bitty bump

So I had two skeins of Riddermark Merino for a few years and just never happened across the right project.  It's not a lot of yardage because the yarn is bulky, and I couldn't find a hat or mitten pattern that felt right. 

One day, while searching for something or other on Ravelry, I happened across a pattern called Bitty Bump and I immediately thought of those two pretty skeins.  And the blues and greys in them look gorgeous with Zinnia's eyes.  The pattern is a small baby size, but was easy to modify up to a 3T.  It used about 1.75 skeins.

Bitty Bump by Gina Bonomo
Riddermark Merino by Three Irish Girls in Arctic Circle colorway

It was a super fast knit and I'm pleased to have finally found the right project for this pretty yarn.

Pippin!

If anyone is still out there, I am thrilled to announce that my first pattern has been published! More later about the process (I am mentally exhausted!), but in the meantime, please check it out!

Pippin

waiting for next week

On Monday Ben will have his first follow up appointment since we started eye-patching. I'm not sure if I ever talked about that here. This past fall, after not passing his routine eye screening at the pediatrician, we found out that he is extremely far-sighted. Added on to that, the two eyes have very different degrees of far-sightedness, which means that the better eye was doing all of the work, causing a lazy eye, although not the kind you can see from looking at him. They appear to work together, but his right eye was basically just hanging out. So he got glasses and two months later we started patching the good eye for 1-2 hours a day, to force the weaker eye to get to work.



On Friday Emma will have her VCUG to find out if the surgery worked for her left side. We are going back to the private radiology place where she had her first one done because the last one at Children's was much harder than the first. I'm feeling optimistic that it will be good news. Hopefully that won't jinx anything.



And a Lydia pic...just because. Oh...that knitted top she is wearing is the little Debbie Bliss dress I knitted for her while I was pregnant. She wore it her first Easter as a dress, a second spring/summer as a shorter dress and can now wear it as a little top.

silver teeth, dirt, kittens and knitting

Ben is the proud owner of a brand new silver party cap.

It's (almost) over with, he didn't feel any pain and he doesn't remember having it done. Oh, and I love that dentist and everyone there.

He drank the sedative and was getting sleepy within about five minutes. About 15 minutes in they started his chocolate-scented nitrous oxide and the work. While he was never asleep, Ben was slow moving and out of it for most of it.

The doctor kept up a constant dialogue with Ben throughout...lots of, "You're such a good helper," "You're the man," "You're doing great," etc. There was some talk of two prizes to come and he would periodically ask Ben how many prizes he had been promised. At one point Ben was too out of it to hold up two fingers and held up five. So the doctor started calling out, "OK! My best buddy, Ben, gets FIVE prizes! Everyone else back away from the prizes. They are all for Ben. No one else! You others, just back away!" Imagine it in a fairly thick Indian accent.

As it turned out, he needed two root canals and caps but the sedative started to wear off and Ben was starting to grab at the nitrous mask and turn his head. There was no sign of any discomfort--just confusion. The doctor finished up as much as he could and ended up putting a temporary thing on the second tooth. We'll go back in another month or two for the cap to be placed.

At the end he gave Ben a prescription for a local ice cream stand good for a free cone. I ended up having to call Billiam to come and drive home with us because Ben was out of it just enough that he kept trying to chew on his cheek and tongue and wasn't understanding me enough to stop. We were concerned that he would really do some damage on the way home, left to his own devices. His only complaint last night and today are that his tongue hurts. You can see what he did to it in the photo. The white part is the temporary stuff.

Remember I told you about the well pipe replacement and my poor red tulips? Here are the photos. The first photo is just before they were buried. You can see them, all unsuspecting, at the bottom of the photo.
See the guy in the trench?
At least they didn't have to break through the sidewalk.
After. I need some Mederma for this scar.

At bedtime Wednesday night, I realized I hadn't seen Mia all day. I checked with everyone else and no one had seen her since the day before. We searched the house, garage and yard (she's an indoor kitty), but no luck. I felt sick, thinking about her lost somewhere out in the dark. Yesterday before the dental appointment I made signs and when Jake got home we hung them up all around the area and willed the phone to ring. Just before dinner, Abie came running up the stairs. The goofy girl was in the garage. Jake and I had both checked the garage, separately and hadn't found her. She must have slept through us calling her over and over.

