Rebecca Danger

Merry Christmas!

From the Danger family to yours: we wish the Very Merriest Christmas!

Giant Churp!

So last Knit Night me and one of my girls were talking about Chubby Chirps (I can't even remember why at this point). Somehow we came up with the idea of doing a Chubby Chirp on Us 13's with Cascade Magnum, which I decided was a must do. I had a half finished monster from my first book that I ran out of yarn for, so I decided it was time to pull it out and make it something else.

Pretty cool, huh? It only took about half a skein of Magnum. I put it next to one of the original Chirps so you can see how big he is.

He he! Though I have sworn off making Christmas presents for anyone (other than The Kid), this guy is destined as a Christmas gift (for someone I know doesn't read the blog, phew!). I put him up on Ravelry too if you want to know what I did.

He's a great last minute gift if you need one! (We do have at least 192 hours to Christmas. You could get a whole flock done in that amount of time!)

This Week I Am Loving........

.........oh my goodness, a Sophie leash! It has been a while since a "This Week I Am Loving" post, so I thought we were over-due.

Image from JoshandTeo.etsy.com

How freaking excited am I about this? I mean, when you spend 20 bucks on a squeaky giraffe you really need to protect your investment. Sophie is one of The Kid's favorite toys, but I never take her out anywhere for fear of her disappearing (and me needing to spend 20 more bucks on a replacement). Now I can take Sophie out in the stroller safely. Woo! There is one on the way to our house as I type this....

I know, I know. Life has changed around here. The things I get excited about these days? Getting the funky smell out of cloth diapers and giraffe leashes. What can I say? Babies change things.

Christmas Giraffe!

I put down my Manu for a bit (got through one sleeve last week!), but I have some work knitting coming up here and I wanted to make The Kid a Giles for Christmas. This Kid adores all things giraffe apparently. Forget Super Bear, The Kid is absolutely in love with my Giles sample from Creative Knitting, but it is made out of 220 and I don't want to give him something that isn't washable. So, I decided to make a slightly smaller version in a kid-friendly yarn. Ta-da!

I used Rozetti Yarns Bella Soft'N Plush on US size 4 needles, which just might be my new favorite toy yarn. I would never use it for anything else, but man, it made the fluffiest, snuggliest giraffe ever. Though The Kid doesn't officially get him until 12/25, he had a little snuggle time with him as I was finishing Giles up and The Kid was falling asleep last night. Definitely Kiddo approved!

I do believe Giles is one of my all-time favorite patterns I have done so far. I don't know, there is just something about him that I love. It was fun to knit him again, since when I originally wrote the pattern I was like 39 weeks pregnant. It brought back memories of snuggling in a chair with Lucy the Pug (who insisted being on my lap, even as big as I was). She would bark and The Kid would kick me. How fun.

I put this Giles up in my Ravelry projects so you can check out what I did if you like!

Friends Who Knit

I feel so lucky to have a great group of friends that I get together with every week at least once for Knit Night. Not last week but the week before we were discussing knitting socks. I was mentioning that I rarely knit socks, and in fact I have only one pair that I have ever knit for myself, but I have never worn them. As we were discussing the ins and outs of handknit socks, I mentioned that I feel like handknit socks can add a lot of bulk to your ankles: an area I certainly don't need any bulk added to (not that I need bulk added anywhere). My Knit Girls started discussing this and decided there needed to be a term for handknit sock ankle bulk. Yarnkles. They came up with Yarnkles. Is that the funniest thing ever?

Friends who knit are the best.

Yarn!

I think I put my maternity nylons on by mistake this morning. I don't think I ever took them out of the drawer and they all look the same. These just wont stay up and the top seems abnormally tall. I know I have lost some weight, but these are sliding right off. I guess I should go change them but they are such a pain to put on!

Anywho. I went yarn shopping today! One of my knit girls and I went out to Lynden to an odd little yarn shop that is also a women's consignment store. It's so funny, the sign in front says something like "Consignment Clothes and Yarn," which of course makes me think of consignment yarn, which just seems hysterical to me. I don't know why, I did just finish writing a book and I have a 7 month old though, so just from lack of sleep I think the crazies may be setting in.

The last time I went to this shop, probably a year and a half ago, I wasn't super impressed. But, they have moved all the yarn to the back and it is wonderful! I got several things.

The yellowy-greeny-softy one is angora from Malabrigo which I have a little project in mind for (that I plan on sharing here...eventually). The green in front is from Stitch Jones, I have no idea what I will be using it for but it was too beautiful a color to pass up. The yellow and brown fluffy stuff is to make a Giles for Presley for Christmas. He apparently loves all things giraffe, and the sample I have is 220 wool and not washable, so a fluffy little one it will be for him. The black and gray stuff is the softest, silkiest acrylic I have ever felt. Now, I am not normally one for acrylics, but this stuff may have changed my opinion of acrylics. Since it was only 7 bucks for 273 yards, I bought the 5 balls they had with intentions of a sweater. I am just obsessed with those colors (or non colors, ha!) right now and I am going to look through my stash of patterns for something to make it in to. Once I finish my Manu. 

So there you go. If you have ever wondered what Rebecca buys at a yarn store, here it is. Pretty exciting, if I do say so myself.

Recovering

Phew! What a year. I can't believe it is December already. All I was seeing was Friday December 2nd and didn't see anything past that. Not only did I turn my manuscript in that day, but Mr Danger had his second financial advisor test the same day, which was quite hard, but he passed, yeah! Last week was pretty stressful around here.

This week I am taking it incredibly easy. Mr Danger is in Arizona for training, so it is just me and The Kid (and the horribly, rotten pugs). My house is a DISASTER, there just wasn't time to do anything the last couple weeks. So, I am cleaning up, and starting to get Christmas decorations out, and doing as little as possible. It is very nice. I had planned on a fun trip to one of my favorite yarn shops yesterday, and decided it was too much effort (well that, and I already have too much yarn), and stayed home instead. I figured there is always next week.

I finished my Rae, but decided it needs a on me picture, so I am waiting until Mr Danger gets home to share it with you. I am currently working on my Manu, I got through the body to the armpits and am now working on the 17" of sleeve (I guess with 2 sleeves that's more like 34" of sleeve. That's a lot of sleeve knitting.). Being the only one on baby duty this week, not a whole lot of knitting is happening.....

That's all for now. I am off to work through a pile of laundry. And maybe nap, baby permitting.

 

Presley's 7 Month Photo

7 months! Holy crow. Where the heck did this year go?

Just this shot today since this ended in The Kid flipping head first out of the chair and me diving to catch him. I did catch him but it scared the bajeebus out of me. Needless to say I didn't really feel like taking any more pictures after catching him, thank goodness I got a good shot in the first few! I have decided this is no longer an activity that can be done by one person. Yikes.

Done

Hello. I'm back. I drove down to Seattle and turned in my manuscript and all of my samples to my publisher yesterday, so I am done. (At least the majority of the me-parts are done). I am so glad, I can't even begin to tell you. Let's just say it has been a long year and I realized why I am so freaking tired as I dug through the bins of samples to show every one yesterday.

I know today was suppose to be a Presley 7 month photo, but we went out for the day and getting home at 4:30 it was already dark out (curse you Pacific NW in December!). So tomorrow it is. And then next week, lots of blog posts, I promise. Now I am going to bed and not getting up until tuesday.