A couple of weeks ago, my childhood best friend had a beautiful baby boy.

Now, I’ve been busy working on the book projects after the finger cutting debacle on July 4th, so I haven’t had as much time to work on baby stuff as I’d like…and by now, you know that I’m a little high strung. So, as I was planning to meet my dear friend’s baby last Saturday and I hadn’t knit anything, my stress level was rising. I ask you, HOW was I going to show up to welcome my oldest friend’s new baby without any knitted love?
Answer: I wasn’t. So, Friday night after work, I cast on a baby hat…and then I stayed up til 1:42am to make sure it was close enough to done that I could finish it Saturday before leaving town.

So, sweet Baby C got a pretty knit hat to celebrate his safe arrival. The yarn is Mirasol Yarn – Hacho and the pattern is Easy Peasy Newborn Sock Hat by Keri McKiernan

I am grateful to his parents for opening their home to me and letting me snuggle their cute baby for hours.

He is precious and I love him bunches!!!

Ps. Check out more finished objects at Tami’s Amis.

The other article I knit for the book used Malabrigo Arroyo in the colorway Azules.

The yarn was pretty and the pattern was attractive and tidy, but it didn’t move me the way the other yarn/pattern combination did…mostly because it was a hair more stressful. The reason for this can be illustrated with a picture of the leftover yarn for each.


After knitting the first half of the piece, I realized it took 1.75 ounces. Great! I had 3.5 total so that should be perfect. The problem is that while I was working on the brown item, I realized that weighing yarn on a cheap kitchen scale is not the same as weighing yarn on a nice yarny scale. What if it is slightly off?!? I thought this to myself a krajillion times as I knit and the ball got smaller. I should have requested more yarn after finishing the first bit.
Last Saturday, I was hanging out, chatting with a friend and was making progress and probably should have left at a reasonable 10 or 11 pm, but I was SO CLOSE to the end. Would I have enough yarn to finish the second half? I had to know.

I did have enough! and I left her place at 12:30 am. It was a gorgeous night.

I’m thrilled to share that the reason I haven’t been blogging much lately is I’ve been knitting secret stuff that will be photographed for a design book…..a design book by a super awesome designer. I’m more than a little excited. I may have squealed a bit when she asked me to do it. Who am I kidding? I almost died of glee. For now, I can show you yarn (Barking Dogs Yarn – Chestnuts on the Flame).

Now, when I first opened the package and saw what looked like taupe with hints of purple, I was a bit hesitant. I thought hmmm, wonder what that is going to look like? I’m not sure khaki and purple should go together?….so I do what I do and I googled.
And I found this.

and I loved it. So, between that and the fact that this designer has pretty unbelievable taste, I decided to trust her and cast on.

Ladies and Gentlemen, she was not wrong. I was surprised at how lovely this yarn and pattern were. There was depth. There was texture. and I’m not going to lie, I felt like my horizons had been broadened….like the time I thought Martha Stewart was crazy and red/aqua should never be a pair and then I saw things like this

and this.

There’s something kind of amazing about looking at something, thinking you’re not a huge fan, keeping an open mind, knitting, and realizing that you love Ugly Ducklings.

Ain’t knitting grand?