Shalom!

So remember waaaay back when that I was knitting a Shalom?

Yeah I did actually finish that:


And wore it:

A lot. Pictures were taken 2 weeks before our daughter was born, btw.


I basically lived in that sweater towards the end of my pregnancy. It was the only thing that kept me warm without overheating me and starting the sweating OMG the sweating seriously why is it so hot in here isn’t it supposed to be winter?!

Have I mentioned that I’m happy I’m not pregnant anymore?

Anyways! I’m thinking that there are 3 reasons I was able to crank that sweater out and actually finish it:

1.) it was out of bulky yarn (Lamb’s Pride Bulky to be exact)
2.) the Cleveland Knits West group was doing a knit along (Must knit faster to keep up!)
3.) it was seamless so it never sat in my knitting basket for months just waiting for me to sew it together (shut up. Trellis. She’s not big enough to wear you yet anyways.)

So when they posted that they were doing another knit along for this:

Heather Hoodie from the fall 2009 Knit Scene

I just couldn’t resist.

I’m using Eco Wool which is fabulously sheepy:

And I think the gray/brown color I picked will go with just about everything and anything.



I reworked the ribbing b/c for whatever reason at the size I’m knitting the cables didn’t flow perfectly out of the ribbing. And that will NOT do. I like things to line up perfectly:

Also now that I’m not working as an architect anymore knitting is the only place to get my OCD on.

But other than that so far so good. It seems to be the perfect fall knit. Yay for bulky yarn!

Destination Yarn Update

So there’s been lots going on with this little yarn business I started. Some of the highlights:

1.) I have a group on Ravelry! It’s here: Destination Yarns. Check it out for special offers or just to see pictures of what other people have knit. Dawn’s Copenhagen Socks (rav link here) are particularly beautiful.

2.) You can now find Destination Yarn at My Sister’s Whimsy in Versailles, Ohio! I’ve been working with Teresa and Cynthia to create a colorway for their Grand Opening. The suggested naming it “Annie Oakley” since she is from Drake County. I’ve never dyed a person before. So I started with images of vintage posters:

And some photographs of her:

From that I had a clear picture of what I wanted: muted but not pastel (she does NOT strike me as a pastel kindof girl), the bright reddish peaches of the posters w/o veering too far into pink, and the powder blue that seems to be her signature color. To that I added a base of brown and sepia:

When Matt (my toughest critic. Living with another designer is both good and bad) saw it he said “It’s old-timey without being old fashioned. I didn’t even know that colors could be old-timey!”

I love it.


And it’s exclusively available through My Sister’s Whimsy.

3.) Kathy of the yahoo group Whenever Again has designed a beautiful sock of my yarn:


It is knit out of the semi-solid Amber Waves of Grain.


I think the pattern is stunning.


She is going to sell kits with both pattern and yarn through the yahoo group for a limited time starting in November. I'll be setting up a knit along complete with prizes through the Destination Yarn Ravelry group soon!

So yeah – not to turn this blog only into a “buy my stuff” blog… but I was pretty excited about all of that. Regular old knitting project not in Destination Yarn coming soon. I love fall!

6 Months

So yesterday was our little girl’s six month birthday.

And I’m having troubles finding the words.

Watching her go from this tiny little creature who couldn’t even hold up her own head (or even realize she had a head) to this:

Well. It’s been pretty amazing.


She’s turned into this fun little person with her own personality. She’s a studier who watches things intently before she decides how to react. You can just see the wheels turning – she’s constantly trying to figure things out:


She has a clear sense of humor – and certain things just crack her up. Like when the baby in the mirror wears a hat:

Funniest thing ever.

Or when mommy wears glasses. That’s pretty hilarious, too.

And her likes and dislikes are also abundantly clear. Likes: Yellow, watching people do things, the lazy river during swim class, peaches, Big Bird, and sitting. Dislikes: Hats, cookie monster, things touching her feet, standing, squash, and her Uncle Andy (just kidding.)

She LOVES her daddy. And her doggie. They are the best.

Also can I just mention that it’s extremely difficult to get a good photo of a 6 month old? She’s CONSTANTLY in motion. As Matt put it – she looks like a muppet when she’s sitting. Flopping all about. So most of my photos are blurry:

and more than a few look like this:


And I have quite a few series like this one:

Sitting is fun!

Uh Oh…

FLOP!

So yeah…Life is a lot different than I pictured it would be a year ago. Different, but also pretty wonderful.

my new fav picture ever.

