No! No Baby yet.

So I'm officially playing the waiting game, as are tons of anxious friends and relatives who's emails, calls and facebook contacts are sure to increase as the due date rolls nearer (which is Sunday btw). In the meantime, I finished work on Friday, I decided I could no longer handle the NY arseholes commute and heat, well, naturally it cools to the low 80's this week, but that wasn't going to encourage me to change my mind about work.

Before I update you one what I've been up to, I should show you once again, how wonderful people are out there. Sharon, not content with being super-busy with the birth of her second daughter (having just moved apartment, of course), she had to go ahead and send me this package of adorable goodies:

I believe I may have made even some girlie noise when I opened this package, the booties, the hat, the adorable little bunny, wow this bean is spoiled already :) Thank you Sharon!!

So inbetween watching the crappy NBC daytime version of the Olympics (which basically consists of beach volleyball and the swimming I saw last night) and finishing off projects I thought I better blog. I decided that I couldn't really sign up for Ravelympics as I could give birth at any time, but I could give myself some deadlines of my own to try and turn the giant UFO into an FO. You see, according to ravelry, I started the Sunrise Sunset blanket way back on May 10th, I have since distracted myself with numerous other, smaller, cute projects, but I know that I really need to finish this blanket. All the little Sunrise and Sunsets were made, some were finished and blocked, some were still waiting the end weaving (about 8 ends per piece) and blocking. Then there's the seaming together - not an enviable task, and not one that will do itself. If I just suck it up while I have the time at home, it will be done and I'll be wondering what all the fuss was about. As you can see, I made some good headway already.


I also wanted something pretty simple and satisfying, and kept looking at all the yarn that was left over from the amazingly beautiful Spider blanket. It kept bugging me that there is practically enough to make another blanket, and 3 baby blankets have got to be better than 2 right? So I cast on for a log cabin blanket for the bean. I've always wanted to make one, the simplicity of it and the squishiness of the garter stitch was too tempting. So I now have the goal of finishing 2 blankets before the bean arrives.


Good luck to me eh?

Showered

I've been busy, but there's no excuse for not sharing the wonderful handmade gifts bestowed upon me and the bean a couple of weeks ago at our baby shower. The shower was a beautiful affair, held in a Manhattan garden of a good friend, the cupcakes were delish, sandwiches tasty, sangria plentiful (lemonade with mint for me) and company delightful. I have no pictures of the event, although Virginia has some, less-than-flattering pics of me opening gifts (I think I need to work on my "ahhh that's cute" face). Nevertheless, I was thrilled with all the amazing and adorable gifts, the spider blanket, which is amazing! I can't imagine the behind-the-scenes knitting and passing around that went on - but I have to say a big and public THANK YOU to all the spiders that worked so hard on the beautiful blanket, I'm so lucky to know such a wonderful group of knitting pals.

And here's a flickr montage of the handmade goodies from the spiders (click on the image to get more info from flickr).

Cuteness, and a Thank You

I hope everyone has been enjoying their weekends - for many of you this is a long weekend, and I hope you're loving that as much as I am. I've been pretty busy since I last posted, almost all of it surrounds the impending arrival of the bean, which I'm pleasantly surprised at how excited I am about it all. First of all, my weekend began wonderfully with an unexpected package in the mail from Oiyi.

How can anyone resist a fabric book on Care Bears? Oiyi, you blow my mind, I'm always inspired by the crafting and cooking that you do, despite the adorable new distraction addition to your family. Thank you so much for finding the time to make this book for the bean, who will adore it.

Next up, the nursery has evolved into an actual *gasp* nursery. We had a lot of difficulty picking the paint colour, well, until we had the curtain fabric picked out that is - then it was a cinch.


That Echino fabric is fabulous isn't it? So cute with the little dragonflies and spiders.


Mr B has been busy drawing some classic Pooh for the walls, all the pictures are great, but my fave is of Pooh climbing the tree.


I've still been knitting, although it's mostly been train knitting recently, but that hasn't mean that there's been zero productivity. First up, I made some cute socks (if they look familiar, that's because they are).


And, last weekend I managed to finish this adorable seamless kimono -deets (as usual) are on ravelry.


Some people have noted that I haven't updated the shop in over a month, I used to find this situation stressful, but I just can't let it get to me anymore - sorry to anyone who's been patiently waiting for some more fabrics. I'm really hoping to make a few more bags before I pop, but I'm going to have to see if I can enlist the help of Mr B, since the cutting of fabric needs to be done on the floor - we have no other surface that is big enough.

5 Random Things Sunday

1. QUILT
I went over to Veronique's a couple of weekends ago, she had kindly volunteered to show me some quilting skills. V is an amazing teacher and she gave me the inspiration and confidence needed to start making the quilt I wanted to make for the growing bean. And I think it's going really well...

I actually have the backing and batting together now, it's just the fun of quilting it all, maybe this afternoon.

2. PIN CUSHION
I used the practice square (wasn't quite happy with one of the fabrics in the first one) to make a little pin cushion, something very necessary with those funny little quilting pins.



3. RAV GOODIES
A few weeks ago the Spiders had some visitors, Jess and Casey (AKA Mama and Papa Rav), came along with Maya and the very amusing Steve, it was fun spending a few hours with them, although I was sad not to join them for drinks, Jess and Casey made up for it with these adorable gifts.



How cute is that Bob pin? I believe that the pins, stickers and other good stuff will (most likely) be available in a soon-to-be Ravelry store.

4. GREEN SWIFFER
I'm happy to find different ways to do my bit for the environment. So when I saw this ingenious swiffer cover pattern in Sassy's Rav queue yesterday, I immediately grabbed some dish cotton and knit one up last night while watching junk telly.



