Babies, babies, everywhere!

Babies are a terrific way to encourage me to knit.  So, to all my friends out there, keep having them!  I am in the midst of a multi-hat project for all the babies coming into my life these days.  Here's where I am so far:

 The pattern is quite simple - it's free (and here), and it only takes me about two hours from start to finish (including weaving in ends, adding the ear flaps and braiding the ties).  I'm rather a slow knitter so a focused person could probably complete it in a little more than an hour.

This one

is for Baby Girl D.M., who is expected to arrive in mid-August to parents K and A.  K was my matron of honor and A played at my wedding.  The purple one is for my college roommate M and her husband T's baby girl, and I'm yet to figure out which other babies get which hats.  If you have ideas .... let me know.  

In a week or so I'm planning to try to adapt it for a) knitting in the round, and b) adults.  Surprisingly, my knitting confidence has dramatically increased since Synod - that's due to Pope Laura the Beneficent and Holy Knitter.  Thanks, gals!  If I manage to create a workable pattern, I'll post it here with credit to the good people at Lion's Brand.

In other knitting news, I also finished another project last night - the infamous purse.  It turned out fairly well, considering I forgot the last piece of instructions, which was to take it out of the dryer while it was still a bit damp in order to shape it.  (Any thoughts on how to correct that?)  I was just so happy to be finished that when I was felting it, I just put it in the dryer last night and went to sleep.  Still, I'm pretty glad with how it turned out:

It's not perfect, obviously, and if I were doing this again, I would be a lot more careful with the pattern part (which was a little tighter than the plain brown sections).  But, I learned I can take on a sort-of challenging pattern and it can turn out well!  And I also learned that felting covers a multitude of sins.

Thank God for these great little projects!  And, of course, for babies. We can't wait to meet you!