Pictures as promised

Here's the front of the Jeep sweater I'm currently working on.



And here's a close up of the ribbing on the sleeve.

Current knitting project

So, I said this was going to be a knitting blog. It will be. I just have to figure out how to start posting some pictures. In the meantime, what I'm currently working on is an adaptation of the Yankee Knitters roll neck sweater. Harry was given a sweater for his first birthday that had a red jeep profile on it (the sweater was commercially made and bought for him at a local store - it was the last one). My husband has a red jeep wrangler and LOVED the sweater. Unfortunately it only fit Harry for about a week and then it was too short for him. So, I decided to recreate it.

In my search for a similar pattern, I recalled the two roll neck sweaters I've made for Harry - both using the Yankee Knitters pattern. So, this is what I've done:

Instead of being a roll bottom, it has a turning ridge where I will turn the bottom of the sweater up and stitch it to the inside of the sweater, creating a plain edge. The sleeves are a 3-1 ribbed pattern all the way up and the neck will be a basic 2-2 rib. The body of the sweater is an oatmeal color and the arms and neck are navy - kind of like a baseball t-shirt. I'm knitting it all in worsted weight cotton.

After searching high and low on the internet for the appropriate yarn in the right colors, I bought some Tahki Stacy Charles, Inc. cotton, without noticing that it was mercerised. I spent about $60 getting all the colors I needed for the jeep intarsia. It arrived and while it was very nice yarn, it just didn't seem appropriate for a child or for the design. The shiny-ness just seemed like something for a grown woman.

A few days later I was at A.C. Moore, (where I typically don't like to buy yarn) and I stumbled across a ton of Lily Sugar 'n Cream 100% cotton yarn in the perfect colors. At $1.20 a skein. What was a $60 sweater suddenly became a $16 sweater! Perfect for a sixteen month old who a) won't appreciate the effort or the cost and b) will likely spill something all over it within minutes of its first wearing.

Pictures to follow soon.

What's in a name?

Not being particularly clever, after thinking about it for about five minutes I decided to name my blog Eighty Pies for two reason. First, I like to bake pies; it's really the only thing I'm any good at cooking. Second, my nickname, Adie, sounds like the number. Growing up my mom always called me Adie-Pie. So that's that.

Hand, foot and mouth

This virus kicked my butt. Actually, it kicked Harry's, but I have to help him cope. It all started on Monday with a call from daycare saying that he had a fever of 102.

On Tuesday he still had a fever so we kept him home, with me taking the morning shift and Chris arriving home around 11 so I could go to work for awhile.

On Wednesday he woke up grouchy, but no fever so we decided to send him to daycare. I got a call at noon saying that he was inconsolable and they had noticed a spot on the tip of his tongue that looked like a blister. So I picked him up, took him to the doctor and got the diagnosis - Hand, Foot and Mouth, or the coxsackie virus.

We then spent the next day and a half with him in a lot of pain and totally unable to tell us why. Very frustrating and very sad. He would try to eat something and cry because it made the sore on his tongue hurt more.

I'm pleased to say that he's on the mend and currently happily munching on a piece of chicken.

Inaugural Post

This is my first foray into the world of blogging. I've been reading other people's blogs for so long that I realized I was composing my own in my head. Now it's time to put it on paper. Um, er, I guess I mean on the internets.