lulubeans

anyone want to come to a weaving in ends party?

i promise, it will be fun.

also, i decided that someday i really want to live in a house with an orange door.

bonus if it comes with a tree house and chickens like this one does.

magic

greta and i ventured out between bursts of rain yesterday to inspect our raised beds and....

 

 

...we have babies!!!  lots and lots of little green babies!!! the kale, mesclun, radishes and tatsoi that we planted on mother's day are sprouting.  it feels like magic.

 

also magic: new human babies!  i got to give these booties to a particularly incredible new little person this week.  

(rav link here, although i knit these in '09, set them aside, and promptly forgot all the details.  i dyed the yarn!  i know that much!) 

we eastered

and it was good.

the easter bunny was nice enough to bring the girls some friends.  she (or he?  who knows?  it's a constant mystery of evolving proportions in our house!) used petite purl's anything animals pattern.  i love the group photo of the whole gang of them.  the pattern was fun, cute and quick (or so i am guessing the easter bunny would report.)

i am feeling so inspired by the tend collective. i can't wait to get out into the dirt.  it's been a cold, wet spring here in maine and i can't wait for some sun and seeds and sprouts.

 

2nd FO of 2011

the easy peasy cowl, by jennifer casa, knit in my handspun.  i used one of my own bulky singles, and i love how it turned out.  a fun, satisfying (and free!) pattern. here's a rav link with my project details.

 

                                       

 

 

(my first FO of 2011? the kitty slippers pictured in my last post. except now they aren't kitty slippers, they are beds for calico critters. even better.)

another christmas barter

doll sweater (and little handspun scarf) traded for bread, sourdough starter, and tartine bread baking instructions. a great trade!

i had cosymakes style embellishing on the brain for this one and i love how it turned out.

this holiday season

            

i'm saying no to stress and saying yes to tiny hand knit doll sweaters in place of currency. (the latter has yet to work with the oil company, or during any of our snacky trips to trader joe's, but a girl can dream.)

i am saying yes to the joy of this season, and yes to bartering for my family's gifts. a definite yes to the magic of the only christmas i'll get with my kids at 9 and almost two.   a big yes to twinkly lights and singing the same christmas carols over and over and over because the girls like them, and to sufjan stevens when the girls finally do take a break from caroling.  (and a yes to candy cane joe-joes, which i can't believe i did say yes to, but yum, i am pretty glad i did, and i will again before the holidays are out, i am sure.)

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also in the "yes" category:  today's the last day of my super holiday sale.   there are still skeins of handspun yarn, handpainted merino/silk top and hand carded batts, and learn-to-spin kits available at  25% off!   please stop by, get cozy, dream about fondling some wool, and enter the code "hello" at checkout. 

a pillow and a blanket

this pillow was going to be a purse.  i think there are a lot of knitters who, when initially beginning the great knitting journey, fall under the spell of the felted bag.  i know that back in the early days i made several, and that there are still a few random, unfinished ones hiding in my basket of arbitrary unfinished craft projects.  

this purse/pillow is something that i knit over 5 yrs ago, and it's just been sitting around ever since, destined to never be a purse.  the blue stripes are some of my early attempts at hand dyeing and spinning. last week, i seamed the thing, fulled (felted) it, stuffed it, and seamed the top shut. almost instant gratification!  now i want to pillow-ify all the felted bags of yesteryear.

 

the blanket is your basic log cabin, as inspired by mason dixon knitting, using scraps of bulky weight handspun.  this sucker is WARM. apparently there will be winter again this year in maine, so it will undoubtedly come in handy. (raveled.)

 

speaking of pillows, erin's pillow week challenge looks like a lot of fun.

edited to add: after my last post on spinning corners, i thought it would be fun to start a flickr group devoted to the places where fiber art + craft happens. i'd love for you to join in!

yet another hat

maybe greta can go as lyra belacqua next halloween.

raveled.

it's not really fun

or fur.

it was seriously not my favorite thing ever to knit, but i made the baby a soot sprite hat for halloween with "fun" "fur" (yeah, i think that both words deserve their own quotation marks.)

 (and i'm not being a yarn snob- i don't think there's anything wrong with this kind of yarn if it is something that you enjoy working with. i just did NOT enjoy working with it- the "eyelashes" kept making me think of the many undulating legs of a creepy crawly centipede. ew.) 

it turned out that greta didn't really want to wear the hat much, despite our insistence that she needed to keep theme with her sister's chibi totoro costume. oh well. halloween was lots of fun anyway. 

i regret not getting better photos, but here are the kids:

miss chibi totoro.

and the little susuwatari.  

a tomten for greta

it's elizabeth zimmerman's classic pattern, and i knit it last winter.  it still needs a zipper, but it fits her really well right now and the super chunky handspun (pippikneesocks) makes it the perfect chilly weather jacket.

i love this sweater and greta does too, thank goodness, because she is starting to really speak her mind when we try to dress her in the wrong thing!   i have the zipper ready to go- i just need to buckle down and actually sew that thing in before the girl outgrows the sweater.  (yup, i'm blogging about it in an attempt to motivate myself!)

here's a ravelry link for my tomten if you are interested.

i'm also loving they draw and cook.