What the What?

If you are an excited naked grandmother with an elephant fetish, this MarNic design is currently available on 1-2-3 Stitch. And if you are, you're welcome.

Today we celebrate Stella's "Gotcha Day," the day--SEVEN years ago--she came to live with the dude and me. This picture is from last December. (Right now with her shaved neck, Stella would prefer no photos.) Don't be fooled; this photo documents Stella at her cuddliest

It also happens to be my dad's birthday. Later today, I'll be bringing him a blueberry cake. Blueberry cake is his favorite. My mother made it every year for his birthday until Maggie came over to help my aunt clean our house and she decided that this little stand up recipe holder that my mother had, the one with our family's most important recipes, was too dirty. So she threw it away! (She also assumed my mother didn't really cook since she wasn't much of a housecleaner.) (Not true.) Anyway, since the advent of Pinterest, I've been trying different blueberry cakes to see if we can find the old recipe.

I haven't been stitching much partly because of my parents' visit but also because some somebodies turned TWO!

And how old am I, yelling out the years as if I am completely unaware that time passes?

Babies!

I'm plugging away on Sadie's Stocking. Tonight we went to my sister's and had dinner with the future owner of this stocking.

The girls are starting to talk, using such fascinating words as "baby," "banana," and "gorilla." Anyway, you'd think they'd be better at constructing a coherent narrative with those three words than they are. I mean, did the baby feed the banana to the gorilla? Did the gorilla steal the banana from the baby? Is the baby a gorilla? They totally left me hanging.

Special K pointed out the art work they are doing with their nanny and Sugar Rea asked for more in sign language. She didn't like the broccoli I had made to go with the lasagna but she was happy to eat some sort of green thing that had been pureed and put in a jar. Shows how good her taste is.

Baby Samplers

Special K and Sugar Rea are turning one next month. Where does the time go? I thought I should get a move on, especially since the needlework shop is having a sale on framing. (The sale is a bonus; the drawback is the influx of framing pushing the three week turnaround to six or more weeks.) I had to get these suckers done!

Last weekend I went to the needlework shops looking for additional silk because I was not going to finish both these baby samplers with the thread I had left. My two local shops didn't have the Belle Soie Carnation that I was using, so I looked for something that would "go." I was pretty successful, I think.

The original pink silk I was using forms the boxes and the lettering. The overdyed is Waterlilies Apple Blossom.

What's that you say? Mistake? Why, yes, there is. You will be relieved to know that I noticed, thanks to some eagle-eyed friends on Facebook. (Can't find it? Here's a clue. They aren't a scheduled C-section for this year.) Fortunately, I had Sugar Rea's sampler with me, so I picked out my work--more on that in a moment--and used the Carnation to fix the error. The five became a four before it went in for framing.

So, picking out the work. Well, Sugar Rea's sampler looked like this after the emergency unpicking.

My sister decided she liked the variegated/pink combination better and because I am an amazing sister--with nothing else to do--I am changing it. I hope to get it to the shop before next weekend. Wish me luck!

Thanksgiving

We have so very many things to be thankful for this year. Here are just two. (These two turkeys have fattened up nicely since June, haven't they?) Five months and two days old.

Away Again, Naturally

The dude and I did a piss-poor job planning our vacations this summer. No sooner did we return from Canada than we were off to the sea in Maine. Poor planning or not, it was still a relaxing time away from the office. We drove up after work, so I didn't get much stitching done. And I forgot my cheaters (actually, I didn't. I couldn't find them and then I bought a new pair and then I found them again). Where was I? Oh, forgetting the cheaters, so I stuck with a project on lower count fabric so I could see. And that was my August Small, and I'll save that one to show you later.

Speaking of not being able to see, I did have a visit with Maggie while I was in New England. Her eyesight continues to deteriorate, and she is doing less. She gets out plenty--a couple of restaurants she eats at regularly and movies with my aunt. Funny enough, she asked about you. She wanted to know if it was okay to get rid of the 100+ cards you sent for her 90th birthday. Since that was over two years ago now, I gave her permission. I hope you don't mind.

Coming home from our trip to Maine always makes me feel like summer is ending. And today when I walked into work at 8:00 am it certainly felt that way. And then my colleague told me I didn't have to be in until 8:30 because summer hours are over. There were so many things I meant to do on my half-day Fridays but never did. I was waiting until I had a rainy day to scour thrift shops for some supplies for garden accessories I wanted to make. I was going to use another to clean the craft room. I'm sure there were many other "meant tos" on my summer list. But there were some fabulous "instead ofs" too. Like this:

Helping make babies fashionable, scrubheaven

Maggie Monday: The Twins Edition

My nieces at one month. What a difference two pounds makes at this size, right? We were just talking last night that when you see Sugar Rea next to Special K you think she is ginormous. And then you hold her and she's a tiny peanut!

On to Maggie, who recently asked my aunt of my sister, "Has she picked a favorite yet?"

Baby Cocoon

Special K, resting at home, modeling her condom*, sleeve**, cocoon. Sissy sent me this photo, which was good of her because all the pictures I have of me holding the baby while she wore it have her looking rather upset.

My sainted aunt was disappointed with the "Baby R" nickname. I read her message to the Dude. "Sweet Baby Rea," he said, "No, Sugar Rea." So Sugar Rea it is. She was getting there with her bottle feeding--six in a row and then, she fell asleep when daddy was feeding her. But she is very close to coming home.Probably the end of the week. Which gives me a chance to fix the dropped stitches in her sock.***

(******There have been a number of descriptors for this project. I was trying to describe what it would be to someone when I was first starting; I came up with "condom" which was greeted with delight at Sunday dinner. My sister keeps calling it a "sleeve" which to me likens the baby to a tablet or a phone. My admin kept calling it a sock when I showed her this photo. Whatever you call it, it's precious.) (Yes, it's supposed to be a form of swaddling, but Special K doesn't like to feel pinned down. Where have I heard that before?)

Twin Knits

I finished the baby cocoons just in time. Special K has gone home from the NICU. Poor Baby R is there by her lonesome. K had some trouble sleeping; you just know she misses her big sister. But R hasn't made her way through an entire bottle yet, so they just can't let her go home. Mom, Dad, and little sister will be really happy when she joins them. 

This cocoon, which looks really blah without a baby inside, was made following Laurel Love's Cocoon free pattern. One came out better than the other mostly because it took me a while to get used to knitting on four needles again. (The pattern is written for magic loop, but I don't know it and didn't have time to learn. Never fear, I shall!) Anyway, once the babies were here, I somehow found my knitting mojo.

IRL, the yarn is a soft baby pink!