Finished -- maybe

I finished knitting and seaming the baby set for my brother's soon-to-be granddaughter. Except for the buttons. I have a million buttons saved from previous sewing projects, worn out shirts, wild and crazy impulse purchases. You would think that in the 30-plus years of collecting buttons I would have four tiny pink buttons. Well, I would have thought so. But no, I have two pink buttons, or three pink buttons, or four huge pink buttons. But it was fun searching through all the buttons in the can.



I will be visiting a fabric shop in the near future to find suitable buttons.

In the meantime, I am wondering about the feasibility of creating a little hat to accompany the sacque and booties. I could use the lace pattern for the front part and the solid stockinette stitch pattern for the back and decreases. Hmm. This would nicely use up the remaining yarn as well. Must go searching for little bonnet patterns to modify.

The yarn is Cuddlesoft -- acrylic with a nylon twist. I don't like it. It's plenty soft for the new baby ... but the nylon strand wants to separate from the acrylic and fuzz a bit. And I must admit that I've gotten spoiled by the merino and alpaca wools I have been using. They are so much nicer than acrylic.

Today is the second visit to the dentist to finish off the root canal, hopefully without pain. Then we will be having dinner with the step-daughter and her boyfriend! Yippee! Life doesn't get much better.

Laundry day

Today was laundry day. The weather was sunny, not very warm, but sunny. Clear blue skies. What better way to dry clothes than to hang them outside, eh? So that's where they went. Out on the line.


The homemade socks are mine. All mine. No one else in this house will wear them, the silly people. What ARE they thinking? It doesn't matter. I will wear them, and wear them I will.

Know what's a tad frightening? I still had two pair hanging back in the sock drawer.

May I say "I told you so!"?

've had a sore tooth for months ... literally. I went to the dentist back in April and complained that it hurt. The dentist said that the filling was loose and it needed to be redone. I asked if the tooth was cracked, and was assured it was not. Fine. I can do the filling thing. So we did.

The tooth still hurt. Five months later, it was hurting continuously. I called my previous dentist in Toronto, and he said "come on in." Took x-rays. Commented that the filling was very large, and the dentist had overfilled the cavity. I asked if the tooth was cracked, and he said not. When the filling smacked down onto the ceramic crown ont the lower tooth -- of course it hurt! And that was the problem. So he filed and shaped the filling. That hurt! Ouch!

The tooth STILL hurt! Only now it hurts continuously. Called the dentist again. The next step is to have a root canal. Which I really don't like, because they hurt, but the promise is that the pain will stop.

Yesterday was the big day. The dentist drilled out the filling. Guess what? The tooth was cracked! Just as I predicted. Can I say "I told you so!" now?

Proceeded with the root canal. Dentist says I was "jumpy." Of course I was, you twit! You didn't give me enough pain medicine. He gave me more. I was still "jumpy." Don't you just love it when someone assures you that something doesn't hurt, but it does -- hurts a helluvalot in fact? I wish I'd had the nerve to grab his balls and squeeze, and then ask if we were gonna hurt each other ... Of course, then I'd never be able to go back to that dentist ... But the thoughts of that ...

In any event, the root canal proceeded apace. The very excellent news is that the tooth doesn't hurt continuously. The dentist did warn me that I would be sore today, and he isn't kidding. It hurts -- but only when I gnash my teeth. Perhaps this is when I finally learn to stop gnashing, she asks hopefully.

And here is what I look like today -- for the first time in weeks --


OK. Taking pictures of yourself isn't as easy as it looks.

I have almost finished seaming the baby kimono ... now to find the crochet hook for the edging. Then the booties. After that, I get to start training for the Knitting Olympics!

Evil -- they name is ...

I discovered over the Christmas holidays that my elder brother is going to be a grandfather this spring. Well, technically he is going to be a step-grandfather since it is his step-son and wife that will be the parents. But in my world, a step- anything is as good as real. So in honour of the wonderful event, I decided to make a little baby set for the new baby.

I pulled out my Fall 1978 issue of McCall's Needlework & Crafts, my needles and my stash of baby yarn, and cast on. Now, I admit that this is a very old book, and many folks would've insisted that it be cast aside as part of a general de-stashing exercise at some point in time. I, however, have held on tightly to it. Why? Well, I think this little baby set is one of the finest ever designed. What do you think?



