A Little Behind

Yeah, I have a little behind. Big belly, big boobs, big feet, big uterus, and big pupils; but a small behind.

Okay, that's not what I meant.

This is a toe up sock, with part of the heel flap done. I'm using an on-line tutorial from Miriam; who must thinks I'm the densest knitter in the world. But hey....I was just having trouble with all my text being underlined and highlighted, and without knowing a thing about HTML, I went to the 'Edit Html' page and fixed it! Back to sock. It was going okay, but then I started working on the actual flap, and it was only 22sts wide, instead of half the sts of the whole sock, as it would be if knit top down. I'm still not totally sure how it all happened, but I followed the instructions right, and that's how it's supposed to be...This heel takes more math work done toe up than cuff down, and of course, it's nice if we can avoid math when possible. It's fitting okay, although I don't know if that's because I set it up wrong, or because I did it right, or what, LOL. I might give it another try on the next socks, but modify it to be like the cuff down heel flap. However, I am now getting to the point I can guesstimate how many sts I need so I could just start at the top, which would make the heel flap mindless again.

The Surgery Shawl (aka "Flower Basket Shawl") is done, has been for a while. In this picture you can see the 'rustic-ness' of the yarn. And did you know, that the thinner bits are stronger than the fluffier bits? The thinner bits are thinner because they were spun tighter. Doh! Mim must really think I'm dense now!

It's not what I need though. It does span my wingspan, but draped over the shoulders, it barely covers to my elbows. That doesn't add much warmth. Sure, I could have made it huge (I did find another little ball I had wound; maybe enough for another repeat of the pattern), but being short waisted, it would have come way too far down by butt. The one thing that is small on me (hey, I guess it was relevant after all).

What I really need for post-surgery is a stole. Like the nursing shawl/stole I had been knitting.

I already took the needles out of it back last fall when I realized it would not be done before my nursing days were done. I'm sure I could probably figure out which needle it was (I think 5.5 mm, and a new one that I bought that was pointy). But it's had it's day, you know? I'm pretty sure it's going to be re-incarnated as a lacey cardigan.

I realized the weekend before this past one that it was half way through April and I hadn't bought any yarn this month! But on Thursday I had to go visit the surgeon in Mississauga. I'm not very good at merging on the highway. Getting there is no problem, but I was pretty worried about getting on the 403 in the middle of Miss. So, I opted for the scenic route that happened to go past two yarn stores, one of which is supposed to specialize in machine knitting stuff.

Well... the offerings looked pretty much like my bin of cone yarn...not much logic, no multiple colours of the same yarn (for the most part). The owner was away getting ready for a show, so there was no one to help me, and Lucy decided she HAD to have $30 worth of novelty buttons from the wall next to the cone yarn. Big tantrum. Thank God we were in the basement. I got a cone of Brown Sheep Cotton Fine in Lilac.

On the way to the next stop, both girls fell asleep. I quickly ran into Georgetown Yarn and Crafts and got the one ball of Trekking 126 that I posted about :) So, my average yarn spending is still running at about $50/month. I had been doing great about using up stash, and I am still working on that. Most of what I have bought this year has either been used already, or is in the 'will use very soon' basket, or is sock yarn.

This is a 'No Swatch Sweater' for Lucy, in Bernat LuLu. I've been trying to work something with this yarn for a while. It's bulky gauge, but has not body to it. I wanted a jacket type sweater, but it's too floppy. So it's going to be a simple hoody. More on the sweater design later. Time to knit!

Found the Camera!

Rob's birthday present! After he finally wore Megan at the Maple Syrup Festival, I decided to make a carrier just for him. They tried it out on the weekend.
Megan likes to tuck a doll or stuffed animal in her shirt, so I dug out this pouch I made back in the early days. Gathered up the extra with an elastic, and viola! We went to IKEA on the weekend and Lucy was upset she couldn't go in the playroom because she didn't have socks on. But right at the top of the escalator was a clown making balloon animals. We were skeptical when she offered to make a Spiderman for Huey, but wow! She was good!

And yes, I did take some knitting pictures, LOL. Outside enjoying the nice weather. But it appears that I haven't gotten around to downloading them yet! Right now I've got some other things to do. Like, knit!

Spring Check

For men, Spring Check is when you put a deposit down for next year's snowmobile.

For women, Spring Check is when you find two opposing mirrors to make sure nothing has sunk down out of your shorts over the winter.

