Juggling Cats

Hey Robin,
I have many balls-o-yarn in the air as I have definitely bitten off more than I should be chewing right now (I have to tell the Little Man to take "human bites"... stole that one from the wise MiL... perhaps I should be following my own advice!). I have jumped in on a few test-knitting escapades. One is in-progress and I am not sure it's ok to show the IP pictures, but the other is mostly done and I have gotten permission to show a couple of shots:

Project: "Frankie Hat" (title may be changed upon release)
Designer: Nina Machlin-Dayton
Yarn: Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Rich Chocolate

I need to thank my Father for the pictures. He has ALWAYS been great at taking pictures of me... all through my life. Thanks Dad! Anyway, I love the versatility of this hat. It's sure to be another favorite in my wardrobe!

I have also managed to slip-in a couple of charity knits. These will likely be going to the Warm Woolies charity who send the items off to poor kids living in very chilly parts of the world (including North American Natives... I am sort of hoping mine will go there).

Both are knitted with Cascade 220, a good yarn for these purposes (and many others too!!) with two strands held together. The socks will be sure to warm someone's tootsies quite efficiently, and the sweater, while not as large as I had hoped it would be, will certainly warm up a deserving child. I hope they like the colors...

Since I had asked you folks so long ago to help me pick out the colors for the baby blanket, it seems only fair to show you the completed knitted-portion:

Cute, No? The fabric to the side there will be the backing, there's just too much going on on the back of the blanket, so a nice cotton fabric will protect widdle baby fingers. But wait, there's MORE!

This bib is definitely newborn sized. I hope to use some other blanket-leftovers for some more-practical older-baby sizes.
And then there's the adorable burp-cloth... way more fashionable than the cloth-diaper-over-the-shoulder ;) Shown here in it's infant stages:

And lastly, in the finished-it-fast-to-take-to-L.A.-and-then-forget-to-wear-it department:

My own shrug pattern, which may be too fiddly for anyone else to want to make it, and also I might want to make a few changes before release. It's pretty cute though! Wish I remembered I had it!

The rest of this summer is likely to be a blur, which Little Man's birthday party coming up (Yay Bionicles!) and a few other planned activities. I am a lazy Mom and don't go much for the very-structured-keep-'em-busy type summers. Is that a bad thing? I wonder...

On the kneedles now are the lace shawl test (the one I covertly mentioned above) and a pair of socks for a secret yarn-swap partner who is afraid of knitting socks for herself. Silly _____!

Hope all is well with you and the extraordinary Emme! It was a blast meeting you guys at the zoo.

Later.