For a Daddy

In the unlikely event that you are married to me and reading this blog before the arrival of our little bear, move along sweetie, nothing for you to see here.

In the slightly more likely event that you know my husband - shh! don't tell.

I've been secretly knitting by proxy.  Admittedly when the person you're trying to keep a secret from goes out to work all day, and you stay home and pretend to have been sleeping, the deception is not so very difficult.  And whilst I could have been using this lovely extra time to turn our house into 'show home 2010', we all know that isn't going to happen any time soon.  My version of nesting involves making a nest out of the duvet and all the pillows I can find, propping the belly up on half of them and me on the rest, and working my way through the Poirot box set.  Incidentally I'm getting quite good at spotting the important clues; maybe I should try to claim CPD points (a work requirement) for it?

Today I picked up the importance of stockings in the ABC Murders and remembered the villain of Death in the Clouds, and at the same time I finished a pair of socks:

The pattern is Francie from Bowerbird Knits, available as a Ravelry download.  It's a really well written pattern and great fun to knit because each section has flow and rhythm, and an obvious conclusion so you don't have to consult the instructions every second stitch.  Because the pattern is essentially a rib, they're really nice and stretchy so although these are socks for H, I didn't increase the stitch count, although I did go up to a 2.5mm needle from a 2.25mm, just to be on the safe side.

They fit over my nice chunky late pregnancy ankles so with the little extra length I added I'm hoping for a good fit.
And the principal to my proxy...? Well although the little bear will of course be the most wonderful accomplished genius baby ever, he or she hasn't quite mastered knitting (yet), and I'd really rather he or she wasn't trying to learn with the materials currently available.  My hospital bag has a little blue wrapped parcel for if the bear is a boy, and a little pink bag for a girl.  What H doesn't know is that in each, as well as baby's new gender appropriate hat and jacket, is a little something for him; so his socks can declare our good news when the time comes, blue for a boy and red for a girl.

These are his girl socks:

Or if it's a boy, and I run out of time in the melee of life with a little person, I've just got a running jump on the Christmas knitting!
And as for the mother-to-be:

Well you didn't think I'd let them be themed without me did you?

[Note to baby: your mother has a lot of handknit socks. Several pairs of her socks are already in your hospital bag in case she gets cold feet. She will not be desperately unhappy if you choose to make a appearance before she has finished these socks.  Really, don't feel you have to wait. Please. Love Mummy]