This Week

I mentioned in posts earlier this week that the kids have been sick for the last two weeks and this eek we've been enjoying some good health. Unfortunately it's no longer true. Ellie and Ezra have been sick again for the last few days and I got dragged into it last night as well. Add to this another snow storm expected over  the weekend and the word on my mind is STOP. No more sickies, no more snow. It has all been enough!

On the Needles... 

I shared my most recent finished objects on Wednesday- Baby Vertebrae and Little Scapulae, both for Ellie. I'm still working on the February Baby Sweater for the little niece we are expecting in May/June. I also have my Yearly Socks still going as well as my Shapely Boyfriend Sweater still awaiting 2 sleeves. I'm starting to think the problem with those sleeves is that the project is too large to be portable now and that keeps me from working forward. I'm considering reverse engineering the sleeves and knitting them away from the body and then attaching with a 3 needle bind off.

I read...

I picked up several juvenile novels at the library last week to begin pre-reading for next school year's read alongs. Hatchet made it into my bag, which I haven't read since about 5th grade and now I remember why it's an older elementary read. I also have My side of the Mountain and Julie of the Wolves waiting for me.

Learning all the time… 

I'm prepping for next year already. We start our school year in July and school more or less year round. I like to have everything set and ready to go by May. A great tool for me in planning has been Half A Hundred Acre Wood, which has an excellent collection of supplemental materials to Classical Conversations.

Inspiration...

I've been adding tutorials to my Knitting and Spinning Pinterest board over the last few weeks.

I'm also thinking about the Kids Clothes Week at the end of April- a week earlier and I wouldn't be working... but maybe I can still participate?

Watching (Spoiler Free, of course...)

Doctor Who again, starting with the David Tennant episodes. 10 is my favorite Doctor. :)

This weekend...

We are staying home- between illness and snowstorm, no sense in attempting anything else.

And one more quick little thing... Google Reader is going away soon. I've moved all of my favorites over to Bloglovin. Join me there? Follow my blog with Bloglovin

A Very Baby Yarn Along

{Yarning Along with Ginny this week. Won't you join us?}

It's so nice to be back in this space talking about knitting! After the wasteland that has been the last 2 weeks with sick kids, I'm thankful to be able to get back to some creative work.

I finished up 2 projects last week, both for Ellie. I didn't realize it until I went to link the patterns, but these are both knit.so.quaint patterns. I have really enjoyed the patterns I've knit from this line. The patterns are well written and I love that the designer offers one size for free of each pattern and then spreads the love by offering a different size for free each time, so it's not always the newborn size. After knitting the free version of Vertebrae I bought the pattern for the 3 month-24 month version because I really love the way this wears for my daughter and I've now knit 4 or 5 in a variety of sizes, some for my daughter, some as gifts.

 

This first finished knit is a Baby Vertebrae in the 12-18 month size with a little added length in the body and arms. Ellie has longer arms than most baby patterns call for (I have a similar issue with sweaters for my own size) so I've taken to adding an extra inch or so for her cardigans.

As usual I just got around to weaving the ends in over this past weekend and it has yet to block. I'm hoping for a warmish day sometime soon for photos of her wearing it in decent light, but seeing as how it is snowing at the moment (crazy weird for this time of year here) it may be a little while.

This one is called Little Scapulae, also from knit.so.quaint. I knit this little shrug to go with Ellie's pink Easter dress. I'm hoping to go on a button hunt on Friday or Saturday for the 3 little buttons I need for this cardi. I also have a nice mess of ends to weave. I'm not sure why I always put off the ends weaving since they truly take a very short time and it really isn't very difficult, but I always do. This is a super easy super quick knit. About the time you think you're really getting going you start on the 1x1 ribbing and then you're binding off and then on to the ribbing for the sleeves, the collar and then button bands which are all so quick it's almost silly.

The current knit is a February Baby Sweater by Elizabeth Zimmerman. I've knit a few of these in the past as well and this one is going to the niece we will welcome in May/June. I'm about 2 inches from the end of the body and then it will be time to jump to the sleeves. The lace work on this particular pattern is really simple to memorize and knits up really fast. I'm using Cascade Superwash, one of my favorite yarns for a baby gift. After all, who wants to give a new mother more work to do?


I'm trying to stay ahead of Ellie's growth and get started on her next cardigan, but still trying to decide what to make for her next. I really like the idea of stripes or a bit of color work for a bit of a change from all the solids I've been working with lately. Any suggestions?

10 months

We finally had two very nice days last week and were able to get outside for much of that time. The boys were so very excited to get reacquainted with their bikes and they introduced Ellie to the toddler bike we've had hanging around ever since Ender first used it.

{What are these?}

{Mmmmmm...}

{What?}

{This is what Ellie does if you say "hat" - so cute!}

This Week

The silence in this space is due mostly to us having the icky-sickies around here for the better part of two weeks. We are fortunate to have a great children's urgent care available to us, which little Miss Ellie needed for fluids. Dehydration is such a wicked thing in babies! She is perfectly fine now and playing like nothing happened. I, on the other hand, am *still* trying to catch up on the sleep I missed during this whole debacle.

On the Needles...

