Just Some Finishing Left

So, I logged on and realized that, once again, I haven’t blogged for nearly a month (although for once, I had more than enough to blog about). I deleted a record number of spam comments in a variety of languages - even some jokes - and now I have something to show off. Just a couple of projects I’ve been working on all year … now they’re almost finished.

And, not to brag, but I think they’re some of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.

Our twins arrived this week, more than a month before their due date. I don’t even have blog pseudonyms picked out for them yet! (Despite that, both of them weighed 5 pounds and change at their birth. We are all impressed.) They only need a little bit of finishing up before they’re ready to come home with us - probably about two weeks in the hospital - and then we will be on our way back home.

Max and Charlie are over the moon.

I’ll try not to wait so long for the next post, this time.

Progress

So, I’m almost finished with the first Baby Sophisticate. Basically I need to add buttons and figure out what (if any) embellishments I’d like to add. It looks good, I think,

although the border pulls up a little in the front. I hate picking up stitches. Grr. On the bright side, I should have enough yarn to make a second one!

Anyway, instead of jumping right into the same sweater in the same yarn and the same size, I decided to make something a little larger. (You know. If you make all these sweaters and hats in newborn or 0-3 month size, then you have a ton of stuff at first, then one day they’ve got nothing.)

I picked Sue’s No-Holes Hexagon Sweater and woo-hoo! It’s fast. I’m using mods laid out by another Raveller to eliminate the increase holes, used worsted weight and an H hook for something more jackety, and added two rounds just to the front/back/bottom so the sleeves wouldn’t get too wide. I think I’ll add some cuffs to the sleeves, too, for a little more length, but I haven’t decided what to do about the collar yet.

Or how I’m going to close it. That’s a really bad picture of the color, too - it’s Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Chestnut Heather, and it’s a gorgeous shade of gold-flecked brownish burgundy. Very rich, but masculine. These houses down here are so different from the ones back home - sunlight is aggressively kept out with blinds and curtains, the windows are small and high, with deep eaves shading them as much as possible. All of my photos have a fluorescent tint.

Soo, in between cranking out baby things, I’m going to try and take a break to make something I promised to Max this spring…and if I can pull it off, it’ll be awesome!

A Real, Honest-to-Goodness Blog Post

Hey! I’m knitting something! (No! Really!)

You see, up to this point all I’ve made for the twins is one sweater and one hat apiece. This is clearly insufficient for a pair of babies who are going to spend the first week of their lives in a fanatically air-conditioned environment and then immediately transition into a real winter (complete with mounds and mounds of snow). I really only made Max and Charlie one sweater each - I mean, we were living in Texas - and that was kind of just to do it. These little guys are going to need what I can make for them. (And that makes it so much more fun, doesn’t it?)

Now, this (these? I am making two of them) sweater is very special. In my frantic, last minute stash diving - trying to decide which yarn would do me the most good to pack in our limited space, what projects I would use them for, etc - I uncovered a long-buried wool cache. More than two years ago, if I recall, I went into a Jo-Ann’s to find that a lot of their house yarns were on clearance. To my delight, this included the soft, gorgeous, 100% wool and generally quite pricey Tesoro. I bought every ball they had (for the low, low price of $2.35 apiece) and tucked it away to use for baby things. Well, as you know, a lot has happened between then and now, and so the yarn hasn’t so much as seen the light of day for a long time.

At any rate, in this stash I discovered five balls of blue (and one of yellow, to use for contrast or extra yardage) and decided that now was the time for them to be put to use. Sadly, the Tesoro has now long been discontinued, so there’s not much chance of getting more…that means that I have 2.5 balls of blue to use for each sweater, plus another half-ball of yellow in case I run out and need to do the edgings in contrasting colors. I’ve done a lot of calculations, and I think it will be doable.  The pattern is Baby Sophisticate, available free and really quite cute. Now, I don’t think I have the buttons I want to use for these (although I did remember to bring buttons!) but that’s okay. Just today we stumbled across what appears to be the arts and crafts store on a nearby base, and it is HUGE. We couldn’t go today, but I am so psyched to visit next week. The seductive image my mind is painting me, of a large selection of American yarn, has me extremely hopeful that I’ll find something interesting there.

Sweater Number Two Plus Something New!

Well, I finished the second sweater!

Sheesh. I really don’t like doing the same thing twice. This may become problematic… Still. They turned out well, and they look cute together.

Plus, if after all these babies turn out to be girls (the doctor told us she’d give us a 20% chance that they were not boys. Woo!) they’re gender-neutral enough to do well. Do you like them? Well, if you want to make one of your own, you can find the pattern over at Inner Child Crochet. (For free!)

Now that I’ve finished them, I’m taking a brief baby-clothes break to work on something for myself:

Pattern is Shrug Springs Eternal by Nikki Adams. (Rav link!) I need to expand my lightweight shrug collection, since all of the knee-length or better maternity dresses I can find are sleeveless - and I don’t do sleeveless. I’m using Red Heart Lustersheen Multi in Ocean, and I think it’s a beautiful color. Hopefully I’ll have that finished soon!

