Elliot’s sweater

Some of you may remember that one of my sisters had her fourth and final baby in early January.  I had not seen Elliot until 2 weeks ago.  I had to fly in to Nashville for my nuero appointment and got to stay with Allison, Sam and all the kids.  We had a great time.   The two oldest, Chance and Emmy are turning out beautifully.  They are sweet and well mannered and quite handsome too!  Chance is 12 and Emmy is 10.  They are both a great help with the two little one.  The next up is Evans.  She is almost 3and a delight. I got several great big, heartbreakingly sweet hugs from Evans….another keeper!  And then there is little Elliot.  I have to say…she’s perfect. 

OK…back to the post, I got a little sidetracked.  So, I had started a Debbie Bliss sweater.  It was cabled and seed stitched.  I love cables, hate seed stitch.  I almost finished the back, but I just did not want to finish it.  So, the Sunday before I left to go to Nashville I bought some pink tweed yarn from Crazy Girl and busted out Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Almanac.  I sis the two-needle baby sweater….some call it the gull lace sweater.  I cast on Sunday evening.  I finished the yoke on Monday evening, started the lace on Tuesday and split for the sleeves before getting to the airport.  I knit like a maniac through two flights and a delay.  By the time I got to Allison’s house, I had knit to about an inch and a half under the arms.  This was Tuesday night. On Wednesday I got to within an inch of the bottom.  On Thursday morning I finished the border, seemed the sleeves weaved in the ends.  As soon as the ends were woven, we left for the airport….talk about the nick of time!  I cannot say enough good things about the pattern.  It was quick and easy once digested.  As with all of Zimmerman’s patterns, there is something of a leap of faith aspect.  I really believe that knitting was so much a part of her that it was intuitive.  I also think that she felt it should be intuitive to all of us and she would just help us hurry and get to that stage.  She is certainly hurrying me right along!

I think Allison likes the sweater and baby Elliot, well she seemed happy!  Here’s the photos Allison took of Elliot and the sweater. 

Finished Objects….hats

I finished two hats recently.  The first was my favorite baby hat for little girls.  It’s a free pattern.  I’ve made several and have been super happy each time.  Here’s the link.  http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/lace-beanie.html    I made one for Grey’s teacher.  One of the other mom’s had a baby shower for her a week ago this past Sunday.  I knit the hat in one evening and finished early that morning.  I made it from an incredible yarn I got in an exchange. The yarn is called Sublime and ……yes, it is.  Here’s a link.  The color is waterleaf.  http://www.herrschners.com/products/sku-711059__id-1925.html  It is a merino and not superwash.  But, she was good with that and since it is a hat I figured she would not have to launder it too often.  I washed it in Soak before blocking it and it smelled heavenly.  She loved it.  Here are the pics…….

The second hat is for a swap recipient.  I have to mail it tomorrow.  I can go ahead and post because she does not know who her swap partner is.  I am so worried.  I love the hat.  I think it’s funky, the color is great and it is made from Malabridgio, which is softer than soft.  I checked her profile out on Ravelry and she really seemed like someone who would go for something a little out of the ordinary……please pray with me that I’m right because this hat was NOT the easiest thing I have ever knitted.  It is a Woollywormhead hat.   The construction is so interesting.  Most hats I have knitted have been in the round.  I enjoy this because they are pretty quick and require little purling.  The WW hats are knit flat using short rows with decorative wrap and turns in conjunction with the pattern.  The hats are started with a provisional cast on and then kitchnered together to produce a seamless hat.  I was so intrigued by this method that I knit most of it over the course of less than a week.  Then I got burned out…I just wanted it done.  I got interested again right before I finished and will certainly make more of her hats but not under a deadline.  I did end up with a silver dollar sized hole at the top after it was grafted, so I picked stitches along the edge and knit a little decorative decrease until I could close it up like a regular in the round hat.   In the end I really like that little detail!  Please forgive the pictures.  It is so hard to get a decent picture of a hat when you are using yourself as the hat model!  I would have used one of the girls, but their heads were too small! 

