Fresh From the Needles

I've known how to knit since I was... well, since I don't remember when. For a long time. My mother taught me (thanks, Mom!). But I haven't been very adventuresome nor confident enough to dive into patterns until recently (imagine my previous knitting years spent whipping up many many rectangles. cloths. scarves. afghans).

Then I picked-up a Stitch & Bitch knitting book and found its descriptions and illustrations not only a great refresher but so clear that I felt I could and should start working from patterns to expand my knitting experience. I was also very pleased to see that the Stitch & Bitch books give equal ranking to my Continental method (also known as Left-handed knitting or the German method) rather than only focusing on the English method that dominates most other English-language knitting instructionals.

And YouTube has been a wonderful resource;  it's so simple to search for and watch videos of the specific techniques I want to see (I used this when turning the heel of my first pair of socks,   when I needed to learn the 3-needle bind-off for a pair of fingerless gloves, and when I wanted to learn the Norwegian cast-on [which is awesome and is now my favorite cast-on method, but for which I'd found the written instructions crazy confusing]).

So, knitting is cool. That's what I'm trying to get at.

Here are some of my more recent recent items (baby & child related of course).

Legwarmers for baby legs!

Hats for baby heads!

Vest intended for a newborn but then mistakenly big enough to be for a two year old!

Vest detail

Vest in action

And I'm finishing-up a pair of baby pants (reworked twice so far so they would actually perhaps fit a baby and not a five year old---I don't know what's with my gauge, I knit things SO BIG!) and starting another set of baby legwarmers. And next:  I'm going to make a coat cover to wear over the baby when I babywear. If I can manage to find time after the baby comes. Goodness knows it's challenging enough now, with the baby hangin' out quietly in the womb!

Anyone have favorite knitting patterns/sites to recommend? I'm always hoping to be inspired.