Happy Easter from La Famille de Poops

Seriously, check out the Belly. Looks like it's about eat the kids, doesn't it? If Mr. Poops hadn't stepped in to protect them, they'd be toast now...

And yeah, my face is always that red. It's just rosacea. Though if you want to think I was at that moment infused with the Holy Spirit or something, please feel free.

I'd write more but I have a dreadful head cold that came on about 8 hours after this picture was taken. As I write this, I'm anticipating a hot shower, some comfortable clean clothes, and a lay-down on the couch for a bit.

And maybe a Cadbury egg. What's in those things? Crack?

Some More Darkish Pictures for You

Honestly, you'd think our house was like a tomb, it's so dark in all my pictures. In order to take a halfway decent pic I have to wait for a sunny day and go outside. Needless to say, I get better shots in the summer.

And as summer just isn't going to come this year, so be it. Dark pictures it is.

Here's a new blankie for Dave. I had a ton of wee little balls of wool leftover from various projects, so I crocheted them into granny squares. There are 54 squares, no two alike. I plan it for a carseat blankie.

My original plan was to take some off-white wool and do another "layer" on each square and use the light color to bind them together, but I started doing it and it immediately lost that haphazard quality I liked so much. So I abandoned the project and was left with two skeins of Paton's Merino in off-white. What's a knittah to do? Make Dave a wool fisherman's sweater.
Lilith is posing here with the front and back of it. The pattern is from a Vogue Knitting "On the Go!" book I got for pennies when the LYS closed. The back is on the right and the front is on the left. It will have sleeves, of course, and that deep neckline is for a cross-over shawl collar.

Now I'm all jazzed up about cables. I like 'em!

It occurs to me that I should have some sort of Baby Pool/Contest of some sort when Dave arrives. Perhaps with yarn prizes for whomever guesses his vital stats the closest or something. I'll have to think on that a bit more. Stay tuned.

Oh, and if you're looking for me tomorrow, I won't be here. I'll be away from the 'puter as the final sacrifice of Lent. I can't fast, or shouldn't fast anyway, so instead I have given up the computer for Good Friday. So I gotta tell you all this stuff today! It just can't wait for Saturday!

Actually, I'm going to be pretty busy the next four days as it is. Tonight is Holy Thursday. I'm cantoring tonight. Tomorrow, I have a dr. appt. in the morning and Mass again for Good Friday. I have a solo at that service. Then Saturday is the Easter Vigil. I've chosen not to sing at that one since it's going to be 2.5 hours long or so, even with no baptisms this year. (Usually it runs about 3.5 hours.) And because I'm not singing Saturday night, I said I'd cantor the 8:00 mass on Easter morning.

And then, I'm going to have some ham, a handful of Cadbury eggs, and take a nap!

See, I'm tired just thinking about it.

And here's something else: why are all Easter dresses sleeveless and made from lightweight materials? Even when Easter isn't a freakishly early as it is this year, April is still far from warm up here in NH. Why not long-sleeved dresses made from wool, in pastel colors? Is that too much to ask? My neighbor the seamstress made her granddaughter's dress this year from wool. I told her she should design a line of them for next year, and to sign me up for two of them.

Also, Bug's First Communion is April 27th and her dress is sleeveless. And it's not going to be sleeveless-hot on April 27th. So I'm looking for a little girls' capelet pattern. Sort of like a poncho with buttons up the front like we used to wear in the 70's. Just something to cover her arms on the way to church and if it happens to be chilly in there that day. Keep your eyes peeled, wouldja?

Okay, that's all for today. For this weekend, actually. If I'm able to function on Monday, I'll let you know how everything went.

After my nap, that is.

Just Pimpin'...

I have to say, I love the R2 hat. The blog I found this on linked to other Star Wars colorwork charts as well. I just had to make this one. Naturally, me being me, I didn't exactly follow the pattern as written. I just don't roll that way. And I will confess that I didn't do so well with the colorwork as I'd have liked. I managed to not make any mistakes, which is rare enough, but my stitches pull a bit more than I like. No matter. It'll be a hit anyway, I'm sure.

In as much as I have no inclination to knit another one of these hats, I'm posting the link to the pattern I used as a guide. Plus, I'm sure making them for profit would be some sort of copyright violation. Meh.

You can find the inspiration and charts for the R2D2 hat pattern here. Oh yes, there were some modifications. I made it from Encore Sport, 75% acrylic/25% wool blend (machine washable) on size 3 needles. Cast on 134 sts instead of 160 due to gauge issues. As long as it has a multiple of 18 sts and enough to work the whole words motif, you're okay. I knit the brim facing first instead of picking up stitches later as the directions call for. I knit for about 1 1/2 inches before doing a purl row and then starting the patterns.

