Cutaway!

Today a new pattern made its debut at Elann.com. While I did not design this cutaway cardigan, I did knit it up and the gorgeous Margaux is modeling it! I'm incredibly excited over it!



Baby News

First off, I want to tell everyone that Betsy Faye Jr. has started to drop. A co-worker actually commented on this so I know that I'm not completely crazy as far as this is concerned.

Then this morning after I dropped K off at the day care, I start to have contractions right in the middle of traffic. I think I was the ONLY person sitting in their car thinking "please don't turn green now, please don't turn green now." Naturally they are Braxton-Hicks contractions because I'm not due for another 8 weeks. They had better be BHs cuz the kid isn't done cooking in there.

Tonight I'm taking it extremely easy so I should be able to make some progress on the baby surplice jacket! Also if you could just tell Jr to settle down in there I would greatly appreciate it. I think she thinks there is a trapeze swing or something cuz she has been moving all day long.

Help Help, My Letters Are Missing!

I was playing around with the blog this weekend and added a banner pix, changed some of the sidebar titles, started yet another project. Regardless, I thought that I had the banner all figured out. Acutally I did have it all figured out for my computer. All of the pixels lined up and I could see the words. Well I thought I would see how it looked on my work computer and some of the letters got cut off.

So I'm wondering what you can see. I set up a simple poll. Its only going to last for a week (as opposed to the one in the side bar).

Baby Things

When Karolyn was born, they put a little hat what the hospital has deemed worthy of the term "hat" on her head. In actuality, its more like a knitted tube that they cut off the roll and tied some string on the one end. Not very fashionable in my book and may actually scar the kid for life. In addition to this, the makers of baby clothes doesn't know what the size of a newborn head is either as all of their hats were just way to big.

Its a good think that momma is a knitter and is fully capable of knitting up a hat for the new baby.

The yarn I'm chose to use was Lara by Elann.com. I have to say that I don't think that I will ever use this yarn again. It is incredibly soft, holds its shape well, great shine. What's wrong with it you ask? It splits. It splits horribly. I had to tink more than I cared for because I kept splitting the yarn. And its not like I was using the dull Addis. Oh no, this baby was on the Options. It doesn't get much sharper than that.

I looked up the circumference of a newborn babies head. Read the gauge on the ball band (no swatching on this one), and casted on. I knit until the desired height was achieved then started the k2tog, k2 decrease round. Knit 3 more rows and another decrease round. When I had about 7 stitches left I drew the string through and called it good!



Here little one, now you will be the most fashionable kid in the nursery!

Meeting Bri

Meeting Elannites is always so much fun. There is always something to talk about. Yarn, the chatsite gossip, yarn, our families, yarn, yarn, yarn. Did I mention that we talked about yarn? Its not very often that you get to talk to someone about yarn and not have the person think that you are crazy.

Bri and her DH were gratious enough to come to my parents condo in Orlando on Friday when we got into town. And they didn't just come, they came with food! That girl sure can bake and cook and don't you be letting anyone tell you different. I'm just saying that if some of those cookies made it into my HUGe present I'm not gonna complain. Provided T is gratious enough to put me and Bri in the same group. Hint Hint.

Of course we got along fabulously as I knew we would. If I had to be completely honest, I would have to say that if we grew up together we would have gotten each other in some serious trouble. Our devious mischivious minds think too much alike!


Later in the evening, we found a playground. Karolyn got to play and we got to talk. Again about yarn, the belly, yarn, gossip, yarn. The entire time she kept asking if I was OK (to make sure I wasn't gonna drop the kid right then and there) and then would comment on how pregnant I am. She was really cute about it!


Eventually it was time to say "Good Bye" however I'm looking forward to the next time we get to meet up.

John and Nikki

Dear John,

Growing up, you were pretty much always a pain in my ass. You were always tagging along. Mary and Mike didn't want to play with you, mostly because they were so close in age, so we were pretty much stuck together. Not that I minded most of the time but at other times, like when I started getting boyfriends, you figured out how to irritate the living daylights out of me. Now I understand this was for attention so I forgive you.


Of course there was the time when you decided to jump into the water and didn't know how to swim and I had to jump in after you to make sure you were OK. And you were always there to tell me when I was being a bitch. Of course I probably was being pretty moody but I do love your honesty.

When we got to be old enough to go to the movies, we went together and laughed out loud without a care in the world.


I could tell you anything and knew that you would not betray my confidences.

When you joined the Air Force a month before the attacks on the World Trade Centers I worried like crazy. When you volunteered to go to the UAE 6 months after the attacks, I worried even more.


