My DPNs needed a new home too

For the past few days, I've been drooling over blogs with pictures of bags and pincushions and other wonderful stuff. It must've sparked something, because tonight I wound up digging out a Pendleton shirt I felted a couple of years ago and then buried in my stash. I'm not quite sure what I originally planned to make with it, but suddenly it needed to be a needleroll.

I've needed one of these for ages, but making one from scratch seemed like too much work, and I'm way too cheap to buy one of the ones at the LYS. Then someone on one of the lists suggested making one from a quilted placemat and it seemed like the perfect solution, until I tried Walmart and a couple of thrift stores and couldn't find a placemat I liked even a little bit. So I forgot about it.

And then this afternoon it struck me that I could use the felted shirt. Just cut a rectangle and fold it and stitch to form the little pockets for the needles. And since it's plaid, I had straight lines to cut and stitch along.

Think I'll stop losing whole sets of DPNs now?

Plan #1

I've got a plan. Actually, I've got many plans that involve finishing all of my current wips before moving into the new house and knitting lace curtains and cutting up a (deliberately) felted Pendleton shirt to make a needleroll for my DPNs. And packing lots of boxes.

Plan #1 is to finish my currents WIPs before our closing date. I've got fifty days, which means if I finish a project a week, I've got more than enough time to get them all done and still cast on some new stuff.

Clapotis was on the list, but it flew off the needles as quickly as it jumped on.



The Costco Socks are coming along well, especially now that I know exactly what size they need to be. I need to frog Lolita Toes and make the foot a bit snugger and the heel less ugly. The Pixie Boot doesn't excite me at all, so I'm going to start a different pair of booties with the yarn I have left, and frog this one if there isn't enough.



I love my Cathedral Window Shawl, but can't seem to finish it. When I was sleep deprived and heavily medicated, I knit the first half without any trouble. I probably could've finished it there in the hospital, but I hit the center point and my little windows looked a lot different once I was increasing for them instead of decreasing, so I put it aside to knit baby hats and figure out what to do. I like the windows on the first half much better, so the plan is to knit another piece like the first one and graft them together. But now that I'm rested and coherent, I can't make the stitch pattern work.



The cardigan intimidates me. I don't know why, especially now that I've finished the tricky interlock part. All it needs is a pair of sleeves.



I'm even less enthusiastic about The Sunshine Sweater than I am about the Pixie Boot. I'd stopped enjoying it even before the discussion about cotton and all of the nasty things it can do came up on the knittingparents list. The pattern called for Lion Kitchen Cotton, so that's what I bought. Now I'm wishing I'd started it in acrylic. Since I don't need a zillion green dishcloths, I'm going to knit the front and back and wait until Quinn grows into it. Or give it away. Gotta use the yarn so I won't feel guilty for wasting eight bucks on it.

When I get them all done, I'm going to treat myself to the perfect yarn for a flared smoke ring.

All you can tell about my Clapotis from this picture is that it's a big piece of knitting, bigger than anything else I've finished this year. It doesn't look dazzling in real life, either, but it's cozy and should be useful.

My Clapotis is done!

I just finished weaving in the ends on my Clapotis and after trying it on, I finally understand why so many knitters are doing this pattern more than once. Even in the cheap garage sale acrylic I used, it's great to wrap up in. And it should be good for discreet breastfeeding in public -- a lot easier to manage than a baby blanket thrown across one shoulder.

It seemed like this thing was going to go on and on forever, but once I hit those decrease rows, it flew off the needles.

Knitting in the Rain

I had today all planned out. We were going to head for the park early, before it got too hot to move. The kids were going to burn off some energy and I was going to do enough laps around the park to make up for the workouts I missed earlier this week. Ideally, I was going to get up early and spend some time with the boxes before we left. That part didn't happen, but since I was awake most of the night with the baby I refuse to feel guilty about it. I'll play with boxes when I'm done with this.

Two seconds after we stepped out the front door, I felt the first isolated drops of moisture. Halfway through our first trip around the park, it started to come down hard enough for me to finally admit that it was raining. We finished the loop, then ducked inside to watch the volunteer carvers work on the carousel horses. And by the time we came out the crowded playground was empty, wet stuff had stopped coming down from the sky, and the baby was sound asleep. So I found a good bench, tucked the baby's blankets around his little toes, and pulled out Clapotis.

It's a good thing I hadn't started another sock. I needed four skeins worth of acrylic to drape over my legs because it it's practically cold out there. Thirty degrees cooler than yesterday. But Quinn was warm in the stroller and I had my cozy WIP, and the big kids were having too much fun to notice when it started to sprinkle and the park cleared out again. It happened three times just while we were there. A single drop would fall, and everyone would pack up and head for their cars.

For a while there, I thought I was going to run out of yarn, but the kids decided they were ready to leave first. Seven more rows, and I get to start the decreases. If I can figure out how to fix that little mistake I made when I misread the instructions.

I finally started a knitting journal. I've been putting it off forever, but it was as good a way as any to avoid spending quality time with my boxes.

We are moving! For quite a while, we've been talking about it and driving down to look at places in the area we want to move to. Most are way out of our price range. The ones that are in our price range are in worse shape than the place we live in now. The one house that was in our price range and didn't need any work and was absolutely perfect on paper just didn't do a thing for me. It had new white carpet in every room and I have three small children and that's not a combination I'd want to live with.

A couple of weeks ago, someone dh works with saw a For Sale By Owner sign and copied down the address. We drove down, called the people from their driveway and fell in love with the house. Four acres. A pond. A stream. A barn. Enough room for more kids than I can possibly give birth to. A fireplace. The kind of porch with the half-walled sides that I was vaguely hoping for. A little sunroom that divides the front door from the living room. Two bathrooms. A SEWING ROOM! A finished, insulated room that's over the garage and totally unsuitable for anything else. Darling Husband gets the barn and garage and the little mystery building behind the garage, and I get the sewing room. He called it that first, which makes it MINE. And if he somehow manages to swindle me out of my room, there's a little room in the attic that I'd have absolutely loved if there wasn't a real room available.

If we're going to be paying two mortgages until this house sells, I'm going to have to stop buying new stash and play with what I've got for a while. So last night, I dug through my fabric stash and made this:



I do realize that it's probably one of the ugliest quilts ever. But I had fun and if it falls out of the carseat and gets lost in a parking lot somewhere, I won't spend much time mourning it.

I've also finished the first Not Like Costco Sock and the heel is just as nice as the one I had to rip out.



I forgot to mention that the sellers accepted our offer. Subject to a pest and dryrot inspection and financing, that house and barn and stream and trees and sewing room are ours!