By the way here is the link for the hats   http://www.woollywormhead.com/

The coolest thing is that she has self published an entire book of her cool hats using Lulu.  You can order it print on demand basically or you can do as I did and pay for the PDF version which is delivered immediately.  The book is very high quality and a steal at something like $25 or so.

Slippers

On the knitting front…I finished Mycah’s slippers.  She insisted on non-matching star buttons. I just wanted to state for the record, they were not my choice, but the slippers were made for her, so I let it be.  She was pretty pleased but they do not stay on.  I think they may need a bit of elastic at the heel.  These are sized up from the Sarrtje’s baby booties I did for the Preemie Project.  Grey has requested a pair as well.  I will actually have to work to figure these out because her foot is much larger and I cannot just go up to a heavier yarn and larger needle like I did for Mycah.

Grey has not been left out in the cold though…Meme (my momma) sent her a pair of knitted slippers from TN.  Momma made them in a bright multi-colored yarn.  They are so cute.  Grey had pj day at school a few weeks ago and she had to wear them.  Of course, she stepped in something she described as “throw-up” and brought them home in a plastic bag.  The good news is that they washed and dried beautifully.  No harm, no foul and all of her classmates got to see them!

I currently have Elliot’s little sweater on the needles and a hat for the tops and pots swap on Ravelry.  I’m pretty excited about both but dying to cast on for a shawl from the new IK.   http://www.interweaveknits.com/galleries/bonus/spring-2008/Cobweb-Lace-Stole.asp   It is incredible to say the least.  I have some alpaca with a twist in a soft grey that I got from a new buddy I made at Knitty and who is also on Ravelry.  Here’s her blog…she’s pretty cool.    http://knittybaby.blogspot.com/   Check her out.  I got some lovely sock yarns too.  SO, I’m dying to cast on socks, as well.  There just is not enough time in the day to knit as much as I want, work, cook, clean and keep up with a couple of crazy girls.  Whoops…forgot the hubby…yeah he needs a little attention too!

Knitting for Peace, additional comment

One of the most obvious (to me) things that I left out of my last post on the Knitting for Peace book, is that the peace she speaks of serves not only the recipients.  The peace that is gained from dong good in the world and the chance for the quiet mind that I get when knitting is a blessing to me.  So, my gift to another actually results in a gift to myself.  So, charity knitting is an amazing circle of blessings that I highly recommend. 

Just my two cents, for what it’s worth.

Catching up

I actually have a couple of posts that I need to write, but just haven’t gotten around to it….mainly because I hate uploading photos to this thing.  WordPress doesn’t really make the photo part very easy. 

Anyway, I met Betty Christiansen of Knitting for Peacefame a little over a week ago.  I attended the Preemie Project Craft-A-Thon at the U of Iowa Hospital.  I went after work thinking I would take Grey with me and we would sit and knit a bit.  I wanted her to see that something as simple and as enjoyable as knitting can be a way of giving to others.  She got to see the booties I made and gave to the project.  It gave me a chance to talk to her a bit about doing for others….something I think is vital in the development of a person’s character.  Anyway, we show up and find about 200-300 girls scouts learning to knit.  It was part fo the day.  This gave girls scouts an opportunity to learn about the project and how to knot.  Hopefully many of these young women will do some service work for this project.  Anyway, I found Anne from Crazy Girl in the middle of about 10-12 girls being barraged with questions.  She looked like she needed a hand so I sat down and offered to help.   Grey and I wound up with 4-5 girls being our best buddies for the rest of the night.  Once grey had her fill Henry picked her up.  Then the girls scouts left. At the end of the night Betty Christiansen spoke about the joys of knitting for people you don’t know.  Her book is filled with about 15 different groups who are bringing comfort to people around the block or around the world one stitch at a time.  I’m such a dweeb I had to have my picture taken with her.  I guess she si my first knitting celebrity.  It’s funny, I have no desire to meet famous people unless I think they have something to say.  She does have something to say, so I was happy to meet her.  The Preemie Project Link is on my side bar….check it out.  

