Christmas Animals

I am now officially knitting like mad to get everything done by Christmas.

Well, and sewing. The twins are getting a (knit) stuffed animal and a (sewn) cushion apiece. Gregory is getting a cute little dragon, which is all done but the face and the ears and wings.

And maybe horns for the head? I don't know. Right now I'm thinking no horns. (And yes, the arms are crooked. I didn't even notice until I took this picture, grrr. The angle makes it look worse than it is, but I will have to see what I can do about that.) 

And Dominic is getting a polar bear.

Except the face shape turned out a little pointy. Keith and I were laughing last night about how it looked like I was knitting an albino badger. I may undo the grafting and see if I can plump the nose up a bit more with stuffing. 

After that knitting is all done, I may turn back to Christmas stockings. We'll see!

Reading: I zipped through Leviathan and the sequel, Behemoth, and the last book (Goliath) is waiting on my couch. But I've put it on hold while I read Lavinia by Ursula LeGuin, which I am reading with some other lovely ladies who are part of the St. Greg's Pittsburgh Pocket. 

After my crafting has slowed down I am really hoping to post more often here. Life happens and I meant to write about it and then it just keeps moving. Which is a good thing, the moving! But not the not-writing. I need to write. 

Linking up with Ginny's Yarn Along! 

Finished Stocking ... and Steampunk!

Just a quick picture of Michael's finished stocking. It needs to be blocked and then I'll add his name.

Picked up these books from the library today after reading the first on the Kindle. Steampunk WWI alternative history with zepplins and flying whales. Good stuff!

Hoping to start some gift-crafting tonight!

Linking up with Ginny's yarn along.

Stockings

I don't think I'm going to finish stockings for all of our family members by Christmas. Right now I'm aiming for two--it seems a reasonable goal and takes into account other Christmas crafting I want to accomplish. Maybe three since there are three kiddos!

I hit a wall with Acedia & me and turned instead to A Mother's Rule of Life . I can't seem to muster enough focus for non-narrative books right now. It's been very busy around here--in a good way! We've had many birthdays and tomorrow, of course, is Thanksgiving. The snow arrived just in time ... I love snow on Thanksgiving. :)

I have fond memories of it snowing on Thanksgiving when my cousins were visiting, and we went outside and ran around barefoot in it. Because we liked to live on the wild side, you know. ;) 

Michael and I celebrated with some hot cocoa. 

He had a great chocolate goatee afterwards. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Linking up with Ginny's yarn along.

More Stripes!

My blogging companion this afternoon. Gregory thinks he only needs one nap a day now. Yikes. He's pretty happy in that box as I type this. :)

A couple more stripes and I will finish the first sock up. It's coming along a bit more slowly than before. The past two weeks have been just ... kind of crazy. It seems to be all-cranky-all-the-time around here these days! There has been more than one evening when Keith's come home and I've just sort of given up on making dinner. Dominic was sick AND teething, so hopefully that's past!

Still reading Acedia & Me. Parts are narrative memoir, parts are a more intellectual discussion/exploration of acedia. I fly through the narrative parts because that's how I read; with the other chapters I feel the need to slow down more and let it sink in.

A few weeks ago I bought a yarn cupboard from Target. (My yarn is still in the freezer though.) It's not moth-proof, but it is better than open storage. Right now my knitting books and paraphernalia are in there, along with the box of yarn I'm using for my sock. It hasn't been eaten yet. (I did buy moth traps that arrived just today, and will be setting them out this evening.)

(Sometime in the next few weeks I'm going to move that changing table out of the living room. I moved the bag of poopy diapers out of the frame for this picture. You're welcome. ;) )

I'm thinking eventually I will store yarn in ziplocs in the cupboard. It will still be colorful but a little more safe.

Linking up with Ginny's yarn along.

How many battles make a war?

I know you were all dying to hear an update on the moth situation, right? Or maybe just assuming there was no update because I killed all the buggers?

There is, sadly, an update.

First of all, the downstairs freezer still looks like this.

