Month: November 2009

A lot going on

For the last year or so, I’ve been living an organized existence where I generally only have one thing on the needles at a time. I have a good 70+ items in my ravelry queue, but I’ve been pretty much finishing one thing completely before starting the next. And then after the pumpkin hat, I lost my knitting vibe and moved on to sewing projects for a bit.

So I don’t know exactly what hit me in the last week or two, but suddenly my knitting looks like this:

Those projects are:

  • (green) A cabled Pembroke vest, size 6 months, for the kiddo. I’m on row 15 of the chart — about a fifth of the way through the back. Initially I was thinking this would be a good Thanksgiving outfit, but I would have to get so little sleep for that to happen that I’ve let go of that goal.

  • (blue) The Yarn Harlot cowl — actual knitting for me!! I’m on row 13 of 61.

  • (brown) Some Saartje bootees. We’re going to a wedding over Thanksgiving, and it seemed to me that it would be nice if H had little shoes to match his outfit. The yarn is Koigu (my first time knitting with it ever! A purchase from our rainy excursion to Bainbridge last weekend), and it’s lovely. Even at 7 st/inch, these are fast, fast. I’m even knitting them in the round so the finishing will be almost nonexistent. The only pity is that I need buttons and don’t have any on hand, so I’ll have to motivate out to the button store at some point this weekend. I’m on row 2 of the second bootee, still need to crochet the loops and weave in two ends on the first guy.

  • (still-skeined yarn) This will be a replacement for the pumpkin hat, which will only be seasonally appropriate for two more weeks (sad). I found a teddy bear hat on Ravelry which isn’t QUITE as cute but comes close. I’m saving this one for our thanksgiving trip back east, since it’s mindless 1×1 ribbing followed by mindless stockinette and everything else I’m working on is lace, cables or row-by-row. But I’ll swatch before we leave so that I can bring the proper needles.

Entertained

The homemade activity gym is a huge hit. In the last week, H has started fussing to be put down (neat!) and can spend ages kicking away and looking around. The addition of toys to admire, talk to, and bat at is a huge plus in his book:

(If you click for the big version, you can see both hands and both feet are just a blur of motion.)

I just used ribbons with slip knots to suspend the toys, and in some cases added little plastic rings from the set Kevin’s parents gave us. It works quite well, and took all of about four minutes to get the toys on the bar — exactly the length project that I seem to have time for. The quilt he’s lying on was a wonderful handmade gift from friends of my parents, and I cut the top bar slightly longer than its width.

It’s amazing how long he’s happy lying there — this morning it was long enough for me to make and eat oatmeal, fold diapers, straighten up a bit, and drink half a cup of coffee before the shine wore off and he was ready for some food and a nap.

Definitely makes life a little bit easier, plus a sky-high adorable factor. 🙂

Grocery store fail

I was so pleased with myself for getting to the grocery store — we had a huge list, including lots of staples, and I managed to get through all of it. H fell asleep on the second to last aisle (typical) so I did a few extra laps — would have done more if it weren’t for the ice cream melting away in the bottom of the cart. Such a pity then to get home and realize that I’d only gotten the coffee 1/3 right…

Breakfast blend? Check. But I managed to pull down grounds instead of beans (oops), and more importantly, who knew that they made half-caf coffee?? Add that to the November day length and steady wind and rain, and it’s been a sleepy afternoon here.

Pembroke vest

Little cabled vests are so appealing, and I loved the Pembroke pattern that came out this summer. The yarn specified in the pattern seemed ideal down to the colorway, so I’ve been vaguely trying to track down a skein for the last few months. Finally found one (and even on sale!) and it arrived in the mail yesterday! Such fun. I cast on in the evening, then thanks to an unusually constant-nursing, no-sleep night managed to make it through fifteen rows of the chart last night.

The yarn is slightly more pastel than I anticipated, but so springy and lovely to work with. I briefly entertained hopes of trying to finish this for our family gathering at Thanksgiving, but I suspect that’s overly ambitious.