My cousin is due this week - the first baby of the next generation in the family - and I used the occasion as an excuse to knit an oh so adorable Tomten.
The pattern is an Elizabeth Zimmerman classic. I have her book "Knitting Without Tears" and this is my first project from it.
I used some Shibui sock yarn in Peacock (I think that's the color) that had just not been working out as anything else. It clearly wanted to be this sweater, as it knit up nearly perfectly. The pooling you see on the arms is from the additional skein I had to buy to make it through the arms. Now I have enough leftovers to make a cute pair of booties. Probably not for this baby, but one of the other three that will be born in the next six months!
This patttern is fantastic, and pretty easy. No crazy shaping or stitches - it did take some imagination to figure out how to sew the arm seams to the underarms, but really, it just works.
The next project is not knitting, but making the backyard ready for a wedding (we're into the four week countdown!!). Right now, we're working with this:
While it's pretty green, the bed is full of weeds. We took out everything that was planted there, and nothing we planted grew! So, Roomie Liz and I bought a ton of flowers to plant in there:
Foxgloves, hydrangea (four different colors!), a gorgeous red rose bush (that might go in front actually) and a bunch of shade loving annuals.
I also have these to dress up the plain old fence with:
I also have these to dress up the plain old fence with:
I'll post some "after" shots when it's all pulled together. Cross your fingers for big improvements!