And, if you're old enough for things to sink down below your shorts, you're too old to be wearing those shorts! Memo to the grandma of the girl in Lucy's class....I don't know how "Blind Line" got it's name, but the vision of your pasty white jiggly thighs descending from glued on Daisy Dukes is enough to make ME go blind.

Still can't find the camera.

Blush

Who you callin' straight? LOL. Yeah, me! Yes, when I first looked at the picture, I saw boy parts, LOL. Then I looked again....saw a different perspective. Can you tell where my interests are? ;)

Haven't had time to search for the camera (should I really need to 'search' for the camera? Why don't they have locator beepers on them?), or look for another picture to post. Oh, I do have quite a few family pictures I haven't shared.

Anyone know what this is? It grows on long, thin stalks, has a papery covering over little bulbs like garlic, but not clustered together like garlic, and more round. Then, little tiny pink flowers appeared in late summer. We'll be getting rid of it, but I'm just curious. That picture was not long after we got the digital camera. Hadn't learned how to make the resolution lower. Look at the fabulous details! Must remember to up the resolution next time I take knitting pictures. But isn't it all lost when I shrink them down from a gizzlion MB to something under 100 so I can post it, and not use up all my antique computer's memory? I also really like the perfect depth of focus.

My breast reduction surgery got postponed. I'm a little ticked, because next week would have worked out SO much better in a lot of ways. I've always believed that things work out the way they do for a reason. But I'm totally not getting any 'reason' with this. The initial delay for the appointment, rescheduling the appointment, rescheduling the surgery...what could the reason be? It's delaying something else I want done. Someone enlighten me cause I need some better vibes. I don't have 'bad vibes' about the surgery, just about arranging help, Huey's birthday being a few days later, etc. It comes at a bad time. Maybe, somehow, I'll get called in a week early and won't have time to get worked up? I don't know. Got to go before Rob gets downstairs and complains about something/anything again :)

Still more camera-less photos

Take a very quick look at the photo: I think they need a stylist for their photos. Or, then again, maybe not, LOL. (Please tell me it's not just me....)
Photo 'courtesy' of www.colourmart.com

Still Camera-less

Still can't find the camera. It's somewhere safe and secure, that's for sure! So instead, I leave you with this image:

I believe it's from www.stragebuttrewe.com. That's "Strange, But 'Tr-ewe'", not Strange Buttered Ewes, or Strange Butt Rewes....

I say, if you have time to design and knit the digestive system....you need a new hobby!

Imagine this...

...you're 18, and give birth to a 29 week preemie. Wow. Then, 4 months later, get pregnant again. Now, having babies 14 months apart it not too unusual (Rob and his sister!), but....the second baby comes 13 weeks early, and now your kids are barely 10 months apart! OMG. Someone new joined the Attachment Parenting Yahoo group I'm in. Some of the member's stories are pretty interesting. Like the discussion on long after your baby's birth before you had sex again. One woman wrote in saying THREE DAYS!!! THE DAY she came home from the hospital!!! But she finished off by saying that she was only 16 at the time, LOL. Generally, that response got a colletive 'ICK' by group members, LOL.

Losers!

Earlier, I was lost....now I'm a loser. Okay, not quite. We're not losers, we're mis-placers. Somewhere in this house is the camera. Somewhere safe where the kids won't get it. And apparently it's such a safe place, I can't get it either! So, my finished and blocked Flower Basket Shawl will have to wait. I'd love to take pictures outside too, but it'd be nice if it were spring first. Everything outside is the same colour as the shawl.

You want to know the funny thing about that Star Trek song? I never liked Star Trek! So, I figured I've seen Jayne pictures from Catbookmom's blog (memo....check my links to see if I've added her yet, now that she has also found herself again, LOL). And Jayne reads Emma, and Emma read me so I commented on Emma's blog.....but Emma....how'd you find me? LOL. She's the lawyer in Salt Lake City? Mmmm....Miriam (MimKnits) is in SLC too, right?.....connection? This is fun, like a modern day chain letter. Or Friendship cake. Yum. Does anyone still make/share Friendship cake?

I've got a baby blanket on the Singer 327. Using a punchcard tuck stitch design. It started out so fun! Just zip zip zip and the design magically appears. But now, after several inches, I'm getting bored!!! It's just zip zip zip. Sure, it's fast, and near perfect, but now requires no brain function. Except for when Megan thinks she'd like a turn. Her idea of 'knitting' is to stab the piece with the transfer tools, and pull the latches forward/back. I've taken to covering up the beds now!

Off to look for the camera some more. Or maybe I'll sit and watch All My Children :)

Losers!

