the blanket lady

I absolutely love to make baby blankets. Knit. Crochet. Weaving. I don't care- I love baby blankets. Maybe it's because I love how quickly they go on bulky yarn, or how you can use as many bright or pastel colors as you want, but I love baby blankets. I still have the one given to me when I was a baby, and maybe I hope that someday there will be a child out there holding out of my blankets and saying that they've had this since the day they were born and have loved it forever.

And someday came a little faster than I thought it would. I've been making baby blankets and been giving them away or selling them (at a price barely above the cost of yarn) for a while and it really sunk in a couple weeks ago when at a baby shower (guess what I brought- A blanket!) a woman and brought her 9 year-old daughter up to meet me. Holding her girl's hand, she told her child, "this is the nice lady who made you your pink blanket".

My first thought was of course you have to say that, you can't exactly say "this is the cheap-ass hag that used acrylic". I smiled and said I was glad that she liked (and continued to like) her big pink blankie. It wasn't until a few days later when someone else was talking about a baby due soon when it occurred to me- I've become the blanket lady. And I've actually been the blanket lady for about 10 years. I thought there was a mistake when I was introduced to a 9 year-old who had one of my baby blankets, but that's about right. That girl had one of the very first baby blankets that I ever made, and she will always remember pink blankie. Maybe she'll even pass pink blankie down to her daughters.

And that's just one more reason why I'm proud to be a knitter. And I had the pleasure of going to visit the 4 day-old baby of some family friends today, and brought with me (of course) a blanket.

*burp rags made by my mother- between the two of us we've got the baby gifts covered.

spring season posting

As I mentioned in my last post, we are now in one of my favorite times of the year: rugby season. For 3 straight months I am sore, exhausted, bruised, battered, and the calmest I have ever been. I'm also the busiest I have been in a while. I still find time(I still MAKE time) to craft, but I'm not as good about finding time to blog it. So here is a whirlwind post that should pretty well sum up my non-athletic doings of the past week or so.

I finished my floral dress. I adore it. It even looks like the pattern said it would! I didn't get a good picture though, so this will have to suffice until I have someone to hold the camera for me.

I learned A LOT making this dress. Here's some of my educational highlights:

1. Buy extra fabric. You'll need it for those times where you sew the wrong side to the right piece.

2. Don't take shortcuts- they add 4 hours to your project.

3. If you're tired, cranky, sad, or have had a glass of wine, you should put down the seam-ripper.

4. Rome wasn't built in a day, and it's okay if a dress take more than one evening.

5. Cutting out patterns on flimsy tissue paper in the middle of the kitchen floor should not be combined with cat ownership.

6. It has to be pretty quiet to hear a pin drop. But when a whole box of pins drops, so does the F-bomb, and they're both pretty loud.

Lots of other lessons, but I'll spare you the lecture. Sorry for the terrible picture: I finished it at 2 am, so I took the picture at 2:01.

I also made a tote bag. I kind of adore it. It even has pockets! 6 of them! And a gusset! And I totally put the straps on the wrong way so I have to hold it funny. Another lesson learned: look at flippin' purse before you decide to make one. It's still perfectly functional, just a little awkward when thrown over a shoulder.

And I made some nippies. Nippies are little dimebags for cats- little fabric pillows stuffed with a couple teaspoons of cat nip and then sewn shut. My cats love them, my mom's cat loves them, the cat at PakMail loves them, my work cats love them....so I just make them with my odd little bits of fabric leftover from bigger projects. And they are loved. And then I had to put my sewing machine away because it's been on my kitchen table for weeks and I'm tired of looking at it and I really want to get back to knitting and crocheting so I can show you more finished objects like...

my Ninja Turtle hat! (Made from Alpaca With A Twist Touchdown, 1 hank Grassy Knoll, 1 hank Plush Purple) Pattern improvised.

my blanket now has 144 attached squares, bringing it up to a whopping 39" square. Yep- just over 3 feet. I think I'm starting to lose momentum on this woolen beast.

And the most painfully boring project ever, the cross stitch with the gigantic border OF DOOM! I'm really excited to be done with it, but I'm just not so excited about the thousands of little x's that remain to get it that way. I'm already planning my next project though which strangely does not have a border. Imagine that!

And that's about it- I'm still chugging along on a baby blanket for no baby in particular and my Bonfire socks, but they kind of look exactly the same as they did last time you saw them. I'm going to try to listen to one more hour of my audiobook and put in a few more x's before bed. Have a wonderful week!