Uhb-sessed

After having this little bundle of joy I've developed an obsession with all knitting for babies. The main obsession I've developed is for baby footwear. No surprise since I'm a shoe lover myself.


We all know and love the Saartje's Bootees pattern. They're easy, quick, and so darn cute! I've made a couple of pairs myself and think they're great to start with. After having a baby I know how hard it is to keep shoes on but you still want to keep their little toes warm.


I recently came across Baby Cowgirl Booties on Pinterest. After checking out these booties I read further down the page that there's a pattern. What?! I can knit these! I'm not necessarily a country fan but I can certainly see the need for Miss Avery to have a pair of these. Although the sizing is for newborns I can easily adapt it to make them bigger. Everyone needs a pair of cowboy boots- even a baby!

Thanks to Etsy I found a couple more patterns for baby booties. The Apple Baby Booties which have a sweet design on the tops of them and the Stylish Baby Boots which I can see good for staying on those tricky little baby feet since they have the high cuff.

I know Avery is too young to appreciate this or care but I'm going to start her early on appreciating good footwear. 

Malabrigo Stashing

Since I'm back to my knitting after a short break for embroidery I went to look for a new project to work on. I have 4 hanks of Malabrigo worsted weight yarn in Cabernet. I browsed Ravelry for well over an hour and I can't decide what to make. A couple years ago, I made a slouchy beret out of one of the Malabrigo hanks. Yes, I've been holding on to these hanks for that long. I can't seem to find anything that is worthy of using the yarn on. I want to knit something up. I really want to knit it into a sweater or cardigan but I don't think I'm going to have enough. Plus, all the patterns I saw didn't move me. I desperately need some suggestions!!

I got back to work last night on the Grapevine Lace Scarf. Here's what I learned:

1. Don't wait until 8:00 to start knitting when you are exhausted.
2. Always keep track of the row you're on. Otherwise, as what happened to me, you'll end up with a crazy amount of stitches or too few!
3. Don't leave your knitting for months at a time and forget where you are (this should go with number 2).
4. As your eyes are closing because you're tired, at least finish the pattern repeats so that when you start on it again the following morning you know where you are.

That all being said, I started on the scarf again this morning and discovered that I had made some mistakes on the repeats and had no clue where I was. Oh joy! I don't know why I don't learn from this because I make this same mistake pretty much every time I'm doing a project. I'm pushing on though. I'm going to finish this scarf. It needs some major blocking and will probably end up being 12 feet long and 3 feet wide!

Here's where I am so far in the scarf:

Can you spot the mistakes???

Late Night Knitting with The River Wife

Have you ever knit so much that you have a sore neck? That's where I am right now. My neck is so sore from knitting and listening to an audiobook. The main reason that I knit for about 9 hours straight stems from wanting to finish the book The River Wife by Jonis Agee on audiobook. I think my couch has a permanent butt imprint from where I've been sitting and knitting.

I had planned to knit on Friday night with my knitting compadre, Rose. However, we went out to eat and had drinks and well you can't very well knit after drinks. You CAN but not well. So, I came home and went to bed. Saturday morning I woke up at 6 AM!! I have no idea why. But once I'm up-I'm up. I couldn't go back to sleep so what to do? KNIT!

I began The River Wife last weekend but didn't finish. Mainly because I didn't sit on my couch the whole weekend knitting. This weekend was different though. After getting into the Mason-Dixon knitting, I've become so addicted to it that I've made 3 washcloths, working on the baby kimono, and also starting the Log Cabin Blanket. Maybe I'll actually run out of yarn and have to buy more(much to the dismay of my husband).

Saartje's baby bootees found a home on Friday. One of the pregnant girls at work was the new owner. Of course, the ones for the twins are now 75% done-the twins are now 4 weeks old. The next baby shower should be in about 2-3 weeks so that will be plenty of time to finish the baby kimono. Oh...and another girl I work with is pregnant. Just like I said in the last post...there must be something in the water at our school.

