Archive for May, 2008
Baby Knitting: (Ruffle-butt soaker)
Friday, May 23rd, 2008
I can’t help myself. Even though I’m up to my eyeballs in projects (writing, designing, co-ordinating) I still just can’t stop making baby clothes.
They’re so fast. And it’s so much fun to knit something that’s so truly over-the-top. Here’s a soaker that I made for Mazie. The structure is based on the “Down Under Soaker” pattern… but very heavily modified.
This is knit from 100Purewool, dyed with Wilton’s cake dye, and then hand knit (duh.)
I love this pink Wilton’s…it gives a really neon result. It’s the same pink as the one I used for the pink and black sock yarn.
Today Mazie had her first play group date! I know three other new moms and we decided to start a New Mom group. Our babies range in age from 4 months to 13 months. It was interesting to hear the other moms’ birth stories, and to share experiences that we’ve had with the kids. We have a lot in common, it turns out. I also really enjoyed watching the babies together. The other 3 kids are all boys, all crawling already. I’m hoping that Mazie will find them inspiring…sitting up, crawling, talking.
She’s doing great, actually, and I’m completely pleased with where she is, but it can’t hurt for her to see babies that are at that next stage.
Posted in Patterns, baby | 9 Comments »
Aunt Tonnie’s rabbit
Tuesday, May 20th, 2008
Aunt Tonnie knit Mazie a rabbit! We got it in the mail today.
She loves the long (i-cord) ears to hold onto and also to chew!
(This was one of the free stuffed animal patterns that my sister Tonya got for signing up to receive Knitting Daily.
Posted in Patterns, baby, gift knitting | No Comments »
Sock yarn dyeing, better weather, and happier baby!
Monday, May 19th, 2008
(eek! Incredibly picture-heavy post today…I guess that’s what you get when I take a few days off from posting!)
Saturday, I taught a dye workshop at the Las Cruces Museum of Art. We dyed sock yarn using non-toxic dyes. I taught how to dye solid, variegated, and self-striping yarns.
Everyone had a good time, and I really enjoyed it, too. We made some pretty cool yarns.
Here’s one that I dyed as a class example:
Here’s Mazie modeling her Las Vegas Tee from SweetPepita:
In other news: Our weather is officially back to normal!
We’ve got 97 degrees and bright sun today…and we LOVE it.
Mazie and I put the sun shade back up over the patio, since the winds have died down and it won’t blow away. It’s perfect weather to sit in the shade. We had lunch outside today with Grandma and Daddy. I planted a couple of rosebushes last week, and one died. So yesterday I dug it up and exchanged it for a live one. Mazie and I put that one in the ground this morning. It’s so nice to be able to hang outside!!
Posted in Uncategorized, just chit chat, events, baby | No Comments »
Ugly weather and unhappy baby
Monday, May 19th, 2008
The last few days have been cloudy and pretty cool, with highs only in the 70s. There’s also an evil wind that’s been blowing. We’re used to cloudless skies, balmy temps, and just pretty perfect days. It’s not just a little breezy, it’s WINDY. The sky is gray, and we can’t see the mountains from all the dust in the air, and there’s a fine layer of grit that settles on every surface (and inside our noses and ears.) It feels like it’s going to rain, but it doesn’t, and that pressure just stays in the air. When it’s like this, people are just on edge. A lot of people have worse allergies, I, personally, get headaches and my eyes itch. So. You can imagine what it does to a baby.
Mazie had her 4-month doctor’s appointment on Tuesday. She got some shots and that in itself makes her cranky. Combine it with this dusty windy crappy weather, and you’ve got a VERY unhappy little girl. She seems like she’s just unable to get comfortable.
I decided to space out her shots, so she didn’t get ALL of them on Tuesday, but even so, it was a lot for her. The last few nights, she hasn’t been willing to go to bed without a big fight. Tuesday night, Mom even had to come over and use the Grandma-magic on her. Normally, I’d put her in the stroller and go for a long walk until she quieted down, but it’s SO cold and windy…too much for Baby.
Mazie’s stats at 4 months:
Height: 26.25 inches
Weight: 17 lbs, 12.5 oz
That puts her in the 95th percentile for height and off the chart for weight.
Posted in just chit chat, baby | 1 Comment »
What I did Mother’s Day weekend
Monday, May 12th, 2008
What *didn’t* I do?!
(kidding!)
Saturday we goofed around the house. I cut out a bunch of things to sew for Mazie. I’m on this new kick where I think I can really sew. (I’ll show you the fruits of my delusion later…) I heard from some old friends (Geoff and Shannon.) They have a 20-month-old baby now, and Shannon is the brains and brawn behind Sweet Pepita Clothing. She combines organic cotton and repurposed T-shirts to make the most darling baby clothes. I ordered this Las Vegas tee for The Mazer. I think she’ll LOVE it.
