To pom or not to pom

I have the i-cords done on the Bodacious Leg Warmers for Bailey, but I'm not a huge pom-pom person. Don't do fringe either. So do the ends of the i-cord ties need to have little pom-poms? If you say yes, you have to loan me a small pom-pom maker. ;-)

They really are the same size, though the picture makes it look like one is shorter than the other.

Thought I'd also show off the wine rack that Brandon made for his dad:

 

Can't remember the cross beam's wood but the part that the bottles rest on is Jatoba (commonly called a Brazilian Cherry wood, but not related to cherry at all).

Cole was born Saturday the 5th 12:28 am 6 pounds 10 ounces and 20 inches long. He ended up being born via c-section. I haven't seen any pictures yet.  I think they're pretty exhausted and they aren't too technical on that part of the family so posting pics on the internet probably hasn't been a thought.

MishMash

Today there were a couple of hours of spinning at the Spinnerati meeting and having great conversations about spinning. The whole woolen spinning and worsted that we all tend towards (or do I have that backwards in my head?). The fun of blending things with the drum carder.

I had picked up Sara and Cindy for the ride down. While at the meeting I passed on a free 15 inch LCD monitor to Arianne, but still had Michele's in my car. Michele, due to other commitments wasn't going to make it to the meeting, but got her address and with Sara's iphone help navigated there to deliver. Since we were so close, we couldn't resist a stop in to visit Twisted. So many lovely yarns and patterns to tempt a knitter. I kept my wallet in my pocket and just fondled various yarns.  It was cool seeing Michele's hat in person, as well as her patterns for sale.

What was really cool was stumbling across something that I had knitted being used as a sample display:

It's the Dundee Boheme that I had knitted to show off Susan's sock yarn as something other than socks.

Afterward we were blown home by the east winds - burrrr! I dropped off library books I picked up (since it was our carpool meeting place) and turned around to head over to Brandon's aunt and uncle's house to visit with his visiting father. Saved some holiday postage by also delivering his dad and step-mom's gifts to them. Yea! His step-mom wasn't up, she's a real estate agent in the Bay area and had showings to do. In this economy, you have to take all your money earning opportunities you can!

I've been working on the second leg warmer. Yesterday we were at Judy's house to help her decorate and put up her tree along with a dinner. So less knitting time between the various weekend events. I should be able to finish it before bed since I'm on the last 12 rows.I held the finished one up next to Kaisha's leg and it was a little long for her. That's why that tie is going to be handy if that's also the case for Bailey.

It's a leg warmer!

As mentioned previously, I had hoped to use the Mosey leg warmer pattern for Bailey's set. They are HUGE compared to a little girl's spindly legs. Come on, they're supposed to be somewhat spindly. ;-)  I had hope to do some cabling, I like the idea of it folding over at the top. I also liked the idea that Mosey had of having an eyelet round so that a tie could be placed at the knee.

The pattern that I did find that was targeted at little girls folded over at the top - check, had a little flirty ruffle with the fold over - check. Then going through the different patterns on ravelry, I saw one pair that kind of draped over the top of the shoes. Cool! Wasn't really finding anything that excited me though, so I switched over to the arm warmer patterns. Lots more to choose from!

I found a lacy one that was also designed for worsted weight yarn and had about the same kind of stitch count as the leg warmer pattern. It also as a bonus had the same k1, p1 ribbing, so easier to blend the two together. Then I found an arm warmer pattern that had the ruffled flounce at the wrist - score! Even better it also used a k1, p1 ribbing before starting the flare. Looking promising!

Then I figured out that instead of just following the folded top from the existing pattern I had to cast on double the amount of stitches, do a few rows and then work the decreases - the other pattern worked from the bottom up and I was going top down. Plus I was adding in the eyelet row and I don't know how Mosey did it, but I figured out how to do mine without going out of ribbing pattern.

The main patterned portion of the arm warmer pattern did some increases I didn't do and so that meant that I had to adjust that pattern too. Why not, I'm doing it to the other two? The first row I didn't go back and adjust but then, you'd have to know what to look for to know what might be incorrect about it. ;-)

Here's what I ended up with, using my forearm as a model - I figure its about the right length for an eight year old:

 

There was news early this morning that Robyn was in labor and on the way to the hospital. I talked to my dad around 5:30 pm and he and my stepmom were on the way up to OHSU. They had reports that things looked like they were progressing faster. I figure I haven't had an update since then because it took a few more hours and they think its too late to call. Hopefully news in the AM on Cole's arrival. Wonder how he knew his cardi was done and waiting for him?

Kind of done

I finished up the sleeve this afternoon, then wove in all the sleeve ends and any other ends that needed it. Then took pictures:

Then I promptly put it in a nice hot water bath to balance things out. Switching from knitting flat for everything but the end sleeves, I noticed I knit tighter, evener in the round. No matter how consistent I tried to stay with the purl rows.

It's still cute and I may pull out the bear to put the complete outfit on. I'll need to take a trip to JoAnn's for a button or buttons. I'm leaning towards brown buttons, because I know the mom likes brown. Regular buttons or cutesy ones?

The cardi and a scarf that I had washed and pinned out are drying in the den. Why redo the scarf? Cause I didn't have blocking wires and was wimpy about it earlier in the year.  I was a little more aggressive with the blocking after a second soak this morning. I'll possibly post new pics tomorrow.

Off to cast on Bailey's leggings. I'm going to have to do some modifications of the intended pattern - Mosey from the Spring 2008 Knitty. She's an eight year old and as such doesn't have a calf like an adult.

