I believe I have two knitting projects in this book, which according to Amazon, is currently available for pre-order and should be released in March.

I *think* my pinwheel baby blanket (made for Tigerlily Kawasaki) and my pink and green meathead hat both made the cut.

I think this is my third post in a row asking for your help…? I’m now officially your high maintenance girlfriend.

So… anyway.

This time I’m trying to choose fabrics for a diaper bag.

Ideally:

• It should make me smile;
• It should go with — or at least not clash with — the colors I tend to wear; and
• It ought to look at home in the nursery.

I’ve put together a few possible exterior and lining combinations on Flickr. What do you think? I like all four a lot.  This is my favorite combination right now, but that changes every ten minutes or so. (All fabrics from purlsoho.com. Feel free to poke around and suggest an entirely different combo.)

Oh, and once we’ve got this sorted out, we’ll need to choose a terry cloth for the changing pad — so don’t think for a second you’re off the hook. (I wonder: couldn’t I just cut the changing pad terry cloth from a towel…?)

• How do you clean out the ice maker/water thing in the refrigerator?  It wasn’t hooked up during the kitchen remodel and now the water tastes funny.
• I just saw a DIY board book How-To link… somewhere.  Anybody remember where that was?  Some time next year I want to make the Kid a board book with pictures of family and friends and I’d like to bookmark the instructions before I forget.

We have a functional kitchen again!  For date night tonight we’re staying in and trying this Chicken Tikka Masala recipe.  (You might need to either already be a member or to sign up for a free trial membership to Cooks Illustrated Online in order to make that link work.)  Wish us well.

• So! Much! To! Do! Ahhh!
• KNITTERS/CROCHETERS: Jess and Casey over at Ravelry.com have given the beta testers the okay to go ahead and blog about the site. At some point I will dedicate an entire post to HOW MUCH I LOVE RAVELRY — Hint: a LOT. It’s literally my favorite website. — but I’m afraid I just don’t have the time to go on about it today. Instead I’ll point you to two other mash notes: Adrian’s and Rachel’s. (Aaaand there are more every hour or so.) I’m also going to brag and say that I was in on this from day one and so even though I did NONE of the hard work (my contribution was essentially a long wishlist and some cheerleading) and I wish to take nothing away from Casey and Jess, the real heroes of the operation, I have to confess to a little bit of pride at how lovely it’s turned out. I think it’s going to be a huge success.
• I am in love with this teacup. Seriously. It’s more than my teacup budget, so I’m going to resist, but I feel the need to share the pretty.
• Laurenn moved into her new apartment yesterday! Yay! You should probably e-mail her so that she’s not too lonely. Also, ask her to post a photo of herself in her new glasses. She’s so cute!
• T2 found this crib bedding set, which I love. There are some really great ones out there — so hard to choose!
• We’ve started picking out things for the kitchen — w00t! We have a brand of sink decided upon and we think we’ve chosen a countertop as well. No start date yet, alas. (That reminds me: I need to remind the house painter that we need a quote.)
• The baby is moving around like crazy today. S/he must know we’re going to find out the sex tomorrow and s/he is enjoying his/her last day of gender ambiguity! We saw our regular doctor this morning and she said the baby can hear now and if we want to start playing music for him/her now would be a good time. Playlists welcome.
• Speaking of babies: has anyone actually tried these?
• Speaking of MY baby: Fraction’s Sensational Spider-Man Annual is out today and I really could not be more proud. In our house, this is a huge bid deal. Join the lovefest, order yours from Midtown Comics (scroll down), or stop by your local comic shop and pick up a copy in person. (I love you, dude.)

…all sure to bore the more comics-oriented among you. My apologies.

• The entrelac practice above was meant to be a little felted change purse, but I’m so smitten with it, I think I might buy some more yarn and make it a proper scarf. Tough call, though — the yarn is not cheap. And it’s not like I’m in need of either another scarf or another knitting project (I have a long list of baby knits I mean to start). Hm.
• I desperately want to see this. I’m not even a little bit kidding. (Thank you, Shena!)
• Knitters: are Phildar patterns easily available in the states?
• Crafty kids: Anyone know a good source for 1/8″ wool felt?
• Isn’t this a lovely blanket? I’m considering something like this as an option for a baby blanket. (One option being not to knit one as I’ve done two and they tend to take a long time and get boring near the end. But maybe knitting a bunch of square wouldn’t be as dull as knitting one large blanket, hm?)(Here’s another option, this one knit in my beloved Noro Kureyon. Of course, it occurs to me that Kureyon is 100% wool and therefore not machine washable — not a good idea for a baby blanket afterall. I suppose I could do it in an alternate yarn, but I think it’s the Kureyon that makes it.) (This one’s cute, too. You know how I love polka dots.)
• We’re closing up shop at NattyMinx.com, I think. None of us has the time to maintain it. Alas! We’ve got until May 5th to decide, but I’m pretty sure it’s going the way of the dodo. (Is that spelled correctly?)
• Okay, back to work — duty calls and all that.