Also, I've made four or five of them, I figured the pattern would be easy to reburn into my brain.

Nope. I can't tell you how many times I've ripped and reknit, ripped and reknit. And having viewed Stephanie's efforts at laddering, I even thought of doing that. But in LACE knitting? Not a chance. So I ripped and reknit yet again.

Today I am proud to say that I am finished with the body and am casting on for the cute little sleeves. Almost there.

Speaking of Stephanie -- have you SEEN what she posted about today?! I can't believe my eyes. She threw down the knitting needles -- er -- gauntlet and created a new Olympic sport -- KNITTING!

I don't know about any one else, but there is not one single competitive bone in my body. Nope. Not a one.

They're ALL competitive. And every bone in my body is saying "YES! I CAN DO THIS!!"

I am committed to learning entrelac and making myself a sweater with this technique. I remember seeing a sweet little top ... now to remember where I saw it. If anyone has any ideas, I'm open to suggestions. Oh my gosh. What have I done?!

Oh yes -- my young son in Mexico has started a blog of his own to relate his adventures. It is located here: http://taoso.blogspot.com/

Newest Socks

I tried out some of the new sock yarn given to me by my dearest hubby. After much careful consideration, I decided that I needed (really, Carol, needed?) a pair of really bright socks. So I chose this colourway -- otherwise known as Snapdragon by Knitpicks.


The pattern is from Better Homes & Gardens Knit It, Fall 2005 -- page 59, if you must know.

The yarn knit up quite nicely without pilling. The pattern makes its own ribbing, so they WILL stay up where they belong. Better yet -- starting just above the ankle and through the foot, the directions specified switching to a needle one size smaller. Not only will the ribbing keep the sock in place, the size of the foot will assist.

Isn't that a grand idea? Why didn't I think of that?

The man deserves mittens

My husband was so kind to me for my birthday and Christmas. Not only did he make my favorite meal for my birthday, he gave me a sampler pack of Simply Stripes from Knit Picks. Then he followed that up by assisting with Christmas dinner, AND giving me more wool from Knit Picks. Ahem. And he gave me chocolate.

For that, the man deserves mittens.

So I sat down with some wool, purchased specially for this project, and here you see, the mitts anxiously awaiting their adventures outside.


The wool is Paton's Classic Wool Merino, in red (#230) and aran blanc (#202). The pattern? Well, I wanted to make the mitts double thick so that they would wear longer and be warmer for him. So I experimented with two-colour ribbing. That was fun. I purled with the white and knit the red stitches.

The body of the mittens are a pattern that is 8 stitches by 12 rows. This was convenient since I had a multiple of 8 stitches for the hand portion. For the thumb gore, I decided to try to outline it with white, and have the stripes move. Kind of a candy cane idea, you know?

My husband reports that the mittens feel nice, especially now that's worn them. He wondered about them being a tad wider and longer, but seems to think they are just right.

Now for a hat ... preferably not in the candy can pattern. Hmm.

Christmas

My husband continues to surprise me! He must've gotten a very big box from Knit Picks, because this is what I found under the tree for me!



This is the Merino-style sampler pack, the pattern for another set of mittens, some fancy row counters and apair of Addi turbos. Oh yes -- a chocolate bar as well!

The man must be hoping for some new mittens this winter!

Birthdays are wonderful

My birthday was December 20th. This year was special -- not because of the age thing, but because of the gifts. I got things that I really wanted! Here you see the loot:



The Simple Strips sampler pack from Knit Picks, along with the Northern Stripes mitten pattern. And not to be outdone, my lovely daughter gave me the Tigger Movie. I'm a big Winnie-the-Pooh fan!

The yarn is destined to become socks for myself ... it's great travel knitting since the project and supplies are small and easily portable. The movie? It's a great story to knit along with.

My wonderful husband surprised me totally with his gift from Knit Picks. I had no idea that he had in fact ordered, let alone that it had arrived. Talk about a major surprise! Now I can't wait for Christmas!!!