Surprise Turtles

Guess what?  I'm pregnant with my first child!  Our little Chirphead is due in October 2013.

For Christmas 2011, Keith gave me a yarn sampler as a gift.  Each month I got a booklet with some ~10 yard miniskeins of different types of yarn about to go on clearance.  One month there was a sample of Araucania Tolhuaca Cotton yarn and it was so soft I couldn't stop touching it.  I knew that this was the yarn I wanted to use for my future baby blanket (purchased well before we were expecting!), so I ordered enough for a blanket plus two extra balls for bibs.  When I finally found out that I was pregnant, I was thrilled to pull out the green yarn to knit up a little bib to give Keith for his birthday (which was within a few weeks of us finding out we were pregnant.)  

Down Clover Laine has some amazing bib patterns and most of them are free.  Unfortunately, I got my heart set on the Turtle Love pattern which is only available through the purchase of a Peaches and Cream Pattern Booklet.  I couldn't bring myself to spend $12 for one pattern (especially when there was no verification on the website about what patterns I would receive with that booklet), so I recreated the bib looking at the images from the pattern page.

I calculated 37 stitches for across the bib.  I used the short row instructions from the Stretch Bib to set it up. After making the turtle heart design + a few rows, I continued on at row 69 (on the RS) of the Stretch instructions.  The version I created isn't exact, but I think it successfully preserves the turtle love of the original design! 

I decided that it would be faster to make crochet chains rather than iCord chains that I did on the other two bibs I've made.  I used a size H hook.  I just did a single chain and then cut the tie.  

The yarn is a little less soft than it was on the sample card.  I'm a little worried because this is the yarn that I plan on using for my baby blanket!   I hope that with some handling or maybe even a wash that it will soften up.  The Araucania Tolhuaca Solid (color 1203) only had 94 g in the ball of yarn to start. 37 g remained when I was done with the bib (so the bib consumed 57 g).  

I wet blocked (lightly) the bib. I know that I will likely wash it before the baby comes, but I wanted to finish it properly for now.  I am really excited because this is the first project I have knit for my future child WHILE  that child was growing inside me.  (I knit a few items when we started trying to get pregnant.)  It is safe to say that you can expect to see many more baby knit items coming up here on ChemKnits.