In other knitting news…my hubby has completed his first knitted object.  I have photographic evidence to support this statement!  It is below.  Henry had a project in books arts for a mobius.  It could be made out of any material he chose.  For some reason he decided to go for the yarn and needles.  The photo below is his first attempt.  It did not felt well and was so big that you could not really read it as a mobius.  He is wearing the skinny mobius wrapped twice around his neck as a muffler, though.  He cast on a second time and was much more successful.  He knitted the mobius in a tweed charcoal color cascade wool.  We felted it severely and then wrote family in a continuous script around the and in the mobius.  It was very nice. He felt the metaphor for a family being knit together and eternal was just what he needed in his mobius.  My husband is amazing.  I loved teaching him to knit and it made me feel like my knitting had some value to him. 

On the acupuncture front, I had my second session last Wednesday.  She tapped one spot on my forehead that sent pain shooting down my face.  She had to take it out because I could not take it.  She said that that spot held a lot of stress.  I don’t know about that, but I did not care for it.  Anyway, the rest of the session was ok. I left feeling exhausted again.  My arms started hurting that evening.  Thursday I felt like hell. My arms were so sore I did not want to knit and I could barely function.  I am not so sure that acupuncture is for me.  I will keep at it for another four visits because I told myself I would.  I just hope it gets better. 

2×2

Two finished objects to show off and two more works in progress to keep me honest!

First and best………taa-daa:

Lori’s stole is complete.  I am packing it up and it will be arriving in Georgia shortly. I started this stole in June for a going away present when I found out that Lori was taking a job at Brendnau. http://www.brenau.edu/   I was pretty heart broken and wanted to give her something special.  I chose purple because it is one of her favorite colors.  I chose lace because she was moving to Georgia and Lord knows…you don’t need alpaca cabled scarves down there.  I chose the pattern, Kimono Shawl from Folk Shawls, because I thought it was almost as beautiful as Lori.  I hope she likes it.

stole.jpg    stole2.jpg

Sorry about the titles…somebody needs to help a girl out on the thumbnails. 

Anyway,  the second FO is another pair of fetchings from Knitty.com.  Fingerless gloves, you either love them or you hate them.  I love them.  This pair is for Mycah’s lead teacher, Miss Kim.  I just taught her how to knit, sort of.  I gave her yarn and needles, cast on for her, showed her two stitches and let her borrow a book.  Let me say that I just saw her 12 inch scarf…she’s moving right along.  She is so thrilled she can barely stand it.  Yes, not only do I love to knit, give knitted items and teach people to knit….I also like them to give them enough of the taste to get them totally addicted to the crac…er, yarn and needles.   Without further ado…yet another pair of Fetching:

Now, on to the works in progress.  The first is the Cable and Seed Stitch Cardigan from Debbie Bliss.   The little sweater is going to be great.  It is in DB’s cotton/angora blend.  It si so soft, it’s ridiculous.   This is the back.  Since the photo was taken, I have doubled the length and am about to finish the back.  I have to get serious on this, Elliot will be in high school before I finish at the rate I’m going.  Just kidding.  It only represents a few hours, baby things are so quick.  I also have one to knit for Aubrey, my other new niece.  I also plan on making a little something for Grey’s teacher.  She is about to have a little girl.

Lastly…I’m running out of steam here, folks….Noro Mitts.  This is a Blue Sky Alpaca pattern in Noro Silk Lite.  I have stayed away from Noro because it is SCRATCHY.  I know, this is akin to blasphemy in knitting circles, but everything I have picked up felt like burlap.  I found this Silk at Crazy Girl Yarn Shop in Coralville, Iowa.  There should be a link on the sidebar.  Anne was knitting the Blue Sky pattern in some buttery Blue Sky Alpaca and I thought that the Noro would look great in the pattern and it felt so much better than any I had fondled.  I knit this one for the shop and will make a pair for myself.  As you can see, I have the one on and I did not go into skin shock or anything, but it is a little tough on the skin.  I’m a real wimp when it comes to texture, but the colors are beautiful  I plan on doing a little work on the fiber to see if I can soften it up.  One thing you will not see on my pair is that damned ruffle.  I am sure that anyone who knows me is going WTF? Ruffles…Dianne….right.

