Catch Up Post: Random Baby Gifts

So, in early spring this year, there was a small baby boom in the people around me. People at work, ladies at the knitting group, and even our neighbors were popping out babies. Must be something in the water.

Of course, these new arrivals mean: baby gifts. I made a few.

First, three different burp cloths. The pattern is the Baby Genius Burp Cloth, from Mason Dixon Knitting. The yarn is various shades of Peaches n Cream. I used size 4 needles to get a really tight fabric. These are very pretty and absorbent.







Next, some booties.

The "Free Baby Mary Jane" pattern by Lucie worked in Lane Cervina Madrid Solid gives these







So cute and interesting construction.

I also used the Jimmy's Baby Bootie Set pattern, and the same yarn, to make these.



Also cute, but in my opinion this yarn has a bit too much definition for the pattern. It looks a little wonky.

And lastly, a Baby Bib o' Love (again from Mason Dixon Knitting, and in Peaches n' Cream).



I paired up these gifts (everyone got two), and got some takeout containers from Micheals.

This set went to Deborah from the knitting group (recipient of Super Secret Project #2) who had a baby around Easter time.



These booties (and the pink burp cloth) went to our neighbor. I don't know what colors they like, so I just went with lots of color.



That table is our dining room table. Can you tell that this was during exam season? I wish I could say it wasn't always covered by study materials and/or my sewing machine.

And, for this last set I had no cute takeout container, but I did have a model help me out.



Don't be too hard on Indy, he was having a bad face day. I only did this because he kept getting into the pictures I was trying to take. clicky

In other news, May 19th was a pretty lucky day for me, I passed my exam! Which is good because that one's done, but bad because I have to start studying for my next one, which is a bitch.

When Ducks Attack

No fiber content at all in this post. I apologize for the following long-winded story about duck bullies

My neighborhood has a family of ducks. They're not just any ducks, though. These are some pretty mean ducks. Today, one of them chased our dog.

Indy has a history with ducks.



This is a favorite toy, err, training device, named "Dinner", as in "Indy go get Dinner". It looks like he's hugging, but he's really just waiting to attack.



He's tough on waterfowl.

Chasing ducks is one of his favorite past-times. He stalks them, like a lion on the Serengeti, and then charges. Shih Tzu means "Little Lion", and when Indy hunts you can see how they got that name. We keep him on the leash, and don't let him get close enough to really threaten them.

Our previous apartment had normal, non-scary ducks. Once, a duck flew into his path. Indy lept at it and I thought he was going to bite it, but all he did was to touch it with his nose (his mouth was even closed) as if to say "Tag, You're It". It is definitely a game to him.

Indy also sees it as protecting us when the animals become aggressive. At our old place, a belligerent goose once tried to attack my husband. Even though this goose had a good 10 pounds on Indy, he ran away when the dog charged at him. Because he's a bird, and birds are supposed to be afraid of dogs and people, right?



When the neighborhood was new, there weren't any ducks at all, even though we have a pond. Soon, however, a few ducks wondered in and people started feeding them. Over the months, they've grown used to being fed, and gotten more confident.

Last winter, we noticed they were getting pretty comfy when one wondered up to us while we were grilling.

Some of our neighbors encourage us to let Indy chase the ducks, in hopes that they would leave.



When the ducks first showed up, Indy would chase them into the water, they would run away, and come back again probably in a few minutes.

Then, some babies were born. They are obviously off limits, as we don't want to scare or hurt any of the cute ducklings, and mamma ducks are supposed to be aggressive. So we kept Indy away from them until they were grown up.

Now the ducks are pretty much full grown, and for the past month or so, Indy's been allowed to chase them. But they've learned.



They know that while he may come running at them from across the street, he's not going to get within a couple of feet of him. So they ignore him. Yesterday, I decided to test how brave these ducks were. I ran at them, and stopped a bit closer than we let Indy get. And they ignored me!

So today, when we went walking I took the camera, hoping to get a shot of the ducks and Indy trying to chase them. Indy was a few feet away from the ducks, when one of them charged him! We had to pull him away!

The funny thing is, he's so submissive, if a duck attacked him, he'd probably lay down and take it.

So Indy's duck chasing days are over, for the time being. Luckily he has stopped wanting to chase them as much, because where's the fun in chasing something that doesn't run.

I know violent gangs could ruin neighborhoods, but I never imagined we'd have a gang of ducks terrorize our dog.

My First Knitted Project - A Look Back at a Few Years

Here is an old post about my first project:


Indy Models My FIrst Project
Originally uploaded by shishyb

This is my very first knitting project. It's what I worked on the night before my wedding. And it kept me company when the hubby went back to work in the desert.

It is Zeeby's bag from Stitch n' Bitch, in cotton. I used 2 or 3 balls of Preaches and Cream and didn't immediately line it, so it is not surprising that it has grown a few inches. It really couldn't hold any amount of weight. I think I intended it to be a project bag, but as it was unlined, that didn't work. So it spent a lot of time just waiting to be used. It went to the Renaissance fair, but that was about it for the first two years.

When I got a sewing machine, it became one of my first machine sewing projects when I added the lining. It was poorly done (I'm not a good sewer), but now the bag is usable. I bring it to work when I don't need to bring text books, and use it a beach bag.

When Indy saw me take out the camera to take a picture of the bag, he figured that meant that I wanted to take a picture of him, so he walked across the room to pose for me. That should tell you just how many pictures of this dog we have. Perhaps he thought he could lend some cuteness to the project.

I keep it as a testament to how far I've come in knitting, and one day hopefully it will be the same for sewing, too.

Motto of this bag: Jump in and try it when you don't know what you're doing. Just don't expect to get professional looking results.