Baby Barcroft

The first baby in our group of college friends is due next month! Kara, Chris' cousin, and her husband Daniel are having a baby boy.

We girls, Tiffany, Laura S. , Laura B., Ruth, Katey and myself gave Kara a surprise shower on Saturday. Toph, Austin, Tiffany and Laura S. went over to Kara and Daniel's house ostensibly to celebrate Austin's birthday, which is on Tuesday. Then they got Kara out of the house by telling her they were taking her clothes and antiques shopping. Meanwhile the rest of the girls were at the antique mall in the tea room where we had all of the presents.

Laura and Tiffany brought Kara in and she was very surprised to see all of us. We had planned a baby book theme, so everyone had bought baby books for the new baby. Our favorite was the one from Laura:





Kara loved all of the Little Golden, Good Dog Carl, and Pirate books. The baby got a lot of clothes including the outfit that I gave them. For those of you who do not know Kara and Daniel, Daniel is a goofball who loves cartoons and comics and is a cartoonist himself. He always wears Converse sneakers, including at his own wedding. So here is what I made for their baby; Converse booties, Blue jeans, and a baseball tee with Mac from Freshfish (Daniel's webcomic) on it.





Daniel loved the shirt so much that he took it to church the next morning to show off to everyone! It was really great being able to make something that they appreciated so much.

We did finally take Kara shopping so that she could get some new maternity tops and we could all hang out.

That night, Laura B., Katy, Tiffany, and I went Swing dancing at the Sammons center. It was so much fun. I hadn't been dancing in years. I felt five pounds lighter by the end of the night. That is the best way to exercise ever!

I spent the next day with Laura S. knitting on her couch and helping her untangle some beautiful alpaca/silk laceweight yarn that she had tangled when she tried to knit with it straight from the skein. :( Chris hung out with the guys and played the new expansion to Settlers (the best game ever!)

All in all it was a wonderful weekend, though a little long. I can't wait to see the baby when he comes!

Harmon's Quilt Pt. 2

Well, I went home for Harmon's graduation and birthday a couple of weeks ago and I gave him his quilt and another present. I have been busy and lazy and haven't posted yet.

I didn't take any pictures of Harmon with his quilt because other people there had better cameras than I did. So these pictures were taken by his girlfriend.

First, I gave him a personalized picture frame. (These pics by Melody)


Then, I gave him the quilt.
He loved it.

I am so proud of him. Here he is walking across the stage and getting his diploma. Notice the gold tassel which means that he is in the top 10 percent of his class and the NHS collar.

Graduation Quilt pt 1

Last Christmas my wonderful, darling husband bought me a new sewing/embroidery machine. I decided that to properly break it in, I should make a graduation quilt for my brother Harmon. Harmon runs Cross Country and the one and two-mile events in Track as well as plays soccer and basketball. In addition he is a very good student. I would love to have students(s) like him! I wanted to honor his activities in a quilt that allowed me to play with my embroidery machine, so I picked a quilt pattern that had large white blocks that I could embroider with motifs about his sports.With this in mind, I picked the Bear Tracks pattern in the Spring/Summer '07 "Quilt Sampler" by Better Homes and Gardens which my mother had given me for Christmas.
I used Harmon's school colors. The fact that the pattern has bear claws is fitting since his school mascot is the wildcat and they have paw prints on everything. (yes, I know that the bear claw has 4 toes and the cat paw print has only 3)
I just finished piecing it to night and have laid out the backing, batting, and quit top sandwich. I will start quilting tomorrow. I am very pleased with how it is turning out so far.

Other News and Knitting

Two weeks ago, the DH and I went to the D/FW area to hang out with some friends and I took the opportunity to do some yarn shopping at Yarns Ewenique in Fort Worth. I got some great yarn. First I bought some beautiful Classic Elite Miracle in the most gorgeous deep plum color I have ever seen. Alas, I have no pictures, as that yarn was purchased for my Swap on a Budget partner on Ravelry, and it has been sent off. I bought some other yarn for some secret baby knitting. And then I splurged and bought two balls of Jojoland Harmony in rust and green colorway to make my first lace project; the Pretty as a Peacock Shawl by Some Knitting Required. I am hoping to have this done by the middle of June so that I can wear it when I go out to California for my grandparents 50th anniversary.

