Is it me or is it Monday?

I am really tired today. I don't know why, except that maybe I stayed up too late on the weekend nights and am now paying for it. I also have a headache that has lasted for two days (no mom, I didn't do any drinking this weekend) and it is getting a little old. I don't know, maybe I need my thyroid checked.


Anyway, I have pictures of the finished baby blanket. I am pleased with how it turned out. It is sweet but not too babyish. What do you think?

Cozy baby blanket

And a close-up of the edge:

Crochet edgings look so neat

I didn't really use a pattern, just a waffle texture that was created by alternating 3 double crochets and 3 front-post double crochets across the row, and then doing the reverse on the way back. Actually, Hub designed it for me... he is stellar with a crochet hook. This is one of the main reasons why I love him so.

The final texture of the blanket is soft and springy with a pleasant thickness that makes it seem like it will be nice and warm. The blanket was knit in Plymouth Encore (75% acrylic, 25% wool) and it is machine washable and dryable (just in case you didn't know, this is an extremely important feature when knitting things for messy creatures like babies). I hope that the recipient likes it.

I am cruising along on the Ugg booties. I have one bootie finished except for the seaming and am ready to shape the foot on the second one. I will hopefully have the set finished by the weekend. I am glad that the work day is almost over. I think I need to go lie down.

Cheers!

More baby knits...

I have been finishing things at a mean clip these days. First, I finished the set for the new baby of my coworker. Little Baby Girl arrived on Dec. 23 but I haven't had a chance to see her yet. I am hoping that her mom brings her into the office for a little meet-and-greet sometime soon. I did take a picture of the set before I packed it up.

So tiny, so shimmery

The hat is from the same pattern that I posted about the other day. The mitts are my own pattern (that I still need to polish up and share). The booties are from Simple Knits for Cherished Babies by Erika Knight. I have no idea what the yarn is. It is something I don't even remember purchasing and the label has long since disappeared. All I know is that the yarn is 100% acrylic (read: machine washable) with a shimmery pink strand through it.

I also finished the blanked I was crocheting for the sick baby from my message board. I haven't taken any pictures yet but I will before I mail it out.

Last night I started a new project for yet another coworker's baby-to-be. This woman is having a baby girl in early March and to celebrate, I am knitting a pair of Ugg Booties. I love this pattern. I made a pair for Gub when she was little and they were super cute. She got compliments every time she wore them. Here is what I have so far.

These Uggs are bootie-licious

I have decided to do the colors in reverse. In the original pattern, the light color is the top of the bootie and the dark color is the sole. I think the darker yarn shows off the Plush trim better so I am reversing the colors. They are knit with Berroco Suede which is kind of a pain in the butt to work with. The yarn has a yucky tendency to split and my needle tips keep snagging it. Oh well, the finished product is cute enough to make up for it!

Off to have an early dinner with some new friends and our kiddos. We haven't really spent a lot of time with this couple so it should be interesting (and hopefully a lot of fun).

Cheers!

Everyone Loves Baby Knits

I attended a baby shower today for a lovely friend of mine who is due in late February with her first child. As far as baby showers go, it was a nice one with really yummy cake. I have to admit that I generally don't enjoy baby showers all that much. I don't know why; I like babies and I like watching people open presents and get excited about things. I think my problem with baby showers is that they feature an often overwhelming amount of stuff (99% of which is totally unnecessary) and the guest of honor is usually so late in her pregnancy that she spends most of the time looking completely fatigued. Today's mom-to-be was no exception. She looked lovely and was obviously excited, but she was just so clearly exhausted that I kind of felt bad for her. She is one of those effortlessly graceful people. You know the kind... those rare people who always look put together, always have a smile on their face, and always greet you as if you are the most important person in the world. If someone like that is visibly fatigued, I think it is safe to say that the festivities were wearing a little thin.

Anyway, I tucked my knit hat and mitts into the gift that I bought for her and her husband. It was great because as soon as she pulled them out of the bag, she knew the gift was from me. Out of the mountains of presents that were in front of her, she knew mine automatically because of the knits. I loved that... it is nice to have a little something special that sets your gift apart and lets people know that you care enough to put your own time and effort into making something for them. The set got lots of ooohs and ahhhs from the audience and at the end of the shower her husband made a point of telling me how much he liked them. It definitely made yesterday's pressure knitting worth it.

Cheers!

Oh Yes She Did...

