productionMaven part deux

I know I've been a bad, bad knitting blogger lately. For reasons which will be explained at a later date, I have not had much time or energy to do much knitting. I'm working on a fun piece right now for someone who is due with their first baby after the first of the year, and I'm sure glad I gave myself plenty of time on this, because it's a double-knit blanket and it is taking FOREVER. This is not something I can work on in the car, and our tv time (which is when I get some good stitching done) has been a little lacking lately. It's lovely, though, and I think it will be nice for my friend's new baby. I only hope I get it done in time!

So, sorry about that. I'll get some pictures taken at some point, and appreciate your patience. As much fun as blogging is for me, I really have a hell of a time getting 10 minutes a day to do it. And exercise, and those easy 30 minutes I should be able to grab "for me"? Yeah, right... not happening at this point, I'm sorry to say.

AND. Next Monday I'll be doing my first Daring Bakers post on my other blog, Tasty-Ugly Bakery.... It's delicious, although I had my doubts.

I know, I know. So many promises I'm making. Let's see if I can keep up!

A co-worker of mine is also a knitter, and she was telling me how she just picked up a couple of kits to knit a sweater and a couple of hats for the babies that come out of a local Teenage Pregnancy Center. If I had the time and energy, I would love to get in on that... plus, they supply the pattern and the yarn, and it's Merino wool.... lovely!!!

I'm a tramp for good patterns for kids hats and I have been working on a sweater for P, so if anyone out there knits, please send me your patterns! I'm looking especially for a hat with little devil horns on it for P. That would be too much fun.

I hope to work on the encumbent blanket this weekend - I've had a busy week with business dinners, book club, and the like. Next week, at least the beginning of it, is going to be tough (we've got a deadline at work). I need some good television, and some quiet time to get cranking on the next project.

Have a great weekend!

I finished not one but two blankets on Monday, as G and I watched Borat. I have to say, I was not as impressed with Borat as I expected to be. I had heard that it was gut-splittingly funny, but I didn't feel that love.

Anyway, yes. Two blankets done. One is a garter stitch blanket knit on the bias with an eyelet edge - it's very, very cute. I made it with a beautiful brushed-alpaca buttercup yellow yarn, it was splendid. It knit up nice and chunky and warm. It's a very easy pattern, you just knit and increase by one stitch on every row until you have 184 stitches on your rounds, then start decreasing by a stitch every row. A great project for the car - no thinking or looking involved. This is for my sister-in-law who is having a baby girl in November. I almost - ALMOST- ran out of yarn for this project, and in fact, I had to snip off the tail and use that lead as the finisher for the last 2 or 3 rows. Talk about by the skin of my teeth.

The other is a basket-stitch crib-sized blanket knit from a dark burgundy yarn - it has a seed stich edge, and aside from the damn seed stitch, is my favorite blanket pattern (the seed stitch always gets me confused and I often have to rip some out and start over. I loose track). This is a blanket for my friend's new baby daughter who was born early Saturday morning. I hope to give it to her in person in October, when we meet her for the first time (and when my friend meets P, who he calls Budweiser, for the first time - it's been a while since we've seen each other).

My next project is either going to be a scarf for me - made out of a cherry-red silk-alpaca blend, or another blanket for my friend Corn who is due in January. I have to see what offerings the yarn store has for me, to see if any colors leap into my basket.

I've just joined a webring (see it on the sidebar), and the RULES state that I must blog about my knitting. So here it goes.

Basically, I'm an 80 year-old trapped in the body (not so shapley) of a 34-year-old (according to my friend S, who does not knit but she quilts). I knit. Not obsessively, I don't have the time to obsess about that, there are too many things. But yes, I knit. AND. Ha-ha, I am in a rut - a baby blanket rut. Big surprise, right? It's the result of several things:

1. I like to knit when I am relaxing for the hour or so a day I have between getting everything that needs to get done, done and before I go to bed. That requires something that I just just knit, or purl. I don't want to get all involved with counting and marking. I knit a blanket for my cousin's baby that about killed me with the counting. There were little stars and hearts within the block and I thought I was going to have brain melt.

2. The people keep having babies. Luckily, they are spacing them out just right - I don't have any simultaneous blankets going. Actually, not true. I ran out of yarn to finish one blanket (and the baby is due today, actually), so I started another project, got the yarn for the one that needed finishing, and it's still in the bag with the 98% completed blanket.

I like to knit with alpaca yarns, it's so soft and lush and knits up warm. I did an amazing blanket a few years ago using a 50% alpaca 50% silk blend. It was heaven. I can't find that yarn any more at my LYS, and I like to limit my online shopping. I don't need to get all OCD about stockpiling the yarn. I have enough for several projects, and I have two new blankets to knit.

P has a blanket (she now calls them "banquets") that I made for her before she was born - it's a sea-green color, soft and light and warm. She hasn't used it as a "blankie" as I had intetended, but she likes to cover up her babies with it. That will do.

I hope, as I make these blankies, that the child will keep them for a long time. A sweater is easily outgrown, a hat and booties last only through immediate infantcy; a blanket will be with the child long after they have grown. I know this for a fact - I still have my blanket, albeit a tiny square. I knit with materials that will hold up - no acrylics (and I realize this makes the whole washing thing kind of an issue) or fake colors. I try to harmonize the colors with the baby's room, not necessarily doing pink for girls or blue for boys. In addition to the dark marroon blanket that is in the works and almost - ALMOST - done, I'm doing a soft, fuzzy yellow one for my sister-in-law, who is due in November. I have to do one for my friend Corn, due in January. I'm thinking of doing a yellow one with green trim in it for her son. And my other sister-in-law, due in late February, has yet to find out what she's having, but I'll be doing one for her, too.

Then, I hope I'll need to do another one, for our 2nd child. But that is a plan that has not yet been put into action, so we'll need to wait and see about that.

Are you all interested in pictures?