Bathmat for me!

I've made this bathmat twice before. This is my third one. The first two were both made with one string white and one ecru, and were both given as a part of a wedding present (in a spa basket). My bathmat is sage and ecru.

The pattern is from a well beloved book - One Skein by Leigh Radford. I've made a few of the pattern and I tend to make them more than once, which is very unusual for me. I made the bowls, the bib and the bathmat, as far as I remember. I'd love to make the cupcake too!

The yarn is Peaches'n creme from a cone and although the V shaped pattern is a bit hard to see because of the two different colors used. All in all, I like the colors though and the bathmat looks great in the bathroom.

I started with an already used cone of the ecru and I ended up running out of yarn with only 3 and 1/2 rows to do. Then I found a small ball of ecru among the leftover kitchen cotton yarn and I continued to make the bathmat. Unfortunately I ran out again and this time with only 14 single crochet (fastalykkjur) left!!!!! My knitting friends came to the rescue and let me use some of their leftover ecru - thanks Steph!

It was a very rewarding project and I'm glad I finally made it!

Now with photos

This morning I posted a little update (which ended up being not so little and I got late for my Mommy breakfast (a group of mom who meet every month during the school year).

I took some photos after I came home from work today. Here is the blanket (unwashed and unblocked):

Here is the dishcloth I finished last night. Lavender the cat was too adorable not to be included in the photo.

The pattern is Honeycomb Check Dishcloth (you need to log in to get the pattern) by Sugar n' cream. That's the name of the kitchen cotton I used to make the dishcloth and the color is 'Country Red'. The pattern was hard to do because of two things. First it contained mistakes (notice the deliberate use of the plural from of that word), one of which is actually visible because since I followed the pattern blindly for the first repeat I was at the second or third repeat when I discovered it and decided it was not worth it to go back and fix it (although I was thinking about giving it away but the mistake makes me want to keep it for myself). The other reason it was hard to do was because you had to maneuver stitches from two rows down once in a while and pull them up to the needle. It was tight!

Other than that, I'm very happy with the finished product. I like the texture and the look of the pattern.

Quick update

Three out of the 5 babies have been born. They are all well and adorable, and ... I've heard of two more that will be born in November. Yay! More baby knitting!

Yesterday (Wednesday) I finished a crochet baby blanket at knitting. It's the Baby M Blanket by the Knitting TV star Vickie Howell. It has a interesting pinwheel pattern called the Harlequin Stitch (also called Catherine Wheel). The wheels were easier to make than I thought, they are really just increases and decreases. However, I could not learn how to begin each row so I had to constantly refer to the pattern and keep track of which one of the four alternating rows I was on. The way the yarn and the pattern came together was serendipitous. After my daughter´s field trip to the Columbus Zoo, we took the rare chance of shopping seriously (there's not a lot of shopping possible within 45 min driving distance from where we live) and we went to an art supply store. The main purpose was to get some tempura paint for the kids, but in the same aisle they had a bit of yarn! Mostly kitchen cotton but also 5 skeins of superwash wool. The wool was regularly priced at $4.99 per skein but was on sale for $1.39!!!!!!!!! Score!!!!!!!!!!!

I bought up all of the remaining yarn. It was 'Washable Ewe' by Debbie Stoller, the author of Stitch Nation, the book that helped launch the knitting craze few years back. I didn't have a plan for this yarn. The colors were good, white, yellow and cyan, very modern. Shortly after I got the yarn the idea of using it in a baby blanket and this baby blanket in particular struck me out of nowhere (divine intervention?). Anyways, it was a perfect combination of yarn and pattern, I had enough to make a nice border as well. I can't wait to show you a picture. Soon, I promise.

Last night (Wednesday) I also finished a dishcloth, which was quite a challenge to make. It feels great to finish two things in one day! Yay! But I tell you about it later when I have more time.

Another baby shower!

This time it was three-in-one

Three of the graduate students I work with are expecting. Two women and the wife of one of the men. One from China, one from Malaysia, and one from Libya. Here are the sweaters,

And of course they came with the corresponding hats:

The cake was adorable

Knitter´s baby shower

Knitter's baby showers are the best. In the US it is customary to hold a party for the mother to be before the baby is born and giver her stuff for the baby as opposed to visit her after the baby is born. We had two pregnant members of the knitting group, one due in May and the other in June so today we had a baby shower for them.

I had two cardigans and two matching hats for the expecting mothers.

Here is one of the mom, Krystal. This is her second (and a second boy).

Here is the other momma-to-be, Jess, who is expecting her first.

And an extra photo of the adorable Oscar, who´s mom just recently joined the knitting group hanging out with Jin, knitter extraordinaire.

I've been trying to learn to make marengs cakes. They're always too thin and chewy, but I tried and brought the 'delicious disaster' to the shower (aptly named by Stephanie - who else).

The first sweater can be found on Ravelry here, and the second here.

The yarn for these two sweaters (and the matching hats) was obtained in Salt Lake City so it is extra special souvenir yarn. The pattern for the cardigans was a really good one. I made it 5 times and I never changed a thing. However, none of the hats ended up the same way. I'll make this pattern again if I need a baby gift. It's a free pattern on Ravelry, just saying :)