The baby is due Tuesday....

Our nephew and his wife are expecting their first next Tuesday, the day after Labor Day. We’ll see if he’s a day early. In all the years I practiced OB, the days I all too frequently found myself with a catcher’s mitt we’re, Xmas, April 1 (my own birthday), Mother’s Day, and, you guessed it, Labor Day.

Mom made the child a rather spectacular baby blanket, spending a small on the yarn, a fingering weight off white Merino wool and now that I’m retired, I’d promised myself I would do something special for this baby (& the ones to follow) as well. In mid July I rummaged through my fiber stash looking for something appropriate for a boy. Knowing mom was doing this rather ornate and luxurious keepsake, I went a bit more practical last spring and crocheted up an off white baby blanket in a nice soft acrylic, one that can be easily tossed in the wash when it invariably needs washing. Trust me, in 30 years of working with babies and young children I’ve been decorated with bodily secretions and excretions more times than I can count. That blanket is gonna get washed frequently. I did however want to produce something of a real keepsake as well.

I found some Romney roving in a medium blue I thought appropriate, as well some merino tencel roving in a rich teal, but given this baby will be growing up in LA, both seemed overly warm. Silk or a silk blend would be nice, but everything in my stash was either too dark or blended with alpaca & therefore too warm. Then I opened the bin with all the raw Angora. Bingo!

Back in the late 80s i worked for a clinic while I was building my private practice & there was a patient there who raised angora rabbits. She knew a mark when she found one. Someone at the clinic spilled the beans that I was a fiber worker by hobby and pointed her in my direction. She walked in regularly thereafter, armed with fluffy clouds of English, French, & on occasion German Angora, all tucked neatly into plastic ziplocks or more often sandwiched between tissue paper in shirt boxes. In two years, I acquired probably 4-5 lbs of this stuff.

Sadly, though my stash was in a closet lined with cedar, moths still found their way in to much of it and perhaps 1/2 of my Angora did not survive their wrath. Reality was while I was working my stash far outstripped my free time. It’s led to my huge, and newly organized craft area, where I now can get to any/all of it to play with at my desire. Incidentally, I’m currently no longer purchasing any fiber, but my stash is still growing, courtesy of friends. Dan & Al’s samoyed Wyatt produces as much as a full sized lamb (as was the case with his predecessor, Simon. It’s sublime to work with) and Maia & Erik brought me an Icelandic wool fleece, complete with its lanolin (& lord knows, a 1/4 of the vegetation that grew near its paddock), when the visited from their farm on Bainbridge Island last month.

What I chose to spin up was some light grey English Angora, turning out a sport weight two ply yarn, which in turn I’ve turned into a baby cap that should be useful for the next two to three months. It’s sweetly soft and given its light androgynous color, should be useable should their next child (assuming there is one) be a girl.



Their son is as yet unnamed; they’re clear who they want to name him for, so I know the boy’s initials (JJ), but not the names their settling on. My niece’s late father, who passed on 4 months before their wedding, was Jack, & he gets top billing. My nephew’s paternal grandfather was Joe. Joseph Joseph actually (Joe squared?). The baby will be given Yacov Yosef ben Yacov in Hebrew. No telling what J names they’re going to use in English. I guess I’ll find out next week.

I need to start work already on the next baby project. My nephew’s older brother and his wife will welcome number 2 in late January. At least we hope it’s late January. Their first arrived 7 weeks early. Mac is pushing 3 and none the worse for wear.

I wonder if either of these kids will be ginger? Last Thanksgiving MacKenzie was giving me the wary “do-I-know-you” stinkeye that two year olds do so well. Lucas, the youngest of My sister’s three sons (& all redheads like me, as well as their father), just looked at her and said, “yes Mac, it’s another ginger uncle.”