Not Like Coscto Socks

I'm knitting Bill a pair of socks, which he wants to be like the ones I got him from Costco for Christmas. I don't care if I'm supposed to put the recipients needs and desires ahead of my own, I'm absolutely not knitting a stupid pair of stockinette tube socks. He's getting ribbing and a shaped heel.

It's the nicest looking heel I've managed so far, but the foot is too long, so I'm going to have to rip it out.




Em and Emily asked about the Pixie Boots. The pattern is in 50 Baby Booties to Knit and after knitting the one, I can't get motivated enough to finish the pair. Mine isn't nearly as cute as the one in the book, and it wasn't much fun to knit. It wouldn't take long to finish the pair, but I've almost decided it would be smarter to use the leftover yarn to start a new pair of booties that are cuter and will fit my baby.

A Useful Swatch

I won't buy a skein of yarn just to make a swatch. I understand the theory that it might save me anguish and money wasted on yarn I hate, but I still won't do it. I buy blindly, cross my fingers, and hope for the best. So far, I haven't wound up with any yarn I really dislike.

This is the first time I've bought a skein of something to try it out before I order enough to make what I really have planned. I've bought a few single skeins of stuff just because it looked fun, but that was different. I didn't plan on buying more later.

So I bought a skein of KnitPicks Shine, I knit with it, I love the yarn and wish I had enough to make myself a top. And now I've got to wait until I can order more. Maybe while I'm waiting I should wash the swatch. I never do that either.

I'd planned to finish the Shine baby hat this morning, at least until Quinn messily reminded me how much we need to try diaper soakers. So I did this instead:



I need to knit the I-cord and weave in a couple of ends, but that won't take long. The important thing is that it fits! None of the free soaker patterns I found online were what I thought I wanted, so I wound up doing my own thing and was a little worried that it wouldn't fit even though I swatched and measured and measured again. If anything, it's a little loose.

I could've bought 20 skeins of KnitPicks Shine with the money we spent replacing that broken car window! And that's only because my wonderfully resourceful husband was able to get a window from the U-Pull place instead of taking the car to a glass shop. I'm glad we didn't wind up spending that much, but still bitter that we had to buy glass at all. Especially since it looks like we'll be getting rid of the car a lot sooner than we'd hoped.

My birthday book and yarn got here a few days ago, and I'm already trying to figure out how soon I'll be able to order more. I'm so in love with the yarn I can barely stand it. The Sock Landscape (Cape Cod) has such rich, wonderful colors and is so soft.



I was trying to figure out how to wind a skein into a ball in the front seat of the car until the baby woke up and put an end to that plan. Still think it'd work if I looped it over the visor. The Simple Stripes is about what I expected. And the Shine Twist is fabulous. I got one skein to play with and I love the way it's working up. Instead of a solid color for my top, I think I want more "Seaside."



Quinn may not ever wear the hat, but at least I have the feeling I'm knitting something useful instead of just swatching for no useful purpose at all.

Couldn't find a soaker pattern I loved, so I'm faking it. So far, it seems to be working. I'm extra proud of making the eyelets in the middle of the ribbing. Everyone else probably knows how to do things like that, but I had to work a bit to figure it out.



Think those needles would glow in the dark? The two colorful little skeins are what used to be Branching Out before I frogged it and got out the food coloring. If things work out the way I hope they will, they're going to be bookmarks one of these days.

It's been a good day. I made it to the Aurora Colony Handspinner's Guild Fiber Fair, and the kids let me sit through two of the three demos I really wanted to see. I'm still as confused as ever by how shadow knitting works, but now I've seen first hand how neat it looks. Wonder if I could put one of those SNB aliens on the front of a baby sweater? The talk on Exploring Color Relationships of Dyed Roving to Spun Yarn was incredible. The speaker showed samples of dyed roving, yarn spun from the roving, and swatches knit from the yarn. And some honeycomb pattern hats in different colors that showed how different the variegated yarn looked when paired with different solids. A lot of it went over my head, but I still know more than I did yesterday. I wanted to stick around for the talk on picking out fleeces, but decided it wasn't safe to push my luck with the boys.

Yesterday was kind of mediocre. I got in a lot more knitting time than I expected, because I was stuck at home without a car. Someone smashed the side window of the Tercel. They didn't even get inside -- either that, or they didn't take anything and locked the door behind them, which I kind of doubt. So instead going to the used curriculum sale and physical therapy and the grocery store, I cleaned house and knitted on Quinn's diaper soaker and a square for the blanket the Knittingparents list is making.

Right before bed, I was reading Knitter's Almanac because I thought the part about baby leggings might help me figure out what to do with the crotch of the soaker. The leggings made my head spin the same way it did the first time I read through the book, but the Pi Shawl makes sense. I need to knit one. Now.

Branching Out is no longer on my needles. I tried to do another repeat, wound up with the wrong number of stitches, tinked back two rows and still couldn't find the mistake. Since I wasn't loving the yarn or the way it felt, and probably never would have worn the scarf if I finished it, I unraveled the whole thing and have new plans to see what happens when you mix food coloring and alpaca and try to knit it into bookmarks. A more reasonable knitter might've tried a bit harder to salvage it, but a more reasonable knitter would've been sure to pick yarn she loved instead of picking the stuff that had been sitting in plain sight the longest.

Baby Socks!

The new Interweave Knits has baby socks....cabled baby socks...drop all the other WIPs and cast on for these baby socks. Braided Cable and Hugs and Kisses are my favorites, followed by cable rib and the other two. These could be just the motivation I need to learn how to read cable charts. I desperately want to knit cables from charts, because that's the only way I'm going to get a Rogue or the Heirloom Aran baby sweater, but they scare me and I keep putting it off. These look like a great learning experience. Do I have yarn for these?

I'm also tempted by the sketch book cover, the little socks, the lacy kerchief scarf (think I've got yarn for that one), and the Buffalo Girl neckwarmer and wristlets. Wonder how much buffalo costs.... Yup, it's out of my price range.

At karate yesterday, I swatched for my baby soaker, cast on the right number of stitches, and managed half a row before Quinn decided he wasn't going to sit still long enough for me to knit him a soaker. So we walked down to the grocery store and got a bunch of packets of tangerine KoolAid which they had on clearance -- which is really a good thing, because I want tangerine dyed socks and haven't seen that flavor anyplace else. And I've managed another fifteen rows of Clapotis. Nothing exciting enough to take a picture of.

pawing through my stash

Quinn, who keeps leaking all over me, and Nick, who has a great website that explains all about diaper soakers and how to actually use the things have just about convinced me to try cloth diapering again. The only thing I'm missing is the perfect wool. Should've bought some when I was standing in the Mill End Store with a 25% off coupon, or when I placed my Knitpicks order a couple of days ago, but I was trying to be good and didn't know I had an actual reason to buy those pretty colors.

