lulubeans

finished object: spare ribs shoaker

i knit another wool diaper cover for greta using this pattern. (rav link)
it was fun + easy to make, and i love the way it fits . 

this was my first time putting elastic into the waistband of anything, and i was a little intimidated by it.   i have no idea why- it was really no big deal!
sorry if this is baby photo overload.  it's kind of impossible for me to resist.

some specifics:

yarn:  elann peruvian sierra aran

needle:  US 7

plus: a little of elastic.  the pattern calls for buttonhole elastic, but i just sewed in a strip of some plain elastic and it seems to be working well. 

also, to lanolize, i use tubed lanolin, and a squirt of baby shampoo (to help the lanolin disperse, nice too because we were gifted lots of excellently smelly stuff, and its not as though much of its getting used up on greta's head).  i shake some lanolin and the shampoo together in a small ball jar w/hot water and then stir this mixture into the sink where the soakers are already sitting in warm water.  (i've already washed them in eucalan.) i stir and allow them to sit for a good two hours, at least.  i am new to wool covers and was a little mystifyed by the process of caring them when i first looked into it, but it's been really easy. 

soakers are a gratifying, quick knit, and great for stash busting or, as in this case, using up yarn from a project that didn't quite go as planned. 
without getting into too much detail about the cloth diapering (there is a wealth of info out there) i will just say that i am pleased with how our soakers are working.  yet one more reason to love the power of wool! 

oh, sweet summer

please don't go away anytime soon.
i am loving you, lots.

also:
there is a very nice post about spinning with a drop spindle on sew green.

and also, i dyed some wool for the first time since late last fall, pre-greta. have you ever not done something for a long time, even if it's something you really love doing, and then found that the longer you stayed away, the more you lacked confidence, and the more you felt like your return had to be grand and exceptional and well worth all the time away and so it started to feel more like a lot of pressure than anything else? that's kind of where i am.
honestly, i'm not overly in love with the way this came out, but i'm willing to call it a good start.

on the bright side

at least all this gray + rainy weather has given us lots of time for some things we really love.
there's been lots of reading.

and lots of knitting.


i'm working on a buttercup for myself, and she's made her way through all of pippi longstocking today.
i am trying to look on the upside, because between all this crud weather and the head colds we're all fighting off, i've been getting kind of cranky.
luckily, greta is fairly immune to sinus pressure, bad weather + bad moods.
hello, little sunshine. i think it's time to bundle you into your sling, drag your bookworm sister out the door and muddle our way through the fog to the coffee shop. mama needs a little extra boost today.

cloudy, rainy, cranky

those are today's words.

summer is off to a soggy start, and natasha and i have been feeling too cooped up today.

for cheering up, we keep listening to this song.

building community

i saw this on loobylu recently and wanted to share it here. it's sweet and i like it.



happy thursday!

baby likes clapotis

in my dream "hey look i knit a clapotis!" photo shoot, i am nonchalantly demonstarting the glamorous versatility of my finished object a la dogsstealyarn.  and in my dream photos, you can see that, whilst donning my fresh-off-the-needles clapotis, i do indeed posess a bit of the "je suis belle et ça ne demande aucun effort" spirit that kate gilbert mentions in her introduction to the pattern.  i'm going to go ahead and guess that in these pictures, i'm actually *not* wearing what is, for all intents and purposes, a tee-shirt shaped spit up cloth, and in fact, there is nothing soggy, damp, mysteriously moist, or crusty anywhere.  maybe i also have a recent haircut.  

i hope that you will trust me when i tell you that my clap is done and it is lovely.  i had decided to make one back when i was pregnant with greta, thinking it would make for a nice cover up type thing for nursing.   it had been a while since i'd nursed anyone and i forgot that my general sense of modesty goes out the window when there's a hungry baby involved. regardless, i am sure that i will wear my clapotis often come cooler weather. 