Earlier, I was lost....now I'm a loser. Okay, not quite. We're not losers, we're mis-placers. Somewhere in this house is the camera. Somewhere safe where the kids won't get it. And apparently it's such a safe place, I can't get it either! So, my finished and blocked Flower Basket Shawl will have to wait. I'd love to take pictures outside too, but it'd be nice if it were spring first. Everything outside is the same colour as the shawl.

You want to know the funny thing about that Star Trek song? I never liked Star Trek! So, I figured I've seen Jayne pictures from Catbookmom's blog (memo....check my links to see if I've added her yet, now that she has also found herself again, LOL). And Jayne reads Emma, and Emma read me so I commented on Emma's blog.....but Emma....how'd you find me? LOL. She's the lawyer in Salt Lake City? Mmmm....Miriam (MimKnits) is in SLC too, right?.....connection? This is fun, like a modern day chain letter. Or Friendship cake. Yum. Does anyone still make/share Friendship cake?

I've got a baby blanket on the Singer 327. Using a punchcard tuck stitch design. It started out so fun! Just zip zip zip and the design magically appears. But now, after several inches, I'm getting bored!!! It's just zip zip zip. Sure, it's fast, and near perfect, but now requires no brain function. Except for when Megan thinks she'd like a turn. Her idea of 'knitting' is to stab the piece with the transfer tools, and pull the latches forward/back. I've taken to covering up the beds now!

Off to look for the camera some more. Or maybe I'll sit and watch All My Children :)

Am I Lost?

I think it's fabulous how one blog leads you to another....and another....and you find little gems....and then you realize that actually they're not so little, LOL.

There are circles of bloggers, interlinking like the Olympic rings. A few of the readers here are from about.com knitting forum. I read their blogs too. Then, there are the readers from the Yahoo groups I'm in. And then there are others....who find me somehow, somewhere. One came here from the Yahoo Apraxia (a speech disorder) group. I'm not in that group! She read the post about B12 deficiency from last fall. Did she find it by Google? Or is someone in the Apraxia group and a group that I'm in? Someone recently read my babywearing post....and I don't recognize her from anywhere.
And now there's Emma and Jayne. I recognize Jayne's picture from comments on another blog---which one? She says she found me through Emma's blog. I left a comment on Emma's blog after she commented here about my new shawl. But how did Emma find me? Everyone's finding me and I didn't know I was lost, LOL. I used to love pen pals, chain letters, letters in a bottle...all that stuff. I'm a bit of a geography freak too :)

Bumper sticker "I found Jesus....he was hiding behind the couch!" LOL.

It's Back!

The demise of "You Knit What" last summer left a gaping hole in the daily blog reading of folk. But, I have just found out, there is a new blog dedicated to fugly knitting. Well, it's not so new, started up last August, LOL. It's not the same girls, but it's the same purpose! Shall I send a picture of my cat sweater? Or my Fair Isle held together with hot glue?

Star Trekking....

"Star Trekking....across the universe...."

And I can't remember anymore of it than that. I don't think it was Weird Al. Someone help me?

Last night I made the journey down south to the Georgetown guild. Very glad I did. Found out that the G'town LYS is carrying Trekking sock yarn :) She brought one ball that I just fell in love with, #126. I found a picture:

The one on the right. I didn't think it would be so pink. And I'd like it better without the white parts, LOL, but I still do like it. Trekking also has a bamboo sock yarn now. Diane is also doing a dyeing class, and you get a nice little kit. A little pricey for me....I've done Kool Aid, Easter egg dyes, and cake dyes :)

The other part of the night was a guest speaker, Carol Tomany of Infiknits. She distributes knitting patterns. Now, I do design a lot of what I knit, but it's not usually things that others would be interested in. With the exception perhaps, of the baby blanket I did last fall. I wonder if the center panel is copyrighted? She says lace patterns are big, and felting, and sock patterns. I have bought a FiberTrends sock pattern, but there are so many on the Internet, and it's so easy to just pick a stitch from a dictionary....unless you have something totally different I wouldn't think it'd sell (but some of her best sellers are a very simple series--sweaters that are so plain, all you have to do is figure your gauge and math, why would anyone buy the pattern....but I realize that some people need to have it done for them, LOL). What was interesting was that she said some of the designers do make a living at this. However, at the end of the talk, she broke down the pricing, and the designer only gets about $1 per pattern!!! (Not per design, but per pattern that sells). Yikes.