Instead of buying new wool, I could use the stuff I bought for Bill's socks (bad idea, because then I've lost the possibility of making him socks) or the Fisherman Wool I haven't dyed yet (good idea, because then I can get more tangerine and mango Kool Aid and dye the soaker!) or the green stuff that's sitting in my lap (iffy idea, because I don't know how much of it there is.)

While I was ransacking the visible portion of my stash, I found yarn that might work for Ruffles from Scarf Style, and two skeins of yarn that will work for a pair of slippers I want to make my grandfather -- they're different dye lots, but if I use one skein for each slipper, who's going to know? And since the baby's outgrowing most of his hats (at least the ones I haven't misplaced), I want to knit one of these. There's gotta be the perfect baby hat yarn here someplace...

I've been productive, too. A bunch of quilt squares and six rows of Clapotis, which is suddenly the slowest thing I've knit since Knot a Knitted Paper Bag.

Horror Movie Knitting

Scary movies can add a great deal to the knitting experience. I cast on for Branching Out last night just as Dawn of the Dead came on. Probably not the smartest thing I could have done, since I've already spent several nights lying awake and thinking about disturbing scenes from that movie.

Slipping stitches and knitting two stitches together and passing the slipped stitch over and then trying to figure out which row you're on it much more exciting when there's music getting louder and more ominous by the second and there's something on the screen that needs looking at, but if you look up and lose what little concentration you have, there's no chance of making it to the end of the same row you started...

Wonder what else has good knitting music?

Not knitting is fine, as long as it's because you're doing something that's more fun than knitting, or something that'll make it possible to knit without guilt later on. I'm not sure what's filling up my time lately -- but it isn't knitting, isn't making time for knitting, and not enough of it is more fun than knitting. Since the guild meeting two weeks ago, I've only managed a few rows on my Clapotis, and a pair of socks. Which sounds more productive than it was, since I knit the socks from start to finish in about 2 1/2 days.(I also cut and pieced four quilt squares, but that doesn't even sound like much.)

I've got yarn, patterns, time.... there's no reason I shouldn't be doing something wonderful with it. So here goes:



This will hopefully grow into Branching Out.



This stuff -- Joann's Sensations Rainbow Boucle -- will be either a sweater for Heath or a poncho for Quinn now that I've talked myself out of trying to use it for the hoodie from Knit One. The yarn itself seems okay, and is incredibly cheap, but I'm not in love with the color and don't have the slightest idea how the colors are going to look once it's knitted up into something bigger than my already huge gauge swatch.


And this stuff, which I've been wanting for ages, is going to be something baby sized with lots of wonderful cables and texture that didn't show up in a photo of a photo.

I'm trying very hard not let myself get distracted by the fact that I don't seem to own the right yarn for any of the patterns calling to me from Scarf Style.

Some days, it's easy to be happy. Just look at what I've got next to me while I write this in the front seat of my car and my little girl learns new ways to kick people and keep them from kicking her:



The box itself is pretty exciting. I've still got visions of endless knitted bags, but for sitting and knitting in the car, this works a lot better. No more needles getting caught in something else and sliding loose from the stitches.

There's my springy Clapotis, which has been a bit neglected lately because I've been learning how to work a short row heel and wrap the stitches.

Do you see the socks? I'm just a few rounds of k2p2 ribbing away from a real, functional pair that fits my son's feet. Suddenly a lot more of what I've been reading on Socknitters over the past couple of years makes sense, and I'm not nearly as intimidated by my pretty skeins of Opal. And I've got an actual reason to buy more self patterning yarn because I CAN KNIT SOCKS!

I'd have finished them and restarted my Lolita Toes if it wasn't for the new book. I've been trying to get my hands on a copy of At Knit's End since the day it came out and now that I've finally got one, I can't get over how cute it is. Smaller than I expected, a great size for toting around from room to room. I've seen the cover art dozens of times but I never realized that it was a knitted road stretching toward a big sunny ball of yarn there on the horizon. What a great image! (That title sounds a bit ominous though, like the knitting might someday stop.)

I've only read the introduction and a few pages from the middle -- just enough to convince myself it's as much fun as I'd hoped it would be -- because I hate to use it all up. For a crazy moment, I even considered rationing it out, reading one page each time I finished a new projects, but that's just an insane idea.

I even had a good parking spot right in front of the door, so I could watch class through the window.

Here's the plan for tomorrow:

My Head's Spinning!

I think I overdosed on inspirational fibery stuff this week. Between the quilt show, the knitting guild meeting, going through a bunch of quilting books with my mom, & the new issue of Knitty, I'm a little overwhelmed. There's another quilt show next weekend, and two fiber festivals within the next month, and then I think Sheep to Shawl and Black Sheep Gathering are both June... I could keep hauling the kids to this stuff all summer!

And, as if that wasn't enough, thanks to a lot of very kind advice from members of the Socknitters list, I actually learned to work a short row heel!

This fits my foot:



I'll be ripping the whole thing out soon to make it a bit narrower in hopes that I really can get a pair of Lolita Toes out of one ball of Fixation. But that's okay because it fits, and I understand how to make another one that fits even better.

And because I need some instant gratification before I start the ripping, I started this:

I did cast on something new -- Lolita Toes -- and now the suspense is killing me. Can I do this? If I can, will they fit? If they fit, will there be enough yarn?! I'm using cascade fixation I originally bought with a baby hat in mind, so I've only got one skein. Which is what the pattern calls for, so I should be okay...right? (I tried to do a google search to see if any other knitters had blogged about them, but the results were really really scary.)

My toe is...um...not quite right, because I tried to do the figure eight cast-on from memory, but if I'd hauled my butt off of the couch and logged back onto the internet to find out how to do it right, I probably never would've started the project at all. And what I've got seems to be holding together well enough.

And now I understand where to put the increases if I ever finish my toe up Magic Stripes sock and need to make a second one! That alone is such a wonderful thing that it doesn't matter if my Lolita Toes turn out to be a total disaster. Although I'd really rather have enough yarn and make cute socks that fit my feet.

slipping from room to room in the dark

The Fly Lady says to hit the ground running, and so does The Organizer Lady. If I'm going to be up this early, I'm going to be a quiet little mouse. Not taking a shower or running the vacuum cleaner, or anything else that might inspire the three kids to hit the ground running with me. So I slip from room to room in the dark because it's still cold and dark and I want to get in some knitting time before anyone joins me. I haven't decided if it'll be Clapotis or something else.

I should get off the computer and go cast on something new while they're all sleeping and I've got the chance to actually count.

Flashing My Stash!

