Cattywompus cloche

This is Caterina's cloche. She's standing right here as I post this and she said, "That's my hat! Thank you for making it for me, Aunt Jamie. I love it so much." Huh.
What cracks me up is the way she wears it with the flower right smack in the middle of her forehead.

knitting for others

A vest I knitted for James, by request. He picked the yarn, I picked the buttons. This is a kid who is always cold. I made him this and my first (and so far only) pair of wool socks. He never wears them. Drives me nuts.
The pattern is Fast Favorite Vest (boys version) from Men in Knits, by Tara Jon Manning, the yarn is Cascade 220.

You never know

This is one of the most used items I've ever made. It's a crocheted blanket, just the right size for covering up Alice or Lucie when they are napping, or at night when the covers get kicked or pulled off. It's a simple pattern from Crochet Me, called Funky Doily. I used Cascade 22o, each stipe is one skein. I just let the stripes get smaller and smaller. The yellow is really orange on it's own, but looks yellow with the red & purple. It's not a soothing color combination, but I can always find this thing no matter how thrashed the house is, and that's worth a lot.

The hero of canton as a young man

This is my first, possibly only, attempt at a Jayne hat. Cotton/acrylic blend as the recipient can't abide wool. Modeled by my son, James, who would probably love Jayne Cobb if I allowed him to watch Firefly. One day, but I never heard anyone say they should have watched more sex on television, and at a younger age. So, until he's older and/or sneakier, I'll keep Firefly all to myself. He did say the hat was nice and warm ... but for someone who is always cold he never wears the wool things I've made for him by request. Maybe I'll be less bitter about that if I make something for myself before I make anything else for others.

Did I mention I knit?

And that that's pretty much all I think and talk and read about, despite the fact that I have 3 kids and am supposed to be homeschooling? It's true. And now that the baby is older (18 mos!) I actually get to accomplish a thing or two occasionally. I've started taking pictures of my finished projects, too, since I give most of them away and have little to show for all the time and effort I put into them. Now I get to post them and join the ranks of the millions of mediocre knitters who blog! "I just learned to knit this afternoon and I've started a blog. Come look at my skinny scarf in super bulky yarn!" If you ever read the knitlist you know what I mean. So, to start in the middle of the story, here's a shot of the Sidewinder Hat from Southern Cross Knitting and, my first attempts at felting, 3 flower pins. I made the hat with Wool From The Andes (Knitpicks). I made another out of an alpaca/wool blend that was just sublime (the yarn, not the hat) but I forgot to photograph it before we sent it to Nebraska for Christmas. Don't you send your best yarn to cold places to holiday? Trouble is, they always decide to stay...

Just so you don't think I really don't care for the kids and spend all my time with yarn, here's ... someone (I haven't chosen the pic yet).
Edit: Lucie and Alice Christmas morning on their new bikes. Curtis helping Lucie on hers. She bursts into tears immediately after and hasn't gotten on the bike since. Santa overshot this year.