Crazy Knits

For what it's worth, I am feeling ever so much better for having taken a day off to sit at home and snuffle in peace.  In fact, I was actually feeling much better yesterday morning after sleeping in just a bit later than is usual and not having to go into the classroom to face the desert-like, sinus-aggravating conditions created by our heating system.  Yup.  A day at home with the cough/cold medication was just the thing.

However, I still found it necessary to sleep on the couch last night.  Sleeping on the couch is one of those "sick behaviors" that probably doesn't help matters, but still seems like the thing to do when I'm under the weather.  It wasn't my intention, though.  I fully planned on snoozing the night away in the comfort of my own bed with a fluffy kitty and a box of tissues by my side.  

I failed to factor in the rules around the consumption of over-the-counter cold medications, though.  Apparently, it is a very bad idea to combine antihistamines from a bottle that says, "may cause drowsiness" with the reading of one's Zombie Survival Handbook before bed.  What can I say?  I goofed.  Under the best of circumstances, I find that cold medications give me the jitters when taken more than once per day but I figured that it was the weekend and sleep wasn't really all that important.  And I'm sort of addicted to the zombie book...

The combination of the two left me awake into the wee hours lamenting my lack of prowess with various firearms and wondering how I might destroy the stairs leading up to my condo in the event of an outbreak of walking dead.  I finally just gave up and hit the couch where I added to my overall sense of paranoia by falling asleep to some show on the travel channel featuring international ghost hunters.  

Common sense does not exactly abound here at Chez Sheepie.  But weird dreams most certainly do.

The hours spent in wakeful contemplation have been pretty good for the knitting, though.  I've been waving the pointy sticks around just like someone who knows what the heck she is doing.  You'd almost think a real, live knitter lives here or something...

For those of you who don't think you can stand the sight of another pair of Maine Morning Mitts, I'd advise you to cast your eyes away right now.  I'm hopelessly addicted to these things at the moment and there is no way to get past this compulsion other than knitting them like a madwoman.  This pair isn't completely my fault, though.  Noolie recently featured a pair that were knit from homespun yarn she gifted unto Patti.  I have handspun yarn.  How was I to resist such a challenge?

For what it's worth, I knit these as a gift.  That should redeem me on some level...

And then there were the Cute Widdle Baby Sox.  Yes, they are still too big for a newborn.  That hasn't changed although I had great hope for some sort of magical knitting intervention taking place when I wasn't looking.  However, they are still just about the cutest darned things I've ever laid eyes on and, considering I kind of made them up as I went along, I think they came out rather well.

Say it with me, people:  Awwwwwww!

These were knit using the leftovers from a pair of socks I finished up over the summer.  Trek sent me a skein of the most yummy Sunshine Yarns sock yarn and it was just too soft to not use completely.  I think I had about ten inches left when all was said and done.  I now feel that I have squeezed all the possible goodness out of it.  

Last, but certainly not least, we have the completed baby kimono:

And if you haven't just melted into a pile of goo from the unbearable cuteness at this point, you never will.  

This is the one piece baby kimono from Mason-Dixon knits and is just about the fastest baby sweater pattern ever created.  Of course, once I whipped through the knitting, it occurred to me that I am the worst seamer of garter stitch to ever stroll the planet.  You can talk to me about the mattress stitch until the cows come home and I still won't be able to do anything but make a mess of it.  What I saved in time by not having to purl on this, I lost trying to seam like a real knitter.  In the end, I became fearful that all the bad words I was saying might have a negative karmic effect on the baby who will be wearing this thing and just did a backstitch seam.  Yeah, it's bulky.  But babies are pretty helpless and have to wear what we tell them to wear even if it makes them look fat.  And it's not like diapers are all that flattering, right?

I also opted to not go with the pattern and use the suggested ribbons for the ties.  On something that will require washing, I felt that this might be something of a no-no.  Instead, I found some very cute cartoony shoelaces.  I didn't stitch them into place, either.  They were easily laced through the knitted fabric and can be removed for washing or changing out to better compliment baby's ensemble.  

I figured that giving some choices with regard to accessories was the least I could do after the whole fat-seaming/bad language karma thing...

So here we are.  It is Saturday night, I have knit myself into a coma and am ready to party my way into the weekend with a stiff belt of NyQuil.  We know how to do it up right here in Sheepland!

And tonight I'm going to reread the chapter on Living In An Undead World.  I need to balance off all the "cute" with something a little closer to the edgy side of things.

SA