Crafty stuff....

So most of you can tell by looking at me that I have a high percentage of Scandinavian blood. I feel a real attachment to Norway where my grandmother is from. That being said, fairisle? Oh yes, fairisle. I love traditional Norwegian fairisle. I found a designer that translates traditional and modern Norwegian fairisle patterns into English. It's DROPS designs. I've been adding voraciously to my Ravelry queue (and favorites) as I go through their patterns. It's an unfortunate thing that none of the patterns will actually fit me but I bet that there is a way to scale up. I'm not sure how much negative ease you can allow for with fairisle but maybe a few of the larger patterns will fit. I'm sure, where there is a will there is a way. The patterns are perhaps not the best in English but I'm sure I can figure it out.

Two questions remain: Am I ready for a fairisle project of that size? Am I ready to tackle the scary prospect of fitted knitting?

I have a while to figure it out because Christmas knitting comes first. Although some of the children's sweaters are sooooo tempting for my niece and nephew. I have no idea if they'd wear them (or appreciate them). Still it seems like it would be a good place to start, right? Or maybe I could knit one of the baby sweaters, they're even smaller. And I have two babies I could knit for.

Speaking of babies and knitting...Has anyone heard that allowing babies to wear wool increases their chance of developing an allergy? My mom said that and I wondered if it was true or an old wives tale. I know they say that about honey but I hadn't heard it about wool. Does it matter that the new wools are softer and less scratchy than the old ones? So many people tell me they can't wear wool (and some legitimately) but then find that they have no reaction whatsoever to the new wools. I've been told that a lot of people are allergic to lanolin and the new processing washes it completely out of the wool.

I forgot that my cousin's baby shower is Saturday. She's expecting her first boy after two girls and ten years. I'm frantically crocheting a baby blanket in the vague hope that I can get it done before then. I borrowed the shape from a pattern similar to this one. I'm using yellow, green, blue, and purple pastels with white between each color. It's a stash project and unfortunately uses acrylic (and not the super soft kind) but it's what I had, hopefully it softens up a bit with washing. I started last night and it's about 16 inches from point to point. It's very pretty though. Right now I just have yellows and a pastel variegated yarn with the white. It's very baby. I will continue to frantically crochet tonight. It's a good thing I'm very fast! If I get it done there are several cute little hats I'd like to knit but I'm really not expecting that.

Oh, I wish I could knit and/or crochet all day but this pesky work thing gets in the way!