Applewood Nanook

I started my first ever sweater for me. I just love this sweater pattern and I'm really enjoying knitting it. I'm planning short sleeves with maybe using a slightly altered version of the neck lace pattern as a hem. I've tried it on and its fitting perfectly.

However...my yarn isn't matching. I'm using Malabrigo Worsted in Applewood. I found it on Etsy years ago at a steal of a price from someone claiming to have started a sweater and ran out of yarn. Not wanting to buy more she had frogged it and sold it. It never occurred to me that the dye lots could be different. They are. I started with gorgeous variegated Applewood and 3" into my 3rd ball I noticed that the new skein was much more pink with very little variation. I checked out my other cakes of yarn and saw that all but one more cake is this color. Sigh...... Fortunately it will look like I planned for the yolk to be one dye lot and the rest to be the other. I'll use the one other lighter skein for the arm hems.

Update:  The above was written and saved as a draft a while ago.  I'm finished now and I do love the sweater.  After blocking it's a bit big.  Not much, but next time I'll make the next size down.  And, I will make another.  With long sleeves and probably in a grey or navy.  I've worn it numerous times and it's warm and fluffy.  I like it better worn open as the neck just seems to long or something.  When closed with a shawl pin I think the neck looks funny.  I've tried it with it pinned under the bust and that is a bust too.  In a smaller size I think it would look awesome pinned at the neckline though.

Overall impressions of the pattern?  Very well written, but you do need to really read over the charts and such to understand everything.  It's written differently than I'm used to in a pattern, but once I figured it out it went very smoothly.  I highly suggest you try this one out if you like the design.  It's a beauty!

Thank you Alaina for taking these pictures for me.  You are truly a budding photographer!

 

More Knitting!

 More knitting has been going on. Though I think that with the nicer weather it will slow down some.  The yard is beckoning me!  First up is a new sweater for sweet Liam.  He has outgrown almost all his knits and needed a new sweater.  I chose the Gift Wrap Sweater as I loved his Gift Wrap Romper sooo much.  I used some stash Cascade wool/acrylic yarn.  It's darling. He's darling... yeah... so cute!  I found the buttons at Joannes.  That little tractor was kinda pricey for me but I bought it anyways.  It just matched so well.  It's a 9 month size with some room to grow.  I'll be knitting a 12m one with short sleeves for summer.

 

Next up is the Gaptastic Cowl and Braided Beanie.  I'm not sure who will be receiving this set. But, I love it. I used some stash Knit Picks Brava Bulky in... I think Grape.  I had 3 skeins and I used them all on these.  The cowl is wrapped twice around my neck here.  Lots and lots of seed stitch, but sooo worth it.  The hat is awesome because it's got a braided rim and then more seed stitch up the body.  Love it.

 Last I've got a new lovey for Liam.  More stash yarn here.  This one was a cotton boucle of some kind.  Only one skein so I had to alter the pattern some.  I added the ring to the bottom which he just loves.  This little guy will be a chewer I think.  He loves to put fabric in his mouth!

On my needles is a crochet seashell for my folks using some handspun cotton, two pairs of new socks, and some drapey cowls using funky novelty yarn.

My Favorite Room In The House

 

The boys room.  It's my current favorite room in the house.  In our first home my daughters got a fresh nursery with pale blue walls, and fluffy clouds on the ceiling.  When we moved to our next house, they each got their own "big girl" rooms.  When Cael came I was really uninspired with his room.  He was taking over what was Ray's room so it had pale yellow walls and pistachio green trim.  I knew we would be moving and didn't want to completely repaint it.  I posted about that nursery here.  It was cute... but not awesome.  For this house I knew exactly what I wanted the nursery to be.  Grey with blue, orange, and green accents. With a trains, planes, and automobile theme.  I wanted it to be fun for Cael but still cutesy for Liam.  All that's left to do in this room is make the curtain for the closet.  That will be done while my folks are here this next week.  I love love love this room.  So perfect for my sweet boys.

 

It's a small space, but it works.  On the wall next to the door is the changing table and Liam's crib.  He is still sleeping in our room, but he plays in his crib sometimes.  He will transition into here in the next month or so. It was a rainy day so the pics are a bit dull.  But the walls are a nice medium grey.  Lovely....  The art behind the changing table was made my by mom and I.  We found the wooden shaped at JoAnnes and painted them.  Then just hot glued them to some canvases that we also painted.

 Liam's crib is so filled with love.  The crochet blanket is one my grandmother made for our babies.  The cute fishie quilt was made for Liam by my mom. The black and white print was made by Ray for Liam's X-Mas gift and finally the doll was made by me for Cael... it's Liam's now.

 Cael's side of the room boasts the awesome rocking chair a shelf, wall decals and his crib.  Under his crib is the rug I crocheted up last year.  It was a labor of love that thing.  It weighs a ton, but boy is it cute!  On Cael's crib there is the robots quilt that I made him last year.

