C is here!

BFF had her baby! Isn't he adorable?(She did not have him on my birthday like she initially promised...but I suppose that I can forgive her!)

It was an adorable little boy, which they named "C". (If you list all of the family's first initials they are ABCDE. Pretty clever.)

However, since she was so rude as to give birth early, the lovely Baby^3 Blanket that I was making for her wasn't quite finished. I would feel bad, except I feel that it truly wasn't my fault. (Besides, she got it in the mail about a week later.)

I really did love making this blanket. You may remember that it is a very loose interpretation of a Mason-Dixon design. I had a few hiccups...I started one section with the wrong color and didn't realize it till I was halfway through the patch, for example. Luckily it was meant to be freeform, so in the end it all worked out.

I really want to make another one. Maybe a more adult version for me. Or a more planned version. It was great travel knitting. All the yarns fit into one bag, the garter stitch allowed me to look at scenery/chat with people, and it impressed people.

Chaperon Knitting

I host the teen book and movie club at the library. The teens read the monthly scheduled book, then meet at one of the libraries to watch the film version. This provides me with a lot of time to knit "on-the-clock".

The knitting I do during the teen movies has to be even more brainless than what I typically take to the theaters. During the movie my attention is divided between the film and the behavior of dozens of teenagers.

I am shushing.

I am glaring.

I am evicting.

I am shaking my knitting needles threateningly in their general direction. (Which is usually greeted with gales of laughter, thereby defeating the purpose of my waving them in the first place!)

Well, I have finally discovered the best possible project for chaperon knitting: a patchwork baby blanket. It is all garter. All the time. And each section of the blanket is large enough that I can work on a single section for a whole film without having to change colors/pick up stitches.

It is also helping me meet a looming deadline (or birthline, as it were...) BFF is having baby number three, so I am making her/him the "Baby^3". (Get it? The blanket is cubed because it is the third baby, and it is made up of boxes! Oh, the cleverness of me!)

My design is loosely based on the "Moderne Baby Blanket" from Mason Dixon. Only loosely based, since I have changed the number of colors, the yarn gauge/needle size, and the shape/size/direction of every patch. No plan. I'm just winging it

I would show what it looks like, but that would ruin the surprise for BFF...so instead...here is a look at the yummy yarn!

Yet Another One Bites The Dust

Yet another completed baby gift to cross off the project queue:



This one is for Red. She doesn't know what she is having, which kind of limits me. She was on the burp rag list. I had the yarn cast on and everything. Then while surfing around for patterns for Niece or Nephew, I came across one for the Bunny Blanket Buddy. (I would link to it, but you have to be a member of the Lion Brand club to access it.)

It was an incredibly speedy knit, and a little cuter than a burp rag...although it can serve the same purpose. It is also knit from Scoubi Du, only this time in the yellow stone wash.

As we speak it wings its way to the Midwest, where Red is NOT awaiting it, since she doesn't know it is coming!

Her oldest daughter Twilight, on the other hand, is expecting something in the mail...I should probably go work on finishing that, too!

(By the way...did I mention that a week or so ago I recieved news that yet ANOTHER friend is expecting? Or rather, his wife is? As a guy friend he can just take the burp rags and deal with it!)

Super Knitter...CROCHETS!!!

Fact: It is faster to crochet a baby blanket than it is to knit one. (I don't crochet often...but like to since I have a WICKEDLY COOL CROCHET HOOK!!!!)

When Blessing was a baby, or rather before she was born, I crocheted a spring green baby blanket for her. Actually, to be technical, I crocheted a spring green baby blanket and put it in the gift stash until SOMEBODY had a baby to give it to. But BFF loved it, and asked for it, and so received it. (In addition to a custom designed quilt and sundry other gifts...the advantage of being my BFF is you get TONS of handmade stuff.)

Now that BFF is expecting again, I needed to crochet another one. I discussed in a I'm-trying-to-be-sneaky-but-you-know-good-and-well-I-am-making-you-something sort of way what colors BFF wanted to do the baby's stuff in. To my surprise she said she wanted the same green that Blessing's blanket was.

This posed a conundrum. I don't like to do the same thing twice, but unfortunately I am pretty much a one-trick pony when it comes to crochet.

Solution: Instead of the double crochet pattern I used on Blessing's, I did a giant granny square. Also, instead of a solid green like before, I used a variegated green that had bits of blue, turquoise, and purple in it.

I brought the blanket with me to Denver as a preliminary gift, and can put off the quilt until this summer!

Getting Ready for Aunt-hood

This weekend I went to Sacramento, to Brother and Sis-In-Law's house, to help them get the baby room ready.

Since they are adopting, they don't know what gender their baby will be, when it will arrive, or what it will look like. Those are a lot of unknowns for a knitter like me who does not deal well with uncertainty. What am I supposed to knit? What color should it be? When is my deadline? AAAH!!!

Baby will be my first niece or nephew, so NOT knitting something is not an option. Neither is waiting until Baby arrives, because NO niece or nephew of mine is going to go a day without a hand knit demonstration of my love!

I am overcompensating. I have yarn to make a girl sweater and yarn to make a boy sweater. These will wait till after the arrival. I have also started a crocheted receiving blanket.

Until then, I am falling back on my old standby...BURP RAGS: