Pom'd

The consensus of the votes were for pom-poms. Rachel even brought her pom-pom maker with her to spinning Wednesday. After spinning I got a couple made before picking up Brandon from work. We popped over to visit his grandfather (his health is failing and we don't expect that we'll have him this time next year) and do some computer work. So I entertained him with the pom-pom maker. By the time I arrived at Knit Night at Haggen's, I had four little pom-poms and could return the maker to Rachel. A few minutes work to sew them on to the ties and we have:

Can you see the frost on the table?

Here's an idea of how cold its been this last week, the pond:

I've been working on socks for my brother-in-law John. He has a family history of getting fun items at Christmas so I know he'll appreciate the humor behind the socks. He's also had wool socks on his wish list for as long as I've known him. So here's a good portion of one of the socks in progress:

 

At spinning I finished up the purple Spinner's Hill - Corriedale-Finn-Ramboulliet. After weighing them I didn't evenly divide so will have to balance it out with the plying. I went ahead and jumped into the Portland Punch. Its lovely to spin with. 

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?