Here is Sydney in the Original Country Kiddie that inpsired me to start pattern writting:

I got it back from Knots of Yarn in Cumming today so she could wear it tomorrow.

I've got lots of knitting going on here, I finished the little top that is my next design, and named it.

That's the template/prototype. I've decided to call it "Fruit Loop" and I am going to offer them together in one pattern with an assortment of colors/options. For Strawberry there will be a cute seed-like lace pattern, for grape I will have a grape like bobble, and then I am going to have a pineapple one with a lace pattern as well. I'm very excited about it.

Here are my two current knits, the purple fruit loop (grape) and a pretty purple scarf. Purple is apparently the color of the day.

Right now I just have to find a good tech editor to help me with it. I think I just totally overloaded you all with BG photos :) heh.

When I created the design I wanted to keep it super simple, so it could be a quick knit or an easy knit for the inexperienced. With simple knits it's not usually a big deal to add some mods of your own. Maybe some lace, maybe some shaping, maybe some sleeves. Check out these clever and creative modifications by some very talented knitters:

Oxfordkitchen Blue Sky Country Kiddie

Craftyminx Ruffled Country Kiddie

Jjongsma Lace Country Kiddie

I love them all, in particular when I get to see them on cute babies (bonus!). It's just a thrill to see my design being knit up by all these talented knitters! Keep 'em coming!

So I had that pretty pink and green Hempathy sitting around and none of my original ideas of what i wanted to knit with it worked out (swatches turned out so nasty). Then inspiration struck, all because I knit that tank last week. It gave me some different ideas and I sucked it up and cast on. I had some issues, and had to tink about 400 stitches when I knit 4 rows of 100 stitches in stockinette when I meant to knit it in garter, and that was down a ways and I totally didn't want to rip hempahty, in the round, on 2's. So I tinked those stitches and dropped each one down on it's own individually.

It very much reminds of of a recent Yarn Harlot blog entry. Déjà vu. Totally.

Here are my little drawings, several of which are wrong and I was oblivious to the armholes being located at the same space as the neckline. Um, hello? That little center/top one was where I was like, "oh huh, I should probably draw that part properly".

Then there are the times I explain to the husbeast what I am doing and show him my progress, and while explaining suddenly realized I didn't cast on properly or forgot to switch colors or because I wanted the center to be 35 stitches, I forgot I had to start with 70 to GET to 35 before I k2tog all the way across. I was wondering why it looked so small but yet somehow ignored that fact until I had to actually explain it to someone.

But the end result is worth it.

So far so good, though I am having second thoughts on a few things that might need tweaking. Today I actually got out to knitting group and Amanda said it reminded her of strawberries, which totally made me smile.

Used only 1 skein of Schachenmayr Regia Nation, I knit either the 12 or 18 month size, I can't remember.

Also from a while back, here is a adorable test knit completed by digitalnabi, whom I was amazingly lucky enough to meet in Maryland.

Size is for 18 months so it's pretty big on BG at the moment.

She was so sweet and it was so neat to meet her in person! Test knitters ROCK!

Here is an not so food FO shot of the Pretty in Pink tank. It's huge, once it hit water it grew big time so I can't wear it now or even do another photoshoot because it's all stretched out. I suppose I could try putting it in the dryer. I love the pattern, love the yarn... it's just too big to wear. So sad! :(

(notice my hand in the back holding it *tight* how it was BEFORE I blocked it)

I signed up, but I think a really cool swap (and if someone has the time to organize it) would be for actual like fiction books etc. You could be paired with someone who has similar tastes and then swap books you have but maybe read once and don't want anymore, and throw in some goodies like a skien of yarn or chocolate as well. I prefer to read new books and once I'm done I'm always wishing I had someone to swap or give them to. For example I tried to pawn of "Beethoven's Hair" to my mom and she's still mad I left it at her house. (after she read it of course) hah.

It's looking good, and fitting well. I wish the yarn wasn't so bulky, I think that and a darker yarn would look a little cleaner. Overall it's a cute knit and I like it.

As I have nothing else to show you, I'll leave you with some pics I took of BG in our latest baby wearing gear. This is my new favorite because I can wear her on my back and I'm a wimp so having all her weight on my hip/butt works best. (flickr notes with more info)

Now, I must force myself to go to sleep so I am not grumpy tomorrow.

