Knitabel

Life has been busy here, but I am sorry about the blog silence.Even now I'm typing over the baby. :)

Since my last post, Little'Un has been born,















my parents came out,




















we've moved, Eric finished collecting his data, and he finally got his first ever full-time job. It's his first job that has even included benefits!















You can imagine that we're feeling pretty good, though there have been a couple hitches. But the girls are cute and both are getting stronger and smarter every day!





















(This photo is of Little'Un, with a photo of Sweetie held next to her.)


I have been knitting, mostly for Little'Un's bum, though I have started my very first sweater for myself! No pics of that, as yet, but here is one more cute one:

The next part of the massive update brings us to the fabulously beautiful blanket that the BobaKnitters made for my gestating offspring.

Abigail blogged about it here, with a complete list of everyone who helped. It was a total suprise to me! It has another row of blocks that are hiding behind the couch, but I photographed it as it is in our house, waiting for the baby to arrive. I can't even tell you how amazing it is! Thanks ladies!











On a much more domestic note, I'm very excited to have added a line of elastic to the top edge of my water bottle cozy. My bottle has been naked since it's original drawstring felted itself into a knot, but now my bottle is dressed again. :)



















Next up, newly on the needles is a summer Clapotis for me. My other Clapotis is Noro Silk Garden, so there is a limit to how much I wear it, based on the seasons. This one is in cotton, apparently. Sandi at Purlescence recieved a whole load of cotton yarns from a friend, and when I was at the store shopping for my birthday, I asked about this enourmous yarn cake that was near the swift. Sandi told me its story, then offered for me to take it if I knew of something I wanted to knit out of it. So it's becoming a Clapotis! You can't really tell from the picture the size of the ball, but it's about 400g of cotton. The ball is 16.75" in circumference, and the needles shown are 24" size 7s.













Last up for tonight's update is my newest knitting tool, a fabulous drying rack from Ikea. Eric thinks I'm nuts, but look at it!


Four levels of flat drying rack space! !!! :)

!!!

And it folds up so that it's flat. It's about 5'x2'x2' when totally set up, but it folds down to 5'x2'x2". I'm so excited! It comes at a particularly good time, because our old wooden drying rack had become wobbly, and with the new baby I'll have plenty to hang on it. I've got a dozen woolies lanolinizing right at the moment, and I'm totally excited to put them on the new rack to dry. It also stands quite nicely with half of it folded down, or even individual levels, so we can hang out our swimming towels without anything dragging on the ground or overlapping.

!!!

That object that appears to be drying on it is actually Eric's sweater. The thing is big enough for his sweater to lay (mostly) flat! You can tell that the armpit sections are standing up, but both sleeves have enough room, and nothing is hanging over the edge!

While I have more to share from the past couple months, this is it for tonight. Happy camera!

Tonight I have a lot to share, mostly because of our new camera! Our old one hasn't been working for the past couple months, so I haven't had pics to share until tonight!


First up, yarn jars. I got this idea from Abigail who has one full of sock yarn. The jars are grand fun, moth proof, and lowish-cost (being from Ikea). I have one for sock & lace weight yarn, two for worsted, and one for bulky. They make me happy! This is the majority of my stash:









Second, EZ's Tomten, for Sweetie. It was a very fast knit. The varigated yarn is an alpaca/wool blend, while the straight up purple is Cacade Heathers. It's totally eye-bendingly bright, and it's so cute on her. I'll get pics of that eventually. :)















Third, Slippery Socks in STR Jewel of the Nile. Grand fun to knit. Eric is enamoured of them (I think he likes the colors). If I were to knit them again, I'd add a couple stitches to make the cables look nicer on my wide feet, but they're very comfortable to wear.

Eric reads this webcomic and today's entry was too funny:

Eric's next. 1) What's your first name? 2) What's your favorite food? 3) Where did you go to school? 4) What's your relationship status? 5) What's your favorite color? 6) Who's your celebrity crush? 7) Who are you listening to right now? 8) Favorite movie? 9) Favorite book? 10) Favorite Disney Princess? 11) Favorite drink? 12) Where's your dream vacation? 13) What's your favorite dessert? 14) What do you want to be when you grow up? 15) What do you love most in life? 16) One word to describe yourself? F.Y.I., I cheated....I couldn't stick to a pic on the search word.