I’m crashing and burning…time for bed.  Happy knitting!

Accupuncture

Yeah…I did it.  I decided to try some alternative medicine as a complement (not replacement momma) to help with some of the MS crap.  I know, I never mention the monster here, not sure why.  Anywho, I have been fighting fatigue and the weight gain that seems to go with it as well as a ridiculous oversensitivity to heat.  So, I got the nerve to finally go for it.  I saw a great woman, Danialia, today.  She is younger than me (go figure), calm and sensitive.  I told her I was a little nervous, so she put a needle right into the crown of my head.  It literally felt like I melted into the table.  The needles were almost imperceptible.  Henry quizzed me to the nth degree when I came back, but I didn’t know what to tell him.  I feel pretty good, but really tired.  It’s funny, I feel tired in a different way than before and I certainly can’t explain that for those of you who were planning on asking.  I will say that my forearms are so sore that I don’t want to knit and I am not sure about typing.  I am going to give this a real try.  I am committing to myself that I will try this once a week for six weeks.  I am also going to start my calcium, vitamin d and the biggy B12 (terribly low) for this same period.  I am also going to try the fish oil again.  I am hoping that doing something is better than the nothing I seem to be doing now.  Maybe since I said it in a public way I will feel responsible for sticking to my plan…..wish me luck!

Baby Elliot

Here she is!  This is my sister, Allison’s, fourth child…the third girl.  Poor Chance, the only boy and oldest child, is severely outnumbered at this point.  Welcome to the world sweet girl!

My first girl

I am going to indulge myself in another walk down memory lane.  So, if you are looking for knitting…..today is not the day.

My first girl, Grey, turned six today.  We all spent the day at the Children’s Museum playing and playing and playing.  We had the best day in a long time.  No deadlines, no place to be, nothing but focus on having a good time and celebrating Grey.

Most of you who read my blog know Grey well.  But, some of you may not.  Grey is very in touch with other people’s feelings, she is lively and curious.  She is sweet and spends a good deal of her time in the clouds talking to fairies, her grandmother (who passed well before she was ever born), her dead cats and really anyone or anything she might think should give a listen. 

I was thinking about the day she was born all day today.  She was a week or more late and I was desperate to have her.  I had been to the doc that Friday and he said that he would schedule my induction for the next week because there was no way I would go on my own.  I cried all the way home.  I had gained 55 pounds and was miserable.  I was so miserable, I stopped at Walgreens and bought Castor oil.  I drank it at a stop light and almost threw up.  Any way, we had supper club that night at Lori’s house.  (When we lived in the boro’, we were blessed with many friends who got together once a month for Friday night dinner.)  They all knew I was miserable, so everyone of them gathered around and did a labor dance for me.  I was in the center of the dance and I laughed so hard I thought I would have Grey right there.   Henry and I eventually left to go to another party.  I couldn’t take it so I left him there and went home.  Within a few hours I was calling to get him home.  By noon on Saturday Grey was here. 

Meeting Grey was the most inexplicable experience of my life.  All I could think of was that the little thing I held in my arms was made by me and Henry out of some random cells.  She was and still is a miracle. 

God, I could not be happier or more proud.  Raven Grey, I love you.

Happy Birthday to my Hubby

Henry’s birthday is today.  I kind of suck…I hadn’t done anything really.  I made a decent dinner and I bought him a cheesecake at this amazing bakery in town.  Cheesecake is his favorite dessert. 

He has been able to kind of hang out and take it easy since school won’t be in for another week and a half…so I am very happy about that.  I’m also incredibly happy that I have been lucky enough to share my life with him for the past 14 or so years and that he gave me two beautiful girls.  He is probably the best-hearted man I have ever known.  He is kind, strong, a great father and a loving husband.  He is forgiving, slow to anger, but fiercely protective of “his girls.”  This is the day we get to celebrate having him here.  I think there is no better reason to celebrate in the world.  Henry, we love you!  Happy Birthday!