Sweaters x 2 …

…take longer to do.

Sweaters! Sorry about the photo. Its cloudy today. Cloudy, and foggy, and dim, which it has been for the last week (when it wasn’t raining) and is predicted to remain for the next week. It’s been nice and cool, usually in the 60s, which makes working on little sweaters a pleasant pastime.

First up we have the nearly-finished cardigan:

It just needs buttons and end-weaving to finish. I’m a bit grumpy because I couldn’t find the buttons I wanted, but I’ve got some I think will do. We’ll see. As you can see, I’m saving all the finishing until I’ve finished the knitting on the second one:

I really, really need to use longer needles for these… still. All I have left on it is the body (the easiest part!) and then I get to weave in all the ends, and sew on the buttons, and they’ll be finished!

I really need to get stuff finished, too, because I’ve got a rapidly expanding list of things I want to make over the next few months.

Good Morning

I’ve been feeling pretty under the weather lately (ironic, since the weather lately has been gorgeous). Things are looking up this morning, though (ironic again, since today is the first day in recent weeks to be gray and rainy), and I thought I’d fire off a blog post. I haven’t had much interest in crocheting - the whole sick thing, you know - but I read a few books and, as always, the kids kept me busy. Max’s love of all things aquatic continues unabated. We’re going on four months here, which is easily the longest he’s obsessed over anything besides the perennial favorite, cars and motorcycles. In recognition of that, I’ve started making things for him…we’ve started building a reef on his bedroom wall, for instance.

Reef construction: Day 1! I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to draw, or render, or create a coral reef, but it’s pretty complex. A lot of different shapes and creatures, a lot of different colors and details. This is what we managed the second day.

The cool thing is that we’re basing these off of real coral, so Max is learning to identify the different  species as we put them up. (The big red one is a seafan, for instance, and the large orange hard coral is called Elkhorn. There are also rocks. It’s educational.) Max says our reef is big enough for fish to live in now, so we may start adding more animals next. Although technically coral are animals. Whatever.

Despite everything, I actually started a crochet project the other day. I ran across Max’s baby blanket in a closet and realized that I had never photographed it for blogging or Ravelry, so I thought I would:

Aww. Five years ago, this was the most ambitious project I had ever attempted. Despite my inexperience, it turned out well. Anyway. I pulled out the pattern to enter it into my projects and, prompted by the I-haven’t-crocheted-in-weeks shakes, I decided to make the project on the cover.

It’s a striped baby bunting that I always thought was cute, from an old, old pamphlet - one I, ah, ‘acquired’ on the way out of my parents’ house. (Mom, if you want it, I’ll mail it back, I swear.) Greg says it looks like an old blanket. Isn’t he sweet?I’ve never had seven colors of the same yarn before, to make it, but I had a lot of leftovers from the boys’ striped hats and I thought I’d give it a go. It turned out to be spot on gauge with the Wool-Ease and the lovely rosewood hook I got at Christmastime…

So it’s shaping up to be a simple, cheerful, and very enjoyable project. Aside from the ends. Heaven help me…the ends.

Warm Weather On the Way!

Hey, um, I think I’ve managed to break comments on my blog. Normally I’d just assume no one was commenting, but I’ve completely stopped getting spam comments as well, so I’m pretty sure I’ve broken them. (Although, I have no idea how.) So, if anyone has a moment today to try and comment, I’d really appreciate it - and we’ll see if we can get things working again.

Edit: I think I’ve fixed it! Somehow the letter ‘o’ got on my comment blacklist, which means that if you posted a comment with an O in it it would have been incinerated at once. Sigh.

Anyway, I haven’t crocheted much this last month. I mean, I’ve crocheted some -

and that’s good progress, too. That poor guy’s been nothing but a neck since October. Still, he’s far from finished, and I can lay a large part of the blame on my newer time and money suck hobby, jewelry making. This month the sun came out…the snow melted…temperatures rose…and the Arts and Crafts store got a whole shipment of summery beads and materials. Cowrie shells, coconut beads, mother-of-pearl, abalone, tiger shells, hemp, and far, far more - and I was not immune to their lazy tropical call.

Enough to bedeck a whole beach party, I know, but they’re just so cheerful! After all, why not? It’s WARM! It’s SUNNY! It’s SPRING! It’s….

Snowing? Now that is not even right.

Exploring Tangents

So even though I have a million things to do, I can always make room for a completely random side project. In this case, it’s a Rav-based Crochet-Along in my new favorite group, Obscuriosity. The premise is that there are tens of thousands of awesome patterns out there that haven’t necessarily had their fifteen minutes of fame. We share the hidden gems and spread the obscure-pattern love through Crochet and Knit Alongs in the group, and in general it’s just a good time. I’m in the large item crochet-along, which this round is for Doris Chan’s ‘Tall Latte.’ It’s been a challenge.

I’m using Wool-Ease, which is a perfectly fine yarn, but it’s not a perfect substitution for DK weight. I’m using a larger hook, too, so I’ve had to do a lot of math. Add to that a poor initial size choice and a reading comprehension FAIL, and I’ve actually crocheted all of the yarn in this twice - usually four or five rows at a time. I’ve gotten below the arms, though, and it should be smooth sailing down to the hem. (I’ll let you know how the sleeves go.)

