I'm still sailing...

I'm still enthralled with this whole crochet business, most of it being that I was able to finally figure it out. I've picked up my hooks (formerly my mom's) many many times and was only able to accomplish a gradually growing or shrinking square of fabric each time. So the fact that I have not one but several finished granny squares is to me, a revelation. The photos from yesterday were my practise ones. It's nice to have gobs of acrylic on hand to try out new things.

I've had my eye on the Babette Blanket for quite some time, so I finally have decided to make one, or a version thereof. I've only gone with four colours, rather than what, seventeen? I so don't have the brain power for that at the moment.



I just couldn't resist the pull and call of the yarn shop yesterday. It was a gorgeous day after a really lousy weekend (something about hurricanes or tropical storms...I should pay more attention), so I headed off in search of THE yarn. I finally settled on some Sisu. Not sure why I picked sock yarn for this project (oh yeah, it's going to be a baby blanket), maybe I'm just a glutton for punishment. But crochet goes so much faster than knitting anyway, so small doesn't factor in so much. Unless you have to make a bunch of squares, then small figures pretty prominently.

There is another reason why I decided that yesterday was the day for a medium sized yarn purchase. We heard the wee Pinto Bean's heart beat for the first time. What a great sound. Just what I needed to assuage and calm any concerns for fears I might have. I headed pretty much straight from the doctors office to the fabric store where I picked up a pattern for the crib bedding and brought home some upholstery/fabric samples to show the constable to get his input.



This is the first set of samples in the book, the one that really caught my eye. At first I thought of doing a variety of items in my craft room with these fabrics, and then I guess I just forgot about that idea and when I was browsing in the fabric store yesterday, it jumped right out at me again. Anyhow, I think this is quite pretty without being...overly juvenile? I've been having a hard time in looking for crib bedding. I want the room to be youthful and fun, but not drowning in jungle characters or choo-choo trains or the like. Not that there's anything wrong with any of that mind you...most of the sets I've seen are quite adorable. I just have a really anal sense of home decor. As I was telling my BFF the other day, I may not have much of a sense of personal style, but I try to make up for it in my decorating. Whether I succeed or not is a matter of personal opinion.



Same sample, different colouring, and my original thought was this could quite easily go either way, boy or girl. Which is exactly what the constable said he came home and I was thrilled. Until he qualified it by saying that it would do very nicely if we weren't going to find out what we are having, but since we are, then there is no way he would abide this for a boys room. Humph. For a split second there, I thought my life was going to be very easy. I had brought another book home with a sample that I thought would be very boyish, lots of blue and red, but with big cartoony looking flowers, not at all floral and that got the veto right away. In the end, after some consideration, I wasn't that crazy about it anyway. In any event, if it is a girl, this is the one. On my way home from the yarn shop I hit Atlantic Fabrics as well and found some more boyish fabrics that I thought would do and would also go with the blanket colours. No photos unfortunately.

Another equally nice thing that happened to me yesterday was that I got blue ribboned by Chicken Betty :) See?



The idea is that you give a blue ribbon to the person who's blog you dig and then you link back to the prize giver and then award said prize to four more people. That I'm going to have to work on...I like lots of blogs and narrowing, particularly in my current state of hormone-assisted stupidness, is a rather daunting task. But how lovely is that, to be awarded a ribbon? I've never gotten a blue ribbon. I used to get a lot of purple participation ones in grade school. A word to school administrators; children know when they are being patronized. Just give the winners theirs and be done with it. Those of us that came last didn't want to be there anyway so if we had had the vocabulary (which we did, just not in your company), we would've told you what you could do with your purple ribbons. But I'm seriously digressing here...

Betty has been my longest and greatest blog supporter. She's super crafty, designs all kinds of her own stuff (which I hope to aspire to someday), is a DIY-er of the first degree, which totally appeals, and has a wicked sense of humour to boot. And good taste in music. What's not to love? So I'm honoured to be blue ribboned by the likes of she and I'm not sure if this is in the rules, but blue ribbon right back atchya. Double blue ribbons for you.

Anyhoo, that's what I've been up to. I'm really anxious to start on the salon de bebe, now that I have concrete ideas, but it's a wee bit early for that. Which is driving me bonkers. I'm the kind of person who likes to have a plan well in advance, whether I put it in action or not. I like to have it in my head. And the not knowing, on top of not being able to find out what we're having without certain expense, (they won't tell you during ultrasounds here in NS, so if you want to know, you have to pay for it at a private clinic, which apparently just takes messages on a voicemail...will they call back? No one knows...anyone out there been to UC Baby in Halifax?) makes me cranky. But it's all very early for that anyway. So let's have some fun with it. Want to chime in? What do you think baby Marti will be? Boy? Girl? Space alien love child? I've added a poll in the sidebar, or you can leave a comment or both. I've set it up until the end of March...should show up by then I hope. So get your votes in...you only have 202 days left...hehehe.

Until later...