A BOY

Well my nephew, born in the wee small hours of this morning, USA central time is. Congratulations to my gorgeous sister, her husband and daughter. It was very exciting to be receiving updates from my mother and youngest sister on my blackberry from the time she reached transition until Peter was blissfully enjoying his first drink of breastmilk.

Our darling's secret is safe for another few months, but I really miss knitting longies so I have decided to make several different pair of whatever takes my fancy. I can either gift or sell those that we decide we will not need.

I love the colourway, but am not happy with the pooling both on the body and leg of the longies. I recently made a hat from the same wool that came out in beautiful stripes.

The ruffled cuff is from my Field Guide To Knitting stitch dictionary.

Happy Birthday to my darling Charlotte back in Australia, and in the USA my sweet little nephew Peter and Happy Birthing Day to my wish come true, Rhianon.

Complete: baby blanket

The lovely baby blanket I was working on a few weeks ago has finally been gifted along with an umbilical cord hat I whipped up with the extra wool. Both patterns are from Stitch n Bitch Handbook, though did them from memory as I left my copy in Dubai.

My gorgeous friend Renee who will be a Mum for the first time in a few weeks also liked the title of the book I popped in with her gift. Now it would be lovely if her little cherub could be extra considerate and come at 39 weeks so I can meet him or her before returning home. 

Edited on 19/09 to let you know that around the time I posted this, little Isla made her way into the world five weeks early. Reports so far are that Mum and bub are fine. How sweet is the name Isla? I am looking forward to meeting her and giving my friend a hug, minding swollen breasts of course :)

Latest Knitting Obsession

Over the last week or two I have been churning out cotton washcloths. It has been a good chance to play with some of the stitch patterns in my copy of Field Guide to Knitting as well as enjoying some mindless seed stitch cloths.

Thanks to Michelle at Leni & Rose for teaching me how to have the link in the above image!

Latest Books

We have been book shopping again. In our basket this time we had~

The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs I am really looking forward to reading it. From the reviews and the quick flipping I have done, I think I am in for another great tale of female friendship with the added bonus of knitting. There is an exerpt at the authors site.

Creative Crafts for Kids, over 100 fun projects for two to ten year olds. A big hard covered craft bible for children. It is set out very logically with useful information like time required, suggested ages, and for many variations. It has pride of place on display in the girl's craft corner and we have enjoyed browsing the pages for inspiration.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar. It's a classic and I remember loving it as a child so I was really happy when B picked it up. Both girls really enjoyed it and I still love the colours as much as I did when I was young.

There Goes our Savings

Touted as the biggest bookstore in the Middle East, Magrudy's finally opened last week 8k from my home. Very dangerous. They have some lovely knitting books. I have visited a couple of times now and so far I have bought

Field Guide to Knitting, A great stitch dictionary that goes so far beyond the basics. Very inspiring and I love the glossy pics of all the swatches.

Debbie Bliss Home, Not only has this book got some good projects for housey things, but it is also very pretty and makes a cool coffee table book.

For the girls, we have our first chapter book- none other than Pippi Longstocking illustrated by Lauren Child, who we adore. We are halfway through and enjoying reading about her antics. There has been a few times now where I have not been able to get a sentence out because I am laughing so hard.

Magrudy's even have a little yarn corner plus a small range of needles and accessories. :) Then there is the art supplies, stationery, wooden toys, oh and books.