Finally, a FO!

Here they are – pictures of Mandy’s Candy Bag, complete! When I can, I’ll get pictures of it hanging off the arm of my niece, as her new little purse. The only mod I made was to make a really long I-cord so it could be used as said purse.

Thanks for a fun knit, Amanda!

On to… yarn purchases!!! YAY! I bought my first sock yarn ever. Some YUMMY Fleece Artist Merino Wool. Beautiful green shades – see?

Then some less expensive but equally as fun Wildefoote by Brown Sheep Company – the colors are Mums and Soft Jazz (I have to put that in italics because when I say “soft jazz,” I even say it italicized). I think these will be my first baby socks.

I stepped up my Coachella knitting. I was shamed into it after reading some descriptions of it as a project for other knitters on Ravelry… one lady said it took her only 3 days to knit. 3 days. I’m almost at the bottom of the arm holes, to start the never ending body… I won’t have it done in time for my cousin’s birthday on Friday, but it will be well underway.

3 days. Geez.

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New arrival! (not mine!)

I am very proud to announce that I am an auntie, again! Isn’t she beautiful?

This is her, one day old, wearing the baby cap I knitted up last night. Probably will be the only time she wears it. As I was knitting it last night, I was thinking how silly it was to knit it, especially out of Paton’s SWS in Natural Pink (which is a scrumptious knit – I will definitely be using it again!), seeing as how it is in the mid- to upper-90’s right now in Richmond, VA. Yuck. Poor baby, whose auntie forces her to wear a wool cap for pictures.

While I was waiting for her to arrive yesterday, I got a nice start on Mandy’s Candy Bag. See?

I’ve since done about another inch or so. I think I’m going to make the I-cord nice and long and make it into a little girl’s purse, since the baby’s big sister, my first niece, was there while I knitted and she was fascinated by the process. I think she’d like a little purse. Don’t 3 year old princesses like purses?

Here’s the Big Boy with his new little cousin. I think he likes the idea of a baby. It will be nice for him to be used to seeing a little one before our little one comes in about 5 months!!!

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I remembered!

Wow – that really did drive me crazy! I spent the next couple of hours trying to figure out what else I had done new with the Coachella tank top… And then it hit me – it didn’t really have to do with the actual knitting – just the prep for knitting. I had heard that you could dip the plastic wire of the circular needles into hot water and then they wouldn’t curl as much. I did that with the metal size 7s with which I started the piece (Mrs. Johnston would be so proud! I just typed this sentence ending with “with” – but her HS grammar training overpowered me, and I felt guilty, and so I rearranged the sentence so as to not end with “with.” Wait – was that a run-on sentence?). It did work for a while, but they finally returned to their original shape. The bamboo size 9s I’m using right now I did not dip in hot water – I heard that it might swell the wood. So the Coachella is a little ball in the middle of the circular needle’s curl….

Also, I realized I was doing something else new. I’ve never really wound the yarn around my left hand to help control the tension while knitting – but I’ve found that if I wrap the yarn around my pinky and then around my index finger, it really does help! Gosh! and even when purling, I wrap it a couple times around my index finger. I’ve read several knitting books that recommend doing this – and I’d tried it out, too, but I’d always dropped the wrapped yarn, thinking it didn’t help me that much. Now, it’s almost a habit to pick up the yarn like that. Maybe I’m making big strides….

Amanda, the NH Knitting Mama, has designed a really cute candy bag that looks like it will be a fun knit. I think I’m going to start one up, so I can stop stressing about the fact that the Coachella won’t be ready in 2 weeks, and so I can get entered for some swag!!! Check out her site here for more info!

I just heard from my sock-knitting mommy friend, and I think we’re going to knit these socks from Knitty.com. I am so excited!!! They will be my first socks, and I love short socks (whatever you call them – ankle socks? anklets?). I think I want to have them started up so I can knit them while lying on the beach in St. Thomas in 2 weeks. We’ll see if I really want to knit while lying on the beach – at least I’ll be able to knit them while flying down there!

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