I finished Ellie's pink cardigan last week on Tuesday and immediately cast on for a little shrug to wear with her Easter dress. I finished that cute little thing on Tuesday this week (dare I dub Tuesday "finishing day"?) and now I need to actually finish them- as in weaving ends and blocking. I'm trying to decide what to do next. I know I really should buckle down and finish the sleeves on my Shapely Boyfriend cardi, but I don't think that project has marinated long enough yet.

I read...

Very little. I lost my reading mojo a bit because I'm wiped out these days and falling asleep way too soon after the kids go to bed. I have a Brandon Sanderson book on my nightstand to read (recommended by my husband) but haven't gotten more than a few pages in before falling asleep. Totally not a slam against the book- that's just how tired I am.

Just Keep Spinning…

I have done very little spinning. My left shoulder is aggravated again, which always happens at this time of the year. Because of contest and recital prep for all of my students I'm playing and teaching a lot more than usual and my shoulder likes to cause problems for about 6 weeks. When you add in knitting and spinning time, plus all the time that I carry the baby, my shoulder complains. A LOT. 

I stopped spinning as soon as my shoulder started to bother me this time and spent 10 days resting it outside of work commitments. I started back just a little bit on Tuesday night and I'll try again for about 15 minutes tonight. As long as it continues to be stress-free in my shoulder I'll get back to my 15 minutes on most days.

Learning all the time…

We got back to a normal work schedule this week and we're trying a grid for Ender to mark off his work as he does it each day. I've always kept my own copy of our plan and made sure we accomplished everything, but I was hoping that it would help Ender to have some control over the order of his school day. So far it's been a hit. Ezra even asked for his own grid.

In the Kitchen...

I have a new refrigerator! We have been without a working fridge for the last 4 weeks while they tried to repair the old one under the warranty. Last week the repairman declared the fridge "un-repairable" (not my word) and the company is issuing a refund. I've never been so thankful for a warranty!

Watching (Spoiler Free, of course...)

We started watching the new History Channel show The Bible. It definitely skims through the main stories, but so far I think the tone has been respectful. We're looking forward to more.

About the Littles... 

Little Miss Ellie has decided to walk. It was just a little test step at first and we kept telling ourselves it was accidental. but now she's taking 6-8 steps at a time and standing herself up in the middle of the room without holding on. And now I realize we have to actually admit she can walk. Not too long until she's a serious toddler...

Listening...

My Ipod shuffle died a few weeks ago and after complaining often about not being able to listen to podcasts and music while running, I finally bought another one. As Brian said, "I'm not really sure why you waited so long. You use it all the time."

I didn't get to...

A lot of things with all the sickness, but nothing super important. Laundry can always wait, right?

This weekend...

The first soccer game of the season, church, a library trip and if the weather holds up we'll be outside prepping for this year's garden.

This Week

We received our second foot of snow within 5 days (which just doesn't happen around here) so this week has been incredibly strange- the city was pretty much shut down on Tuesday and some of Wednesday if you were in our part of the city. So I taught parts of 2 days and 1 whole day, but it was all very weird since so much of it was rescheduled from the snow days.

Ellie has been sick for a long while and this week got worse with a fever and other fun things- now it is an infection to fight off. The amazing thing to me is that she is still so very good-natured through most of this, still able to play and make the little jokes that babies make. It made her two really bad days this week that much more pronounced- to see our little happy girl so tired and whimpering was quite the sad sight. I'm glad she's on the mend now.

On the Needles...

I almost finished the first sleeve of Ellie's pink Baby Vertebrae cardi last night. A little more work tonight and it will be done and I will be on to the second sleeve. 

My "in my purse" knitting I take everywhere is a Looped Loop cowl in a really pretty mustard yellow.

Once I finish Ellie's cardi I'm going to force myself to focus on the sleeves of my Shapely Boyfriend Cardigan and get those out. If I would have just done those darn sleeves right away I'd be wearing that cardigan right now.

I also may have cast on for a shawl because I was feeling a serious lace itch earlier this week... 

I read...

Mysterious Benedict Society, An Everlasting Meal, and the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. Reading time has been hard to find lately, so I made only the smallest bit of progress this week.

Just Keep Spinning…

I shared my 2nd skein here yesterday and I'm working on that red wool blend still. I have a hard time stopping when I get started spinning this particular fiber. It is really easy for me to say "Just one more hand length" and then find myself saying that 10 times in a row when I *really* need to be getting to bed instead. Part of the enthusiasm is for the fiber, and partly because I can see such a difference in how well my singles are going now. There is still a lot to polish and work on to truly get them consistent, but I'm very pleased with the progress.

I've also been reading a ton on the Ravelry forums and on abbysyarns.com.

Learning all the time…

I worked on a unit based on Roxaboxen to start next week and had a great time putting together a pack of "homework" for Ender for a trip. More on that later!

I didn't get to...

A lot of things with the sick baby this week, but that was okay. Sometimes it just works out that way.

This weekend...

I'm planning to catching up a bit over the weekend on the cleaning and laundry. Exciting, I know. Hopefully Ellie will be feeling well enough that I'll get an evening or two with consecutive hours to spin or knit.