Milo's Rhino Romper

I guess it was a bad idea to knit something just for a baby to wear home from the hospital. He's only worn it three times. Once for his hospital pictures, then again on the day he came home:

And then three weeks later, when I panicked that I didn't have enough pictures of him in it:

But now that he's a few weeks old, he spits up a lot, so it doesn't make sense to dress him in something that has to be hand washed. I guess next time I knit for a newborn, I'll use acrylic. At least it makes a cute decoration hanging in his room.

Free pattern here

Gauge

I'm having gauge issues. Last night, I knitted lots of gauge swatches with this blue skein of Malabrigo Twist. I started with size 7 needles and 4 stitches per inch and ended up with size 4 needles, still with 4 stitches per inch. So I gave up and started knitting on the size 4. But when I got to the white yarn, my gauge was 5 stitches per inch. Is it possible that two skeins of Malabrigo Twist vary that much in thickness or is it my knitting that varies that much from day to day? What do I do now? Frog it and knit a swatch in each color? I'm making a newborn size Rhino Romper, and I'm afraid that if my gauge is off in one direction, I'll run out of yarn, and in the other direction, it will be too small. If I hadn't spend so much money on this yarn, I'd give up.

Mama's Girl

Hanne had a crafty day. She tried to wind her own yarn, then she made knitting needles out of popsicle sticks, then wrapped the yarn around her neck, Portuguese style, and knitted her yarn into a big, tangled mess. How can I be mad that she's not asleep when she's in her room "knitting?"

Growing into it

I almost always buy/knit my kids' clothes big because I'm afraid they won't fit long enough if I make them the right size. I knit this Baby Sophisticate sweater 2 years ago, and it was way too big:

He wore it the next winter, but it was still big:

Now it finally fits:

Lesson learned.

More Tatting

#4-12 in the 25 Motif Challenge
Patterns by Dale Pomeroy
Lizbeth #20 thread 

Tatting class is keeping me busy. This is a few weeks worth of homework/classwork, and I know there are other tatters who do this much in a day, but surely those tatters don't have small children? It's kinda tricky keeping all my ducks in a row. It's apparent by my suuuuuuuuper messy house that my ducks are definitely not in a row, but I exercised, read to my kids, and took a nap today, and I'm about to go practice the organ, so I'd say my priorities are pretty strait, except that it's 11:50 PM, and I don't plan on going to bed any time soon.

And, I stumbled across this ball of blue Lizbeth (color 651-not even one of the colors I was considering) in my local yarn store, and it matches pretty well. So I've got no excuses to put off that doily, but I still don't know which colors I want where, so I'm still procrastinating.

Lace Mat Planning

There's this doily pattern that has been taking over the internet, and I really want to make one, but I'm afraid to choose colors. But I got this brilliant idea to put it in my laundry/craft room and model the colors after the doilies on the wallpaper:

 

 

So, blue and white? And what shade of blue? Should it have some charcoal too? What about green? And which round should be which color? I haven't decided if I'll hang it on a white or charcoal background.

I love the way this one looks with the dark color on the outside edge. But I also love the way it looks all in the same color.

Tatting Classes

I've been taking tatting classes at my local yarn store from Dale Pomeroy (who is amazing, and if you ever get the chance to take his classes, you should, even if you already know how to tat.) I'm halfway through level 2, and my tatting is finally starting to look presentable (mostly because I learned how to finish the ends.) So I'm gonna try the 25 motif challenge again. 

#1, 2, 3 in the 25 Motif Challenge
Patterns by Dale Pomeroy
Lizbeth #20 thread

Here is all my work from level 2 so far:

Patterns by Dale Pomeroy
Lizbeth #20 thread

And here is my level 1 work:

Patterns by Dale Pomeroy
Lizbeth #10 thread