Baby Knitting is Taking Over!!!

Here is the burp cloth I made for a friend's baby. I am going to have to mail it off, but it is so cute I wanted to share it with everyone!

Going onto the needles next is a little pair of breeches for my niece's baby, and then the sweater. November is going to roll around here before you know it and I want the package to be in the mail and already there before November. Yeah, I am kind of pushing it, but little things go so very quickly!

I am also contemplating put a sweater on the needles for my DH. If I am diligent it should actually be done by his birthday, 01/31. Right? Yeah, my first attempt at making a sweater is still sitting in there in its bag looking forlorn and lonely. My thinking is: If I begin from scratch with brand new/different yarn, the knitting should actually go quicker, especially since my knitting confidence is a lot higher than what it was so many long months ago. Plus, since obtaining the nifty Options Acrylic Needles from an anonymous giftter for my birthday, I can knit longer than normal!

My only remaining question is - how am I going to get all of the Christmas knitting completed?

Quickly

I am knitting.

I am getting things done.

There are pictures to post.

There just isn't enough time to post the pictures today. Alas.

It has been Monday. All. Day. Long.

AND no one picked up the gift I made for a friend's baby. This makes me sad and feel just a little odd. I understand time constraints but.... I'll get over it. I'll mail it to them!!!!!

JoJo

The baby of the family got really sick at the beginning of September. She became lethargic and not wanting to do anything. Several times between September 1 and September 9 we were told she might not make it through the night. She kept surprising the doctors.

It became so scary that we took JoJo to Richmond to one of the best vets I believe I have ever seen, Dr. Taylor at the Barns Mill Road Animal Hospital. He did tests and said she had an autoimmune disease that cocker-spaniels were susceptible to: it caused the body to stop making red blood cells. He gave her a blood transfusion and it seemed that she was going to make it, but she suddenly had a turn for the worse. Dr. Taylor gave her another blood transfusion, but it just didn't take. JoJo passed away on September 9 around Noon.

Not having her around for the time she was in hospital I came to realize just how much life she brought into our home. She was always loud and ready to play or bark so her voice would be heard. JoJo was Mommy's girl down to her very core and she was never more than three feet away from me at any given time. When visitors came she was the perfect little lady (usually) and let everyone know she was available for petting and didn't mind loving you back with her great big brown eyes!

It may sound silly to you, but I had her cremated and she is now sitting over there in her box back here in the office. Hubby said he would bury the box if I wanted him. I haven't decided on that yet. In some weird way, having her ashes here is like she finally made it back home to me.

For the past couple of nights I have dreamed of her and different puppies, one of which was named Glory.

As you can imagine, the knitting has been both a blessing and a curse. I have baby shower to get ready for this weekend and I still don't have the burp cloth ready. I have it begun, but there is still a lot of knitting to do on it. Hopefully it will get done, especially since it is also part of the decoration!

It's Friday

It is Friday.

It is my birthday.

I am happy.

Let the Baby Knitting Begin!

My own "dred sock" is nearly completed, which opens up room on the needles for the things I want to knit for my new great-nephew who should be arriving in November. The yarn is the softest of baby yarns, and acrylic for ease of washing. The only part that remains is for me to decide what to knit.

I am leaning toward the classic sweater/leggings set. They are simple, but look so wonderful. It worries me just a little that it is so simple, but there are other projects, too, that could be made. However, for the one sweater I would like to make requires different yarn than what I have already acquired for the baby knitting projects. Still, so what if more yarn needs to be purchased for said baby knitting?

Pictures will be posted soon.

Can It Be Done?

Hubby and I went to see a movie I could hardly wait to come out Julie & Julia. From the first moment I saw the trailer I couldn't wait to see the movie. Then, when I discovered that the movie was based upon a book, I simply had to read the book! Now that I have seen the movie and read the book, I must own the movie when it is released! It is becoming a never-ending cycle.

Sunday, at lunch with some friends, Hubby turned to me and said, "I think you should do it, too."

"Do what?" I asked around my twice-cooked tofu and rice.

"I think you should do what Julie did in the movie."

"Cook through Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a year? That's already been done, baby, and quite well, I might add."

"No, not cooking - knitting. You knit all the time, but I never see anything you've knitted from one of the many knitting books that are beginning to over-take the living room. And the yarn, of course."

I smiled at him and nodded. I was humoring him more or less. Then the friends agreed. If it could be done for a cookbook, why couldn't it be done for a knitting book? I just sat there in stunned silence for a moment or two. Of course, the people with whom I was sitting were a) all men; and b) non-knitters. They did not understand how long it took to knit something, even if it was a small something.

Hubby let it drop at the restaurant, but when we actually made it home he picked out two books from my knitting bookshelf and handed them to me. One was Romantic Hand Knits: 26 Flirtatious Designs That Flatter Your Figure and Knitting in the Sun: 32 Projects for Warm Weather, which also just happened to be my most recent purchase in the knitting book arena.

The first difference I saw immediately was the numbers: 26 vs. 32. Twenty-six is smaller than 32.

"If Julie did it in a year, so can you!" Hubby looked at me with such encouragement in his eyes and such hope reverberated in his voice. He was really wanting me to try this! Part of me was pretty sure he was mad, as in cuckoo, but another part of me wondered if, indeed, it could be done. There sure was a lot of knitting involved.

But, what about the newest nephew needing his wee garments? And what about the sweaters I had already promised and not delivered on? And what about all of those hats that Hubby wanted and his mother wanted to sell at the up-coming festival? There was already a majority of knitting practically on the needles already!

"Are you going to wuss out on me?" he asked, and I didn't have an answer for him...then.

I am going to take his challenge, but only after the other things are off my needles first. So, which book am I going to knit from cover to cover? Yeah, that one is easy - Romantic Hand Knits (I like lower numbers).

Am I insane? Yeah, I just might be.

The Dred Sock!

I have been working diligently on a "dred sock" per Hubby's desire and request. He needed something that would be cool for the summer and keep his dreds in line and protected, but he also needed something that he could close up and make a tam also if necessary. Thus, the creation of the dred sock!



As always, he chose the colors, and, I must say, a very nice cotton blend yarn that was a true pleasure to work with: Cotton Fleece by Brown Sheep. It was one of the more enjoyable knitting projects I have played with.



The opening is the red section that was done in a k1p1 rib that turned out beautifully and the blue "end" is open. The end, which you can't see very well here, was done with a simple yarn over opening for the threading of a closing piece.



The "string" was actually a 3-braid of all three of the colors used in making the hat, and I am actually quite proud of how well the string itself turned out.











And here is Hubby with his new favorite hat as well as just a little more detail. And, just for those who were wondering, no, I didn't get a chance to block the project before it was worn.





This one is a little blurry, but you can still see how it is supposed to protect the dreds.



Here is a better one.



I am actually quite proud of this little creation of mine, and am working on another form of "band" for non-dreds or even dreds I suppose.

There is more to come, too! I have a skirt planned for winter/fall and possibly a couple of sweaters once I have ventured into the sweater knitting again. My brain is suddenly full of possibilities where knitting is concerned!