Finished my Surgery Shawl. It's the Flower Basket Shawl, was in Interweave Knits a few years back, but you can also buy it separately (maybe FiberTrends?).

Yes, our carpet looks that bad. Sure, I could have vacuumed first, but that big splotch would still be there. We tried the Bissell carpet cleaner, but the carpet is so matted that the beater bar wouldn't make contact and lift the cleaner off the carpet. I suggested we use the Bissell to get the cleaner on the carpet and do what it can, and suck it all up with the Shop Vac. Then crank the heat and leave the house for the day, LOL. I did measure it before I threw it in the sink....but didn't write it down. I think it's 53" across.Here's a close up of the 'Flower Baskets'. LOL. Even harder to see than Grumperina's dolphins (which I don't really get either, even after being outlined. What's the dot?).

And here's a photo for Grade 10 Photography 101---"Depth of Field". LOL. I think the back side of the shawl is pretty cool. However, it does make it quite bunchy, and even though it's 53" stretched somewhat, once I wrap it around me, it's like a little scarf. I'm going to go downstairs and block it, right now!

Expecting?

Before I was ever pregnant, I watched "Baby Story" on TLC and found birth stories fascinating. Why do some women soar through natural birth? Why do some women say they want a natural birth but freak out after a few contractions? Why do some women automatically say they want absolutely no pain? While pregnant I did a lot of reading. I decided that birth is not a medical event. It's only been in the past 125 years that it has become a medical event, starting back when the medical establishment (ie---men) decided that women, the weaker sex, could not be smart enough to birth their own babies and they must intervene. Over the next few generations, the collective knowledge of the physiological power of childbirth was almost lost in western society. First, women were given no option but to be put into 'twilight sleep' to give birth. Then, with the advances of the epidural, no pain as a birth option was highly regarded. Why should you 'torture yourself' if you can have absolute pain relief?

I'm not going to get into why you shouldn't have an epidural, other than it TOTALLY disrupts the natural physiological chain of events and TOTALLY puts birth in the hands of a third party. Someone who most likely will forget your name by the time of your 6 week check up. I didn't want others controlling what my body intrinsically knew what to do. I didn't even want to be controlling the events; I wanted to give in to my body. I would have REALLY preferred a midwife birth, but not possible here. I would have really preferred a home birth. I never knew about it back then, but there is a movement called "Unassisted Childbirth". Perhaps a bit radical for me (yes, I'm not a total nutjob....and neither are those women!), but the stories are very fascinating. I knew I wanted to birth my child gently, with peace and dignity to both of us. I almost got that :)
All this rambling is leading me to this....LOL.... I was over at the website under my links "Attachment Parenting Comics" and saw she had a book list for pregnant/new moms. You don't have to be crunchy, Birkie wearing momma-to-be to read these books. Shouldn't you be well informed about such an important event? Many women spend more time planning their wedding then they do their birth. You can read all about non-violent (ie--modern, North American births) births, all about midwifery, all about a commune of women and their birth stories, and still decide that you want to drug your baby before it's born because you are afraid of pain. Fear creates what you are afraid of. But at least you go into it knowing that giving birth without medicine, without monitors, without hourly checking, without time-lines, is totally do-able, totally normal, and totally within your grasp. I am a pain wimp. My dentist knows to automatically give me extra freezing. But I had almost pain free births.

Oh...I especially wanted to point out two books. "Birth Without Violence" is a fabulous book, and "Milk, Money, and Madness" is a book I'd like to read. It sounds fascinating. It's not a book on how to breastfeed, but on the politics and socio-economical effects of the formula industry. The big, bad, business based on the by product of cheese making :) (Whey. A main ingredient in formula, is a by product of cheese making. Ever looked at the ingredient listing on a can of formula? I cannot understand how women purposely choose this. And I'm not talking about you b.f. soldiers who gave it your all for weeks on end!! I'm talking about those women who 'give up' after two weeks, or never even try because b.f. makes them feel like a cow....and then they give their baby formula that is based on baby cow food....).

Don't Like Change!

