Blackbird Singing in the Dead of Night

First of all I'm a gonna talk about Jeremy Bunny-- well, How to Raise an Honest Rabbit, and how much I love this cover!  This was one of TEN options I got, and they were all about the bunny-- this particular one had an Aiden looking so very close to the Aiden in my mind, if a little older, and mostly, it was just the FEEL of Aiden caring for his Jeremy Bunny.  You have to know Jeremy to understand this one--and I love it VERY MUCH A LOT.  It was surprisingly tender--and I'm looking forward to it.  And I kept EVERY INCARNATION of the bunny cover-- because I got them on a REALLY SHIT DAY and they were so adorable that they made me SO happy.  So this cover, along with the alpaca cover for Winter Courtship Rituals of Fur Bearing Critters, and the the sheep cover that they're probably working on for A Knitter in His Natural Habitat--I love it.  Completely.  Is awesome.

Okay, so I was looking at The Loopy Ewe when I saw, under Three Irish Girls brand, this yarn, with the name Blackbird Singing in the Dead of Night!  I sent the link to Mary, who loved the color (and the name) so much, she gave me some.  I'm thrilled-- but I'm also wondering when I can knit her some socks or a scarf with that.  It's cashmerino sock yarn, btw... and so soft it's like falling into heaven.  Yeah.  Mary knows how to get me to knit for her, that's for sure:-)

And of course I can't get the song out of my head.

And, sadly enough, one of my LYS's is going out of business.  (Not Babetta's, thank Bob, but it still hurts!)  Anyway, everything was 1/2 off, including this GORGEOUS Mountain Colors Merino Ribbon, which is even more breathtaking in real life.  Yeah, I bought me some.  And some more of some more.  And yeah.  Don't want to talk about it, but when I'm done with Chicken's sweater (More on that later!) I'll be done buying yarn for a while.



 Okay, so about Chicken's sweater-- it's an inspired idea.  It's a math-less sweater.  I start with just enough math to calculate the wrists, then I knit the sleeve.  When I get to the armpit, I simply go back and forth in garter until about three inches before the neck.  I knit one side of the neck (garter), bind off, and then the other and then start the other sleeve.  When I'm done, I stitch the two sides together at the back, and then pick up stitches around the body, leaving the front halves unstitched for a button.  Knit the rest of the sweater in the round to the bottom, a few rings of garter, bind off, and, if I've got enough yarn, pick up at the neck for a hood!  Anyway-- I hope it's inspired.  What you see here is a complete sleeve/yoke, and I'm halfway done with the other one.  I like the idea though-- it looks like it's going to fit really well.  I'm using this small mill chunky yarn, all wool, and it may felt up a little, so basically this is the sort of wool you could use as muk-luk stuffing for a small expedition into frozen tundra.  I'm sure she'll visit snow when she's down in San Diego, right?

And short people, doing what  short people do.  Squish is very very proud of her dressing savvy-- the mismatched knee socks are very big in New York, apparently, and she thinks she's a trendsetter.  Zoomboy likes matching his shirt with his toys with his video games, a predilection for which companies have been making scads of money off of for years.

Oh, and the alpaca puppet?  Yeah-- I went down for a nap the other day, and when I woke up, the kids had put him next to me so they could hear me scream like the guy in Godfather.  I shit you not.  heh heh heh... little darlings....