Miss Dashwood was one of the first patterns that I ever dreamed of knitting when I first discovered Knitty. It is one of the reasons that I hoped to someday have a baby girl. Now, I am completely in love with my girl, but she has dramatically cut down my knitting productivity. I have tons of cute little girlie patterns and not nearly enough time.

Anyways, back to the bobbles. This hat has adorable little bobbles framing the brim. I was a little intimidated by my first encounter with bobbles, but while time-consuming, they were easy to complete . . . So, I learned how to knit bobbles. The trick: Knit VERY loosely. The first bobble was so rewarding; knit, knit, knit, knit, turn work and purl 4 together, turn work and POOF! Like magic, there’s a nubby bobble. I highly recommend it. The brim is completed and I’m now working on the rest of the hat, but I expect it to knit up in a flash.

Pattern: Hedera

Needle: US 2/2.75 mm

Yarn: Knit Picks Gloss–Concord Grape

Modifications: 10 repeats of the lace pattern on the leg. 19 repeats on the heel flap. Decreased the foot to 56 stitches.

I did everything I could think of. I shortened the heel flap and made the foot a few stitches smaller, but still, Hedera was a disaster. I deluded myself into believing that the socks would shrink up a bit after I washed and blocked them . . . they didn’t. It wouldn’t bother me so much if I hadn’t been so excited for the socks and done a very accurate guage swatch. As you can see, the socks fit my husbands ginormous, rather wide feet quite well, but mine, not so much. And no, I will not give them to my husband. First of all, they are too feminine and secondly (insert whiny voice here), I want them for myself! I am debating whether I can salvage the socks by only frogging them to the heel flap and shortening that some more, finishing them up with the size 2 needle that I had used originally. Maybe I should frog the entire heel flap and do a short row heel. I’m not sure, but I think that I’ll have to frog them entirely and reknit on a size 1 needle. Words can not express how sad I am that I am not wearing these socks and looking fabulous in them right now.

Don’t get me wrong, these socks were a joy to knit, but now I’m ready to wear them, not knit them again. I’m crossing my fingers that when I finally fix Hedera, I can post a “Happy Hedera” message.

My sister, Lauri is getting married in August. I have tried to help her out, giving her some wedding planning advice (those things that we wish that we had splurged on and the other things that we could have done without), suggesting an awesome free wedding planning website, and just trying to be there to relieve some of the stress. My husband and I have only been married for two years, so I remember the stresses of wedding planning all too well.

Lauri only just purchased her wedding gown and I was literally scolded by the bridal shop owner for ordering my bridesmaid’s dress so close to the wedding. It is not my fault that Lauri only just figured out what she wants us to wear, this lovely chiffon dress in a dark raspberry. Now the problem I face is that my baby is the flower girl. Most flower girls are at least two years old and my girl will be about 12 months. This makes it near impossible to find a dress.

Lauri suggested that I knit a dress for my girl. Of course, I jumped at this, showing her all sorts of adorable patterns, lacy or flowery. She must have been joking about the knit dress because she shot down every cute thing I suggested, but honestly, what could be more cute than that little sundress adapted to have cap sleeves, knitted in white with raspberry colored flowers at the waist that complement the bridesmaids’ dresses? Oh, well. Its Lauri’s wedding and she should be thrilled with the outcome, so we continue to search for a flower girl dress.

The folks over at 5minutesformom.com are having a Mother’s Day photo contest. This photo describes what motherhood is to me. My husband took it soon after my daughter and I came home from the hospital. We had a very stressful time in the hospital, an emergency c-section and then my daughter had to stay in the NICU on the 3rd floor while I was on the 6th floor. If there was a photo that could show how little time I spent in my own room while spending time by her in the NICU, I would post that instead. This picture is happiness to me, showing us finally able to relax and be together as mother and daughter. I love it. Its not artistic, but in my 8 months as a mother, I have seldom found artistic motherhood moments. They are all beautiful though.

This is Public Service Announcement, issued on April 30, 2008. Beware of knitting and driving.

Every day, when I leave the house for my daily commute, my husband rolls his eyes as I pick up my knitting. I don’t throw caution to the wind and try to knit while the car is actually in motion; that would constitute a pathological knitting obsession. I knit a few stitches at stop lights. It is wonderful because I usually run a few minutes late for work every morning. This way, when I inevitably catch every red light, I have a joyous little “snack” of knitting.

Today Hedera paid the price for my reckless knitting. Fortunately, I am only working the ribbing of sock #2 and this didn’t interrupt the lace. It was simple enough to tear it back, but I should have been more careful. So, let me reiterate: Beware of knitting and driving.

In other news, my husband and I are purchasing a house, so I am very busy packing our belongings. I know that I’ll be busy when we move into our new home too, so I wanted to make some meals to freeze. I plan to make pasta this weekend, specifically ravioli. If there is anyone who has a good ravioli recipe that he/she would like to share, a little variety would be great.

doodle 2

All right, I figured since this is “Saboknits and more,” I should include some of the knits. I just finished knitting a pair of Aubrey DoodlePants for my little girl. I think that it is the best diaper cover that I have knit to date. I made the pants shorter for summer-wear with a Belle Epoque ruffle from Nicky Epstein’s “Knitting on the Edge.” I still have to weave in the ends and the pants have not even been put on my girl yet because she was asleep when they were completed last night. I am so excited to see them on her little hiney.

Next up, I will knit a pair of Hedera in Knit Picks Gloss. This will be the first pair of socks that I have ever knit for myself. I made a bunch for Christmas last year, but never got to make mine . . . All right, I can’t lie to you, I did knit one pair of socks for myself years ago, but it was before I realized how important it is to use the correct weight of yarn. The pattern called for fingering and I used sport, then changed the pattern to accommodate the different guage. Needless to say, it was a disaster. I have never frogged the socks though. I guess I have this emotional bond to my first pair. I can’t bear to see them die.

What has my life come to? So, I was getting ready for my shower this morning and looked at myself in the mirror. My life has so deteriorated that I pulled an oat out of my hair. The only thing that would have made it worse is if after looking at the oat, I said to myself, “What the heck? When is the last time that anyone ate oatmeal?” Fortunately, it was yesterday evening. My girl was waving her hands around like crazy during dinner last night. . . I should probably check the walls for oatmeal mortar too, chisel it away.

You are the one and only person in my blogging world right now, so hello. I’m just gonna fool around with this for a little bit since I have all kinds of free time while at the office these days. We’ll see how long it is until you discover this page. If per chance, someone who is not my husband is here, hello world.  You are welcome to look around while I figure out this whole blogging business. See ya later.