top, top down

How did it get to be Monday already? At least the weekend involved a lot of knitting. A lot of cooking, a lot of baby-showering, a lot of cleaning up spilled fabric paint, but a lot of knitting too, thank goodness. When I get our camera back from the friend at whose house I left it yesterday (oops), I'll have to post some pictures of the little sweater I'm making with the Knit-o-Graf project salvage. It's coming out quite nicely, if I do say so myself.

So I am really craving to knit myself a little cap-sleeve or short-sleeve summery cottony top. Folks are raving about the Green Gable, and it is really cute, but little birds have told me that the pattern is evil and bad. Any other little birds want to comment? I'm just curious.

Any rate, it doesn't seem so complicated to design my own Gable knock-off. I need to try again at designing another top-down top, especially since Artisokka is posting such nice top-down knitting instructions on her blog. Lesson 1 is up now. I'm sure she must have learned from The Goddess (a.k.a. Barbara Walker), but I like her clean and boiled-down version of the instructions.

The baby shower, by the way, was marvy. My friend Bea is about to have a little girl, so her sister and another friend and I threw a shower for her and her husband yesterday. It was actually a lot of fun! Really good food and punch were the basic ingredients, plus no goofy games like pin-the-dirty-diaper-on-the-daddy or whatever you're supposed to do at these affairs, plus we did a craft project together, so all in all it made for a nice Sunday afternoon.

Bea is looking very beautiful and very pregnant. Her naturally serene demeanor seems to have become even more beatific with the big belly and the glowing cheeks. Whatever those hormones are, they ought to bottle them & put them in skin cream. Actually, they probably already do.

At any rate, they loved the organic baby wrapper & hat (see, I made them for a real baby!) and another knitter made them an incredible pair of bright baby cardis. I wish I had taken a picture, but of course, that sort of thing only ever occurs to me much later.

Among all the delectable treats at the shower Sunday, Bea's sister made this amazing punch. I don't think the recipe is a big secret, so I'm going to share it with you now in case you're having a bash this weekend and need a colorful beverage option. So here it is:

really good punch

Two 2-liter bottles of Ginger Ale
Two 2-liter bottles of Hawaiian punch
Two tubs of lime sherbert

* Refridgerate the drinks overnight before mixing
* If your punch bowl will fit in the freezer, freezing the punch bowl overnight will make for nice cold punch when you mix it up.

Pour the drinks into the punch bowl and stir. Scoop all the sherbert in. Stir again. Voila! You have a tasty hot pink and lime green punch. What could be better? Well, maybe if you added some rum it would be even better. Don't let me limit your horizons.