Productivity

Banana French Toast for breakfast. Didn't think to take a picture until the leftovers were tucked away.
Cleaned out the pantry. Maybe this time I'll keep it organized......
Started the toe of the second sock. And plunged into some long awaited sewing. No picture of that sorry.
A performance, it involved her waking up and putting to bed the babies. I'm not sure what the string around the jars was for.
Spinning while listening to Farm Boy.
Veggie extravaganza for dinner. Looking forward to when more than half the potatoes and half the lettuce is local.
Completed with peach cobbler and ice cream. We're down to one more bag of frozen peaches and half a bag of watermelon. Oh sweet summer we are looking forward to you!
I love knowing that this was a productive day for all.

Fast as Ice

It's amazing how fast a sweater can come together when it's knit up on size 11s. The pattern is a slightly modified Iced and the yarn is this stuff I dyed a few months back.

And Done

It is finished. Not what we thought it would be when we started but hey isn't that life. It fits well though; negative ease. Which also seems to keep the alpaca from stretching out and falling to my knees. Oh and is it warm! mmmm...
Can't complain too much about an alpaca sweater that looks good. No one else will know that it isn't what had been envisioned.

Skirt

I just had to share more about this skirt. It's so bright and colorful and full and well Bug. The pattern which is really more of a tutorial so it can be any size, is in Seams to Me by Anna Maria Horner. It looks way more complicated that it is.
Check those ruffles. Too fun. The ribbon above the purple ruffles was found in an antique mall quite a while ago. A bit was used on the book marks The Bug made two Christmases past.
The rest of the fabric is just randomness found all around. I only had enough ribbon for above the purple so I used some of the front/back orange for the bit above the pink.
Bright and cheery just like this little girl.

Saturday and the Letter S

Sweaters: almost one and half of another!
Skirt: Sewn Skirt if you want to go crazy.
Sock: First sock in the Cookie A. Sock Club. Woo!
Sloppy Sandwich: Yum!

{this moment}

Inspired by SouleMama.
{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.

Getting Ticked

I went to sew the sweater together the other day. Shoulder seems fine; nothing is done to the neck hole. Nothing. It just is. I don't like this at all and really wonder who would. The front and back curl out because they are cast offs while the side curls in because it's the side of knitting. Curling is fine if that is the design and it is in this sweater there is curling where the main color is attached to the contrasting color. But in two directions? Really? I plan to pick it up and knit a few rounds then cast off so it all curls the same way.
Back to the sewing. After the shoulders I moved to setting in the sleeves when I realize there is really a big difference between the hole and the cap.
Sweater hole measuring almost 7 inches when it's flattened; hard to do while taking a pictures.
Sleeve cap measuring less than 4 inches. That's a three inch difference. That's huge. Now you know I'll admit when I screw something up. OK sometimes I blame it on the elves. But this has nothing to do with me or the elves. This is totally the pattern. I've reworked how to do the sleeves and am going at it again. Also as you can guess needing three more inches will mean more yarn that was not called for. Really not cool.

Cookies!

We got our first bit from the Cookie A Sock club. The patterns and the recipes! Now to wait of the yarn. Que: Cookies.Molten Dark Chocolate Chunk cookies are a success!

Massachusetts

This month's dishcloth is again a state bringing us to Massachusetts. We lived in this state for a little over a year, though worked in it for two years. The Bug was born in this state though we were living in another by then. It has some of the best and worst memories. It should also be noted that I wasn't knitting back then and Oh could I shoot myself for that; there is some great wool over there.

And then there were three

Two days ago I realized that I only had one thing on the needles; the sweater. That evening I finished it. Well the knitting so nothing on the needles.
Well, we can't have naked needles.
It's hard to get a picture without a cowgirl in it. Can you guess which is for her?

At Knit Group....

I made this cowl. It's scary how fast things come together sometimes..... This is the First Handspun yarn. Lovely warm cowl.

Not Impressed

So the sweater I'm knitting is Supposed to have built in fingerless gloves. Totally part of the charm for me. I've finished the front and the back so naturally I get started on the sleeve. First the pattern tells me to start increasing after six inches. For a normal sleeve this would be fine but with the sleeve starting at mid fingers this makes the increases start at my wrists. Now my wrists happen to be the skinniest part of my arm. I do not think I am unique in this. So I adjust that to make sense and get going. As I knit I realize I'm using all of the last ball of yarn on this one sleeve. Not good. I rip it out, knit the sleeves two at a time in order to get the maximum length while using the most yarn. What should have been mid finger to mid upper arm is now wrist to just below my elbow. Not cool. So now this is just a normal sweater, no cool fingerless gloves built in. Pooooo. I have two extra skeins of the main color and will be using nearly all of it. What's up with that? Not cool patter, not cool.

Too Many Cat Pictures

Last night I sat down to sew some of the scrap blanket squares together. I put the bag with the squares on the couch next to me. Attica came over to explore. She climbed right into the bag. I thought she was just going to check it out and leave. Nope she settled in for the night.
At first she was in totally hiding stealth mode.
Then I had to get a square out; she glared at me and decided I needed watching.
Later in the evening she needed a bit of stretching out.
She stayed in that bag for over two hours. There are around 100 squares in that bag it must make one soft and warm kitty bed!

Ice and Snow and Ice

When it looks like this outside. Picture by The Bug. This is early on in the storm when it was still just sleet and freezing rain. Just...ha!
It's fun to get outside and do this.
It's nice to have a new pair of these.
Angee from Sock Innovations, yarn is Fibra Natura Yummy; which I think I got in Virginia in 2009 but I'm not sure and that bothers me. Really loved the yarn, loved the pattern. For some reason I tightened up quite a bit on the second sock, the right one in the picture. It's noticeably tighter, shorter and the striping in the yarn is even different. Ok it's noticeable to me.
And it's especially important to keep a kid busy with things like this.
Ice storms are the only time Mr. Gnome doesn't drive the scooter into work. This left The Bug and I stuck at home for two days. Fine by me. We really do enjoy our time at home. Above are three coffee filters painted with food coloring. We did puzzles, games, read, listened to stories, cooked. Let me just tell you how nice it is to spin while listening to the Little House on the Prairie Books. We just finished One the Banks of Plum Creek. It was also so inspiring how Ma kept the girls busy during their winter storms; just like we were doing.

Dinner Conversation

Last night The Bug asked daddy if he used a for to eat his tofu when he was a kid. After a good laugh Mr. Gnome told her he hadn't eaten tofu when he was a kid. The Bug is convinced that all kids eat plain tofu.
As adults we ate Curried Scrambled Tofu with Wilted Arugula from Appetite for Reduction. Along with some confetti rice. Oooh and the Arugula is from the Winter Farmers Market. Oh sweet local greens!