Baby Madilyn

The newest member of our knitting group, Madilyn Diane Illg, joined us on November 16th at 7:44PM.  She was 6 lbs 11 oz of cuteness!  Barbi and I went to go see the new baby and her mommy Cheryl in the hospital the next afternoon, and both were looking great.  

Here is Barbi holding Madilyn, with proud mommy looking on from her hospital bed.

 A couple shots of me holding Madilyn.

And a close-up of her adorable baby face!  

Baby Shower

Well, I can finally post about a couple projects that I did in the last few months, as they were gifts that have now been given.  My friend Cheryl was pregnant with her first baby, so I got to make some cute baby knits!  Cheryl wanted to be surprised by the sex of the baby, so she got plenty of yellow and green clothes!  

The first thing I made was a cute little pair of baby booties.  I used the Saartje's Bootees pattern, and they are adorable.  I used sock yarn dyed by my friend Lori in the sunflower colorway from her etsy shop.

I also made an Elizabeth Zimmermann Baby Surprise Jacket to go with the booties.  I tried to match Lori's sunflower colorway as best I could using several different colors of lamb's pride worsted weight yarn.  I think it came out to match pretty well.

Cheryl's baby shower was several weeks ago, and her little baby got some super cute presents (mostly in green - we all hope the baby ends up liking green!).

Here she is opening the presents from me - it looks like she is thinking that these booties aren't going to fit her.  

The sweater on the other hand will probably fit her after she loses the baby weight.  She's so tiny!  

Foliage

This is the Foliage hat that I cast on in an attempt to put off seaming my Gathered Pullover sweater - a tactic that worked quite well, by the way.  I really like how the colors of the yarn look like autumn leaves.  I used one skein of Universal Yarn Classic Worsted Long Print.

I used my mom as a model here, as it looks especially nice with her red hair. 

Spacey Apron

I got an awesome package from my partner in the Flirty Apron Swap.  I gave my partner a somewhat odd idea for the "what I wish I had done on my summer vacation" theme, but she came through with a far more creative package than I would have.  I said that I thought that it would be fun to take a trip to outer space.  Here is what she did with it:

She made an adorable card with little astronauts on it, she put in some space themed candy, and she sent a recipe for moon pies!  

And, of course, she made me this incredible apron!  She found a retro spacey fabric, and perfectly matching red starry fabric for the pockets and straps.  

Thanks Kelly!  You rock!

Car-Car got married!

.....over a month ago, but who keeps track of these things?  Yes, this summer my neighbor-sister Carla, and her man Dan got married.  I won't try to write anything sentimental here, because I'm not good at it.  I'll just talk about my knitting! 

My wedding gift to Carla was this silk/merino blend lace shawl.  It was my first lace project, so it took me months to knit last winter.  It came out looking pretty good, and it went perfectly with her dress - Whoo hoo!  This outcome is actually pretty amazing, given the fact that I completely screwed up (or some might say "redesigned") the lace pattern.  This made me the poster-child for misreading patterns in my knitting group.  I hear "Did you remember to turn the page?" pretty often when we get together now!  My friends are mean to me!

Here are some pretty pictures I took at the reception:

And a cool picture that Aubrey took just before the ceremony:

Plurk Swap

I got my package for the Plurk Swap in the mail this week!  My swap partner got this sent a full month ahead of the deadline - she is waaaaaaay more organized than I am!  The requirements for this swap were to send a skein of yarn, and something banana-related, in honor of the famous dancing nanners on the Plurk website. 

My spoiler, Tiffany, sent me a beautiful skein of Indie Dyer Supersock in the "Story Book" colorway,  a yummy smelling banana nut bread scented candle, and a Starbucks chocolate bar!  Now I need to find a good sock pattern that shows off this yarn!

I also got the package for the Handmade Washcloth and Soap swap awhile ago.  This came from Naomi, who lives all the way over in Chepstow, in the United Kingdom!  How cool is that?  She knit this rainbow colored washcloth for me, and sent a bar of lemongrass soap, some candy, and some lovely little pink beads.  

I need to get to work on the package for my plurk swap partner.  I haven't even ordered the yarn yet!

Outer Banks Apron

I mailed off my package for the Flirty Apron Swap today.  The theme for this apron swap was "What I wish I had done on my summer vacation."  The idea was to make an apron that represents our partner's dream vacation destination.  We were also to include a local recipe and some kind of souvenir for the area.

My swap partner said that her dream vacation was to the Outer Banks.  I had to google it.  Then I realized that that is the area where one of my best friends Lori used to live.  Duh.  So I got her to fill me in on the Outer Banks scoop.  She told me that the islands are famous for their lighthouses, so I decided to do a coastal lighthouse themed apron.  I picked the Cape Hatteras lighthouse because of the cool black and white barber pole striping.  

The Outer Banks are also known for being the stomping grounds of famous pirates, like Blackbeard, Anne Bonney, and Calico Jack.  Blackbeard had a hideout on Ocracoke Island (where Lori lived), and was killed in a battle in Ocracoke Inlet.  There is supposedly still pirate treasure buried there, but if Lori found any, she's not sharing!  I added a pirate ship out in the water on the apron for Blackbeard.

Lori sent me some authentic Outer Banks seashells and a book of Outer Banks mysteries and sea stories.  She also sent me a couple recipes that she used when working in a restaurant there.  "Dishwater" Clam Chowder, which she assures me is delicious despite the name, and "Shrimp Hour" shrimp.  Lori said that Old Bay seasoning was required to make this package complete because people there put it on everything.  

I hope my swap partner likes her package.  With Lori's help I think it turned out pretty cool!