Emma's blankie

 

I saw Baby Emma for the first time live last Friday.  She's so tiny, I hope they use this blanket as a stroller cover until she grows into it, or else she may get lost in it.

Orion's blankie

 

This is the longest baby gift I have ever created.  The "baby" in question is about 2 now, I think.  Orion's mom and dad are scientists.  I mean real scientists.  His dad worked on a project involving dust that came from Saturn.  I mean, really!  How many people can say that?

Anyway, way back when his mother was expecting, I heard rumors that the baby's name, although they were keeping it a secret, had something to do with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and I got this great idea to applique symbols from the book onto the blanket I was making.  I planned a goldfish and a porpoise and that funny little face with the skinny little arms and the tongue hanging out and a "Don't Panic" button and some mice with a teapot and....

It got so complicated I knew I'd never finish it.  So when the baby was born and they announced his name was Orion, I got another great idea!  I'd applique stars on the blanket in the shape of the constellation Orion.

That was a great idea until I found out how many stars are actually in the constellation Orion!  I had no idea!  It's not at all what you see on the Orion Pictures film headers.

Then I got to thinking.  Of course, that's when all great ideas stall, when someone gets to thinking.

These guys are scientists.  They're going to know if the stars are out of alignment.  I was so obsessed with my artistic license, I couldn't finish the blanket.

Other babies and baby gifts came and went and I thought sure the parents thought I was snubbing them or something.

Finally, I spoke to a mutual friend who told me to get over it and just finish the blanket already!

So I did.  I took a lot of artistic license and the constellation is probably only recognizable to me, but at least I finished it before he grew out of it completely.  I think.  I'm going to give it to them this Sunday.  If they are at all offended by the poorly crafted constellation, they're polite enough to keep it to themselves, I'm sure.

At Long Last!

This gown took longer to make than the baby took to "germinate."

And here is the Little Miss and her lovely mom:

Nearly There

I am so sorry about my absence for so long.

I have been working frantically to finish a christening gown that I started when the mom was 3 months pregnant.  The baby was born on July 31st.  The christening is in November.

Crochet projects have all been on hold while I concentrate on this and I'm so happy to say I'm almost finished.  I expect to wrap up by the first or second weekend in October.

Here are some really bad photos of the work in progress ....

...AND two of the more important COMPLETED project (for which I cannot take any credit):

More photos of the baby (and a fantastic photographer if you're looking for one in the Bay Area) at The Jess Page.

Warm You Up Winter Swap Blog Question #5

The question is what pattern would you make again and again?

In all honesty, I can't say there is one pattern I enjoy that much.  My attention is always on the next project and the next and the next and the next.  I often think "This is a good pattern to make again for so-and-so," but I never get a round tuit.

If it ever did happen, among the running would be:

• some gorgeous glass cozies made from thread that I don't even have a picture of to show you;
• the Love Knot dress for babies (I'll add the photo later if I can find it....);
• cotton shopping bags;
• zombie Amigurumi;
• the bridal purse (search "weddings" herein); and
• baby shoes

Now, to celebrate spring, here is what my Christmas cactus looked like this morning.  Its second blossom to come to full term is showing, plus another one aborning:

Woot! Loot!

I apologize for my infrequent blogging these days. Demands on my time and all. I won't bore you with the details.

Crocheting time has become dear, as well. I am very far behind on promised projects, including the prize for the brooch contest, but I hope to have that completed by the end of next weekend.

Meanwhile, I received this fantastic package from my Falling for Ewe secret swap pal. Dear, dear, Pal. You and I have far more in common than you may have realized. I cannot wait to "meet" you for real and exchange private emails.

Just opening the outer package gave me a lift. Just look at all the pretty packages!

Inside was the most luscious, soft, heavenly yarn imaginable. And the color! I wish the photo could do it justice. It's a bit on the watermelon side of true red, and looking at it just makes me sigh. I'm not sure what I'll do with it, but I'm looking for scarf and hat patterns right now that will suit it. I would love feeling this yarn caressing my face in the San Francisco fog.

I am afraid I have given my spoiler a bit of a hard time because I mentioned that I don't really need any more yarn. Add to that the fact that I can't have scents and shouldn't eat sweets and it's kind of hard to spoil me, isn't it?

Well, she manages quite well, I must say. These Dove sugar-free chocolates are fabulous! My candy jar at work was in need of replenishing, judging by the "innocent" comments of passersby who have been looking in there. I shared a few of the sweets with the jar, but most of them are stashed in a drawer where only I can sneak them out!

I love the sage green cotton thread. I have so many projects in mind requiring cotton thread, I don't know which all I'll choose for this thread ultimately, but I'm definitely going to be making glass cozies and beaded evening bags and sachets for a start!

Speaking of which, this book -- which came from my spoiler's personal stash, by the way -- is actually a book I once checked out of the library! I love most of the patterns in it and it's especially wonderful because it has cat toys in it! My cats were gifted by a previous spoiler with knitted cat toy mice and they have abandoned all their other toys for those three mice. One of them goes hunting every night at around 3:00 a.m. and carries those mice around the apartment, dropping them and yowling about her conquest. (Luckily, DH and I are relatively sound sleepers.) I had always hoped to have crochet patterns of cat toys.

But there are more patterns in there I love -- and plenty for cotton thread, like sachets and purses and wash cloths. It will definitely get use.