I was at www.elann.com this morning, seeing what was new. There's a pattern book for Canadiana. Being fond of Patons Decor, and KNOWING it has the same gauge as Canadiana, I took a look. Well, knock me over with a knitting needle. Right there in the book description, it says for Aran weight Canadiana, with a gauge of 18st/24 rows....Okay, I think, that's got to be a typo. Maybe the patterns are written that way, but Canadiana does NOT have an Aran gauge. So I go to Patons' website and look it up. And wouldn't you know it. No fan fare, no email notification, nothing. Canadiana has gone and grown up and is now Aran weight. Perhaps this is a payback for having neglected the about.com knitting forum for so long, in favour of machine knitting groups. So, any new patterns for Canadiana are not directly transferable to Decor or Classic Merino. While I was at the website, I remembered that a long time ago someone owning a yarn store told me that Astra was going to be changing. And indeed, it has too. Now it's 22st on 4mm, before, it was 24 st on 3.75mm. Don't know if that's just a label change, or if it's a yarn change. And I just bought some. I'll have to check.
So, if you are buying any of these yarns be sure to check the stock and get them all the same! What a headache for stores, to have new stock with a different gauge but the same name as existing stock!

Passed Test #1

Today was Lucy's first speech therapy in Shelburne. She had been going to the O'ville hospital for it, but the ER suddenly decided just before Christmas that they wanted to hire someone, and that someone would need an office, and that office should be at the other end of the hospital from the ER---in the therapy department. And that the observation room between two speech therapy rooms (it has two way mirrors to view the adjacent rooms) would not be suitable for the new staff, so the entire speech department needed to rework their schedules so they could give up one office. Almost all of the SLP are working moms. They already have a waiting list. The chief guy is Lucy's SLP and I think it was him that gave up an office. He also works out of the Shelburne 'hospital' though. With the revised schedule, he could offer us Monday afternoon at O'ville, or Thursday morning at Shelburne. Lucy has school in the afternoon. Since it would be SPRING, we opted to drive the 20 minutes north to Shelburne. Not a big hardship--I could go to Woolly's finally.

Then, Knit From Your Stash 2007 started. I was a good girl today :) Nine more weeks to go!

Issues

What would life be without issues? LOL. Sandra mentions copyright issues with my jotting down The Harlots' tips on measuring, head sizes, etc. I had a few concerns about copyright too. I had meant to put the book info in that last post but forgot to go back once I grabbed the book. So here it is: "Knitting Rules!" by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. Published by Storey Publishing, 210 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, MA 01247, copyright 2006 by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. It does say that a reviewer may quote, with appropriate credits, brief passages (or reproduce illustrations), in a review. I did give a bit of a review :) I am no way attributing the information to myself, I did acknowledge the author, and I did not reproduce exactly, or directly, the information. I'm sure it could be found on any number of sites, such as Bevscountrycottage. If the Harlot has an issue that she somehow is the sole keeper of the statistics of head and foot sizes, then I will bow to her and remove the info :)

Something that had really surprised me a while ago, is when Grumperina posted pictures of just about all the patterns in Victorian Lace Today. Now, someone like me could take one of those pictures and create a similiar article. Which, admittedly, I have done with a hat pattern. Now, usually I am a copyright follower. I do copy patterns from library books under the "Personal Use" clause, and I have copied a free mitten pattern (undated) under the "Educational Use" clause. I don't copy friends' patterns, I don't give out copies of paid patterns. So, I'm hoping my good copyright karma will come around and be on my side for this one :)

Knitting Rules

My library had a new copy of the Yarn Harlot's "Knitting Rules" so I grabbed it a few weeks ago. I love her blog but didn't have any idea of what the book is about. It's a handy book, I guess. I have to say, although I love her blog, the book is written in the same way....and gets a little annoying after awhile. So read it bit by bit.
There are lots of little tidbits in it that I'd like to be able to remember, but I have no remembering ability anymore, so I'm going to jot them down here.

Head Sizes:
Preemie--12" Small newborn--13" Large newborn--14"
1 year--17" 2-5 years--18" 5-10 years--19"
Small adult--20" Large adult 24"
In humans older than 6, a person's head circumference is about three times the width of their outstretched hand, measured thumb to pinkie.
The distance from the base of a person's palm to the tip of the longest finger is = to the height of a hat from cast on edge to the point where you begin decreasing. For people over 6.
Distance to knit to crown
Baby--5" Toddler--5 1/2" Child 6" Small adult--6 1/2 to 7 1/2" Large adult--7 1/2" to 8 1/2"

Socks
The length of a person's foot is about 15 percent of his height.
The length of a person's foot measures the same as that person's forearm (elbow to wristbone).
Baby--shoe size 0--3" length
Kids--2--4" Kids--5--5" Kids 8--6" Kids 11--7"
Women's extra small--3--8" small--6--9" medium--9--10" large--12--11"
Men's small--5--9" medium--8--10" large--11--11" extra large--14--12"
But how big around?!
Average woman's socks, 2.5mm, 7.5st/inch Cast on 64sts, leg length, 7". Foot length 5" from back of heel, toe dec. done every other row till 16sts remain.