It's a few hours early, but I decided to do this while I have time and before I lose my nerve:




Except for a few stray skeins that've surfaced since I took the pictures (and the cross-stitching and quilting stuff), that is absolutely all of my yarn and fiber. It doesn't look as bad as I thought it would, probably because I didn't take everything out of the drawers and spread it out at one time like I did a few months back. And I didn't count skeins or make any other effort to calculate exactly how much yarn is in those piles. It's more than the 320 skeins I had in December.

If you fix a mistake, make sure it's fixed before you knit much further. One of the ladders on my Clapotis got shifted two stitches to one side and made a total mess of things, but I didn't notice it for an entire day of knitting. I wound up frogging the entire thing. There were a bunch of other little problems I'd glossed over along the way, so the new incarnation will be much better than the original.

This is my first project with dropped stitches, and I'm surprised at how much I like the way it looks. I wanted to post a picture of the nice springy colors, but now there's not much to take a picture of. And I was afraid if I took a picture before I tore it all out, I'd lose my nerve and either keep knitting on what I had even though it was doomed, or never start a second attempt.

I've been using every stitch maker I can get my hands on, and I've developed some definite preferences over the past three days. The little round white plastic thingies are best, but I don't have enough and I don't have the energy to drag all three kids to the store for more as long as there's something else in the house that will work. The split markers are too clunky. The little hair elastics, which I've used happily on other projects, get stuck on the cable of my needle and drive me nuts. Little loops of scrap yarn are a pain to cut and tie, but work almost as well as the white plastic things. And they don't cost anything.

Just a Couple More Hours....

I got out of bed sometime before 3am, and it's finally hit me how tired I am. I did try to go back to sleep once I got the baby settled again, but I kept thinking about roving and fleece and yarn and all of the fun things I could be working on, so I just got up and got on with my day. Which has been pretty good, especially since I'm running on about three hours of sleep.

I ran a couple of errands and got a good workout while drooling over an old issue of Vogue Knitting which has a neat backpack that I think might use up some of the bulky brown yarn that's hiding in the bottom of a rubbermaid bin because I don't like the color for a sweater or an afghan and couldn't figure out what else to do with it.

Somehow, a Clapotis jumped onto my needles while I wasn't paying attention. I sort of know how it happened. Alex announced that she wanted a thing that would wrap around her shoulders "just like this," and at about the same time some garage sale yarn that's been sitting in my stash for two years telling me it wanted to be a mobius vest announced that it wanted to be a Clapotis, and by that point it didn't matter that Alex doesn't like my yarn and would rather have the stuff in the pattern picture because now I'm knitting it for myself.

Now that I've found a fun project I got more knitting done today than I have in the past week. And last night, I sat up late playing with the hand carders I got for Christmas. I'd be doing that again tonight, if I wasn't starting to fall asleep here at the computer.

Dinner's in the oven, the baby's been up for hours, and the big kids will go to bed when I tell 'em to. And the Clapotis and fleece will be waiting for me bright and early tomorrow morning.

Birthday Fiber

My husband didn't get me anything for my birthday yesterday. (And we didn't go anywhere because I took the kids to a rainy Easter egg hunt instead.) Supposedly because I didn't tell him what I wanted, but that was only because I was expecting him to ask the way he has for the past couple of years and assuming that since he hadn't asked, he'd figured out an idea of his own. But he didn't do either and I was pouting because if he's not going to buy me birthday yarn, I should at least get SOMETHING! We did go to Borders after dinner to look for The Opinionated Knitter or the Yarn Harlot's book, and they didn't have either, and my parents are in Arizona, so I didn't get anything except a card from Alex and some pretty roving that she bought me on the yarn crawl and gave to me that same day because she couldn't stand waiting. It's GORGEOUS roving, made even gorgeouser by the fact that my 8 year old picked it out and bought it all on her own (and kept half for herself ), but it doesn't quite eclipse the fact that he didn't buy me anything but dinner. I'm going to go ahead and order the Opinionated Knitter from Knitpicks (because that way I can also get the pattern for the smoke ring that none of the LYS's I've checked carry and yarn for it and a couple of other little things...) but I wanted something to play with yesterday, especially since I'd had that something in my hands on the yarn crawl and didn't buy it then.

Then I got this from a wonderfully generous knitting friend (which has nothing to do with my birthday, but was pretty neat timing):

Hi, Michelle and Alex;
I've started my spring cleaning and realized I have several boxes of washed fleece stored in the garage and the shed. If the wool is still in good condition, would you two like to have several boxes of it to spin?

We came home from her house with an entire raw fleece, a paper grocery sack of llama, another grocery sack of kid mohair, a box of something else, a bag of something else, two more bags of carded roving, several skeins of handspun... Just a completely unbelievable amount of fiber! Which she told us to use or trash or do whatever we wanted with.

I've had some roving to play with, but I'm afraid that I'll make a mistake and ruin it, or do things right and use it all up. This just materialized and there's so MUCH of it! I can't wait to play. :-)



I should've played this afternoon, but I was cleaning house and taking pictures so I can Flash my Stash on April 1.

I should get a gold star

I was an extra good mommy today and took the kids to see Robots (which was lots better than the commercials had me expecting it to be, but nowhere near as good as Shrek 2), then to Coldstone Creamery to get free ice cream with the ticket stubs. I didn't get ice cream because I was thinking of how much yarn I could buy for the price of a small bowl. After karate, we spent almost two hours at the library playing in the discovery room, which is set up like a grocery store. No wonder I'm too tired to knit tonight!

I can't even work up the energy to look through the knitting books I brought home. And I can't go to bed until it's time to take my dumb antibiotics.

All the other knitters are knitting bunnies

That's the way the Bunny A Long makes it seem. Easter is coming and I had a partial skein of grey yarn, so it was the perfect time to try the Knitted Bunny pattern at HeartStrings FiberArts.



Isn't he kinda cute? Not as adorable as the one on the pattern and the ones everyone else is making, and not cute enough for me to make two more so all three kids would have bunnies for Easter. But cute enough. Once I got the square knitted, which somehow took days, he finished up quickly.



I think the orange socks are very cute, especially since I made them that color myself by knitting a swatch and then dying it was mango and tangerine KoolAid and frogging it and then knitting socks. I'd like a pair for myself, almost enough to consider repeating the whole process with a lot more wool.

And Alex wants a suede hat in her size.

When do I get to knit?

I managed to finish the suede baby hat in time to take it to the guild meeting last Saturday and made a pair of tube socks for Quinn out of the orange Kool aid yarn, but that's it. The Raspberry Wrap is no more, after someone upended my knitting bag and it got snagged on something else and lots of stitches (including yarn overs which I don't know how to recover) fell of the needles and now I can't even tell which way I was supposed to be going. Maybe I'll try a different ribbing pattern, since I wasn't wild about this one.

