Dish Rag Tag: the Sequel sign-ups are officially closed at 289. Follow Yarn Miracle to stay current on Tag related events including next year’s race.

The last time I looked, sign-ups were at 150! Does that make Dish Rag Tag half-full or half-empty?

Ellie tried a new food yesterday.

Oh my. Apples are that good?

Room to grow! Three Cheers!

Most baby clothing designers seem to think that babies are short and fat. Mine isn’t. As a result, it was kind of tricky to decide what size to make. I finally elected to make the three month size with what basically amounts to the 6 month length. Despite frequent panic attacks about whether or not it would fit by the time the thing was finished, it turns out that I was spot on and she will get a fair amount of wear out of this. Yay!

Sans sleeves.

Cables everywhere! I love cables.

The shoulder buttons are so sweet. And moist.

The moral of this story is: the Cable and Lace All-in-One from Baby Knits (Lois Daykin) is super cute but not in any way a quick baby knit. I would recommend it as a pre-baby knit rather than a post baby knit - unless you have a good grasp of how quickly and in what direction your baby is growing. Or don’t plan to make it for your personal baby.

So what’s next? Since we are in what is know as the Summer around these parts, there won’t be any garment knitting until September (socks don’t count). I’ve got several small projects, ConterPain Squares, that tree skirt and Dish Rag Tag: the Sequel to keep me busy. I have given a lot of thought to ways to improve the Race and make it even more fun, more competitive and more inclusive than last year. Ways that don’t involve me (or any one else) knitting hundreds of starter dish rags. Excited? Stay tuned!

Not enough Ellie? There are more pictures from this modeling session on flickr.

I just finished the second sleeve less than five minutes ago!

I’ve only been working on it since March.

I’ve figured out when I get to knit. Now, when do I vacuum? I can’t do it while she’s asleep because she’s sleeping. I can’t do it while she’s awake because it wastes Ellie time. I think I have to go old school and get out the broom.

Speaking of sleeping, I stopped to check on her on the way to the computer.

I love this baby.

She is doing this.

He is doing this.

I am going to do this.

And eat a bunch of these.

I love Sunday.

Finally! Photographic evidence! It might even be admissible in court.

Happy Memorial Day, y’all.

Michael attended Startupriot in Atlanta to pitch his new company.* Ellie and I went along to practice our Travel Skills and visit my folks for a couple days. This trip was double our Experimental Overnight to Biloxi for Free Cone Day: twice as far, two nights, one night without Michael at bedtime - which we’ve done before but not in a “strange” place. The trip went smoothly, with one exception: a significant unwillingness on the part of the aforementioned baby to nap. I finally got her to sleep and just left her on my lap. Luckily, I could reach the strap of my knitting bag with my toe and my laptop was already in the bed.

My folks have the wi-fi. And I love them for it.

I was satisfied with this arrangement until I finished both the legs and realized that my pattern was downstairs on the kitchen table. I desperately wanted to call my Mom from my cell phone to get her to bring it to me, but I was afraid that would rouse the kid. My Darling Sister Favor of the Day had been used when I texted her to call Mom to tell her why I never came back from putting Ellie to sleep. So I resigned myself to reading blogs until the nap was over. Progress reached a standstill until the next morning.

Those are Gracie’s feet.

I didn’t get a whole lot done in the car due to the ban on front seat knitting, so I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life aloud instead. When Ellie was awake, I sat in the back to entertain her and knit a little when no one was looking.

In an effort to get this Napping Situation under control, the new strategy is a loose schedule (she IS only three months old) coupled with a napping routine that is similar to the bedtime one. I won’t jinx our progress by telling you how well it is going - but the fact that I am blogging should be a hint.

*He says to tell you if any of you are interested in investing in a early-stage technology company, to send an email for more information to: michael@divvs.com

I finished the back of her romper!

She’ll be three months old tomorrow.

It’s kind of sad that this feels like a major accomplishment.

It’s even sadder that I just this moment realized how far behind I am on this year’s CounterPain Squares.

Added later: I am absolutely enjoying every second of time with Ellie (including Unhappy Hour)! I think my current slowness in project completion has more to do with my current project not lending itself well to fits and starts. The CounterPain squares, however, are much easier to just pick up. Now that I have remembered that they exist…