One of my WIPs

So here's the half-done first Garter Mitt. The project is similar to Ann Budd's wristwarmers from Weekend Knitting in the sideways construction with short rows, but Ysolda Teague adds an ingeniously constructed thumb. The pattern is written for sport weight yarn, but I wanted to use Jo's handspun so they would be in the same yarn as my scarf. The yarn is fingering weight, so I doubled it and I was getting pretty close to the pattern's gauge, but the resulting fabric was too dense, and using up the yarn too fast.

So I went up two needle sizes and the fabric was much nicer -- still firm enough to keep out wind and precipitation, but drapey enough to be comfortable. Unfortunately, the stitch count was now off, which I expected, but I didn't adjust for it enough (hand was too short, wrist/arm was too long). Frog! So the third time I was very careful and, except for having to tink and reknit the thumb a couple of times, it's worked out much better.

Have I mentioned how yummy this yarn is? The colors are so rich and deep, and the garter stitch makes it feel even smooshier and lovlier.

I've taken a break from the scarf to knit these up, since I don't know how much yarn I'll need. If I run out before the pair is finished, I'll rip back the scarf a little. It's plenty long already, so loosing a few inches won't hurt it.

I'm so glad the weather is cooling off and it will soon be time to wrap myself in wooly goodness!

Quote of the week, from Rose. She said to me yesterday morning, "It's Fall now!" I said, "Yes, Fall is coming soon." "No," she said, "Fall is when the children go back to school, and I'm going back to school today [after the weekend], so it's Fall today." :) According to Rose logic, we'll have Fall once a week until June.

Fall Startitis

It got cool for a couple of days and I got a pretty bad case (for me) of Startitis.

To wit:

One pair of Christine's Baby Booties for Jamie's baptism (nearly finished).

Mom made my nephew Noah's baptism outfit, and now Jamie is going to wear it. She told me she couldn't find the bonnet or booties, though. Luckily, we were gifted with a hanky bonnet, and, well, booties are never a problem for a crazy knitter! I love the pair Jo sent me so much I used the same pattern with some white yarn I had left over from Jamie's sweater.

I also started a pair of Garter Mitts. No photo since I've started over about four times to make various adjustments for gauge. Also since it's been raining and the light is lousy for picture taking anyway. I think I've finally figured out what needles and stitch count are going to work for the yarn I'm using, so there should be a photo or two in the next post.

I also bought enough yarn (and then some) for the Tangled Yoke Cardigan from IK Fall 2007.

Rachel and I attended Ewe-Nique Knits annual Fall sale and I promised myself I'd only buy yarn if I had an actual project in mind for it. I've known that I needed to knit this sweater since I first saw it a year ago, but I was waiting to start until I was wearing pre-pregnancy clothes again. Then to find all this Silky Wool on sale! The only thing keeping me from casting on is I have four projects on the needles, which is one more than I normally like to have. I can't wait (but I'm going to)!

My Big Girl

Rose started preschool yesterday.

She was so excited. We'd visited many times (the preschool is in the same building as our church offices) and she never wanted to leave after we peeked in. Finally, she was there to stay for the whole morning!

When we went in, her teacher asked if she'd like to paint. Boy howdy, you'd have thought she offered her a million chocolate chip cookies.



My last words to Rose as I left: "'Bye, baby. I love you."

Her last words to me? "'Bye, mommy. Have fun." No tears, no hesitation, no glance back, nothing. She was too busy painting.


When Andy and I went to take her home at noon, she didn't want to leave. After we had lunch, she was ready to go back. We had to tell her she had to wait until the next morning. I think she had a good time.

Oh my goodness

Two weird yarn-related items:

#1 The Bizarre Case of the Exploding Knitting Needle Old news, but who ever said I was on top of current events?

#2 Crocheted Mythbusters I can think of no better reason than this to pick up my crochet hook again. :D

And look, I've made it past the heel of my first Charade!

I may yet finish this pair of socks this year.

Hot fun in the Summertime

We've had some August fun in the sprinkler. Last summer Rose wasn't so sure that standing in the spraying water and getting wet was a great idea, but now she loves it.

She and I had a great time acting silly in the sprinkler. We ran around and jumped over it and had lots of fun until I landed on it after a jump. I wasn't hurt, but I cracked the base of the sprinkler. Whoops! At least it still works.

Then I had to wrap her up like a little baby ('cause she is still my baby!).

In the last couple of weeks, Jamie has really become a baby, rather than a newborn. He's started smiling, and he's gotten very interested in the world around him.

He just gets cuter every day. Sleeping is slowly getting better -- his longest stretch of sleep is at night, around 5 or 6 hours, and it's pretty easy to get him to go back down after a late night nursing session. So Andy and I are finally starting to feel more human. In the daytime he's still not so much with the sleeping alone thing, but I'm not worrying about that yet. We'll get the nighttime going well, then worry about the day.

So the blog is two years old! It's funny -- at the beginning, I thought it would be great for keeping track of progress and projects. Now I use Ravelry for more of that and I'm finding that blogging is becoming more and more about journaling and making friends. There was a point I wasn't sure I was going to be able to keep it up, but I miss it when I don't get to do it, and I'm always thinking, "That would be great for the blog." I'm glad I'm here.

So, the first picture I ever posted:

Rose riding the train at Greenfield Village.

Here she is, just this past month, drawing Red the Fire Engine. My, how time flies.

A post about nothing much

Okay, first of all, I realize I did not spell the plural of "scarf" properly in the title of the last post. I feel I must apologize to my fourth grade teacher and offer a correction: "Two Scarves." Sorry. :P

But the big news is that Andy has been back at work for two days and I haven't completely lost my mind trying to wrangle both children through nursing and meal times and playing and crying and (scariest of all) putting each down for naps by myself, especially when little Jamie still hasn't quite gotten the hang of falling asleep on his own.

All is well right now -- each is actually asleep in their own place, and I hardly know what to do with myself. I'm not sure how long Jamie will make it, but I'm trying to just enjoy this alone time while it lasts.

I've had about eleven brilliant ideas for blog posts over the last week. An idea will pop into my head, and I'll tell myself to blog about it, then forget it as soon as I get near the computer. Isn't sleep deprivation wonderful? I guess I could jot myself notes, but that would mean I'd need a hand free, and that hasn't happened much lately. :)

So I'm praying Jamie's new trend of actually sleeping in his crib for more than 12 minutes at a time continues. Right now I'm going to stop talking and start knitting!

Two scarfs

My dear Andrew has taken both of our children to his parents' house and given me a morning off. I spent it paying bills and writing thank you cards while listening to loud music. I know there were about a billion more fun things I could have done, but I really feel better for having taken care of those tasks. Now I'm making my monthy blog post. I don't want my posts to be this far apart, but I'm afraid that for the time being, it's just got to be that way.

Here is the Chevron Scarf again, now halfway complete. I love Jo's yarn, love the feel, love the colors, love everything about it. And the pattern is so easy that I can work a row or two here and there and put it down when Jamie fusses or Rose wants to play.

I was thinking about the first scarf I knit, which, stereotypically, was my first project. The yarn was a skein of jewel-toned acrylic. Just one skein. I knitted it up in seed stitch on needles that were probably two sizes too small for the yarn (they were all I had), so I ended up with this very dense, cardboard-like, too short scarf. I gave it to my mother, who praised me sincerely then proceeded to never wear it. Not that I blame her; she probably couldn't make it bend around her neck! Fortunately or not, I have no photo of that poor project.

What a far cry this beautiful, wooly, soft, drapey scarf is from that first one! I'm not giving it to Mom, though, this one's for me!