Little Red Hat

Around here there are always several knitting projects being worked simultaneously. I’m usually working a large project after the bunnies go to sleep and one or two (or four) small things during the day. A hat that sits on the kitchen counter gets a round while I check my email, a scarf in my purse gets some action at the park, etc etc.

This little number is Shadkitty’s Buggerloo , worked in Paton’s Classic Merino. It  took a few days of randomly knitting here and there.  Little bunny LOOOVVES it. She suggests wearing it backwards and accessorizing with a feather boa (those little white flecks in the picture are fuzz from hers). It’s one of a few winter hats’ I’ve finished this summer, anticipating the first really cold day this fall and promising myself to actually have something warm for my kids to wear (instead of, you know, trying to knit a couple of hats really fast that morning). Now I’ll work on posting pictures of them here before that cold weather hits!

Flirty Skirty

We’re back in good health around here and there are a whole lot of FO’s to share. I was going to try and show them in chronological order, but I guess summer is scrambling my internal sense of order. So here’s a random FO from the last month.

You might recognize the orange Plymouth Fantasy Naturale that I tried to make work as a cardi and a tank. I think it has finally found it’s true calling in this. In order to make the yarn work, I went up to a size 10 needle (ahh drape) and reduced the number of pattern repeats from 17 to 6 (a lot I know, but just enough scallops along the bottom to make it work I think). It is already much loved, and really isn’t that the most important thing?

Slogging Along

All that energy zapped by a summer cold, ugh.  SO. MUCH. SNOT.

Also, I welcome advice on encouraging a brilliantly  mischievous two-year-old to keep her diaper on, and not pee all over the floor with a gleam in her eye, shout MUAHAHAHA and sprint nude around the house at unbelievable speed.  Thank you.

Baa Baa

This was the first year, since moving to Eugene, that I’ve been able to attend the Black Sheep Gathering. It was so worth the wait. On Friday I took the bunnies who flirted shamelessly with the alpacas. On Saturday, breakfast and a shopping spree with my fellow knit nerds. I didn’t want to go home, sigh.

Like the Weather

How can I expect the bunnies to relax and play or follow our routines when over the course of the past 24 hours we’ve had snow, hail, showers, gorgeous sunshine, and ice?  Everyone’s attention is scattered and off.  I’m trying to go with the flow, it isn’t easy.

Happy Valentine’s Day

All weekend long a grouchy post was brewing in my head. I’ll save it since today I am blissfully in love. My bunnies and the man who helped make them are melting my heart. I’m melting butter, making a big dinner and trying not to stick my fingers into this amazing goody Grandma C sent us. I’m also drinking lots of coffee, after staying up waaayyyyyyyyyy too late to finish the Bunnies’ Valentine gift.

Oh I love these birds! And I have to say, for last minute winging it, they turned out GREAT (waayyyyy better than the Little Christmas hats).

Now, on to butter melting, chocolate eating, bunny kisses, playing with bird toys and other general loveliness. Of course, wishing you much of the same.

Back In The Saddle

Ahhhh.

The hutch has been sanitized, all of the bunnies (including me and Mr. Slippers) are in good health.  It is SUCH a relief to be back in the swing of our routines.

I have been knitting.

Major progress on the Dale sweater, a completed February Jacket for a baby girlfriend who’s due to meet us in March (man it feels  good to have a jump start on that), and this hat just for me, just because I can.

Now that things are back to normal (relatively speaking) I should be back soon.

Touching Base

All is well here, or at least on the mend.  I did not fall off the blogwagon again.

First off, I’ve spent a good portion of the last week preparing for, conducting and pondering a job interview that might allow me to work in one of the best LYS’ in my area.  The whole exercise was very positive, and I’ll have more to share in a few weeks.

And in the midst of all of that everyone in my house has been stricken with a lingering sick.  For Mr. Slippers and I, it’s come in the form of terrible sore throat that allows you to function allllllmmooooooossst at full capacity, but drains just enough of your energy to make you miserable.  The bunnies have had a tummy bug.  I don’t suspect changing barfy  sheets and helping with warm showers at 3am helps one rest a sore throat much.      At least, as stated, we all seem to be on the mend.

Much of the fun knitting has been put on the back burner this week, but I do have some gifty/costume SEWING and felting to share soon.

Big Christmas Wrap Up

Well I don’t know how big it will be exactly, but how about some pix of Christmas related knitting (now that I’ve figured out how to turn off the flash on the new cam) so we can move on with 2008 knit bits?