An electra Townie. It's "flat footed" and super comfortable for those with hip and knee issues. I know I'm not remotely in shape and anything too taxing would be a turn off, so I went for what would be good for my neck and back and cause the least amount of stress, letting me focus on just getting healthy. I may be tiny, but I'm not healthy, my body went to mush over the past 18 months and I'm ready to be in better shape.

I like my retro light, but we can't figure out how to open it to put the batteries in. Go figure.

On the knitting front, I knit 12 inches in 2 days. Half of which was knit durring a 3 hour stint at the air salon. My hair guy takes FOREVER but he does such a good job. I said, "I want MORE BLONDE!" and then when I told him I didn't care what he did for the cut, well he took off a LOT of hair! It needed it though and I'm very happy with it.

The new knitting:
"Pretty in Pink" tank aka Pretty in Silk (Rowan Natural Silk Aran, adore it)

The new hair:

(Click here to see it in its natural state of curly)

Here is a cute photo of the husbeast and BG playing in our living room. This is how I have it set up so she can play. Sometimes when I am desperate I watch Oprah. Mostly I knit on the couch (while BG wants desperately to get at my yarn and will whine at me if I don't let her touch it) but mostly I will play on the floor with her. If I give her a cookie I can run around the rest of the house getting other stuff done. She is at the age where if I walk 2 feet away she is in agony (in particular when there is nothing exciting to entertain her).

(First time eating watermelon)

So BG did all sorts of miraculous things while I spent the week there (without her daddy!). She stood full on up several times and for more then a few seconds. She was really standing. She's done it twice before for like 5 seconds, which I knew was a fluke. This time it was not a fluke and was repeatable. She held her sippy cup up to her face, seeing as how until the last 2 weeks she hadn't held a bottle in months, I was very happy. It was more of a fluke but that just means she'll do it in a few weeks again and more consistently. Her two front teeth broke through making for 6 teeth total, and just last night she started pointing/touching things in her books. Oh she did the standing thing on Friday the 13th, she always picks very memorable days to do things.

(He's breaking sticks with his feet to build a fort)

I spent the majority of the week watching my sisters 5 year old son, so the week flew by and it was nice to be there for such a long period of time. BG simply adored him and just followed him around the entire time.

So while I was away, I knit like a mad women on her purple cardi so she could wear it and my dad (the photographer) could take photos. She is wearing the first thing I ever purchased for her while I was pregnant. It's a dress from Carters. It fit her just perfectly and probably only for a few more weeks so the timing worked great.

These photos are the ones I took with my little Canon Digital Elph, I couldn't lug my good nikon with me on the trip, or my laptop.

Pattern: Ribbed Baby Jacket by Debbie Bliss (Free!)
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton
Gauge: 4 st per inch

My gauge was bigger then called for so it's simply HUGE and way larger then the size I was supposed to be knitting. It looks like it might fit her when she's 2, but she can wear it now as well so I think we will get a lot of use out of it. The pattern is clever and simple and a great baby knit. It was unblocked in these as I had just woven in a few ends and threw it on her while the lighting was good.

The most disturbing thing however is that it will be 95 in Virginia all next week, it's going to be COLDER IN GEORGIA then in Virginia. This is the opposite of how it should be. I was all "oh it'll be cooler when I go up north", umm nope. Dang.

So I had some fun deciding what to bring with me, and as I can't carry my laptop I'll be left 7 days without a computer (that's gonna hurt) and I'll need knitting to keep me company in the evening after BG goes to bed. I am bringing along 3 projects;

Natural Silk Aran

To make a Pretty in Pink by Amanda Reed or in my case "Pretty in Silk". Check out this rav user's cool version. It fits her perfect.

(It's a fitted tank, I would love to show a photo but there is no PDF to take one from, here is a direct link to a photo on flickr.)

Blue Sky Cotton
.

To make a Ribbed Baby Jacket by Debbie Bliss (free pattern)

and then just in case either of those doesn't work out, a Baby Surprise Jacket in some 100% Cashmere.

.