I have gotten about halfway through the second chart and am really enjoying this knit. The colors are gorgeous and the pattern is really interesting. I love getting far enough into a chart to see what picture this portion creates. I also love the moment when I "get" the pattern and what is going on, how the row I am knitting now relates to the previous row. That is a really great feeling. (I also am less likely to mess up because at this point I understand what I am doing and not just blindly following the steps, trusting that they will get me to the desired end product. I wish that my students could get what we are doing in class the same way. It is the best moment in the world when it does happen. Those are the moments that remind me why I am teaching.)

Anyway, here are some pictures, because that is why you are here, right? You want to SEE what I am making.

Here is where I was on April 27th. At this point, I had completed the first chart.
Here is where I am now. You can see the change of colors that is happening and the change in pattern from the little tiny feathers at the center to the bigger feathers that overlap like scales at the outer edge where it is green. You can also see the yarn I am using. I love it. It is really soft and having the colors change has been a lot of fun to watch.
If you look closely, you can also see the 17 stitch markers that I made so that I can separate each pattern repeat. They don't all match because I made the big pink ones first and used up all of those beads (Yes mom, they are the leftover beads from the bracelet I made you for the wedding). But then I got to the next chart and it repeats 15 times so I had to make 10 more markers and so I used some plastic pearl beads that I have had for ages and ages along with some purple seed beads left over from when I made my sister's prom dress a few years back.

Completed Fifi!

I have completed Fifi finally! I have been holding off on posting because I have had difficulty obtaining a decent picture. I finally decided I should post and show you the pics I have and then come back and add the gorgeous pictures that Emerald is going to take for me.



First we have a picture of it in its finished glory while blocking. Yes, it really is THAT orange while wet.

This picture was taken on Monday, when I thought that I was going to wear it, but then I turned on the news and it was 37 degrees outside. 37! in Abilene on April 28th. So I changed into something else and then wore Fifi on Tuesday. I wore it again on Friday night. I really, really, really love this pattern/top! It is super comfortable and super cute. Don't you think so?
I want to make another one soon, probably in a plum or dark teal for some variation. The color on this one is really interesting. Thus the varying colors in posts. The color makes me think of a Creamsicle. It is just about that color of a soft orange.

Even though I made mine in the size medium and made it 3-4 inches longer than the cropped length in the pattern I still used only 5 balls of Rowan Calmer instead of the recommended 7. That means that since I bought it as a bag of 10 balls, I have enough left over for another one. I am hoping to be able to either trade or sell what I have left over to obtain yarn for a new one. The only thing that I am not completely sold on with this pattern is the dip in the center front and back. Before I make my next one, I want to experiment with changing the center section so that it doesn't end up so much longer than the rest of the top. I am thinking about continuing the three center cables, keeping the outer ones as staggered cables. This is based on my theory that the diagonal ribbing is what is causing the "V" shape in the center and that the cables won't do that. We'll see.

Multitasking, Progress, and Cats that Get in the Way.

I mentioned the other day that I had been knitting while watching my embroidery machine and listening to an audio book. Well here is what that looks like...

I have been working steadily on my Fifi and it shows:I only have about 6 inches to go! and then finishing up the sleeves. I am really excited about getting this done.


In other news: it is difficult to knit when the very friendly cat decides that she wants to sit right next to you and lays down on your yarn. You don't have room to move your elbows without disturbing and waking her up (and then she would try to play with the yarn...) and it is harder to pull the yarn with all of that extra tension on it.

Notice that Emma does not care at all that she is being a nuisance.

Ravelry!

I am now on Ravelry. If you want to find me on there, I am Knitterleigh.

Irises and Other Flowers

The other day I called my mom to tell her that I had decided that none of the irises in my yard were dark purple or white. I had reached this conclusion because as I drove around town, I had noticed that all of the dark purple and white irises were blooming and mine were not. Mine had not even put up stalks yet!

