Toddler Cuteness

This morning, I had to get up early to ensure that I caught the postman. Usually, when I get up, Christian is still sleeping.

This morning, though, he got up at the same time as me (with only about 6 hours of sleep) and, all sleepy-eyed, he said “I love you, Mommy”. Then, he said “We get up together” and he grabbed my hand to walk into the kitchen together.

The only thing is…when I came into the living room, expecting to see him sitting at his computer and playing, I saw him fast asleep in his chair.

Tunisian Crochet and Knitting

As many of you know, I didn’t try Tunisian crochet for many years. When I was in my 20s or early 30s, I remember flipping through Crochet Fantasy magazine. I was one of those people who went straight for the more advanced projects and the magazine had numbers for experience level. I specifically remember seeing some really neat projects but I would flip to the instructions and immediately become disappointed because it required an afghan hook.

Now that I know just exactly how easy Tunisian crochet really is, I am frustrated that I didn’t try it back then. But, then again, if I had tried it, there’s a chance that I may never have advanced in Tunisian crochet as far as I have. Would I have been stunted if I had tried patterns back then? I guess it’s possible. It’s harder to think outside the box when you’ve already been exposed to a technique.

But, what it took for me to really design in Tunisian crochet was to teach myself to knit. Now, when I decided to start teaching myself to knit about 10 years’ ago, I had no idea of the affect it was going to have on my crochet. I just taught myself. Then, I tried Tunisian crochet. Once I got thoroughly immersed, I realized that there were so many things in knitting that can be applied to Tunisian. And, I think that my book that will be available soon from Annie’s Attic is a culmination of what I have learned so far in applying knitting techniques to Tunisian crochet. I think you’ll be surprised by some of the things that can be done, without learning to knit!

This weekend, though, I’ve taken on a role reversal and I’m applying techniques I learned in Tunisian crochet to my knitting!

A few years’ ago, I was working on Tunisian cabling.

 

Now, I’m working on a knit design with cabling. I never thought I’d be doing cabling because it was too fiddly. I tend to drop the cable needle or drop the stitches. Just too frustrating. Leaning on the techniques I learned in doing cables in Tunisian, I find myself knitting cables without a cable needle. Wow! So much easier!

In Other News

Here is little Christian with the first tomato (from his HUGE harvest of 3 teensy weensy tomatoes).