A little color in the middle of winter

The last few days have been hard. The Little Guy has a stomach bug. He's been throwing up at least twice a day since Wednesday night. Six loads of laundry, two really stinky rugs and one trip to urgent care later... the diarrhea starts. Yes! It just keeps getting better and better.

The bright side is the bug has really slowed TLG down so he's no longer our little barbarian. Instead of running around ransacking the house he's been sitting on my lap asking me to read to him. I never knew how many different types of trucks, boats and trains there were.

Anyway, this is my way of saying not much knitting has happened since the beginning of the week. I finished Greg's Koolhaus hat, TLG's candy cane hat and a hat for Little Miss. I'll have photos and details soon.

Tonight after the diarrhea incident I couldn't face another hat. I needed something new. Something colorful. Something like my Tulip Cardigan for Little Miss. I'm only five rows in but I already feel better.

Bring on the poo!

Another...

Yes, another hat. This time it's a toddler hat.



A Candy Cane hat from Holiday Knits to be exact. February is historically the coldest month of the year and the Little Guy needs a warm hat. I'm using leftover Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran for the hat. It's a quick and easy project and a lot of fun.

Another baby hat

A friend of mine had a baby on Christmas Day. I hadn't planned on knitting her anything since she's a knitter herself. Then Greg pointed out babies always need more hats. True. I looked through my stash and found a ball of Lang Merino Color in mostly boy colors. Two days later I had a Little Cables Hat.



I have since cast on two more hats. Oh, and I'm still working on Greg's Koolhaus hat. I'm going through a hat phase. I don't even have a pair of socks on the needles. Weird.

Okay, I'm excited

I've never been one of those moms who says there are no cute boy clothes out there. I think there is plenty of cute boy clothes out there. You just have to like trains and trucks and tools. And I never said I want a girl so I can buy cute girl clothes. Then my aunt sends me something like this...



And okay, I have to admit, I'm excited about buying girls clothes.

Hats for Greta

Today I finally got to visit with a good friend who had a baby girl at the beginning of January. Along with taking her some food I brought her a couple of knit baby hats. You can never have too many baby hats.



This first one I knit a long time ago using left over yarn from a baby blanket. It's Cascade 220 Superwash and the pattern is my own. I probably started with the Umbilical Cord hat and got bored.



This second hat is a modified version of the Umbilical Cord hat. I used left over yarn from the Big Guy's Peppermint Sweater. I should have made the cord a little longer. Next time!

Finally Sprung

I finished the knitting on my Spring Forward socks! As you can see, I still need to weave in some ends. They also need to be blocked. I'm quite happy with the way they look.



The problem is they are too small for the intended recipient. I could barely get these socks on my feet. I have small feet. The recipient has large feet. I'll see how they fit after blocking. But these may go to my mom.

I'm also not happy with the tightness of the fabric. I think I'll be going back to US2 needles for socks from now on. These socks have no give.

Springing slowly

I've been making slow progress on my second Spring Forward sock. I was battling a sinus headache last week and didn't feel much like knitting. Gasp!



I have managed to get in a couple rows a night and am now to the heel. I am itching to finish these socks and Greg's hat. I have a baby sweater to start!

A gift card bites the dust

Today I was able to make it into the Knitting Bee and use up one of my yarn gift cards. I was going to get a skein of Handmaiden Sea Silk until I saw this skein of Pagewood Yarns Denali.



The label says it is dyed exclusively for the Knitting Bee and the colorway is Green.

This one skein didn't use the entire gift certificate. So I bought a skein of a favorite.



I probably should have gotten a more "girl" color but I couldn't resist this green. This will probably become another hat someday.

Happy New Year!

I can't believe today is the first day of 2009. 2008 flew by. I was just looking at last year's resolutions. Wow. I really tanked. I didn't finish any sweaters and I only finished one additional pair of socks for my mom. I never took a quilting class. I did clean out the second bedroom and Greg is painting it right now. I did a fair job with dinners and spent as much time as I could in the garden. I didn't use any of my fiber stash but I did sell some of it. Oh yeah, I didn't make any ornaments or an advent calendar. And we won't discuss my stash acquisition.

Moving on to 2009! I don't think I'll be making any real resolutions this year. I am going to mostly focus on small projects. No adult size sweaters. It'll mostly be socks, baby knits and toddler knits. I will continue to limit my yarn buying. Although I do have two yarn shop gift cards and a PayPal credit burning holes in my pocket. Clara Parkes had an interesting article on stash acquisition this week. I think I'll use it as my guide this year.

As for the house I'll continue what I started last year. I've got to keep at cooking more diverse dinners. And I need to keep working in the yard. We discovered late in the summer that The Little Guy loves to eat stuff growing in the yard. That means more veggies in the garden this year!

I hope everyone has a wonderful 2009!