Aran Bunny

I'm nearly finished with my grandniece's sweater, except that I'm waiting for some buttons that I ordered for it. What to do while waiting? Knit a bunny, of course. I'm especially happy with his little sweater. I used some left over Lornas Laces sock yarn that was close to the same color as the sweater.

Comfort Bunny

Anyone who has read my blog for any amount of time knows that I LOVE Julie's bunnies at Little Cotton Rabbits, but I've long ago given up ever buying one from her. I seem to remember her having something like 300 hits the last time she announced that she was selling one. I also am not as obsessed with knitting bunnies that look exactly like hers. On the other hand, she's still my inspiration, and I enjoy knitting bunnies more than anything else.

I knit a bunny today because I was home from work. A doctor may not have diagnosed me as ill, but  I just couldn't imagine making it through the day when the alarm went off, so I stayed home, that is, after getting up at 6:30 and driving (Ok, it's only five minutes away) down to work to leave lesson plans. A friend calls a day like that a "mini-nervous break-down." I brag that I don't have a Puritanical work ethic, but actually I think I kind of do and struggle against it, so I think it's good for me to just spend a day on the couch every once in a while.

I  spend a couple of hours catching up on sleep, and then I had enough energy to knit a bunny with the help of my constant couch companion, Kitty. She's a fairly expensive bunny. I can't remember how much money I spent on the skein of alpaca that I used, which I bought several years ago at  Silver Sun's Alpacas, but I know it wasn't cheap. I'm happier and happier with my "bunny skills," face and body wise, but I'm not completely happy with her little dress. The skirt is 38 stitches around, and I think that 42 would have been perfect. I'd also like to start giving my bunnies shoes, but I'll have to find a pattern since I just can't visualize how to do them.

A Little Christmas Knitting

Today was St. Nicholas Day. When the kids were little, they would open one present on St. Nicholas Day, and I'd give the kids their Christmas ornament too. It was a fun tradition, but I've kind of let it go. I haven't even bought their ornaments yet, so I didn't mention what day it was, and they didn't even notice. I am starting to get in the Christmas spirit though. I finished little Christmas Bunny's dress. I knit her dress in the round up to the arm holes. That worked nicely. I don't hate seaming, but I don't really like it either. I haven't done much other Christmas kntting yet, but I am planning to do some, mostly Chirstmas ornaments. Garnstudo has their Advent Calendar up again, and I always get inspired to knit a few of their projects.


When we were up in Fortuna during Thanksgiving break, I didn't do much yarn shopping, but I did have to make one stop at Generations, a local Yarn Shop/Beauty Salon--not a combo I would have thought of, but... Whe you first walk in, you're assailed with all of this kind of scary Red Heart yarn. (Yes, I'm a yarn snob) On the other hand, I'm sure that there are plenty of people who are overjoyed to find "good" acrylic yarn at a shop instead of all of this annoying natural fiber stuff that's become so popular. (LOL) Anyway, they have a surpirse for you if you just wander in a little further, lots of nice wool and cotton yarn, nothing fancy but a really nice selection of Brown Sheep and Cascade. I bought some "Sockotta" yarn, which is a combination of cotton and wool. II can't say that I'm overly excited about the socks I'm knitting with it, but the yarn does feel nice, and it makes more sense for me to knit with yarn that has some cotton content since wool socks are only bearable for a few months a year here.

Home Again, Home Again

I managed to give my poor bunny head a body on the drive home yesterday. I'm planning to make her a dress, but I've had to re-start a couple of times. I need to think about it a little more before I give it another try. I, of course, want to do something "Chirstmas-y and will probably resort to copying one of Julie's dresses.."I love that knitting keeps getting more and more popular. Yesterday moring before we left Fortuna, we stopped at Starbucks, and there was evidence that knitting has truly become mainstream. Not only were there wreaths made out of ball of yarn everywhere, the cups themselves show a faint knit pattern on them. Starbucks, there is a reason that you and "Google" are two of the only coprorations I intentionally choose to support. We dutifully gave Gidget her anti-nausea medicine before we left....and as soon as we hit the first set of curves, she promptly threw up...on my shoes. You can't just stop along Hyw. 101 in the mountains since much of it is in a rock slide area, but luckily we weren't too far from Laytonville.She eventually just fell asleep. It wasn't that bad, but maybe we should think twice about taking her with us next time...Nah!. Still, we all appreciate what an "easy" dog Rowdy, our older beagle, is. We stopped in Healdsburg again for a break, and the beagles got a lot of attention. Of course, Gidget barked at all of the other dogs, especially a rather large, "wolf-dog," while Rowdy was quietly dignified or possibly was simply scared stiff.