And knitting? I have another pair of socks going. This pair is Handmaiden Sea Wool Bordello. 70% merino and 30% seacell. Oh, the joy of knitting with this yarn! It's so silky and just glides through my fingers as I go. And dig this:

Seacell is a cellulose based fibre made from seaweed. That’s right – seaweed! It is highly breathable and very soft. When worn, your skin’s natural moisture will release magnesium, calcium and vitamin E contained within the seaweed. It has anti-inflammatory properties and has been shown to protect the skin. Amazing. (from Handmaiden's site)

The pattern is from the label.

Tomorrow? Sheep and Wool, baby. Sunday? Sheep and Wool spindle class. WOOT!

insert clever title here

Remember yesterday when I said I had just three more rows on the EZ Baby Surprise Jacket and just enough yarn to do it? I actually had three more ridges (of garter stitch) to go. So six more rows. Plus the bind off. I was able to start the bind off last night during Clara's field hockey practice but was too beat to even pick it up when we got home. I think it's going to work. But then, I am an optimist. Still, I am holding my breath.

This morning we'll be heading out to watch Clara's debate team at their first competition. I think that all of my kids should be star debaters. After all, they are all convinced that they are absolutely right 100% of the time. I have no idea where they got that. (whistling nonchalantly)

My blogiversary is coming up next week and I'll be having a wee contest that I'll tell you about later.

In the meantime, please consider buying a chance in the AHA raffle. $5 = five chances! And the prizes are going to be good. Really good.

I heart April.

One reason: egg salad sandwiches with pepper. For some reason I forget about egg salad most of the year. Dyed eggs make that happily impossible.

Another reason: two of my girls are April babies. Clara (21st) and Hope (29th). At nearly twelve and nearly fourteen, they have forbidden me to post photos of them here without permission, but I think they won't mind this one.

Reasons are not necessarily in order of importance.

In other news, I have three rows left on my EZ Baby Surprise Jacket in Cider Moon's River. Well, first I have to go back a row and a half then knit the last three rows. Because it's important not to read the directions carefully, I kept increasing every other row on the last rows. So now I have to go back and knit them straight. And I actually see how the shape is going to work, finally. Without effort, even.

I think I will wait on sewing up the seams until I can make bets with each and every family member on whether they can shape it into a sweater. Hey, I have to earn money for more stash somehow and I'm short five dollars today because the baby made off with my cell phone and I had to offer up a reward. The phone was turned on when it dropped out of my pocket but apparently Lydia now knows how to turn it off. Just the skill I need her to have. :-O So that upped the reward.

It was under the fish tank stand, by the way. And now Ben is trying to think of what he can buy with five dollars. I'm just glad to have my phone back.

Oh, and did I mention that the whole thing took just one skein? I'm getting close, but I will be really surprised if I run out before finishing. There seems to be just enough.

as promised

Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket in Cider Moon's River; Samba colourway. I love this yarn. Soft, shiny cotton with a lovely drape. Ever so pretty. The pattern cracks me up. Each time I decide I'm going to try to figure out exactly how it's going to come together I stop. If I really try and can't see it, it's going to drive me nuts, so I force myself to stop looking. I'm just going with the pattern and waiting to see what happens.

I actually ordered this yarn with something for my niece in mind. My sister loves purple and red and on the monitor I was using (our desktop monitor is pretty dark), that's what it looked like. In person (and on a normal monitor) it is very pretty shades of fuchsia and a tomato-orange. The variations in color intensity are really striking. I'm not sure if that's showing up in the photo as I'm on the desktop right now. But it really is lovely. Anyway, since it's not purple and red, I am waiting to see how big it ends up being. With the gauge I'm getting the pattern says it should fit 12 mos or larger, so maybe Lydia will get to wear it. Fingers crossed.

vestee

The back is finished up to the decreases and I've started on the front. Quick knit, really cute. Perfect. I'm using some Malabrigo in Amoroso that I have had in my stash. This is the first time I've worked with it and yeah, it's All That. I can't seem to capture the gorgeous colors right now...lovely shades of red and purple. I would love to knit this up in a cotton blend, too.

