Fluff Knitting

You know how there's fluff reading? Well, there's also fluff knitting. Literally. I'm talking about this, from the book Greetings from the Knit Cafe, by Suzan Mischer. They call it Fluffiest Baby Blanket:

And I've started to make it in Sensations ICEE in turquoise from JoAnn's, with a long furry eyelash, Sensations PERSIAN in pale lime green for the edging. This is NOT "your grandmother's baby blanket." It's going to be funky and hip. The true life colors look better than the pic. It's a close proximation to the original yarn texture (Trendsetter Zucca and Gedifra Techno for trim) and probably much cheaper too. I've already finished with two skeins (only a 55 stitch cast on), so I'll have this done long before my coworker's due date in mid-March.

By the way, I highly recommend the inter-library loan system. I hopped online last week and reserved every knitting book published in the last two or three years they had that I don't own. I now have a stack of twenty books to peruse. Often I find that knitting books aren't worth buying as there may only be one or two patterns that catch my eye. There can be great inspiration, and I've come up with some fabulous ideas for really cool MARKETABLE stitch markers. The books I do buy are more for reference...knitting bibles. I still own more cookbooks than knitting books, but that's another story. Maybe I should start a cooking blog too...

A little Amish?

YARN: Cascade Quattro (worsted)
PATTERN: Baby Cable Rib from Sensational Socks
CAST ON: 48 stitches
NEEDLES: size 4 and 5 dpns

K and I were under the weather, so we ended up delaying the birthday party till next weekend. I finished the socks on time though! I started the second sock Weds evening. These are going to be sooooooo comfy for my dad!

The Amish look is that you know how Amish quilts are sometimes not perfect and there may be a color change as if they didn't have enough of the same fabric for consistent design? Well, my Amish touch is that I wasn't paying attention in the toe decreases and ended up alternating the decrease round and knit round ALL the way till the END! They were a bit pointy, but they're the right length, so I didn't really feel like frogging.

When I was totally done with them it felt funny not to be knitting for a few minutes, and I had yarn leftover, so I looked up a free hat pattern online and cast on to make my brother a Bday hat. A coworker is having her second baby in mid-March, so I really should make her something, too. Plenty of time for maybe a little kimono sweater or something.

Better than store bought

On Valentine's Day, the weather was frightful. We're not the type of couple to go out and be amongst the happy or unhappy couples who are at uppity restaurants out of obligation. They let us go early at work, so I stopped at Whole Foods for some dinner supplies. I made a warm chocolate raspberry pudding cake(very easy and good), baked salmon, green beans and baked potato.

Safari...on our street!

This is the CUTEST thing ever!

Our street is a small circle, with about 15 houses which are all different. It's not one of those BUP's (Big Ugly Plans). There's a yellow lab that gets walked, usually on a leash, and occasionally I'll see it's cat sibling trailing behind.

Well LAST evening, the dog was off-leash marching ahead of Master, and the TWO cat siblings were trailing behind Master. You should have seen their little legs go! They looked like they were on wheels. One cat is white with black ears, a black and white striped tail and a spot on its back, so it's a little reminiscent of Snoopy. The other is a gorgeous orange tabby.

They do several laps around the circle and I giggle every time they go by. It's nice entertainment while I'm making dinner.