Spoiler, thank you so much! I'll get a proper thank you in the mail this week.

A Bootie Story

At the baby shower (Baby Booties of Past):

Three months later (Baby Booties of Present):

And for this baby, Baby Booties (and more) of Future:

Virtual Silence

If I don't blog for a bit, it's for good reason.  Now that I'm officially terminated from my job, my occupation has become The Hunt.

On top of that, I've come down with a ghastly bug.  I've had to postpone all my interviews this week save one and take to my bed.

But one good thing about this is having discovered photos on the old laptop that I thought I'd lost.  The slippers above are called Slam Dunk Slippers.  I made them for a ginger-haired boy in Washington who has outgrown them by now and has probably passed them along to his baby brother.

I'll be back with good  news in a jiffy!

Take care!

The Summer of Yarn Love Swap Final Reveal

I figure as long as I am on borrowed time at my job that I should catch up on blog posts.

The final reveal for the Summer of Yarn Love Swap at Ravelry was kind of like the end of the world:  except that it ended with a whimper and a bang.  My spoiler Pamela (of Pamela on the Farm fame) and I had gotten to know each other quite well in emails and I was pretty certain I knew who she was, so the reveal wasn't all that surprising.  It seemed more like a mint on my pillow after full day of heavenly languor on the sun deck over Caribbean waters.  (This is the "whimper" part.)

In the last box she sent, Pamela included a letter that linked each item with her and her family and tied us together with our common threads -- and there are so many of those, it is uncanny.  I don't think she even realizes how linked we have become.

I don't think everything that she sent is visible in the photo above.  She sent playing cards and a car air freshener to represent both Ohio and the inevitable "life in the car" that moms like her lead.

There was lots of sock yarn for my baby projects (she knew I wanted to try making the Berroco design Celestine crochet dodecahedron).  (In fact, I have already started one this week):

What Pamela didn't know (at least on a conscious level) was that right before this package arrived, I had decided to try my hand at crocheted socks.  So not all of this yarn will become dodecahedra.

That book in the foreground?  Another one of the Amazing Pamela's Mind Meld products.  One of the questions on the questionnaire for the swap was, "Do you collect anything?"  At the time I said no, but when I saw this comb-bound recipe book from the Ohio State Fair, I realized that -- albeit not on purpose -- I actually do collect something.  Behold!  My grassroots comb-bound recipe book collection:

Clockwise from the far left:

• Best of the Fair previously seen;
• a Greek cookbook from a Greek festival I attended in Oakland when DH and I were first married;
• my grandmother's church's cookbook (Grace Lutheran in Northern Illinois); and
• last but not least, my childhood church (State Street Methodist in East St. Louis, Illinois) cookbook circa 1961. I distinctly recall my mother and the ladies in her church Methodist Women's circle collecting the recipes inside. They even wrote to then First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and received "her favorite" recipe for tomato aspic. That recipe, along with a cover letter from her personal secretary proudly grace the first pages of the cookbook.

See that little bag resting on top of the Best of the Fair cookbook in the earlier photo?  I really suspect that Pamela made what was in that bag and that it's a recipe that's in that cookbook, but she neglected to mention it in her letter, so we'll forever be in mystery.  (Unless she decides to comment on this blog post, that is.)  Anyway, it was a yummy treat that sent my blood sugar soaring and would have caused great damage had not my Dear Husband been nearby because after I'd tasted it and it became obvious that it was Not Long for this World, he thoughtfully disappeared the rest of it.  (He liked it a lot, too!)

Now, I would have been perfectly content with all of this, but then I saw the homemade item!  (This is the "bang" part.)

This bag is perfect in so, so, so many ways.  First off, it's entrelac.  I mean, I can't even knit and purl anymore, so just the thought of attempting colorwork this complicated boggles the mind.  Second, it's a bit of Ohio culture.  It's called a buckeye bag.  I wish I could go to Ohio and pick buckeyes and carry them in it!  But I'll have to settle for carrying crochet projects when I go to very special events.  Thirdly, although the photograph doesn't do them justice, the colors are just beautiful.  And fourthly, she felted it!  This is another craft skill I haven't done yet.  I am in absolute awe of Pamela's skills.

I have Pamelaonthefarm to thank for making the summer of 2008 delightfully memorable!

Baby Shower, San Francisco Style

I got a two-week advance notice for a baby shower and panicked.

Then I found this poncho pattern that looked like it might work up fast. I started it with yarn I had on hand. Of course, the only way it would be "right" for a San Franciscan baby was to leave off the hood and add fringe. (That Summer of Love Yarn Swap is playing with my head.)

A few days' worth of BART rides and the poncho was complete (except for the fringe, which seemed to take forever -- a whole Saturday shot, at least). Plus I got the bright idea of putting a peace sign medallion on the front and embroider a "chain" for it. As time got closer, though, I decided to opt for whatever applique I could find that looked remotely hippyish.

The result:

When I started on the matching pants, another lightbulb went off and I fringed them, too.

Only thing is, when I showed them to a very wise (and not-very-tactful) Chinese grandmother, she shouted, "Too small. Baby BIG. I know."

Considering how tall the dad-to-be is, I'm afraid she might be right.

I'm hoping maybe they'll put him in this when they take him home from the hospital. Then he'll at least get a day's wear out of it.

In case you're wondering, I taped the baby doll's eyes open. It looked so wrong to have them shut when I was photographing her.