I've stumbled onto the ultimate weight loss secret -- the Patternworks catalog! I propped it over the console of the eliptical tonight and, instead of spending the next twenty minutes staring at the timer and wondering when I could get off the thing and go home, I stared at pictures of gorgeous yarn with names like Beach Glass and Love Potion. The time flew, even though I think the thing was set to a harder level than I'm used to (gotta flag down one of the physical therapists and figure out what it should be set at and how to get it that way) and I'd already flipped through most of the catalog. I feel so good! My next challenge is getting myself on enough yarn catalogs to keep my imagination fired up three times a week. Let's see....I've got Woodland Woolworks, Halycon, Knit Picks.... Wonder who else I can request them from.

And, speaking of the wonderful stuff in Patternworks -- there's a jacket that goes with the suede hat and booties. Now I REALLY wish I'd bought more of the suede when it was on clearance!

Should've bought some of the red and black suede...

Berroco Suede is fun to knit with. It feels neat and looks neat and I'm going to be sad when mine is all used up, even though I don't have any idea what I'd do with it beside the Ugg booties and matching hat that I bought it for in the first place.



The hat's almost done except for the flaps and finishing, which made no sense at all when I was trying to figure it out at 1am. I should give it another try tonight so I can free up that set of needles for the next project I want to tackle.

Okay, one of the dozen or so "next projects!" It's a good thing to have patterns and yarn and ideas for more things than I ever expect to finish. Especially when it's nice, cooperative yarn, that doesn't mind what it winds ending up as.

That yarn I bought for the Tri-Aran-Angle? Now it's thinking of becoming a Raspberry Wrap. I've got my measurements. I've got Barbara Walker's Treasury of Knitting Patterns from the library so I can look up the ribbing in the middle. Now I've got to swatch and do math and that's where I always go astray and look for the easy way out.

Besotted is all done, and I need another big rectangle to pick up and work on when there's stuff going on around me. I'm going to have to swatch this time.

achey but happy

We hiked on Monday. Two hours of trudging up and down a gravel road with the baby in my awful sling, and I made it back to the car on my own two feet. That's the farthest I've tried to go since the accident (not to mention the bedrest and c-section), so I'm very proud of myself. I may get to have some fun this summer after all.

After finishing one Pixie Boot from 50 Baby Booties to Knit, I can't stand the idea of knitting a second one. I should do it very soon, because the first one does fit and Quinn needs something to keep his little toes warm if he's going to wear little outfits without feet. I'm telling myself I have to make another stupid Pixie Boot before I try any of the sixteen other patterns in that book that I want to knit. (And I'm really hoping they aren't as much of a pain!) This pair isn't from the book, though, so I can start them whenever I want.

I want to knit a hot water bottle cozy. Walmart doesn't have real hot water bottles anymore, just things that plug in and things that go in the microwave and cost a lot of money and won't fit the pattern. But Target did have a nice reddish pink one with latex warnings all over the outside of the box. I really wanted a blue one (How silly is that?) but not enough to keep dragging three kids to different stores to find it.

In case anyone was wondering, gruesome red Crystal Lite makes very pretty wool. So do Mango and Tangerine Kool Aid.

Sinuous Short Rows

Look what I made!



His head actually holds that shape, thanks to a strategically placed stitch, and those curves are permanent, thanks to the wonderfulness of short rows. In case you couldn't tell, I'm pretty proud of myself for coming up with this guy all on my own.
I did want him to have fangs, but couldn't get the i-cord skinny enough for them to look right.

I'm anxious to get my hands on Yarns to Dye For - Creating Self-Patterning Yarns for Knitting as soon as it's available. And I broke my yarn diet for this, but only because the baby's getting bigger every day and waiting a month means he'd have less time to wear it (yes, I realize that I have to knit it first) and I'm only on the yarn diet in the first place so I'll have money to buy stuff at the yarn crawl next month. I didn't buy the pattern for this, which I love just as much, and which seems like it would be the answer to all of my baby-carrying, dropped blanket difficulties.

Now I'm going to go back to playing happily with what I've got in my stash. The yarn from Knitpicks came, and I can make booties or dye sock yarn, or start Miss Dashwood, or the baby bunting.

Anaconda Scarf

I'm knitting Heath a snake scarf with the Camoflauge Red Heart Super Saver that I bought who knows when for who knows what, back before I realized how much I hate Super Saver. The yarn was hidden in the very bottom of my stash until I dug it out last night. While I was shifting boxes around to get at the one I thought I needed, I realized how great it is to finally be able to get at what I want instead of waiting to be better, or asking someone else to do it for me.

I'm an able bodied adult again -- hooray!

My Gauge Swatch Lied

I've made up my mind to get past this irrational fear of socks. I can knit on dpns. I can blindly follow the directions and come out with what looks like a heel. What I can't seem to do is knit a sock that'll fit the foot it was intended for.

Yesterday, I tried to do things right. I swatched, and even stranded the yarn across the back so that it would be accurate. Happy that I was getting five stitches an inch, I cast on and started knitting a cuff. After the first couple of inches, it was looking way too big, so I measured my gauge again and it was four stitches an inch. How?! I'm determined to figure this out. Just not today.

Today, I pulled out CardiOrNot, and finished the front sections. It looks like I got the interlocking thingie right after all, and the shaping went easier than I expected it to. All that's left now is the sleeves, which I know I can do, and the finishing, which I'm not as confident about. But as long as the pieces are all done, I can say I used the yarn.

Oh, and Alex's poncho is done. She's been wearing it ever since.

Looking for Round Things to Knit

I started -- and finished -- something new! Aren't those variegated stripes pretty? And the scallopy edges?



As slow as my knitting progress has been this year, finishing anything at all would thrill me, but I really like this little washcloth and it's set me off on a search for more round things to knit. Online, I found a couple different cloths and a baby blanket...and at the library I found books on lace knitting that were full of pretty round things. So I'm not making any more progress on my WIPs than I was before the round purple washcloth came into my life, but that's not important.

What is important is that I'm feeling creative again. There was a perfect moment this afternoon, while I was knitting on Alex's poncho, Alex was winding wool from an unraveled sweater onto my niddy noddy, and Quinn was lying on my lap happily watching the yarn go by. What more could a mommy want?

Quinn's Fishie Sweater

The Boatneck Baby Sweater from Baby Knits for Beginners has lots of things going for it. It isn't a cardigan, doesn't have a zipper up the front or the back or those annoying little buttons at the side of the neck, or any of the other things that annoyed me about every pattern I looked at in my search for the perfect baby sweater. It's just a plain, easy to knit pullover. And because it is so plain, it needs to be knitted many times in many colors and stitch patterns. The first time, I used Caron Simply Soft and followed the pattern as written.