my favorite thing about this project:  i cast on for this clapotis on january 14th and it was in the wee hours of that very night that my (very) slow-but-steady labor started.  so who knows, maybe the clapotis is a labor inducer!  i know i heard of stranger things as my patience dwindled, waited for this baby to come.  day one of labor was mellow enough for some knitting in between contractions, and so i worked on the set up rows. there are plenty of mistakes. a lot of varying widths in the stockinette sections that ought to all be uniform. but hey, i think i have an excuse! and while i most certainly did not knit the clapotis for the baby, it gives me a fair amount of joy to see that, indeed, she likes it.

au revoir, meret

i have decided that maybe i ought to document all the stuff that gets sent to the frog pond.
maybe it will be a lesson in accountability.  maybe i will become the more responsible, less fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants knitter that i yearn to be if i have to remember the poorly planned, the never-swatched, and the boredom inducing.

meret, actually, was none of these things.  despite its eventual purple pie man unfortunateness, meret was a good knit.  a fast knit.  a lovely, well written (and free!) pattern.  i just could not get gauge on that sucker.  and i called it "close enough".  and it's giant.  the photo doesn't really show just how oversized it is. 

meret has lived a brief but happy life, sometimes as a sort of seat cushion for a child's rocking chair, sometimes as a sort of makeshift handbag (good for hauling playmobil toys from place to place) and sometimes as a sleeping bag for a goat. 

so, farewell, meret. it wasn't your fault.  may you enjoy a greater sense of purpose in your next incarnation, as a soaker for the baby's bum.

FO: DROPS baby cardigan

pattern: DROPS design b14-27 jacket (rav link)

yarn:  lulubeans handpainted sock (superwash merino) in a deep dark cocoa and in a melon-y conch shell color.

needles: US #2 addi turbos

modifications: i changed up the striping sequence a little bit so that all my short rows were brown.  i wanted more brown than pink, and i reasoned that this was the way to do it.  as i was knitting, i wasn't too sure if i liked the resulted broad pink stripe around the neck, but know that it's all said and done, i like it.


thoughts:  this kind of languished on the needles for a solid month or so.  i had been thinking baby sweater!  quick!  but the actual going was pretty slow.  i loved the construction (sideways + short rows= love) and i adore the final product.  it's simple but so feminine, and girlish without being ruffle-y and frou-frou.  it's got a total norwegian elfkin quality to it, and hence i think it fits my wee girl to a T.

soft focus

i desperately need to order wool. i haven't spun a thing since prior to greta's birth! there hasn't been much dyeing going on here either. a couple skeins of yarn, that's about it. i miss it and have been feeling very inspired lately, in so many ways. we talk a lot about how caring for such new life takes so much creativity + energy (and it does!) but, at least on the good days, i'm getting just as much back. there's a constant internal buzz, there are things that i want to make, lots. (bees in my bonnet?)
now if only i could find a way to manipulate time, or function with less sleep, i could really get a lot done.
i do have some knitting to show. maybe later today?

springtime waiting

i've been spending a lot of time knitting and snuggling the world's snuggliest little girl (who has somehow evolved into a 9 week old!) and generally just waiting for the bluster to get taken out of march's sails so that we can get on with spring already.

currently loving:
habit (i think it just keeps getting better and better!)
near:far (i'm so glad that these two bloggers are sharing their journeys, and they are documenting them in such a lovely way.)
everyone needs a rock
this spinner's yarn
beautiful words + images at homeschool style bytes
this artist's faux bois logs, and that dreamy stash busting rug!
 
also:
-garden dreaming/seedling starting with a very excited + ambitious 7 yr old,
-what's on my needles- a noro clapotis, a baby cardigan, a birthday scarf for my mom which i think i actually have a good chance of finishing before saturday.
-the fact that my husband has started brewing beer
-how wiggly and busy and full of light greta is- she is clearly realizing so much about her body and the fact that she can make her arms and legs actually do stuff and i get the feeling that she might be in a little bit of a hurry to really get moving.
-the amount of calculated study greta devotes to natasha, and her absolute, squirmy, bubbly joy when natasha plays w/her

and also:
flickr favorites (there are a lot of white spaces, which is too bad, but i there is also lots of pretty.)

