Oh, poo.

Our very own Mrs. Preggers went into labor today. Almost two weeks early, and, most importantly, before I could bestow upon her my gift for her dear little Cletus (now very nearly a baby). Luckily, Mr. Preggers, esq. (I'm going to have to start calling them something else) works here, too, so I can pass it on to him. But can I trust him with the washing instructions? Hmmm.....

It started with a sweater. I knew as soon as I heard about the pea in her pod that I wanted to make him the Child's Placket-Neck Pullover in Joell Hoverson's Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, and I did (I've had it ready for months). I used a burnt orange Alpaca/Silk blend, and I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out.

When I thought I had lucked into a batch of the perfect denim yarn for the Baby's Denim Drawstring Pants (I think it's been more of a curse) I decided to knit those, too. When I found out that it was too thick to follow the pattern as written, I carefully adapted it so the finished piece would match the measurements on the diagram. All was well until I measured it after removing it from the dryer...it had hardly shrunken at all! I was planning on telling Mrs. Preggers to give it another wash in hot water to shrink it down some more. I'm still crossing my fingers.

I had a bit of yarn left over after finishing the pants, so I added a hammer loop. Of course I had to make a little hammer to go in it. Yay to me for having both brown and grey wool, and boo to the yarn for not shrinking enough in felting for it to be more than just slightly smaller than the baby's leg will probably be.

At least I can chalk it all up to experience.

Today is NOT Thursday!

I keep looking at the wrong schedules to locate my coworkers. Why can't I get it through my thick skull that today is Wednesday? I'm gonna have to blame it on the holiday. Don't tell anyone that that means I should be thinking it's Tuesday. Then I might seem crazy. Something is wrong, anyway. Everybody that passed through our workroom today noticed the strong odor of the additive in natural, but I could smell nothing. I just had to take their word for it and open the doors to ventilate the area.

Why we craft

When shoes like these are priced out of our budgets, we are forced to be creative. I'm thinking of knitting up some hefty mary-jane slippers and needle felting the design on...it's something for the list of future projects, anyway.

Once again, the world is whole. I think I liked it broken.

I have been looking for my size 6 double-pointed needles for, oh, about three months. At first, I simply wanted to know where they were...trying to slowly gather bits of organization as I could. Then it got desperate. I recently learned that my pregnant co-worker's due date was more than a month earlier than I had been told. Yes, I already had a sweater completed (two ends left to weave in counts as complete when it's been like that for months, right?) and was in the clear as far having a gift was concerned, but then I got some yarn that I thought was right for the coordinating pants. So, needless to say, I had to have those needles. Yesterday. I searched high and low. I looked through my recently created craft drawer in my dresser, through my bookshelves, through my kitchen utensils (I could only search my desk so many times, after all). Finally, sitting on the floor after losing all hope of ever finding them--I had thrown out lots of crap they could have been lost in--there they were, shining like a beacon in all their plastic encased glory, on the floor between my desk and my Christmas decorations. If I ever catch the little pixie that knocked them off my desk, I will definitely have to give him a stern talking to. Oh, and the yarn is thicker than I thought and 100% cotton, so I don't think I can go down a needle size comfortably enough to knit the pants. I'm thinking about putting the needles back where I found them.

Don't do it!

Never try to get a small problem fixed at work. If you break your key off in your lock at your desk when you turn around in your giant-armed chair, don't ask the maintenance man to get it out. Just leave your valuables at home. Should you decide to get it fixed, be prepared for the desk to get locked with your keys inside. It will happen. Then he has to pry the drawer open and cart the whole thing away. Oh, the replacement will be deeper, indeed, but it won't match the desk.

Could you please phrase that in the form of a question?

"Computers where you can type things up, like on the internet..."

Hmmm, are you asking me a question? Do they make computers to which you can attach keyboards? Did you see somebody typing on a video you found on the internet and now you want to try it, too? Maybe you meant to start your "question" with "Where are the" or "Do you have." I'm gonna go with that and send you on your merry way.

Okay, world, with your never ending flow of crafting and food blog entries, you've broken me down. I've resisted the urge to contribute to this wonderful world, knowing that what I have to offer your world of vintage fabrics and hard-to-find extracts is like an ant offering his roomiest sweater to a shivering elephant. I only hope that this, my newest of endeavors, will keep me on my toes, keep my stash from overwhelming me, keep me from admonishing myself for my lack of productivity.

I will find violet extract (I think I may already have...)!