In which I'm noticed

So Mel pointed out in the comments that my Itchy and Scratchy mittens had been profiled by whipup.net. Thanks for the heads-up, Mel! Right before I read your comment, I was beginning to realise something was going on while peeking at my stats. I hadn't heard of whipup.net before now and am tickled that they discovered the mittens project. It was a super-fun one. The actual knitting of the mittens wasn't too exciting, but doing the duplicate stitch and watching the characters take shape PERFECTLY was really, really cool.

The free blankie pattern I promised in my last post is now available. You can download it if you like, just be warned that it's about 2.4MB (there are nine charts, it couldn't be helped). I posted it on Ravelry on last night, and it pretty quickly started getting favourited and queued, which thrilled me no end. This morning when I checked again, it had received even more attention and downloads...and counting! (Wow!!!) This leads me to the conclusion that there are a lot of really INSANE knitters out there, because honestly, people, this is a real mother of a project to get into. It takes scads of yarn, time, concentration and patience. Proof of this is the story of my own angst with the project, as told on episode #25 of Cast-On (about 39.5 minutes into it if you want skip right to). Of course I'm not trying to stop people from making the pattern, I just fear that anybody who tries is going to get mad at me for sucking them in without giving fair warning. So enter at your own risk, you crazy, crazy people. :)

Valtricotine, you are very welcome for the patterns. I'm delighted when people like them!

And lastly...a pattern I designed has been accepted by MagKnits! GLEE! (At least, I'm pretty sure it was accepted. The editor sent me an email saying "I would love to use it", "it will either be in March or April" and asking me to send the pattern and more pictures. That does seem to hint very strongly that it's going to be published, right?) I'm pretty over the moon about this. Stay tuned to find out which issue it'll be in.

So life would be really great if only I could lock down daycare arrangements for when I go back to work in the spring. (Y'know, Universe, it would just be a lot easier if you could arrange for a lottery ticket to come through bigtime for me. Then I could stay home and avoid the daycare issue altogether. Think you could put that together for me? SOON?!? I'd be ever so grateful. Thanks.)

Child legs for DD1

Ahem. Did I say that Trekking XXL didn't repeat?



Whoops. I eat my words - it totally does. Or, at least, this colourway does. Don't it look nice? I'm now only about three inches away from finishing leg #2. When I do, I'll post a picture of DD1 in them, and detail how I made 'em.

P.S. to Carrie K - Yes. I must have faith that winter will end, otherwise I'll go mad. And thank you for the compliments on the shrug - I, too, thought it looked a touch weird in progress with those braids up the back, but I kept my 'vision' firmly in mind, and the end product matched it exactly. I'm quite pleased.