Photo Friday

For yet another fine diversion,
check out the nature photos at the Thursday Challenge site. My pictures may not be great, but they bring back lots of great memories ...

Just a quick break

Maybe it feels like I never finish knitting anything 'cause I'm so easily distracted - dya think?? I was catching up on posts from a few favorite blogs, and first came across this challenge from Tammy, and realized that I'd have to admit my complete obsession with mystery novels if I were to respond. My latest discovery, Susan Dunlap, has apparently been around for a while, and is actually a very classy mystery writer - no psycho-killers (qu'est-ce que c'est?), slashers, or gore, just a good old whodunit that takes place in an isolated zendo in a rainy redwood forest ... good stuff, right? Oh yeah, the line is, "Sits quietly; adores rules." Hmmm.

The next blog I looked at had a much more edifying challenge - just like Willow, I'd love to get Back to History - then I'd have something I've read that I can share and still have some self respect! I'm signing up - my first three picks are:

1) Antonia Fraser's Mary Queen of Scots
2) Howard Zinn's The Twentieth Century, A People's History, and
3) Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander - I've been wanting to try this series forever, and yes, if you want to talk distractions, I just saw the group ...

Of course, all this good-for-me reading won't keep me from skipping out on this, or this, or especially this! It'll just be a small reminder that I don't want my brain to melt completely. Any more than it has already, that is.

Speaking of reminders ... I have a FO to post! Very soon - as soon as I have a decent picture to go with it. Now back to my puppy slippers - after completely rethinking (and re-knitting) my concept, the linings are almost complete. Still no little one, so I've got time for a lot more reading!

How many posts does it take ...

... til you have a blog? More than two, I'm guessing.

Lucky for me, it only takes two felted puppies to make one pair of baby booties. The puppy knitting & felting was way easy (the tongues were my favorite part). This is a pre-felting pic - each slipper was about 6" long before it hit the hot water. The pattern is still around, even though I got it in a kit, I think from Patternworks, at least a decade ago ... guess I've just just waiting for the right baby to come along!

At this point, according to the pattern, I only need to finish embroidering the eyes and nose, and knit up the ribbed cuffs. But, to be perfectly honest, the felted Lopi was just a little rough (and probably itchy) for brand newborn feet, so I'm knitting a little tube out of cotton to line each bootie ... kind of a pain, but I hope it will make these more comfy & fun to wear. I started it with a provisional cast on, so I'll attach it to the bootie's top edge (snipping out the cotton holding stitches first) before knitting the rib up from there. At least, that's the grand plan -wish me luck, will you?

Now, it so happens that I'm a little superstitious when it comes to baby showers ... I don't really like to give baby gifts until the baby is safely delivered. It's actually my policy, so there. The side benefit is that this policy usually buys me a few more weeks to finish up if the gift is homemade. Since this little cutie isn't due until the 29th, I may be more than ten years late with these booties, but I'm actually way ahead of schedule!

New year, new blog

I've never been big on resolutions, but when a friend mentioned that they were only making resolutions they could keep this year, starting with "eat more chocolate," I began to think I could be missing out on something! So, my resolutions for 2008 are:

1. Buy some new yarn (got my old stash cleaned out just in time!);

2. Play around with Ravelry (got my invitation in September, after waiting many, many weeks, but was just plain overwhelmed by all the goodness there, so hadn't personalized anything yet);

and . . .

3. Try out this blogging stuff!

So far, I'm good on all three! First, I put my favorite Christmas gift certificate to good use at The Loopy Ewe - got the beautiful Hand Maiden Mini Maiden in 'Melon,' (which I think really could have been called 'Camelia'), some Dream in Color Baby in 'Lucky Jade' and two skeins of the Lorna's Laces sock yarn in 'Tahoe.'



Next, I stopped by a not-so-LYS that I haven't been to in a while - this shop is always a hoot. I also visited two new (to me, anyway) LYS's - one that's pretty close to work, and another that's dangerously convenient on my drive home from work. There might've been just a small purchase or two at these locations, as well ...

The good news is that (patting self on back) I've entered it all on my Ravelry stash list - I'm under 'monkijan' there. I've got a couple more projects to enter, and only about a million more to look at (that's the bad news ...) Wonder how much less knitting I'll actually get done now that I'm keeping my resolutions???