Knit from the bottom up, the brim has the "May the force be with you" chart, then I did one repeat of the R2D2 motifs around instead of two. To taper the top, I did decreases starting about 1/2 inch above the motifs. I did K18, k2 tog around, then knit a plain row. Then k17, k2 tog around and a plain row until I was at about a K4 tog, then I just gathered the remaining stitches. I did the decreases all the way down to k2tog, but I got a nipple on the top, so I frogged back to past the nipple and just gathered and it worked out fine. You can use whatever decreases you like, of course.

At the end, I folded the brim under and stitched it into place. Wash and block. It fits my big head perfectly and is a bit big on the Bug. I figure my little friend won't be growing out of it any time soon. Which is perfect.

And whilst I'm pimping, Miz Bezzie has a plethora of knitterly goodies over at her etsy store, Random Meanderthings. I didn't see anymore of the tiny knitter t-shirts, but she's got lots of other cute knitting accessories. And maybe, if you're real nice, she'll whip some more out for you and your progeny. Maybe.

Elizabeth has a new pattern for sale over on her blog called "Sloane" that I'm totally going to make for me. Click here if you want to make one too, or just see what I'm talking about. I'm currently working on a heavily cabled sweater for Dave for the colder months (which as far as I'm concerned are most of them up here) and I'm jazzed about cables and I really like the simple elegance of this sweater. Perhaps it'll make me feel a little Irish.

I'm not even a little Irish, unless you count my kids. Mr. Poops has some Irish in him somewhere, so I guess for that matter, I do at the moment as well. Maybe Dave and I will have to go dig out my one green sweater for the day.

Happy St. Patricks day to ye!

Didja Miss Me?

Hello? Anyone out there? *crickets*

I know, I've been lax. It just seems sometimes like there's nothing to say, and I'm too lazy to take pictures of things. I think it's this interminable winter. Spring is coming, and soon, I can feel it. But it's just not here yet, and the snow grows tiresome. Hard to believe Easter is next week.

What's first. Okay, stuff I made will go first.

I've done a bit of Knitting for Dave. I made him this little sweater and hat set ostensibly as a Coming Home outfit, but that'll depend on how big he is. I made it big 'cause I plan on birthin' a biggun this time. I'm shooting for a 10-pounder. Emma was 9 lbs 2 oz. I know I can do it.

It's a basic raglan cardigan with a bit of colorwork...the upside down baby is just to give you a better view of the pattern. I don't usually leave babies face down like this, in case you were wondering. I made it from Knitpicks Shine Sport and it is supposed to have a zipper, but Joanns doesn't have one the right size in stock. Bastards. So for now it's an open concept thing.

Mind you, my model is quite a bit fatter than your average baby, but you get the idea.

This hat is an alternate if his newborn head is a bit smaller than I anticipated. Yeah, I bet it's going to charity too.

Speaking of hats, I made this little number for an almost 9-year-old buddy of mine. His dad and I used to play Star Wars back in the day, and now a new generation is discovering the classics. I should send a note with the hat telling his father that he can wear the hat too if he lets me play with his Millenium Falcon action figure toy. Yeah, that's the ticket. (I swear, we were allowed to look at it, but only he could fly it. Now he keeps it up on top of the TV where only he can reach it. The more things change...)

For the uninitiated and for those who can't see my dark, overcast photos, it's a row of R2D2's and around the brim in black it says "May the force be with you" in blue. I found a cute pattern for it online, and I adapted it a bit. I wish I could remember where, though.

I also made a whole pantload of crocheted granny squares to make Dave a blanket. I planned on using some off-white yarn to provide a unifying theme-thingy and to attach them together, but I didn't like it. So I've decided to seam it in all different colors and really go for that "coat of many colors" look. I think it'll be colorful for a baby to stare at. And really, I've barely put a dent in all my odds and ends balls of wool, so maybe I'll make it a bit bigger even. Who can say? At any rate, until I've got it more together, I'll wait on taking the pictures of it.

And finally, not something I made, but a gift that arrived in the mail on Saturday. It was addressed to Dave, but I opened it, as his tiny fetus fingers are so small yet.

It's from dear Bezzie! I don't know how well you can see it on your monitor, but it says "I love ewe" with an I, a heart, and a sheep above it. So cute! Dave's ready to represent!

Gack, I know there's so much more to tell about. Maybe I'll start a list here by the computer and come up with something of dubious interest every day. I'm having trouble thinking because it's Sunday afternoon, I was up early for Mass, and I'm crashing low from having too many donuts this morning. Even Dave's napping.

Hey, that sounds like a plan!

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.