And here is the maniac who will wear it:

one more pair

to go with this sweater. If I can get back up to the fabric store, I might swap out the buttons on this. It's hard to tell from the photo, but they're shell, like the ones on the sweater. But I could get little square shell buttons to match. What do you think?

Pattern from Zoe Mellor's 50 Baby Bootees to Knit.

the thing about knitting

It never ceases to amaze me that this:

can become this:

I hope that magic feeling never goes away.

pattern: Monkey by Cookie.
yarn: All Things Heather in Emperor.

I love this pattern. It's so pretty and easy to memorize, even for this ADD knitter who cannot remember to count to save her life.

Dig my sock model. That's a Batman mini steno pad. All the cool kids are using them.

note to self: must get actual sock blockers, preferably some like these.

not the kind of shower we meant to have today

Today we're having snow and freezing rain. This postpones the shower I am co-hosting for my sister (with her sil). I am fairly certain that my sister doesn't read here, so you get to see two of her gifts.

The hat is from Itty Bitty Hats. I really recommend this book if you like knitting baby hats. Lots of cute ones. The body of the hat is bamboo yarn. I'll have to go find the label, but it's something from Italy and unbelievably soft. The flower bits are Tahki Cotton Classic. It will look so much cuter on my niece's head, rather than on bunched up tissue.

The sweater. Ah, the sweater. I was originally going to give her the cabled baby jacket from a few posts back. Upon completion, I think it's going to be too small. She's due in early April and I wanted something that can be worn in the fall. I was a bit under gauge on the pattern, so I went up a size (watching proportion), but the pattern seems to run small, anyway. Lydia's, where I got gauge, is in 18-24 mos and fits her now.

So I cast on for this sweater Friday morning and got it wrapped by the wee hours of today. The yarn for the sweater is some that I ordered on ebay a while ago. Uber soft wool from Uruguay. Delicious. As soon as it arrived, Jake said it looked like raw hamburger and I've been calling it the hamburger yarn ever since. I really like the way it turned out, though. The edging is some wool yarn I picked up from my lys yesterday. I have no idea what it is as there were two skeins and the owner gave me the one without a tag.

The pattern is from The Gift Knitter (chunky patterns for babies and dogs, of all things). It came out nice and big and would fit Lydia nicely right now with a bit of room, I think. With the shower postponed, I am so tempted to slap it on her and call it my own.

Now I have to decide whether to freeze the quiche or go ahead and let the family eat it (then make more next weekend). We have spinach, sun dried tomato and pecorino romano cheese, artichoke with Tuscan seasoning, and asparagus and cheese. Mmm.

all but finished

Just a few more inches to go, blocking and then seaming up the arms. Oh, and buttons. Those would be helpful. I added a wee twisty cable on either side of the central cables down the front.

I have a hat started from Itty Bitty Hats, too. I'm really irritated, though. I bought a brand new 16" circular yesteday (finally using a birthday gc for my lys) and the wire popped off at the joint on the second round. Grr.

please allow me a moment

to bask in the glow of Amy King saying (about Clara's hat, based on her design):

The hat is damn cool!
I love it!

Thanks, Amy! And thank you for a very cool design and a blog I've been enjoying for a while, now.

Clara's hat: done.

pattern changes available as a pdf file. Just drop me a line: gretchenknits at gmail dot com or gretchenknits on ravelry.

As of yet unblocked but she loves it. Jake has asked if I can knit him one in boy colors (my words, not his) instead of the other pattern.

Noro Kureyon (154) and some black merino worsted I already had. Based on Amy King's Fake Isle hat from MagKnits with the skull design lifted from Hello Yarn's We Call Them Pirates and a few other little changes. When I make it again I will put an extra row of black between the skulls and the stripe of Kureyon. The checkered part above the skulls will move down so that it is the same distance from the skulls as the bottom one. There are some wonky parts where I wasn't paying attention but those only add to the charm, right?