That's right, I finished the baby hat the night BEFORE the shower! Considering that I just started the project this afternoon, I couldn't be more pleased. Together with the mitts I knit a while ago, they make a lovely little set.

Aww, they are just so darn wee!

This picture doesn't really show off the colors at all, the lighting is a little tough at night, but you get the idea. The hat and mitt cuffs are a soft light green and the hat trim and mitts are white. Both pieces are knit with Cara Mia (I don't remember who makes this yarn or exactly what the composition is, but it is nice and soft and machine washable). The hat pattern is the Bundle of Joy Hat, a lovely free pattern from Isela Phelps of Purling Sprite Designs. The mitts are a pattern of my own (which I plan to post once I get it cleaned up a bit). I hope that she likes them.

Cheers!

Knitting Under Pressure

What do you think of knitting deadlines? Generally, I am not a fan of the pressure they put on you. I find that when I have looming deadlines, my knitting often gets erratic - full of errors and weird tension issues. Yet, here I am, working furiously to complete a baby hat in time for a baby shower tomorrow at 11:00 am. I don't even have an excuse, really. I just decided today that it would be nice if I could whip up a hat to match mitts that I knit a long time ago. Sigh, I am not sure why I do this to myself, other than for all the ohhs and ahhs hand knit baby gear usually brings (insert evil grin here). Here is what I have so far:

So tiny, yet so overwhelming

I have been knitting in between actual work tasks today. I am hoping that once I put Gub to bed, I can crank the rest of it out.

Also, my stuff from Webs arrived and I have finally gotten around to taking a picture of it.

New additions to the family... aren't they lovely!

Clockwise from the top: 5 skeins of Rowan All Seasons Cotton, 2 skeins of Southwest Trading Company's Gianna, 2 hanks of Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Cashmere, and 1 ball of RCY Soft Lux. I am in mad, raving love with the Silky Cashmere. As the name implies, this yarn is composed of 55% silk and 45% cashmere. It is soooooo soft and luxurious to touch. I just want to wrap myself in it. Unfortunately, the yardage is pretty small (44 yards per hank) and I only have 2 hanks. I am hoping I can make a thin, lacy scarf that I can wear all year round.

Off to make dinner and work on the baby hat. Hopefully I will be able to post tomorrow about my success in meeting my knitting deadline.


Cheers!

KIP

When you see the acronym "KIP", do you immediately think "knitting in public"? If you are a knitter who is active on the web, you probably do. When I see "KIP", however, my first thought is "knitting in a plane".

I have never really been one to knit in public. For one thing, I am rarely in a public place that is conducive to knitting. When I am out, I am usually shopping, eating, or doing something otherwise active. While I am sure there are some tremendously industrious knitters out there who are capable of knitting while browsing the aisles of the grocery store, I am definitely not one of them. Of course when I do go to places that offer good knitting accommodations, such as MD office waiting rooms, I never remember to bring my knitting. These days, I would say a good 95% of my knitting is done on the couch in front of the TV after Gub has gone to bed.

Before Gub was born, the one place where you did often find me knitting was in airports and on planes. When I traveled a lot for my job, knitting was my sanity-saver. It kept me from going nutty when I was faced with yet another flight delay or when I was alone in a hotel room watching BBC World News for the 3rd hour in a row because there were no other TV channels being broadcast in English (interestingly, even in our vast world the top news stories tend to remain pretty much the same during any given time period). Since Gub came along, The Company has graciously allowed me to minimize my travel as much as humanly possible. Unfortunately, there are still times when clients call and I have to go.

Which brings me to the knitting topic of this post. I am leaving later this afternoon to head to Wilmington, DE (oh yeah, its exotic travel) for a meeting tomorrow morning. Since I (used to) travel so often, packing takes me all of 5 minutes. Selecting the right knitting to bring takes a bit more time and careful thought. There are just so many considerations to think about when selecting plane knitting. So without further ado, I am proud to present my Rules of Plane Knitting Project Selection, developed and honed by years of travel experience:

