Firsts

I know you all like to see pictures of Miss A, but that’s all you really get. I don’t really talk about her a lot. That’s not because of privacy, or because I don’t care. Nor do I think my readers don’t care. It’s more of less because I don’t have the words. I read all kinds of blogs that talk so genuinely about their children and really describe well their development and the love they have for them. A great example would be Jasmin’s (of the Knitmore Girls) blog Better Than Yarn. She is able to put things into words so well. She’s entertaining and clever. And our daughter’s are very close in age (and development, which I can’t usually say)!

After a teething biscuit! Messy Missy!

When I write about my daughter I feel like it comes out more like Tina Fey news bit Weekend Update (minus the actual humor). Here’s my news bit: Miss A has been crawling for quite a while now. She started before she even turned 6 months. It’s like crawling turned on a switch for her. The next weekend she started pulling herself up on Mommy & Daddy, then suddenly she could pull herself up on anything. We’ve invested in stair gates now. And wouldn’t you know it, she’s started furniture surfing and trying to stand on her own! I really think she’s going to be walking soon.

We had another first yesterday. Our first hospital visit. She’s fine, but her parents have what is known as “New Parent Freak Out Syndrome”. She’s had a cold, the doctor couldn’t fit her in yesterday and it was just better safe than sorry by last night. And then she pulled the whole “let’s make my parents look like big liars” routine once we were there by flirting with everyone!

I have been doing some knitting this week. I’m working on a surprise gift for a friend.

I cast on my husband’s Roo Two. I purchased fingering weight yarn for it. I bought Valley Yarns Huntington in the Brown Sugar color way. This time it should be small enough to be a flying buddy.

I’ve also been doing some spinning. It’s gorgeous BFL that I purchased on my Michigan trip. I got it from Marr Haven Wool Farm in Allegan. The owner does amazing dye work there!

Go on over and check out more WIP Wednesday posts!

Surprise

I wasn’t expecting to have an FO today, so surprise to me (and you!). I picked up Miss A’s Milo Handspun vest and worked on it for just a little bit and all of a sudden it was done! It is perfect size and turned out great! I used US size 4 needles and knit the 3 month size. The pattern calls for US size 6, but I knew with the handspun yarn (and after reading other peoples notes) it would still turn out a bit bigger than the 6 month size. The Milo pattern is a great one if you haven’t seen it. It can work for boys and girls and goes from newborn to size 2. Great variation and I’m sure I will be making more! It fits her perfectly and as you can tell she was very excited! Go check out more FO Friday posts!

Back to the Grind

Short and sweet. I have a lot to catch up on now that the Olympics are over; knitting, crafting and on the home-front. I’ve been dying to use some more handspun yarn so I cast on the Milo vest. Now I’m about halfway done after ripping back the whole body yesterday. The heart cable just wasn’t working with the effect of the yarn so I decided to try out a different cable option from the pattern. So far that’s all I’ve been doing, post-Ravellenic Games. Don’t forget to click over to my giveaway if you haven’t already! Head on over to Tami’s Amis and Other Creations to read more great WIP Wednesday posts!

3KCBWDAY1 – Colour Lovers

Today’s the day!! The beginning of Knit Crochet Blog Week! It’s a great time of the year! Last year I don’t think I made it through the whole week because life may have gotten in the way. Now I can’t promise it won’t happen again, especially since I have been a bit under the weather lately and will be seeing the doctor tomorrow to see if something more serious is actually going on. But hopefully I’ll be able to stay up to date with the posts this time.

Todays Topic - Colour Lovers
Colour is one of our greatest expressions of ourselves when we choose to knit or crochet, so how do you choose what colours you buy and crochet or knit with. Have a look through your stash and see if there is a predominance of one colour. Do the same with your finished projects – do they match? Do you love a rainbow of bright hues, or more subdued tones. How much attention do you pay to the original colour that a garment is knit in when you see a pattern? Tell readers about your love or confusion over colour.

Colour. I have to say how much I love that word colour….more specifically the spelling. Why did American’s change the spelling to color? I don’t know, I guess our spelling just doesn’t seem quite as sophisticated as it should. Because colour is sophisticated, it’s part of art, it is art really. I like the work colour much better than the word colour.

I definitely have a preference of colour when it comes to yarn. I took a gander at my bookshelf which used to hold all my stash. It now holds mostly baby stuff, but I’ve made sure to have my favorite stash displayed also. I wasn’t very surprised when I found 2, maybe 3 skeins that were solid colours. The rest is either variegated, striped, or tonals. And the brighter the better. The more colours in one skein the better. The more random the colors, the better. And the brighter, did I mention that? I hate pastels. I love bright colors! I’ve noticed a pattern. When I buy yarn for a specific pattern, that’s when I usually buy the solids I have. When I buy yarn for the stash, yarn that I am just drawn to, that’s when I have the wild, crazy, vivid colours. And what better brand to buy if that is the kind of yarn you like, than Wollmeise. Here’s my Miss Annabelle showing off Mommy’s Wollmeise stash.

That’s right, all my followers know it; I love Rohrspatz & Wollmeise yarn. If you found me through the Knit Crochet Blog Week tags welcome, and you now know I love Wollmeise. I used to live around an hour and a half away from the shop. I’ve been to the store 3 different times, and was disappointed leaving Germany because I knew I’d probably never be there again. So of course I stashed up! I have 16 skeins of Wollmeise and I’m in love with every single one of them. A person who loves deep, vivid, saturated colors needs to get their hands on some Wollmeise if they never have. And I’ll say this….I’ve been looking the colorway Grapes for Sheri for a long, long time and would be willing to trade almost any of the skeins I have if you have some Grapes for Sheri (which looks like this)!

To read all about other peoples’ love of colour from those taking part in Knitting and crochet blog week, simply perform a Google search for the tag 3KCBWDAY1, or click here.

Technically It’s Not Friday

It might technically be Saturday now, since it’s past midnight, but I’m going to write my Friday FO post. I might as well since I’m up. And not by choice. Miss Annabelle decided she doesn’t have to sleep tonight. Baby doesn’t sleep means I don’t sleep. So I’m up.

Now today’s FO, although finished was a bit of “when knitting attacks!” (Listen to the Knitmore Girls if you don’t get the reference) I still have to add a snap at the top which will just take a few minutes, but I washed Miss Annabelle’s Cabled Baby Raglan today. Well, there was another knit sweater in the wash made from Malabrigo Sock in the colorway Tiziano Red. This sweater was an amazing present from A Tangled Thread (which I LOVE!), and it’s been washed several times. But it apparently bleeds. I first noticed it when she was feeding, and her top would get wet. The color would bleed through to the onsie beneath. So I did what any knitter would do….I soaked it in vinegar. I thought it was all good. Apparently not. I had to rewash a few things in the wash today (after soaking them in Oxyclean), so I couldn’t get pictures on Miss A. So here’s the sweater. Great pattern. I don’t think I like the drape of the yarn. I modified it to short-sleeve and I’m really glad I did since it’s a bit large and will probably fit for a good portion of the summer. I’ll get a picture of it on her later this weekend to share!

Now To Test

They are done! I finished the Baby’s Best Booties pattern just in time for FO Friday. They just need some ribbon to tie them on. I want to get pink since I love the pink and brown combination. Then I’ll have to test them to see how well they stay on! Are they really the best??

Because She’s Just Too Cute

I haven’t shared photos of Miss A lately so I figured some were in order.

Something to Talk About

I’ve finally got something to talk about! A few things actually! I have more than one WIP for WIP Wednesday. Well actually I always have more than one WIP, but I have two I’m actually working on! The rest are of course in hibernation as usual.

I have my Cabled Raglan Baby Sweater on the needles still. And it doesn’t look all too different than last week. But I promise you it is longer than it was by a few rows. I did start something new this week and it is another knit for little Miss Annabelle. I’m trying out a bootie pattern. As we all know booties don’t stay on babies very well, so I suppose I’m on the search to find what works for my little Miss. And hopefully I’ll only have to try once. The pattern is Baby’s Best Booties and I’m using some JoJoLand Rhythm which is a nice wool I picked up visiting family in good ole’ Noblesville Indiana. It’s some cute baby colors plied together with a gradual change in the color. I think they will turn out pretty cute.

The bootie pattern is the start of my Knit The Queue 2012. Don’t get my started on my attempt at Knit the Queue 2011, and in fact I should probably delete the page off my blog. Especially since I haven’t touched it in SO LONG. If you listen to Subway Knits you know about the QAL (Queue Along). I’m joining that, so I’m doing things a bit different than last year. The goal then was to basically knit off my queue all year long, but this time I’m just seeing what I can get done for the QAL which started on February 1st and ends April 30th. Anything I get done from my queue (which had to be added before Jan 31st) in that time is an entry into the contest. The more I get done, the more entries I get. Win, win right?!

I’m also joining back into the Yarn Along this week! I haven’t done virtually any reading since the baby has come. The moment I sit down to read a book is simultaneously the moment my eyes close and I go to sleep. Didn’t you know Mommy brain also causes instant sleep! But I took a trip to the library this week (have I mentioned that libraries are awesome and everyone should still utilize theirs!) and discovered that they have a wonderfully large knitting section. And it isn’t all twenty years old either! I checked out a few great books – Natural Nursery Knits by Erika Knight, Fiber Gathering by Joanne Seiff, and Closely Knit by my favorite designer, Hannah Fettig. I also had an epiphany….I might fall asleep if I try to read a book, but I can listen to books while I do work around the house! So I checked out The Choice by Nicholas Sparks and Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. Maybe I’ll actually get some “reading” done this week!

I’ll Finish This One

I started a post yesterday. I wrote about 2 sentences. I let housework distract me from finishing that post. I need to learn though, that housework never goes away, and if I always let it get the best of me I would never do anything for myself. So here I am ignoring me housework. In fact I’ve been ignoring it all day, and I plan to continue doing so. I have some other things that I’d like to get done that aren’t cleaning. Including my WIP Wednesday blog post! So I will finish this post.

I haven’t made too much progress on the little white cardigan I’m making for dear Miss Annabelle. But even a little progress is progress, and I need to be happy about that. I do have to get into some type of routine though, and adjust to this whole motherhood thing a bit better to fit some more knitting time into my day. If I keep knitting it at this rate I should modify the size for a 12 month old! Maybe coffee is the answer?

The nursery is also still a WIP. You think it’s something that should be done before the baby comes, right? Well, I’d like to know how many parents actually have it done by then. But don’t you forget we also got our household goods only 2 weeks before Miss Annabelle was born. And this 10 month pregnant woman was trying to unpack the house. So the nursery is still getting prepared, and it’s not like she is in it yet anyway, so what’s the harm, right? We bought the crib and changing table this past weekend and it’s in progress. But I can’t take the credit for that one. Putting those together is the hubs’ job! But it’s looking great! Can’t wait till it’s all done!

Be Amazed

By me. Yes, by me. Why? Not because I made some awesome project or achieved any greatness. But because I’m here. Posting. Posting on my blog today. I’ve needed to back into WIP Wednesday for a while, and I’m finally knitting again so I felt this week was the appropriate time. But then dear daughter decided she wasn’t going to sleep longer than an hour stretch last night. This is when I’ve been getting used to her sleeping 4-6 hours straight every night. So I was up all night with her. Oh and she would wake up crying, almost screaming. I lucked out because she really doesn’t cry. So I guess I’m getting a dose of reality today. And on top of that, I was in pain the whole night with horrid heartburn which I’m sure had a direct correlation to why she had a bad night too. So that fact that I’m still posting, and even awake to post is pretty much amazing.

Now onto knitting. It’s taken me almost half a week to pick a pattern, get the yarn and get a gauge swatch knit. But I suppose that is suspected with a newborn in the house! My daughter has a tiny little cardigan that was a hand-me-down to her, and it doesn’t really fit anymore. She has so many cute short-sleeved onsies though, that I decided I needed to make her a new white cardigan for everyday use.

I found this pattern; The Cabled Raglan Baby Sweater and it’s perfect. The only problem was that I couldn’t really stash dive to make a white sweater because all my white yarn was purchased for dyeing yarn. So I bought some yarn. I bought Caron Simply Soft. It looks really good knit up in the swatch.

I actually bought acrylic yarn. I never buy, or use acrylic, but it just felt like I had to buy acrylic. Maybe I feel like acrylic yarn is such a good option for this sweater because I know it won’t fit Annabelle very long. It’s cheap and if it’s only going to fit for a few weeks why waste money? And it’s going to get very dirty and be getting washed constantly. Did I mention I hate acrylic yarn? Yet for some reason I love this yarn. So far…..

Glad to join Tami’s Amis WIP Wednesday meme again! Go check out the other WIP Wednesday posts.