Scarves
Men's dress scarf--12"x60" long winter scarf 10"x80" women's small tuck in scarf 8"x40"
12x60" Chunky--300yds, Worsted 400yds, DK--520yds, Fingering--540yds
10x80" Chunky--330yds, Worsted--445yds, DK--575yds, Fingering--600yds
8x40" Chunky--130yds, Worsted--175yds, DK--230yds, Fingering--240yds
All knit in stockinette.

There is also a good chart for the burn test, but it's also on the web, and it's time for lunch.

Whatcha Doin' for Easter?

This little fella lives under the pine tree in our front yard. We met him the week after we moved in last May, when suddenly Cooper (our Golden Retriever) suddenly took off down the road at top speed. In the fall, I left all the rose hips on our rose bush, hoping to encourage the birds to come. I never noticed any birds, but someone ate the rose hips. Then, as the snow built up, the twigs on the bush started disappearing, and gnaw marks were showing up on the main stems. I decided it was time to offer an alternative. I got some squirrel/wildlife food. At first, he ate just about it all, then became picky as the winter went on and he could depend on us. LOL. We'd see him at dusk, and Rob would see him at dawn. Now that's it's warmer, we also see him during the day.
We chose this house because of the mature trees. Now Rob complains about the bird mess, and my rose bush is all chewed up. LOL.

Brrrrr....Bonus of Babywearing

We went to the Elmira Maple Festival on Saturday. Really, it should be called the Elmira Food Festival. There's not a whole lot that is related to maple syrup, except for the Mennonites selling it at the side of the roads leading into Elmira, a maple taffy demostration, fabulous pancakes soaked in real maple syrup ($4 for two HUGE pancakes the size of the paper plate, swimming in syrup poured fresh, and a drink!), and a free tour of the sugar bush. We've been once or twice before, and somehow previously we knew to get to the far side of town and take the wagon ride from the parking areas (as you approach the town from our direction, there are cars lining the street everywhere, and you think 'OMG', but we knew the secret). We did have a brief discussion on which 'other end' of town to get to, but of course, I was right :)Rob wanted to bring the wagon, caused a few issues on the crowded hay wagon ride, and I was a little concerned about pulling it behind us in the crowds. A stroller is in front of you, and at least somewhat high, but the wagon is very low and people aren't looking down. They see a gap in the crowd at eyelevel and don't realize that there is something there at ground level. But it was better than hearing one or both of them whine about walking! It was so cold. Lucy is wearing Huey's jacket liner under her coat. Our hats were a last minute addition. We thought it might be warmer by the time we got there, but it was chilly!! I was wearing Megan on my back, and it was a good thing Rob threw in her winter jacket. She could have worn her snowsuit!
We had the delicious pancakes, and Rob said he'd carry Megan for awhile. I said you've got to at least give the FrankenKozy sling a try--it was so crowded, I really didn't want him to try to hang on to her while getting through the crowd. He was willing to try it out!


He didn't put her down while I tied it around them--I felt like such a newbie, LOL. I've never tied one on someone else before! I really like this carrier, I started it in the fall, but finished the leopard print one for the winter and left this one to finish in the spring. The other side is a blue flowery chintz. It was going to have butterscotch coloured straps (the colour is in the chintz fabric), but when I went to FabricLand a couple weeks ago to get thread, they had all these summery fabrics....so I made the straps double sided. I was also worried about the strap length. When I tried the leopard print one, it was inside my coat, and the straps were long, so when I cut the brown straps for this one, I made them a bit shorter and tapered the ends. But then I started carrying her on my back, over my coat, and the straps were just long enough. i couldn't add extra length to the brown straps very easily because of the tapered ends. So I cut off the tapers, and sewed it together with the blue fabric, so about half of each strap is double layer, adding extra strength and support (I don't think the blue fabric would give enough support by itself) but the part you actually tie is only the blue layer. Aren't I clever? LOL. It's so nice and flowy and summery. Now, if we could only have spring again!

You can also see Megan's homemade "BabyLegs" baby legwarmers. A must for the slung baby, it fills the gap when their pants ride up, LOL. They were just a pair of girls' knee high socks, with the foot cut off. Didn't even finish the end. It rolls up, and you don't notice.

I teased Rob that the only reason he wanted to carry her was to keep warmer. He laughed, but didn't deny it :)