Way(le) behind schedule

So, work (and life in general) is currently getting in the way of blogging. So I'm quite glad to be able to sit down now for five minutes to say hello. The past couple of months have been exciting, with no less than five new babies to coo over! Five! That's more in two months than usually arrive amongst my friends in a year. And there's another due in a few days time. Very exciting.

All these babies arriving does mean I am a little behind on the baby knitting schdule though. The recipient of the whale blanket arrived on Saturday, on his mum's birthday (thank you - just a name to remember and not anohter date!), and this is the current state of play of the blanket: 11 squares complete (including three whales, although they don't have features yet, so technically they're not actually complete, but close enough), 5 squares and a border to go (and some seaming and swiss darning). I have sent chocolates, a card and an IOU - just keeping up with tradition, their wedding present was six months late!

The two babies that arrived last month already have their presents: robot and dinosaur blankets. Neither of which I've written about yet, but I'll get there in the end.

 
My son's nursery worker has had her baby, hope she liked the blue and green Beyond Puerperium.

And the other baby is a co-worker who is not expecting a present, so I don't have to make something if I don't have time, and if I do I can just make something small, possibly some cute baby boots.

Having a whale-y good time

I have wanted to knit a blanket with whales on for quite a long time now, possibly since my son had a swimsuit with a rather cute whale on a couple of years ago. So when Knit Now had a call for submissions with a nautical theme a few months ago, I grabbed my colouring pencils and sketched this blanket.
 

I then failed to submit it as I realised that knitting a blanket to a tight deadline with two pre-school children, one of whom does not sleep all night was probably not a good idea, especially as I wouldn't be able to immediately gift it to a friend, so would probably have to knit two blankets within the same time frame. And then a close friend announced that she was expecting a boy, so I asked her whether she would prefer a whale or a rocket blanket. Handily she went for whales.

So a couple of weeks ago I popped into Hobbycraft to pick up a couple of balls of navy to get the blanket started (I need an easy on the go project, and blanket squares are perfect). I went for Hayfield Bonus DK, partly because I know what gauge I knit it to, and partly because I already have several of the colours in my stash. I ordered the other colours (the ones Hobbycraft don't stock) from Woll Warehouse.

And here's the first square. Hopefully I should get the whales charted soon.

Isn't the sheep stitch protector cute? Pity both my children like to take him for little walks...