finished object: spring forward socks

this is some straight up i-hate-you-winter knitting.
i don't know how things are where you live, but it's cold here, and gray, and the snow is dirty and just gross, and i am so ready for spring that it's making me feel a little nuts.  we had this amazing springy sneak peek over the weekend but then all week it's been back to wind and cold and slush and just general yuck.  the name of this sock pattern seemed to mock me with each little stitch, seriously.  i love these socks though, and would highly recommend the pattern to anyone, especially if that anyone was someone looking for a lace repeat that looks fancy but that can be memorized almost right away.  (seriously- it's just two different repeats. it's awesome!) 

pattern: linda welch's spring forward (a free pattern from knitty.com.  here's the ravelry link.)

yarn: lulubeans handpainted sock

needles: US 1

no modifications.  a fun, gratifying knit.  these went really fast and i am going to sort of have a hard time giving them away.

finished object: ribbed baby jacket

my friend laura is having a baby very soon and i'm very excited for her.  she was a great comrade-in-pregnancy for me and i am psyched about greta having a baby pal.  i knit this sweater for laura's little guy.

pattern: ribbed baby jacket by debbie bliss (ravelry link)

yarn: it's a worsted weight cotton.  i scored two giant cones of it at salvation army last summer.  i didn't think about it ahead of time, but brown is apparently a popular color choice for this pattern.  i'm liking brown a lot lately.

needles: US 8s

modifications: not a one, but were i to do it all again, i think i would do the sleeve shaping differently.  the cotton isn't very forgiving when it comes the way the stitches were added and subtracted in increments of five, and my sleeves had a staggered outline that was hard to seam.  (and i don't think i seamed it well, but i'm sure the cuteness of laura's babe will overshadow all my seaming short-comings.)

my favorite part: the mushroom button.  i love it.

a shop update

hello-
just a quick note here to let you know that i have stocked up my etsy store with some lovely new handspun yarns.



also, daylight savings  tomorrow!  hurray!  i am starting to think that maybe, just maybe, spring is truly on its way.  i can't wait to show my baby girl her first blade of grass.

finished object: swiss cheese scarf

you know how it's said that some knitting is about the process and some is about the product? this one was all about product, because the process kind of drove me nuts after awhile.  i don't want to deter you from making one though. this was something that i was in a rush to finish before the baby was born, when i was just generally cranky and impatient with everything, including my knitting. the pattern itself is ingenious in how it embodies a great knitting metaphor: sometimes the simple and easy route can create the most rewarding results.  you might not guess that basic garter stitch with strategically placed areas cast on and off could create something elegant and dramatic, but there you go. knitting is tricky like that.

specifics:

pattern:swiss cheese scarf by winnie shih

yarn: ~450 yards of fingering weight superwash merino that i handpainted

needles: US 7 (totally out of my comfort zone for this weight yarn- i am used to making socks on US 1s- but the resulting fabric is sooooooo very nice and drapey)

measurements: 10 inches wide, 65 inches long.

modifications: i had to do some math so that i could use fingering instead of the lace weight yarn that the pattern calls for.  i cast on 74 stitches and made my holes 8 stitches wide, with 6 stitches in between, and with 4 repeats instead of 5.



i love, love, love this scarf. love! my one regret is that it could be longer, but i ran out of yarn. i think it will be a perfect spring scarf, should spring decide to get here, ever. in the meantime, i'm wearing my swiss cheese around the house.

the yarn color is way off in this picture, but this was my best attempt at a self-portrait with it on.

and here's my ravelry link with notes written about the pattern before my end-o'-pregnancy induced crabbiness took hold.

