Last Saturday afternoon our knitting group had a lunch for Lauren and Baby D. I knew she’d be getting some blankets, a Baby Surprise sweater and a Hug Me sweater, so I had to find something different to knit. I chose the Heartbreakingly Cute Baby Kimono from Mason-Dixon Knitting. It turned out nice. I used Knit Picks Gloss in the Dusk colorway with two strands held together and velcro dots for the closures.
Last year I tried knitting a little stocking for our knitting group’s ornament exchange and it turned out really wonky. The night before the exchange, I whipped up this little Santa hat instead.
For this year’s exchange, I knit the stocking from Last Minute Knitted Gifts and it turned out MUCH better. Tana, who picked my Santa hat from last year, picked the stocking this year. I knit them both out of the same yarn. Too funny! I should see if I can complete her set with a mini sweater next season.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the little Santa hat ornament. It was so cute and easy! So the other night I decided to knit another one for our tree. I love it so much! Here’s the pattern so you can knit up some cuteness for your tree.
Knitted Santa Hat Ornament
Yarn: Lion Brand Micro Spun colors red and white
Needles: I used size 3 dpns
Gauge: 6 stitches = 1 inch
Time to complete: Less than two episodes of the Sopranos.
Hat
Using white yarn, cast on 30 stitches and divide evenly over 3 dpns.
Join and knit 8 rows in white (add rows if you need to so it forms a nice roll brim).
Change to red yarn and knit 12 rows.
Begin decreases:
Knit the first two stitches on each needle together.
Knit a plain round.
Repeat these two rows until you only have 3 stitches left. Tie them off.
Pom Pom
Start with a slip knot of white yarn on a single needle.
Knit in the front and back of the stitch, increasing to 2 stitches.
Knit in the front and back of both stitches, increasing to 4 stitches.
Repeat once more for a total of 8 stitches.
Begin decreases:
Knit two together across, decreasing to 4 stitches.
Repeat, decreasing to 2 stitches.
Repeat once more and tie off.
Pull the two ends together and shape a little ball. With a darning needle, thread the ends through the top of the hat and tie a knot.
If you want your hat to hang straight, string it up from the top. If you want it to have a little curl, like mine, string it up from the middle.
Hang on the tree and admire your craftiness. Merry Christmas!
Yep. It’s still snowing. Are you getting tired of the view of snow from my front porch? I am. Here’s a shot from the UNL web cam. (You can go there and watch the snow fall in real time, if you like.)
T’s dad arrives this evening and it appears that his flights are on time. He flies through O’Hare, though, so who knows what kind of delays he might encounter. Flights are delayed all the time from O’Hare, even when the weather is fine.
It’s so nice to have the basement finished. Getting ready for house guests is so much easier now. All I really need to do is put dinner in the slow cooker and then I’ll be off to knitting group for our holiday ornament exchange. Last year I knit a mini Santa hat and this year I made a mini stocking. I think I might also make a mini tree out some green felted sweater wool, just in case someone forgets to bring one.
I can’t believe it. As of today, I am all caught up on work. My newsletter project is finally at the printer and all of my other jobs are up to date. I might be able to finish up some holiday gifts today. I’m even going to make it to knitting tonight. Speaking of knitting, I know I said I was done with fuzzy scarves, but never say never.
I was only going to knit one. I even wrote that in my email to Kay: I’ll try to get at least one square done before the 30th. I’ve got UFOs coming out of the woodwork. Why do I keep casting on new projects? Another case of hopeless startitis? I’m on my FOURTH square. They’re just too easy and too fun. They take less than an episode of CSI to knit up and besides, what else am I going to do with my leftover sock yarn. After this one, I’m putting them in an envelope and sending them off. Seriously!
I know. It’s been awhile. Two weeks to be exact! My parents’ visit was fun and I don’t really know where the time went. We got a lot done in two weeks. I can’t even remember it all. Here are the highlights:
Oh, and I can’t forget to mention that my daughter is drinking WHOLE MILK. Can you believe it? I really pushed the limits while my parents were here because I figured I’d have help if she got fussy from a dairy stomach ache. She only broke out once and that was the day after we went to the Melting Pot. I guess the cheese fondue was a little too much! But I’ve been adding a little bit of dairy every day and she’s been doing really well with 5-10 ounces of whole milk a day. I think we are turning the corner on her dairy intolerance. Woo hoo!
This week I managed to pull myself out of my miserable and unproductive rut. My control journal is updated and Bella and I have started our new routines. I hadn’t updated my routines since before she was born. Yes, a lot has changed since then! We’re doing better about getting things done and spending time having fun.
My allergies are also getting better. Mostly that’s because I haven’t spent a lot of time outside. I have been taking Claritin, but what I’d really like to help with the fogginess is some Sudafed. Can’t do that while nursing, though. Well, I can, but I risk decreasing my milk supply. Bella still has some dairy issues and I’d really like to work through that before we think about weaning her to non-mama milk. Rice milk just doesn’t have the fat she needs to keep up with her energy levels.
