February, and back to knitting

So I haven't posted any knitting pictures since I started blogging again, mostly because I haven't really been knitting. I've almost completed my poor brother-in-law's Knucks, which were supposed to be a Christmas gift, but I didn't finish in time. I'm lucky Zach is patient.
I'm back on the horse now, inspired by the Sprout's recent growth spurt. All of his hats seem to have gotten too small in the past week, so I have taken it upon myself to make him a new hat and some matching mittens.

I've made about eighty-four thousand hats since I started knitting, from the wee to the enormous, so making a hat wasn't really a big deal. I headed to Knitorious, grabbed some yarn (with Rachel's help), made a swatch, measured Sprout's enormous head, did some math and cast right on. We picked some Mountain Colors 3 ply wool in Alpine, a nice blue and green blend with some rusty colors every so often. Now, I know most people would say "Skate, are you crazy? What kind of fool makes a baby hat and mittens out of WOOL?" Honestly folks, it's washable. Woolite + cold water = clean hat and mittens. I am not so lazy that I can't hand wash a few things. It's not like his entire wardrobe is hand wash only.
Anyway, I like a roll-brimmed beanie, so that's what we made. It took me two nights of down-time to finish. Then I decided to give mittens a shot. I've never made mittens. I've made wrist warmers and fingerless gloves and gloves with fingers, so I figured, how hard can mittens be? I'm a good knitter, I don't need a pattern. I know all about putting in scrap yarn as a place-saver for the thumb. I just figured I'd decrease at the top the way I do for a sock toe. So far it seems to have worked out well. I made the first one at breakfast this morning. I cast on for the second while Sprout was down for his nap, and I plan to finish it tonight while I'm waiting for Matt to get off work.

Here we have my little dumpling, modeling in the sunshine on the back porch. So yeah, knitting again. Yee Haw.