Here there be dragons (and blankets)

Since everyone I know appears to be spawning, I've been busy with some knitting projects recently. My cousin gave birth to Baby #3 last weekend, and named her something I actually don't hate: Eliana. (Her first two children have kreeyative names using "k" sounds; my cousin and her husband both have K names as does their last name start with a K.)

Cousin's first baby gender-determining ultrasound showed fetus to be a boy, so I bought yarn accordingly. (Generally I try to make blankets somewhat gender-neutral, but I found this yarn I really liked and, well.) Then gender-determining ultrasound #2, a few months later, determined that no, she was actually going to be a girl. Hm.

I went back to the store, but didn't find any good "girly-colored" yarn that exactly matched the already-purchased stuff. So I found something else that would work (not nearly as soft, unfortunately) and came up with a design to use all three yarns - a blues/greens/purples (original), a whites/blue/green (original), and a light purple (new). If you look closely at the photos you can see my pattern - it's actually basically the same pattern I used for my other cousin's baby blanket I made a couple of months ago, except without side borders and with an outer edge of crocheted-on light purple. I like it a lot.


The other project is actually the second one I've made of its kind (or very similar). Back in December I made a green and yellow dinosaur for Wombat and it got sent out to California along with the other stuff we sent the Agirlandaboy family for Giftmas before I got a chance to take photos of him. Leah has been kind enough to do so here, along with a very cute baby who appears to enjoy how the dinosaur tastes. I wanted to do something similar for Spats, except in perhaps a more feminine vein, so instead of a dinosaur I made a dragon. She's mostly yellow with two kinds of purple (some of the leftover light purple from Eliana's blanket), and I'm sorry Jive Turkey I wanted to save it for a surprise, but you'll be getting the dragon in the mail in a few days and I wanted to post photos.




I've got two more projects in various stages of completion for yet another friend due in May; a skater or snowboarder-style baby hat (finished!) and some matching booties (not finished!) that I'll display before I mail them out. This baby will be a girl and her name will start with the letter E, because she's going to be named after an ancestor and that's how they roll in my friends' family.

* * * * *

I'm thoroughly uninterested in food these days because our weather finally seems to be cooperating and giving us nice, warm spring days. I'm hoping the lack of interest in food will bring a lack of appetite, because it's about time my body gives up the ghost of the winter layer and starts slimming down. It's been more than six weeks since I gave up eating chocolate from the work candy jar (haven't slipped up yet!) and I haven't really seen any results. It's really frustrating, and I am not sure what else to do. I'm already in the gym about 6-7 hours a week and have started walking or running some days after work as well. For example, I went running in the park on Tuesday after work (only 1.5 miles) and my legs have been killing me since. Today the left one only feels somewhat sore but the right is still bugging me. I hope it's better by tomorrow, since that's when our new work softball team has its first practice (!) I don't know what convinced me to join such a thing, but I did, so there you have it. I haven't played any softball since sometime in middle school and I have no idea if I have any ability to hit a ball with a bat, but I can run so that's something at least.

Also, the instructor for my two favorite classes at the gym (the ones I have been going to for a year and a half) finally fessed up to being pregnant on Monday. Since she's about a size zero, the little belly bump she's got going on made it pretty obvious (Suck in your abs! she yells, and her belly doesn't move). She is due in October. I am going to make her baby something as well.