And for those of you who get it:

Love and kisses,

Maudie

(Detailed reasons for acquiring these little darlings are forthcoming.)

I’m really impressed with the postal system today. It delivered, to yours truly, the new IK!

It appears they’ve changed the design a little, so that the pictures of the finished projects come first, followed by the knitting patterns. Although… Eunny Jang’s entrelac sock pattern was published in its entirety a few pages before the rest of the patterns. I guess it qualifies as a ’special’ or whatever.

Anyway.

I liked these:

From left to right: the Green Tea Raglan, the Bonsai Tunic, and the Cable Down Raglan. I doubt I’ll be knitting any of them though, due to lack of time, and the fact that the Tea looks way too easy (read: boring) and I really hate cabling. The Bonsai — maybe. It has yarnovers, and I’m a big fan of those.

(The jury’s still out on the Ruffled Surplice.)

I think I’m secretly conquering the world with a knitted hat.

(Is it even possible to conquer something in secret? Doesn’t the word conquer at least imply some kind of public display?)

This one I’m making for my darling Karro. (No, we’re not in a secret lesbian relationship or anything. We’re just friends.)

I absolutely adore the yarn. It’s Järbo Lovikka, about 11 sts/in, and oh so lovely to knit with. The color is just fabulous, too, and I don’t usually like non-solid colors. The pattern is my own (well, I’m not really sure you can call it a pattern at all, I basically just cast on 60 sts and went from there); my better half needed a new hat so I knit him one. His is a deep red, but since he hates to be photographed there isn’t any pictures of that hat yet.

My sister made one, too, after I sent her the so-called pattern. She sent me a picture of hers in black and white but assured me it made no difference since her hat is in fact gray

I just read Katarina’s blog — there’s a preview of the Spring 2007 issue of IK on the Interweave website! (Why didn’t I know that already?)

Apart from the weird thong (yes, a knitted thong… I think I’m going to throw up, or something…) it looks like a really lovely issue. I can’t wait for Feb. 20 (or whenever the postman decides to deliver it to me)!

(I think I’ll have to buy more yarn.)

Dear Linn,

No, I haven’t completely disappeared from the world of knitting. I know you’ve been very, very depressed due to the low frequency of updates on my blog. I know I’ve deprived you of that lovely knitting porn which you so sorely need, and I’m so, so, sorry. I hope you can forgive me.

… And while you’re thinking about the above, and about whether to ever forgive me, might I persuade you to have a look at a picture I managed to snap on one of those those precious moments of not taking care of babies and not studying?

That was a couple of days ago. Today, what is (hopefully) someday to become an empire-style cropped cardigan/shrug (for me), has been attacked by an unknown force (read: 14-month-old) and lies, waiting for me to fix it, on top of a pile of knitting-in-progress. I’m sort of using the same homemade pattern as for this summer’s green patterned cardigan-thingy, but with a few modifications. The yarn is the same anyway, only red instead of green (the yarn sale, remember?). You’ll see! As soon as the unknown force starts daycare (I’m counting the days) I’ll have five hours at home with just one baby, five days a week, which means more daytime studying, which means more nighttime knitting.

(Oh, and just to keep you posted, baby has now outgrown the striped onesie you gave her. We both adored it as long as it lasted, and if she didn’t already have 2,389,087 other outfits, I’d go out and get her three more of those lovely onesies :))

and this is the second time I’ve started writing this post, since the Big Baby (a.k.a. my son) just woke up and decided he needed some välling (apparently the translation is gruel). The Tiny Baby is almost asleep:

The Tiny Baby (a.k.a. my daughter) was born almost two weeks ago, so our life is a little hectic right now, though much, much less so than I had imagined, since having two kids apparently doesn’t require twice as much energy and time as having one.

I was going to insert a picture here of my finished, blue-green cropped vest, but in the case of the vest, ‘finished’ includes a ribbon sewn on, and since I couldn’t find a blue-green one today (the store only had various shades of blue and green), the vest isn’t finished, which frustrates me. However, I have started on this little darling, in white. I really hope I have the patience to finish it…

since a) our Internet connection is, well, not working, to say the least (except for a few minutes here and there)

and b) I’ve just been too damn busy to knit anything at all due to baby, pregnancy and classes.  Sorry!

… the finished cropped cardigan. Yes, I’m shamelessly proud of it. I think it’s the first garment I’ve planned and designed on my own — mostly, anyway. There was a pattern from the 1940s I used for guidance. And, obviously, my buddy Linster was invaluable in helping me pick out the buttons. Thanks!

Otherwise, the best thing about this little piece is that it actually fits. So, hopefully, I will get to wear it when the weather gets cooler. I think I’m in love.

The lovely case my SP sent me ages ago, and that I’d completely forgotten to post a picture of. She made it herself, along with two other similar items — I absolutely loved the little cowboys on this one:

And then, of course, there was the double pointed needles, that particular size (4.5mm) in which I own only one needle.  I think there used to be a pair of them, but not anymore, it seems. My SP sent me these gorgeous (and not at all splinter-y) needles:

I really have to try them out soon.  Very, very soon.  Thanks so much, SP! (I still call you my ’secret’ pal even though I know who you are now ;))

with knitting.

I got through the back, the right front and the left front of the Fair Isle-y cardigan; I even managed to knit the first sleeve without throwing the damn thing into the wall and screaming, but now…

I’m a measly two inches, and hardly that, in to sleeve #2, and I’m sort of hating it. So far, I’ve managed not to tuck away all the green, white and mint yarn in a box somewhere far, far away together with the half-finished cardigan, but I’ve gotten very, very close to starting another project — I’ve even started drawing it, choosing the yarn, etc. etc. I’m a very, very bad knitter.

Also, fall semester is only two weeks away, and I can’t wait to start. Which means I really should get a lot of knitting done now, before the mayhem of scheduling studies and babies begins, but I just… can’t. I’m bored.

UPDATE: If you’re wondering how that picture got in there, I found the camera’s USB cable. Which reminds me, I keep forgetting to post the pictures of my last SP package. Aaargh!