So it's a really good thing we have an extra freezer downstairs. There are also shawls and sweaters shoved into the freezer upstairs, not to mention all the sweaters that went into my mother's chest freezer.


Last month I laundered EVERYTHING in our closet, took all the coats and suits to the drycleaners, scrubbed the HECK out of our closet with Pinesol, and moved the bookshelf that had my yarn and scrubbed the heck out of that whole area. I vacuumed our rugs every day for a few weeks. And I felt okay, because I'd done everything that I could reasonably do.

And then I found a wool cardigan in the bottom of another closet, complete with holes and moth poop.

Deep breaths. It looked like old damage. No larvae or moths or pupae to be seen. Scrub the closet. Wash all the things. Okay. Deep breaths.

Well, I had the vacuum out, so let's clear the dust bunny out of the twins' closet. Which has no wool. Just some shoes, some bins of baby clothes, some duffel bags on the floor.

Except look ... an old forgotten glove on the floor next to the duffel bags.

Freak out. Throw away the glove. Pull out the duffel bags. Find a LIVING MOTH running away from me! VACUUM IT TO DEATH. Scrub! Wash! PANIC! And while we're at it let's throw ALL THE TOWELS AND SHEETS from the linen closet in the washing machine and dump the rest of the Pinesol in there and banish the baby-towel basket to the deck for two weeks!

Because the last time I talked myself out of overreacting apparently I missed the moths.

That was two weeks ago.

Today, I found this.

A fingerless glove that was waiting for its missing mate in a bucket of odds and ends. The little white sandy stuff is either eggs or poop, and the whitish cylinder is either an old pupae or casing. There was a moth living at the bottom of the bucket.

Blargh.

Whenever enough time passes that I feel safe, perhaps up to tackling the yarn in the freezer, I find another place the moths have landed. The hard part is not knowing whether it's new or was simply there all along.

Stripes! Socks! Acedia!

Nothing like a yarn along to get you posting! I have several blog posts in draft stage, half of which will probably be abandoned because I find that post drafts don't age well. Sigh. 

But I started my stripey socks! 

I am using the Fish Lips Kiss heel and have high hopes for a good fit. I have weird feet (short, wide at the toes, with a narrow heel) and really want to learn how to knit socks that fit well. I think I will make the next foot just a few stitches smaller, but otherwise I am pleased with the foot. On to calf shaping!

The book is Acedia & Me by Kathleen Norris. It's been on my to-read list for several years and finally I ordered it from Amazon. I am not very far yet, but it is really good. I think the idea of acedia--a sort of soul-weariness that leads to indifference or laziness--is especially relevant for homemakers, as we take part in work that is very repetitive and made to be undone (cleaning the dishes, washing the laundry, scrubbing the floors, all so that it can be made dirty again). The fact that acedia can express itself in both listlessness--not wanting to do anything--and active escapism I think makes it spiritually lethal for us who are by things that enable both urges at the same time (namely, portals to the internet--smart phones and tablets and the computer in the living room).

I hope to write about this more as I read the book--always an intention I have, seldom fulfilled--but in case I don't get around to it, this book is well worth your time!

(And maybe my blog posting habits are suffering from acedia as well ...)

Hexipuffing Without Fear

Last night was craft night. But all my yarn was in the freezer. I debated pulling out a skein of sock yarn that I was relatively certain was clean, and starting the mate to a sock I found buried in my project bag during my house-wide wool inspection. But it felt like a risk move. 

Luckily a friend came to the rescue. Her sister-in-law entered the cloister recently, leaving behind an entire room full of yarn, beautiful lace shawls, and knitted monsters. The boys and I went over to visit, and I left with my arms full of yarn.

Isn't that beautiful sight? I also filled a large basket! 

I still miss my yarn, and am sad at the thought of losing part of it. But I'm very grateful for this generosity, and the timing was such a blessing. 