Oh! For those who are curious. Norbert is doing MUCH better. The hair is growing back nicely on his ear so he doesn't look so lopsided. He's perky, pulling out toys from the toy basket and leaving them all over the place after playing with them for a few minutes, soliciting ball throwing and actively interested in food. Since the squirrel incident, he's checking every morning and periodic checks during the day for the stupid critter to put toes in his yard again.

Brandon says he showed this to me eight months ago, a friend has it on her blog and I thought it shows Portland nicely, for those who aren't local:

Failure

I failed to finish the cardi as I had hoped today. Sigh. Of course spending the morning/afternoon spinning didn't help with that goal. ;-) I took Gail's hand carders with me and that new Finn and tried getting the grass and hay out of it. I think I worked with a bunch for about an hour. I got sore arms and 95% of the vm out of it. I gave it the old 'college try'. ;-)

I decided that I'm going to rent the drum carder from Susan again in January. A bunch of us will go in on it again. I have the llama, Icelandic, the Finn. I want to blend the llama with silk so the drum carder will be busy for a day.

Came home and got things ready to take for knitting at Haggen's, then went to pick up Brandon from work. Ended up not making dinner so after dropping off and picking up at the library, opted for a chicken cesaer salad and that for some reason took longer to eat than it should. I think I got a half an inch of cardigan sleeve knitted. Then Duffy was ready to go so had to get her free monitor out of the car, so brought Angela's in. The next part is all her fault. ;-)

Angela was over by Sharon's bins looking at the yarns. I started finding in the roving bin all these balls of roving that had come unwound. So started winding them back up. This caused me to find the two balls of Portland Punch Superwash Merino - 8 ounces. So a two for one deal. This stuff is so soft! I couldn't resist, though I had told her earlier I wasn't buying yarn when she tempted me with Nigel - pretty dyepot brown sock yarn. Gorgeous stuff! So I failed to not buy something as intended.

ETA: Forgot a tiny little detail last night - Sharon had both bins 50% off. Such temptations!!! I did get back at Angela for helping me fall, by helping her buy two, or was it three skeins of pretty DK yarn?

Squirrel, Progress, New Stuff

This morning one of the local grey squirrel's decided to risk life and limb by going through our yard. If its the same squirrel, it should *know* that there are dogs in this yard. Norbert in his enthusiasm to get out there knocked over a full water bowl. I needed to mop the floor anyway - right?

 

Can you see where its perched? With all the barking both dogs were doing, it was chewing them out just as loudly. Good thing we don't speak squirrel, I'm sure there were a number of four letter words being thrown down at the dogs. Nessa was out there, she was even trying to get closer by standing on the bench and barking.

Cole's baby cardigan is currently at the point of the body is done and so is the right sleeve. I've picked up the sleeves of the left sleeve and started it. Due to the time, won't be done until tomorrow. This is what the body looked like earlier today while the sun was still shining:

I didn't do button holes, but I'm thinking I'll find a cute button for the top and do a crochet loop for the button. Do babies need more than one button?

Remember I traded that Jacob with Brenda for some of her llama? It wasn't quite the 3/4 of pound that she sent me and she was embarrassed by that mistake. She sent me a note last week that she was sending out a package with the llama and a surprise. She sent me about the same amount of llama, so I now have a pound of it. The surprise? A little over two ounces of some 'washed' Finn. Okay, the Finn *is* washed, just still full of vm. Thankfully, I have Gail's hand carders on loan, so I can practice with this stuff too. It really was nice of her to send this along. It will be fun to see how it spins up compared to the nice commercial stuff I bought from Klaus. The Finn:

A couple of the pretty jars of Cranberry Chutney, with air bubbles even!

That's sunlight shining on them, not flash.

Cardi, Cranberry Chutney & Woodworking

I moved the sleeves on to waste yarn today and have started the zip through the knit row and plod (it seems like it anyway) through the purl row. Maybe I should go back and review that video from a month or so ago? Reverse knitting or something. ;-) I have about three inches from under the sleeves and have I think two more inches before the next instructions, probably a set of ribbing rows before binding off and going back to work the sleeves.  Here's a nice daylight photo to show the progress:

For dinner I made a nice lasagna that the boys apparently liked. They both went back for seconds. There was just enough leftover for Brandon to take for lunch tomorrow. On that success I, with the help of Brandon peeling and slicing the apples, made the Cranberry Chutney. I had Granny Smiths and Red Delicious so I used two each of those along with some frozen Asian Pears. There were also raisins from dehydrated grapes from our vines in with the cranberries. I skipped the celery (didn't have any on hand and not a huge fan of it) and didn't add the pecans. If people want nuts, they can add their own. :-) There are seven jelly jars (those tall ones) cooling on the counter with their tops sealed - love that 'pop' that they make as they seal. This is all that was leftover that wouldn't fit in a jar, a little blurry:

I have had a low level migraine most of the day, so why I wasn't out in the garage helping. Brandon was in and out most of the evening starting a project. I think it might be a wine rack for his dad. He found some Spanish Cedar that I'll cut into blocks or something and share with spinner/knitter friends to keep those pesky moths away.

I'm sure he knows what he's doing, and hasn't lost any fingers.

Oh! Soaked and hung the Cinnamon Eton's Scarf for my dad today. It grew a lot! Still a pretty scarf. Saving the pennies to get some of Sharon's Crimson sock yarn. It was a toss up between that and the Cinnamon for the scarf. I don't think she's done the Cinnamon in sock yarn, yet? ;-)

I almost forgot! A friend of a friend shared this recipe link on FaceBook. If you love Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, these are supposed to be a close substitute. If nothing else, they sure look taste for holiday sharing!

Speaking of sharing......If you're knitting holiday gifts and want a couple of cowls and you like free. Susan Pandorff has these to share for the day. She'll share another one, or more, next Monday.