Here's #2, otherwise known as Quinn's Fishie Sweater:



The time I didn't follow much but the dimensions and sleeve shaping from the original pattern. To keep the fishies (which didn't show up well with the yarn I used) lined up and avoid as many seams as possible, I knitted the bottom half in the round. I replaced the garter stitch rows at the neck and cuffs with wider bands of seed stitch. And to get out of even more seams, I did a three-needle bind off at the shoulders.

I like these little sweaters! They're easy and cuddly and cute. Next time, I want to try to overlap the shoulders a bit so it's more like a regular onsie. I can sort of almost visualize how it might work.

Since Alex claims she saw a bug in our new yarn while she was sorting through it, the whole bag is hibernating safely in the chest freezer. I'm hoping it was just a flea the cat carried in, but just in case it's something that wants to eat my yarn, I guess I'd better freeze it. And my KnitPicks order still isn't here. It was shipping on the 10th, so I'm getting impatient. How am I supposed to knit cute little booties when half my dk wool is getting frozen and the other half is still in the mail?

See why I'm so excited?

Look at some of what came home from the guild meeting with me --



A woman came in at the beginning of the meeting, hoping to sell some of her sister's wool stash for fifty cents a skein, and the chapter president and a couple of other members told her that everyone had closets full of yarn and wouldn't be interested and suggested places she might donate it...while I sat there biting my tongue and hoping that my eight year old would speak up that we don't have a closetful of yarn (even if that's only because there's not a closet available to keep it in) and were very interested in talking to her. luckily she did stay until the end of the meeting.

I was hoping for something remotely appropriate to make diaper soakers and mittens out of. I wound up with thirty-seven skeins of jumper weight wool and sock yarn and I don't know what all else for $18.50. I know I'm on a yarn diet, but that was only so I would be able to do some shopping at the guild's yarn crawl next month. Really incredible yarn bargains that practically fall into my lap while I'm not even looking for them are an exception. Especially when it lets me add a lot of something I didn't already have to my stash.

I don't have my KnitPicks order in my hands yet, so that dk weight wool doesn't count as "in my stash." I'm absolutely sure of it.

Alex and I are still disputing the ownership of this yarn, which I love almost enough to give in and trade her the GoodWill alpaca for. I've decided that it will all live in my stash, and after she's finished one of her projects and has another one in mind, I'll help her come up with the right yarn for it, either from my stash or a shopping trip.

As if that wasn't enough fun for one day, a woman at the meeting showed off the sweaters she'd made. Silk and cashmere in thinner than fingering weight yarn that she'd combined strands of. Seams that were only barely visible because you knew they had to be there. Gorgeous designs that she'd come up with herself. She pulled out this incredible skirt, then told us she hadn't had a blouse to wear with it, so she whipped up a matching sweater. And every last bit of it was unraveled Value Village sweaters she'd bought on Mondays with her senior citizen discount -- I really want to be that woman when I grow up!

And I'm such a good mommy I didn't even yell when Alex put her Snapple in my knitting bag without tightening the lid and it drizzled on both my WIPs -- not to mention some of the wool I'd just bought and a skein of Euroflax. If I'd done it myself, there would've been lots of unrepeatable language.

I've been working on the lace poncho from the current issue of InKnitters. A quick and easy lace pattern seems to be just what I needed right now. It's working up fast -- after only a couple of days, I've got the first rectangle done.

If all the other knitters jumped off a bridge...

I'd look to see if there was something interesting down there. Because it might be a Booga Bag or a Hallowig or something else I'd like to knit. Or it might not. Either way, it's fun to see what other knitters are getting all excited about.

Personally, I'm excited about Tri-aran-angle and Toddle. And while I was at Walmart getting three skeins of Caron Simply Soft, I found some clearance yarn that should work well for Easy Breezy, which I wanted to try until I found out how much the yarn would cost.

Now I need to free up some needles so I can cast on my new projects!

Nothing Exploded

I finally worked up the nerve to get out the fisherman wool Mom bought me for Christmas, and the Kool-Aid packets that I bought months ago and try to do something with them. I'm not too sure about the results, but nothing caught fire or felted, despite some ominous popping sounds from the microwave. Once I get some different colors, the kids and I are going to try it again.



They're both anxious to try mixing their own colors, so I've promised that we can dye yarn and I'll knit it into mittens or hats or something.

I'm tempted to see what happens if I experiment nasty stuff my husband's been drinking lately. It's so so SO blood red, even when it's diluted into something supposedly drinkable. That can't be good for his insides, but I bet it'd make some gorgeous yarn!

This Could Become an Addiction

I had to go back to the GoodWill Outlet this morning. The knittingparents list is doing a buttonhole bag knitalong, and Alex has claimed the yarn I spent last night unraveling and planned to use. Actually, I guess she's claimed the sweater she wants me to knit from it. It's the right gauge for a ribbed cardigan I wanted to make her, so who am I to argue?

Besides, digging through bins for baby clothes and sweaters to recycle is fun!

The Salvation Army didn't have any decent yarn, or baby clothes, but they had an unbelievable selection of children's books. Lots of Nancy Drew and brand new non-fiction for thirty-five cents a piece. So I've got happy kids.

I found three good sweaters in the GoodWill bins -- and yarn!



I picked up one of the white skeins, surprised that it was there at all, then saw on the label that it was wool and started digging. That's when we found the alpaca, which I had to fight Alex for. It was in a corner of the grossest smelling bin in the place, but it just smells a little old and smoky. And yarn -- especially sixteen-cents-a-skein-alpaca -- can be washed.

I didn't find any sweaters that wanted to become a buttonhole bag, so I think I'll experiment with the fisherman's wool I got for Christmas and some food coloring and try to make some colorful stripes.

Sweater Hunting

Yesterday, the kids and I went hunting for sweaters to rip apart into yarn. Value Village was too expensive (no surprise there!), but we did have good luck digging through the bins at the GoodWill Outlet, where I found the two sweaters on the left -- the two on the right have been hiding in a closet with the purple sweater I tore apart earlier this week. The brown one on the left is a soft wool/angora blend. The purple one is 100% wool, which I hope will felt into a bag, maybe striped with the grey wool next to it. And the lavender one is a lightweight wool/angora blend that wants to be a shawl someday.



Here's Besotted:



I'm using the seaming pin as a cable needle, which works well. It's less awkward than a DPN, and not expensive if I lose it.

Voodoo!

