And the hits just keep coming.

**This post has been edited down from a much longer, much whinier version. The original post included:

1. My husband lost his job.
2. I am having surgery on Friday. (On my tooth/jaw/sinuses. It is as fun as it sounds, folks.)

We join this post already in progress...

I am nervous about the whole thing since they are giving me nitrous oxide instead of knocking me out completely. (This is because I have to be awake to follow some commands - plug my nose and blow - at certain times.) I have had general anesthesia twice and it didn't concern me as much as this. I am afraid of the "out of it" feeling that is supposed to be a good thing will freak me out. Anyone had any experience with this? I need to know that I am not going to die from a panic attack. (Which had been a very likely occurrence for me in the past.)

But Look! I knit something! Here I am looking thoughtful in my new hat.



Hmmm. Is there any chocolate in the kitchen?


I used two yarns from the Joanne Sensations line and this pattern from the knitlist. I have to say I am impressed with the Joanne yarns. The white is Dolcetto; the variegated, Cosetta.

Meet Belinda.

Belinda* is my first Knitted Babe. She was much more difficult to make than I had expected. Not necessarily the knitting part, but the finishing part. I did knit the body in two pieces like the book instructs, but I found sewing them together neatly was really frustrating. Although I had so much trouble putting the face on so that it didn't look scary when I was only working on the front piece, so I don't even want to think about how hard it would have been if I had knit the body in the round. One thing I did change from the book was to make her limbs i-cord instead of rolled stockingette stitch.

Her pants, by the way, and made from a pair of my husband's old restaurant work pants I found in the Goodwill pile. (It was difficult to find a stain-free area - the nice Goodwill people wouldn't have wanted them anyway!) I just sort of plopped her down on top of them, cut around her legs in a pant-shape and sewed up the seams.

Here is a close up of her face:





I sewed the pieces on and took them off so many times that I had to cut new ones since the felt was being to tear away at the edges. The hair is Opal Sock yarn (Rainforest Owl) that I knit and then took apart.

All that being said, I am very pleased with how she turned out.

*If you are an old-school GoGo's fan, you might understand why I named my Babe Belinda.