Awww, isn't she cute?

FuzzyBaby 'delivered' while I waited for the snow tires to be mounted and balanced.

A little secret

FuzzyBaby Hat

Jennifer Brown's Hat for Newborn Baby is by far one of the easiest, quickest, most gratifying knitting projects I've come across in the land of baby patterns. I've done 4 of these hats so far using a variety of needles and yarns. You can't screw it up. Sure, some have come out a little large for a newborn, but hey - they grow into it. This one is being created from Artful Yarn's Galaxy in muted pastels for a little girl born to a co-worker. She was a whopping 8# 14oz. I'd rather knit for a baby than actual HAVE one any day!

Swirly Girl

Mom Sock #1

This is Janis's Koigu Sock Pattern. I'm tweaking it a bit - offsetting the ribbing - to create a nice little swirl around the ankle. The yarn is Lang Jawoll Superwash Cotton in a butter yellow (the top edge and toe of the socks) and a green multi-fleck on Brittany #2s. Here I'm just about to start the heel flap.

Progress

Here's what I accomplished this weekend - 6" of the body. The bottom edge is rolling a bit in the pic, but all in all I think it's looking pretty good. Not quite as scary as I originally thought, but running three skeins gets a bit tiresome.

To entertain myself during my knitting extravaganza, I rented "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", "Die Another Day", and "Lost in Translation". Yes, I finally watched "FB" - how I had missed seeing it in the past 20 years, I'm not really sure. Made me a tad homesick for Chicago and my John Lennon "Rock N Roll" album. "DAD" was disappointing. Is it just me, or did Pierce Brosnan phone his performance in? So much action, so little Bond. Best moment? MoneyPenny's fantasy. "LiT" was not quite as magical as all the hype, but there were many moments of beauty (ps, Charlotte knits! WOOT!). And Bill Murray? Was just transcendent.

Making a date

So it's a date with Sitcom this weekend. I mean it. Really. All my other WIPs are at the "done" stage (a few stitches here, a little felting there). Mr.Catty is making himself scarce and I see 48 hours of uninterrupted chick flicks, Ben and Jerry's and knitting. Well except for nap times. And some domestic goddessing. And groceries. But the rest of the time, it's me up close and personal with this sweater.

Smile for the camera

If there is reincarnation, I wanna come back as a cat in the Catty household.

Successful Avoidance

I'm ignoring the condemning emanations from the bag holding Sitcom. See how successful I am?

The Chilla Pilla in Teal Chinchilla with a stripe of Bertagna Filati Armonia in Gold. The Snakecharmer scarf is Fonty Serpentine in a lavender shade with Eros with a pink/mint/powder blue/lavender colorway.

If you're happy and you know it...

The Happy bag, almost done. Lamb's Pride in Tigerlily with Mountain Colors in Ruby River.

Whew!

Stinkin' Purses? Done!

The Chilla Pilla Cover? Done!

The Snakecharmer Scarf ? Almost done!

Sitcom Chic? Still staring me down.

Resistance is futile

Sitcom is sitting there, waiting for me to start her body. Why am I waiting? What am I afraid of? I'm going to tweak the pattern a bit and do the bottom ribbing and yoke in black (think spectator pumps) and I want to incorporate the front band as garter stitches instead of picking up the band later. In my mind, it's as easy as just adding 3-4 garter stitches at the beginning and end of each row (in black). But I'm scared. So I'm looking for the opportunity of a solid block of time and freshness of mind. I could be waiting a while. But that little percentage bar is glaring at me every time I log in. Bastard. Who's idea was it to add those bars to my blog anyway.

What was I thinking?

I bought a few skeins of Chinchilla to knit a travel pillow cover (a girl gets sleepy knitting on those long trips). I thought...hmmm #13 circulars and I should be set. Grrrr... I'm hating the way the Chinchilla is NOT sliding along my Addis. Hate. Really hate. But I'm committing to doing this because 1) it's a relatively quick project, 2) the Chinchilla is gonna feel so nice to rest my weary head on, 3) I hate the idea of frogging Chinchilla more than I hate the idea of knitting it.

So I'm sucking it up.

And it fit into one bag!

Here's my stash from yesterday's LYS sale. There's some Manos, two skeins of Fonty Serpentine, some wool remnants (incorporated into granny squares last night), two skeins of sock yarn (one pair for Mom for Christmas), coupla Lamb's Prides skeins for felting, 2 skeins of teal Chinchilla for a travel pillow cover, a skein of Galaxy in baby colors (good to have on hand when you need a baby hat for a shower gift), a new crochet hook and handbag handles for a felted "happy bag" for me.

Don't get "chic-y", Mr!

Sleeve number 1 is done. Mr Catty narrowly avoided bodily injury via an Addi Turbo when he commented, "But it's a little short isn't it?" I showed him the pattern pic and clearly indicated what "bracelet length" sleeves are. Men. Can't live with 'em, can't bury 'em the backyard.

