A Quick Knit

Pattern: Hooded Jacket from Simply Baby by Debbie Bliss

Yarn: Red Heart Soft Yarn
Color: Leaf
Needles: US 8 and US 8 circulars

Saturday Sky, Green Grass, & a Game Somewhere in Between

Almost done

He just needs a nose, some eyes, and maybe a little tightening at the top of his snout.

I think I like him.

Sick days, teddy bears, and Tom

First things first: I am sick AGAIN. 2007 has been rough on the whole family. For at least two months now, at least one of us has been sick with something. Most of the time it was two or all three of us. These are not just little headaches or sniffles. These are knock-you-out, drag-you-down awful things. I know my immune system has to be about ready to give up, and I feel an intense need to detox. Why am I telling you this? I have never actually tried to do any sort of detox, so I need your advice. Have you tried this, did you find a healthy way to go about it, exactly what did you do, and how well did it work?

Onto a more enjoyable subject... I put my knitting needles aside for a few weeks last month, but finishing the endpaper mitts put me back in the groove. I started this hooded baby jacket (yet another pattern found in Simply Baby by Debbie Bliss) and completed most of it last weekend before realizing I had somehow managed to finish the left or right front in such a way to be off by one row - and still pieced it all together without noticing. It was going so well too. I loved the way it was turning out, and the yarn was sooo soft. I will start it again. In the meantime I finally found yarn from a matching lot needed in order to complete a semi-secret project I started months ago. I can't hold it secret any longer. There is just too much to share. It's the teddy bear from the same book. Photo here. I made all ten pieces and started assembling them last night. Below, photos as evidence. (Sorry they're so dark.) Hopefully I'll finish soon. I don't mind sewing up the seams and stuffing each piece. I'm not so big, however, on sewing all the pieces together. It can be painstaking to get it to look just right.

Of course, Tommy has done some creating of his own, and my post would not be complete if I didn't share this photo. How I love that smile.

Patterns in Texture

I realize I know nothing about photography. That doesn't change how much I enjoy playing with the camera. Some times it's a texture that catches my eye, or a pattern. Some times I just like the complex uniformity of a dish filled to the brim or a patch of tan grass covered with vibrant orange-red leaves. Usually it's an animated expression or nature bathed in sunlight that makes me want to capture what I see. Occasionally I get a bit frustrated when I can't focus in such a way to share with you exactly what I'm looking at. I can't tell if I'm not using the camera correctly or if I would have better luck with manual focus. (Our camera has the basic zoom functions, but once you zoom in or out, it still automatically focuses on something, and that sometimes isn't what I'm looking for.) Maybe in time I will learn how to get that perfect blur in the background or that sparkling shine on a ladybug's wing. Until then, it's all an experiment.

Little Visitor

Our neighborhood squirrels and chipmunks are indeed very neighborly. They like to hop along our porch railing and look out across the lawn or occasionally peak through our picture window. Rarely, though, do I manage to grab my camera in time to photograph one. I took this photo through our living room window this morning. She stayed long enough to watch Tommy and I looking on at her and then hopped off to another sunny spot.

Saturday Sky

The first in a long time... and just in time for spring!

We made it to the park today. Everyone was out. There was a baseball game in the front diamond and a basketball game inside the far end of the tennis court, followed by football in the field. Tommy played on the playground a bit before finding the sandbox for the remainder of the afternoon. He pretended to pour coal dust through a special machine until I helped him and a little girl dig down to the wet sand so that they could build sand castles and then kick them down. The bike came out this weekend again too, and the baseball glove. Yes, spring has officially arrived, and it's pretty nice.

abouti

Pattern (free): Endpaper Mitts by Eunny Jang
Yarn: Patons Grace
Colors: Snow and Viola (I had a 50 gram skein of each color. I used almost all of the viola but had plenty of snow left over for another pair.)
Needles: US 0 and 2 dpns

(Abouti is French for "successfully completed." ...For those who wondered.)