• First, whatever you bring needs to be portable which means small items or small parts of larger items, small balls of yarn, and not too many colors (so you don't have to carry too many balls of yarn). They are pretty strict about carry on rules these days and you don't want your knitting to end up in your suitcase buried in the belly of the plane.
• Second, you want to make sure that the knit is simple enough that you can pick it up and put it down as needed without losing your place (such as when one is eavesdropping on the occasional juicy cell phone conversation), but interesting enough to hold your attention through many flight-delayed hours in the airport.
• Third, you don't want to bring anything that is too close to completion. I have learned from experience that it really sucks to finish your project part way through a flight, leaving you with nothing else to do.
• Fourth, think carefully about your needle choices. DPNs are small and portable but you have to factor in the risk of dropping a needle and having it roll away down the aisle of the plane. Large metal needles may cause problems at security checkpoints. Circulars are generally a good choice as are bamboo straight needles.
• Sixth, make sure you bring all the little accessories that make your knitting successful. While you can probably MacGyver anything you need in a pinch (thread from your own coat as a stitch marker anyone?), it sure is nice to have a little travel bag with some stitch markers, some waste yarn, a circular cutting tool (these are safe to use on planes), and a plastic yarn needle.
• Finally, make sure you like what you are working on. You are going to be in one place with no access to other projects for a while. It is best when you actually enjoy what you are knitting!

After carefully considering these rules, I have chosen to knit Branching Out from Knitty using size 6 bamboo needles and Elan's Peruvian Baby Cashmere fingering weight yarn. The lace will be interesting enough to keep me going and the whole thing fits into a quart size zip top bag. I will post some pictures of my progress once I am back home. Safe travels everyone.

Cheers!

I Need a New System

My stash is in a sad state of (dis)organization. I have decided that I need a new storage system for all of my lovely yarn. Right now, most of my yarn is loosely grouped by color in six large plastic bins with drawers. The bins are stacked, three high, against one of the walls in my home office. I also have a smaller four-drawer bin that holds my finer gauge yarn, my super nice stuff, and my random odds and ends. My little drawer is okay but my big bins are starting to collapse under the weight of all of the yarn. I think I also need to purge some of the yarn I will most likely never use. Lots of well meaning and thoughtful people give me yarn and I always feel compelled to take it. I mean, you never know what you might need, right? If I thought about it honestly though, I will probably never use most of it. Maybe I will sort all my yarn and donate the unwanted stuff to some organization that could use it to do kids crafts or something.

The challenge is, even after I purge, I don't know how else to organize everything that's left. Should I get a piece of furniture, like an armoir, or another bin system? Do they make yarn storage systems? Maybe I should invent one... that could be my way to make millions! Sigh, any advice would be appreciated.

Cheers!

Happy New Year!

I bet that 90%+ of the blogger posts created today have "Happy New Year" in the title. :)

So how was your Christmas? Mine was very nice. I spent some time in my hometown with my mom, dad, and siblings. Most of them live pretty far away and with the girl, we don't get out there very often so it was nice to see them all. It was especially nice to have someone else entertain the girl for a while. It almost felt like a vacation.

The girl had a pretty good Christmas. She liked opening the presents for a little while. Her favorite gift was a toy kitchen from Santa. Here is a picture of her playing with it for the first time. She was very excited when she saw it and it is still fun for her more than a week later (now that is a toy with some staying power).

Would you like some fries with that?

In fiber news, I am still working on the baby set for my coworker. She actually had her baby girl on Dec. 23 (a little more than a week early). It sounds like everyone is healthy and doing well. I have finished the booties and the mittens and I am about half way through the hat. Once the set is complete, I will post a picture. For the moment, the hat knitting has been put on hold for a special project.

I participate in an online message board for women who had babies in September, 2006. We chat with each other about our kids, ask questions, talk about life, etc. They are a nice group of women, many of whom have been posting since we all found out we were pregnant about 2 years ago. Last week, one of the women found out that her son, who has been sick for a little while, has cancer. This little boy has been given a 50/50 chance of survival and his family is devastated. He is so young and it is so unfair that he has to go through this. Lately I've noticed that before you have kids, stories about bad things happening to kids make you sad. However, once you have one of your own, stories about kids getting hurt or sick absolutely break your heart because you imagine something like that happening to your own little one. So I am crocheting him a little blanket. It isn't much, but at least it is something warm that he can hold on to, and his parents will know that people are thinking of him during this horrible time. I am using a nice soft acrylic wool blend (Plymouth Encore) in green and a waffle pattern. Here is a picture of the work in progress:

Full view

Here is a close up of the waffle pattern

My goal is to get it finished by next week so I can send it along with some "get well" wishes. I hope your 2008 starts off as happy and healthy as possible.

Cheers!