A little bit at a time, I'm managing to get things done.

I finished two more quilt squares...



Even I can't ignore the problems with the bottom left hand block, so as soon as I can get the baby to sleep without me holding him, I've got a date with my seam ripper. Once I get it all put together, it'll be just the right size to tuck into Leif's car seat.

I finished the pink baby blanket...



The pattern is Janice's Easiest Ever Lacy Blanket. I used a skein of Caron Simply Soft, cast on 91 stitches, and knit until I was almost out of yarn. It would have been done a lot sooner if someone hadn't kept yanking it off the needles.

And I'm slowly getting some embroidery done...



The quilt pattern is in Favorite Applique and Embroidery Quilts by Betty Alderman. I'd been sort of wanting to try some redwork, but hadn't found the perfect pattern yet. This is beyond perfect! I love that it's blue...I love the pictures, especially the birthday cake and the cute little house...I've done crazy quilt blocks like this before, they're easy...

I can't wait to get the embroidery done so I can start putting the blocks together!

on the trail of my chickens...

I think I might have remembered which library book the chicken quilt was in. If they aren't in Scrap Frenzy (which I won't know for sure until I pick it up at the library next week) they were in another book I had checked out at the same time. Wonder how long the babies will let me stand there and flip through quilting books before people start giving me dirty looks?

What happened to my chickens?

I've been playing around with Butterfly at the Crossroads, a pattern from The quilter's recipe book : all the ingredients you need to create over 100 fabulous quilts, working on four blocks, each in different yellow and red prints. The finished quilt should come out about the right size to tuck into the car seat.

It didn't hit me until I had almost all of the cutting done that the red fabric was my chicken fabric. I've got a vivid memory of standing there in the fabric store and picking out just the right red and black prints for my chickens. What I can't remember is what the pattern looked like, what it was called, or whether it was in a magazine or a library book. I can't even remember if my chickens were going to be appliqued or paper-pieced.

Even though I like the way these yellow and red blocks are turning out, I feel a little sad about sacrificing my chickens. There might be enough fabric left for them, but I won't know until I find the pattern...this is going to haunt me, I can tell....

Acrylic!

I went to the OB for my six week checkup today and while I was in town with only one baby, I dashed into the LYS. I swear, even with a list of planned purchases that includes things I know they carry, I can't manage to spend money in that place!

I wanted 3 skeins of Fixation. They don't carry it.

I wanted the Wonderful Wallaby pattern. They carry it, but were sold out.

I wanted a skein of Cotton Fleece. They had two left on the shelf, one in the pale yellow color I'd been imagining. But it looked dirty and even though I'm sure the dark stuff was just fluff from a neighboring skein and would come off okay, $7.25 is more than I'm willing to spend on yarn that isn't pretty and clean.

They didn't even have the pattern for the really cute little girl cardigan that was laid out next to the cash register. Which I guess is okay, because it didn't come in Alex's size.

Walmart, on the other hand, was very easy to buy yarn at. I was only going to pick up five skeins of dark green Caron Simply Soft, if they had it. I've already made two trips to the store near our place (where there is an empty wire bin and they expect to get some eventually) and was starting to think I'd have to try all three of the Salem stores before I found any. Salem store #1 didn't have a single skein, but they did have it in Barn Red, which is even better. They also had a vivid yellow that will make a great pineapple hat, and I had to get two skeins of contrasting blue for the Cozy Diamond Wrap from Modular Knits.

I wasn't paying attention to the difficulty levels while I nursed Leif in the parking lot and flipped through the library books I'd picked up on the way to the doctor. It's probably a good thing I didn't look at Wrap Style, or I might've wound up bringing home a lot more. Like the 3200 yards of worsted weight it would take to knit Cashmere Crossings. Yikes! I love it, but that's a lot of yarn, which means a lot of knitting...

I'm starting to covet cheap (but nice) acrylic. Especially Caron Wintuk, which I've liked for quite a while, and Caron Simply soft, which a friend on one of the lists was just saying wonderful things about. I read her posts without really paying attention. Then I stumbled across a baby sweater I'd knitted with it a couple of years ago and something finally clicked. I've been getting sick of Wool-Ease and here's this stuff that's softer, comes in a lot more colors (at least in the stores around here) and is even a lot cheaper. Yippee!!

I've got sock yarn. I've finally found some needles that seem willing to cooperate with my lace weight. I've got enough acrylic for the projects I want to start right now (not counting the ones I found in the library books last night.)

I'm a happy knitter.

This is neat! Too bad the only feltable green wool I think I have is tied up in a pair of Quinn's socks. I will not frog them, even if it is the perfect shade of green and the socks are too bulky to fit in his new tennis shoes and he doesn't have the slightest bit of interest in anything his mommy knits for him. Tearing apart the kids' clothing so I can cast on for a new project is probably one of those things a good mommy wouldn't do.

I wouldn't take his socks even if I could get the pdf file to open. I'm supposed to be knitting cute little booties and hats and sweaters instead of planning new projects. There are four babies I want to make things for, not including my own two. And they're all growing, so I'd better do their knitting first!

The first baby gift was going well. I'd planned a matching hat, socks, and sweater and had just the right yarn and patterns picked out. There was plenty of time to all finish it before the shower. After a day and a half of knitting, I realized that even though the hat is going to be really cute, it's not nearly girly enough.

So now I'm working on a baby blanket. It's pale pink and the feather and fan pattern I'm using is girly as can be. And I just realized that I left it in the front room with three of my kids-- gotta go!