First up… the Christmas Stockings. Oh boy talk about a labor of love. Remember, Big Bunny is 3 and I attempted to start this project while she was just a bun in the oven. Also note, I HATE knitting socks, so right off the bat this was a project I really wasn’t that into. I had an idea of what I wanted to knit (a replica of the stockings my mom knit for my siblings and I back in the 70’s) but there were SO, SO, SO Many options. My first attempt in acrylic sucked SO, SO, SO bad. Last year we spent Christmas at my sister and brother in law’s house, and their halls were DECKED, it was gorgeous. They had velvet stockings hung by the fire with care and no need for handknits, whew, whew, whew. This year I HAD to suck it up and knit the darned things or give it up and buy some… I did my knitterly duty.

Ahem, not the greatest pix (old cam) and not the greatest knitting, but I must admit I am quite pleased. A) They are DONE! B) They look a LOT like the ones from the 70’s C) Santa had something to fill for the bunnies and D) Did I mention they are DONE?

On that happy note, wanna see the knit stuff Santa brought ME?

That’s Rowan Magazine#40 and the beginnings of JUNO. What you don’t see is the other 11 balls of luscious Queensland Kathmandu Aran Tweed. OOH LA LA is this stuff nice to knit with! Below that is the wonderful Knitters Book of Yarn, which I have just begun to dive into, fun, fun, fun.

I had SUCH a good holiday that I am already thinking about next year. I know this is going to sound bizarre but I’ve already started a holiday knit for 2008 that kinda sorta involves lots of socks. Lots and lots of socks in fact. I know, I know just a couple of paragraphs ago I was whining about how much I hate knitting socks, but I saw this and knew I just had to knit enough tiny socks to make one for the bunnies. I figured if I can bust out two pairs of tiny socks each month between now and June, I’ll have time to fill them before December 1st (don’t laugh this kind of stuff takes time) AND if I don’t get over my hatred of sock knitting I will certainly be able to justify never knitting a holiday sock again. Plus it’s a roundabout knitting resolution… an open my mind to sock knitting through practice, kind of thing. So this weekend I busted out a pair. I have to admit really wasn’t that bad.

Sock #1 is made of leftover wool from my Drops Cardigan. Sock #2 is made on the same needles with the same pattern out of some of the crappy acrylic that I used when I first attempted stockings a few years back. It looks much better this way.

Little Christmas Wrap Up

The holiday season is officially over in my house and I am left quite satisfied. As I mentioned earlier Santa was very, very good to me. We hosted Christmas festivities this year, and it was a DELIGHT to have my family here, in my house. On New Years Eve, we had fondue with the little bunnies. Two years ago we started this meal tradition with the hope that it would give the little ones something “fancy” to look forward to on a night that’s mostly about grown ups. It’s evolved slowly into a great family party. And I must say it’s a meal well suited for the holiday, as you dip little bits of food, you have lots of opportunity to reflect and look to the future.

In that vein, I definitely experienced the holiday season differently this year now that my oldest bunny is three. I think that Mr. Slippers and I both started taking Christmas (and all holidays really) waaayyyy more seriously after we became parents. We were just so excited to have a baby bunny, you know? But for the first few years it was really just sort of us jumping up and down and baby bunny staring wide eyed. This year though, she GOT IT in a way that was just heart-meltingly wonderful. Along with this came a new the desire to make the magic of Christmas last as long as possible, and Mr. Slippers started talking about Little Christmas.

We’ve got a pretty good track record for creating family traditions so we decided to make Little Christmas about giving just each other handmade gifts and spending the day together. It went well for the first effort (but heh heh, my wheels are already turning for next year). The bunnies made necklaces for each other and collaborated on this beautiful gem for me.

I helped them turn some of their artwork into a T-Shirt for Mr. Slippers. And I knit something little for each of them.

I knit hats for each for the bunnies, I am not going to share them here because well, they are very much loved by the bunnies, but they don’t represent the best of my knitting ability. Being three and one, the recipients are a bit less discriminating than me, so they are quite pleased, and really that’s all that matters. For Mr. Slippers I made, slippers! These are “Aunt Dana’s Russian Boots” from the 2007 Knitting Pattern a Day Calendar, made from Lion Wool leftover from my Grandpa’s socks and Paton’s Classic Merino (which is quite possibly my favorite new yarn).   Mr. Slippers requested a pair the second he saw the pattern and hey he only had to wait a few months.

OH! And I could not resist a little after Christmas sale shopping for myself. I bought a cheap, but effective 8.0 MP Digital Camera. The picture above was taken with my three-year-old 2.0 cam which I paid more for than this one… here’s the same shot in 8.0… pretty impressive, especially when you factor in that I literally just unwrapped the box a few minutes ago and have yet to open the instruction manual.

Now if you will excuse me I have a camera to play with. Next up I’ll be back with photos of my knit-related Christmas goodies and PAY IT FORWARD.