St. Benignus

What do you do when you’ve got babies coming?  Why, you knit, of course!

The first baby knit I completed was a few pairs of baby socks.  The pattern is from an old issue of Knit Simple (you can get it on the Vogue Knitting website), and the yarn is Deborah Norville Serenity Garden in the Gems colorway for the rainbow socks, and Crystal Palace Yarns Panda Superwash in the Pink Print colorway for the middle pair.  I loved the rainbow yarn so much more than the pink!  I’m glad I was able to stockpile a little of it.  Still, the pink socks are going to be perfect for MDoS and The Beautiful T’s daughter Littlefoot, who I knit them for.

The socks are so little that you don’t get through a whole color repeat in just one, but if you lay a pair end to end, you can see how all the colors progress.  This pair is a special commission for a co-worker’s grandbaby.  I haven’t made up my mind who the first pair of rainbow socks is for.  Sae was casting covetous glances at them while I was knitting them, but I think I’m going to have to knit another pair of socks for her, to match the sweater:

This is the Sunnyside Baby Cardigan from Tanis Fiber Arts.  It has two options, one with cables (suitable for baby boys), and one with lace panels (suitable for baby girls).  Since, at the time, we didn’t know if Baby Schmoo was a He Schmoo or a She Schmoo, and being firmly convinced that cables are suitable for both genders, I decided to go with the cable option.  The yarn is Stroll Fingering from KnitPicks in Dove Heather.

Though I do think the buttons I picked out will give it that girly touch.  :)

One of my favorite bits about the sweater is how the cables continue down from the yoke shaping past the underarm to keep cabling down the side of the sweater.  The pattern actually calls for the cables on the arms to be abandoned once you separate out the arm stitches, but it was bothering me.  I couldn’t quite figure out how to do it, however, until I saw this version on Ravelry, and suddenly everything became clear!

Once the little gray sweater is done, I’m planning to knit another one in the rainbow yarn to send off to China for Big Brother and Sunny’s baby.  When I got the little heart buttons, I couldn’t resist picking up these tiny bunny rabbits too.  They just hopped into my basket.  Although, seriously, people – there are so many cute button options!  So many!  There were little blue airplanes molded out of plasticine, and little flowers, and pink elephants, and penguins, and… I’m lucky that most of them wouldn’t fit through the tiny button holes on the sweater, or I would still be at the store buying buttons.  Still, these buttons will be perfect for the rainbow sweater, and maybe later I can knit something to match those little airplanes (so cute!).

So that’s what you do when there are babies coming!

St. Martin de Porres

I can’t think of a good intro, so, you know, have some links.

• Random: A giant Lego man washes up on a Florida beach.
• Knitting nuns.  :D
• For the first time in my life, I want to go to Iceland.
• I think this is what it would take to get me to actually enjoy The Notebook.
• Snicker: Wakka Wakka Into Mordor…
• Who’s On First, the Russian way.
• MDoS tips mathematically.
• I was watching the Bengals game on Sunday with the fam, and I happened to notice that the new Bengals backup quarterback Andy Dalton is freaking adorable.
• What do you do if you’re an NBA player in the middle of a strike?  Play flag football, of course!
• A young priest celebrates Mass on his birthday for the first time.  :)
• Super cute: First Time Dad Moments
• What happens when sheep decide to make a run for it (of course, they take the llama along)
• A philosopher’s nightmare.
• I made this Cheddar Jalapeno Cornbread for the office Halloween party.  It was amazingly good!
• Speaking of delectable, I think I have to make these: Tex Mex Fried Pies (of course, anything with jalapenos sounds good these days)
• Indy is admiring the Fall beauties, and making more beauty of her own.

And that’s all for now, my dears!  Enjoy!

St. Thomas of Dover

Once upon a time, I had a plan for how my summer would go.  Wedding fever would have died down, and my family would be getting back to something like normal (as normal as my family ever gets).  Days would be long, and I’d have time to plan fun things like trips to the Drive In and picnics.  I’d hang my wash out on the line in the back yard, and sleep with the fan on.  But mostly I had plans to sew.  I was going to sew all kinds of things: baby booties and dresses for MDoS and The Beautiful T’s baby, another version of the Cursed Bridesmaids Dress in black and white plaid seersucker, maybe another dress, a few more full skirts, and maybe even a top or two.  My wardrobe was gonna be awesome!  I had the fabric, I had the patterns, all I needed was the time to sew.

