Crafts

I’ve been working hard on various craft projects and have lots to show. Only, I didn’t take pictures yet and we’re going to a party tomorrow afternoon, so I probably won’t be able to find enough time to show everything off until Sunday at least. In the meantime, here’s the obligatory adorable baby picture. Carrie really likes holding my yarn!

I’m feeling so virtuous about finishing things up I don’t even really feel like going and buying new projects – I kind of want to work on things I already have. (Although there is one kit for some Christmas ornaments that I’ve wanted for several months that I will probably go ahead and order.)

Looks like Carrie has caught the knitting bug early! It’s so very helpful of her to hold my yarn for me and drool all over it… Although, she was pretty cute with it. At first she just held the strand of yarn I was working with, but then she realized there was a whole ball of yarn instead of just one string. And then she discovered the fantastic ball band that could be chewed off. And when she wasn’t slobbering on the yarn she was gleefully blowing raspberries. I think she likes yarn.

I can’t wait until she discovers that the strand of yarn Mommy’s working with can be pulled and it just gets longer and more tangled. Oh, what fun that will be! (Note to self: never, not even for three-eighths of a second, can I leave my knitting within sight of the munchkin, or Destructo-Boy will have major competition…)

So, what is it we’re working on? Why, it’s Carrie’s poncho:

What? You mean it doesn’t look like a poncho? Is this better?

Just a little seaming, a few ends to hide, and a bunch of fringe left to do!

I am so close to finishing Carrie’s poncho. As in three rows away, plus the neckband. The problem? Those last few rows require a smaller set of needles than the body. And those needles are…buried in my craft room somewhere.

And they’re not the sort of needles you can just go buy at Michael’s or anything, so I’m stuck until I can get to a real yarn shop or find them. Maybe in the morning I’ll perform an archeological dig in the craft room, although I found things that I had worked on in the same general time frame already and they weren’t near those.

Drat!

Hallelujah! I can see the floor! Well, at least part of it, in my craft room. It helped a lot that I took out a bunch of stuff that literally just got shoved in there while we were cleaning out Carrie’s room, baby-proofing the living room, frantically tidying for company, and so on. There’s actually a lot more stuff that doesn’t belong in there, and once that’s out it might be possible to put away the things that do belong in there. The spinning wheel and wool, which used to live in the living room and which I will someday have the time and skill to use, are now going to live in the corner of my bedroom. I can’t stand the thought of them being in the basement. That’s where all the spiders are.

I’m also knitting a bit again. I’m past the halfway point on the baby poncho I started a couple of weeks before Carrie was born. I’ve been sneaking in a few rows whenever Carrie’s playing on the floor – I figure if she’s engrossed in exploring a toy, it’s not like I need to be constantly interacting with her, and I can do my own thing as long as I’m keeping an eye on her. Anyway, I only have about 75 more rows to go on the body of it, and then a collar and fringe. (I thought about leaving the fringe off, but I think Carrie will enjoy playing with it.)

The new Knitty is out! I haven’t been tremendously inspired to knit lately, but I have to knit the following: Cambio, Cecillia, and Wheelie.

Fortunately, the show opens tonight, so after Saturday I’ll have a little more free time to knit!

I’m still working on the blanket for my cousin’s son’s first birthday. The party is Saturday, and there is absolutely no possible way for me to finish it in time – especially since I’m mucking about on the computer right now rather than crocheting.

My only excuse is that I played piano non-stop for 3 1/2 hours this evening for rehearsal, and my hands are tired.

I have two long rounds that take 45 minutes each to do, then 40 squares to crochet, hide ends on, sew together into strips and sew onto the blanket, then 3 border rounds which will probably take over an hour each. And Carrie refused to nap for more than 20 minutes at a time today, so I was lucky to even get a shower, let alone time to crochet.

I’m just going to have to wrap the unfinished blanket in a box and ask for it back so I can finish it. Sigh. Things like this didn’t happen before I had kids – I could stay up late and spend all my free time finishing things that had deadlines. Now I have to actually get enough sleep to be somewhat coherent all day and I spend my “free time” making funny faces and changing diapers. Not that I’m complaining, I’m just justifying why I’m not crocheting right now…

I have a soft spot for granny-square afghans. I hate putting them together, but I love how they look. My cousin Benjamin’s first birthday is coming up, and he was admiring one of Carolyn’s granny-square afghans. So…I have 21 days to crochet a duplicate. I feel kind of guilty duplicating the pattern. It’s sort of unusual, and I don’t if the person who made it for Carrie made up the pattern or not. I feel like I ought to ask permission to make one. I guess since I’m not selling it, it’s probably not a big deal.

I bought lime green, bright turquoise, and dark purple yarn for it. It’s a very yummy combination. If it weren’t so dark I’d take a picture, but by tomorrow there might be more than a couple of squares to take pictures of anyway.

It’s strange – it’s been ages since I crocheted more than a simple border on something I’ve knitted. But just as soon as I picked up the crochet hook it all came back to me. And equally as soon – once I crocheted the first square – I remembered why I hate putting these things together. So many ends to hide. Ugh.