I have been diligently working on the 2 blankets I am knitting for Sonja’s baby Owen (due in November) – and the Baby Pod and slip-stitch trousers (that match the Tea Leaf Jacket) are waiting in the wings.  So, I really did not need another baby knitting project.

It is way too easy to get inspired (“seduced” might be the better word) by someone else’s baby knitting project – especially when one is expecting a Blessed Event in the family.  But I had been holding back pretty well – even with The Yarn Harlot knitting baby things at an astonishing rate and posting photos daily!  Then, she put up photos of the baby cap from Jean Scorgie’s Bouncing Baby Set in Homespun Handknit (ed. Linda Ligon).  I was intrigued by the clever construction and, since I happen to own the book, decided to look it up. 

So I did.  It turns out that the pattern this charming little cap is based is (and I quote) derived “from a Finnish one belonging to a friend”!  A Finnish design!  I am Finnish – 100% Finnish-American – so, of course, little Owen will need a Finnish baby cap!  The set includes adorable garter knee socks “made to stay on” (every infant sock or bootie pattern I have eves seen is credited with this particular characteristic, so we will see what we will see…but they are designed to curl up over the little knees and are so cute I can hardly stand it!).

I happened to have bought green variegated Heritage Hand Painted Sock Yarn (Cascade Yarns) several months ago thinking I might knit baby socks and maybe a hat for Owen – and it turns out to be the right weight for these pieces.  Perfect!  So, here I am garter-ing away at the cap.

Not as quickly as The Yarn Harlot, of course (she has finished the cap and knit a cardigan too in the time it has taken me to hunt out the book and yarn for my new project).  But baby things knit up quickly even if you are not a super-fast knitter, right?  And if I spend more time knitting and less time reading blogs…at least, I should probably stay away from The Yarn Harlot’s blog until her friend gives birth to that baby and TYH moves on to something less likely to distract me from the knitting at hand.