merry, merry

I hope everybody who celebrates it has a wonderful Christmas.

as for me, I got my gift a week early:





Thomas William was born after 30 hours of labor at 9:17 AM on December 18, 2009. He weighed 8 lbs 2.4 oz and was 21 inches tall.

A post to distract me

Because today is my due date, with no end in sight.

I've been in heavy 'nesting' phase for the last couple of weeks, it's all crafting all the time around here (when I'm not napping)

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First this little guy:
This is out first dishwasher, and sometimes we don't empty it as promptly as we should, so there have been many days where either I or Bill has needed to ask the other "are these clean?" So I made a little sign to help us out.



It's kind of silly, but I'm way happier than I should be about it.
Stitched on 16 count Aida, three strands over two holes.
'dirty' is DMC 816
'clean' is DMC 3755

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Of course I've also been knitting a lot too, sometimes I just lay on the couch and knit all day, (when I'm not dozing off) and of course socks make perfect waiting room knitting at the doctors during my weekly visits.



We had better light conditions today, and I tried putting one on a blocker to stretch it out, but it's still difficult to get a good detail shot of the pattern on the dark yarn.
Trust me, it looks really neat.

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And lest you think I forgot about the baby (HA!) I finished spinning the yarn for his BSJ last night. Now it just needs to be washed and abused a little, and I can start knitting!



The two darker skeins came out to approximately 168 yards and the yellowier skein came out to about 180 yards. Right now it's roughly light fingering, but I tried to spin it rather softly, so it should bloom quite a bit it the wash, and be all sorts of snuggly and warm!


Next up on the wheel:



Some delightful fluffy Jacob top I got in a swap on ravelry. This is going to be a pair of work mittens for Bill. he wore out his last pair before we moved, and he's reluctant to wear his Squirrel and Oak mittens while cleaning the snow off the car, for fear of ruining them.

Happy socks, sad socks, and some embroidery

Sad socks :(

I blew a hole in a pair of socks the other day.



My first holey socks, I am sad.

It's especially sad, because I was just thinking that these were one of my favorite pairs, I love the colours, I loved the stitch pattern, and the yarn was so squishy and soft. Yeah, I guess that should have been the clue. Not only do I have this hole, but there are sever thin spots in both heels, and the other toe as well.

They are the leaf lace socks, I knit using Autumn House Farm Twist Strideaway.

I'm keeping these around for now because I haven't decided if I want to darn them or not. I feel so sad, because they were one of my favorite pairs.

And now I have another dilemma, because I have another skein of the same yarn in a different colorway. And I really like the colours, and the yarn is so soft and squishy, but I'm not sure if I trust it in socks again.

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To makeup for the lost socks, (and to have something relatively simple on the needles) I have started another pair of socks!



It's kind of hard to see in the dark yarn (darn overcast conditions!) but this is the bluebell pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks. It looks really nice, and is super easy to memorize. I'm using leftover Knit picks Palette from my woven and fulled scarf. I only had on ball of the darker, and about half a ball of the lighter, so I'm using the lighter purple in the toes and heels, (and possibly the top ribbing if I have enough when I run out of the dark)

I'm zipping right along on these guys, I'm only about an inch away from the heels already. The pattern is so easy, and lately I haven't really had the energy for brain intensive knitting. (Due date is a week from today!!!)

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and finally some embroidery:



This is the Colonial Christmas Sampler, a First Friday Freebie from the painted quilt

I used two strands of DMC 321 for the main motifs, and a strand of 321 plus a strand of gold filament for the grid lines, all on unbleached muslin. It's kind of hard to see in the small picture, but if you click though to see the big, you can see how much it sparkles. I really love it!

I'm going to frame this up and give it to my mother for Christmas.
I'm also thinking about taking some of the individual motifs from this piece and making little tree ornaments to go along with it, but I haven't decided yet.