Poppy Pin

Supposedly they wear these in some other countries on their version of Memorial Day. My sister-in-law is moving to England and she likes to wear pins and she likes poppies. So this was a no brainer of a birthday present.

free pattern

The Real Reason I'm Excited About My New Phone...

Don't get me wrong. The iPhone 4 is awesome. But it's way awesomer with cross stitch on the back!

Choosing Colors

If we want to have stockings next Christmas, I'd better start now. I'm starting with the left of these for Hanne:

I don't trust myself to choose colors, so I'm trying to match the ones the designer used, but I'm not sure about the dark green behind the birds. I'm using Wool of the Andes from Knit Picks, and I think Aurora Heather is closest, but it's not my favorite shade of dark green.

Which of those greens on the bottom row would you choose to go with those seven colors on top?

They had it!

I called the yarn store, and they had the same dyelot! I can't stop smiling. It's the little things. Although this kinda feels like a big thing.

Progress

I've made some progress on the sweater, and the good news is it's not too big!




The bad news is that I'm not going to have enough yarn. So the question is do I make the sleeves 3/4 length or do I use a different dye lot on the button band? Is there any chance the store where I bought it will still have the same dye lot in stock? I'm going to call the minute they open tomorrow morning.

Recent Projects

 New blankie for Hanne

 A dishcloth for my mom. I made one for my grandma too, but I forgot to snap a picture.

 

Mandy requested an envelope for part of a Christmas present for her husband. I haven't seen the finished project yet, so this sad picture is all I have.

The start of my Paulie sweater! I'm kinda worried it's gonna be too big, but it took me more than a month to get this far, and there's no way I'm starting over. I'll just have to start eating more!

Ribbed Socks

The one and only knitted gift this Christmas. Last Christmas was super stressful. I'm not sure why I thought I'd have time to knit with a new baby keeping me up all night and a toddler not letting me knit by day. Plus, I was already sacrificing sleep to learn the hymns for church every week and the music for the Christmas program. I felt like a drowning zombie last year.

I learned my lesson, and that's why there is only one knitted gift this year. This Christmas has been awesome because my baby sleeps 12 uninterrupted hours most nights, and I don't have to play in the Christmas program. I even ordered some crocheted stuff from etsy rather than making it myself because Christmas is about peace, not about stress.

I've been working on these socks for several months. It's not that it was a lot of knitting, it was just so boring to knit all that ribbing. From now on, I'm only going to knit socks with more interesting patterns, like the ones from Cookie A's book, Knit. Sock. Love. I really want to knit these Twisted Flower socks. But first, I'm going to take a little break from knitting socks and finish my sweater and make some fair isle stockings so that we wont go another Christmas with nothing but good intentions hanging from our mantle.