If you aren't on Ravelry yet...you really need to be on there! I think I mention this every single time I post. It is my newest obsession and I love looking at all the projects. The best thing about Ravelry is probably that it's all on one website. That's the greatest thing!

Ok. Well, since I do have to work tomorrow I should probably log off soon and go to bed. So, until next time when I get the urge to blog-but you can always find me on Ravelry(mandijb)

Mason-Dixon Knitting and Me

At work it always seems as though someone is pregnant or getting married. Maybe that happens to everyone who works at a school. Last school year, we had approximately 4 babies and 7 weddings. I don't think I'm exaggerating too much. With all these births and marriages I felt (no pun intended) the need to knit some gifts. You know how knitting is though. Weddings and births may pass and you may still be knitting away on those gifts. I am determined that this will not be the case this year! But it seems to have already happened. One of the births was 3 weeks ago to twins and I have knit only 1 pair of baby bootees. My only saving grace is that they are premies and the bootees probably won't fit for a little bit. So, I might be safe.

The next two births are in 4 weeks and 8 weeks. The first shower is this Friday so I have to have something for the shower. To my local library I go to get the book Mason-Dixon Knitting. Thank God for this book! The knits are so quick and EASY that I can get some gifts together for Friday and for the shower that follows. Right now, I'm working on the One-Piece Baby Kimono. The best part of the kimono is that it's all in garter stitch!!!! I know some people like to purl but purling slows me down. When you're knitting gifts for people there is no time to slow down and purl! I am also trying the Ballband Dishcloths. Michael's was having a sale on their Sugar 'n Cream yarn ($1/ ball) so I bought a good sized stash. I plan on making some burp cloths, bibs, dishcloths, and bootees. Hopefully, I'll get it all finished. We shall see.

Thank you Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne for Mason-Dixon Knitting!!! I can't wait for the new book!!

I was asked last week to knit someone at work a scarf. A co-worker asked me how much it would cost to make her a scarf. I'm sure you've had this same experience. Little did she know that I really hate making scarves. I actually would rather not knit someone anything unless I decide to knit it for them. I know that sounds selfish but if I'm not into it I won't knit it. I did answer her with, "You buy the yarn. I'll charge you $.10 per yard of yarn I use." She thought I meant how long the scarf would be (about 4-5 feet). I corrected her. She hasn't asked me again so I hope that this was the end of it.

Back to Ravelry, knitting, and audiobooks.

Knitting update-finally!

School is back in session and summer is officially over for me. I hardly got ANY knitting done despite my best efforts. Oh well. There's always the weekends!



If you're on Ravelry, do you ever feel like spending time on there and ignoring your blog? That's the way I've been since I was invited to join Ravelry. I have ignored my blog for too long so I suppose it's time to get back on here.



My husband just had his wisdom teeth cut out yesterday. Oh what a day we had! He's much better today but wow do men whine a lot!



Today I decided to give the Center Square hat from knitty.com another try. After my first fiasco with this hat, I've had it put aside and ignored it for almost a year. Thanks to Ravelry and looking at so many using that pattern, I've decided to give it another go. The first time I made it it was too short. I made quite a few changes to the pattern. This time I decided to try and follow the pattern. I still think it's going to be too small. I'm a little less than half done. It sure does look small.



I've also started a Clapotis. I'm not using any fancy yarn. I guess I'm kind of testing it out to see how it all works. If all goes well, I'll be ordering some yarn from KnitPicks. It's their Gloss and is in the colorway, Woodland Sage.

Well, back to my Ravelry obsession! Where my stitches at?

I'm on Ravelry! Just a short snippet

My invitation for Ravelry finally came today!! I'm so excited!!!!! This site is way cool. There are so many features that I'm starting to get a little ADD looking at it all. If you haven't signed up for your invitation to Ravelry do it soon! There are a ton of people signed up and on the waiting list. You can find me on there as: mandijb

LOVE THIS SITE!!!