My iPod Has Recovered...

...but I'm not sure if I have. I was truly worried that I'd lost all of the movies and music that my sis (who lives 6,000 miles away) so kindly uploaded before the fam sent it to me for Xmas. (It took her something like 2 days to do!) After reading the iPod 9-1-1 site, I found somewhere that if you press and hold the center (select) and menu buttons for 5-10 seconds, it should shut off. Fortunately for me, it did with all files intact.

I have literally spent all afternoon and evening on the computer. (Don't worry--Tarzan got a new baseball game for his PS2, so we haven't seen much of one another face-to-face for the last couple of days. ;-) ) I finally visited that Ravelry site, which is fabulous in an overwhelming sort of way. It's inspired me to upload pics to Flickr, which I've been able to do quite easily since I organized them all the other day. :-p My Flickr ID is kendoempress if you feel like taking a look over there. It's mostly knitting stuff, though.

I'm still working on the tunic for my niece and also the Snowflake Socks from the Fall 2007 Interweave Knits. They're my first socks and my first real fairisle (2 color knitting), which is probably a bit ambitious, but I love them so much, I just had to have them.

Here is Snowflake Sock #1. I'm praying I don't get SSS (Second Sock Syndrome), but I'll have to finish the first before we find that out!

Here is the Anouk baby tunic in progress and the yarns I picked to inspire and maybe make another out of. I have most of this (the front) done now.

The addition of my adorable niece to the family has inspired me to make baby stuff, and it seems like my cousins are having babies right and left, so I'm sure I'll have plenty of recipients. Besides, Tarzan and I will hopefully have our own rugrats someday, so it would be nice to have some practice with what looks cute, what's easy to knit/crochet, etc. I don't think I'll be making another baby blanket anytime soon, though. I knit one for a cousin exactly a year ago, and while it went great, my second attempt has been sitting in knitting purgatory for months now in its knitting bag. The sad thing is I'm at least a third of the way through it!

Grandmother's Baby Blanket

At Christmas 2006, my mom gave me a bag full of old skeins of white acrylic fake mohair that my grandmother used to make baby blankets. It also had a partially done blanket out of a cotton-looking yarn that was off the needles, looking forlorn with its open stitches. I decided to connect to my knitting heritage by figuring out the lace pattern (after all, I'd knit at least one or two small swatches of lace--nothing to it!) and making my own version. This one was supposed to be for my niece (the one that was born last November).

The lace pattern itself was pretty simple--just a basic feather and fan--and it seems that my grandmother either improvised or was following a pattern for a border that was just an exaggeration of the basic pattern. So far so good. I thought I was so good, I didn't even need stitch markers to separate the pattern repeats (there were something like 12!). After about 2 rounds of that, I realized that I should listen to the experienced lace knitters on the internet and who write patterns and use some stitch markers to keep track. (That way, if you make a mistake, you'll see it right away.)

And I did make mistakes. Lots and lots and lots of them. I guess because it's lace, hardly anyone but me or another knitter could tell, but I know they're there. I also made the mistake of taking this to Stitch n Bitch meetings, where of course, I made tons of mistakes because I was talking and not paying attention. So, back to the bag. I thought I had made some mistakes, so I was putting off taking it out again, dreading to have to undo my errors. Then a few weeks ago, I thought, "Come on, better take a look at it before I completely forget how to do it," and I gave it a once-over. It turns out I fixed my mistakes and in frustration THEN put the thing away. It was all ready to be worked on. I felt like such a dummy. Now, instead of glancing at it on my wall (hanging in its bag) with knots of guilt in my stomach, I look at it with thoughts of hope and potential in mind (though it still hasn't left its bag or the wall!). Maybe I'll get it done in time for my own kids... or grandkids.