Madeline gets a new sweater

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/55658166@N00/8407005398/" title="I knit Maddie a new sweater by jbmill_2, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8056/8407005398_652564614d.jpg" width="384" height="500" alt="I knit Maddie a new sweater"></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/55658166@N00/8407005022/" title="untitled-4001 by jbmill_2, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8475/8407005022_58afddc49e.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="untitled-4001"></a>

It's the 'Bones and Biscuits' pattern on Ravelry, made with Ella Rae classic heathers (which I got for a steal on clearance).  Maddie hates it, but it sure is adorable on her!

Teaching a boy to knit

The boy wonder wanted to learn to knit "with sticks" today.  (He already has a good grasp of finger knitting).  I pulled out some size 10 straight needles, and took him to a store to choose some bulky yarn.

I tried to teach him the traditional rhyme:

In through the front door 

Out around the back

Peek in the window

Off hops Jack

It made no sense to him.  He struggled with the rhyme, and the hand motions.

So, we made him a new mnemonic, a bit more up his alley:

Stab it in the back,

Strangle it,

Scoop out it's innards,

Then dump the body.

He has completed 30 stitches, with a gleam in his eye and a maniacal grin.  He's off to a fantastic start!

It's been a long time

I lost the mojo for a while, though seem to have found it again.  More on that later.  Here is E's new hat, made of Corriedale, colorway chosen by him.  I think it's darling.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/55658166@N00/8334819146/" title="untitled-3942 by jbmill_2, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8076/8334819146_6c14ef1da5.jpg" width="500" height="364" alt="untitled-3942"></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/55658166@N00/8333759661/" title="untitled-3955 by jbmill_2, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8353/8333759661_4d17bc12de.jpg" width="500" height="381" alt="untitled-3955"></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/55658166@N00/8334815802/" title="untitled-3971 by jbmill_2, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8078/8334815802_6ba91d5386.jpg" width="500" height="463" alt="untitled-3971"></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/55658166@N00/8334821224/" title="untitled-3973 by jbmill_2, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8223/8334821224_7f3bef8569.jpg" width="500" height="284" alt="untitled-3973"></a>

Somehow, we missed Winter

In fact, I am not sure we will even have a Spring. It has been in the solid 80's for a week.

The official harborer of Spring was the arrival of the first month of my Nerd Girl Yarns fiber club subscription. Here she is, in all her glory. I am hoping she motivates me to finish plying the singles I have been staring at on my wheel for a month.

For the record, I really love Nerd Girl Yarns. Probably because I am a fairly nerdy girl.

The braid of fiber came with some stickers. They made me happy.

In other news, I planted my Spring garden last week. Sweet peas, kale, spinach, chard, greens, parsley, lettuces, broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes, and carrots. I also put in grapes and a few blueberries. It seems like every season I wage war on one creature or another. The cover over the garden was to protect the young plants from my enemies the wild rabbits. By wild, I mean completely habituated to humans to the point that my children can nearly pet them. What the netting does not protect the plants from is slugs. I have a series of beer traps set up, and I think Joe is getting a huge kick out of me going outside with a flashlight several times a night to hand pick them off. I am not sure who is winning yet. Probably them.

shawl neck baby cardigan

I have a very sweet, dear friend who is pregnant with her first child (another boy!). I went to graduate school with her, and she is just a wonderful lady. Her mother in law was, ironically enough, the person who first introduced me to weaving as something people could accomplish in their homes.

She and her husband are so special to us, that I wanted to knit her baby a sweater that would be easy-care and as sophisticated as I imagine her entire nursery will be.

Here is what I came up with:

Here is the pattern. It was a quick and easy knit. I did kfab's as the increases, and picked up a few extra stitches under the arms instead of seaming. On the second arm round I knit these extra stitches together with the stitch on either side. I used a cotton acrylic blend, for ease of washing in their household. I have already run it through the washer and dryer, and it came out beautifully with light blocking.

acquisitions

We went to a local maple syrup festival this past weekend, and I was unable to resist this:

What fiber is that, you wonder? Maple Cotton Candy. Delicious, but alas, not spin-able. I was sorely tempted to try.

I did run into the folks from Rooster's Run, who have started phasing out their Shetland sheep in favor of Finnsheep (a hornless breed, which will help prevent them from spending a fortune on fencing repairs). I purchased 4 oz of a finn-shetland cross to try. It has a medium staple, and is quite soft.

I also went ahead and bought 2.5 lbs of the Gotland I had been considering. Given that I spin about 2 oz a week, on average, this pile will take the better part of a year to spin. It sure is lovely though. Though the farm this came from isn't local (Shepherd's Lane in Oregon), her sister is, and raised the lovely Wensleydale I knit up last week. What a small world.

newborn longies

I was probably a little too excited when a friend asked me about cloth diapering. I cloth diapered both of our boys, primarily using fitted diapers with wool covers.

In my overexcitement, I made the expectant parents these:



I didn't have any good soft to the skin gender neutral yarn, so I dyed this (plant material dye, frozen from last year's garden) single ply Uruguay merino for this project. I used my friend Heather's pattern, making them shorts length for the summer due date, and added a little owl cable.