i like sprinkles

I mean I REALLY like sprinkles.  Dave and I didn't really get a chance to do anything for Valentine's Day because I was back and forth to my sister's and parents' homes following Mom's surgery.  I baked the compulsory frosted sugar cookies for the holiday and discovered I had (count them) 5 varieties of Valentine sprinkles in my baking cupboard.  I never formally brought any to work because I didn't have time to bake more, but I stored them in the backseat of my car as we don't own a chest freezer.  We'd had a particular hairy night at work and we all ended up staying a little late, so I did go and get some from the car to share with my co-workers.  As far as Valentines go, I bought Dave a 2 bushel plastic clothes basket because he carries the laundry back from the laundry room for me and he hates my woven rush basket.  Am I romantic or what?  Happy Late Valentines Day.

Alpaca Socks

I tell ya, if you want to get a lot of knitting done, get yourself a nasty sinus cold.  I can't believe how  much knitting I got done this week.  The only trouble is, that is about ALL I did.  These are some alpaca blend socks I started knitting last year after we had just moved in and while I was still in orientation for my job.  I wasn't driving here yet so I would bring this to work on while I waited for Dave to come and collect me at the end of the day.  Those were exhausting stressful days in a new state and city and new job and knitting helped to calm my nerves.  I was glad to finish these and get them off the needles.  I bought this yarn at Prairie Yarns in Fargo but the label is long gone.  These were knit on size 1 needles with 76 stitches per row.

 My new niece Becky asked if I would do some knitting for her and I was only too happy to oblige.  She sent me a picture of a baby hat she wanted to give to her sister in law and baby niece.  Normally I would find some suitable yarn in my stash for small projects but I hate pink and have no pink yarn in this house.  She was going to shop online for yarn and send it to me.  I was a little nervous because I wasn't sure what she was going to send me, but when the package arrived, I was thrilled and relieved to find 2 skeins of Cascade 220!  I used a basic hat pattern from 60 Quick Baby Knits and improvised the bow.

There was so much yarn left over that I also knit a pair of Leaf Lace Booties from the same pattern book.  I cranked these things out while sick on the couch the last 2 days.  That background fabric is my cut of linen that I got on sale at Joann's.  I have a few things in mind I'd like to sew if I ever get the machine set up again.

Dress for Leah

 Last week I went to Michael's to see what I could see.  I much prefer Joann's when it comes to craft supplies because they have fabric and Michael's does not.  Both stores have basically the same assortment of yarns and knitting tools but Joann's has a far superior selection of knitting books.  Anyhoo, I was in Michael's and stumbled across a store exclusive line of fingering weight wool yarn that was on clearance...so I bought a few bags full of it.  It is a soft slowly self-striping yarn that reminded me of Kauni.

 I had been looking for something to knit this baby dress and got started right away.  I tweaked the pattern just a little by using size 4 needles and fingering weight yarn instead of worsted but I wonder if there were issues with translation that led to those errors.  I just loved that this was knit in one piece and there was no seaming!

The dress is begun knitting flat back and forth to create the neck opening and then joined in the round for the yoke and body.  The shoulders and sleeves are created with mitered increases to form angles.  The upper edges of the arms are bound off and the underarms cast back on to shape the body.  What a wonderful pattern.  I wanted to use some of Maynerd's buttons but I didn't have 2 matching in a coordinating color.  I was very happy with these gray vintage-looking buttons from my stash.

I finished the dress on Saturday and worked on a different project yesterday during the Super bowl.  I'm doing some knitting for my new niece and I'll post those pictures later.  I DID have to share pictures of (some) of our Super Bowl food!  We are just terrible when we are home together--almost like alcoholics encouraging each other.  So long story short, we majorly cheated on our diet while the game was on.  We'd picked up a jar of Cheez Whiz on Saturday expressly for soft pretzels.  Here are the pretzels rolled out and shaped and brushed with egg wash and sprinkled with coarse salt.

Here they are fresh out of the oven brushed with butter.  I hadn't made these in a while and for good reason.  They are so good but not so good for you.  I used to bring these as treats on my Sunday to work when I used to work at the nursing home years ago.  Now it is time to get back on that dieting horse.