Rebecca Danger

A Little Catch Up

I have spent the morning catching up on emails and what-have-yous (bills, organizing, etc). I realized over the weekend, I never showed you this, did I?

We bought a "new" car back in October! It's a 1970 Volkswagen Bug. I think we are probably the only people in the history of the entire world to go, "Ack, we're pregnant! Let's buy a bug!" In fact the guy we bought it from was selling it because he had just had a baby and it is about the most impractical baby car in the entire world (it has a custom exhaust system on it that makes it rather, well, obnoxiously loud. It really sounds more like one of those jerky big trucks or even a motorcycle than a bug).  But, we wanted a second car, and since our first car is the most flipping practical Volvo station wagon in the entire world, we went with something fun for the second one. Cosmetically it is a little incredibly sad, but it runs like a champ, so it is our fun project car.

Just thought y'all would enjoy a little non-knitting haps in the Danger house. Now I am off to the sewing machine to finish up my next sewing pattern. I already have a knitting pattern lined up to be released this month, and I am going to finish up my second sewing pattern now to come out sometime this month as well. Exciting! 

A Little Not Me Knitting

This week has been taken up by computer work. I don't know what the deal was, but I was on this, ahem, darn computer at least 2/3's of each day. Definitely not enough knitting for my taste.

So, when I finished my final, or hopefully final, project on the computer yesterday I decided I needed some up and moving time. My solution, go to the gym or for a walk? Oh heck no, I organized yarn. Namely I was sorting through to find good Baby Danger nursery colors of yarn, but I was also sorting through for some patterns I am working on. Amazingly, I have actually sat down this week and planned out the year's worth of patterns I am going to work on, in an attempt to get organized before Baby Danger gets here. I am still feeling confident on that, but we'll just have to see how it goes. The funniest thing though is that when I am out yarn shopping I will grab cool yarns and be like, "Oh man, this would make an awesome monster, I should grab a couple of these!" and I do. But then when I go to start a new pattern I immediately start shopping again and completely disregard anything I have here. So, as I sorted through the stash, over and over I was like, "Oh wow! This is gorgeous! I didn't know I had such lovely yarns!" (I am sure you can all relate to this)

After the sorting, and organizing, and putting each project in a bin with a label, with my sketch worksheet, and any inspirationy type stuff I have for the project, and stacking those bins all up, I felt very on top of things and organized. "Time to get cracking!" I thought to myself as I sat and stared at the stack. Which was as far as I got. Then the thoughts like, "Man I'm hungry, I really shouldn't start when I am hungry." and "I'm getting cranky too, this is not a good thinking knitting time right now." and "I should have taken a nap today because I really just want to go to bed." and "My brain is fried from all that computer work this week, I am really not capable of thinking, calculating, and doing maths right now." started to kick in. So, I grabbed the cute Berroco Comfort DK I had bought for Baby Danger (and completely forgotten about) and cast on a baby hat. Easiest knitting in the world, it was perfect:

Lesson learned for today? Start the whole designy thing earlier. (Or, I have this great hat I could just finish up instead!)

A Little Me Knitting

I started a little me project on wednesday:

I was looking at yarn on Knitpicks.com and happened to click over to check on Louie and found this on their main Independent Designers page:

Image from Knitpicks.com

Since I just happened to have a ball of this exact yarn laying around (leftover from my Wispy Cardi) and I have been looking for another hat like this (since I have the one yellow one I wear nearly daily) I immediately bought it and cast on.

Of course, I really have no business casting on for this project right now. I have got just a ton going on, enough that I haven't actually sat down and listed it out for myself because I just might get in the car and drive away forever if I do. Enough too that I barely feel like I have time to make it to the bathroom, let alone make a hat, but you know how it goes! Stupid pretty pictures, I'm a sucker every time.

Alright, I am off to try and tackle a bunch of things and attempt to make a little more organized sense of all the stuff I have to get done. Wish me luck.

A Blog's Post in Pictures

A little photo action for this lovely Wednesday. First of all, Louie's made it big!

There he is on the "New and Popular" section of the patterns page on Ravelry. Go robots! Thanks Jen for letting me know.

And then, since I have seen it from every pregnant blogger I have ever read, the classic, in the bathroom mirror belly shot:

Not my best photo ever (I look a little wild-eyed there....) but fun nonetheless. There you go, this week is the first week of the third trimester (so maybe those wild eyes are for the fact I still have a ways to grow, yikes). Did I think about moving my toothbrushes, hairspray and toothpaste....no. Probably should have cleaned the mirror too. I offer this as proof I am good at knitting but not so much at the house keeping stuff.

Monster Cuteness!

Holy moly, look what one of my awesome customers sent me a picture of yesterday:

Image from Don't Look Now's Big Cartel Shop

She spied it walking past a local quilt shop and snapped a picture for me. Thanks Tina! I of course immediately googled "monster quilt" and found the pattern. Not only is the quilt amazing, but the pattern comes with pillow patterns too, which might be even cuter than the quilt itself:

Image from Don't Look Now's Big Cartel Shop

I am many things, but I am not a quilter. BUT, one of my mom's best and oldest friends is a big quilter, so I think Baby Danger will be seeing this quilt in his future. I am off to buy the pattern now.