It's got to beat those crappy throw-away swiffer cloths, and it's reusable! I can't wait to try it out - well, actually I lie about that part, but I hope it works nearly as well as being on my hands and knees with a sponge.

5. CROCHET
I'm a little into crochet now too. I started a blanket this week. It's the Sunset blanket (ravelry), and I think it's going to be adorable in chocolate brown and rosy pink.

Land of the toys

Lately I've been on a bit of a toy-making kick recently. Possibly this has something to do with impending motherhood. Mostly I think it's because they're cute, relatively quick to make and perfect for the baby-gifting I needed to do the last couple of weekends. That's not to say there isn't other knitting going on in these parts - it's just not knitting that I can share with you at this time.

Anyway, on to the knitting I can share with you. First up is Elijah [rav link]. This adorable little guy was too much to resist after seeing him on Oiyi's Crafts blog. I actually had to go out right away to find some yarn to knit him with - and I found some no-name acrylic (yeah, there's not a great selection of yarn in Astoria).

I was able to gift him directly to Mum and monkeybaby last weekend at the babywarming - Elijah was greeted with a resounding 'awwwwwww' around the room.

Next up is the toy that Mr B has named Munkee (rav link here). This time I was inspired by Pam's adorable little monkey with attitude. This cute little guy was perfect for me to make up when I didn't really have an awful lot of time but had enough inspiration to teach myself a couple of crochet moves to get him made.



Mr B has been that taken by him that the only way he would let me give Munkee to the child he was intended for was if I promised to make him one for himself the baby. So I'm in the process of making Munkee #2.

I have also started using the handspun I made a little while back to make a selfish knit. I'm just a little concerned that I'm going to run out of yarn, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

It's about time

I wanted to write something before I go away to visit my parents in Bad Ischl, Austria for the holidays. But I'm not so sure I have that much to write. You see, I've been sewing a lot of bags for the shop (shocking huh?), people have been keeping me busy with this sewing. There are a couple more days left before the shop will, effectively, be closed for the holidays, so I'm trying to keep as big a selection in there as I can. As for my personal favorites, they change pretty frequently, although currently it's the blue version of the mini matryoska's cube and the monkeys cubes- how adorable are they?

Anyway, I promised myself that this blog wouldn't be about the shop, so onto the knitting. Believe it or not, knitting has happened, much of it will need to remain a mystery since the recipients haven't received yet. But I need to show you something, more of a tease than a show and tell.



I'm really excited about our trip, first of all I get to see family that I haven't seen in such a long time, and it will be in beautiful surroundings. I think that we will even get to visit Munich (as that's where we fly in to and out from) as well as Salzburg, which is just an hour away - I'm hoping that there may even be some yarn shopping to be done, but then, I have no clue what's out there, since the last time I was in that neck of the woods all I cared about was spaghetti eis and haribo jelly sweets (esp. the bears and sour chips). If anyone has any 'must see' suggestions while there, I'd happily take them, I don't know what our free time will be like, since we will have some painting and decorating to do...

One of the other essential parts of vacation planning is deciding what knitting to bring. Well, I'm currently knitting Mr B a Henry scarf in a tweedy colourmart cashmere:


I'm really happy with how this looks, I'm hoping this will be finished before we leave - first of all, he gets to wear it in the chilly snow, secondly, this gives me more room for new projects. I have been swatching for a sweater to bring. Of course I will make sure that there will be socks on the needles for travel time (I ambitiously plan on bringing enough for 2 pairs). I've no idea what travel is like to Paris and then to Munich, but I'm hoping that they will be nice and let me knit.

Last weekend was the spider's holiday party, where we friends got to celebrate the upcoming holidays and everything knitty, as well as silly songs, wonderful food, lots to drink, knitting and great company.


We also had a Secret Santa exchange. Sandra was my SS and she did good:

These earrings are some that I had my eye on in her etsy shop for ages, so you can imagine how happy I was to open this box.


Also from my etsy wishlist, was this adorable sheep button:


And, the pièce de résistance... fiber!! I love fiber and it makes me think that, someday soon, I'll be spinning again - stoopid full-time job getting in the way of real life.


4 ozs each of fiber-loveliness. Thanks Sandra!! And big thanks to Jess and Veronique for the wonderful job hosting such a wonderful party.

I have one last thing to show you before I end this longer-than-should-be-post. Yesterday was one of the more stressful days in my life - I don't remember ever being so scared, I'll spare you the details, as it looks as though things will be okay. But before the proverbial hit the fan, I did have one, big, up.


The. best. boots. ever! arrived from zappos, at work. I've heard great things about this shop, but had no idea that overnight delivery would count ordering at 7:30pm the night before!! Going to a snow-filled place for the holidays was the perfect excuse to buy these boots, well, that and the fact that they are adorable.

Okay, I wanted to wish you all very safe, happy and healthy holidays and I will see you in the New Year!!!

I love getting parcels

I felt like I had a lot to show you this week, then there was the realization that there are people reading this blog who'd have their holiday surprises spoiled (hi family!).

So instead, I'll show you something that I've had absolutely nothing to do with making.

These goodies arrived yesterday. They are from Nova, who made that fabulous project pouch there. I'm so happy with the Green & Blacks chocolate - and am astonished that I still have some left. In case you're wondering why she only sent me one skein of that beautiful Shibui, it's because one skein has already become this:


Nova knit me a Pony Express sock by Audrey Paquin. The sock yarn is Shibui in Pagoda - from which I'll knit its mate. The sock fits perfectly, I love the yarn colour and pattern - I'm a happy bunny. Thanks Nova!!

I hope I'll have some more stuff to show you next time.