woolly baby legs

i made greta some legwarmers.  they are more practical than you might think- they cover most of her leg, so they are warm enough to wear around the house and make diaper changes a little more convenient.  when it's time to go out, they are a nice layer under pants for her.  (and extra layers are a good thing, because march has certainly come in like big, menacing, ravenous lion this year.)

there's no pattern- it's just a tube with ribbing on both ends.  the yarn is fingering weight, hand painted by me.  i think i cast on 44 stitches on US #1 needles and just went with it.



when i was squealing with delight as greta kicked and wiggled her woolly little legs yesterday i said "i'm going to make more of these! i think i'll even make a pair with little feet!"  to which snarky miss 7 dead panned "oh, you mean like socks?"



i'm glad she's around to keep me from getting too full of myself. i am not ever going to get away with thinking that i am on my way to inventing some kind of newfangled baby leg and foot cozy.

and yes, i have also heard that people knit things like this, only with butt coverage. and that they call them pants.

yarn baskets

i love that at 7, natasha is not too big to curl up on my lap and look for crafting ideas with me.  i also love that at 7, she is big enough to appreciate crafty blogs and read about projects that spark her interest. currently, we are both really liking playful learning and the crafty crow.  (we both miss updates from kiddley though, and natasha still asks every now and then if i will "print out a kiddley" aka one of these.)

last week, were inspired by a friend to knit with's  yarn basket project.  as luck would have it, we happened to have two balloons (our midwives had tied two pink balloons outside our front door on the morning greta was born- so they were special balloons).

  i have to tell you, handling glue soaked yarn took some major overcoming sensory issue fortitude on my part, but it was worth it. 



our baskets are currently holding chapstick. and sea glass.  can i just tell you how much more simple our lives have become now that we have a designated chapstick holder?  seriously.  maybe chapped lips and MIA lip balm aren't terribly emotional issues in your house, but around here, tears have been shed more times than i want to count.

natasha also quickly discoved that one of the baskets is perfect hat size for her. 
and also, um... hannibal lector mask?



yup, i sure love that wacky girl.

happy heart day

greta is four weeks old today!
i made her a hat using this recipe. the yarn is cascade 220 quatro.
hope you are having a great weekend!

a greta update

greta at three weeks:
-nurses a lot
-sleeps a lot (mostly snuggled up close with mom or dad, and sometimes her sister, and sometimes even by herself, in her basket, with her cozy warm blanket)
-makes a lot of funny new baby noises. often sounds like a little goat.  is a loud, gulpy nurser too, which totally kills me. 
-smells absolutely magical and amazing.  big accomplishment for someone who poops as much as she does.
-looks so much like her big sister did at this age that it freaks me out a tiny bit.  she has more hair than natasha had though.  then again, i think natasha was 2 before she had the amount of hair greta has now.
-still has furry little werewolf ears.  these also kill me.

greta at 3 wks, natasha at 3 wks. i feel like a baby cloner or something

it kind of hurts my eyes

but i kind of love it anyway.

peeking out from the milky, milky fog here to show you the log cabin blanket i've been working on here and there for the past few months.  i was inspired after borrowing a copy of mason dixon knitting from a friend. (scroll down in the link if you'd like instructions for making your own log cabin.)   this is a great way to use scraps and random odds and ends, and i love to have a project (or two, or ten) that i can put down and pick up in between other knitting. the log cabin is perfect for this because it's not as though you can lose your place, or forget what you were trying to accomplish in the first place. (this happens more frequently than i want to admit, when it comes to other orphaned projects.) the only bummer with the log cabin? weaving in all those ends!  

eventually, i'll be able to add on to this blanket. one day it might grow to generously cover a bed. but yesterday, i picked it up and decided to bind off, realizing that right now it is absolutely perfect greta snuggling size. i am all about anything that has to do with snuggling this baby.

she's here!