Fluffy scarf yarn usually doesn't appeal to me, but this stuff is fun. It's also $5.99 for a 33 yard skein, which I didn't realize until I'd already brought it home from the store and started knitting with it. Per yard, this has got to be the most expensive yarn I've ever splurged on. And it was for my eight year old daughter to knit with! The day I saw her sitting on the floor at the LYS and counting her pennies to see if she could buy a skein of fluffy pink stuff, I knew I had to get her a few skeins fancy yarn for her birthday. It never occured to me that there might not be enough for a teeny-tiny scarf. We've made it narrower and switched to bigger needles and I'm hoping I don't have to go buy a second skein.

I'd happily use Voodoo again, if I didn't have to pay for it. :-P

X's & O's

I've spent three evenings knitting on Besotted, and the more progress I make, the happier I am with the way it's turning out. It's pretty and has a great name and the cable pattern is interesting, but just barely simple enough to keep track of while there are other things going on.

And after getting all inspired by ReKal 2005, I dug out the thrift store sweaters that have been stuffed in the closet for more than a year now. The purple one has been taken apart and unraveled into what's got to be at least 900 yards of yummy wool/angora blend. I've still got two more sweaters to play with, but what I'd really like to do is dig through the bins at the GoodWill outlet looking for muddy reddish brown yarn-to-be. That'll have to wait until the love of my life goes back to work, though, because I don't even want to try to explain to him why I'm frogging sweaters instead of knitting with the yarn I've got or using my spinning wheel.

I know why -- because I've just discovered that I can spend $2 and get hours and hours of playtime. And I haven't even knit anything with it yet!

Besotted!

I didn't get the sleeve sewn to Quinn's cute little sweater tonight. Instead, I cast on for Besotted and knit two whole pattern repeats. I've got X's and O's in cranberry Wool-ease and I'm even more excited about this scarf now that I've got a visible hint of how mine is going to turn out. The picture on the pattern is pretty, but mine is red.

I think this is going to be my Valentine's gift to myself.

Still Not Much Knitting

Quinn's blue sweater will be done as soon as I sew the last sleeve into place, but that's still about the only knitting I've managed to get done this month. I really do want to knit...as soon as I feel better....or the kids all take a nap...or the stars line up properly...or whatever it finally takes to get me sitting on the couch with needles and yarn.

I keep getting ambushed by new projects:

I found the new issue of Knit It! last week while I was wandering the grocery store to kill time during Alex's karate class. She stays after to spar, and to do chin ups now that they've got the bar back up, and class gets longer and longer every week. There are about seven patterns that appeal to me, but they're all overshadowed by the Aran Poncho, which has a huge intricately twining cable. The pattern calls for 11 skeins of Cool Wool, which is more than I want to spend, but Chunky USA is the same gauge and was on sale for 99 cents a skein. Less expensive, washes well, and will mean a lot less ends to weave in. I'm suddenly convinced I need a poncho for nursing in public.

Then someone on one of the knitting lists mentionedthis, which has got to be the cutest baby boy hat and booties I've ever seen. And Craft Warehouse had the Berroco Suede on clearance for $5.50 a skein. As soon as I find something to substitute for the Plush, I can get started.

There's the Besotted scarf, the Snowdrift Aran, the Bed & Breakfast Pullover, two sweaters from Baby Knits for Beginners, Amazing Twining Lace from a back issue of Knitters, the Diamonds in the Rough and Waffle socks...

And then are the things I want to buy yarn for. Top of that list is this -- which has got to be the most incredible felted bag I've ever seen. I don't want the yarn the pattern calls for, because I'd never in a million years spend that much on one project, let alone something I was going to throw in the washer and felt. But where there's a will, there's a way, and I've definitely got the will to find a decent substitute.

I want to tackle something from Folk Mittens and another sweater for Quinn.

There are more things on my dream list, lots more than I've got the energy to type out here. I've either got to start getting things done, or stop adding to the list. And there's no way I'm going to stop finding new projects, so I'd better grab those needles!

Why can't I knit?

I've got yarn, patterns, projects I'm excited about that are already in progress and more projects I'm excited about that could go on the needles anytime I'm ready. For Christmas, the kids and I got a bunch of great DVDs, and I've been renting lots of cheap movies to watch while my husband is at work.

Open Water was intriguing and disturbing, and I had to watch it three times, then do a Google search to find the true story it was based on. Dawn of the Dead was kind of fun and I would've watched the commentary if I'd had the chance. The Village wasn't at all what I expected.

Despite all of that, I haven't knit much of anything so far this year. First it was the migraine that had me working my way through the medicine cabinet for days, trying everything I could find that was safe to take while breastfeeding. Now I've got a nasty bug that just won't let go. Today is day eight and I'm starting to feel better, but still nowhere near healthy. After keeping myself and the baby quarantined since October, this just isn't fair! At least he seems to have caught it and recovered with just a little stuffiness and one scary voiceless afternoon.

Yesterday and today should have been prime knitting days. Bill has the good car and I'm not going anywhere, even though I'd love to see if the LYS down the street has the new issue of Vogue Knitting. That can wait until tomorrow, especially since I'll be able to slip out without the kids.

I did get up early yesterday and finish about three inches of Quinn's blue fishy sweater, which is bearing less and less of a resemblance to the original pattern, and has been a lot easier than I thought it would be. Now that I've divided the front and back, it just needs four more inches of stockinette stitch, so I'm saving the rest for a karate project.

Today, I'm playing with my cardigan. I'm almost to the part where the two front halves interlock, and I'm getting more nervous with every row.

I'd like to cast on the second half of the Cathedral Window Shawl, but there's no way I'll be able to concentrate on it, so that'll have to wait until a night when everyone else is in bed.

Hats?

How did I wind up knitting twelve hats this year? I guess it makes sense, since most are for the baby, but that's still a lot of hats. Especially since I've got at least a dozen more hat patterns printed out and for Christmas I got yarn to make the Cross Country Chullo from the new issue of Knitty. That one shouldn't count, though, because it's more of an excuse to play with color and learn something new than a hat I expect to wear. And most of the rest are baby hats. Some for Quinn, and some for the special care nursery.

I also knitted four scarves, a sweater and two jackets for the baby, a cute little dress that will wind up on Alex's favorite baby doll, a baby blanket, a couple of pairs of booties, five scarves, a little red summer top for me, three bags, four sweaters for the big kids...about 35 finished knitting projects at all.

I'm going to attempt some bigger, more complex projects in 2005. And socks. I've turned a heel by blindly following the pattern, and grown comfortable with my dpns. The next step should be making something that actually fits the foot it's intended for.

Yarn and patterns for quite a few exciting projects are ready and waiting for me to cast on, and I'm coveting the yarn for a couple more.

Can't wait to get started!

Michelle

When I read a post last year from a knitter who planned to rip out ever project that she hadn't finished by the end of the year, I was horrified. How could anyone knit happily with that kind of deadline looming ahead? My memory's not that great - maybe she planned to leave a project or two on the needles. But reading her scary plan conjured up images of dismal Novembers and Decembers, where you couldn't start anything new because it might not be finished by the time the clock struck midnight.