Alas, instead of this being the Summer of Sewing, this is turning out to be the Summer of Anything But Sewing.  It’s driving me a little nuts, especially when lately it seems like every time I turn around there’s another pattern that I really, really want to sew!  For instance, there’s this top from Simplicity.  Observe the adorable sleeve caps, the vintage charm, the fitted waist and peplum that I am convinced would look darling on me.  I saw it sewn up on The Slapdash Sewist, and immediately knew that I wanted to make it, and that it would be a perfect addition to my summer wardrobe.

However, well, there’s other sewing I have to do.  The wedding fever is far from over (though I’m afraid our enthusiasm is lagging), and I have another Bridesmaids Dress to sew.  As you know, The Duchess is getting married on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and has asked me to be one of her bridesmaids.  Her colors are different shades of tan, cream, and café au lait (I’ve been forbidden from using the word “khaki” even though it’s the same color) accented with a deep red.  I found a pattern very close to what I’d been thinking of, and was able to buy my fabric for a steal.

I have a wool blend lightweight suiting fabric for the dress, and pale pink taffeta lining.  I’m hoping that after the wedding is done I’ll have a nice dress to wear to work or church all winter.

Unfortunately, there is no way I can even get into my sewing room right now.  It’s not just that all my fabric has to be treated, but that I’m in the process of sorting out and bagging up all of my supplies to be treated too.  And then I need to wait until after the exterminator comes to start moving anything back in.  And even if I could get into my sewing room, I don’t have any time to spare from bagging up my life anyway.  All of this has been rather stressful, especially when I start worrying away about it, and fretting about how I will be able to make any Christmas presents with all my crafting supplies encased in plastic.

The other night I was over at the Family Homestead for dinner, and I said something about this at the table.  Indy generously offered to clear out a part of the living room table that I could set up as a sewing home away from home.  It was a very sweet offer, but I don’t know that it would work.  One of the charms of sewing at home is that I can be working on things at two in the morning without inconveniencing anyone but myself.  Plus, once you bring something into my parents’ house, there’s a very good possibility that it will disappear forever.

So I was thinking about this when Mom spoke up and suggested that perhaps, since I’m finding myself in the midst of this rather stressful situation, her and Dad’s contribution to alleviating my stress would be to pay to have someone else, an actual professional seamstress, make the dress up for me.  This has the great benefit of me not having to worry about things, or, say, hemming the dress a few hours before the wedding.  And then, as Mom pointed out, I’d be much more available to help with all the rest of the wedding stuff.

My concern is that I don’t think another seamstress would be willing to go through all the muslining and things that I think will probably be necessary to make sure I have a flattering fit.  Plus, I was looking forward to learning how to line a dress without wanting to stab things.  But what Mom says makes a lot of sense.  It won’t hurt anything to get an estimate, and if it’s not too much, maybe I can relinquish control.  Maybe.  So right now my fabric, pattern, and notions for the dress are all in one large ziplock bag in the freezer, making absolutely sure that they are bed bug free.  As soon as they come out I’ll make an appointment with the seamstress, and then We Shall See.

Sigh.

St. Victor

My dears, it is too hot to blog.  It is also too hot to sleep.  Or breathe.  Or… yeah.  You may gather that I’m not handling the heat well, and you’d be right.  No sleep, plus heat headaches (doesn’t seem to matter how much water I drink, I still have headaches), plus a summer cold that leaves my head feeling like it’s stuffed full of cotton makes one miserable me.  Thankfully, last night I discovered that falling asleep with an ice pack across my forehead gave me the closest thing to a good night’s sleep that I’ve had all week.  This morning when I woke up I actually felt almost refreshed.  It was wonderful.  I’m going to try it again tonight – hopefully it’s not a fluke, and I might actually sleep for two nights in a row!  I find this very exciting.

Unfortunately, besides the heat, I don’t have much else exciting to tell you.  Not that life hasn’t continued to be interesting, but it’s mostly stuff that I can’t tell you about, at least not yet.  I’ve been spending most of my non-work, non-sleeping hours hiding out in various bookstores, which means I’m pretty caught up on my light reading, but haven’t gotten much else done.  This has been rather discouraging, since there are a couple of rather large life projects that have gotten rather derailed.  Plus I had hoped to be able to sew a couple of pairs of baby booties for MDoS and The Beautiful T’s firstborn, who is getting baptized on Sunday.  Sadly, no sewing is taking place either.

One big project that is almost done is the transfer of my music from my dieing hard drive to its new home (another hard drive), and listening to all 16 hours of music on my DJ list to make sure that the tracks play without a hitch.  I was able to get all my music moved while on family vacation, but actually listening to everything has taken much longer than I ever dreamed.  Last week I DJ’d for the first time since I made the transfer. I’d only had time to listen to about half of my Lindy list, and none at all of the Charleston, Balboa or Blues lists.  I thought I had enough music to still put together a decent set, but I was wrong.  It was so frustrating.  I would know exactly the song to play next, but I didn’t dare set it up because I couldn’t be sure that it would play properly.  It was intensely frustrating.  Also, the set stunk.  Sigh.  But since then I’ve been able to listen through all of my Lindy songs, so hopefully my set next week will make up for it.

