Children I will never meet

I have had a few requests lately to knit baby gifts for friends that have friends having babies. For the first item, I opted to put the finishing touches on a bunny (previously named sally) that I made several months ago. She now has a tail and a scarf and is going to Chicago soon. I believe I will be receiving a print in the mail in exchange for this one???

The other item I whipped up this weekend and it was fun to figure out. Somehow I have avoided making anything with a basket-weave pattern until now (which is kinda weird because I have always liked it). Decreasing in the pattern gave me the most to think about, but after a little internet searching and minimal frogging I got it down and am happy with the outcome. This item has already been traded for one frontline treatment for Mabes and a series of not so magnetic magnets.

Grass-roots knitting

The latest issue of Interweave Knits has a lot of content that is to be expected- a horrible man sweater, yet another annie modesitt sweater pattern (a yolk pullover to boot-referenced on the right), and lots of overly complex sweaters calling for way to many balls of unaffordable yarn. There are some redeeming points, a few manageable patterns, one gorgeous sweater (below on the left) that I will never make because of the aforementioned reasons, a pair of buffalo yarn socks and some interesting short articles relating to some grass-roots knitting issues.
The mother bear project is a Minnesota based organization that collects homemade (knit or crochet) bears and sends them to needy children in Africa. I'm thinking about purchasing this world war II pattern and contributing to the cause.
The next article I read was about was microRevolt which is an organization started by a woman in New York in protest of companies employing sweatshop labor. Her main project is a large nike blanket made up of donated 4x4 inch squares from knitters around the world. The blanket has made some tours, stopping at knitting circles and galleries. This site also has a program that will convert any GIF JPEG or PNG image into a knitting pattern (I think simple images would work best, but wouldn't it be cool to knit a friends face on something???).
There were a couple other notable links in this issue including an article on Japanese knitting
http://blogs.interweave.com/knits/
and London's Victoria & Albert Museum recently posted a knitting page on their site V&A Knitting
(FYI, this issue will be available in stores Nov 14)

Skittle

This was the first project I completed while being laid up. It is a pattern named Spherey by Jess Hutch, she has lots of neat toy patterns and used to put out a booklet of them for purchase, but has since decided to tunnel her energy elsewhere. Spherey is out of that booklet and I am ever so grateful to stitchkommander for allowing me to borrow her copy.

I also found my favorite book as a child while looking through my box of stickers- Hello Kitty's Special Present. She gets this yellow umbrella in the mail from her grandmother and has to wait and wait to use it. The day that it finally rains, is the only day she doesn't bring it to school. Luckily for her she has a smart and thoughtful mother who brings it to her at the end of the day so that they can walk home together in the rain with their umbrella's. I was always fascinated by umbrellas as a child and read this one over and over which is evidenced by the crease in the middle of the cover (which you can't really see in this pic).

it's been a while

I usually like to post on a weekly basis, but have been lagging behind a bit due to an injury I sustained just over a week ago. I tore my ACL and have been laid up ever since. My knitting is doing better than my blogging (and my thesis).
I have made countless washclothes. They are one of the best things to make because they are completely mindless. Don't get me wrong, I love the challenge of a new pattern and learning new knitting techniques and tricks, but when you are on drugs and in pain and just need something to distract you - not necessarily something to think about - washclothes are the way to go.
I have also been working on the poop brown socks oh and I made a mini-sock for Blue's big toe (who's toenail is in peril). He wears it at night in best effort to keep it attached. I think it is super cute and I used all of my sock knowledge to make the cuff and toe decrease thankfully no heel flap or gusset were needed.