There were also a few hexipuffs in the box. I adopted them. :)

Anyway, right now that box is in a plastic storage bin with cedar blocks for company. I took some out for craft night last night, stuffed it and my hexipuff materials into a Ziploc bag, and whipped up a few puffs of my own. The Ziploc is maybe paranoia. Better safe than sorry, right?

I think I am okay with knitting in my own house now. Maybe. As long as the yarn never leaves my lap. 

I am thinking, though, that this yarn will not all be devoted to hexipuffs. The colors all together are a lovely sight, and there is so much of some of them ... maybe a pair of stripey, scrappy knee socks? Wouldn't that be fun?

Infested

Unfortunately I think I can say we have a moth infestation. I found eggs in some of my stash, larvae cases on a shawl, more cases and holes in some sweaters.

I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed right now. All of my yarn is in the freezer. Sweaters are going to be going to my mom's freezer. I'm going to have to take a trip to the laundromat and clean out my closet (which is where Gregory naps) very thoroughly, and will be steaming all handknits in the microwave. And vacuuming very thoroughly.

Typing it all out like that makes it sound somewhat doable, right?

And we're under attack ...

What would be the opposite of a yarn along post? Probably something like this.

That's my husband's scarf that I didn't finish in time for Christmas last year. It's been sitting at the bottom of the basket for months. During naptime this afternoon, I pulled it out and put it back on the needles. I found my place on the chart. I turned on my podcast. I knit a row. I shook the whole thing out onto the couch beside me.

A piece of the end came off in my hand.

I blinked. I held it up. I saw holes. I saw ... mealy stuff. Maybe that milk I'd spilled on it and wiped off--not super thoroughly--shortly before I set the thing aside for the summer?

A worm poked its head out at me. The same shade of blue as the yarn. The beautiful Brooklyn Tweed yarn.

I dropped the scarf. Jumped off the couch. Maybe indulged in a little shriek before venting my horror on Facebook. 

Slowly I did what I needed to, working up the courage for each step. Shoved all the yarn in the basket into the freezer; wait five minutes. Take out all the papers that were in the basket and throw them out in a ziploc bag; wait five minutes. Shove the scarf into a plastic bag and then into the freezer. Wait again. Examine the basket, notice moth bodies in the bottom, set it outside to deal with later. Vacuum, put the vacuum bag into a ziploc and throw it out. 

I vacillated about the scarf itself. The actual damage was all within the first foot of the scarf. The remaining yard or so was hole-free. As it sat in my freezer while I looked at the stash on my shelf, I decided to just throw it all out. Better safe than sorry.

But when I unfurled it onto the deck ... it was a hard decision to make. I cut off the damaged part ... and noticed that the rest of the scarf was peppered with moth corpses. That answered my question.

still in disgrace

 I plan on washing the basket with hot soapy water and letting it sit awhile to make sure nothing else hatches. Because I really, really love this basket. And I'd really, really like to still use it for knitting projects. But I welcome any words of advice or warning.

I will probably throw out the yarn in the freezer, except for a skein I need for a sweater (should I just order another??) and half a skein of Tosh Sock, which I guess I'll have to wash.

And I will look through my entire stash. I am fairly certain it's safe, as it was in another room entirely (and had no milk spilled on it), but I need to check. But not until my husband comes home. And not without a glass of wine.

In the meantime I'll just sit here jumping a mile whenever I imagine I see a flutter in the corner of my vision. 

Liebster Award

My friend Christine tagged me for a Liebster Award! She came up with some pretty cool questions, I think. :) 

1. What's one thing you do really well?

As anyone who's read more than two posts on my blog will know, I am a little obsessed with knitting. And I think I do pretty well! I'd like to knit sweaters, which means getting a handle on gauge--something I ignore whenever possible. Not a very "good knitter" thing to do.

