Still no baby, but Otto is done (Rav link)! There were several evenings when I was working on him and I was in false labor. I kind of liked the idea of working on him while actually in labor. It makes a sweet story anyway to say that I was knitting something for my Baby Boy when he was on his way... so, I think I'll start a second Otto and see if I can get it done before he arrives.

I'm now only one week away from my due date! Throughout my pregnancy so far, I've found that I've been much less aware of being pregnant than I was the first time around. Sometimes I even forgot entirely about being pregnant. With the due date so close now that has all changed.

I can't stop thinking about my Baby Boy on the way. Every time I do even the most mundane chores, I think of him. When I do the laundry, I wonder if this will be the last time I do laundry for just the three of us. When I go to bed, I wonder if this will be the last night I sleep without a newborn beside me. When I start a knitting project, I wonder if I will be able to complete it before Baby Boy arrives.

So, the race is on. Who will get here first? Otto (Rav link) or Baby Boy?

Family "Heirlooms" and That Darn Sewing Bug

In my family growing up, we were raised not to throw anything away that could be useful in the future. My grandmother would cut the front off of cards so that they could be used again. My father held onto clothing that didn't fit him for at least twenty years after it had gone out of use. Generally speaking, I try not to go to the extremes that they did. I have to admit, that I do that card thing, but I do cull out clothing. The hard part, though, is going through the things that have been passed down by these and other family members. I mean, it's been around for thirty years now, how can I presume to be the one to get rid of it? (Although, I did heartlessly sell my grandmother's collectible Shirley Temple doll.) Okay, enough rambling.

The whole family not getting rid of things was one factor that led to the making of this adorable dress. I used this tutorial from craftster on how to convert a button down shirt into a toddler dress (mentioned by both Claudine and Meg on their blogs) and one of my dad's old shirts (this particular one, incidentally, did get some use past that time thirty some odd years ago... I used to wear it all the time in high school). Also, Hannah's recent post on not wasting was a great reminder of this shirt and all the other random pieces of old clothing that I've been holding onto so that I could use the fabric for something else.

Of course, now I'm remembering all the other cute sewing endeavors that I want to make too... like the cloth shoes that Stephanie made...

I guess I needed a reason to post...

and the demise of Magknits was it! I'm sure that everyone has heard by now that Magknits is officially closed. The weird thing for me was that I just happened to check out the Magknits page for the April patterns within hours of it all being taken down. So sad! Anyway, I've made the two patterns I had in Magknits available on Ravelry as free downloads. Halweh from October 2006 and Cloverly from June 2007 are both there safe and sound. It was funny the other day when I was reworking them as pdfs, Little Girl looked at the computer when I had Halweh up and said, "Who is that cute baby?!" It's so funny that she doesn't recognize herself as a baby nor does she think of herself that way anymore!

Anyway, I have been doing some knitting and recently finished one of my most favorite knits of all time (although, I could be biased as it's really one of the only ones that fits me right now). The photos came out really dark, but prove that I can get it on! It's Joie de Vivre (Rav link with details and such) by the super-talented (and chic) Veronique. I will admit that I purchased Sensual Knits just for this pattern and even though it turned out that there are plenty of other beautiful designs in it, it would have been completely worth buying even if there weren't... that's how much I love this sweater!

The color in this one is better, although it's still a bit off. At least the design comes through a little better.

So, as far as the pregnancy goes, I'm now less than three weeks from my due date... which really means that I could meet this Baby Boy any day now or in five weeks! I'm really hoping for the any day now mostly. Especially since I finally got my act together and pulled out all the baby stuff. I really didn't remember that I had so much squirreled away! It's really nice not having to make any huge purchases this time around. I did want to invest in some new cloth diapers, though, since the first time I went with the economical choice of prefolds with prorap covers. After some researching, I decided that bumGenius was the way to go and just today I received my order of 12. They look very promising, but obviously the proof will be in the pooping!