While dipping into the stash and project planning I found this adorable pattern, the Yarni Cardigan/Lace Baby Sweater No.33 which is available as a ravelry download.

I plan to use Artfibers "Bitty Bunz" which is a lovely fingering weight angora blend in a perfectly pale shade of lavender. I better hurry up with all these knits before BG gets too big to wear them!

Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann
I used the pattern as written on the inside of the DVD by Meg Swanson and used the video for all of it's wonderful tips and tricks (she did some math for me!).
Knit in Knitpicks Comfy on size 7 needles (Denise Interchangeable)
I never checked gauge, I wanted it to fit her at about when she's 1 or 2 years old and it looks like it will. and could even be worn this fall.
For seaming I used The Yarn Harlots detailed photographs.

Knitpicks Comfy is indeed very comfy and reminds me of Rowan Calmer. It's squishy like marshmallows. I think Calmer is nicer, but for the price this is very nice.

It's a lot harder to photograph BG without the flash now, she moves so much that any non-flash photos come out pretty blurry.

Now about these 9 months. I can't believe it's been 9 months. Wow. I mean I can, and it's been so great but at the same time it's like WOW, and I remember all of it (or what my female brain allows me to remember, like for example the blank spots and hazy area's where any pain was involved have seem to gone *poof* which I think is nature's little trick to keep us procreating).

At around 8.3 months I thought, hrmm her 9 month appointment is soon I should try some Gerber Puffs to see how she does with finger foods. The second time I gave them to her she gobbled them right up and now insist on having a bit of anything I am eating. Good thing I mostly eat grill cheese and potato's. She never used to put things in her mouth, but now with her epiphany with puffs, now all the leaves and dirt will very likely wind up there. Why just earlier this week she ate a spider. Yes indeed, there was a call to poison control for that one. She had killed it either when she had it in her mouth or when she had it in her hand, and I fished it out with a tissue. I knew she had it in her mouth because of the leg hanging out. Thankfully aside from writing this, that memory has also gone hazy. So. Gross.

She is an expert at "breaking out of jail" and the area I have blocked off for her to play in. She can crawl like lightning and be from one end of the house to another in about 20 seconds (not that our house is that large). Now she is a traveling girl. She's been to DC, Virginia, Maryland, Florida and very soon we are heading back to Virginia again. I'll be flying alone with her for the first time. Scary.

She loves to stand, and pulls herself up on everything and can walk along the furniture. She still has 4 teeth all working through at the same time and I suspect the front two aren't far now either.

I also made the big decision and will be going back to work in September, and little BG will be going to daycare. I'm actually not too worried about it (talk to me then!) because this little girl wants to be in the mix, she is best behaved when there is lots going on and lots to look at. I'm not thrilled about her being there so long and wish I could work part time but that isn't an option at my company and I want to keep my benefits. To help me out we will have a cleaning lady come every week when I go back. With 2 dogs, 1 cat, my husband and BG, it's a lot to keep up with. Sometimes I read old books (like some of the stories from EZ's books) about how not that terribly long ago many people had a house keeper, it sounds so nice. I'm sure there has been a trade off in how things have changed but every-time I read that for instance in a Jane Austin novel I think "oh man how nice to have someone cook for you every night!!!" Okay I've gone a little off topic. So I will be going back to work, and we'll just play it by ear and if it goes okay then I'll stick with it and if BG is miserable and we can afford it then I'll come back home with her. Every single day I thank-goodness we thought ahead and bought a house that cost well below our means and kept the dingy old civic for as long as it will run.

I am looking forward to BG's first word. She says mama and dada all the time but it's not a true association, though sometimes she crawls towards me and will say mamamamama, so maybe it IS a word but it's hard to tell. I think I'll *know* when its really a first word so I am excited about that milestone and wondering what word it will be. We continue to experiment with finger foods, and I also still breast-feed (though people often give me a weird *are you still doing that?* question with an interesting tone in their voice). I don't see why it's so weird to breast-feed while a baby is still a baby. Oh and I forgot, I've been worried about her taking a bottle or sippy cup as she hasn't had a bottle in 3 months or longer, so I've tried a zillion sippy cups and finally the one that worked was the see-thru take'n'toss brand, as recommended to me on a forum. Someone also told me get the ones with a hard spout because the soft ones teach them to bite to drink and if you breast-feed you really don't want them to do that! So now BG can drink water from a sippy cup and seem to really like water. I haven't even bothered with apple juice because she will drink loads of the water. I've been giving her the same spring water I drink.

