Man, I was doing so well with the posting, and then I fall off the wagon for a whole week. Curses!

Unfortunately, my life has been very un-blog-worthy. I haven't finished anything (until tonight), I haven't knit anything that's very interesting to look at in progress (hey, look, it's a log cabin but bigger! And a sock exactly like the first one!), and I haven't done anything all week except knit garter log cabin and knit a sock while watching Lord of the Rings extras. And American Idol. Isn't my life glamorous?

Fortunately, my mother is much more blog-worthy this week. As previously mentioned here, my mum is a total rock star knitter, but she doesn't knit much any more due to a bum shoulder. (She didn't knit at all for years after being as fanatical as I am when she was younger, so even the reduced knitting is an improvement.) Nowadays she limits herself to baby outfits, which seems like a good use of time. (She knows a lot of babies, luckily.) She knits for her friends kids and grandkids, for Dad's coworkers (all of whom seem to have had babies in the last year), and my friends' babies. (So far all of my friends that have had babies are also my sister's friends, so my mother knows them particularly well.)

Anyway, she used to knit for us all the time, and has an entire dresser full of hand knit and hand sewn clothes that she's saving in case we have kids. I should go take some pictures of them some time - they are really quite amazing. (My grandma also knit some of them, actually. Clearly this insanity is genetic. I'm trying to convert my sister but she claims my dad would never forgive her if she started knitting, which is probably true.) I think the last sweater she knit for me was in...oh, 1993 or so, which of course means it was neon. Black and neon, with intarsia shapes all over it. Stylish! My sister's last sweater was these enormous oversized blue sweater that went to about her knees. It was a very bright blue. I wonder if they're still around? You'd be amazed what's lurking in closets around my parents' house.

Mum and I differ quite a bit on what we like to knit. She finds the whole sock thing a little weird, and is a recent convert to circular needles only grudgingly. (I feel this is somewhat of a victory on my part, but she refuses to use nice ones. Sigh.) But she uses these teeny tiny needles and this incredibly thin yarn for these baby outfits, and they are always amazing. (I just make blankets and occasionally little sweaters.)

This friend of ours who had the baby is someone we've all known for years and years, and my parents are sort of surrogate parents to her, even more so than they are with all our friends. Mum felt this deserved a particularly outstanding outfit. As I said, we met her and her family in Zimbabwe (except Dad, who knew them all before that), and she's since moved here, gone to university, met another Zimbabwean fellow, and gotten married. (He is equally delightful.)

Mum and Dad got to meet the baby on Monday, so the outfit went along, which means it can now be revealed here! I had to promise that I would give mum credit when I asked if I could post the pictures of it on my blog (I don't think she reads my blog, but I can't imagine how I could get away with claiming credit for knitting this, since I haven't mentioned it even once and it is clearly way better than anything I've ever knit.)

Ok, you don't care about any of this. Here is her fabulous ensemble!



So we have a hat, up in the top right hand corner, with a dashing racing stripe along the top. Then there is the sweater, with its tasteful giraffe button on the side. Then, to the left, are the little mittens. Matching pants, and the booties with the giraffe buttons.

She sent me two pictures so you could all see two angles of the hat. (Clearly my mother should have a knitting blog.)



The giraffe buttons really are the crowning touch.

I'm not totally convinced that I'm going to send my mother my blog link (not like I talk about anything interesting anyway, but it still feels like a weird step!), but I'll pass on any compliments. It really is worth clicking on the bigger photos.

So there you go. My mum, the rock star knitter.

Labels: Mum's outfit