Sisters and Cousins

Delia and Naomi and I are in the car.  Naomi, who can't seem to stop talking ever, is going on about how mean her sister is to her.  I try not to encourage the kids to talk smack about each other, so I interject.
"It is pretty normal for sisters to not get along at your age." I say.  "When your mom and I were fourteen, we did everything we possibly could to ditch our sisters. It didn't seem mean at the time, but I bet they thought we were total jerks back then."
I park, and we are all walking down the street to the house, one girl on each side of me.
"Mom and Aunt Mindy are, like, Best Friends." Naomi says, looking at me cockeyed, as if I am making it all up.
Delia turns to me in slow motion, a look of incredulity on her face, her mouth hanging slightly open.  "Why would you ditch Aunt Trisha?  She is AWESOME!"  
"I guess I didn't realize that when I was 14." I reply.
All the way up to the front door, Delia keeps looking askance at me and then shaking her head, as if she can't believe I was ever so dumb. 

Knitted Christmas

Here is my cute-as-a-button niece Zoey wearing the Rainbow Girl sweater I made for her Christmas present. The pattern is Radiant by Meghan Jones from the Winter 2010 issue of Petite Purls. The yarn is Bernat Mosaic, which is an acrylic (easy care) self striping yarn I found at A.C.Moore. The only modification I really made was to put buttons all the way down the front. Delia and I picked out some crazy swirly buttons at Jo-Ann's for this sweater, but when we got them home they were way too big to fit through the buttonholes. That was OK with Delia because she immediately took them off my hands. I wonder if that wasn't her plan all along. Anyway, I sifted through the most recently discovered jar of my Grandma's buttons (Mom finds these things in the house and sends them home with me) and came up with exactly 5 carved shell buttons dyed orange. The reason we save things, I hypothesize, is so someday they can bring joy to someone else, and remind them of us. I have a feeling that every time my sister buttons her girl into this sweater, she will feel the coolness of the shell and think of Grandma.

And Zoey really seems to like it too!

Here we have the hat I knit for Seester! She told my hubby some time ago that she was still wearing the hat and scarf I crocheted for her back before Delia was born! That is dedication. Hopefully this hat will serve her for another 12 years. The pattern I used is Irish Girlie Knits Snowboarder Hat That Rocks, and the yarn is Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande. Seester is sensitive to wool - as in, she thinks it is really itchy even when I think it is not, so I knew whatever yarn I used would have to be super soft, and this 100% alpaca fits the bill. The cables were so fun to work and never got tedious because the yarn is so big it knitted up quickly on size 10 needles. One hank of this yarn will not finish the hat (four rows from the top, I had to grit my teeth and wind the other hank into a ball to finish), so I got 2, and I have plenty leftover if those pom-poms ever need replacing. Instead of the braided ties from the pattern I knit on three lengths of I-cord and braided them, mostly because I love knitting I-cord. And the pompoms, well, they were for fun.

I think she likes it too.

Cables and Ribs

I finished this little topper last week. It is an improvised pattern loosely based on the Utopia hat I made earlier. Delia picked this yarn out of the clearance bin at ACMoore. It is Moda Dea Washable Wool. I checked it out on the interweb and it is Discontinued. Man, I guess that's what you get when you shop primarily in the clearance bin... It is a lovely yarn, the hat is super springy and the cables really stand out and look tidy. SOFT TOO! Since Delia has been wearing her Skully hat I wore this one to work today, and it is a little teeny bit too short for me, but it fits her perfectly. Maybe I will get around to making one for myself sometime soon. :)

I had a blast learning to knit cables without a cable needle on this project. The technique really makes the work progress quickly - I saved whole seconds not having to drop and pick up the cable needle constantly.

One thing I realized while working on this hat is that I need a row counter. So instead of spending cash on one I think I will just make one, however, I need some little beads with numbers on them. If any of my craftastic pals have some number beads lying around, Hook Me Up! You might be rewarded with a hand knit item.

Or you might languish in nothingland for months while I post pictures of stuff I have knitted for other people. It's a crapshoot like that, with me. Just ask my Seester. She's still wearing the hat and scarf combo I crocheted for her ten years ago, and the Blueberry Girl dress I made for her Baby Girl is sitting on my bookshelf waiting for a button, and has been Mostly Finished like that since Little Z's birthday in July. Hang On, Little Tomato, I'm working on your stuff, and I love you!