hats off to a good recovery

a friend's mom has been battling pancreatic cancer for several months and earlier this week had a whipple - one of the more extensive surgeries out there, with removal of several abdominal organs. i heard today she is doing great and starting to walk around! margins and lymph nodes were clear too! so happy about that.

a couple of weeks ago i made her a couple of new hats. hopefully they fit better than the last ones i made her.


yarn: simply soft
pattern: odessa
the original pattern called for beads but i left them off to keep it simple and non-scratchy.
it's a very popular pattern on ravelry - over 3000 folks have done it!


yarn: dark horse fantasy acrylic/nylon blend
pattern: Rib-a-roni Hat

i like these a lot. i think i'm going to make some for me too :)

pinkness

what fun it is to work in pink! i made this hat/scarf/mitten set last month for a 4 year old neighbor who is cuteness incarnate. boo plays with her and her brother every monday while i work at clinic.


yarn: claudia handpainted yarn fingering, doubled for hat & mittens
trim: classic elite yarns, jill eaton merino (superwash!)
accent: filatura di crosa, baby pom pom
hat pattern: inca snowflake, itty bitty hats
mitten pattern: basic pattern for children's mittens by elizabeth durand
scarf pattern: woven on a rigid heddle loom, balanced weave
heddle size 10. after washing: 6.75"x54" + 4" fringe + 4" fringe

i went to a couple of yarns stores and bought all the pink/brown that i thought would match her coat and let the little one choose. she has good taste - she chose the highest quality/most expensive yarn :)

her mom liked one of the other yarns, so i wove this scarf for her with a warp-float pattern, because i didn't have the pompom yarn to accent, and because i think the yarn floats make the scarf softer.

"it's like sand, only colder!"

even the dog is falling asleep

dixie, modelling her christmas present - a collar made from a scrap of velour i got as a remnant at joann's.


faintly evident on the far right is the green twill on which i've embroidered her name and my cell #.
i'm a particular fan of the reflective buckle.

gotta love a dog with bling :) goes nicely with her ever-accelerating grizzle, i think.

happy new year

4 years old
finally wearing the "wonderful wallaby" sweater
that i made him 1-2 years ago
bengali yarn

where the sleeping things are

even though he didn't get the memo about daylight savings time yesterday, tonight was a landmark bedtime. at 6:30 he wanted to go upstairs to get ready for bed, and by 7pm - a full hour and a half before his usual bedtime - for the first time ever, he was asleep by the 2nd song on his cd.


so to celebrate, here is a picture of his slumber. this was actually taken about a week ago after his cousin had a sleepover here. for days after he still wanted to sleep in his sleeping bag.

happy halloween!

good thing i took pictures earlier this month, because this little polar bear has had a fever and didn't want to go trick or treating this year. :(

the hat is somewhat improvised out of a bulky trendsetter yarn that i found at stitches. it's loosely based on this bear hat pattern i found on ravelry, which was made from a much bulkier yarn. i had to knit several more rows in places and i totally improvised the ears with a crochet hook. the outfit is made from white fleece - very simple, which was good considering my skill level at sewing. first time i've ever done sleeves! the trick or treat bag and the paw pads were made out of felt.

here are some pumpkins we made last weekend when my nephew was here for a sleepover. first carved pumpkins for both of them! the bumpy pumpkin in the back looks super cool but was a royal pain to cut because it was much denser/harder than a normal pumpkin.

knock me over with a feather - boo actually walked in the school "parade" and consented to take a picture with them! (the official school picture day last week was a fiasco - he insisted "NO PICTURES!" and would not even be in the class picture, much less his individual photos.)