I love knitting lace and knit shawls for myself and my bridesmaids for my wedding. (Although I let myself be bossed by the photographer and my bridesmaids wore their shawls draped down so you couldn't see the design, because it "looked better." Sigh.)

wedding shawl

2. What's your favorite blog post you've written? 

I feel like it was an accomplishment just getting the twins' birth story written! And it's been my most popular post over time. My favorite kinds of posts are those that reflect on something I've been mulling over in relation to my life, like this one ... it takes a little more effort to write those posts, and I feel like if I don't capture them freshly my thoughts feel stale when I try to write them. So I don't finish those posts as often as I'd like, lately. They languish in notes or draft folders. 

3. What is one blog post or article by another writer that has stuck with you for a long time? 

Oh goodness, that's a tough question for me. I find that the posts on this blog always resonate, especially for where I'm at right now in life. And this post meant a lot too.

4. Are you a "cat person" or a "dog person"?

Definitely a dog person. I have met some cats that I like as individuals, and I think they are lovely creatures aesthetically. But as a species, I find that they simply don't love you the same way dogs do.

scholarly schnauzer

Also, cats shed. I grew up with a miniature schnauzer, who didn't. Keith wants a big dog who can run around outside with him and the boys, but they shed too, plus I find them to be kind of dopey. (He said, I love them because they're like the dog in Up. I said, I DON'T like them because they're like the dog in Up!)

I *do* like Doug, I just don't want him living in my house.

 Terriers--including schnauzers--are smart as tacks with a whole lot of personality, and I like that. 

Now that I've probably insulted all pet owners except those who have schnauzers ... let's move on. ;) 

5. How well do you get along with your siblings?

With my paternal grandparents

I was sometimes I bossy older sister, he was sometimes an annoying younger brother ... but we were always good friends and played together a lot. 

We don't get to hang out much lately because he's busy with work and school but everyone's happy when we get to see Uncle Anthony! :) 

6. Do you subscribe to any publications? 

I recently renewed my subscriptions to One Story and Image Journal. I have a free subscription to Dappled Things since I am an editor there, but would definitely pay for it otherwise. We also get Interweave Knits, Bon Appetit, and The Atlantic. 

7. If your house was on fire, and you had time to grab ONE object to save (assume all other people and pets are already out safely), what would it be?

This is a hard one! In the past I would have said my laptop, as it was home to all my writing, but that laptop is now broken and truthfully I'm not sure. Maybe our image of Our Lady of Guadalupe? If I had to escape through the windows of our house I would grab the curtains my great-grandmother embroidered. 

8. Are there any kids' toys that you suspect you might enjoy playing with as much as/more than the kids? 

I love Calico Critters! They remind me of toys I had growing up called Furry Families; they lived in things like shoes and teapots and jelly jars. And I would love dressing up American Girl dolls, but seeing as we have no girls (yet?), we'll see if that comes to pass!

9. What kind of candy will you be handing out for Halloween?

We don't have any trick-or-treaters on our road, which makes me sad. :( Last year I bought Nerds and M&Ms because I like to eat those. Maybe I'll stock up again this year ... just in case. ;)

10. Have you ever seen or experienced something you suspect was supernatural? 

I posted once about my miraculous experience with Our Lady of Guadalupe. 

I've had several experiences with my guardian angel ... one of the life-saving variety, one where my angel covered my ears to preserve my innocence (seriously), and one where he embraced me when I was at one of the loneliest points of my life. The last was on the feast of the Guardian Angels ... such a beautiful, beautiful feast day! 

I've had some moments when I knew I had to pray for people and had it confirmed later ... and I've also had some profound experiences of the Holy Spirit and Jesus in the Eucharist. 

Socks!

It's that time of year ... I am knitting my birthday socks. And once again I am cutting it pretty close. Hoping to finish the first sock today so that I can have three days to knit the second!

The pattern is Cadence, which I've admired for a long time and am enjoying immensely; the yarn is Madeline Tosh in a lovely, rich color called Oxblood; the book is Home by Marilynne Robinson. Her latest is coming out on Tuesday, and I thought I'd get caught up.

Linking up with Ginny's yarn along.

Light

The angle of the light has changed.

