handpainted by a ...

So it took two days but this picture got posted! I don't understand why it didn't work yesterday. This is for my niece's room, which I haven't seen. My BIL was less than detailed when I asked him to describe the decor of the room. He mumbled something about frogs and the color blue. The good news is that I am unlikely to understand him if he doesn't like it. I can't wait to meet this baby!

secret no more

This is the secret baby sweater done for my new niece who was born on July 5th. It is an Elizabeth Zimmermann pattern that I complicated by using a fibonacci sequence in the stripes. This picture kinda sucks but the colors are bright pink, burgandy, navy and violet. My sister in law loves color, so I assume she will not want wimpy pastels for the baby. My friend Jane sewed the zipper in for me, and it would have taken me forever to do!

I also made a painting for the baby but I am having trouble uploading it. The painting has a frog in a crown on a lily pad. Blogger continues to mystify me, I can't figure out why it would post one pic and not the other one.

We are going to Bethany Beach in three days, I have to pack for the entire family and pack groceries etc. So guess what I am doing? Knitting a sock!

scattered thoughts

1. I found two moths in my room last night and my husband could not understand why I jumped out of bed to dispatch them to the next life. Finally, I said "Steve, there is yarn in the house. You know yarn...wool." THen he relaized the potential horror of it.
2. I had been hoarding two skiens of Claudia Handpaint sock yarn in Ingrid's Blue which is a lovely combination of brown and blue. My husband's friend mentioned last night that his wife Ingrid knits. When I asked what she liked to knit he said, "Basic stuff - socks and sweaters". I explained that socks were not basic and sock knitters are a special kind of crazy (present company included). Then I gifted the Claudia hand painted to Ingrid (hope she will make something "basic"!
3. Elizabeth Zimmermann is a knitting god! I did applied icord per her instructions on the secret baby gift and it looks unbelievably good. I want to apply icord to everything in sight!
4. I finished two baby name paintings this week, I will post them later. I may be done with all the baby gifts this week and may be able to knit for fun when we go to the beach next week.

super secret knitting

Well, I continue to toil on the secret baby sweater, hopefully will be done by Monday. I have distracted myself by crocheting a dishtowel with the leftover yarn from the other baby sweater. I used the sugar and creme yarn. I wish I could find the peaches and creme in CT, but it doesn't seem to exist. At some point I want to order some from the company, but I think that can wait. Maybe I can find it on vacay when in Virginia or delaware.

I caved and joined sock wars. Intruiging but a little scary!

baby prezzies

Well the party for baby Kylie starts at 3 today and my two gifts are almost entirely done. All I need to do is do a little chain stitch on the inside of the sweater so the mommy can tie the other side of the kimono shut. That leaves me with the big baby present to finish as soon as possible, then on to the ten thousand other things I want to knit. I just added a big want to do project from Rowan Knits 40, the wrap around. I love it. But what I really love is that Rowan gave up on the extreme ethnic accessorization of issue 39, which gave me fits of ADHD. Ironically some of the actual knitted objects are lovely, but how can anyone tell with all the stuff they threw on those poor models.