So, my SIL is having a boy….and I’m 75% done with her baby girl blanket. But, I’m very happy for them and excited about all the little boy things I’m going to start work on ASAP! :) and I knew what I was doing when I started the pink blanket 2 weeks after I knew she was pregnant. Point of fact, I wrote this blog last night before I KNEW it was a boy and saved it as a draft. :)

I just finished the flower square. I had to stop knitting Mon. night because my right fingertip was splitting and about to bleed. I nearly died when my friend’s reaction was, “put a bandaid on it” accompanied by a “and keep going” look. Thanks, Sam. :) I think she should coin the phrase, “no pain, no state fair ribbon.”

The square only has two flowers. After starting the first flower, I really felt that the lack of the third flower would not make the blanket any less attractive/loveable…..er, I really felt that two flowers were more balanced…..blah de blah…my fingers were bloody, 2 was good. :) I knit all the time; I’m really not sure what it was about the pesky flower petals that brought such havoc…my theory is that the increasing and decreasing stitches use different parts of my fingertips than usual knitting/purling…or the 100+ temp. outside is funking up my skin…but I’m not a knitting/finger doctor, so who knows?!?

Truly, my state fair goal this year is to not get disqualified. I have no real idea what I’m doing…but it is fun and I’m learning a lot and should SIL baby #2 at some point be a girl….baby blanket. check.

Peas out.

This weekend has been very busy. Yesterday lunch at Hula Hut was DELIC! We had a LOVELY visit from Kara. I think I’m going to suck her into my knitting vortex when she’s local. Then off to a pool party at Big D’s which was a lot of fun! (is the chicken STILL on the bbq?)!! Happy B-day MM!! :)

This morning, I’m going to finish the double-knit heart square for the SIL/TX fair blanket and continue the flower square whilst watching HHaW. After that, there will be 3 left and the border. :)

My absolute favorite knitting tool has turned out to be my size D crochet hook. It is PERFECT for fixing mistakes if you catch them early. I’ve just learned double-knitting and I’m really not sure why anyone would do anything else when working with two colors. I LOVE IT! :) I’ve already picked out a double-knit blanket that I want to try.

Happy Father’s Day to my dad!!! :)
and to my FIL!
I’m the luckiest girl alive to have two such wonderful dads in my life.

(6/21/2009)

I am feverishly working on a blanket that is headed to the state fair if I finish it in time. If my SIL is having a baby girl, then it will also be a gift for her/her hubby/new baby….if they are having a boy, I have an idea for his blanket that I’ll begin in Aug.(after fair submission deadline). I am learning a TON and hope the blanket turns out as I’ve imagined it will. :). So far, I think only one square of the blanket really could use a re-work and luckily it was one of the easy ones.
I looked at the winners of the Vanna’s Choice contest and am definitely inspired to use more color than I had first planned….or really more than I was using b/c I was getting so irritated with the colorwork. So, I’ve got my second wind on that and finished 2 multi-colored squares this weekend. This brings the square count to 4 solid squares done and 4 (really 5 because one is double-wide) multi-colored squares done. There will be 16 squares total and a border. I have tons of other things I’m looking forward to working on, but I’m forcing myself to focus on this. Thank goodness for a deadline. :)
In other news, I saw a preview for a show in the CW fall lineup called Vampire Diaries and while it is probably inspired by the Twilight craze, I’m really looking forward to it. I caught up on True Blood this weekend while I was knitting up a storm. :)
(5/31/2009 9:47 pm)