mary makes merry

Has someone already made this joke?

Probably won't see "The Good German" or "The Good Shepherd."

But would stand in line to see "The Good German Shepherd."

I think I'm learning Japanese, I really think so

Carolyn lent me four excellent Japanese craft books for softies a couple of weeks ago. Since two of them had been atop my Will Probably Buy, Regardless of Cost, list, she saved me a lot of money, at least for the time being! So far, there are two members of the Land of the Rising Sun/Carolyn Collection. The first went to live with her:

The second, made over the past couple of days, is for Ellie. Clark asked her what the new bunny's name was, and at first she said Hannah. Then she changed it to Jonnie Bunny, which stuck.

She ought to be named Flopsy, though. Her head is super-floppy. I even took her apart to try to put in the neck portion of a spinal cord, fashioning it from some sturdy denim folded over several times. Either I'm not much of a surgeon, or this baby was born to flop. I was pleased with how the patchwork body-dress turned out and could see making another one with a different head/neck situation. This pattern also has the most subtle mouth ever -- three darts are sewn in the face like an upside-down Y. It's almost invisible in this white fabic, but when I went over it with embroidery floss, I didn't care for that, either. Ellie kisses and nuzzles it, though, so what's my problem?

The weekend is finally here -- have a great one, whatever you're doing and wherever you may be! A couple of parting shots of Ellie at Water Tower Place Mall and at the 900 N. Michigan building yesterday. Can you believe Water Tower Place does not have a Santa (alive-in-suit, posing for photos) in the whole dang place? At least that's what I was told at the info desk. That person did helpfully suggest the Bloomingdale's building, though. Their Santa gives nice little plush toys to kids who come, even if their parents don't shell out for the photos. Ellie would sit in his chair, but only if he stood behind it. At least she didn't cry.

Milestone

Yesterday afternoon, Ellie actually helped with a little project I was doing! She put artistic scribbles on the pretty paper and then wielded a mean glue stick as we made this:

The inspirations were a cool vertical garland Carolyn made with origami boxes and gave Ellie and the template and photos in the recent hopskipjump guest post on Kiddley (on Dec. 16). (Pay no attention to the paper square hiding a hideous, unused phone jack placed for the photo shoot.) We also counted the birdies together. I think she got a kick out of the whole exercise.

It looks better in her room, where it will probably hang, but the light's not good there on a day like this.

Lost focus last night on the vest, but hopefully will gain a bunny from it. I'm hoping to see lots of y'all tonight. Yay!

Slightly stretched

I haven't had to knit something until it's long enough "when slightly stetched" in a while, but those are the directions for the button band on Clark's vest. I'm not too worried about figuring out just what that means in my knitting at the moment, but I did realize that the phrase describes my life pretty well, especially five days before Christmas. I'll have to ruminate on the relationship between healthy tension and the state of being slightly stretched.

I made a critter from the book Plush-o-rama (portrait to come after Christmas, on the off chance the intended recipient wanders by before then). It took no time at all and turned out pretty well, so I'm itching to make another one. Must. Remain. Focused.on.Vest.

I blame the funk

I'm sorry I didn't post over the weekend, especially after I had said I would. What indolence, negligence, petulance and truculence! Santa will bring me coal for sure.

I have to send Carolyn a big thank you (or, in Ellie-ese, faahhnk you) for these wonderful books that came in the mail:

(Sorry for the glare from the flash.) What a great surprise! Each has some adorable and fun patterns. Thanks, Carolyn!

In knitting news, I got inspired on Sunday to dig out the brioche vest for Clark from, er, February 2004. Ugh. But I'm now working on the button band, which is a darn sight farther along than we were Saturday. Cross your fingers.

Am also knitting a Trellis for Ellie and enjoying it very much. I had just started it when Monica posted about her finished one (Nov. 30 post). She had just totally piqued my interest with another kid's sweater, so it was two big inspirational moments in a couple of days courtesy of Passionknit. Loving the blog world!

We have liftoff! (or, How did it get to be Friday?)

Bonne Marie's afternoon at Arcadia was wonderful!* The patterns are so clean and crisp in their new, happy, hard-copy selves. I got the Ribby Pulli pattern, which includes enough delectable variations in itself for a whole new wardrobe, as well as the famous Ariann. Bonne Marie led a mini-course on measurements, and it was really helpful. Who knew that finding the knobs on our shoulders could help us make clothes that fit better?? I had to come clean as a Person who Has No Waist, but there are worse things, I suppose. But this isn't about me, anyway -- there was a nice crowd gathered in Arcadia's nice meeting/class space, and it was just a great day marking a great step forward for Chic Knits! Yay!! Soon we'll be able to say we knew her when.

The icing on the cake was seeing Heidi and sweet Maeve! She's just as darling as she looks online. And what a great little trouper.

I actually, factually have more material for posts, so c'mon back over the weekend.

*Yes, the event was Sunday, today is Friday, and there have been no intervening posts. I thought I was supposed to be less busy when I'm not teaching?!?

KIP!

Unless something goes badly haywire, I'll be at KIP tomorrow night, though probably about half an hour late. Yay!

I had a lot of fun at the MCA SnB group last night -- Bonne Marie put up a great post about it today. It was great to spend the evening with her, Dana, and Jenn. I am so eager to get back into the group knitting thing. 

And of course we're all going to the Great Arcadia Event on Sunday with our own fabulous B. Marie. Look forward to seeing you there!

If at first, you don't succeed,

throw the book in the trash. Just kidding. I got two Japanese craft books last week from Superbuzzy and wasted no time in trying to make one of the charming little bits o' fluff gracing one of them. We went to a holiday party on Saturday and, on Saturday, I decided I'd try to make something to take as a host gift. Hmmm.

If Ellie were about 5, I could have taken it to the party and said she made it. But it can live on our Christmas tree. I had a lot more fun fiddling with it once I decided it wasn't ready for prime time. Here are some grainy images from the book, the newest issue of Cotton Time:

The top image shows the wreath for which the snowman is but one adornment. The pattern has you make cute little stuffed boots for him, but I couldn't turn the ones I tried and gave up. I also made a number of other temper-preserving adjustments. I was relieved, though, when I showed the finished product to Ellie and she said, "Snow-mahn."

I almost titled this post "Who am I trying to kid?" as in, what makes me think I can pull off the level of precision and detail that these little jobbies require. But I think if I were to take some more time with them, and maybe hand-sew things like those boots, I could do it. Next question: do I want to? We shall see.

Let's go!

http://www.mcachicago.org/calendar/index.php?eventid=2006-12-05

I've never been to the Stitch-n-Bitch at the Museum of Contemporary Art, but I'm going tomorrow. Hope to see at least some of the usual KIP suspects! Sadly, I won't have my car, so I can't offer anyone a lift. But I'll probably get there pretty close to the 5:30 start.

No, it is not Dec. 1

I got this book with a coupon from Border's. I'm glad to have it, though I don't think I would have bought it without the coupon:

It's Sew U, by Wendy Mullin, a designer whose aesthetic is not really my own...or at least that's what I wrote in my head before I saw this pattern five seconds ago. Anyway, I do look forward to trying out the pants pattern in the book, and I'll probably do the shirt somewhere along the line, too. The skirt, maybe not. But we'll see. I've picked up some nifty tips from the introdutory sections, so that makes it worthwhile already.