Speaking of sailing (and tangents), I made an orca for Max’s bedroom today.

Because I am just that awesome.

(Eight sheets of black construction paper, two sheets of white, a lot of tape, some glue, and a marker. It was fun. Max is into marine creatures right now.)

Nice day today.

Sorry for the long breaks, guys, but I’m preparing multiple design submissions for end-of-the-month deadlines. That includes one I got two days ago…you’d think they’d want to give designers more than two weeks to generate a quality submission, no? Apparently not. As a result I haven’t been throwing as many party favors for Inner Child Crochet’s second birthday as I’d intended.

Anyway, to make it up to you, I’m having a SALE!

What? A sale? I’ve never had a sale before. That’s right, because I just now (this very day) figured out how to create discount codes with my cart system. I’ve got it now, though, and as a result when you order more than $10.00 of merchandise you can save 25% on your total order by using the coupon code:

HAPPYBDAY

(Please let me know if you try to use the coupon and it does not work, but I checked it out myself, and it should.) So go! Take a peek and see if you want anything, because this code will expire on January 22nd, at 11:59 pm. (Although I’m not sure which timezone that stamp will go by.)

 Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a lot of work to do!

When It’s Not Quite Winter

Despite the lovely thick snow you saw in my post of three weeks back, the weather we’re having these days is actually very mild. Once the snow melted (the next day), winter made a half-hearted try at establishing its grip with a series of quickly melted flurries. The sun returned, and while some days have been cold, we haven’t seen snow since.

Still, we waited, expecting any day now to wake to freezing white, and as a result we missed quite a few cool, clear days that we could have been spending outside. This morning we went out to pick up an electric keyboard from a friend (I mentioned to her that I wanted to buy one, and she said, “OH! I have one in my closet I bought last year that I never play. Would you like it?” Yes, yes I would.) and the weather was just gorgeous. Bright, warm sun, and if the wind was a little biting, what do you expect in December? So I decided on the fly to take the boys to the playground after we finished our errands. Determined that I would let them play as long as they wanted, I ducked by the Arts and Crafts Store for some yarn and a hook to keep me busy. We also ran by the commissary to get some Lunchables and milk, and we headed off to the playground for our “special happy fun surprise” playtime. The boys were ecstatic, and content that I’d made a happy decision for all of us, I sat down to begin my project. The hook I’d selected was an L hook. (You never see those. I didn’t already own one, and I thought Hey! I bet an L would be useful.) The only yarn I really wanted was some pretty Wool-Ease in Cocoa, so I decided to try double-stranding. First order of business: find the ends.

The hunt for the first end produced a fairly standard glob of yarn barf, quickly untangled and wound back around the outside of the skein. The second one, though…I had to practically disembowel the second skein to find the center pull. I’m serious. I’m pretty sure that more than half of the yarn ended up in my lap during my epic struggle with this demonic ball of wool-ease. I started to think I should have just worked off the outside, but by this point there’s no going back. I had giant snarls of yarn draped across my legs, blowing onto the ground when the wind gusted. Max came over.

“Oh, no, Mommy! Your yarn is blowing away!”

“It’s okay, honey. It’s not going anywhere. I don’t even think I can go anywhere.”

So, I started trying to wind it back onto the skinny, hollow shell of the skein. I quickly realized that this was not going to be a straightforward affair, and tried to focus on the tangles. I was hindered in several ways - the kids, for one. They needed a lot of help with their milk cartons, and the wind kept almost blowing their Lunchables off the table, and Max succeeded in getting onto the tire swing all by himself for the first time ever, resulting in fifteen minutes of him yelling, “Look! I did it! Look at me! I got up all by myself! Watch! Mommy, look! Look at me swinging! Take a picture of meeeeeee!” (Sadly I did not have the camera with me,or you can bet I would have.) The wind kept blowing my yarn, around, too, but the most crippling factor was my frozen fingers.

It wasn’t really that cold outside - almost fifty degrees, actually - and the sun was bright and warm. When the wind was blowing, though (which was most of the time), it was sharp and cold enough to chill small appendages in just a few minutes. The boys were fine, since they were jumping up and down and running around with a will - and besides, even if their fingers did get a little cold, how much manual dexterity do you need to go down a slide? (Answer: not much.) I, on the other hand, was constantly having to stop and stuff my fingers up my sleeve so that they could regain enough function for me to continue undoing the epic tangle. I went at it from both ends, winding what I could get back onto the skein while I searched the snarls for that elusive, dangling end responsible for this mess in the first place.

Once I found it things went a little faster. The skein is meant to be pulled from that direction, after all. Still, by the time I had gotten all of the tangles undone and wound either on the skein or into the ball I started with the end, it had been an hour and a half and Charlie was starting to cry about nothing. Stupid yarn.

So, we headed for home, me with absolutely nothing started. I have learned my lesson, though - clearly, I need a pair of fingerless gloves.

Oh, and the piano?

Is a massive hit. I can’t peel them off of it.