Baby Knitting


I'm always so impressed with those knitters who find out a friend is pregnant and know immediately what they want to make for the new baby. I seem to have a hard time deciding and wait until the last minute to start/finish items. My friend Marnierecently had a gorgeous baby and when I opened the most recent Vogue Knits magazine, I saw the perfect gift--the Baby Surplice sweater by Elizabeth Z.




It's a fun and baffling knit until you get to the very end, when a la Elizabeth Z, it all makes sense.




I decided to do anchored buttons so that Marnie may move the buttons easily for perfect adjustability.



The yarn is farm yarn from Theresa at LTK dyed in her "Guinness" colorway. The colors aren't totally boy/girl, which I love.

I saw my girlfriend Erica today, and she's going to give birth to her second child on Thursday. It's a girl, and for some reason, I cannot settle on a project for her. I need some imspiration and fast!

Spring is here!!!!

It's been a flurry of birthdays and spring fever over here. And knitting, yes, some knitting. This is going to be a big catch up post, so bear with me as I overwhelm you with photos.




First, it was Anthony's 7th birthday on Easter. He was gifted a new bike, one where he doesn't look like a circus clown while riding it because of knees up to his ears. He asked for dinner at Red Lobster and so it was--crab legs for the birthday boy!
He also had a violin recital at school. Here's my only, not so great, picture:




Next, it was Paige's 14th birthday. She asked for a local fast food joint for her birthday dinner, so we did that. Here she is blowing out her birthday candles with DOminic ready to help as needed:




Dominic has been spending all non-rainy days out of doors. I've been trying to teach him to use the pedal car, but he much prefers being pushed around in it over working to get it to move.





Me? I've been starting seeds:



Those are San Marzano sauce tomaotes and a new cherry variety called "TomatoBerry". Both seeds are from Johnny's Seedsmy very favorite seed source ever. They specialize in high quality seeds with a lot of organic varieties and a lot of variety in general! The germination rate is always very high and if you want to grow long Chinese beans, they have that. This year, we have the German Red Top garlic in our garden, coming up nicely. We plant it in the fall. I am also trying a new pole bean, to maximize garden space. Also new are 60 hills of potatoes (from Johnny's as well, but a lot of varieties sold out fast.). I'm hoping to avoid buying supermarket potatoes this year! And garlic! And tomatoes! And lettuce! And cucumbers for pickling and eating. And zucchini. Asparagus. Strawberries. I think that might be it this year.


OK, now the knitting. It's been hard to find adequate time lately. A few rain-showery days have allowed me to spend time indoors, dyeing yarn, playing with some stitch patterns, trying to decide what to work on next. I had a custom order for a customer, which was a cotton top and skirt. I dyed the yarns and knit the order up:



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I've also been working on some special items for an art fair. I need to submit 4 photos of my work with the application because it's a juried fair. So, it's been dyeing, swatching, winding, knitting, embellishing central over here. It's a rainy day today, so I'll try for a few photos tomorrow. So far, I have a scarf and a tunic and beret almost done.