Okay, Now!

Are these not the cutest? And the kids are pretty adorable, too.
And the baby can come now. I know the child was just waiting for my package to arrive. I'm just relieved it got there in four days. Amazing.

Gotta Gator?

I do! But not for long. This gator is flying to England tomorrow, by hook or by crook. I won't wish having the gator arrive before the baby on poor Stephanie, but I do want it to get there relatively soon so she can use it!

I see it as first a nursing pillow, then a baby support boppy sort of thing and finally a body pillow. The original pattern is the Morehouse Merino alligator scarf, but I took a lot of liberties with it.

For those knitting afficionados who like details, he's 42 inches long, stuffed with a stocking which was, in turn, stuffed with pillow stuffing, and has cat toy eyeballs. The eyes and legs are stuffed with stockings so they can be washed. The mouth is a braided cotton cord that can be undone so the big stocking (which looks like a worm, I swear!) can be removed. I used Lionbrand Wool-Ease Chunky and size 10 needles for the green part and two strands of a worsted weight for the tummy. I wanted to make the legs bend so I tried several sock patterns, thinking the heel would turn into a knee, but I couldn't make it work. For those who are more concerned about alligator accuracy than knitting, please let me assure you that this one has 4 claws on the back legs and five on the front and that the 4th lower tooth on each side should be hidden. I'm betting that if it really bothers them, Jason can, and will, fix it! I expect Stephanie will be busy with the baby. Stephanie will be relieved to know that I'm not sending Jesse, Alligator Wrestler Extraordinaire.

Canticipation

This could just as easily be called "can't keep a secret." I'm just not good at waiting.
I know people who are perfectly capable of making the perfect purchase in July and waiting patiently until Christmas to present the present. I'm not one of them. When I find THE gift for the giftless I want to dance and prance and crow and get it immediately into the hands of the person so they can share my joy.
This is why I end up empty handed at Christmas. It's also why I have trouble understanding how all of these knitting bloggers can find things to talk about every day on their blogs. Aren't they committing precisely the faux pas of which I speak or don't any of the people they knit for actually read their blogs? I'm sitting here with my knitting in my lap (so I have something to do while I'm composing, doncha know) and it's all I can do not to tell you all about the perfect gift for a cajun baby.
Fortunately, Holly has her tree of life throw pillow already. I was her not so secret elf (it's hard to keep it a secret when you're the only one in the group who knits and the books might have been a rather strong hint as well, but what do you want from a librarian?) and since I"m making her a Lionbrand Nature in Natural afghan, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to make her a pillow to go with it. I used the free pattern for the tree of life sweater. In case anyone ever needs to know this, the tree of life section is the perfect size for a 10x10 inch square pillow form. I'm thinking of making myself the other Lionbrand tree of life afghan. Either that or I'm going to use the same technique they use to make myself a Great American Afghan without having to sew squares together. Not only am I avoiding swatching until I find a creative and original use for all those swatches, but I'm also constantly in search of ways to avoid sewing things together.
I may have to break down and take a class on it so I can feel more confident about it. That would open a lot of patterns up for consideration that I am assiduously avoiding in the meantime.