two non-paper projects in one week?

inconceivable!!!* except when you realize i still have a guy intermittently working on my floors, since new jersey's even more than usually high humidity at the moment means it's taking 3-4 days for each coat of stain and poly to dry properly. they are looking *AWESOME* though, and i cannot wait to show you the finished product! in the meantime, i'm trying to make a positive factor out of not having full access to my art lair, by finishing up some other projects. like this little sweater for my lovely new friend tegan, who is two months old this week!

"taking a ribbing" pattern by celeste pinheiro; i used just over 2.5 skeins of knit picks sock memories yarn... (the colorway is called "flower power"!) ...and shortened the length a bit, because it's knit from the bottom up, and i feared my three skeins might not be enough. 

doesn't it look TINY?! but the ribbing means it's verrrrrry stretchy, and since i made it in the nine-month size, and miss tegan is quite a little peanut, i hope she'll be able to wear it all through the fall and winter. i love the way it's got one row of reverse single crochet around the entire perimeter of the sweater, which makes the edges just a tiny bit ruffly.

i'm pretty pleased with my finishing on this: instead of binding off the shoulders and sleeves and sewing them in the traditional manner, i bound off both shoulders together to get a nice flat seam; and i grafted the live stitches at the top of the sleeves right into the body of the sweater.

the pattern specified five small buttons down the front, and i had some pretty yellow ones all ready to go, but this carved ivory hibiscus just called to me! i realize it's EXACTLY the right size for a baby to choke on, so i'll warn the parents, and if they want to remove it, they can snip right through the embroidery floss i used to secure it. now we just need the weather to lighten up a little, so my tiny super-model friend can show this thing off in baby vogue!

now here's a bit of handmade clothing that's PERFECT for right now, courtesy of miss gina:

have you ever seen two cooler pairs of shoes? because i haven't! the hibiscus ones are from january, though g had painted them earlier, but she gave them to me when i was visiting the gulf coast on vacation. they're size 10's... or at least... the shoe company claim they are size 10's, but they run very small, and while i adore them, they are sadly not the most comfortable things to actually wear. but i ♥LOVE♥ them, and have had them on the top of my shoe rack since we moved into the new house, so i can see them every day. flash forward to last week, when a fabulous birthday box arrived and what awesome surprise should be inside but ANOTHER pair of amazing shoes hand-painted by my favorite floridian artist. and they have flamingos on them!!!  ♥SWOON♥!!! thank you, missus, you made my day!!!!! ♥

*you kip using that word; i do not think it mins what you think it mins! :)