BEHOLD the power of the inside-out pajamas:

Snow Day! Woot! It's about time. While I could do without the bitter cold we've been having, we don't usually have to wait until February for a snow day off from school.

I love, love, love snow days. As I've told my friend, Laura (who is misguided enough to believe that L.A. weather is normal), snow days are like finding a twenty in your coat pocket that you didn't know was there. Sweet!

You fair-weather folks, are you aware of the power of the inside-out pajamas to bring on a snow day?

You know, I was just thinking how nice it will be that the other kids will have today to see Jake before he gets on his flight today (the original plan involved me taking him to the airport straight from school). Then I realized that, left to his own devices, he will probably roll out of bed sometime after 1 pm. Oh, well.

Abie's hat, in the photo above, is Fig and Plum's pattern knit up in Araucania Atacama (M02).

real, live yarn in person and other ramblings

I've told y'all that I buy most of my yarn online. The selection is endless, I can hunt down bargains and I don't have to move my behind from my comfy bed/couch/chair to request that it be delivered to my mailbox. What a deal. But man, touching, squeezing and sniffing the stuff just cannot be accomplished through the screen.

I finally made my way to Eleganza Yarns over the weekend. We needed to go into Frederick to exchange one of Billiam's birthday gifts. On the way I casually mentioned that I would like to finally go to Eleganza to pick up some yarn for my sister's baby gift. I'm sly like that. And Billiam's theatrical "Woe is Me"about working a 6 1/2 day week and then spending his only free time in a yarn shop was much shorter than expected. Score one. Love you, honey.

I think the poor man behind the counter thought I was deranged when I walked in and immediately started grinning from ear to ear. Yarn is crack, I tell you. Crack. I ended up with some Rowan Calmer in a lovely pale pink and some Dale Heilo for Jake's replacement pirate hat and one more.

Oh, and I found out that they are planning to have another drop spindle class sometime soon. He said to look for more info in mid-February and that's almost here! Yea! Honey--if you're reading this--I will need to take that class. You know that beautiful, colorful fiber in that box in the kitchen that I ended up keeping when I realized it wouldn't fit into the Yarn Aboard box so I bought some other stuff to put in it, instead? That could be yarn!

Clara's hat will be finished tonight if I play Insomnia Girl in anticipation of Jake's flight tomorrow. If so, photos in the morning. There are a few things I would change around if I were doing it again, but for having made up all of the changes except for the skull part on the fly, I am pretty pleased.

Last, but not least, I won some note cards of The Blankie from Shelly over at Heathen Housewife. Woohoo! If you don't know what The Blankie is, head on over there and scroll down to February 2. It's knit from remnants of sock yarn. Gorgeous!

And, because I cannot possibly end this without a picture...

we call them pirates

I tried to send this from my cell phone the other day with no success. So, yeah, Jake's hat fits Ben.

bah, no pictures.

There has been too much occupying my brain lately to post much. I finally got my tax papers from my test proctoring job so that I could finish our taxes and complete the FAFSA information.

I didn't realize that the FAFSA site would spit out a number immediately to tell us what our expected contribution will be for Jake's first year of college. It's a lot of money but we will somehow manage it. The information is now forwarded to the schools he has applied to and they will let us know what can be put together to make up the difference between our expected contribution and student loans/grants/work study. Hopefully the numbers will work.

His first choice is by no means an inexpensive school so I will be holding my breath until we hear from them. He has applied to two other schools. One is a bit less and the other is much less. I just really, really hope everything works out for his first choice.

I do our taxes and use either TurboTax or TaxCut, depending on which way the wind blows. I love the way it figures everything out for me. I can't believe I did our taxes on paper for so many years, especially when I was a licensed daycare provider and had a gazillion more forms to fill out.

