To the Max!

Happy 2010! It's been almost a month now since the holidays, but in order to move on into the future, I need a short recap of 2009's end. I spent the holiday season in Texas with my family which included all of my favorite things- waking up to delicious pots of coffee already brewing, collaborative crossword completion each morning, working on the annual holiday jigsaw, various other board and card games, lots of food, AND the newest addition to Christmas fun...my nephew Max!

I'm a first time aunt, and I am not bashful about how cute I think Max is, i.e. Exhibit A.

Exhibit A.

And I couldn't find a good one of us together, but here, Santa's Helper, is helping himself to my delicious Christmas morning breakfast roll.  If you'd like to hear/see more about the Incredible Max, you can visit his blog by clicking 'A New Chapter' in my blogroll to the right.  He is a much better blogger than I am.

Exhibit B.

When I first found out my sister was preggers, I had recently started learning to knit from a coworker, and decided that I would make a baby blanket to award Max when he was born.  I started in the fall of 2008, but when little Max came into our lives in January, his blanket was not near completion.  I could use the fact that he was a month early as an excuse, but really, a month, schmonth.  Let's be honest, I still wouldn't have had it done.

Nevertheless, Max did eventually receive his blanket just a couple weeks ago for his first birthday! (That's right, Fall 2008-Winter 2010.  Now that my mom's seen my handiwork, she has requested a winter scarf, which means I should probably start on it now so that she can have it by Mother's Day 2011.)  The blanket is a pinwheel design that I nabbed off Ravelry, and I used Knitpicks ShineSport yarn in colors Leapfrog and River.  The ShineSport is great for kids, soft and machine-washable.

A detail view of the pinwheel design from the middle going out.

You can see I had some problems with it curling up on the edges, which may or may not be from me knitting too tightly. Pro knitters could tell you the actual root of the issue.  I used an iron on low to help smooth and stretch it, and it seemed to do the trick.  I think washing it can help as well.