One of the most interesting things about DJing isn’t just finding really good music that makes you want to dance, but figuring out what songs make people want to dance.  Just because a song makes me itch to get out on the floor doesn’t mean it will have the same effect on everyone else.  For example, last night SD played Woody Herman’s version of I Get A Kick Out Of You.  I hadn’t heard it before, but I loved it.  It made me want to dance to it again and learn it until I can hit every break.  But Lone Wolf and I were the only couple dancing to it.  Some of it is a familiarity issue – a lot of people just won’t dance to a song the first time they hear it.  Still, I wonder what made the two of us willing to dance to a song that the rest of the group ignored

In other news, it seems like tomorrow is going to be a very busy day.  I’m going to go with Indy to finally get a peek at MDoS and The Beautiful T’s firstborn, then meeting Rosie and Sae at the movie theatre to see the last Harry Potter, followed by dinner and then dropping in at the opening of Ani’s art show.  I forget what I’m scheduled to do Saturday, but I know that the day is similarly booked up.  And then on Sunday the weather is supposed to break.  Let’s pray that it does!

St. Edburga of Bicester

It is ridiculously hot, and is going to continue to be ridiculously hot for days.  I have no AC either in my home or my car, so I’m feeling every degree of this humidity-enhanced warmth.  So far I’ve been able to manage with the help of many tall glasses of ice water, and the judicious use of fans.  Still, the next few days are going to be brutal.  I figure that at some point here I’ll throw in the (sweat-soaked) towel and head for my nearest air conditioned bookstore.  But I’m trying to put that off as long as I can.

I do have some good news.  Wednesday morning The Beautiful T gave birth to her and MDoS’s firstborn daughter, a lovely little scrap of a thing whom I have not managed to see yet.  I have seen her parents – MDoS came to AnniPott’s birthday brunch yesterday, and then later we saw The Beautiful T at 6pm Mass.  There was a plan to go take a peek at the baby after Mass, but that was scrapped.  Mass was enough to wear our new mother out, so she wasn’t up for more visitors.  But I have hopes that sometime in the next few days I’ll be able to go see her.  If not, there’s always her Baptism on Sunday.  And now that I know that she’s a girl, I can finally start my baby knits for her!

The biggest even this weekend was AnniPott’s birthday on Saturday.  She started it off with coffee down at the Farmers Market.  We had a lot of fun wandering up and down the long market checking out the stalls.  Boy-O, Rosie and Indy came too, and all of us ended up hanging out at the tables at the end, drinking coffee and enjoying the morning.  Later that evening AnniPotts went to see Some Like It Hot down at the Victoria (they show classic movies on the weekends during the summer).  I took a pass on that – I’ve been having kinda nasty headaches lately.  I think it’s a combination of the weather and allergies, but regardless of the source, it kept me in on Saturday night.

Sunday afternoon was AnniPotts’ brunch.  This ended up being somewhat more low key than I had anticipated.  AnniPotts had been talking about organizing a pie fight for her birthday, which then got changed to a water fight (much less clean up).  The logistics for that started to get too complicated, so even that plan had to be shelved until a later date.  I was a little sad – yesterday would have been the perfect day for a water fight.  But I’ve resolved that we’re going to have a pie fight, and a water fight this summer, no matter what.

I had been thinking that helping me organize a pie fight might be an excellent use of my Minions, but then today Mai posted a link about yarnbombing (when people decorate lamp posts, fences, etc. with hand knitted thingies) on my facebook wall.  This makes the second time this month that someone has posted something about that on my wall (Sugar Ray also posted something), and I’m starting to think that this might Mean Something.  Clearly I am meant to do a little yarnbombing.

Actually, I’ve known about yarnbombing for a long time, almost as long as I’ve been knitting.  I think it’s kinda great, and at different times I’ve had schemes to do a little tagging of my own.  The problem is that, with so many weddings and babies and Christmas coming (Christmas knitting starts in June.  Really.) plus a few knitting commissions (and I swear that this is the year that I’m going to knit myself a sweater, come what may!), I haven’t had time to knit anything purely frivolous.  Today the answer to my difficulty came to me.  Clearly what I need to do is teach my Minions how to knit, they can help me knit up gorgeous knit graffiti, and then I can yarnbomb to my heart’s content.

Mwahahahahahahaha!!!!!