Surprise!

I made another baby surprise jacket this week. I love the colors, although they don't show up so well in the pics. Sorry.... I'm excited to button-shop today, though!




Pattern: EZ's Baby Surprise Jacket
Materials: Size 5 circ. needles; Lion Brand Microspun in Royal Blue and Lime
Started: June 17, 2007
Finished: June 24, 2007 (except for buttons)
Recipient: Zak and April's new baby boy, expected in September!

How I lost 2 lbs in one jog

With the encouragement of a few friends who are doing the same, I am attempting the Couch to 5K program. This evening was wonderful -- about 60 degrees, clear, a lovely perfect day to be outside. I pulled on my new tennis shoes and took off. About halfway through, I decided to jog on the sidewalk through a park that's just being built. And a few yards around the path, I realized there was machinery parked on the walkway, and mounds of fresh dark dirt on each side of me. No problem, I am a runner now! I can run over the dirt and continue on the other side of the path!

I run over the dirt, dark with water I realize, and through the grass back to the walkway. I feel lighter, freer, like a weight has been taken from me!

And then, slowly, I realize why.

My shoes stayed stuck in the mud. I waded back to them, and pulled them out of the muck, walked in my socks to a bench, turned my socks inside out, and put the shoes back on. Back to my jog, a little dirtier, but no worse for wear. So much for my nice clean new shoes....

Chair Share

Seriously, I have never seen a cuter set of siblings together. They can be so sweet to each other (usually....), and are positively lost when the other isn't around. (Of course, this drives me batty when one is sleeping, and the other wakes the sleeper up, just so the awake one isn't lonely.... Yeah.... that's a blast.)

Elmo Pillow

Elmo! You can click to see him bigger, of course. I submitted this on the Lion brand website. They published my pic, but not the corresponding pattern, and I've had numerous requests for it, so I'll submit it here.

Elmo Pillow
Materials:
14" Round Pillow Form
1 skein Homespun in Candy Apple
2 skeins Boa in Phoenix
Chunky weight yarns in white, black and orange -- scrap amounts work great!
Knifty Knitter X-Large loom
Crochet hook for facial features

Hold 1 strand of Homespun with 1 strand of Boa and cast on the loom. Continue holding both strands together while making the tube until you have used up both skeins of Boa. Bind off and gather the tube, and insert pillow form. Gathering will be on the edge of the pillow form. Gather and close the other end, as well. This will give the pillow a slightly oval appearance. (Of course, you could just stop here, and create fashion dorm-room type pillows in tons of shades, as well.)

Now you have to get creative. I used a K hook and various chunky yarns to make the facial features. The mouth was the hardest, the nose was the easiest. I didn't keep specific notes, but I'll do my best to give you an idea of what I did.

Mouth: I crocheted a chain that was about the length I wanted, from the "smile line" that extends past one side of the mouth, and along the bottom of the mouth. I then single-crocheted back and forth, and decreased a stitch here and there, until I ended with a more-or-less straight line across the top. I then chained a few more stitches to make the smile line on the opposite side of the mouth. When I sewed it on to the face, I also sewed the extra little lines at the top of the smile lines, to anchor the smile and finish the look.

Eyes: I crocheted a ring, and crocheted a few stitches (3? 4?) in the ring, in black. I switched to white, and continued around the ring, increasing as necessary to make it lay flat.

Nose: I crocheted an orange chain of 4 or 5 stitches, and then crocheted around it to make an oval, increasing at the ends as necessary.

Thanks for looking, and feel free to comment on what worked for you, or what you did differently!

Please do not post this pattern on other sites, but feel free to link to it. Make as many as you'd like for yourself, gifts, and for charity, but please do not use this pattern for profit.

EZ's Baby Surplice Sweater

I made this sweet little sweater in about a week of on-again/off-again knitting. I used a size 3 circular needle, and Lion Brand's Microspun in Purple, Lily White, and Lime. The picture doesn't do the colors justice. In person, it really pops. I used shank style buttons sewn 2 back-to-back at each corner. Either side can be put on top and buttoned, and have the other button show symmetrically. I LOVE this sweater. I really wish I'd had this when Catie was teeny tiny. I hope to eventually get a picture of a sweet baby girl in it!

Pattern: EZ's Baby Surplice Jacket
Materials: Size 3 circ. needles; Lion Brand Microspun in Purple, Lily White, and Lime
Started: May 28, 2007
Finished: June 17, 2007
Recipient: I wish I knew.....

Happy Feet!

So, who cares that it's a hot Utah summer? I wanted to make hand-knitted socks for my kids. Not one to go with the flow, and knit them socks for warm feet for the winter, I decided to make them wear their new socks on a 90 degree day, just because. Actually, it was night, by the time I finished the last one, and I only made them wear them for pictures, and they were QUITE thrilled to put them on. There was quite the dancing fest that ensued after the picture session. And they both fell asleep wearing them! :cheerful:

Both pairs of socks are in Lion Brand's Magic Stripes. Noah's socks are in Denim stripe. Catie's are the Bright Spring pattern. Both were made on size 3 dpns. Noah's have a 3k,2p rib with 50 stitches, and Catie's have a 1k,1p rib with 36 stitches.

Out of town

I'm horrible at picking times to start blogs. I seem to try to do it when I have quite enough going on, thankyouverymuch. So, a week after starting this one, I took off for a 6 week leave-of-absence to Utah. I would say "vacation", but, well, it's not. My MIL is a bit of a clean freak. Okay, so she's actually probably just normal for Utah, but Utah moms are a step closer to Stepford than the rest of the country. And, well, I've just never fit in. I mean, I don't live in squalor or anything, but I'm a-okay with stepping around toys and books to get to the kitchen, instead of cleaning up the toys all time.

So, anyway, I'm on non-vacation, since I don't get to forget about cleaning and laundry, but I'm trying to take as much time as possible to knit. That's not nearly as much as I'd like because every time I sit down with the needles, a Catie mysteriously appears in my lap. Apparently, she wants to knit. Today, I got some Foamie beads for the kids, and gave them yarn with plastic needles. Noah took it very seriously, but Catie got bored quickly, and began chewing the beads like gum..... Whatever. I got to knit for 42 minutes.