Knittin' and Lovin' It

Monday Updates

I haven't been doing a lot of knitting here lately. So much for Socktoberfest, all I've managed to do is knit one pair of socks the whole month.

I did finish up the sleeves on Bree's Kimono.



Look at all those pieces. Now I need to block it and seam all the pieces together. Oh joyous fun! I'll do that some time this week, unless the "Seaming Fairy" comes to visit and takes care of it for me.

I also worked on the Cabled Baby Blanket.



Everyone all at the same time "Ooooooh, aaaaaaah". The photos aren't overwhelmingly fascinating but the blanket is coming along nicely and is pretty cute! I need to get it finished, so this will be what I'm knitting on until it's finished. That makes for boring blogging so I probably won't post much until it's finished. I don't think it's going to take long if I'm knitting on it exclusively.

I've also decided to join The Sock Stash Elimination Campaign. While organizing all my stash, I decided that my sock yarn stash was getting a little crazy. Before I seen this out on Nell's blog, I'd already decided that my sock yarn stash needs to be culled down a little bit. The link helped me commit.

Check this neat little thing out.



And another shot.



My mom sent this to me quite some time ago. Its a small swift of some kind. She had gotten it from a lady that she was taking care of. The only thing it says is that it's made in Sweden. I wanted to show you all but it ended up being put away and I forgot about it. Shawn found it in a box this weekend.

I'm off to find some breakfast so I'll be ready to hop on the bike when Kaity leaves for school. I'm trying to squeeze in exercise time any chance I get.

Happy Knitting!

Updates & Yarn

I couldn't resist the lure of the baby blanket. Sorry no pics, the camera's at the house and I'm at TLF. I had the yarn and it was killing me not to cast on so cast on I did. I have the border and 4 pattern repeats on. I think I'll need to put on about 28 repeats so I still have a lot to go. The pattern is super easy so I've been taking it in the car with me. Once it gets a little bigger I'll leave it at home.

The border on the baby blanket is garter stitch and 15 rows of garter stitch gets really boring. There is no way I could make a 60 or so inch long scarf in garter stitch. I do like the Cascade 220 superwash. As far as price goes it's about $3 more per 220 yards to go with Cascade over Knit Picks but the color choices for Cascades superwash is way better then you can get with Knit Picks. I've also seen a lot of complaints about KPs Swish which is why I chose to go with Cascade.

I have some Swish in my stash that I'm going to knit up a bunch of swatches and test them out side by side with the Cascade superwash. I'm going to have some left over from this blanket. I want to see how they both fair. I'll post a full report here on the blog. It probably won't be for a few weeks though.

While we were out and about today, I stopped at Michaels to get a few skeins of Paton's SWS.

I'll probably use it to make a scarf for Kaity. I picked up 3 skeins, 330 yds. The color is Natural Geranium.

I also picked up a skein of Cottontots.

The pic is a wee bit washed out. The color is Wonder Dreams. I'll either use it to make a bib(s) or I'll make another bunny tether blanket, like the one I made awhile back for my nephew.

I helped a couple of Ravelry members destash. I have some Cascade 220 Wool coming to me. I got 6 skeins of purple (#7808) and 3 skeins of pink (#7805) which are destined to become sweaters for both my girls and probably some hats and mittens. It doesn't bother me to hand wash stuff.

Blankie FO

I finished Blake's Blankie last night.



WooHoo!  Yippy! 



I used a pattern that I purchased from The Naked Sheep called Piggy Back Squares.  The blanket was suppose to be bigger, more like a throw, but I shortened it up a little bit.  I only knit 5 rows instead of the 9 rows called for in the pattern.  I used Plymouth Encore Colorspun #7117, also purchase from The Naked Sheep.

Truthfully I was beginning to wonder about the blanket.  With each square added it just looked ragged.  I was afraid that it was going to look horrible when it was finished but adding the border pulled everything together and it looks great.

Crazy me, after I finished this one I started another one. 



I'm making the diagonal blanket out on Bernat's website.  Bernat's has messed up their site so now there isn't a page for each pattern, they are all listed on the same page....thus no direct link to the pattern.  Go figure, gotta mess with something that was working just fine.  I'm using Bernat's Baby Coordinates Sweet Stripes in the color Melon Stripe (Orange/White).  I'm not making this for anyone in particular, though Kaity was trying to claim it for herself.

My Yarn Pirate Booty Club shipment came in this morning.  The colors are gorgeous!  I'll show you all later, I don't want to spoil it for anyone.

Well I'm off to get the kiddos in bed.  I'm ready for a little Mommy quiet time. 

Progress on the Blankie

Due to the hole in my finger (see previous post), I worked on Blake's blankie. 



I managed to put another 4 squares.  Three more squares to go to finish the 4th row.  I've decided that I'm going to put 2 more rows on which will make the blanket about 24 inches wide without the border.  The border will add another 1-2 inches.  I want the blanket to be manageable....something that can be used in a car seat or stroller.

Next up, baby blanket for my cousin.  She's due with her first little one towards the end of the year.  I've sent her an email with some yarn colors.  I'm going with the Encore Colorspun.  It's sturdy, machine washable and its soft on the hands.  I'm going to go with a simple pattern.  I was actually thinking about the pinwheel blanket.  I think that would look awesome in the Colorspun.  I haven't decided yet though.  Anyone have a favorite baby blanket pattern they'd love to recommend?  It doesn't have to be free.  I'm more then willing to purchase books or the separate pattern.

Well I'm off to catch some sleep before it gets to late.  I have a busy day ahead of me.  The housing inspector is suppose to be here in the afternoon to tell us what all we need to fix/clean to pass our inspection and I have to take Bree to the hospital for her blood work. 

Good News/Bad News

I'll give you all the good news first:  baby Blake was born last night weighting in at 7lbs, 4oz and 19" long and full head of hair.  Of course he couldn't enter the world without a little drama.  He had the cord wrapped around his neck not once but twice.  But never fear both baby and mama are safe and healthy. 

Now on to the bad news.  The sirens and alarms played on all the speakers last night, all night long.  Lucky for me I was so exhausted that I slept through all but the last one that went off this morning around 6:30.  Both my girls slept through it too.  I think it helps that I have a radio that plays ocean waves in Bree's room.  I play it for background noise which helps because one of her bedroom walls is also one of the living room walls. 
This place we are in now is a modular home which is a mobile home with a damn foundation and slightly more solid walls.  I'm going to emphasize on slightly.  I long for a home of my own, one with real walls and better yet one that isn't attached to my neighbors house, which is what we had before we moved into this place.

So far, so good this afternoon has been quiet but I think that is attributed to the fact that SSgt "Stupid" and her sidekick Airman "Idiot" have went home for the day.  See it's women like those two that give the rest of use a bad name.  They are stupid, so there for that means that all women are stupid.  Sheesh!