I'd like you to meet....

Sheldon. I finished knitting him at the ND retreat this weekend. He's a gift for Dawson. I liked him so much though that I'm going to make myself one.


and the Daylily Scarf.

Thanks Marci for the idea on the name.

PS. We had an awesome time at the ND retreat this last weekend. Thanks to Janet for all her work on gather such awesome goody bags and door prizes. And to Chris, Vicki and Elizabeth for organizing and planning the classes.

Sheldon's Going to Retreat

I finished knitting all of Sheldon's parts last night and started the assembly process. I stopped just short of doing the icord edging to attach the shell to the shell breastplate last night before heading to bed. I also realized, as I was assembling, that I knitted the breastplate out of the wrong yarn, but I figure Baby Dawson won't know the difference, so whatever.

I'm planning to have him done this week. I had planned to finish him last Sunday while at work, but as I was taking a steak out of the oven for my Sunday dinner, I hit the back of my hand against the oven door and burned it. Of course it was the right one and I'm right handed, so every time I curled my hand it throbbed. No knitting for me. :o( I have a mark on the back of my ring finger from the big knuckle down to the fist knuckle about 1/2 inch wide. Luckily I work right down the hall from the urgent care facility. One of the nurses kindly gave me a bit of silvadeen (sp?) burn cream. I applied that for 2 days and then it was fine. The area where it blistered still hurts just a little if I bump it, but otherwise, it feels fine. And more importantly, I can knit again.

This weekend my Frog Pond Knitting Group is having another Day Retreat. You may remember, that we had one back in January. Treking across the Notre Dame campus in the snow and cold was not fun, but we had a great time once we were inside and the layers were all pealed off. Elizabeth S. is going to be teaching a top down sweater. She has put so much time into designing the sweater. Since there were so many semi-newbie knitters interested, she decided not to do a raglan sleaves. I want to make one (baby sized) but I have so many other projects on the needles right now that I think I will just take notes and work on that later. For when Dawson is just a bit bigger and isn't growing out of things every couple of weeks.

Vicki may be doing a Ravelry demo. She emailed the group to find out if there was any interest, but no one replied back, so she was planning to nix it. I'm one of the guilty ones who didn't reply. However I honestly missed the email. I emailed her this morning and told her that a couple of people were still planning on bringing their laptops just in case. I hope we can still have it.

And of course we get to have that yummy Notre Dame Dining Hall food. I'm not being sarcastic when I say that either. Their food is so good and there is so many varieties that if you come away hungry, there is something seriously wrong with you.

Sewing and Knitting News

I mentioned a couple of entries ago that I had been working on a quilt pattern called "Oceans." Well, a funny thing happened while I was chain sewing triangles on to a bunch of squares. There were a LOT of pieces. As the chain got bigger and spilled over onto the floor, it would normally form a huge pile of fabric. However it was so weird, because it formed a circle and kept going around and around. I just had to take a picture.

It's that that hilarious?!?

I also sewed some knitting needle cases. One for my DPNs and one for stray Circular needles that I have.

The only problem with the DPN case, is that it is not big enough. After putting my metal needles in this, I realized I have a lot more bamboo or wooden ones that need a home too. So I need to make another one. Maybe I'll keep all the metal needles in one pouch and the bamboo ones in another? hmm...
My knitting pal Kelly, asked me about making the circular needle case. She saw one and drew me a picture. This is the prototype, because I want to put a flap on it like the DPN case, so that the needles don't fall out of the top. I was using scrap fabrics and while I really like the colors of the DPN case, this one is just a tad gaudy I think.

On the knitting front, I finished my ruffled scarf that I was designing. I need to block it yet. I want to get that done before my knitting retreat, so I can show it off. I made a few changes to the pattern (replaced some K2tog's with SSK's) and figured out how to create a chart from my notes. I plan on re-knitting it from some yarn I bought at Lorna's Laces in Chicago. I think the yarn I used for the original one (Caron Spa Bamboo) is more a DK/Worsted weight, so I'm going to have to adjust my needle size I think, which means doing one of those dreaded guage swatches. Yuck! I'll post a picture of the original one once I have it blocked.

I joined a KAL (knit-a-long) on Ravelry. We are not all doing the same pattern, but just something "babyish" except for those who have done a boatload of baby stuff already. They are doing whatever they want. We're pretty lax about it. Just so that we are all doing something 'together'. I'm knitting Sheldon the Turtle. He is so cute! I have his body, 2 legs and part of his shell done.

I wanna keep him! I wanna keep him! I wanna keep him! But I can't. He is being made for Baby Dawson, so I have give him away. But Dawson's only 6 weeks old he and won't knot the difference right? Right?? Oh OK, I'll give him to Dawson and make another one for myself.

Oh, I almost forgot! My Color Swap partner (Rebecca in NC) got her stuff, so I can now post a picture of the package I sent to her.

And here is the one I got from Susan in FL.

I just love the Alpaca neck warmer! I can't wait for fall/winter, so I can wear it. The Cookie A. Sock Innovation book is wonderful. There are so many that I want to make. The Twizzler's barely lasted long enough for me to take the picture. I had to pace myself on the Chocolate covered coffee beans though, because they pack a caffeine punch.

Poor Lonely Blog

Dear Blog,

I want you to know that I have not abandoned you. I know it may feel otherwise, but it is just not true. I keep getting great ideas about topics I could share with you, however I just never seem to follow through on it. I've noticed that I have been avoiding you ever since I linked you up with my facebook page. I've been feeling a little inhibited by the fact that so many more people have access to my thoughts. So it's not you, it's me.

Your's Truly,
Sandy