Is this what the blocking boards are for?

Finished Baby M's blanket...just in time. Welcome to the world, little one, happy birthday (8/17/08) and welcome to our Tribe.
But wait...what's that on your blanket?



Asshat!



It's been less than 24 hours since I completed the last board, finished the finished-just-in-time blanket, and blocked it out...and CatFaceMan already decided it's his newest most favoriteist sleeping spot.
Think he feels bad?



Probably not.

In other news...

I've finally begun finished the Deady Bear, from Son of Stitch n' Bitch. I found some typos along the way, detailed here:

On the directions for the muzzle, it reads ”Rows 3, 5 and 7 K2, m1…” The next line reads ”Row 5 K3, m1…” It seems to me that the “Rows 3, 5 and 7” line should be “Row 3”.
Further down, the instructions skip row 15, although the pattern still makes sense, the row “name number” is mislabeled.

That's just what I was able to notice...due either to my inexperience, or further typos/errata, the belly came out really badly. While stuffing, my bear had less of a belly and more of a rack. Does a bear need boobs? Probably not, eh?

So I unstuffed, and sewed the corners of the belly together, giving him a rounder appearance:



Here's some other pieces; the ears. blood, and arms:





It's coming along, although I really wish either a) it had been written in-the-round, I feel that it doesn't make any sense to knit it all flat then sew it, or b) that I had the confidence and knowledge to go ahead and knit it in the round anyways. I can wish for a, but I know that b will come with time and practice, so that's okay too.

Better pictures of the blanket tomorrow, in the sunshine. Finished pictures of The Bear soon, hopefully.

Booties & Blocking Boards

The Booties for Baby M:



We look forward to oooohhhhing and awwwing over Baby M's eminent arrival. She should arrive here in the next couple weeks. Best wishes, love and a safe journey at all involved.

Also, here are finished pics of Mama's Nautie:





I ended up using the green yarn from the body (shell?) of the Nautie, holding two strands together to make it big enough. I believe it's a much improved version of the original face. I hesitate to use the word head.

Also, I made my blocking boards. A.B. generously gave me these when she realized she didn't need 4 of them (thank you!!!). The idea is to have a clean, flat wicking surface on which to dry your finished knitted fabrics on. The boards are made of homosote, which draws a lot of moisture away while being soft enough to pin into. Here's the original Knitty article that A.B. referred me to. She explains the whole process much better than I can. I covered the boards that A.B. gave me with this awesome cotton fabric:



Unfortunately, I have this unerring strength at taking bad pictures indoors at night. I tried to adjust the color of this to more accurately represent the true colors of the fabric, but lacking Photoshop on this machine, my efforts were less than successful. But you should know that it's a pretty, bright pink and a nice chocolaty brown. Ignore what the picture may lead you to believe, except the pattern. Which I love as well. Here is a better, although definitely more crooked representation:



I began by taping this double sided 1" wide craft tape to the edges of the board, to which I secured the fabric, after I had ironed the creases out. I considered washing the fabric, but didn't. After making sure the fabric was all straight and pretty, I realized that the 2 yards I had bought would cover about 1 & 1/2 boards. I have 2 boards. I needed 3 yards.
But I only had what I had, so I merrily stapled the fabric on underneath with my mom's borrowed electric stapled gun, which she keeps cleverly hidden from my brother in an ottoman with some old DVDs.



That's the tape I used. Quite secure, but easy to retack the fabric to when I realized it was all crooked, thankfully before I stapled.



Overall, I'm really pleased with how it turned out. Of course, I had to order another 2 yards of fabric to cover the other board, but that's alright. It'll give me something to do this week.
Tested the boards only once, so far, on my pair of Fuzzy Feet, which refused to dry at all, regardless of the surface they were sitting on, until I brought them upstairs, where it's much warmer. With any luck, I'll be able to block Baby M's blanket on it soon. It's being made from this:





Little Lovely is the name of the color.
YUM.