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Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Taste testing a new toy

My sewing machine got a very brief workout this morning. (by brief I mean 10 minutes or less - but that's more than it's seen in the last three and a half months!)

I was in a toy store the other day perusing the aisles when I spied something in a lady's cart that intrigued me. It was a fleece ball with little "tags" of different ribbons sticking out from the seams. I'd remembered reading somewhere about these "ingenious" toys that are supposed to be the bees knees for baby to play with. I searched the store until I found the display that contained these veritable treasures and almost fell over in shock at the price of them. For example, they had a teeny weeny triangle of fleece with about four "tags" on it on sale (ON SALE no less!!!) for $12.99. I was somewhat incredulous that people would pay that much - let alone the regular price - for something like that . Being ever so thrifty, I tucked the idea into the little filing cabinet in my brain along with the other, "I can make that myself, better and for a lot less" ideas and went about my day.

Yesterday I happened to drop into my local fabric store and thought what the heck. A wee piece of orange fleece, a wee piece of black fleece and some ribbons (Ok - I splurged and spent a whopping $2.50 on a spool of Hallowe'en themed ribbon - but hey - I can use that for a myriad of other projects down the road I'm sure). A few minutes at the machine, a run through the laundry and Douglas seems pretty darned pleased with my efforts of this morning!

On the knitting front, I seem to be a touch obsessed with hats. I started and finished my Tretta hat in less than 24 hours and have just last night cast on for the Marsan Watchcap. I am the "Queen of Hats" these days, which is odd given I rarely ever wear a hat myself. But they are quick, easy to pick up for a minute and then put down again at the... well... drop of a hat or the cry of a hungry baby and they are nothing if not next-to-instant gratification! Not to mention sometimes a pretty big necessity for living on the prairies in the winter!

Friday, October 16, 2009

A pumpkin hat for my l'il punkin

So since I'm back in the land of the online, I thought I'd give you a few pictures of my recent FOs. My very favourite to date being baby's pumpkin hat. I love this pattern! Seven had brought it to our attention on Knitty the other day and I'll confess to developing an immediate obsession to make this hat for my "l'il punkin". It's a great pattern - can't say enough good things about it. It whipped up in a couple of hours using Cascade 220 for the hat and Ella Rae Classic for the stem. LOVE IT!!!!!

I've also managed a few other projects lately. My Pomotamus have been done for a little while actually. I knit them mostly in the car en route to and from the city. Occassionally I was able to get a row or two done in the evening when Douglas was being given a bottle by Daddy (I try to make sure there's one bottle every couple of days or so in the fridge so Daddy can have some of the feeding time snuggles too and as an added bonus it gives me a few minutes to myself!)

Car knitting (since G got her license) has been my main time to get the needles out, and in between sock one and two of Pomotamus I took a short break to make myself a pair of felted slippers - I'm always greatly amused by the excessive size of pre-felted items! They are kind of funny looking but cozy, so that's what counts in my books.

Last but not least on the FO list is another favourite project. A Christmas stocking for baby! This one is from "Cute Knits for Baby Feet" which is a fun little book I picked up when I was still pregnant. If you're in dire need of a stocking in a hurry, make this one your go to pattern. Seriously. Two days and it was done, and it's the perfect size for baby.

On the needles I've got some random projects that have been on the go for awhile; Clementine Shawlette (longest ever WIP for me I think), Plath, and my chevron scarf, and a new addition to the WIP collection -Froot Loop socks.

Well, I'm being paged by a hungry little man, so I'm off for now. Happy knitting!

Thursday, October 08, 2009

I'm back...

After several months of dismal and then no internet access, I'm finally back. I thought I would just do a quick post to say hi and let you know I'm still around! Here's a couple of recent pictures of my little man, Douglas who was born on July 5th, 2009. He amazes us every day with how incredible he is!

Douglas at about 2 1/2 months old :

Douglas at 12 weeks old:


I'll be back in a few days with a longer update on this prairie girl's life!