 Another shot of Cael's bed, but this one shows the cute wall decals.

The closet and then the small wall by the door.  Both the shelf and frames I found at thrift stores. I painted the shelf.  I printed off photos of each of the boys at 1week old.  I can't believe how different they were/are!

Crazy Knitting Lady

With snowy weather and little ones in the house, there is only one thing left to do..... Knit!

For the next year or so I won't have a good place to sew so I've decided to embrace my knitting crocheting and spinning.  I found all boxes with yarn and spinning supplies tucked in the unfinished downstairs and found homes for it all in our very cramped upstairs living area.  Totally worth it though.  People will just have to live with yarnny goodness all over the  house!

So, what am I knitting?  Well, I'm working on both selfish knitting and Christmas knitting.  With all that went on last year I ended up having not a single handmade gift to give this last Christmas.  I know... horrible right!  It felt so wrong this year.  So, I'm starting way early this year.  Anyways... some of it will be for certain peopl and some things I'll just make and decide later who it will go to.  Check out my Ravelry page for more details on any of these projects.

Freshest off my needles are these darling Foxes.  The pattern is by Little Cotton Rabbits.  If you have never been over to her blog, stop by.  Her knit animals are drool worthy and her blog is a great read.  She sells her patterns on Ravelry and Etsy.  I loved very minute of knitting these two.  I never wanted to put my needles down. I used stash yarn for everything except their main fur color.  That I bought special.  These two I won't be keeping.  I really want to, but they have a dear friends name written all over them.

 

Selfish knitting:  Cloche Divine Hat. I used some stash Berroco Ultra Alpaca that I've had forever.  The color is amazing and it's crazy soft. The pattern was fun to knit and the resulting hat is really cute on.  I had a tiny bit of yarn left over so I found some co-ordinating  yarn and made my own pattern.  I'll be writting it out and posting it for free soon.

Currently on my needles are this GapTastic cowl and the below Sheepy Bag.  The Sheepy bag will be totally cute when it's done, but the yarn is hard on my hands so it'll get finished slowely.  The cowl is flying off the needles.  It'll get a matching hat and will be a Christmas gift.

I finished this crochet basket for my supplies last month.  It sits next to my knitting chair and holds tons of goodies.  This was a great stash busting project and I think I'll make some more for gifts.

Hat for my darling eldest daughter.  She never asks for knitted things so I was thrilled to make her a winter hat.  It's made of acrylic as she hates wool, but at least it's a hat that she'll wear!

 

Finally still on needles are three pair of socks. I know...for shame!  The bottom two have been left unfinished for at least 2 years.  The top pair I started in September.  I do love these, so they will most likely be the first finished.

I know I'm missing something, but for the life of me I can't remember what it is.  I guess it'll be for another post.  For now, the babe is sleeping, the boy is playing nicely, and the girls are out with friends. So, I'm off to knit!

New City, New House And A New Baby!

So much has changed in our lives in the past 7 months that I hardly know where to begin. Going month to month seems like the way to go.

July and August:  Both months saw us packing up the house and hosting birthday parties.  Its amazing how much stuff our family has accumulated in the 9 years that we have lived in this house.  I'm glad I took the time to go through our things and pack well.  I even took the time to keep a binder with inventory sheets with all the boxes and contents. I cant begin to say how  much this helped with unpacking.  The kids mostly hung with their friends and did some pouting about moving.  understandable considering we were about to move them across the state.  My baby belly continued to grow, I was still losing weight and feeling generally exhausted and sore.  By the end of August Cael knew something was up and started to gt very clingy and fussy.  It seemed to throw off his whole schedule.  Not good!

September:  We moved out on the1st.  We were very fortunate to have family come and help. Saying goodbye to friends and family was tough.  Especially for our girls. School started on the 3rd.  Ray was excited but nervous. She is such a champ.... she loves her school. Alaina hadn't smiled in months.  But when we walked around her new middle school she actually smiled.  When I got in the car I cried.  I still tear up thinking about that smile.  She was so unhappy about the move so that smile meant a lot to me.   It still took her a few weeks to really start to like her school and make a few good friends.  But that smile.... that smile did so much for us all.

October:  We finally got keys to the house.  It was a forclosure so it was a mess.  We still couldn't move in. And with my due date rolling in fast I really couldn't do much to help.  My folks made the drive over to help Curtis scrape, clean, and paint. And by the end of October we finally got to move in.  Over the month the kids started to enjoy their schools and the Spokane more.  Making the final move into the house was so needed.  Staying with family was wonderful and it couldn't have gone more smoothly, but being in our own space with our own things really made our lives more comfortable and settled.