The yarn shows up here truer to the actual color. Plymouth Sunsette is a 60 Rayon/40 Acrylic blend. Since I wanted more of a 3-season garment and didn't want cotton ( I'm putting a lot of effort into this sweater - I want something that will look good longer than one season), this seemed like a good choice. The yarn is very soft but knits up into a substantial weight with a well defined stitch pattern. However, it is loosely twisted and splits when you look at it cross-eyed. This is definitely not a yarn I want to knit with when I watch "24" or any other show demanding my full attention.

Sitcom Swatching

Yes, I decided to do this sweater right! And the swatch? Came out perfectly to gauge. The body of the sweater will be this taupe color (coffee with cream, not this greeny!), with black tipping on the sleeves and hem and the yoke.

Look Ma!

"A picture is worth a thousand words." Wish I had remembered that when I was telling Mom about the stinkin' purses. Think of the money I could have saved on the phone bill! Here is the first set of 3 completed. The pen is for reference.

Odds 'n' Ends

I've decided to put "Splash" cuffs some of the purses. I also may do some poppies as shown here . Speaking of the purses - 3 of them have been felted three times now and still have not reached felted perfection, though they are close. A word to the wise? Knitting one strand of wool with one strand of novelty puts a serious cramp in the felting time.

Still crocheting those granny squares - wow, does it feel good to get rid of some of those remnants that have been sitting in my stash box for...um...ever? There is some wool I finally used up that I knitted into a cardigan for my nephew...when he was two...and he's now 16. Ayep.

And the car project this week was a Sizzle scarf for Fran and Ev's mom in Snapdragon . I did the scarf on #9 bamboos, cast on 18 stitches and have almost 1/2 a skein left over. Note to self when I use Sizzle - go up 2 needles sizes. This scarf felt like it took forever.

Crossing off the list

Items I can cross off the WIP list-
Dad's polar fleece blanket with the crocheted edging is done. Finished it tonight while watching my favorite all time movie "French Kiss".

Stinkin' purses were felted a second time today. I'm thinking that I should do the novelty/wool ones one more time - they aren't as tight as I would like them to be. I have to pick up the yarn for the novelty trims, but I would count this project as 85% done.

I also started attaching the crocheted granny squares. I am really at a point where I don't want to start a new project until I feel the other stuff is done. By done I mean "put in the closet awaiting the Christmas wrapping". (Can you say "linear"? I knew you could.)

So once I finish the stinkin' purses, I think I will either start Sitcom Chic OR I may make this ribbed chunky Turtleneck pattern which I found when I organized my knitting patterns. And I'm thinking Chinchilla or similar yarn in a root beer color.

The "Other" Knitting

What do you do when you have more 1/4 skeins/remnants than you know what to do with? Me? I make granny squares. Ok, ok - I know it's not knitting, but it's a darn pleasant way to use up those loose ends and give my knitting muscles a break.

I've been doing double crochet squares which I learned just a few weeks ago at the "Crafty Women" group I belong to. While the interiors of the squares are every different color and style yarn, I've been edging them all with a black wool blend. It' gives them a "stained glass" appearance and unifies them. My plan is to just keep making them as I have yarn and eventually sew them together into a large afghan. It's a perfect 'car' project (because really, how many scarves can one person make and own?) I can usually finish 3-4 squares per round trip.

And no, I'm not driving.

Organization is the key to success

Here's a picture of my journal and a tag I made for finished goods. The label has space for the person's name, item, yarn details, needle size (and cast on number if something simple like scarf or hat). I then attach a strand of the yarns I used. This journal really helps if I need to go back and reference any details. The tag is just a business card I created on Pagemaker with a cat graphic (which I love. Alot.) I printed them out on pre-bordered business cards.

Stinkin' Purses

So the purses? The purple/green one and the black/purple one have gone through one course of felting. They haven't yet achieved "felted perfection". And stink? Hoo baby! Dead sheep in the washing machine! During the felting process is the only time the CatMan hears me say "Get dirty so I can do laundry". Gotta have those jeans for felting agitation!

I finished the dark/light green purse except for the bottom seam and I completed another purse during one day's commute back and forth to work (don't worry, the CatMan was driving!) I really like this 4th purse - it's a combo of Chinchilla Colors and an ANCIENT skein of "100% Virgin Wool" by Bernat called "Blarney Spun" in Chestnut (a deep rusty brown). It was a freebie skein from a yarn swap a few months back. Though I wasn't too crazy for it when I first touched it (very very coarse), I thought it would make a good felting project. Knitting it with the Chinchilla transformed it! The chestnut color is a great backdrop color for the Chinchilla rainbow. I can't wait to see how it felts up!

Off to get the CatMan to play in some more mud!