Her 9 month appointment is today and if I can remember I'll come back and update this with her weight and height.

It's been done for a few days, but took me a while to get the gumption to seam it and then I also had to pick out buttons. I went for a contrasting pink so it would match more of BG's clothing. It's knit in Knitpicks Comfort. Next up, a proper photoshoot, though it will be a bit big on her until this fall.

It's been about 90 degree's out this week, I really don't care for heat like this. Bleh.

It's a bottom up raglan, which I have to say is not really a way I like to go, top down to me seems way more fun, and way more accommodating to variegated yarn. It's way harder to plan out what color to end on, then it is what color to begin with. I also couldn't really try it on as easily. So to the frog pond it goes. It's this cool Merino/Angora blend of yarn that I got in Maryland. It's great and knits up fast. I need a pattern though. It's 3 stitches and inch and I havn't really been able to find an easy top down raglan pattern in that gauge, and all the knitting pattern books I have seem to have tiny necks on their sweaters and I'm not in the mood to try and rip again if my own idea didn't work out. I want mindless knitting.

Speaking of wanting mindless knitting and NOT getting it. I cast on for a Baby Suprise Jacket with some Knitpicks cotton, I re-started like 5 times but I think I have it now. I got the Schoolhouse Press DVD on a whim (heard all the raves about them) as it was only $15 on amazon.com (I looked under "Userd & New" to find a copy) and it was very much worth it, now I want all of the DVD's they sell. I am very impressed and delighted by Meg Swansen, the DVD is way more then just how to knit that pattern. It's FULL of fantastic knitting tips and she totally is in the school of "there is no WRONG way to knit" and I love that mindset. So I was confused with how on the DVD she has you place a marker IN the stitch not on the needle, that just didn't work for me. I suck at "reading" garter stitch. I can read stockinette like a champ, but garter is mysterious to me (probably because I rarely knit in garter).

Yesterday Meeko was in town and we went to Knitch (who now carries my pattern if you want to go pick one up!) and she left with loads of Baby Alpaca to make her hubby a sweater, and I left with some Rowan Scottish Tweed which I adore (for some sort of sweater for BG) and some SeaSilk. Sorry, too lazy to take pics! Today we went to the Georgia Aquarium which is new, and big, and fantastic. I do have photos of that.

BG went batty over the panguins, it was so cute. They "played" with her and she would giggle and touch the glass and squeal and they would swim up to her behind the glass and sort of play chase with her.

It was fantastic, if you are ever in Atlanta you don't want to miss it!

It rained and was over cast for the first 3 days we got here, the first evening and then thursday and friday. I worked like a mad women on my Bolero Jacket. I kept thinking, how cozy it would be to wear given the weather. It would indeed have been perfect. I greatly underestimated how long the ribbing on the collar would take and it took 3 evenings and some daytime knitting as well. I even seamed for an hour in the car while BG slept on the way here. Alas I finished seaming late at night on Friday, which of course I knew Saturday was going to be all sunny and beautiful without any need for a cashmere/merino jacket. That's how things always work out right?

Saturday (today) has been wonderful. We went to the beach in the morning (BG even slept there, score!) and then later found a great sushi restaurant.

It's been fantastic to travel with BG, she's just great. She has had some issues going to bed at night but I think that's related to a "growth spurt" as she approaches 9 months which is a time of lots of growing.

So back to that bolero, of course I had to take photos at the beach, I would have loved photos on the actual beach itself but with how warm it was we just opted for in front of a beach-y looking tree!

Pattern: Bolero Jacket by Debbie Bliss (Smallest Size)
Needles: US 10/10½ Denise Interchangeable
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky

I knit the smallest size, it’s a tad big but super comfortable and the yarn is really nice and sooo much like clouds on your skin. It definitely needs a clasp on the front, the model some how looks great without it being pulled closed but I tried and it just was too bulky and frumpy looking unless clasped to be more form fitting. Now I have to find something to keep it closed with!