Quick updates!

It's somehow suddenly very late on Sunday, so here are some updates on the posts from the past few weeks.

The baby barrage: The neonates have started to arrive, and my list of knitting to-dos grows. They are all so cute, and so far have come with only the expected amount of drama. The combinations and permutations of yarns and patterns is increasingly overwhelming...

The cycling craziness: Last week was a cycling failure. Abject failure. I'm back in the saddle as of this morning, and aiming to increase my mileage pretty significantly this week. I'm planning to register for both rides shortly, and you all can anticipate desperate fundraising pleas to come!

The pet prancing: It continues. Need I say more? This week's feature is Aleks, who is shown below snuggled into his cave bed, nuzzling the squirt gun that has quickly morphed from a disciplinary tool to a game, and with his head stuck in a bag of caramel corn.

Like farm animals... making cute baby farm animals...

When one of my best friends and college roommate told me she was pregnant, I was super excited for her. When she told me how far along she was, I realized that her due date would line up with approximately five other friends who were expecting babies this year. All of them were due in the springtime or early summer of May and June. Shortly after I shared this, there was a thoughtful pause in our conversation. "We're like farm animals" she said, "all having babies at the same time." 

And here we are in early May, with all of my friends either at term or nearly so, and my list of things to knit keeps growing. You see, when I first started knitting things for babies I made tiny things: socks, hats, booties, etc. As the years went on I got faster and faster and more interested in knitting challenging things and creative things. This generally meant sweaters instead of hats and booties and when I was in graduate school this wasn't a big deal. The babies were fairly spaced out then (except for one year when there were ten) and I had lots of lecture time in which to occupy my hands. Fast-forward to residency, a time during which I have knit the lowest volume of items since learning the craft, and I'm struggling. The only saving grace is that everyone loves a six-month-size sweater even more than the newborn one. 

A sampling of the most recent garments: