Delivering a Finished Object !

 Some 20 or so years ago, I invited a friend over to dinner - when I asked what he would like to eat, he replied "Hot dogs and Little Trees"   At my questioning look, Wendy, his mommy, explained that "little trees" was four year old vernacular for broccoli - now, why didn't I think of that.

Fast forward to today - that young fellow (Nels) is now an attorney, living in Palo Alto with his sweet wife and 6 month old son.  I started the blanket that the baby (LH) is laying on right after he was born, and luckily they were home visiting his folks for Christmas and we could deliver it in person - for in the next few months, the couple and their baby will be moving to Japan! 

Grandma encouraging LH to roll over! 

The little guy is pretty cute and seemed to like rolling around on his new blanket - I used double strand acrylic "baby yarn", so it was pretty cushy and very soft.

"Grandma Wendy" and I share a Danish heritage and she was happy to share with me her new "find" - Pickled Wild Sockeye Salmon. - It was really a treat.

In fact we had quite a conversation about pickled herring and other pickled things.  Although he does like sweet pickles, The Shepherd finds pickled fish abhorrent - but what can you say about a guy who comes from a culture that eats haggis?  Go figure...




Look at how pretty this is, and on a cracker with a chunk of that pickled onion - pure heaven...

But, I digress...

The video below was taken last Saturday night.  Nel's younger brother Jon is getting his PhD in Tuba at the UW and as part of the Bellingham Festival of Music he and another local musician gave a recital to benefit the festival.  It was fun.

 

A little bit of Tuba Trivia - did you know that the music in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" was really played on a Tuba and not computer generated?   

Cutting it just a little too close...

Those of you who are seasoned knitters or crocheters have probably been following my baby sweater project with a fair amount of amusement (to say the least) - I don't think swatching would have made any difference (but getting a measurement on the babies sure would have) -

Well, they are done - still have to wash and block them, but all the little ends are tied in etc.

And this is what I had left of the two ply Corriedale that I was using - one itty bitty ball of each colorway. Well, I still have a small ball of each of the Corriedale/Shetland mix, but I really didn't want to use any more of that yarn as it wasn't as vibrant as the plain Corriedale.

This is the sweater for Violet.

I actually picked out the wool way before they had chosen names, but it couldn't have ended up a more perfect yarn for her sweater.

The darker band around the middle and the yoke is plied with some gray Shetland wool from one of our sheep.

If you click on the pictures to biggafy them, you can really see the colors better.


And this is the sweater for Annie. They are actually pretty much the same size, I'm not sure why this one looks smaller... The lighter band around the middle of this sweater is Corriedale plied with a cream colored Shetland single.

I was pretty pleased with how the remakes came out actually. I was able to monitor the colorways a little more than I realized I'd be able to - the only thing missing on this sweater is a little more red on the left sleeve.

I'll get some pearl buttons tomorrow when I go to town (I have today and tomorrow off to get ready for a wool sale that The Shepherd and I are participating in this weekend) I hope I can find some red ones for Annie's.

Washing and blocking is my LEAST favorite thing to do - but I will get them done so they will have them before Easter (and before they get any bigger!)

That "FO" I mentioned

When we went to Ocean Shores last month, I had just started a star shaped baby blanket made from "baby acrylic" (kind of like baby alpaca, but fake). The pattern also called for it to be made from "bulky" yarn, but I really wanted to do this pretty pastel that I'd found (the picture doesn't do it justice, the colors were much brighter, but the "shade" is right) so even with the double crochet stitch, it was pretty slow going to get it bigger - at about 1/4 inch per row.



And I got it done, just in time for the baby to be born. - However, I forgot to take a picture of it before I sent it off to my sister. So she sent me prints - her camera is digital, but the machine that made the cd's at Walgreen's was broken, so here are pictures of her pictures - not the best, but that way you can see Anthony, our "new baby" (her grandson) too.



He is living with his other grandma - not a good situation with the parents, lets just say they are less than responsible people... but the other grandma is a nice lady and she and my sis are getting along - I also sent Anthony some sleepers and buntings from our local kids consignment store - and a pretty bar of fragrent homemade soap to the grandma - I know she's going to have some "Calgon take me away moments" before this little guy grows up.