Oh - the Cuteness!

I have a sister who just had a baby, and another sister who's due at the end of May. They are having their combined baby shower this weekend, and I finished my gifts in time (yay me!). Of course, I was so excited I ran down to the post office with everything, then realized that I had forgotten to take photos. Luckily, my car was pretty clean, so I spread out the ensembles on the hood and took these photos before I sealed the box. I created quite a stir at our local post office, trying to find the right angle so the glare of the sun would not blind us all. People do love to look at cute baby things.

This set is for my brand new nephew, Mac.

And this set will be for my little niece, whenever she arrives.

The sweaters are the One-Piece Baby Kimono by Christine Shiffman (rav link) from Mason-Dixon Knitting (fabulous book). The hats are the from the pattern I use to make newborn hats to donate to our local hospital. It's a pretty simple pattern - if you need it, just let me know. The little socks were made from the leftover sweater yarn. The yarn is Cascade Cotton Rich DK - very soft in the finished product, but hard on the hands when knitting.

Have You Seen My Hairy Monkeys?

So I made these socks, Monkey by Cookie A. in December and somehow they weren't posted to the blog. I'm not sure how this happened because you all know how I love to show the handmade socks!

The gorgeous yarn is Bearfoot by Mountain Colors. It has some mohair in it, making my socks a little fuzzy. That's why my Monkeys are hairy. I bought this yarn in Bozeman, Montana - it was my souvenir yarn for that vacation. I wish I could remember the name of the shop I visited - it was really nice.

This pattern is terribly popular on the web (8190 projects in Ravelry) and is an easy, fast knit. The finished socks are really cozy!

I can definitely see myself doing another pair of these in the future...

Lots of Little Knits

I've been knitting a LOT - but not taking photos (sorry!). So here's a few things I've finished lately:

This is Bridget by Woolly Wormhead (Ravelry link). It's a lovely chunky alpaca yarn and this hat is warm and very jaunty. I love the feel of the pom poms as they bounce on my head!

I made these Socks of Kindness (Ravelry Link) from Sophie's Toes by Emily Parson. For some reason, I had trouble with this pattern - mostly with counting to eight over and over. I had to go back a lot to fix my errors. Sigh. I love the socks though, now that they're finished.

Next, I tackled Hermione's Cable & Eyelet Hat in some no-ball-band cashmere yarn. I made the ribbing longer so I could turn up the brim, but otherwise followed the pattern faithfully. I really like this hat, so much so that I had to make mittens to go with it:

These are the Cozy Cabled Mittens by My Life's Work. I've never made a plaited cable like this, and I love the way they look and fit. They're perfect.

Ella Kitzgerald Sez Happy New Year!

Not really. She just wants you to give her some catnip. She had some on Christmas and wonders why she does not have it everyday. (Louis is shy, but I'll try to get a photo of her soon.)

John went to work on the snow, and finally made paths around the house. The wind was so strong this weekend that it blew the door of his bike barn open, so he had to clear the steps to get the door closed again.

Today was a glorious, sunny day, but cold. The snow just sparkles and crunches under our feet when we walk outside. It's lovely.

Happy New year!

Merry Christmas!

John and I had a quiet Christmas at home. We had some snow...

(This is a photo of John's bike barn in back of our house.)

We had cocoa this morning and opened our presents - thanks everyone! Despite the passes being closed for several days in the last week, we received nearly everything on time. I'm sure the rest will arrive tomorrow.

Our Christmas trees were lit all day, just because they are so pretty...

The cats enjoyed playing with the empty boxes and discarded bows. And John wanted to make sure you saw his decorated Wheel.

So Merry Christmas to all of you - we miss you all!

It's cold! I'm knitting!

We have snow - just a couple of inches, but enough to make me want to settle in with a warm knitting project on my lap. I've cast on for a great many things, but managed to actually finish some stuff.

These are a pair of socks for my future brother-in-law, Wavy (don't tell him!). His birthday is on New Year's Eve and always gets kind of lost in the shuffle. So, I'm treating him to an early birthday present and will give the socks to him when we visit for Thanksgiving. I really like the way they turned out.

The pattern is Thuja, a free pattern from Knitty. I used Colinette Jitterbug in the Mardi Gras colorway, and used a bit over one skein. I know Wavy will love the rainbow colors.

I also finished my first pair of gloves!!!!

These are made from my last skein of yummy Malabrigo, and the pattern is from One Skein by Leigh Radford. It's a nice pattern and they fit like, well, gloves.

Finally, I have finished my Clapotis!!!! This is another free pattern from Knitty. Apparently, I spend a lot of time there. The Clapotis is one of those "cool kid" patterns that swept the knitting community a while back (I'm way behind the trend).

This is a wide scarf or small stole and I wore it to the Best of the Southwest Fiber Fest this past weekend. The yarn is Artyarns Regal Silk (100% Silk) and has a very slight variegation. It's lovely and soft.

So that's what I've been up to. I am working on secret gift knitting for a couple of people who read my blog, so no pictures of those will be available until Christmas. But, have no fear, I am also knitting a hat for myself - nearly instant gratification - and will post that soon.

October Catch Up

I've been super busy this month with the quilt show, a road/shopping trip and a retreat, but I have managed to finish a few items.


My regular group of friends had a log cabin challenge this year. Everyone was to make a quilt using log cabin blocks for at least half of the blocks. And we were to try something that was challenging for us - a new color scheme, quilting style, etc. The quilts were all beautiful, and we had them in the quilt show. Here's mine (sorry for the colors - the light at the quilt show was not great):




And a detail (the colors are better here):




The owls I made to sell at the show were really fun - I followed Moonstitches Tutowlrial and made owls in both wool and cotton fabric. I did have a few left over, so I'll be launching an Etsy shop soon so they can find new homes. Stay tuned...




I also finished some knitting. This is my Shifting Sands Scarf, pattern by Grumperina. I used her knitting Cables without a Cable Needle Tutorial to make this scarf, as there are 8 cables on every right side row. I did not count the number of rows, but let's just say there are a LOT!



I used super soft Malabrigo to knit this scarf and am really happy with the result. I have one more skein of this yarn, and have cast on some gloves to wear with my scarf (fingers- yikes!).


Finally, I finished some socks. These are the Swirly-O socks (Ravelry link) from The Knitter's Book of Yarn by Clara Parkes. It's a great book - full of useful information and lovely projects. I am not crazy about the toe because it seems a little long to me - I would have liked the pretty eyelet pattern to continue to within an inch of the tip of my toe. But the socks are super warm and cozy. I'm wearing them right now!




These socks were made with DK weight yarn from Crazy Monkey - I think she calls this yarn Gorilla Toes, in the color Wisteria. Gorgeous and soft!