This year, however, there was some weird glitch with e-filing through TurboTax. To do an electronic signature, you have to input your last year's adjusted gross income. TurboTax was nice enough to grab that from our stored info and I sent it off, along with our state. Then I got an email saying the big guys had rejected our return because last year's agi number )for the electronic signature) didn't match up with what they have. Um. Well. It matches up with what I sent them last year.

I ended up calling the big guys and spoke to the nicest lady (thank you, Ms. Parrish, for being so friendly), who checked their records of my life history looked at our 2005 return and pronounced that TurboTax had been smoking crack a glitch in their software and to call them to find out why they are so annoying when they're high how to correct the problem.

In the meantime, our state return was kicked back to, because if the big guys don't want to know us, they don't either. Let me tell you, this game is so much fun for someone with an abnormal fear of authority.

In the end I decided that the faster course of action would be to submit the return electronically and send in the signature on paper. Glory hallelujah, the return was accepted. I should have my refund in my hot little hands bank account by February ninth.

In knitting news, I've now made six hats in Fig and Plum's pattern and have started a hat for Clara based on the Fake Isle pattern on Magknits. It's Kureyon and black, like the pattern, but has a skull motif around the main part (from Hello Yarn's We Call Them Pirates) instead of the diamond pattern in the original. Speaking of pirate hats, I finished Jake's pirate hat (love the lining--I used a milk chocolate brown cotton) in that pattern but, as I feared, it is too small. He can put it on but prefers to have blood circulating to his brain, so he won't be wearing it. It's adorable on Ben and Clara has worn it a few times. I'll have to knit it again using larger needles.

I've also started Sweater Babe's Beautiful Cabled Baby Jacket for Lydia for next year in (what else?) pink. The pattern cracks me up. It's written line-by-line with little boxes to check off beside each one. Idiot-proof. I'm just about down to the divide for the sleeves (it's knit from the top down) and it's going really quickly. I worked on it for a little while last night and a few times here and there today. Gotta love Cashmerino Aran on 9's.

I need to decide on what to knit for my sister's baby girl, due on April Fool's Day. I told her that she should aim for delivering at least a day late as she could have so much fun all day long on the first, telling people she is in labor.

Oh! And if you are in need of yarn stash organization, Costco has a cool shoe organizer right that is very cute for yarn. I'm not seeing it on their website, but it's very cute and about $23. I'll take a picture of mine when it's prettier. I'm in the process of addding yarn to it.

There is something else exciting going on but I have to check with someone to be sure I'm allowed to talk about it. Laura? Can I?

mostly about Hope,

but please don't mention that to her because I'm not supposed to talk about her here. She's thirteen.

Hope's hat is finally finished. I love it and, more importantly, she loves it. How great is it when you give someone something you've knit for them and they can't stop grinning, they love it so much? The pattern is Braid and Bobble Hat by Fiber Trends (thank you, Lindy!) and the yarn (merino/alpaca) was custom dyed by ChewySpaghetti (click to see her etsy shop and drool). Just gorgeous and super soft. Thank you, Khris!

Oh, and to answer your question from the other day, Nicki, yes, she needs glasses. She's Not Happy about it and could not find any frames that she didn't despise with every fiber of her being liked. We need to find 100% invisible frames. Not rimless. Invisible. She only needs them for distance and right now is sitting at or near the front in all of her classes, so there is no pressure to rush it. I think she needs some more time to digest the idea.

Here is a pic of Billiam's hat. See? Don't you love that decrease, too? Thank you, Fig and Plum.

And the green bit at the bottom. Yeah, I know how to do it without getting the little bumps of color. I forgot to do it.

Today I have the Herculean task of convincing Ben to shed his pajamas in favor of actual clothing. The kind people wear when they venture out of the house into the great big world. The boy would live in his pj's if I let him. Most days I do.

hat for Baby O

I knitted this hat Wednesday night for the new baby niece. The pattern is this one, but I used size 8 needles instead and it ended up newborn-ish size. Plain old Sugar & Cream cotton yarn in Strawberry Ombre.

There was enough left over to start the baby bolero in One Skein. I finished the left and right fronts and the bottom of the body. Now to grab one more skein and finish it off. I am thinking of adding ruffle around the edges to go with the hat.