Here is my BIG NEWS!

So, I promised exciting news a few weeks ago.  I (and my family) have done lots of exciting things in the last few weeks.  Little did I know that today would be a double-exciting-news day!

First, welcome Adalynn Rae, our second granddaughter!  It sounds like it was a pretty uneventful delivery (the best kind, right?), and I know that her mother and big sister are very ready for her arrival. I suppose, if you think about it in just the right way, the timing is perfection, because:

The other exciting news is that the One-Skein Wonders for Babies  book is out, and today is my stop on the blog tour organized by the publishers!

It's a sweet book. There are a variety of projects, from toys to wearables, to accessories. I certainly have a longer queue of "projects to be" from this book!  It is so much fun to see "my babies" (the patterns, that is) all professionally styled, lit to perfection, and posed so prettily.

©Geneve Hoffman Photography.

About that baby:
Poseidon Mitts is a pattern I wrote a long time ago, for a yarn club.  I think my daughter was 3.5, and when I was knitting up my prototype mitts, she asked me, "Are those for me?" When I responded that they were for grownups, she insisted on trying them on anyway.  They clearly didn't fit, and she looked up at me with her big, blue eyes, and pleaded, "Mommy, will you please make me some just for me?" Let me tell you, I couldn't find a way to say no! I had yarn left, from the skein, so why not give it a shot?  The bonus is, I found a "Mom and Me" pattern that could be made with a single 50 gram skein of yarn! She wore them until she lost one, which, I suppose is the biggest complement I've ever had from her. Though she has long since outgrown the mitts, I think she still has the orphan. Maybe that's the complement.




That's my time for today.  I've got two 9 year olds having a "sleepover" taking over my house. Off to pour a glass of wine.  Or something.

Wow, getting back into the swing of things after that road trip is challenging!  I keep saying I want to make another batch of soap, but I still haven't! I have three kits left from the Brambleberry Soap Crafting Club.  Maybe tomorrow . . .

As far as knitting goes, well, I did a ton of it on the road!  I think I started and completed 4 pairs of socks!  They were all "vanilla" in my "make it up as I go along" pattern. The ones I had already started were ribbed, rather than stockinette. I finished two other WIPs that I brought along (a blanket for the new grandbaby, who will make her appearance any day now. And a shawlette that I'd had otn since last summer!) I started my Laar sweater with the Briar Rose Stella (lace weight merino silk blend) I purchased at Knit Camp last summer. Of course, once I finished the mile of stockinette and moved into the lace portion, that had to be a "not driving" project, so progress slowed down considerably. I knit a cute hat with a unicorn instead of a pom-pom for the first granddaughter. Seriously cute. Like, I kind of wish I had ten kids to knit these hats for (not that I have ten kids, but that I had ten kids to knit for!), because they are quick, simple, and totally adorable! A few dishcloths, when I couldn't focus on anything else. Surprisingly, we sought out only one yarn store on the road. Actually, we were driving past, and J offered to stop when I called it out. The parking lot was interestingly hard to get into, and I didn't buy anything there, as there wasn't anything I can't find in my own LYS.

I received my copy of One-Skein Wonders for Babies (well, the one I ordered from Amazon, so I'd be one of the first to get it) on Tuesday!  More about that later, though, as I'll be posting as a part of the blog tour publicizing the publication.

Well, back to getting into the swing of it!