There is so much snow. Oodles and gobbles of snow. Snow everywhere. On everything. Cold cold snow. Lots of it.

It’s a knitters freakin’ paradise, or it would be if I could find a proper LYS out here. I’m pretty much stuck to Micheal’s in Klamath Falls for yarnage. Let’s just take a moment to feel sorry for me.

Poor me.

pictured: hat, snow. not pictured: self pity

Moment over. I’ve been working on a hat, no pattern (no big surprise there) just a circle with cables on it. The uncabled bit at the beginning will be folded under and stitched down to make a nice band inside. The yarn is Caron “Country” and it’s a 75% Acrylic, 25% Merino. That cold breeze that blew through here was not the weather, just the bitter winter of my heart as I weep just a little, longing for proper handspun wool on my needles.

As soon as I get a place I’m going to grab at least one of my wheels and do some spinning.

Like making a pair of undies for Lexi’s baby in a gender neutral acrylic yarn. No embiggening needed for this picture, I think this is about all the hideousness of acrylic, crochet and mustard yellow that one can take (even from a distance) without having some kind of allergic reaction.

There are plans in the works to make baby a durable and moderately less horrible wardrobe of booties, shirts, gowns, and hats. Is there a particular reason that doll clothes never seem to stay with a doll once it is in a little girls possession?

Please note, I would never do this to a real human child. This is plastic child, so plastic yarn is perfectly appropriate.

In a house full of gameboys, comics, books, and movies that my child chooses knitting. Sweet.

And speaking of games. Darling husband decided that I should have a Nintendo DS lite, and Pokémon Pearl to go along with it. So my free time is currently being consumed traveling through the Sinnoh region filling my pokédex and battling team Galaxy. I just beat the 8th gym leader and I’m leveling up before challenging the elites.

If you have no idea what that means, you’re probably a mature adult. However, I am not a mature adult. Case in point, mature adults are not tempted to declare “Mortal Kombat!” when they see a really good sale on yarn. Or shout out “Merino! I choose you!” when shopping for sock yarn.

You have to admit some yarns do sound like Pokémon names. Koigu? It could be a yarn or it could be a water type Pokémon that oozes silk. You just never know, it’s not limited to yarn, knitting needles too. Addi Turbos could possibly be a hold item to boost speed in battle and help you escape from wild Pokémon.

You know, the kind that cover training pants.

I actually like making pilchers, soakers, training pant covers and so on– they are cute (come on, anything that goes on a little kid is cute), they are reasonably simple, you can finish several in a day, they come in endless configurations, and you can use almost anything to make them. Use cotton ones to let the little wetter know they’ve wet, use wool ones to prevent open leakage, use acrylic ones for easy clean up, use a combo for night wear, and just have extras on hand.

I’m partial to actually sewing the training pant part and making the covers out of whatever interests me at the moment. I was cleaning up last night and found some bulky green acrylic that’s fairly soft so I knit up a cover. I think I might have just enough to make a second one.

I don’t have a pattern for the covers, I just knit the approximate shape and sew up the sides, or if I’m sewing I use an existing training pant for a guide. It’s kind of funny how much I originally fret over the fit of training pants and covers– only to figure out later that it doesn’t matter much; if they fit perfectly then the child won’t be able to pull them up or down, or said child will somehow manage to magically change shape in two weeks rendering all that careful fitting and measuring totally useless.

I also learned that any i-cord, braided yarn, and crocheted cord closures were less than ideal, mostly due to the fact that one handed untying of wet cord is not possible. I have maybe seven or eight vintage magazines with soaker patterns and all of them use a cord fashioned from matching yarn to hold the soaker or cover up.

I wonder how many mothers who innocently (like me) followed the directions for making those fancy cords with the adorable crocheted curliques on the ends, faithfully threaded them through the holes in the prescribed way only to end up severing the cord with nail clippers in a restaurant bathroom because the darned thing would not release the baby in a timely and reasonable manner?

Clearly the designers of those patterns had special children that do not pee.
It’s interesting too how the times have changed soaker fashion, there are some from the 40′s that have snaps or buttons and the waist goes nearly up under the armpits of the baby, others from the 60′s that look like the college wrestling outfits with suspenders, and the low rise cuts that are almost bikini like in the 70′s.

Even though I’m glad we’re on the final leg of the whole potty training thing, it makes me a little sad too. Lexi resembles a child much more than a baby now. She wants to dress herself and brush her own hair. She likes to pick things out for herself and put her toys away on her own. These training pant covers will probably be the last ones she needs me to make for her to wear. I know that she might want me to make a few for her dolls but that’s just not the same.

Yes that’s me knitting cables without a cable needle. It’s kind of boring so I put a kicky soundtrack to it and edited it down for time.

BTW if you are insane and want to try the size 1 version the gauge is 6 stitches equals 1 inch, 7.25 rows equals 1 inch, and I started with a cast on of 132 inches for a 20″ neckline (if you’re doing the math on stockinette stitch, which would be 22″ you’ll realize this is because I did the neck in an inch of ribbing.) Place 4 stitch markers for the increases after 30 stitches, then 6, then 60, then 6– work in stockinette stitch increasing 1 on both sides of each stitch marker. (I’m knitting one below one stitch before the marker, then k 2 stitches– then knitting one below the last stitch knit. I know it sounds confusing but it is actually easier done that described.)

Well of course Opal deserves a good mail day too so among her stuff will be enough silk yarn to knit a shawl.

Zippy (that’s the kitten pictured) knows that the key to good silk yarn is to add lots of twist. (Please pardon the background, I was keeping Matt company while he worked in the shop.)