3 leaves

3 leaves, originally uploaded by wildjinjer.

I spent waaaaay too long designing this hat. There are things I like about it, and things I'd like to fix.--I'm knitting a revised version for my sister's unborn baby.

Oh, and BTW--Amelia never wore this hat. By the time I finished it, it was too small.

milk paint

milk paint, originally uploaded by wildjinjer.

...I (mostly) finished the dressers after two weeks of frustration and great deal of help from Presley's mom, Andrea. I learned that lesson: "accept help". I didn't learn the other obvious lesson: "keep it simple": I stubbornly stuck with my original design, including the inside of the drawers in a contrast color!

milk paint

milk paint, originally uploaded by wildjinjer.

This is a project I undertook the first week after Amelia's birth. ...Well, actually the first 2 weeks.


I quickly realized that all those tiny little clothes, etc. needed a place to go, so I ( okay, my mother-in-law) bought some little dressers. I've always wanted to do a project with Milk Paint ever since my husband started using it in his art, so I chose unfinished wood dressers.

I designed two color schemes and sent Presley and his mom out for supplies. The problems began almost immediately: The pink dresser required two colors: Salmon and Salem red--the art store was out of Salem red. They're still out, that's why the top drawer is unpainted!

If any of you have worked with milk paint, you know it's a project just to get it mixed. I did a pretty bad job at first, and ended up needing more white to make up for waste. I also discovered that certain colors--including white & light tints--gel up in the fridge and become unuseable!

The day I started this prect was the first day I experienced "baby blues"--I felt hopelessly incapable.

In the end, I mostly finished the dressers

Baby blanket

knitting a baby blanket, originally uploaded by wildjinjer.

The first project I made for Amelia was a Baby blanket I started when I was 6 months pregnent. Really, it was just an excuse for me to fondle baby alpaca yarn for three months.

Here it is partway completed--I knitted this much mostly over my Christmas vacation--the rest was knitted mostly during my commute to and from work. Keeping it on circular needles made it easy--I just wore it around my neck when I was in between locations. I wore the skein of yarn over my shoulder--someday I'll post a pic of that--It's a really handy way to knit on the go.

knitting detail

knitting detail, originally uploaded by wildjinjer.

Here's a detail of the leaf pattern.
I found the original pattern on the internet, but I tweaked it a bit to look more defined. (compare the top leaf with the bottom one).

leaf pattern

leaf pattern, originally uploaded by wildjinjer.

Here's the pattern I ended up with, after tweaking the decidedly less complicated original. I have to translate regular knitting patterns into charts, because all that text gets lost in my brain. Charts stick much better...until I memorize it, that is.

The symbols rom the charts were adapted from ones I found on a Japanese knitting site.

The color coding helps me keep track of where I am in the pattern--it's easier for me to remember "pink" than "Row 2."

Finished Blanket

two recent projects, originally uploaded by wildjinjer.

...and here's the finished blanket draped neatly over Amelia at 3 days old.

Mostly, it's not draped this artistically, and it's pretty misshappen and full of pills, but still very soft and warm and useful, and I hope she likes it.