our sweet tiny girl, greta eloise, is here after a long, amazing and intense birth at home. she is beyond incredible. i understand why people just give the statistics (born 1/17, 5:45 am, 7 lbs, 5 ounces, 20 inches long, mom and baby both doing well) and just leave it at that, because really, there are no adequate words. we are all completely swimming in baby bliss, including a big sister who had always insisted that she did not ever want to be a big sister. i don't think i could ask for anything more, ever again.

pretty, and then not as pretty*

i am in love with this scarf, knit by kristen with my yarn. isn't it pretty? i know i have shared before how enormously gratifying it is for me to get to peek at the things my yarn becomes after i send it out into the world, and this was about as close to instant gratification as it gets. kristen works fast! the yarn is a bulky bamboo single, and i believe that kristen used some big needles to make her gorgeous, drapey garter stitch creation.

in other news, there is no news here, at least on the baby front. after 2+ weeks of feeling like labor might be starting pretty much every night, i'm trying hard to just let go and not obsess over it, at least not so much. feeling this way for this length of time (which seems like forever in baby-waiting time) can get a little discouraging after awhile. i'm feeling too uptight and too grouchy to be very zen about it at this point. i don't want to sound whiny, so i will stop here, knowing that she will come when she is good and done cooking. having said that, any happy birth thoughts anyone can spare and swing in my direction would be much appreciated!

*just in case it needs to be clarified, the pretty is kristen's scarf, the not so pretty is me grumbling!

no baby yet

no, not a baby in sight, but i can show you some of the little things i have made for her eventual arrival. it is eventual, right?



there's an improvised hat made from leftover sock yarn (my own handpainted), some stripey socks (lion brand magic stripes, which now feels not-quite-soft-enough for brand new feet, but the socks are tiny and fun to look at), some little handspun pointy toed elfkin socks that are so squishy and soft, and a maltese fisherman's hat. this was made from one of the june patterns in elizabeth zimmerman's knitter's almanac. i had a ball of this worsted wool lying around from the days when i first learned how to dye yarn (kool aid!).
i haven't knit a ton for this baby. i'm being pragmatic and it's been kind of hard to justify knowing that the really tiny stuff will fit for approximately 3 minutes and then be relegated to keepsake or hand-me-down status. honestly, i'm waiting to meet this child before i get a sense of what to make her next! hey baby, there are some very excellent sweaters in my ravelry queue, but the deal is that you need to make your way out before i cast on anything new with your name on it. okay? i think that's fair enough. and also, i am so excited to meet you!

(most of) my knitting in '08

looking at this at first, i was thinking that there has to be more.

there is! there is more that i never got around to photographing.

and then there's the heap of random stuff in progress. mostly baby stuff that is sitting, waiting (fairly patiently) for baby.

and the embarrassing amount of that which was frogged. to paraphrase big pun -i'm not a player, i just frog a lot. one of my goals for '09 is to swatch more, and lose patience less.

and poor february lady (#10) - she's finished- in fact i am wearing her right now- but was never properly photographed. i think that once the year ends it's too late- time for fresh starts!

my hopes for '09 involve some ambitious putting-of-dents into my ravelry queue but that might be dumb, seeing as how i am apparently going to have a small infant to nuzzle, nurse, etc. any day now.

thank you for visiting my blog over the past year. i am always so encouraged and heartened by the kind comments people leave here! wishing each of you a peaceful and joy-filled new year. i hope you get to spend lots of time in the new year making things that bring you happiness, and lots of time near the people you love.

woolly merry-making

on the needles:

and from the dyepots:





wishing you and yours a merry and peaceful holiday season, be it woolly or otherwise!
xo

happy solstice

today's projects:
tin can lanterns
a crockpot full of lentil soup
gingerbread cookies with natasha and a buddy
a little fleece washing
making a cast of my belly
watching this wild, windy snowstorm build outside our windows
feeling cozy (not really a project, but it's figured prominently into the day)