Way way WAAAAAYYY overdue

Things I finished back in February and March:

The blanket for Dave's cousin's new baby (born March 17, I think, so the colors are pretty fitting). No one seemed too impressed with the pictures, but I think it turned out swell. Dave even made me promise I'd make one for our next baby.


More shoes. I may still have these, somewhere; I don't think I gave them away. I *love* how these turned out. Yarn was Vanna's Choice (love how it works up for these loafers), buttons I got from my grandma's sewing box.


I'm currently working on a one-strap version of the shoes in different colors for Dave's other cousin. I tried doing some Mary Janes for Jenna, but they turned out pretty bad; her foot comes right out of them. I've got to figure out some sort of ankle strap, I think. I'm also in the planning stages of making some cool crocheted cube blocks and picking out a good beginner pattern to sew the kiddo a dress. Yay.

Booties and the promise of more to come...

Jenna's GERD is *so* much better, so long as she's on 15mg of Prevacid solutabs twice a day. We tried her on a lower dose, we tried her on Prevacid capsules (the contents sprinkled on a bit of applesauce), but only the solutabs really do the job. She sleeps through the night and is growing like a weed, and her hips are so much better that we're allowed to start gradually weaning her out of the Pavlik harness.

Granted, she's still not a great sleeper during the day, but I've managed to get her down for bed about a half hour before I go down, myself, so I've managed to make some booties for a friend of mine.



I used the pattern from Sylver Designs from Etsy. It was very easy to follow, despite some confusion regarding the beginning of the body of the shoe. My mom (who has been crocheting for close to 50 years) found that part misleading, too. This was my first attempt at adding yarn and changing colors. I think they came out pretty cute.

I finished that baby blanket last week, but have yet to get some good pictures. I'll try to post that sometime tomorrow.

My work in progress, plus my new stitch

My husband took this picture for me. It's 10 panels for a 16-panel baby blanket, alternating in white and green. It's for Dave's cousin's new baby, due in March, I think.

What I really wanted to show was this:



I'm calling it a modified popcorn stitch. I came up with it myself, but if anyone has dibs on it, first, they can certainly provide the link... I've never written down crochet directions before, so here's my first attempt (please, be gentle):

ch desired # of stitches, plus whatever ch necessary to count as first dc. Dc 2 more in same ch. *Drop loop on hook. Go into top of ch 2 or ch 3 (whatever counted as first dc). Go into dropped loop and pull through. (does that even make sense??) Ch 1. Sc in next ch. Ch1. 3 dc in next ch. Continue from * until end.
Depending on whatever you ended with, ch 1 as a turning ch, then start with a sc. OR ch 2 or 3 to count as first dc, then dc 2x more in same st. Then continue pattern across.

Does that make sense at all? Anyway, it comes out like little lumps. I always do the 3 dc's in the sc, and the sc in the middle dc, so it alternates and evens out and comes out all pretty like.

If you understand that at all, congrats! Here's a picture of my sweet girl (who's finally starting to get better!) for your time:



It's blurry, but it's the best I could do. She wakes up if I use a flash.

Because Jenna has GERD

My almost-three-month-old daughter has GERD. Terrible, horrible reflux that rarely results in tons of spit up, but rather has her swallowing back stomach acid to the point that she cannot sleep anywhere other than totally upright (or leaning slightly forward) against me. Which means that much of my time is spent on our sofa, letting her sleep for as long as she can before stomach acid threatens to make its way up her throat, again.

There's only so much one can do online. Believe me. So I figured I would start crafting. I kept telling myself that I'd have to wait until Jenna was feeling better before I could do things like that, but I've learned how to have both hands fairly free, while still holding my little munchkin, so why not start, now?

It'll start with some crocheting, most likely, following simple patterns as I brush up on my skill-ness, progressing to knitting and cross-stitch, possibly even some embroidery, handsewing and scrapbooking. Whatever I can do while fairly stationary for most of the day while my little one catches up on her sleep, you can bet it'll be done. And if you can suggest anything else, and/or offer any constructive criticism about my projects, please don't hesitate to do so.