Chickenlips Knitting

My very own banner, designed by the fabulous Flutter. Thank you, Flutter, I absolutely love it. Isn't it cute? And it is so, well, me! I'd love to be able to s-t-r-e-t-c-h it and replace that boring old generic title banner, but after 90 minutes of poring over Blogger Help, googling for tips, and general head-scratching, I'm still stumped. I consider it no small feat that I even figured out how to upload it so it appears above my posts. Any tips & hints you could offer this carbon-dated fossil, er, make that "HTML-challenged knit blogger," would be most welcome.



Increased Hormone Levels



And acute grandma symptoms. Must be. How else can I explain my urge to knit an entire baby wardrobe? I got to hold my boss's new daughter yesterday. The sweetness of baby Lucia at two weeks old is so powerful it made me weak. The new mom, upon unwrapping the lavender baby kimono, put it on the baby straightaway. A perfect fit. The entire northwest corner of our office building was melting from the cuteness.





So today I finished this little ensemble:































The cardi (which still needs blocking) was made with less than one hank of Cascade 220. It's one of the nicer variations I've found on the "5-Hour Baby Sweater." And of course, yet another ribbed cap, knit from Wildfoote Handpaints sock yarn. Still staggering from the power of the urge to make clothes for this kid, I also purchased this:





























Lucia's mom was born in Holland, and orange is the national color, which is something I did not know. And having gone through this myself, I totally respect her wishes to dress Lucia in colors other than pink. I've got nothing against pink--it happens to be one of my favorite colors--but what will probably happen is, once the child is old enough to dress herself, or at least choose her clothes, she may very well go through a pink phase. Right now, she doesn't have a say-so.



But, as I'm fond of saying, that ain't all! From Jimmy Beans Wool, I ordered a baby blanket kit with Blue Sky Organic Cotton dyed white. Someone stop me. Please...



In Memoriam














Very saddened to learn of the death of Brad Delp, lead singer of the 70's supergroup Boston. This isn't just hero worship--I actually knew Brad. We both went to the same high school--Danvers High School, Danvers, Mass. We also worked at the same factory, a place that manufactured heating units, called "Hotwatt" (insert crude joke of your choice). He was sweet and nice to everyone, a quiet guy who was a huge Beatles fan. When he left for the West Coast to make an album, I hadn't even known he was in a band--he kept such a low profile. Of course I was blown away by his talent and Boston's huge success. He came back a year later with the platinum album, posing for a picture with all the young people at Hotwatt.

I'm lighting a candle tonight, in memory of a fallen Danvers boy.