Speaking of Mazie, there’s been a demand for new pics and an update. She’s 4 months old now! Mazie’s smiling, giggling (especially at Daddy.) She LOVES to be outside. If she’s ever cranky, we just take out for a walk and she quiets right down. She babbles a LOT. She loves standing. We bought her an exersaucer. She really likes it, but it overwhelms her in abot 10 - 15 minutes. She’s still pretty bald, but her peachfuzz is definitely RED.
I also finished The Stevie Nicks Series of 12 new diapers. These are sewn from the Little Starter pattern. They’ve all got hand-dyed (by me) outers made of either cotton interlock or bamboo velour. The inners are animal (either leopard or snake) print panne, and soakers are quad-folded microfiber towelling. They all have applique, too.
Sunday, we had a great Mother’s day, we went for a long walk, hung out together, and BBQed in the evening.
Posted in just chit chat, baby | 4 Comments »
We like to sit in the shade together…
Tuesday, May 6th, 2008
Saturday night we went on our first real date night without Mazie. We went to dinner AND a movie. We saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which was actually funny! We’ve been out to eat without our baby, but not out for a whole evening. It was almost 5 hours. My mom babysat, and as we were leaving, she said my dad was stopping at the Greek to pick up sandwiches and he was coming over, too. For a brief moment, I wanted to say, “NO BOYS!” …but managed to keep it to myself.
Grandpas are always welcome!
Sunday we did some stuff in the yard. I bought a couple of rose bushes to put in, and Nate dug the hole. When I asked him to dig a hole for each plant, I pictured just a little 10″ hole, the size of each pot. But what I got was a very impressive kidney-shaped bed with a berm on one side. Very nice. Very 3 or 4 hours’ worth of digging. Mazie and I sat inside for a while, then had to go see what Daddy was up to!
We got out our lounge chairs and Mazie watched Daddy and I knit my sock.
Mazie fell asleep.
My sock:
Posted in just chit chat, socks | 2 Comments »
Sometimes you gotta wait for it, other times you gotta work for it.
Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
I ordered a couple of sock needles from Knitpicks a week or so ago and the package got here yesterday. I’d been waiting and waiting for this thing. They sent me an email when it shipped on the 21st of April, and every single day, I was listening for that mailman to drop it off.
You can hear his truck from the living room, the starter’s so bad. He has to park and turn it off between every house on our block, because we all have our mailboxes on the houses instead of on the street. So he’s turning that thing on and off at nearly every single house. He probably could park at one end and walk the whole block in a few minutes, but he likes to drive.
ANYWAY…
Two days ago I was running around the house doing whatever and there’s a knock at the door. This lady’s standing there with a square priority box in her hand. (Apparently a package that may-or-may-not belong to me had been mis-delivered to her house.) She was holding it up and squinting at it through her bifocals and asked me what the last name was at this house. I told her, and she said no, that wasn’t it. So we both shrugged and she got in her car and started backing down the driveway. And I’m thinking…”Wait! Maybe I had something delivered to Glampyre Knits!”
SO, I caught her a few feet down the street. Before she rolled down the window, she clutched my package to her chest like I was coming to rob her! I told her about the Glampyre Knits thing and she handed it over. But, you guys, she did NOT want to give up that package!
It was a pretty surreal interaction all the way around. Especially that she thought I was so shady. She really took her self-assigned duties as Postal Deputy seriously.
And…it turned out NOT to be my needles. It was SOCK YARN from Unwind Yarn Company in colorways “Carnelian and turquoise” and “Parrotfish.” It’s 70% Merino, 30% Seacell. GORGEOUS. This combination of fibers is lustrous and really has a great squish to it. I think I’ll use 2s to knit these socks.
My needles didn’t get here until yesterday. I knew it might be a while, and they were totally within the 5-14 day time limit, but after day 9, I was really getting jittery. I’ve managed to keep the sock casting-on to ONE new pair so far, but I have a few new yarns that I really want to try out.
This is some that I bought while we were living in Germany. It’s really shimmery. 45% bamboo, 40% superwash, 15% polyamide. I’m knitting my first “toe-up-two-at-a-time-on-one-needle”s.
Posted in yarn reviews, socks | 4 Comments »
Wahoo! I get to go to Banff!!
Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
(Map courtesy www.banff.com)
Amy Swenson wrote a few days ago to invite me to teach at her shop(Make One Yarn Studio)’s Fall Fiber Arts Retreat. We had talked about it briefly a few weeks ago, but I didn’t want to say anything until it was for sure for sure.
I am so looking forward to it. Amy and I have been friends since the early days. (Amy’s been blogging as Indigirl since 1996 and I’ve had this blog since 1998.) We started out together, in a way, and it is so cool to be doing a workshop together. I have a really cute picture of me and Amy together at one of the TNNAs, but I can’t find it! If I do, I’ll post it.
Teaching at workshops is my new favorite thing. I love meeting people, especially other knitters. And…I get to talk about knitting and yarn for the whole weekend!
I’ll be teaching:
Anatomy of a Top-Down Sweater
Fitting Your Knits
Converting Flat Patterns to Circular
I couldn’t imagine a more beautiful place for a knitting retreat!!
It’ll be so wintry and cozy there!! ACK.
(Mildly hyperventilating.)