbins, etc. so I can just veg on the couch and knit while watching TV. And because you just have yarn and knitting needles, it's easy to sit down and knit a few rows if you have a few minutes to spare, instead of hauling out all your sewing stuff and then putting it away. I guess that's why people that are really into sewing/quilting have a dedicated room for it...

I'll do my best to keep my enjoyment of knitting from embarrassing my pre-teen with my wares, but I do think little kids wearing chunky homemade knit sweaters look super cute, so I have hopes of trying something like that next. Maybe knit a hoodie (like this one) in time for the cooler weather in the fall... We'll see if I have time for any knitting at all once the baby arrives!!