*shrug*

I didn't post last week because every bit of free time was going towards Little Miss's 1st birthday party.

Yep. My baby is one. And we threw a quasi-big family party that included all the aunts and uncles, cousins, and most of the grandparents. (those that didn't make it were invited, travel just didn't work out). And for the day she had a lovely little party dress and *gasp* her Debbie Bliss Shrug. Have I blogged about this shrug. I know I posted a few snide fb comments about it. I have a love/hate relationship with Debbie Bliss. I love the *look* of her patterns. They are clean and classic and beautiful in a simple way. They are timeless. Then I go to knit them and I get extremely frustrated. For one, she seems to hate knitting in the round. I've adapted many of her things to get rid of unnecessary (to me) seaming. Then there is the lack of schematics. This shrug was desperately in need of schematics. I was lucky enough to find some at Redshirt Knitting. Another thing I've discovered about her patterns is that when you are asked to pick up stitches for edging, sleeves and the such, it seems as if she rolls some D&D dice to get the number of stitches you are suppose to pick up. The number never makes sense to me, nor fits in well with the area you are picking up from.



So it's been sitting on my needles for a while.  All that was left was the ribbed cuffs on the sleeves. Enter the adorable dress I bought for my daughter's birthday party. The dress without sleeves. I figured that I'd just put a white long sleeve onesie under it. No biggie. Well my mother kept telling me how she saw these really cute shrugs and should she pick one up for Little Miss to wear with her dress. I kept saying, no, she'll have a onesie on. Finally I said to my mom, "You really don't want me to put a onesie on under the dress, do you?" I'll refrain from writing her response, but in the end I said "Fine. Don't buy her one. I'll finish the shrug I started ages ago. It should go with the dress." Actually it matches the dress perfectly. I couldn't have matched it better if I were trying. And she wore it and looked absolutely adorable. To do the cuffs I ended up just picking up on the sleeves, not paying attention to the pattern and did the ribbing.


Pattern: Baby Shrug by Debbie Bliss
Yarn: Jo-Ann Sensations Tesoro

Hey I finished something!

I did indeed. I finally completed Little Dude's hat/scarf combo.

 

 As you can see, he likes it.


Very much.


Very, very much.


This is the pirate pose. (it's an eyepatch)


Pattern: Orange Twist Child Hat-Scarf
Yarn: Bernat Aspen Soft

I made some modifications to the pattern to make the hat a larger size to fit my older child, as well as to accommodate my OCD need for symmetry. I increased the length of the scarf. To make it fit my 3 year old, the scarf sections I increased to 22 stitches, the hat front to 22, and the back to 18. I also reversed the second scarf, both in placement of the cables as well as cable direction. I had a little flub that I turned into pattern variation. Between the first and second cables I only did a 6 row repeat instead of the 8 row. The rest I did the 8 row. I repeated it on the second scarf.

I also started something...or restarted. I've got 12 working days to start and finish our next show so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to resurrect Footprints in the Sky. So come read about my insane journey in the glamorous world of show biz.