Puke, poop and pee aka "The PPP"

That's all I've been dealing with the last week. It's gross, I know, but it's the truth. Abby got the yucky sicky thing that's been going around. I thought we'd dodged it, but I was cocky and now it's kicking my butt too. On Thursday, I had already done 2 loads of poopy, pukey laundry and had already been through 3 outfits on Abby by 9am. That was just the beginning. Poor thing, she just stood there covered in vomit saying, "mama, I pooked, I pooked on my crib and feet!" She hasn't quite figured out how to make the long "U" sound in puke. I think we're through the worst of the releasing of disgusting bodily fluids. Now we've moved on to the I'm so cold and shivery and sweaty and achey I could die part. We rented Charolette's web this morning and are hoping for a long nap out of the little one.
Moving on! Oh, that pic up there is before the PPP.





I whipped up a little "Airy Scarf" from "Last Minute Knitted Gifts" for my friend Christine. I'm loving the color of it. It'll match her blue eyes! Yay. It took less than 1 skein of LLH Soft-Kid in color #63.



Also, last week, I made two more yoga mat bags. One for my friend, Heather, for her birthday, and one for me! So there! I made up the pattern. Really, it's just a rectangle of fabric serged on two sides, with a draw string at the top (I used twill tape to make the casing for the draw string. It looks neater and is easier to pull shut than a fabric casing). Then, I sewed on some webbing for a strap. I wanted to be able to sling it over one shoulder, or wear it across my chest with the bag on my back. Anyway, aside from trying to figure out how to attach the ladderlock buckle, they went together really easily. For a bag to hold a regular sized yoga mat and nothing else, I started with a piece of fabric 16"x 28". For my bag, which I put a few other things in, I used a piece that was about 20"x 30". Can you tell that I'm in love with the daffodils in my yard right now? So cute.






Anyway, a few people have requested a pic of my short hair cut. All I can say is that you'll have to wait until I'm not cleaning puke, poop or pee. It's cute, but not so cute when I'm dealing with this stuff. ugh. Instead, I'll show you this one of me finishing my second ever 5K race.


Oh, and I almost forgot about the tote bag I made for Meggan. My first lined tote bag and my first embroidery ever. It's made with linen cut off of the bottom of an ikea curtain that was too long, thrifted cotton lining and hand-me-down embroidery floss from my mom. It suits Meggan's earthy ways in that it's all recycled or reclaimed materials. It was fun too! I'll probably make more.




And, I'm still plugging away at those socks. I got close to finishing one and then realized that the foot was HUGE without continuing the ribbing I'd started on the cuff. I've torn back to the gusset to put the ribbing back in and might reduce down more for the foot. That's all for now.

Strange scarf and the frogging nightmare

My very first post on this was about finding a sweater at a thrift store made from noro yarn. I started to frog it a long time ago and got sidetracked with stockings and other things. Well, I pulled it out again last night and spent 1/2 hour trying to detangle the mess. I've given up. I'm going to felt it and do something with the fabric. It won't come undone without either breaking the yarn or me having to undo each and every stitch by hand, pulling the whole ball of yarn through every stitch. I can't figure out why, but it's driving me nuts!

So, with that set aside, I'm moving on to making Abby some slippers, I think. I might also go back to making a market bag that I thought about doing sometime last fall. I do have a new nephew to knit for (he's being adopted and is 14 months), but I have to wait until he's officially part of the family and we can get the size right.

And now, the scarf that I was making with some random yarn from the bottom of my stash. It's in copper drift colorway. I'm not a HUGE fan of it (the scarf. ..not necessarily the yarn, though for a mostly acrylic yarn, it's awfully scratchy!). I'm waiting until someone falls over with enthusiastic love for the scarf and then I will take it off and give it to them.

And this is just part of an experiment as I learn about this new-fangled blogger.

100% ready to hang

Woo Hoo!
They're knit, named, hangers on and blocked. Done. Now I just need to figure out what the heck to hang them from. We have a pellet stove, but that means no mantle. I also knocked down a wee scarf with my left over Debbie Bliss for a friend's b-day. Now, it's all about those recycled sweater bags for gifts. Those require time in the sewing room which is DAMN cold right now and it's hard to get myself to go in there. But, this weekend, it'll happen.

Notes about the stocking pattern: This is just so I remember some day in case I need to make another one!
From the top to the heel is the mix and match socks pattern on page 60 of this book. Knit Christmas Stockings by Gwen Steege.
I tried two different heels, one from the basic sock pattern from this book. The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns by Ann Budd. And one from the "celebration" stocking in the pamphlet Knit Christmas Stockings by Sandy Scoville. I did the heel etc. on circular needles using stitch markers to tell where to decrease etc.

Stitch 'n b product!

Made it through the stitch 'n bitch despite the mulled wine that was served. . .so dangerously good! I frogged and reknit the thank you scarf. I felt like it was too unfinished looking. So I did a k2p1 ribbing and it turned into a very long snake like thing. It rolled back onto itself despite my ribbing. . . so, for one of the first times, I blocked something. I've never really gotten into blocking. I'm sold on it now. It made my snake stay flat and made it looked really finished. Perhaps I should have just blocked the first version. . .but I'm happy with the end product.

You know you don't like something when. . .

you make something else entirely unplanned to avoid working on the thing you don't like! I am somehow compelled to keep working on the stinkin' stockin' even though I'm not happy with it. It's just a little too busy for me. However, I keep knitting and knitting and knitting on it. I keep thinking that adding more to it will make it better, but I just don't like it. I figure it's a learning experience. I'll eventually give up on it and move on. So, to distract myself, I whipped out a little scarf as a gift. The picture makes the colors look a little funny. It's just the bush and the light that do it. It's with Debbie Bliss Soho in colorway 02. . .yummy.

Tom and I are going to California for a board meeting for his work (and my birthday). We will be leaving Abby for 5 nights with Tom's parents. I've only been away from Abby for no longer than 12 hours before. I'm struggling with the idea of being gone for so long. However, to make it feel a little better, the Board Chair is putting us up in the Yosemite Lodge at the Falls for our last night there as a treat. So, as she's WAY rich, I figured I'd give her a handmade scarf as a thank you gift since she already has everything in the world she'd need or want.

And, just in case you are dying to see the stinkin' stockin':

Thanks for the ideas. I especially like Amy Lu's idea of duplicate stitching santa's face with a flesh color. If I liked the stocking enough, I'd totally do that. And Laura, don't worry, I'm not giving up on knitting and I won't really go get stockings from Pottery Barn!