Now I'm thinking it might not be such a bad idea to make some of my WIPs disappear. Like the cabled baby hat I was fighting with last night. It's almost done. What's left to do isn't difficult, just annoying. But in just a couple of minutes I could make it all disappear back into a neat ball of yarn. I wouldn't have to sew the seams, or worry about whether or not it's actually going to look cute on Quinn's little head. It could just go away. So could the cardigan and shawl I started while I was on bedrest and in the hospital. I don't feel like working on them at all lately.

If I did frog the shawl and cardigan, I'd still have the yarn and I'd still have invested the money in them, so I'd have lingering guilt. Guess I'll hang onto them both until I either feel like finishing, or find something more exciting to do with the yarn.

Michelle

Today, I'm mourning a Christmas present that could have been. I wasn't going to knit anything for my sister this year. Well, I was going to try the ear muff thingies from Knitty, but made the mistake of showing my mom the pattern first and letting her convince me they were dumb and then I just went out and bought a decorative thing and promised myself I'd have time to do something really good next year. Last year, I made her a Booga Bag, which she liked.

So I went over to Mom's yesterday, and she had the scarf I knitted last year lying on the counter. Stacey saw her wearing it when they went out the day before and asked if I'd knitted it. She's apparently expecting a knitted present -- and excited about it. ACK! How many days do I have left?!

I cast on a scarf for her this morning, using the same pattern I used for Mom's, but if I would've known even a couple of days sooner, I could've done something better -- like an Irish Hiking Scarf with matching wrist warmers. I'm actually fighting the urge to go buy some yarn and try to pull it off in the 2 1/2 days I've got left.

THIS is what happens when you pay attention to stupid posts from people who say giving knitted gifts is selfish. And ask other family members if they think a particular project is a good idea. I'm really glad Stace wants something knitted. I'm going to do the best I can with the yarn I've got and the little time I have left and, next year, I won't let other people convince me not to follow my instincts.

Michelle

I'm not done!

I've been reading the year end inventory posts on the knitlist, and all I can think is that the year isn't over yet -- I've got time to finish lots more! I've still got Christmas presents to knit, and Quinn's little head is getting bigger so he needs more hats, and I really desperately want a pair of wrist warmers like these or the long fingerless gloves here. I could finish at least two or three more things, I'm sure of it!

Mom's Christmas Scarf is done. The ends are woven in and it's washed and blocked and looks a lot better than I thought it would. Quinn's Baby Born jacket is done, and not nearly as cute as I'd hoped. The yarn is way too bulky for something that tiny. But it was a learning experience. Now I know that I can manage real, shaped sleeves and armholes, and that 2 stitches to the inch is not a good choice for a newborn. No matter how cute the jacket looked in the pattern photo.

Michelle

I was so close to having a wonderful new project to start.

There are lots of things in the new issue of Knitty that I'm drooling over. Especially Tempting. It's got ribs, it's knit in the round, I understand how to join the pieces together, and it's absolutely darling.

I found some inexpensive yarn online in a color I love, not that I should really order any new stuff after that splurge a few days ago. Then I realized that there might be enough of that black kid mohair mom found, the other day. There is -- almost to the yard -- and I can get the right gauge. It's soft and luscious, but a little stiff...Maybe it'll soften up after washing. There isn't enough black to wash a swatch, but I could try one of the other colors and see what it does. At this point, I'm ignoring that little inner voice that warms me I may be trying to make the impossible work. If there isn't quite enough black, I can add a narrow band of teal to the top. Or I can check my measurements and probably subtract a little from the length, since I'm short...

That was when I looked at the picture and the bare shoulders finally registered. I'd have to buy a strapless bra because I hate the one I have. I'm pretty sure they don't make strapless nursing bras. If this do, I don't want one.

This project is going to have to wait at least a year. Darn!

Michelle

I've been in one of those "I want new yarn to play with" moods. It's not that I need the yarn...having new goodies is just so fun! Mom and the kids and I have been planning a trip up to Fabric Depot for their monthly 30% off sale for months, but things kept happening to make us cancel. Today was our last chance until at least April, and I've been on pins and needles waiting for something to mess up this trip.

We had a near miss when dh totally destroyed a tire on his way to work and I wound up standing by the side of the road at 5:45am with a screaming baby, waiting for him to put on the spare so I could drive it home and he could take the Durango to work.

But the day got better. :-) Mom showed up with thrift store treasure -- 1100 yards of kid mohair (mostly black along with gold and teal and some other yummy colors) that were part of a vest kit. The ten year old invoice for $76 was still in the box, which she paid $2.50 for. And she had 960 yards of wine colored wool, a skein of nice red acrylic/wool blend, and a ton of old acrylic -- some of it too icky even for me, but it was in the $2 bag with the wool. Heath can cut it up.

And I think Fabric Depot has just about every Lion Brand yarn there is -- including the black Wool-ease for the Knit One tank which I can't get here in town. I found couple of yarns I hadn't tried before (Red Heart Hokey Pokey and TLC Wiggles) to make baby sweaters and some really nice looking cotton to make a shawl for Mom. (I can't do it by Christmas, but maybe for Mother's day!) It was so hard to be good and remind myself that they do this every month.

Then we stopped at the Pendleton Mill End store, where they've got Encore and Canadiana in a zillion different colors.

I'm overwhelmed with yarn today, and thoroughly enjoying it. :-)

Michelle

I need a knitted clock.

I finally got my hands on a copy of Knit 1, and now I want a knitted clock to hang here in my little alcove. It's got to be red, but not the same red as the sock yarn I already have -- that'd be far too easy!

I also want to knit the black k1 tank and one of those huge hoodies -- but not with Homespun, because that wouldn't be nice to knit or to wear. Alex's hooded sweater had a purpose after all! I was able to learn that I don't like knitting with Homespun and don't like the way it looks after it's been worn a few times without investing in a big project for myself. There has to be some other wonderful fluffy stuff out there that I can substitute. And hopefully afford.

When I was in the hospital, I got the idea of knitting a ribbed baby gown. I've got a very clear picture of it in my mind, and think I've figured out how the construction would work.

I pulled out the pieces of baby sweater I finished knitting a couple of months ago, then couldn't assemble because the leftover yarn is in a safe but forgotten place. I was just going to hold it up to Quinn and guess at how it would fit, but the pieces had really long yarn tails. Long enough to manage all of the seams! And it fits great, so I've got the measurements for my baby gown. What I don't have is enough skeins of the same color.

This morning my little guy is wearing his cute little sweater that fits better than most of his store bought stuff. I feel like a very good mommy.

Michelle