I’m still doing a lot of knitting in the evenings to help me from scratching my itchy eyes and nose to death. I’ve finished a pair of socks that kept getting neglected (I started them before Bella was born!) and I’m already making good progress on my next pair. I’m using size 2 needles instead of size zeros. That definitely makes a difference! I’m also almost half finished my parents’ afghan. Only four more balls until I can start the second half of the pattern. Here’s a quick shot of my socks.
Sunday morning we got up, had breakfast and drove to London. We thought it would be better to try and find a place to watch the race there than in Brighton because we didn’t have much luck with Quali. We made it to the hotel just as the race began, and because our room wasn’t ready yet, they put it on the tv in the bar for us. After the race our room still wasn’t ready, so we went for a walk. We strolled around the hotel’s neighborhood, which is the Theatre District, and then over to Covent Garden,* where I bought some Lush. Yummy!
*Funny thing about Covent Garden. When I suggested to T that we take a walk over there, he thought we were headed to an actual garden.
Sunday evening T’s parents were having a get-together for the England Kundhi contingent. We went to Madhu’s in Southall. Southall is a crazy place. It’s like Little India—the people, the stores, the food, they even drive like they are in India! Dinner was fabulous. They were kind enough to make me some dairy-free dishes: appetizers were veggie pakoras and little squares of potatoes with cumin and dinner was spinach with chickpeas, rice, naan and curried potatoes. I also had little tastes of the food I wasn’t supposed to eat. The sheekh kebabs were awesome and so was the salmon. More pics in the gallery.
Monday we started to feel the effects of traveling and going non-stop. T had to get up early and take the car back. I planned to get up with Bella, get ready and go down to breakfast. Bella curled up with me and we both went back to sleep instead. We were planning to meet Yvonne for lunch, so by the time T was back and we finally got our act together, we had missed breakfast all together.
Lunch with Yvonne was nice. T watching Bella for a few hours was very nice. Yarn shop hopping with Yvonne was awesome! We went to John Lewis on Oxford Street, Liberty on Regent Street and All The Fun Of The Fair on Carnaby Street. I was so overwhelmed by all of the fabulous wool and cool shops that I totally forgot to take a picture of the two of us. How silly is that?
I got back to the hotel just in time to hang out with Bella while T finished up some work. We went walking around Covent Garden again looking for dinner. There are a lot of places around here that don’t have high chairs. I guess it’s there way of making sure they are a “child free zone.” We wound up at Maxwell’s for burgers, which is very boring and non-english, but I did try a Pimm’s cocktail to make up for it. I’d really like to have some pub food, specifically Shephard’s Pie, but the mashed potatoes are full of milk and butter. Sigh.
Tonight we planned to go to bed early, but wound up staying up late doing silly things. I took a bath with Bella, surfed the Internet a little and got caught up with some reading. T did some more work. Bella, well, she slept like a little angel in her “infant cot”, which is fancy name for Pack ‘n Play. We have really been wearing her out! Before she went to bed, we iChatted with my parents. Technology is amazing. We just opened up iChat, clicked on our buddy list and presto! live video chat from London to Maryland. Pretty cool.
Yes, you read that right. Pictures of the finished blankets are on Mosaic Yarn’s blog.
I admit, I was a bit of a square pusher for this project. I believe I told Lauren she’d be knitting Hokie squares as a statement of fact, not as a suggestion. I might have also put a crochet hook and skein of maroon yarn in Frances’ hands and told her to Make. Square. Now. This was a few days after the deadline, and I sent her home with the address and strict instructions to put it in the mail as soon as she got back to Virginia.
Gina posted a video on the blog asking people how they felt while knitting their squares. I can say that I felt a sense of purpose. I needed to knit these squares. All of my free time was spent knitting them. My wrists got tired because I didn’t take enough breaks. I thought of the families while I was knitting, trying to somehow knit love and comfort for people I’d never met into every stitch. I wondered if when the blankets were finished they’d feel that love and comfort. Now, after reading Gina’s last blog entry, I know they will.
I’ve been knitting away during the month of May on Hokie Healing squares. I thought my total was pretty impressive. I knit 11 squares.
Then I got a comment from Christy on the blog. Susan from the Omaha Guild crocheted 32 squares! When I started this I thought if everyone I knew made just one square, I’d have a nice package to send along to Mosaic Yarn. The grand total:
All of the squares are packaged up and waiting for the mailman as I type this. Thanks everyone who participated: Susan (who deserves a maroon and burnt orange star!), Karen, Sue, Kim, Christy, Tara, Joanne and Lauren. (Did I leave anyone out? There were some unlabeled squares from Omaha.) I also want to thank Mary Pat for contributing toward shipping. The package was over five pounds! Most of all, I want to thank Gina for coordinating this effort. It’s such a wonderful project and I wish I could help with the seaming, too!
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