Boppy Wars

Are you ready for some football knitting?

So kickoff on football season is one week from today and we are getting EXCITED. Matt has been watching all of the coverage he can get his hands on, our fantasy teams are set, and even the baby is good to go:

My mom knit the sweater for her.

Don’t the little football buttons just make it!



My fantasy team is looking good this year… although the competition is going to be stiff this season. We took things seriously and there were hardly any draft decisions made based on player hotness:

Pic from my draft. Funtimes were had.

Although Tony Romo went pretty late since noone wanted him on their team after what he did to Jessica.

So while I’m not really in the business of dying sports team yarns I got a bit caught up in the frenzy and this happened:



And I couldn’t very well dye Sixburgh without also dying Believeland:

EDITED TO ADD: I sold out of Believeland! Thanks guys! I actually had one skein that wasn't listed because I was saving it for me. So since there was demand I listed it this morning. It's the last one, though!



Because although I agreed to raise my child as a Steelers fan (in exchange for Matt agreeing to raise her Catholic. Marriage is all about the compromises) I do still know where I came from.

And since I was on a roll I had to dye the one place that I think should def be represented by its team colors:


Those fans are the most insane I’ve ever encountered. (here’s the post where I tailgated like a Buckeye, and the one with the Ohio State Superfan Hat pattern)

And since I was just in northern Wisconsin for vacation (unblogged) I figured I may as well do a colorway for the cheeseheads, too.


The cool thing about that one is that the landscape matches their team colors. So it works both ways.

Anways I had fun doing this but not enough fun to make this a part of my regularly scheduled programming. So these colorways are limited edition. I’ve listed what I have and when they are gone, they’re gone. Knit something fun for the superfan in your life - available at Destination Yarn!

My only question now is do I use this yarn to knit for Matt or the baby?

It’s ok mommy, I have enough Steelers gear. See how cute this bib is?


I wonder what it tastes like...

Food Glorious Food

So the big development round these parts lately is food. At her 4 month appointment my pediatrician said that some kids come in at six months exclusively breast/formula fed, while others are eating 3 solid meals a day. Both are fine. So as with anything even remotely ambiguous in parenting that means that people have OPINIONS. When to start it, what to start, how much to give… Lots of things to fight about. So I over googled and became convinced that I would screw her up for life if I choose poorly. Right. So we decided to follow the #1 rule in parenting: Trust your instinct.

The “Yeah. She’s ready” moment came appropriately enough at the Feast.

Yes. She was out waaaay past her bedtime. But that’s another parenting topic for another day.

She tried to grab and eat anything and everything that Matt was eating. No question about it she wanted some delicious pasta for herself.

So the next day* we did this:

What the….

Tastes like the boob food…

But it’s solid…


very curious...

Starting out she just got rice cereal which was pretty tough on her system.** After a few days we added a feeding of oat cereal and that helped things out. Her absolute fav though?

Oat cereal mixed with pear juice*** That is just delicious!

So now that she’s gotten the hang of things and her system is used to solids it’s time to branch out. I think we’re going to get crazy and try sweet potatoes tonight. Can’t wait to see what she thinks!

What is happening in that high chair? This is very interesting...

Edited to Add:

Sweet Potatoes were a huge success!!!

Now I just have to wait 3 days and we can try... carrots? Perhaps Bananas? So many possibilities!

*one day before her 5 month birthday in case you are in the obsessive googling mode, too. I think I probably should have started her a bit earlier, though. Right as we started trying the food thing she stopped sleeping through the night. She was waking up hungry – like screaming her head off trying to latch on through my shirt hungry – every night. So we added a second cereal feeding in quicker than we should have. It worked instantly. The night we added the extra cereal she went back to sleeping through and waking up her happy self. So don’t listen to the lactivist bullshit that says that food won’t help and that you should still only breastfeed even if your kid is waking up screaming hungry. It TOTALLY solved that problem for us.

**You know what’s fun? Having a kid that doesn’t poop for 5 days. Yeah. She wasn’t even a baby anymore at that point. She was a bomb that could blow at any moment.

**OOOOH the juice thing. Yes. I give my child juice. Which according to the google OMFG you’re giving your kid SUGAR! CHILDHOOD OBESITY! You FAIL! Uh huh. I’m sorry but I’d rather have a kid that gets ¼ oz of juice a day than one who is crying because she’s so constipated. Not going down that road ever again. And you know what I’m sure causes way more cases of obesity than a few drops of juice? Not understanding the concept of moderation.