Dr. Annie

This weekend I was determined to finish something. Closest to being finished was the Baby Shrug so I focused on that. Now I realize that you may be asking yourself why it would take so long to finish such a simple project. It comes from Debbie Bliss' Simply Baby after all. "Simply" implies that the patterns will be uncomplicated and quick. Well let me tell you, I think the title should be Simply Baby, Easy to Muck Up.

What makes it easy is that the shrug is knit in one piece with the ribbing being knit from picked up stitches. Where it is easy to muck up, well paying attention to the pattern. (Duh.) I accidentally was short in the back by 4 rows. There was no way to alter the front to match with out doing a lot of redesigning. Puh-lease it's a baby SHRUG. Not even a sweater, not worth the effort of all that calculating decreases yadda yadda. My fix was to knit extra ribbing on the back. But lo and behold, the bottom of the shrug has shaping to make it more circular. Extra ribbing would look silly at such a large gauge. Instead I performed surgery. Thanks to Knittypants and her tutorial, I cut off the bottom and knit down reversing the shaping. Yes my darlings, I cut my own knitting and it worked.

I thought about doing short rows for the shaping instead of binding off so that I could pick up live stitches. But no, no, no. Debbie likes to write patterns where there are 52 stitches for the back, but for the ribbing you have to pick up 58 stitches. 18 stitches for the back of the neck, but you have to pick up 26. 45 options for stitches at the cuff, but only need 34. Simply Annoying.


The back turned out quite well despite ripping out the ribbing several times and calculating how to get the correct number of stitches evenly. The funny thing is that in the end, the shaping didn't even matter. It looks pretty straight despite blocking. No Cashew shots because it is still a little big. (Phew!)

I was showing the completed shrug to Hila yesterday and filling her in on my drama with the back shaping. She looked at me and said "Why did you bother?" I paused for a moment, looked back at her and said "What else would I have to blog about?"

The Turtle

Apparently I am the slowest knitter ever. Le sigh. As much fun as I have reading Penelope's and Tina's blogs, I'm starting to get depressed from them. I thought I had good finger dexterity, but I guess I am lacking in caffeine. Seriously, what are you gals taking? Maybe I need to practice Continental. Throwing the yarn is taking up too many precious milliseconds.

Curlicue, officially starting section 11. There are 15 sections total. I want to finish this project by May 31 so I can start fresh with new projects for my June Plan.


I'm up to the sleeve shaping for the baby shrug. This also must be finished by May 31. Allena gave me the cute project bag for my birthday! She sews them herself and rumor has it she will be selling them soon.


My plan was to try and have these done for the Sock Exchange so that Cashew could wear them. Clearly that didn't happen. If it takes me until May 31 to finish these I will be very embarrassed.

(BTW - Cashew is modeling her Lacy Bonnet here. )

One More Time, With Feeling

Debbie Bliss Baby Shrug. Cashmerino Aran. Let's try this again...

It's Over

My affair with the Baby Shrug ended tragically. I could no longer go on living in denial. It just wasn't going to work. (And there's a reason you should do a gauge swatch.)


Feeling down and embarrassed (I mean, I know better! But my eagerness got in the way. I couldn't drink, so I knit. Carelessly.) I console myself by whipping up a swatch for something else. The Debbie Bliss Matinee Coat. In pink.

Spring Fling

This weekend was absolutely beautiful so Hotty Hubby and I took our darling Cashew to Central Park for the first time. (Side note - yesterday HH looks at a book of mine on the coffee table and asks "Isn't that the Yarn Harlot?" Why yes it is! And he says "Oh my GAWD, I can't believe I knew that was the Yarn Harlot." Heh heh. We're training them well, eh Chante?)


The only project I am working on right now is a secret one. Life has been a little stressful lately and I still can't hit the liquor cabinet, so I decided to cheat on my current project and have a little fling with some Manos Cotton Stria and a Debbie Bliss Baby Shrug.


The shrug is for this little bundle of yummy goodness. Here we are modeling our Mommy & Me socks. Hurry up and take the picture Daddy!