November: This month was pretty much the "waiting for baby" month.  Everyone (excet me)was busy trying to uppack and keep workingo n the house.  I however couldn't.  This pregnacy was tough on my whole body and I pretty much just wanted to sleep and rest.  Baby finally arrived on the 20th.  I'll do a seperate post about him later.  We had family in the house for much of this month.  It was wonderful and our holiday was peaceful and happy in our new home witho our new babe.

December: Still setteling in really. And waiting for that snow that everyone keeps mentioning.  (it never really came) The holidays were the usual busy that happens.  But, we got to spend Christmas here ate home with my folks.  It was really really nice.  We drove over the pass to see family for the New Year.

January: We spent the New Year at my mother in laws house.  Lots of family and friends got to see the new babe and the kids got to visit their friends that they have missed so  much.  Traveling with the new baby and 3 other kids was more tiring and stressful than I thought it would have been.  But, I wouldn't trade that trip for anything. We were really missing our family and friends.

I guess that brings us up to date.  I'll be doing more posts about our projects and events over the next weeks.

Newborn & Small Diaper Sewing

I still can't believe I need to make diapers again.  Making these newborns and smalls has been great though.  They are soooo tiny!  I really loved to cloth diaper that first year.  And, while I don't mind doing it now (Cael is almost 3 and should be potty trained within the next 3 months or so) it's harder now that he is eating and drinking like the rest of us.  We've had more stinky diaper issues and staining issues during the last 18 months or so.  Anyways... I read though my posts that i did on diaper and diaper patterns.  I'm sooo glad that I made those posts.  It was nice to remember my favorites and what I liked and didn't like.  I decided that based on that I wouldn't do any newborns.  They only fitted for about 6 weeks or so. 

On to the stash! 

 Two wool covers made from felted sweaters.  Both are LDD's.  The one on the left is a small and the one on the right is a newborn.  I LOVE velcro for covers and I hate doing up tons of snaps during diaper changes.

 I think I might be one of the few who don't like prefolds.  They always seamed to thick and I could never get them on right.  I saw some tutorials for turning them into prefitteds so I tried that.  I think I'll really like these.  On the right are toddler size.  But I think they will fold down to a medium / large.  The ones on the right are infant prefolds and are a nb/sm size.  I'll make more as I find the prefolds.

 These are almost finished... they just need their velcro tabs.  All are Rocketbottom Step 1 Diapers.  I think I'm going to love love love these.  They will snap from a NB to a Small and are supposed to fit 8-18 lbs!  They are all pockets with microfleece liners.

 6 Very Baby Sm AI2's.  The top ones are serged and the bottom ones are turned and topstitched.  I love the Very Baby pattern and highly recommend it.

3  Very Baby Sm Fitteds.  These are sooo soft and squooshy.  Made with stretch terry and some other terry cloth and zorb in the soakers. 

3 NB LDD AI2's.  I know, I know.  I said no Newborn dipes.  But, I had some scrap PUL that was just barely big enough for the NB size so I decided to make them.  I know they will get used in those first weeks and I'll probably be glad for them.  Especially if this baby decides to be smaller than his brother.

This isn't the end of my stash.  I did receive a box of diapers from another cloth diapering mamma.  I did take pictures before I boxed them up but for the life of me I can't find those photos.  But, the box included both newborn and small fitteds, covers, AI2's and some woolies

So Much Baby Knitting!!!

Whew.... It's been a crazy house around here since my last post.  I finally have a moment to sit down and blog!  A quick catch up:  The house is mostly packed, has been on the market and is now pending.  We've gone on a road trip to Spokane and picked out our favorite parts of town.  We are now looking for rentals and should be moved within the next 4 weeks.  The kids have been home and busy helping with all fun things that happen during the summer.  Hanging with friends, packing, swimming, going to the beach to see grandparents etc.  During my "down time" I've been knitting like crazy.  It's portable, and I can sit and knit and then stop easily without leaving any mess.  Plus... most of my sewing stuff and all of my spinning stuff has been packed. 

  So below is what's finished or almost finished.  (I did make some matching booties for the handspun longies, but I haven't taken a pic of those yet.) Right now I have a 1/2 circle blanket and a newborn umbilical hat on the needles.  Pics of those later.  I've posted the names of the pattern plus the link to my Ravelry page in case you want more info on yarns and size.

 

01 - Gift Wrap Romper

02 - Jungle Gym Overalls

03 - Handspun Butt Knits Longies

04 - Evie Pants

05 - Milo Vest

06 - Newborn Pebble

07 - Newborn Puerperium Cardigan

08 - Shadow Stripes Hat

 

 09 - Newborn Vertebrea

10 - Stay On Baby Booties

11 - Gift Wrap Bonnet

12 - Stay On Baby Booties Worsted - sorry no rav page for these.

This last week I made some time to start sewing my newborn/small diaper stash.  There are 6 more pockets on my table now waiting for velcro.  I'll do a full post on these later.