However this morning, as I walked around the yard and peeked into the very narrow space between the side of our house and the fence I saw this:
and this:
Notice that those are both dark purple and white! OOps!

I don't know what is up with the white flowers though. The stem on that plant is really that curved. It doesn't look as though it has ever been straight. I am wondering if it has anything to do with the snow we had earlier....

While I was writing this post, our neighbors came over and asked if we would like to have some flowers. They had been planting flowers in their front yard and had some left over so, they gave us the rest. Here they are:
We got Marigolds,
Lamb's Ear,
and Ageratum.
Yeah Flowers!!!!

WIP: Fifi

I have been working steadily on Fifi. I have to say that I love this pattern and the yarn!

I had very smooth knitting for the upper bodice. However, when I switched to the lower bodice section which is mostly a 2x2 rib, my gauge got really off. All of a sudden my stitches were really loose. I could see it all over, but it was most noticeable in the center cable. It had clearly gotten wider when I had moved into the lower section. At first I thought that it would be ok, but as I kept knitting and paid more attention to my knitting and made sure that I wasn't making my stitches to loosely, my gauge got tighter again. Now it really was noticeable that there was a loose section in the middle, so I had to rip it out. We're talking almost 3 8-row repeats! Like 2.5 inches. It hurt a lot. So I took pictures before hand to prove to myself later that I had made the right choice.

Here it is before I frogged it. It's a little hard to see here what I am talking about.

But when you look at this picture you should be able to see what I mean about the size of the cable changing. All of the cables at the top are evenly the same size and the bottom one is the same size as well. However, the two at the bottom before the very last repeat are ( to me ) noticeably bigger. Since this is the portion over my bust and this is a pattern with negative ease, a loose gauge seemed a very bad idea. I had picked this pattern because it could be worn to work without either an undershirt or a jacket. If knitted too loosely however the chemise would be necessary.

After about 4 days of reknitting, I am finally just past where I had been when I frogged the piece. While this is a horrible picture, you should be able to tell that the cable is now even and the shirt does not appear see through.



Since this picture, I have added another cable repeat while watching my embroidery machine and listening to the Librivox recording of "The Scarlet Pimpernel". Now that is what I call multi tasking!

The knitting bug has bitten!!

When my new interchangeable knitting needles showed up last week I had to play around with the smaller sizes that I had never used before so I made these with some size ten crochet thread that I had around that house. The first one got lost for a while so I haven't woven in it's ends yet. I think it will have fringe at the top. The pattern for this one is free online.



I like this one a little better, though I had to start it multiple times because I kept losing stitches. I modified it from this pattern. I decided that I didn't want it rectangular, so after 12 repeats I started decreasing by keeping the pattern stitches on the sides and keeping stockinette in the center. I actually think that mine is prettier than the one on the pattern page.

Then, last night I started a pair of socks. I keep seeing all of these socks on other knitting blogs, and the people are soooo excited about them. But I don't wear socks unless I have to ( meaning I am working out) and then I can get 12 pairs at wal-mart for $3. But then I saw this pattern , and I thought, I would wear those. Those would make great trouser socks to wear to work and they're pretty enough I could even wear them with a skirt. gasp! So I decided to make complicated socks for the first pair of sock I will ever knit. But I don't like boring knits and I don't see any point in knitting something that I will never wear.
So yesterday, while I was still waiting for my Calmer to arrive so that I can make Fifi, I went to Hobby Lobby and bought some dpns and this DMC linen cotton crochet thread (I don't have a yarn store with in 3 hours of me). I am really happy with how it is coming out. I am a bit worried about how they will fit, since they seem a bit tight. I'm going to give it a few more inches and then we'll see.

My feet are humongous! See how far I have to go still? Any way I am really happy with how they are turning out. And last but most definitely not least. My gorgeous Rowan Calmer in the discontinued shade of Tangerine that will make me a beautiful Fifi. I am already in love with this yarn and I haven't even started knitting with it yet.


Thankfully it is Spring Break so I should be able to get lots of knitting done.