Wow, apparently the blog is turning into my daily internet shopping. Hmm. When did this happen? (This meaning a) the blog is my personal shopping journal, and b) I buy things on the internet every day. Weird. I blame the hormones. Stupid hormones.)

Pouf!

Wanna know what I am all excited about this morning? This:

I am totally going to make this for Baby Danger's nursery. I had seen it awhile ago and desperately wanted to make one but have no place for it, which is really a must with a giant piece of knitting like this. BUT, I found it again by accident the other day and thought it would not only be perfect in front of a rocking chair for the nursery, but awesome for Baby Danger to climb on as he gets bigger. I do have a feeling he might have to fight Lucy the Pug (our pillow princess) for it though.....I am going to do it in this yarn: 

Image from Joann.com

Which handily enough is on sale right now. 

Off I go to find more tea. My only goal for today is to stay in the house all day and work. I feel like I have been running around way more than I should be and since I sat down and mapped out all the patterns I am going to be doing this year (attempting to work ahead before the baby gets here) I am feeling like I need to get going on those patterns.

Nesting

I have started getting really excited for Baby Danger's nursery recently. We are actually moving from our current house-- since 800 sq ft just isn't going to cut it with me, Mr Danger, Baby Danger, 2 pugs, and my bustling home business-- sometime in the next month or two (and yes, that does mean I will 8+ months pregnant when we move). So since no actual nursery setting up can happen right now, I have started making plans using lots of pictures compiled into a notebook.

I picked this fabric as the main colors, with a theme of monsters (of course):

Image from Fabric.com

I am planning to make most of the stuff (this fabric will be crib sheets), so I have been focused on bumpers the last little while. I have picked what I think will be my fabrics, but I am still a little up in the air. So the above stripe will be the crib sheet, with 2 sided bumpers in these prints:

Images from Fabric.com

But, since I am doing a monster theme, now I am all worried that the sugar skulls (Michael Miller's Bonehead print which I am in love with, the plaid is also Michael Miller if you were wondering) will be a random addition if everything else is monsters. I just love how they look with the large striped fabric, and love that it would bring in a little black and white and gray to calm down my 2 main colors.

My other consideration is to use the colors from the Bonehead print and design a monster fabric that I could order on spoonflower.com....oh my, as I typed this I pulled up spoonflower and searched monster and lookey at the first fabric I found!

From spoonflower.com

So maybe I wouldn't even need to do any work at all (ie designing fabric) to have some awesome matchy monster fabric for Baby Danger.

Alright, well obviously I am off to devote the next several hours of my life to spoonflower in search of monster fabrics........

What A Week!

Wow! Thank you to every one who has purchased a book from me this week! I sold way more than I thought I would (in fact I have to order more this morning!). You have kept me very happy and busy the last couple days.

Not too much going on here, shipping out an entire case of books on Wednesday evening sort of did me in and I have been recovering since! I did manage to update the events I am doing the next couple months on my About page this morning. You might want to check it out if you are interested in meeting me in person!

Alrighty, off to knit. It is absolutely pouring rain and miserable here today, so it looks like a good day to snuggle up on the couch with my pugs, get a bunch of knitting in, and drink a bunch of tea.

It's Officially Here!

Yeah! I just went through and updated my etsy shop to take the book off "pre-order" since it is officially out today. My copies ship from Martingale today, so they should hopefully be here in the next couple days for those of you who ordered a signed copy through me.

I can't believe today is finally here! It seems like an entirely different lifetime ago that this whole process started, or even that I turned in my manuscript. Wow! I guess in some ways it never felt like this day would actually come......

I Thought I Was A Quick Knitter

Remember how I took 2 major projects with me on my trip, saying I had 20 hours of driving each way? Well, I didn't even manage to finish the blanket I had started on before the trip until yesterday. I didn't account for the fact that I would probably only be getting 8 hours of daylight each day, and that I would likely be driving for part of that. Or the fact that it was just really nice to sit and do nothing at all.

I did finish the blanket though, and boy did it come out cool:

It is the Maude Honeycomb Blanket from Kristin Rengren's Vintage Baby Knits (the awesome-est baby knits book I have found so far). I did mine in Berroco Comfort. It is cool enough I am thinking about doing the same pattern on a pillow in the colors I've picked out for Baby Danger's nursery. Man this took me forever though, or at least it seemed like it. Especially since I cut the yarn on every color change and then had to go back and weave in all the ends. I think if I did it again (and on said pillow) I will carry the colors up the side. On the pillow I can hide that in the seam, and on this blanket I could have hid it due to the fact that you pick up stitches all along the side for the edging. Oh well, live and learn.

I am feeling a little more back to normal (or as back to normal as you can feel during the last week of the 2nd trimester) and am getting back to my normal work schedule. Today's task? Run like a maniac into Joann's to get a bunch of stuffing. We are on the edge of crisis here in the Danger household: I am out of stuffing!