Finally moved in!

We spent our first night in the new house! This is the sight that greeted us this morning...

Today we're packing and cleaning and doing laundry and packing and cleaning at Hubby's dad's place.  We have a lot of stuff here.  I had forgotten how much... Hubby left a little while ago with a full pickup load to drop at the house, and then he's coming back to help some more.  It's been a long day, and it's not over yet.

Back to work!

Finished baby blanket!

Here's my second completed project for 2012!

I apologize for the bad photo; I'll take some pics outside later if the sun ever decides to come out.

I had to use a contrast color for the edging, because I ran out of the purple.  Fortunately, I had one skein of the same yarn in a lovely cream color, and it turned out to be just enough.  So I used four skeins of Paton's Classic Wool (3 in "That's Purple" and 1 in "Winter White").  The needles were size US8.  And I think I've decided on the name for this design: Sisterhood Baby Blanket.  This one is for my dear friend and Bunker sister Monica.  We're sisters despite the fact that we haven't met...yet!  Now that we're only about eight hours apart, we're going to have to meet soon. ☻

Editing the post to add this better picture.  You can see the cables much more clearly here.

Baby blanket in progress

As promised, here's a pic of my newest design!

It's about halfway done.  It's going to be about 40 inches wide at the points, since it's a hexagon.  It's close to 30 now, which is about the width of the other baby blankets I've designed, but they were squares.  This one looks like it's for a doll at 30 inches, so I must keep knitting.  I really like how it's turning out.  It's a pretty simple design, at least in my head... I started with the braided cable in the center of each panel.  As it grew, I added the rope cable that twists toward the braid, then another rope that twists away from the other one...then another braid, and more ropes....etc.  I think writing this one up is going to be trickier than knitting it.  It doesn't have a name yet.  I thought of naming it after the baby it's going to be for, but the baby isn't born yet, and doesn't have a name.  Unless this blanket takes another five months to make, I'm going to have to come up with another idea.

In other knitting news, I've been dealing with my UFOs.  I frogged the original swatch for the above blanket; it was a square, in a yarn that I didn't have enough of to make a blanket anyway.  I was just swatching, about a year ago, and hadn't ever done anything with the swatch.  So now I have a reclaimed ball of green wool, and an empty needle. ☻  

And I dug out an eyelash yarn monstrosity that I'd started three years ago.  Angel wanted a fun fur blanket in pink and purple stripes.  I had gotten three stripes done, and my hands said "NO MORE!" so I put it away for three years.  Finally, I told Angel the other day that I wasn't going to finish it, and it wouldn't coordinate with her new turquoise and brown bedroom anyway.  Fun fur does not like to be frogged, so I just bound it off.  I suggested it could be a doll blanket, but she decided to add a button or pin and make it a capelet.  Silly girl looks like a Yeti that someone threw koolaid on.  But it's out of my UFO bin!    And I gave her the leftover yarn.  

And sadly, I discovered that my white lace stole-in-progress was full of holes.  Apparently some evil insect found it very yummy.  I frogged most of it, but only recovered a small ball of yarn, as most of it came off in short, unusable pieces.  Fortunately, I hadn't gotten very far on it, and the balls of yarn in the ziploc didn't look like they'd been touched, so I should still have enough of that lovely laceweight to make a small shawl.  And I've started charting for that design...

Happy New Year!

To welcome the new year, I present my first project, knitted entirely this year. ☺

The pattern is Twisted Tambini by my dear friend Andrea.  I used Paton's Decor wool blend in "chocolate", and US8 needles.  I'm considering making another one with smaller needles, because this is kinda enormous on my head.  But it'll keep me warm, and that's what matters!  I love this design.  The reversible cables on the brim were a bit tricky, since I'd never used that technique before.  The result is terrific, and I love how the brim cables transition seamlessly to the main body cables.  You can't see the crown of the hat in this pic, but that's okay, because I messed up somewhere in there, and couldn't figure out where, so I just faked it.  I don't think anyone will know unless I tell them.  Keep my secret, okay?

In other news, we have our stuff, and it's in our house!  There's still some organizing to be done, and lots of painting.  I started the painting yesterday, with Princess and Kitty's room; pink, of course.  Angel and I will do her room this morning; turquoise.  I'll do the bathroom and laundry room in the same turquoise, and then I'll have to calculate how much beige to buy for the rest of the rooms.  I'm thinking a five-gallon bucket of satin finish, and two gallons of semi-gloss...but I'm not going to just go with my guess.  Made that mistake before...

Anyway, we're still staying at my father-in-law's house, since we won't have tv service until the 12th, or internet until heaven-knows-when, and Hubby has forgotten how to live without those things.  But FIL has gone to his winter home in Arizona, so we have the house to ourselves, and we can take our time moving all of our stuff to our new place.

Hmmm...what else did I forget to post about while I was busy in December?  I turned 31, and Princess turned 7...Merry Christmas...we celebrated Christmas with Hubby's family, but at least I got to call my family.  The girls and I are planning on driving down to Kansas at the end of January to visit them. ☺

Oh, I almost forgot to mention: I started working on a new baby blanket design; it's about halfway done.  I'll post a pic in my next post.  I've got to run now; time for paint!