I made it

Rainbow lace blanket for baby Cherie

Tuesday I wove in the ends, and then washed it with its sister blanket on Sunday right before the shower.



I wish I'd had enough yarn to make it bigger - as it was, I ended up using a little bit from an extremely similar ball of inherited yarn to finish off the last pattern repeat and do the top border. (You can kinda tell, but not much. The variegation went in the exact same order and almost all the colours were the same - just the green was more yellowy and there was a much longer run of orange.) However, it is plenty big enough to adequately cover a baby, and I guess also that its smaller size will make it more drag-around-able when the kid gets to be a toddler (if, of course, the child likes it enough to drag it around, which I certainly hope will be the case). The mommy-to-be really liked it.

Mitred blanket for baby Julie

Huge credit has to be given to my husband for my actually being able to finish this on time. I told him about nine days before the shower that I had badly underestimated how much time there was left (which makes me very dumb, since I was completely aware of the date of the shower...I guess I just never put two and two together to realise how many days I had left) and that the coming week would be filled with Panic Knitting. So he enabled my panic bee-yew-tifully by taking the kids more often and not complaining about the lack of clean laundry. He was great, and I was able to make my 'stitch quota' each day and get it all done on Friday. It got washed on Sunday before being wrapped up.

I'm very very happy with it, although there are a few noticeable bits of fluff left on it from the provisional cast-on that piss me off, but what can you do, hopefully that will go away with use and more washing. As well, the gauge of the graft is not perfect, but again, hopefully use and washing will do the trick by evening out all the stitches. And I don't think the recipient noticed - she really seemed to love it, even though it turned out waaay bigger than I had intended! She even left a thank-you comment in my last post. (You're totally, totally welcome. Despite the panic, it was an absolute pleasure. :)

Anyway Em, I'm really sorry I didn't get out to the SnB on Wednesday (especially since I missed Mel, phooey), but this blanket is why - last time I was there I didn't get any knitting done, and I just couldn't afford that this past week. Hopefully I'll be out again soon!

The only question left now about this project is what to do with the pattern. I was thinking of writing it up and asking Knitters Attic to try and sell copies, but now I'm thinking, maybe the construction of the blanket is unique enough that Knitty would be willing to use it? I don't know. I'll have to ask Amy. But then I start getting paranoid that she'll think I'm some crazy blanket-obsessed person who keeps submitting blanket patterns in the hope of wearing her down. Ack! I'm going to have to figure out how to word what I'm going to say or write to her so she doesn't think I'm heading up some kind of baby blanket special interest group lobby.

Either way, I'll need to do up another one as my model for the completed project shots. This is not a hardship since I'll be able to use it for my own baby.

Slippers for DD

I ripped this out again and restarted it using stocking stitch and the smallest size. I managed to get both slippers done with almost no yarn left over - triumph!



When DD first tried them on, they seemed to fit, although it was clear she'd be growing out of them fairly soon:



However, she wore them last night (I discovered after I finished them that she wanted them not as house slippers, but to sleep in - so cute!) and it looked like they kept coming off because the heel isn't far enough up her foot. So, drat. However, none of that seems to bother her, she really likes them, which of course is the point. I may have to make new ones pretty soon, though.

Now that the big 'blanket push' is over, I'm feeling a bit at loose ends as to what to pick up next, especially considering that it's a dumb idea to knit my husband's Christmas present right in front of him. I'm also not able to fill in the gaps with Ravelry yet:

You signed up on July 6, 2007
You are #14465 on the list.
4028 people are ahead of you in line.
14679 people are behind you in line.
35% of the list has been invited so far

However, my invite should be coming in a matter of a few weeks, since the big-capacity servers shipped last Monday. Install like the wind, Casey!

I have promised DH that, once I get my invite, it will not affect our sex life. :) I was not, however, willing to promise that it will not affect the flow of clean laundry around here. But I did promise to try to make sure all the laundry got done. What can I say, it was the best I could do.

On another note, thanks to everyone for the compliments on DD2's latest baby picture! I absolutely looove her smile, it's really infectious.

As for my elder daughter, Carrie K, a trip to California to wind yarn is definitely appealing, but I don't think I can let her go juuust yet. :) Besides, she still exclaims, "Oh, I just can't leave my mummy!" and comes back for another hug before going to the bathroom...I think a trip by herself out-of-country might be a tad too much for her. We'll have to be content with the meagre amount of local yarn-winding opportunities available. ;)

Sleep socks for moi

I pulled this project out last night and got a few inches done on the leg, so it's slowly getting there. Em, I used a really basic toe - just decreased at the sides every other row, and then grafted it shut. (If that isn't enough of an explanation for you, let me know, I can go into more detail.)

Larry's Cashmere Cabled Pullover for DH

This saw a teeny weeny bit of action soon after the blankets were completed - I joined the second ball and got a few more rows done while DH wasn't around. I'm hoping it won't be too tough getting going on this thing again, even though I no longer have the commute to work on it away from his eyes, and we're both at home together a lot. He does a lot of golfing and yardwork, so I should be able to find the time.

(PS - Aven - you moved? How did I miss this? Where are you now?)