Following Nathania's lead:

1. Go to www.photobucket.com (don't sign in) (ok, I used flikr.com)
2. For each question below, type your answer in the "search" box and hit ENTER
3. Use only the first page of hits that come up and select a picture. If no matches are found to your search query you can revise your answer.
4. Copy the html for the photo you select and paste it in your post.

1) What's your first name?

2) What's your favorite food?

3) Where did you go to school?

4) What's your relationship status?

5) What's your favorite color?

6) Who's your celebrity crush?

7) Who are you listening to right now?

8) Favorite movie?

9) Favorite book?

10) Favorite Disney Princess?

11) Favorite drink?

12) Where's your dream vacation?

13) What's your favorite dessert?

14) What do you want to be when you grow up?

15) What do you love most in life?

16) One word to describe yourself?

That was fun!

Cindy: the baby blanket is all done. The best pic that I have of it is on Ravelry, but the camera stopped working just before I finished it.

Abigail: Someone at Purlescence mentioned that it might just be the chemicals used in manufacturing too... hard to tell because all the alpaca that I've knit so far has been from KnitPicks. I had had a minor reaction when I blocked the alpaca scarves that I gave as gifts for Christmas, and I became suspicious when I reacted after washing Sweetie's doll's clothes (knit from leftover alpaca), but Eric's sweater just confirmed it. I could try washing the doll clothes again, but after this last one I'm not sure I want to. Maybe I'll give it a shot in a couple months. :) Oh, and once the clothes dried, I stopped having the reaction again.

Thanks for the support, y'all! I think I'll keep plugging away on the lace after all, though I think I'll be destashing the rest of my alpaca. More room in the jars!

My dear friends, I have learned something sad about myself.

I am allergic to wet alpaca.

Urrg!
I found this out (confirmed, more like) this past Tuesday when I tried to wash and block Eric's sweater -- the beautiful cabled 100% alpaca sweater that I worked on for so long. Breathing became less pleasant soon after pulling it out of the water. By 6 hours later, my voice was hoarse and disappearing, breathing was beginning to hurt. When Eric moved the sweater outside, everything improved.

So, let's see... besides Eric's sweater, I just finished (minus the buttons) a Tomten for Sweetie (sorry, no pics because camera's on the blink) that's mostly wool, but does contain probably 25% alpaca. Oh, and then there's the lace that I've been working on for somewhere around 2 years now. That's totally alpaca. What's the point of knitting lace if you can't ever block the #&$# thing? And I was thinking of knitting another Clapotis out of the remaining yarn I had left from Eric's sweater. Guess not. :(

Still no problem with wool, though. :) Wet or dry. Some can be itchy, but that's true for lots of people.

On my needles: EZ's Tomten just came off, I've started on soakers out of Cascade 220, random extra yarn bits, and some Marr Haven (how is that spelled again?). Slippery socks in STR. Lace.

I decided tonight (rather abruptly) that it was time to announce (however belatedly) that I'm pregnant. I keep being surprised that some folks don't know yet.

And it's a girl.

:)
I'm about halfway through the pregnancy, which is a little scary because I'm already halfway through the time I told myself that I had to get used to the idea of having a second small person running around my life. I know that, once I meet her, I'll be totally happy about it (falling in love can do that to a person), but for the moment, I'm a bit nervous. Which is an improvement from scared-out-of-my-gourd, which is how I started.

So Little'un (as I seem to be calling her at the moment) will be the recipient of my latest large project:


Name: Smooshy (because it is)
Pattern: To The Point
Source: Vogue On The Go: Baby Blankets Two
Yarn: Knit Picks Swish
I've just about doubled the size from the original pattern, because it really ought to be about the same size as Sweetie's baby blanket. For her part, Sweetie helpfully reminds me just about every week that "fringe is better than scales" (her blanket has fringe, while this one has those lovely colorful scales).


Happy day.
:)

The Front



















The Back



















The Sleeve (in a fun pose, of course)



















Happy man! Very, very warm man.



















Pattern: Jack's Aran Sweater
Book: Men in Knits
Yarn: Knit Picks Decadence (bulky alpaca)
Needles: mostly 9s
Size: Small
Modifications: by request, I left all the rolled edging off -- at the bottom, around the neck, and on the sleeves.