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January 31, 2006

Lucky girl

A cashmere sweater from Axelle and bonnet and booties from Kristine. It's hard to get a good picture of a super squirmy baby. How lucky she is to have such fancy clothes! Go order yarn from Axelle right now. It's even surviving spit up.

Here's a better shot of the booties.

And the bonnet.

This is also from Kris and it came with a red onesie that must be in the wash right now. We love red!

Rebecca sent us these sweet things as well as two pink outfits that any girl would love.

(blogless) Nancy was in Paris in June and spoiled me with Rice Krispies, organic cotton yarn, this onesie she embroidered and the soft blanket shown below.

Posted by kate at 04:10 PM | Comments (28)

January 28, 2006

lotsa knittin'

I've been knitting loads lately. My parents were here last week and I took advantage of the eager babysitters to sit and knit. It was work-knitting. It's all done and I'm actually going to show it to you for once.

See? Do you like them? OK, fine, you can't really see, but you see that there are green things and there's a big orange-ish thing. You'll see them more clearly later. And now that my work is done, I am going to knit for fun. Really. For once. And for me. Really. Here's what I'm making:

Fair Isle Socks by Alina Egerman in Brick Socks that Rock and Citrine Soft Rock thanks to Julia who spoiled me with this yarn (as well as some other stuff that I'll show you later) as a birthday/waiting for baby present. My parents are gone so who knows how long these will take me. Two socks is a lot of Tadpole naps.

I've been thinking a lot about the knitting olympics (I'm not bothering to link because I'm sure you all know about it). I'm toying with the idea of participating. But I'm torn about what is an appropriate challenge. I thought about steeking. Or actually knitting a sweater that I sketched over a year ago and just haven't gotten to. Or finishing up a couple patterns that have been lingering for ages and I keep meaning to work on. Getting any knitting time into a day is challenging enough. My in-laws are coming into town two days before the olympics start and leaving the day after, so I will probably have my hands free more than usual. I don't know what is the right balance between challenging and realistic. And am I on the Canadian team or the American team? Maybe I'll start my own expatriate team. Enough babbling. Time to cast on for a sock... that rocks.

Posted by kate at 08:58 PM | Comments (14)

January 17, 2006

Perks and Quirks

Lesson No. 2 of 2006: When you realize you have made a mistake, don't rip 80 rows in a fit of rage. You may not really feel like grafting, but in the long run taking out 1 row, knitting 12 and then grafting it back together is actually quicker.

I've been promising to show the cyber shower gifts forevaaaaah. I'm finally going to do it. The lovely Alison spoiled me, not only by organizing the whole thing, but also by sending me these awesome things (as well as some bath stuff that I have already used several times):

How gorgeous is that quilt? I love it.

Angela tagged me with the 5 weird habits meme. So here goes:

1. I can't knit if my feet are hot. If my feet are hot, my hands are hot and sweaty and then I can't knit, so in the summer, I knit, but often only if I have a fan blowing straight at my bare feet. Is that a habit? Maybe not.

2. When I'm thinking about something I did or said that was embarrassing or stupid or I wish I hadn't done, I make a little noise or start singing. I don't mean to. I only know I do it when the noise comes out.

3. I don't like ice. In fact, I'm very very particular about the temperature of food. Soup can't just be hot, it has to be very hot. And I don't like ice in my drinks. I like water at room temperature or just a little colder. I know there are other examples... I just can't think of them right now.

4. When I speak on the phone to someone in French and we say goodbye (in French, of course) I feel like I didn't say goodbye unless I say, "Bye" in English too.

5. When I get out of the shower I have to put a towel turban on, then I put on my bathrobe. Doing it the other way around is unacceptable.

And I'm supposed to tag 5 people. Ummmm. I'm goiong to randomly pick commenters from my last post. Peth, Amanda, Julia, Laura Lee and Wendy, go to it!

Posted by kate at 02:15 PM | Comments (41)

January 16, 2006

What do you mean it's January 16th?!

I keep meaning to post and actually started writing this in December, but when I actually have two minutes to myself, I can't get my thoughts together enough to write something decent. Maybe I should stop worrying about writing decent posts and just write something.

Last year I listed some things I hoped to do in 2005. It's too depressing to look at failures and I never intended this list as resolutions, so I'm going to try to ignore all I didn't do (like the five projects I had meant to start the year with). After all, though I hoped I would move, I didn't know if I really would and had no idea how big a job it would be. And if you had told me that I would be a mother by the end of 2005, I would have laughed at you. So if you subtract the time I spent dealing with those two things from the twelve months of the year, I probably only had about two months of sanity to get stuff accomplished. Enough excuses. Here's what I did do, didn't do and hope to do in 2006.

I met a few bloggers. In 2006 I'd like to meet more now that I'm in North America.

I didn't knit myself any sweaters, but I did knit two sweaters for Interweave, which is two more adult sweaters than I knit in 2002, 2003 and 2004. This year, I'll hopefully make one for myself. Just one.

A-hem. We won't even talk about the state of my half-written patterns... but if you are sitting out there thinking that you could be a brilliant technical editor and want some work to do, email me. One of these days I may actually finish something.

Most of my ideas are still just that. I just hope to have ideas in 2006 since most of my thoughts currently revolve around my child and my breasts rather than necklines and stitch patterns.

I got stuff published in 2005, which I consider my major accomplishment of the year (offspring aside). I already have a couple things slated for 2006 and I hope to find a way to keep working. I think it's important for my sanity and my sense of self. Forgive me if I sound cheesy. And I'm not teaching anymore, which I both miss and don't. Maybe I'll try to start teaching knitting one of these days years decades.

I started fingerless gloves for Frog, then he bought some. If I can convince him that there are more colors out there than just black and gray and that sweaters can be nice even if they aren't stockinette or 2x2 rib, I may make him one. Or socks... black stockinette socks is probably what he would want and he has pretty big feet. Maybe he'd like a big toe warmer instead. My mom and sis have both requested clapotis... clapotises?... clapoti? I know, I know, clapotis is so 2005. They aren't knitters. Their friends aren't either. They don't care. I didn't make anything for Dad either. Maybe this year, but I don't think clapotis is really his thing... And now I have another recipient I have to add to my list: Tadpole. She has been spoiled by the cyber shower ladies (photos to come), but is sadly lacking in knit goods made by her own mother. I'll have to remedy that this year while she is still small enough to knit for quickly.

I didn't get to spin much, but I'm going to give it another try one of these days. I'd also like to try dyes.

I didn't take any classes in 2005, but I definitely learned "stuff."

Happy New Year
from the Gilbert-Frog household to yours.
Here's hoping we all learn some more stuff in 2006.

Updated to add Lesson No. 1 of the year: When knitting a sweater, measure your front and back together to make sure they are the same length to the armholes before bothering to finish knitting. Whatever you do, do not trust what you wrote down. Otherwise, your back will be 12 rows short.

Posted by kate at 10:13 AM | Comments (31)