None of the 3 PBS channels we get, the Disney Channel or Nickelodeon air toddler appropriate shows before 6:00 am. How do I know this? For the past several weeks, Baby has been waking up around 5:30. Not bad considering she goes down easily at 7:00 pm and sleeps soundly through the night. But when she wakes up she's grumpy, and she slowly revs up to a maniacal scream if she doesn't get what she wants. And all she seems to want is TV. Rather than have her wake everyone else in the house up, we usually give in and let her watch. So before 6:00, it's Baby Shakespeare. Gotta love Bard the Dragon. (Of course, according to the AAP no TV is appropriate for Baby since she's under 2. Oops.) 
For my birthday last month I told Aidan all I wanted was knitting books. Specifically sock knitting books. I gave him the latest issue of Interweave Knits which had a section on sock knitting books. He came through and gave me Sensational Knitted Socks and More Sensational Knitted Socks, both by Charlene Schurch. I took the first book's suggestion and started with the Class Sock - a cute little baby sock in thick wool on big needles. I cast on with size 8 to make sure I didn't cast on too tight, but knit them with a size 6. And I'm using the 2 circular needles method. But I don't have 2 size 6 circulars. I don't have 2 any size circulars except for 2.75 mm for some reason. And I won't be using those until I'm more experienced with sock knitting. So check out what I did. 
Using my Denise Interchangeables I just kept switching the size 6 needle heads on and off the 2 different cables. Totally ghetto, eh? But it worked. I'd knit with one needle, pull the stitches to the middle of the cable, switch one head to the other cable, switch the other head to the other needle, then pull the newly headed needle down to get the stitches on the needle head. The only problem I encountered was once I forgot to switch the heads before I pulled the cable, so I pulled the cable right out of the stitches and had to pick them all up again. I hate dropping stitches, so I made sure never to do that again. So besides probably prematurely wearing down the connection on these needles, and adding a few seconds of work each round, I thought this was a good solution. And here's my first ever knitted sock! Now on to the next one. :)
I finished the chessboard (which is actually a checkerboard according to the pattern). It was a fun, easy knit, which should have taken a lot less time than it did. I'm just slow. As I mentioned before the pattern is from Weekend Knitting and it really did seem like good weekend knitting to me. The title of the book refers to knitting that's nice to do on the weekend, not necessarily patterns that can be completed in a weekend. This pattern was both (though I only did the board part of it, not the drawstring bag that goes along with it).
Big Sister had a friend's 4th birthday party to go to this morning, and of course I remembered yesterday that we still hadn't gotten a present yet. And I didn't have a chance to go out to buy one. So was does a knitter do? That's a rhetorical question, of course.
First I knit a quick garter stitch headband as a tester (cast on 4 stitches, knit all rows until it's long enough to fit around Big Sister's head, cast off, and sew the ends together). It was cute, but I didn't think it would be quite enough on it's own. So I decided to crochet a scrunchie as well. Using this pattern with a size G crochet hook and a turquoise hair elastic I had lying around, I quickly made up this scrunchie that Big Sister is modeling so well. Not bad for a second ever crochet project. It was pretty fun, too. 
What little knitting I have done recently has been on this checker board from Weekend Knitting. But I'm actually making it as a chess board. I have intentions of knitting up a complete set of chess pieces as well, but as I don't have any patterns for them, we'll see how that goes. This is my first ever double knitting experience, and it's going quite well. I did have a bit of a mess up when I switched over to the second row of squares. One of the squares I made one stitch too wide, and the one next to it one stitch too narrow. I didn't notice till I had knit 2 or 3 more rows. At that point, I took some time to analyze the pros and cons of frogging back to fix the mistake, thinking perhaps it wouldn't be too noticeable if I left it the way it was. In the end, I frogged. And I'm glad I did. This project is going so slow anyways, re-knitting a few rows won't make much of a difference in the long run.
Check out this yarn my dear friend Indu gave me for pretty much no reason at all. It's gorgeous. Knit Picks Gossamer 100% merino lace weight. It's so sweet of her. I'll have to find something really cool to knit with it. She claims that she can't knit lace so has no use for the yarn, but she's just being a chicken. I know she can do it.
I got Knit & Crochet: Ponchos, Wraps, Capes & Shrugs! out at the library, and decided to knit the Rainbow Poncho. I came the closest I've ever done in using the actual yarn specified in the pattern. It calls for Noro Kureyon, and I had a bunch of Noro Big Kureyon (the same yarn just in bulky weight). I had bought it specifically for a poncho, though at the time of purchase I didn't have a pattern yet. So I was excited when I saw this pattern.
Since I previously taught myself to crochet I took the opportunity of Mother's Day to hook (is the the correct usage? I'm new to crochet lingo as well) a quick kerchief and scarf for my dear mum. She models them below. The kerchief pattern is from Cozy Crochet and it took me something like 20 tries to finally figure out how to start it. All due to my inexperience, nothing wrong with the actual pattern. Though it would have been nice for the book, which is aimed at beginners, to be more explicit with the directions. Once I got the first few rows down, though, it was smooth sailing and quite easy.
I got Cozy Crochet out from the library and when Sara came over for a visit, we took the plunge. It worked out pretty well. We did just the beginning of the first pattern, a dish cloth, which involves just making a chain, and then single crocheting (or is it double? more on that later) row after row after row. I was using some waste yarn, so I only got 3 rows into it before I ran out, but by then I felt pretty comfortable with it anyways. Oh, and bored, too, so we tried out another stitch, I think the half double crochet is what it was called. What I find really annoying is that there are apparently English crocheting terms and American ones, and they're really confusing. Because an American single crochet is a British double crochet. And an American double crochet is a British triple crochet. After crocheting some I must admit the British terms make much more sense to me. But this is from someone who insists on calling it "stocking stitch" rather than "stockinette". I hate the term "stockinette". So I guess it's just really important each time to make sure you know if your crochet pattern is Old or New World.
On my supposed knitting hiatus I also made these adorable little leg warmers. Big Sister just started dance classes, so I made them for her, but she prefers her pink leggings to dance in. Baby gets to wear the hand knit goodies instead. I made the pattern up myself.
Next I knit an old standby, something I knew I couldn't mess up, another curly purly soaker. Size medium, knit with 100purewool 100% merino worsted. Very soft yarn, great for soakers, longies, and most likely felting (though I haven't felted with it yet). Knit on size 8 needles for the main portion (sizes 3 and 5 for the waistband, 5 for the leg hole ribbing). This one is for a friend, but I just realized I need to knit a new one for Baby, as she's just about outgrown the one I knit for her, whoa! A year ago! She's a wee little thing for her age, but it's still surprising that she fits a soaker at 16 months old that she wore at 4 months old.
