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!

Decorative AND Useful

When I was working on the wedding present for Starlet, I intended on making a set of dishcloths AND a dish towel. I completed the dishcloths, purchased dish soap and rubber gloves, but didn't get the dish towel finished.

So, I took it to camp, where I diligently worked on it every chance I got. While working on it , I was repeatedly asked what it was. When I answered a dish towel, I was met with surprise. One person even went so far as to say it was too pretty to be a dish towel. (This made me momentarily consider lengthening it into a wrap and keeping it for myself. However, I muscled past my selfish tendencies, and continued working it as planned.)

Unfortunately it was not done in time for the wedding, and since Starlet didn't know that she was supposed to get a dish towel too, I left it out of the gift bag.

It is now finished, and truly is almost Too Pretty. So I am calling it the Too Pretty Dish Towel. The pattern is from Mason-Dixon's first book, with the only alteration being that I made it solid instead of striped. The yarn is Grace by Patons in "Amethyst"...a 100% mercerized cotton. It is silky soft, and will hopefully wash well.

It should be both decorative AND useful in Starlet's new kitchen...once I stop petting it long enough to actually give it to her!

Baby Burp Rags

It is funny. The most praise and gratitude I ever received for anything I ever knit came from a pair of baby burp rags that I knit for Wake last year.

Honestly, just the other day, AVB remarked to my mother how useful and wonderful they had been. (Wake no longer needs them, but she had been packing up his baby stuff and came across them.)

The thing is, these were REALLY low-key, brain-free, super fast knitting projects. I used the genius baby pattern out of the first Mason-Dixon book, and two colors of Cottentot yarn by Bernat. They took me a couple of movies each. The main reason I went with burp rags instead of my usual quilt was that AVB, at the time, lived far far away, and I needed something I could mail for cheap.

Lately, with the huge spate of babies being born or about to be born around me, I have been frantically looking for cute sweater patterns, planning baby blankets, baby beanies...lots of teenie tiny things.

Really though, I don't have a lot of time on my hands between school and work. So, why mess with perfection? Baby burp rags may not be all that impressive, but they sure are utilitarian. And most important...they are FAST and EASY!!!!

One baby's down:

A zillion more to go!

Laughed Aloud...Literally!

So, my new local yarn shop (new to me, not to the area) emailed a video out to everyone on their mailing list. I opened it during a break from my homework and literally started laughing so hard that I slipped off my chair. How embarrassing.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did: