Hello!

I've unburied myself long enough to make this very quick post. This past week (heck the past month!) has been crazy and I'm managing keeping up with life but only if I pretty much ignore the internet altogether. The good news is that I'm still mostly sane. The bad news is that the next few weeks don't look good either so the blog and my knitting will suffer! To try to get more pleasure from my very limited down time I'm trying to combine some of my loves...

Hardback library books stay open very well by themselves!

I've been incredibly remiss in saying a big "Thank you!" to my Secret Pal, who turned out to be Danielle! Danielle was an incredible Secret Pal who spoiled me rotten! Take a look at my final package...

It's a yarn bouquet! There's a skein of Zen sock yarn and some bamboo size 1us dpns in that beautiful bouquet. Isn't that fun?! Thank you so much for all of the thought and time that you put into the packages, Danielle. You were a great pal!!!

And now back to just two of the many reasons why I'm so busy. Exhibit #1...

Ailish, who is contemplating crawling. She gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth. The other day she even moved up both knees before falling over onto her side in a fit of giggles. Time to baby proof the house!

And exhibit #2...
Owen, who is doing great and is very sweet to his sister. He's needing more attention these days and it's been a balancing act between giving both kids the time they require and deserve.

This weekend was a big one! As I mentioned in Saturday's post, I got to see my knitterly girls which was quite a treat. I need good pictures of each of you to keep in my knitting bag so that I can pretend to have conversations with you while I'm knitting in the car in front of work. Just kidding, sort of. In any case, I finished Ailish's pants while at Tammy's house!!! Yay!

I am cute, no?

The pants are a bit on the large side but that
just means that I can wear them for the whole winter!

My Mama rocked the short rows. The tush on these pants fit me just right!

Sunday I drove to my parents' house and spent the day with them at church and at home to celebrate my brother Jared's 13th birthday. He's 13 years old and taller than me with a voice that is lower than our dad's. Scary, no? We had a great time! I love spending time with my parents and brothers and they love having us around. My kids enjoy their grandparents and uncles so much and it's something that I want to continue encouraging especially since we don't have much family in the area!

With so many people to play with Owen and help keep an eye on him and to hold Ailish, I get so much knitting time in! I had made a deal that when I finished Ailish's pants and Bryan's socks that I would start a fun new project, but I just couldn't wait and cast on for something a bit more challenging than stockinette in the round. Details tomorrow!

3 days per week

On Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays I pack the kids into the car and meet Bryan in the parking lot of his work so that we can make The Great Kid Exchange. While I wait for Bryan to come out I knit for a few minutes and listen to whatever music Owen dictates. Once Bryan emerges from the building, he sits in the car with me for a few minutes and we talk about our days before I give him the run down of when they ate last and napped last. After 10 or 15 minutes I take the keys to his car and go to work.

Ah, 4:07pm. Bryan should be out any moment! Hello, pants.
My green shirt matches you today!

This is grumpy Owen making his debut on the blog. Owen did NOT want to see Dad and spent much of the drive and wait time making that very well known. It's hard to see but in this picture he's pointing out the window telling me that he wants to "Go this way!"

Ailish woke up about five minutes after this picture was taken and cried. She was still crying when I escaped left Bryan with the kids.

When I get home from work both kids are already in bed. If I can I'll sneak in a little more knitting time before I wake up Ailish at around midnight so that she can nurse. Owen generally wakes up some time after that to come into our room and sleep on a sleeping bag or make a place for himself in our bed. No crying then! Just kids who are happy to see their Mama and ready for some cuddling.

Note to self

10:30pm is not a good time to take pictures. You'll never be happy with the results.

Almost 5" done on the body of the pants.

I am, however, very happy with how Ailish's pants are turning out. The short rows that I added to the backside are perfect! They're creating a cloth-diaper-tush-pocket that the last pair of pants I knitted for her lacked.

Take a good look at the effect of the short rows. The back of the pants gained 10 extra rows.

I'm going to add a little extra length to the body of the pants because our girly has a long torso and since I'm hoping she can wear these for at least 4 or 5 months. I'm not sure how appropriate low-rise pants are for a 5 month old but I'm pretty sure it's still not okay when you are 10 months old.

I wanted to share another picture from our wedding because I think our photographer, Grant Usell, did an amazing job. We love our pictures even 7 years later!

Bryan and I decided to meet before the ceremony and have a few minutes to pray and remember what all the fuss was really about. A family friend, who also happened to live next door to my parents, kindly let us use their beautiful backyard for that time.

Bryan waited in the garden for me with his back turned. I got to see his reaction close up when he turned around and saw me in my wedding dress. The photographer took pictures from far away for just a few moments and then let us have 10 minutes together. Those pictures are by far some of my favorites from the whole day.

Sometimes breaking tradition is a good thing.

She's got legs!

I ran home after work, excited to take a picture of the progress that I've made on Ailish's Baby Bell Bottoms only to find that the batteries in the camera need to be charged. Oh well! There will be pictures tomorrow, but I can at least tell you that I've finished both legs and am now ready to put the first leg back on the needles and start knitting the body/bottom/top??? of the pants.

Now is when the thinking is required. No, not for the attaching of the legs because I left the stitches of the first leg on some waste yarn so those stitches are still live. I'm talking about short row booty, here. This is going to require examining some of her pants and seeing how commercial designers work this out.

In other news, have you all gotten the new KnitPicks catalog yet? The back cover of it has sock samplers and I'm so in love! I can't decide if I like the warm sampler or the neutral sampler better, but I'm leaning more towards warm right now. As of late I've been drawn towards warm colors and have even added a deep orange sweater to my wardrobe this season... a color that I'd never wear in the past!

Alas, the sock sampler will have to wait until after the New Year. What with Christmas coming along and babies growing out of their clothes, the budget is not allowing for frivolous sock expenditures no matter how much I try to explain to it that I need solid colored sock yarn for the lace patterns I want to try out. Stupid budget.

Knit, Mama!

My daughter loves to watch me knit. I sat her in her bouncy seat and knit away on Bryan's sock for about 15 minutes today. At first I was trying to keep her attention by making silly faces and singing silly songs about her. Five minutes into this concert I stopped singing when I noticed that she was not even paying attention to my face or the songs, but her eyes were glued to my hands. I stopped knitting and moved the sock around a bit to the left, right, up and down only to watch her head and eyes follow every move it made!

Ailish has now begun her informal knitting education. I talked with her about what I was doing and about all the different kinds of needles, fiber and yarn weights that are available to work with. The next lesson will be all about the dpn vs magic loop vs 2 circulars debate since I didn't want to overwhelm her at her first lesson!

And in case you were wondering, 15 minutes of knitting gets me halfway through one big stripe on Bryan's socks. That is approximately 6 rows of knitting in 15 minutes, when knitting at normal pace. I have one and a half more stripes to go before I start the heel and then about 150 stripes on the foot because my man has big feet. Okay, so it's not really 150 stripes but it sure feels that way!!! Ah, the knitting math!

Nostalgia

Ailish will be 6 months old in 2 weeks and thinking about that got me thinking about Owen when he was that age. They even look similar in their own unique ways.

Ailish (5 months old) and Lolly at the new house. October 2007.

Owen (7 months old) and Bryan in San Luis Obispo, CA. April 2004.

The handsome Owen at age 4. October 2007.

Do you ever wonder where your knitting will be in a few years? There are some knits that will probably go to that great yarn store in the sky, like much loved socks. And I know that I'll be packing away Owen's brown sweater (my first sweater!) after this winter and will tuck a note in it to tell Owen how much he loved it and how much I loved making it for him. Where will my next favorite project be in 10 years? With any luck, the majority of the things that I've made will have been loved to death and found their happiness in fulfilling their knitted destiny!

Lucky!

I may not have a lot of time to knit right now but I sure do have a lot of beautiful yarn to look at and make plans for!

Colinette Jitterbug in colorway Sea Breeze

Berrocco Peruvia in color 7130...

which will become warm Winter pants for a certain little girl...

because she has completely outgrown these.

The weather has grown cool and I happily wrap Owen up in handknit love before putting him on the schoolbus. He can still fit into the brown sweater and blue, black and purple hat that I made for him in 2005. The hat, in particular, is a much loved piece of apparel and he refused to wear a store bought hat this morning and ran to get his hand knit one.

I'm getting the urge to knit warm, wooly items. I cast on for a pair of pants for Ailish using hand-dyed (not by me) Cascade 220. I'm thinking that I want to make Owen another sweater and am debating about what pattern to use. And this morning I sighed as I walked past the red shrug that has been sitting dejectedly in a corner. Ailish needs some mittens and a hat. Owen could use another hat, too. And I'm so close to starting toe decreases on Bryan's sock that I can almost feel myself doing k2tog as I type!

There's so much to knit and so little time! Where do I start? It is such a wonderful problem to have. It's a blessing to have so many loved ones!

And just to whet your palette, this is not the only yarn I've gotten recently! Next time I'll show off some birthday yarn and a gift from my Secret Pal that had me jumping around my kitchen.

It's Friday again!

I'm really loving my new job and forgot how much I truly enjoyed working in a medical environment. I don't think I actually mentioned what my new job is, but I'm working for a large hospital in Springfield in their admissions department. My job entails a lot of things but for the most part I'll be working Labor & Delivery triage as well as Bed Control, both fast-paced and high-stress areas. Unlike my last job, there is no down time where I'll be knitting! However, this job already feels fulfilling. I go home at the end of the day knowing that I helped people and that's a great feeling.

Because I'm still technically in training my hours have varied so that I can do my training rounds in the different departments. This irregular schedule has messed with my internal calendar and I spent all day thinking it was Friday only to be reminded that it wasn't every time I went to enter a date in the computer or on paperwork. Darn. So it's Friday again and I couldn't be happier because my brothers are spending the weekend with us!

My brothers are incredible with my kids and the three boys play so well together while sweet baby girl is happy to watch them and bestow smiles and giggles graciously and generously. With the kids busy entertaining themselves I'm hoping to sneak in a little knitting time here and there. I've been working on a shrug that's knit in one piece and designed by little ol' me! That's what the red yarn and swatch from the last post were for. I did math!

Here's what it looked like about two weeks ago. I've finished one sleeve and am currently at the middle of the back. The outer edge of the sleeve has 4 quatrefoils that I think will look better after a washing and blocking.

A close up of the quatrefoils for you. Also, the color in this second picture is much more true to life than the first one. I'm not one for garish colors and the red is much more muted than what that first image portrays.

This shrug is going to be perfect for the fall and winter but I'm not too concerned about finishing it right this second because it is going to be 88 degrees today. The past couple days have been so warm that I've brought back out the toe-up Jaywalkers to work on. I'm turning the heel on the second sock and after that it shouldn't be long before I can finally call these socks done! Sarah invited me to join the Socktoberfest group on Ravelry and I did so with finishing these socks as my only goal!!! If I don't achieve that goal it would be very sad, indeed.

Finally, what good is having friends if you can't brag about them? Our local 417 Magazine did an article on knitting in the Ozarks and interviewed Sarah and Kate for it! There's even a fabulous picture of Sarah and Tammy working on their socks. Kate designed a beginners hat pattern that the magazine published and she brought the sample hat with her to our girly movie night on Saturday. Look who modeled the hat for us on Saturday?

"It was very nice of my favorite Kate to make this hat for me. I look great in hats.
What do you mean this hat isn't for me?"

"Oh well, I'll still model it for you. This is my contemplative look
that I've been working on recently. What do you think?"

Where has the time gone?

I can't believe that it has been almost one month since I last posted. What have I been doing with all that time? Let's see... I finished working for my parents, I accepted a job offer from the largest employer in southern Missouri and am now entering my third week of employment with them. I'm fortunate to have found a part time position that will allow me to work in the evening and now Bryan and I meet up after get gets off of work to switch cars and he drives home with the kids while I go off to work until 10pm.

All of these changes have caused a big priorities shift and I'm finding that I have less time for pleasurable things like knitting and blogging. Working and being a mom of two kids is much harder than it was when I was working and being a mom of one kid. Now if only I could be a working mom with 2 kids and a housekeeper....

Just to prove that I still knit, here is a little something that I've been working on. This is the beginning stages of a new project. Yarn cakes and a gauge swatch.

The color in the swatch picture is much more accurate. I'm finding that red is as difficult to photograph as black is!


I also received another package from my Secret Pal! She sent me some rainbow ribbon yarn, tea and chocolate. The chocolate was consumed immediately upon discovery and the tea is being enjoyed a little more slowly. Now that the weather is cooling down a bit more I'm finding that hot tea is more and more appealing. Thanks, Pal!

Now that I have the 343 pictures off of my camera card (I kid you not) and onto the computer, I hope to have a couple of posts up this week. Until then, a picture of my wonderful kids!

Picture Laden

Princess A has finally grown into some of her hand knits and I'm so pleased every time I put one of them on her! It is now time for the picture parade...

Princess Ailish holds court from her throne (aka: the swing) whilst sporting adorable denim pants. The pattern is the Baby Bell Bottoms from The Blue Blog.

Again we find our fair princess sitting upon her throne, this time wearing a bolero a la Debbie Bliss.

A more recent addition to the wardrobe is this not very fashionable but oh so useful wool soaker knitted up in Encore Worsted in a versatile off-white color. Much to her Mama's pleasure the Encore softened up quite a bit in the wash but she is still searching through the laundry trying to find the i-cord drawstring.

I started a smaller-sized wrap-style soaker in some leftover Manos Cotton Stria. I'm using the yarn doubled to make a nice tight fabric but it is killing my hands.

My SP11 pal sent out her first package and it has been received! Included in the package was this skein of Tofuties sock yarn in a colorway of beautiful pink, green, blue and purple. I can't wait to see how this knits up! Also she was kind enough to include some bubbles for Owen, which happens to be one of his most favorite things to do! He found them right away but it was so hot outside that I told him that it would have to wait until tomorrow morning. It is a very difficult thing for a little boy to be patient! My SP also included a square of Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate which was absolutely delicious and eaten immediately upon the package being opened. How did you know that Ghirardelli is my favorite?!

Experimenting

When Bryan and I lived in California it was easy to be eco-friendly because it was encouraged by the local and state government as well as the people around you. Since living in Missouri I've found myself slipping away from that type of lifestyle and I have decided to turn that around. We've been diligently and conciously recycling so that now the amount of trash that we take out to the curb each week has been cut down by almost half. It takes a little more work because we have to take our recycling to the center instead of it being picked up at the curb, but I find a lot of pleasure in seeing our recycling bin fill up and then empty out.

I've spent a lot of time researching other ways to help the earth and our pocketbook. Cloth diapering is making a comeback and these aren't our parents' cloth diapers! There are some that are the old fasioned kind and some that are very much like disposables. They come in plain white, solid colors or fun prints. Best of all there are diapers out there that can fit your child from birth until potty training, making them a great investment that if treated well can make it through 2 or more children.

We've purchased a small stash of diapers that should be arriving in a couple of weeks. Mostly we're going to do prefold diapers which are an upgrade from the old fashioned diapers that our parents used and we already have a couple of the more disposable type diapers that we've tried out and liked. We are planning on trying this out for a few months and then re-evaluating. Surprisingly, cloth diapers have an amazing resale value and if they are in good condition they can be sold for just under their original purchase price.

In preparing for these new diapers to arrive I'm going to be knitting up some soakers and longies to go over the prefolds. I was shocked to find out how much some people charge to make custom soakers so I'm definitely going to be making my own. There are a lot of patterns available for free online that allow you to customize the fit and embellishing the finished product is easy!

Tomorrow night I'm going to cast on for my first soaker in some white Encore Worsted that I have in the stash based on the free Curly Purly pattern that I found on Ravelry. These should be a fairly quick knit but I first need to get some accurate measurements of the girly girl so that these will fit.

And now for a few SP11 questions!

1. What is the one knitting accessory you could not live without?

I'm assuming that I already have patterns, needles, yarn, scissors, darning needle and tape measure? Beyond those things I'd be so sad if I didn't have a cute knitting bag to put all of my stuff in.

2. If you're heading on vacation, do you take knitting with you? If so, how much and what type of project?

Um, I take knitting with me when we go to church. Not that I knit in church, but there's 20 minutes of prime knitting time on the way to church and back that I don't want to miss out on! I have taken a couple of vacations since I started knitting and socks has been the project of choice especially when air travel is the mode of transportation. Scarves are also nice if they're still short. I like to take a couple of projects along so that in case I get bored with one I can switch over to the other.

3. Where have you travelled to that you'd consider your favorite spot?

Wow, that's really hard to decide! We were really lucky to live in CA because there are so many great places to travel to within the state! Our favorite vacation spot in CA is San Luis Obispo. There's a great place called Apple Farm Inn that we've stayed at 5 times and we love it. I also had a great time in Washington DC and would love to go back again. Outside of the US I thought that the Dominican Republic was beautiful and hope to take Bryan there some day, but we both absolutely fell in love with Romania.

4. What is your favorite knitting book at the moment? Do you own it?

I'm drooling as I flip through the Knitting Vintage Socks book. Mom drools with me.

5. Do you listen to podcasts? Which is your favorite(s)?

I do! I enjoy Cast On, Craft Lit and Stash & Burn.

The lesson is...

always carry knitting with you when you leave the house. Keep it stashed in the trunk of your car, the glove box, underneath the carseat, wherever you think of to put it. Who knows when you'll need it? And who knows when someone else might need it?

On Friday I put the kids, a couple of bags and some knitting in the car and we made our way to Branson. The night before my grandmother had taken a fall and had broken three bones in her ankle. We were going to visit her in the hospital before surgery and keep Mom company for a bit. Our timing was impeccable and we managed to arrive right as grandma fell asleep for the first time since the accident. Mom met me in the parking lot to hug her most adorable grandchildren (and only grandchildren, though that doesn't matter) and talk for a few minutes.

Mom was holding up well and was trying to make sure that her own Mommy was getting the care she needed. Well, even Mom's need to be taken care of and so I asked her if she brought any knitting with her. She said yes, but a little hesitantly and told me that she brought socks with her. I pulled out a bag and put it in her hands before she left. A scarf. Easy easy scarf. Not intimidating at all and perfect for hospital knitting! She grinned as she left.

Here's the scarf, though it's much longer now. I took Tammy's advice and looked on Ravelry for pattern ideas for the handpaintedyarn.com yarn and found this, The Scrunchable Scarf. Simple pattern, great for this type of variegated yarn. I'm really happy with the results and the project is really moving right along.

Owen is done with his summer school so I lost the three hours a day, four days a week that I had with just me and Ailish. Since she's still little (6 weeks old!) and sleeps a lot, that was my chance to take a nap with her or knit or do stuff around the house. No longer! He goes back to school August 15th and though I love being home with him, I'm looking forward to having that time again!

Ailish is such a good baby! She's getting big and has started smiling at people and windows. Owen thinks she's wonderful and can't get enough of her, but who can blame him?

Naptime update

I can't believe that it's been 2 weeks since I last posted anything. Time has flown by and every day I pass by the computer and say to myself, "I really need to update the blog today!" but it never gets done.

Life has changed exponentially now that Ailish has joined the world. She is such a joy to each of us and even at 3:30am when she's nursing for the third time since I've tried going to sleep I can't help but look at her and think about how lucky I am to have her here with me and how much more I would enjoy her in the morning if she'd just let me sleep for more than one hour at a time. (Just keeping it real here, folks!)

Knitting has been pushed aside for the most part. I work on the Trekking sock here and there when there is a moment for it. Socks will probably be a staple project for a while since I can come to the end of a needle quickly and set it down. Mom has come up to help twice and I took advantage of that time by taking a nap and working on the UnGranny Smith cardigan. I'm very pleased to say that I bound off the sleeves last night, wound in the ends and it started blocking last night. I'm already thinking about the next big project (I may be sleep deprived, but I'm still a Knitter!) and I think that it's going to have to be something using larger needles so that I can actually see progress on it as I'm working. More thoughts on this later.

On Thursday Ailish was kind enough to model some of her handknitted socks!

Newborn socks made with Socks That Rock Mediumweight. (Thanks, Zarah! I've gotten soooo many compliments on these.)

Newborn socks made with KnitPicks Simple Stripes in Napa. Leftover from socks that I made for myself. (We have matching socks!)

Now for a very long delayed picture of the latest socks that I made for Mom, the basketweave socks in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport Chocolate. She wore them to the hospital and I snagged a picture before I forgot again.


It's not the best picture, but the color of the yarn is so rich and beautiful. She loves them and wears them all the time with her brown clogs.

My sister, Heather, and brother-in-law, Spencer, just landed in Tulsa about 45 minutes ago and they're going to be in town for a week. I'm so excited to see them since it has been almost exactly a year since their wedding in San Diego and that was the last time that I saw them. We're going to be in Branson with them for the next few days and I'm looking forward to spending tons of time with them.

Drive quickly, Aunt Heather! I'm cute and cuddly and ready to see you!

Heather is anxious to see her first niece and I'm looking forward to snapping all kinds of great pictures of all of us together. If I'm really lucky, one of those pictures will include me wearing a finished UnGranny Smith.

Introducing...

Ailish Grace

Hello, Knitbloggers! Am I not adorable?

Born May 17th at 11:50 am and weighing 7 lb 8 oz and 20.5" long.

Ailish (the "Ai" is pronounced like the a in acorn and "lish" like in delicious) is the Celtic form of Elizabeth which means God's promise. She's our little miracle baby and overcame quite a lot on her journey here!

We're all doing well. It was a 3.5 hour labor and we both recovered quickly. Bryan has taken 2 weeks of from work to help, which has been a wonderful gift for all of us. Owen is taking his newfound status of big brother incredibly well! He's very gentle with his little sister and loves to help pat her back and gives her lots of kisses on the cheek. As of yet there haven't been any jealousy issues but Bryan and I have been careful to make sure that Owen gets lots of extra love and attention right now. I'm sure that soon Owen will tire of the new houseguest and make his opinion known, but for now we're enjoying this time.

We spend a lot of time like this.

Not surprisingly, there hasn't been much knitting going on. I started a hat for Ailish at 3:00am on the 17th and finished it shortly before we left the hospital on the 19th. I also started some Trekking socks and after 9 days of knitting I'm very happy to say that I have almost 4 inches done on the first cuff.

Sweet baby girl has just woken up and is calling for me. Perhaps with the next update you might even get a picture of knitting!