FOcused on the Positive

This has been one of those days...with Little Baby eating through the night, Slim up at 6am, Slim napping for only 45 minutes in the stroller, to everyone finally falling asleep at 8:30pm. In the meantime, I'm center-stage as Child Entertainer Extraordinaire.

So let's FO-cus on the positive, right?

I have been incredibly remiss in posting two crafty gifts we are loving. First is a non-knitted object gifted by my cousin, Elizabeth.

Liz gave me my first baby knit, a stroller blanket for Slim when he was born. I was in awe of it, but unaware at the time how much it meant to be able to give a hand-crafted gift to a new baby. Now it is one of my treasures that I hope Slim will still have to hand down to his kids.

So when her baby came along, I had to gift a knit. I used up some rainbow-colored Lorna's Laces in the stash to make a wild baby hat. I still haven't finished up the blanket I originally started. (shhh!)

When Mom told me Liz had something for Little Baby, I expected another fantastically cool handknit. But when I opened the package, my mind was blown.

Y'all. She quilts.

Aaaauughh! Now I have to learn another craft. I mean, how cute are these little pirates??

But I admit, the pirate quilt is so cute, I've been shy about using it alot. But I think I will take it along with us as a play blanket for the Little Baby while Slim is running around at the park.

There is another (not my) FO that we have been using nonstop. A certain Crafty Caroline made a visit to D.C. recently with some guy (kidding, Scott!) and gifted the Little Baby with a gorgeous organic cotton baby blanket. Every time I think to take a picture of it, Little Baby is already wrapped and covered for bed.

It's funny...Caroline and I met through our hubbies and hung out, but we really bonded through our blogs and shared love of knitting. Go congratulate her on the new house and leave your thoughts about what spinning wheel she should pick up! (And her mom met the Harlot! Squee!)

Did I ever share KnittinSis's cute little baby booties?

She used the same yarn as I did for Little Baby's kimono sweater. He is so incredibly yummy in the pair.
What else? Oh! Yarn pr0n!

Not that Lady Knitterly had anything else to do (leave behind the Met, knit socks, pack, move across country, start a new job), but she gifted me with an A-M-A-Z-I-N-G package of yarny goodness in trade for a couple skeins of Black Purl Lorna's Laces I traded her.

We're talking Trekking in colors that would have been my absolute first choice if every colorway of Trekking had been laid out in front of me.

We're talking baby alpaca that almost jumped right onto the Options needles for a lacy sumpin-sumpin. Nevermind I have no idea how to knit lace.

And then the laceweight mohair...ooh. The. Laceweight. Mohair. I want to use it right now.

Oh my God. There are so many projects, so little time. I already have more WIPs than is reasonable, and even less time than before to work on them.

But I'll wait until the next post to run through the WIP list and share a FO of my own.