Knit-Nerd-Rant

Following up on the last post, here's another pattern that I made up, super simple and looks great. It's super soft and stretchy, and like the last one, has no wrong side. I found 2 colors of the Caron Simply Soft that I liked together - a deep red and a charcoal grey - sorry the colors don't look properly dark enough in the photos, but such is life.  I really like the effect of the two strands together!  I learned at one point that the first thing that babies can see is contrasts and edges, so I figure this might help with some visual stimulation to get those tiny brains going. It almost looks like large strips woven together, but it's just squares of alternating sides of stockinette, with a border of garter stitch on the sides for stability. Supplies: Size 13 needles (I used a circular for convenience) Size 15 needles for bind-off 2 contrasting colors of Caron Simply Soft (I used Autumn Red #9730 and Charcoal Heather #9508 in 6 oz. skeins) Row counter

So my nearly-mother-in-law has been volunteering at the neonatal ICU at her local hospital and put out a request for baby blankets for the tiny ones that need help staying warm. So I went over to the local big giant box store in town (because fancy yarn shops are not willing to stoop to selling Red Heart Super Saver and other washing machine friendly acrylics) and stocked up. I wanted to be able to churn out some blankets quickly, and so this is the first of some unknown number of simple blankets that don't really have a wrong side.  I feel like it saves time to know that both sides are right sides, because we all know that nurses have nothing but free time... This has basically a frame of seed stitch and rows of alternating directions of stockinette in the contrasting colors. Here's the first one: Supplies: Size 10.5 circular knitting needles (not a short circular, but doesn't need to be enormously long) Red Heart Super Saver in any 2 contrasting colors you l

So the belly dance has continued apace, and thanks to the recent discovery (via random Pinterest link) of a great tutorial on creating cabaret belly dance tops , I've finally gotten up the courage to create my own.  While I"m not ready for performances, I'm hoping that by the time I do get there, I'll have an awesome costume ready to go. This one features some really fun purple lame fabric found at a recent blow out sale form Bits of Thread, and the beads so far are from previous projects. I'm really excited about it! Was talking with my mother earlier and she noted that when my dad started back into his old cycling habit, he warned her that he would be enthusiastic/obsessive, and that didn't end up getting anywhere hear close to describing reality. So at least I know where I get it from! I'm also working on some simple baby blankets for the newborn ICU where the soon-to-bee mother-in-law volunteers.  So there's a lot of crafting going on up in h