A Wish for Hogswatch

Dear Hogfather,

For Hogswatch, I don't want anything for myself this year. All I really want is for the box of goodies to make it to Wolf in Afghanistan at lightening speed. It would be nice if the balaclava I knit for him arrived in time for him to make good use of it.

I made it using leftovers of Eskimo from when I made the wolf jacket. It's so soft that Vova thought it was cashmere.

I guess he could still use it as a hand-puppet, if it's not cold by the time it arrives.

By the way, I found something called 'slow synchro' flash under the manual setting on my camera. It works much better than the nuclear-blast quality of the normal flash.

Here's wishing lots of beans and sausages to all the good boys and girls.

Love,

Bonnie

Baby Boom

A dear friend of ours was in town last weekend to celebrate a big birthday with his family. He mentioned his daughter was due to deliver at any minute. That was my cue to whip out another last-minute baby bonnet. I went with green and purple this time since I didn't know the sex of the baby. 

The little girl was born in time to make an appearance at her grandfather's birthday party. Both she and her mother looked great.

Since the last one seemed so big, I did one less row of increases and knit only two inches across the top instead of three. I also made the strap only four inches long. This one looks more like 0-3 month size. I happened to notice my gauge in Stockinette was 20 stitches over 4 inches instead of the recommended 14. That would explain the larger size.

Several months ago, I bought a bunch of mother-of-pearl buttons in various colors at Tuesday Morning. One of those happened to be a perfect match for the purple in the hat. The yarn is Falk from Dale of Norway, which is washable wool. I think it's cruel to give new parents any type of baby garment that isn't machine-washable. 

It's a good thing I have a good supply of machine-washable yarns since there are more babies on the way. I have a friend due in February and three co-workers due in April.