I had a wonderful time that Christmas you came to visit me and my new baby. I had an even better time when you brought Nikki over for me to meet. I knew right then and there that she was the one for you.


When you announced your engagement, I was thrilled.

When you got married I was extactic.


Congratulations on your marriage!

Love,

Libby

Time Keeps on Slippin'...

Time sure has been getting away from me lately. It seems like only yesterday that I met Trish and now I'm off to meet my second Elannite! How fun is that? And who is this Elannite you ask? Well its Bri of course. She lives in the Orlando area and it just so happens that we are going to my baby brothers' wedding also in the Orlando area.

About this baby brother of mine getting all married up. I just don't know about it as I will always think of him as the little shit that tagged along everywhere I went. I remember his favorite game was to see how long it took him to get rid of my boyfriends in high school. The record stands at 3 days for Neil Adams. He is still proud of that conquest!

When he told me he wanted to bring his girlfriend over for Christmas, I thought I could have some fun with this. Well I ended up liking Nikki so much that I just couldn't be mean to her. Besides it was fun watching her boss John around! That was when I decided she was a keeper and then hounded him to snatch her up. Apparently he listened to his big sister cuz they are getting married on Sunday! Congratulations John!

The Perfect Weekend

My perfect weekend started Friday evening when Ray and Karolyn came home. Usually they get home before I do but I took a half hour lunch and beat them home. Coming home is my favorite part of the day. My little girl runs to the front door saying "ommy" "ommy." It melts my heart. This Friday however was full of surprises. Ray came home with a huge bouquet of roses!



He was also carrying a white grocery bag full of stuff. The "stuff" almost made me cry. Karolyn made me mother's day presents!



She painted a mug that says "I 'heart' U" with a flower planted inside. I promptly put this on the top shelf of the plant rack located in the dining room. Then I pulled out a heart that had tissue paper glued to it with the letters "#1 MOM" written on it! Of course that got its due respect directly next to the plant. I showed Karolyn her plant that she made and she was all excited that it was next to the other plants in the kitchen!



On Sunday, I felt like a the luckiest person in the world!

Baby Blanket

This post comes to you during the middle of the night because I'm up right now. Why am I up in the middle of the night? Excellent question, one that every woman that has ever been pregnant ever can answer. I have to pee! And of course it just doesn't end there, I'm hungry as well. So I'm eating. In addition, I have heartburn for which I popped some Tums. Actually it was the heartburn that woke me up. Did you know that they have heartburn tablets just for pregnant people? Amazing huh? And I'm not referring to Tums either. I was in the baby store and found them. They claim to not have the chalky taste of Tums but they are $12.00 a bottle. Now I ask you, would you pay $12.00 per bottle when you can get Tums for about $2.99? Lets put this into terminology that every knitter can understand, yarn money or chalky taste, yarn money or chalky taste. That's what I thought.

Enough with the commercials, we will be getting back to the regularly scheduled program. In my mad rush to get the requested photos, I realized that I left out some pretty important details concerning the baby blanket.

This is my personal design. I started by finding the perfect yarn for the project. It had to be very soft as it was touching a newborn baby and it needed to be available in baby colors. Knit Picks Shine fit the bill perfectly. I can recommend this yarn for anyone knitting baby items.

Next I had to find the perfect poem. So I got out Karolyn's big book of nursery rhymes and found the one that I wanted to knit up. Is more of a prayer really but I love it. Then I graphed it out and started knitting.

Once the center section was complete, I started on the flying geese border found in the Mason Dixon Knitting book. Now I have a few words to say about this border. Its not for the faint of heart or one that is interested in a quick knit. The geese almost did me in. That is correct, I was almost derailed by the geese and my baby would freeze because it did not have a blankie to snuggle up in. It was this image and this image alone that kept me going. I figured that the geese would be my lunchtime knitting project. I lost count on how many lunch breaks it took to get the geese to fly but fly they did.

The geese were then all hand sewn in place and some mitered corners were added. Again from the Mason Dixon book. At this point I felt like I was in the home stretch. I picked up stitches around the edge of all those geese and gartered up a yellow border. I just knit until I got tired of it and then applied an i-cord bind off. All of the knitting is now complete! I could have just screamed out in joy at this point!

Next I hand sewed on some cotton flannel to hide the back side of the blanket.

The blanket is now complete!

All in all, it took about 3 months to complete. Not nearly as fast as Svetlana but its not turtle pase either.

I ended up using 4 balls of the yellow, 2 balls of the green, 2 balls of blue, and 1.25 balls of purple.

A Baby's Prayer

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
Bless the bed that I lie on


Four angels round my bed
Two of them stand at my head


Two of them stand at my feet
All will watch me while I sleep