All This By Hand

Sick Day

I have the best husband.  He has taken our pajama-clad boys out of the house for the night because I don't feel well.  This is the closest I've had to an actual sick day since before I had kids.  Tea and knitting?  Oh, yeah...

I'm starting a very long term project with no deadline in mind.  That's a Barn Raising Quilt square from Knitalong.  I love reading Stitch Marker and this book is particularly fun because the whole blog world got to watch it come together.  This square is Socks That Rock, Fire on the Mountain, before there were different weights of STR. (What's the new equivalent of that weight? I'm really not sure...)  It's the perfect knitting to fill up a perfectly quiet evening.

Bye-bye Bumblebees!

Today is John's last day of preschool and I'm all wistful.  My mom says this isn't the quickest school year, that they'll keep speeding up and the next thing I know he'll be graduating from high school and then I'll really wonder where my baby went.  Since I always buy clothes too big I dressed him in the same shirt he wore the first day and took a similar photo.  Can you even believe this?

Where is my round-faced, curly-haired baby?  Apparently he grew up into the funniest, sweetest little kid I ever met. 

What I Knit On My Blog Vacation

Thanks for all of your encouraging words.  Let's just call the past two months an overly melodramatic blog vacation, shall we?

I was happily knitting away on my feather and fan cardigan when the rest of my shop sample yarn credit at Yarntopia suddenly disappeared and I found myself clutching five skeins of Noro Silk Garden and a new pattern book. 

I really love the color, but I'm not sure how wearable it's going to be.  I think that's what always happens to me with Noro.  But here, check out the wonderful nighttime self portraiture.

Then I got my husband to take some more pictures, but note that I wasn't as careful about these and I didn't smooth out the less than flattering boob saddlebags.

I'm either going to have to work some blocking magic or add a front closure to keep them at bay.  I do love how all the pieces are different stretches of the yarn repeat, though.  Here, take the rest of the 360 degree tour of my bolero. 

I just plain love the back.  Love love love.  I wish the whole thing was striped just like this.

Yeah, I'm thinking front closure.  Any ideas on what I should wear with it?  I do love shrugs and boleros in the winter here since it's almost never cold enough to truly need a sweater.

Details
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden, shade 241 A, 4.5 skeins
Pattern: Design 11, Noro Designer Mini Knits by Jenny Watson
Needles: US 5 & 7, Denise Interchangeables

On the Down Low

I miss the blog.  I miss being able to tell the world whatever I'm thinking.  Like that I don't like a single design in the new IK.  Or that I have a new love and it is Rowan Cashcotton DK.  Or that I lost four pounds last month because I joined a gym that will watch my kids while I workout and that's a huge motivator.  Or that Pete pulled a crucifix down from the wall of the cry room at church and got a nasty stab in the eyebrow from the crown of thorns.  My typepad expires in another two weeks.  I'm trying to tell myself I don't want to renew, but OH, how I miss the blog!

Thanks for the memories!

I loved blogging my patterns when I was designing and blogging my ever-expanding belly during both pregnancies, but I'm just not bringing my A-game to my blog any more.  Life is getting busier all the time and this is what's on the chopping block.  Thank you to everyone who read and commented and enjoyed a glimpse into my corner of the world.  My archives will be up until mid-May if there's anything you wanted to look at one last time.

I'll still be on ravelry -- I'm knitlet, so friend me!

Farewell, HOOT Fest!

I haven't blogged this nifty fact because I'm just the tiniest bit cautious about the internet, but now that it's all over I'd like to let the world know that my husband had been out of town almost the entire month of March.  So Pete's eye tubes? Spring break with no preschool?  Easter?  Yeah.  All on my own.  I've held it together well enough, but at night when I should be cleaning or otherwise being productive all I can do is put on Grey's Anatomy, grab my knitting and retreat into the complex fantasy land of Seattle Grace Hospital.  Their problems are certainly much worse than having a husband on a geophysics field campaign that was supposed to be two weeks and ended up being a month.  My mom called my nightly TV marathons HOOT Fest.  Husband Out Of Town.  He wouldn't really want to watch that much of a prime time soap.

Oh, knitting, right.  I finished this scarf months ago and in a fit of supreme laziness I neglected to sew in one end and left it in my knitting bag.  One end and a quick block later and presto! A scarf!

Pattern: Huckleberry Ascot from the IK Holiday issue
Yarn: Silky Wool, quite possibly my favorite yarn

Why, oh why, did no one tell me about this?

How on earth have I never seen Grey's Anatomy until now?  I am currently obsessed, shoving my kids into the car at 7:30 in the morning to drop a DVD off at the post office so that my Netflix turnaround time will be faster.  I'm actually getting lots of knitting done, but it's much harder to take photos and blog while watching TV. 

Here's a blurry picture of the latest shop sample I finished.  As in, snapped with a dying camera battery two seconds before I left the house to drop it off.

It was fun to knit and the construction of the polo placket was interesting.  I think the overall lace is a little too fussy for the casual shape, but who cares because it's a shop sample, right?  I was going to save my gift card until I really, really wanted something, but of course that happened after roughly five seconds at the shop.  I'm finishing up a few things I abandoned and then I'm knitting this:

ETA: It's from the Classic Elite Make It Modern booklet.

I'm using Rowan Cashcotton DK.  I can hardly wait.

Graduation Present

With the end of the school year getting closer, I decided to make John a graduation present. A knitted bear from the leftovers of his bumbleebee socks! I even had a cool name for it -- the bumblebear!

But once the toy was knitted, I had to give it a tail because it is obviously a tiger.

Pattern: Lovable Toys from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Bee Stripe

I made a 4 stitch i-cord, alternating two pieces of yarn to get a striped effect rather than two big blocks of color. I love this tiny tiger. I'm on a bit of a knitted toy kick at the moment, so I'm making John's birthday present a little early. It's the last variation on this pattern and John's favorite animal, the elephant!

Happy Easter!

Pattern: Easter Rabbit from Knit Something Special by Polly Pyne
Yarn: Ella Rae Classic

Ahead of the game

Pete's birthday is almost two weeks away and I've already finished his present!

I was organizing some stash last week and Pete wouldn't put down this skein of yarn, so it became a toy.

Pattern: Lovable Toys from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts
Yarn: Alchemy Alpaca Pure in Dylan's Blue Depths

I'm liking the Miffy-style face.  I think Pete will love his bunny.