Unreserved

Baby norgi and teething toes

Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006 | Uncategorized | No Comments

This week I finished the Baby Norgi, buttons and all, and gifted it. I remembered to take a picture before it left, so here it is:

And a close-up of the buttons:

Buttonizing for fat baby heads: I sewed and cut the neckline. Had I the foresight to realize I’d be doing this, I wouldn’t have knit the neckline in the round. I opened the shoulder seam back up, and picked up stitches along the shoulder and neckline. I sewed a button placket to the back shoulder with a purl row in the middle for folding. I did the same on the front side, incorporating three vertial buttonholes. (actually six buttonholes on either side of the fold line) I folded them and sewed them such that they overlapped at the sleeve edge. Three wooden buttons finished it off.

I’m not honestly happy with my colorwork on the moose (reindeer?) part. It got a little puckery. (the non-deer portions are nice and smooth) I attribute that to the small circulars I was using and my technique for picking up the non-working yarn to avoid long floats. Will pay better attention next time.

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Can someone please explain to me why, although we have many teething toys floating around (shown is a small sampling)
Claire’s favorite thing to teethe on is my big toe? She chases me around, trying to gnaw on my feet. (and that first little tooth she cut last week is sharp!)

Incidentally, my girls are the cutest in the world. I’m sorry if you thought yours were. I hate to have to disillusion people like that. Photographic proof included:

Oh, yeah, more knitting.

Wednesday, August 16th, 2006 | Uncategorized | No Comments

I am tempted to tell you, the internets, of what just happened in our dining room. It involved the dog, and the baby, and a bath, and carpet cleaner, and a crate. Someday I will laugh about it. Today is just not that day.

Instead, I will tell you that I knit a quick mohair shawl out of some white mohair I got from “Norm from Anaheim” at the Knitters Festival. I had intended to make a scarf out of it, but just wasn’t feeling the scarf vibe. Instead I made a basic garter-stitch triangular shawl with a lace edging from “Heirloom Knitting.” The yarn was more cream colored, so I got pearly beads to add to the lace edging. The whole thing only took a few days since I knit it on 10.5s. It was entirely mediocre, so I never thought to take a picture of it until after it went to be auctioned off at the family reunion. Each year I plan a great project for the craft auction, then end up whipping up something quick the week of. *shrug* Maybe next year I’ll have something to be more proud of. (but then I won’t want to auction it off)

I still need to button-ify Baby Norgi. I know how I’m going to (try to) do it, and I picked up buttons, but I keep putting it off. I really want this one finished so I can gift it, but I really don’t feel like dragging out the sewing machine.

And for now it will really have to wait because Claire tricked me into thinking she was sleeping and has since changed her mind.

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Edited to add: Hey! I totally missed my blogiversary! Happy one year to Unreserved! I actually did stick with this thing! Here’s to another year of enrapturing my audience (all three of them) with tales of knitting and baby poop.

A finished object

Sunday, August 6th, 2006 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Just in time for the unseasonable cold snap we’re having – it’s only in the mid 80′s as opposed to the 102degF it was at the beach* – a wool sock!
I had promised to make something for DH and selected a manly sock pattern from “Knitting Vintage Socks.” I chose a manly colorway of TrekkingXXL. Last night, I finished sock #1. Want to see a picture?

Notice anything….odd about that picture?
How about this one?

No, DH is not a cross dresser. That’s my (poison ivy covered**) foot in said sock. (no, I will not be wearing it with the strappy sandals, but it’s tres chic, n’est ce pas?)It’s not a very man-sized sock. In fact, it fits me like a glove. DH did manage to try it on and declared it “very snug.” He wasn’t kidding. Better luck next time!

*Yes, we were at the beach last week. In the record breaking heatwave. “Spent a lot of time in the air conditioning, right?” said the neighbor. Nope. We were in a tent. At a campground with no electricity, so there wasn’t so much as a fan to move the stagnant upper 80′s air around with at night. It was a character building vacation. Future vacations will be held up to this one in comparison: “Sure, a herd of wild boars came charging through the campsite and ate all our food, but at least it wasn’t as hot as that time back in ’06!” Perversely, we managed to enjoy ourselves. I guess the old chestnut is true – a bad week at the beach still beats a good week at work.

**I’m extraordinarily sensitive to poison ivy and its relatives (including mangos, but that’s another story) so you can imagine my dismay when DH helpfully pointed out that the weed I had just walked through while setting up my camp chair on day one had leaves of three. The swelling blistering and oozing has abated somewhat, so I might be able to get shoes on tomorrow to go to work. Flip-flops are a no-no both for photo ops with the president and when working with hazardous chemicals.

What I did on my summer vacation

Saturday, August 5th, 2006 | Uncategorized | No Comments

Sweat.