Camouflage overalls

Because every boy needs camouflage overalls. To wear with his John Deer socks and flannel onesie (yes, we have both).

Pattern from Lois Walters, http://lwalters1-ivil.tripod.com/biboveralls.html, with some great modifications from jennyrib.

The most beautiful sight . . .

an empty inbox.

I would rather be knitting

There is a whole list of things I'd rather be doing than be in the middle of my commute:
- already be home
- already be at work, because even work is better than being on the subway, cause there's wifi at work
- knitting

Now, I usually CAN knit on the subway, depending on the project. Like my big alphabet blanket, I could work on the individual squares on the subway without elbowing my fellow commuters. But I couldnt assemble it, because it is ginormous. The last few projects have also been not very subway-friendly:
Clark and Brian's baby sweaters used longer needles which I could only use on off-peak hours (when I had a whole row of seats to myself), and assembling it requires some space to spread out, lest I accidentally attach the sleeve to the hood or something; the baby camouflage overalls got started off perfect (small needles and a narrow project) but once I got past the legs, it was very wide and unwieldy.

My next project, I hope, will be subway accessible. I discovered these dolls on the Stand and Deliver blog.

  

They are so cute, and somewhat progressive: these dolls have little snaps on the momma doll's breasts and on the baby doll's mouth, so the baby can nurse. The momma doll also has, for lack of a better euphemism, a vagina and uterus, where the baby doll can go and be born. After the initial shock of these features, I was totally smitten with these dolls and was about to buy one . . . Until I saw the price. $170.00. Christ. I mean, it's handmade, the hair is alpaca yarn, and the impact it would have on my child is priceless, but seriously? $170?

So I said what I always do when I don't feel like paying for something: "I could make that!" Plus, I've already made knitted people, and my amigurumi skills are much better than they used to be. Can't you just see this guy with boobies?

So I'm totally stealing this person's idea. My son will know where babies come from via a doll.

When it's too hot to go outside . . .

I had a Facebook status theme this weekend: "Things to do when it's too hot to go outside."

It was so hot this weekend that the electric company reduced our power to avoid a blackout and encouraged everyone to not use unnecessary electronics, so we cooperated by keeping the big TV off. These things included "organize my system discs into a binder and throw away all un-needed jewel cases" and "read a book". Also, I listed "Plan where my pictures frames will hang."

Ever since we finished painting the apartment, I've been itching to hang pictures frames. But since the paint was so fresh and beautiful, we didn't want put holes in the walls willy-nilly. We put one frame up in our bedroom to cover the big outlet/cable jack at eye level, but other than that, I really wanted to plan it out properly.

We had TONS of frames up in the last apartment, but non of them matched and many of the pictures were super old -- sorry Megan, but that photo of when we were 18 and I cut off all my hair is SUPER cute, but may not be worthy of hanging on the wall any more. I went through all the frames and separated them into black frames and brown/wood frames, decided which few were still worthy of wall-space (our wedding photo, our engagement photo, and two graduation photos).

Then I got crafty. I pulled a magazine out of the recycle bin and cut scrap paper in the shape and size of each frame.

Then I stuck these pieces of paper on the wall. This way, I could easily shift things around.

I then sent the husband around to put screws in where the big ones will hang and sticky 3M hooks where the small ones will hang . . . then the sticky hooks fell down all by themselves, so he put hook everywhere.

My office has a great deal with HP, and in our building there is a whole room full of Kiosks and prints, and we get $100 worth of free photo printing EVERY MONTH!!! I grabbed some of my favorite Rowan files and got them printed for FREE!!!

We now have pictures hanging on the wall! It only took a year after moving in!

Finished!!!

Last night I finished the last seam on my Alphabet Blanket. Just have to weave in a few loose ends and wash it!

Back on the baby train!

No no, not having another baby. God help me, this one is tricky enough. No, it's time to get back on the Baby Gift Knitting Circuit!

Clark and Brian, friends of my co-worker Emily, are having babies!!! I am seriously SO excited for them, I can't contain it! Their surrogate is in India, pregnant with TWINS!!! They head out to India in early October and will be there until all the paperwork in processed; hopefully by November they will have their two babies back to Brooklyn! They know one of the babies is a boy, but are not sure about the other; they're hoping that during the next ultrasound the babies will give them some full-frontal shots!

Emily is in charge of the baby blankets, so I think I'm going to make hoodies. I came across this pattern . . .



and it looks pretty straight-forward. Also, I found this person's variation . . .



and I LOVE the stripes. So I think I'll make matching sweaters, and the accent color of one will be the main color of the other.

I took a half day last Friday and took myself to Michaels (yea!). I wanted "slightly" gender-neutral colors, since we don't know the sex of one of the babies. I went with:

Dusty Blue

and Beige.


They're both a little "boy"-ish, but I think they'll look good as a set.

If I have yarn leftover, I'd also love to do matching hats with both colors. I'm not as inclined to do booties anymore, since after having my own squirmy child, I realize how much of a pain socks/booties are. It may be different if you have a baby during a cooler season, but I was glad it was warm enough that I hardly ever had to put socks on him (so far).

Update: Alphabet Blanket

So I decided that each square needed a boarder, so technically my last post about them being done was a lie. But NOW they're done!

Now it's time to assemble! I'm crochetting them in rows. One issue, I have to stitch them in reverse (not A, B, C, but more like F, D, E, which is harder than it sounds).

I'm doing the horizontal seams first, them I'll do the vertical once they're all attached. Then once around the whole outside, then DONE!!!