2nd Round of Baby Knits

My prolific friends and relatives are popping out babies left and right, so my knitting needles have been dedicated to baby clothes. Two more baby yoked cardigans found a home with wee ones.

In the span of a few months, I've made six of these. Six!

Since these all went to non-knitters, I made a point of sending the cardigans off with Knitterella gift tags so the recipients' know that how to take care of the garments and that these are handknits that required more effort than clicking on a gift registry and entering in my credit card number.

Out of the first four cardigans I sent off over two months ago, I heard back from three sets of parents and received some very nice thank you notes and emails! Although I know that giving a gift should have no strings, I really do become grumpy when I don't gets notes acknowledging that someone has received the gift, especially if I mailed it off. My assumption at that point is that the parents do not appreciate handknits, and future important events will mean a gift card instead of something heartfelt. I know that new parents have a lot going on, but it's not like my time is expendable - carving out the time to make gifts sometimes means doing nothing but gift knitting with my free time. Knitters, how do you decide who gets the handknits and who gets something less personal?

It's also time for my annual hat drive for an old friend's kids. He gets hats every year because he sends me adorable pictures of his kids in my handknits, and he lives in a cold, snowy place where ears and noses can fall off. This time, I knit them the Marsan Watchcap, scaled down for a baby and a little boy. Nothing like kid hats to use up partial balls of yarn! These were made using bits of my Debbie Bliss Casmerino Aran yarn scraps, making me want to knit another cardigan with the stuff.

Last weekend, we celebrated the passing of yet another year in Guerneville, a place close to home but just far enough to feel like a vacation. I planned out all the restaurants: River's End, Boon, and Applewood Inn. River's End had the lovely cocktail you see above, a seasonal drink made with hard apple cider and Maker's Mark (and now I want that cocktail glass and those salt and pepper grinders), Boon had a cherry habenero chutney that adorned a duck breast, and Applewood Inn introduced me to Bohemian Creamery and Mendocino uni. My favorite meal was at Applewood Inn, but I guess that's not surprising since we went all out and ordered the tasting menu (5 courses paired with 5 wines) and the place has one, well deserved Michelin star.