Well Hello

I'm not even going to pretend to make excuses for my bloggy absence... it seems like I need to figure out a better rhythm to posting. Clearly "posting on mornings when I'm not totally rushing around" means that I go for a long time without posting. Ah well, such is life.

Things are a mite bit busy around here right now. I'm trying to figure out what I was thinking of when I signed up for two of the hardest classes I'll take in grad school at the same time. And threw a couple of seminars on top of there. The end result is that my brain is letting me down in other ways. Yesterday I drove 25 miles at rush hour to get my student ID, only to show up and find out I was A DAY EARLY. Ooof. At least today I know how to get there.

So it won't be shocking to know that the knitting has been rather small-scale as of late. But look! A sock!

That's a good bit of a Loksins! sock. The first one was sent to me by Chawne as part of the Single Sock Swap. I had been a little intimidated by the pattern, but I think my brain was playing a trick on me. It's so addictive, and it goes so fast! I told Steph that this was a great successor to Monkey socks. It's going pretty quickly despite the fact that I have next to no time to knit right now. And I love the yarn - Cabin Cove Fingering, which I've never worked with before. The color is actually a little deeper and plummier than pictured.

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Stacey told me recently that I made her day. Thanks Stacey (and back atcha)!! Now I'll return the favor... here are 10 bloggers (in no particular order!) who regularly make my day.

1. Shanti
2. Stacey
3. Monica and Lynette
4. Elspeth
5. Lolly
6. Grumperina
7. Nova
8. Jody
9. Amy
10. Stacey

It's hard to keep the list to just 10, of course. I read a ton of blogs and use them to stay inspired and motivated throughout the day. When you have a little cubicle with no views, it's so nice to be transported to someone else's backyard or knitting chair!

Baby Needs a Hat

The thing about babies is, sometimes they have freakishly big heads. That's how it is with little Ava, who has shamelessly stolen my heart. Ava is the daughter of a friend, and has become a crafty muse of sorts for me. (She's the one who inspired these onesies.)

Anyway, little Ava is actually somewhat on the big side, and at six months old, she's outgrown the tiny newborn hats she had. Enter a little leftover Cashsoft 4Ply, and you end up with this:

Or, rather, with the brim turned up, it's more like this.

Still appeared a bit wonky, but that's just because it needed a head to fill it out.

Hey, she seems to like it! She was all gurgly and giggly when I saw her. What a delight.

Ava-Cakes Hat
Pattern: Hat #7 from the Cleckheaton 951 Baby Book, largest size.
Yarn: Rowan Cashsoft 4Ply, less than 1 ball. In a pink color that's since been discontinued - I had it leftover from Truelove.
Needles: US3 bamboo double-points.
Comments: I knit the pattern exactly as written. It renewed my dislike of double-pointed needles, but all of my circular US3s appear to be otherwise engaged, so I had no choice. I did manage to keep the wonkiness and the laddering to a minimum, so I guess I've gotten a little better in that department. This hat is really easy to knit. The only downer is that knot, which is so cute at the top, but it requires knitting about 8" longer than a normal hat would be. That got a little old, but since it's only 40-some stitches per round, it wasn't the end of the world. This hat is soft and stretchy and should be useful for quite a while. (It practically fits on *my* head!)

But the good news is, the recipient seemed happy with it. And that's all that matters.

A is for...

Activity! I started thinking about what I wanted to do for the first ABC-along letter, and it struck me that I should acknowledge the primary driver in my life the past couple of weeks - activity. I've made a renewed commitment to myself to walk more places and hit the gym on a regular basis. So far, so good.... even though I'm falling asleep around 10, I can live with that.

I bought these shoes last spring and they've had a lot of miles put on them. They're probably due for a replacement soon, but in a way, that's a point of pride. That wear and tear represents an accomplishment!

Small Start to 2008

W ith a mountain of UFOs gathering moss around me, in my mind, I want to finish those up and get the slate close to clean.

My needles apparently had other ideas, especially after seeing an extremely cute baby on New Year's Eve. This particular baby is so large she is literally off the charts, and her mom said that she'd outgrown her hats. The wheels in my brain started turning, and then I remembered this:

I bought this book, Cleckheaton 951, at Purlescence Yarns while in San Jose last summer. Peek inside -- it is filled with some very adorable baby garments, not to mention some stunningly cute babies.

A little stash diving yielded the perfect yarn to make the cover hat, which now looks like this:

Rowan Cashcotton 4Ply, leftover from Truelove. I have at least 2 full balls of it, so it will be plenty. Maybe I'll even be able to eke out some baby socks or a scarflette to match - we'll see. I couldn't find my regular US3 circular needles (any of the 4 of them), so I had to settle for double-points. I'm reminded every single round how much I prefer knitting on 2 circs - the DPNs just have never felt natural to me. But the hat is going quickly, so it will be a short-lived pain.

Then, just maybe, I'll set about to those UFOs. But no promises.