It must happen gradually, but every year around this time it seems to happen all of a sudden. One day I'm sitting in the chair by the window with a book, and then I look up and the late morning sun is falling across the books and floorboards in a new way, lighting up a beauty otherwise easily missed.

I've been in something of a funk the past week. Due in no small part, I'm sure, to the whole sleep situation around here. (Last night various babies woke up approximately 9:30,11:30, 12:00, 1:30, 2:30, 4:30, and after that I don't remember. That was particularly bad but if you cut out two or three of those wakings you have my average night. So maybe this post isn't going to make any sense. I am drinking lots of tea. I blather on about sleep too much on my blog. Sorry.)

So yes, tired. But also just discontent. I would look at a room I'd just cleaned and straightened, everything in its place and all in order, which usually brings such a feeling of satisfaction. And I'd think, This is as good as it gets?! For whatever reason home felt shabby and not good enough.

Truly, this is not how I usually feel. I love our home. But the to-do list in my head was wearing me out with its constant, insistent pressure. I felt dull, like any beauty I encountered would just sort of roll off my back with a shrug and a "meh."

I know myself well enough to know that I'd probably get like this no matter my situation in life. If it wasn't motherhood it would be the daily grind of any job. Our sense of beauty is something that has to be tended to, and I haven't been doing a good job of that lately; and life is largely comprised of mundane moments anyway.

But at that light an ache blossomed in me, a familiar autumnal longing. I felt a little more alive, a little more myself. And the mundane was a little more lovely once again, in that angle of the light.

I think I try to wax poetic about the fall too often, but I always feel that this time of year is so full of hope and grace.

And we are picking apples tomorrow*, so I am very excited.

*I keep thinking today is Friday. We are, in fact, picking apples this weekend. :)

Too much paint!

1. Our dining room is no longer pink!

We definitely have more work to do, but oh, what a difference!Hopefully we'll get the new light installed sometime next week, then we'll work on finding new sconces. But we have our dining room back! No more plastic sheeting on the table, no more furniture pushed into the living room, and no more pink! The new color is called Martinique Morn. We're pretty happy with it.


2. I still want to paint a navy/indigo blue sideboard or china cabinet for this room, but Keith thinks if I put a big blue something in here that we'll be limited to palette of blue and green for the whole room because other colors won't go. I'm not sure that I agree ... what do you think?


3. Taking down wallpaper is addictive. I am repressing the urge to get wallpaper out of ALL THE ROOMS. (Blue checked in the twins's room. Dogs in Michael's room. Yellow in the kitchen. Varied shades of pink in the bathrooms). It's near-instant gratification, second only to putting that first coat of paint on a wall. (Least satisfying, to me at least, is that coat of primer. So anti-climactic!)


4. But ... it's also a lot of work. I think we could've knocked this out in a weekend, except we're limited to working while the kids are asleep. It took us a week and a half. When it comes time to paint the kitchen, we might just hire someone else. Our kitchen is HUGE, and there are a lot of nooks and crannies to get wallpaper off/paint on. It would take us at least a month.


5. Speaking of the kitchen. We really do need to redecorate the whole thing eventually, but where do you start? Cabinets? Floor?

Probably the floor, right? It's a bit Dr. Seussical for our tastes. But more importantly, when the previous owner built it in the old garage (which is why our ktichen's so big), she didn't put down any subflooring over the concrete. Which means the kitchen floor is hard, REALLY cold in the winter, and now there's a big crack down the middle of it. But that is a really big project--and definitely not DIY. So we can't just "redo" the floor without it being a huge thing.

And yet if we start to work on other parts of the kitchen first, that floor is still going be there. In a very not-passive way.

BUT. My mother-in-law pointed out that you can pain laminate and tile ... which might be a good temporary solution. It sounds like a lot of work in its own right though ... does anyone have experience with how well painted floors hold up in high-traffic areas?


6. Anyway, when buying paint for the dining room, I brought home a few chips of deep teal. I think I'm going to pain our kitchen block teal and stain the top. Which will make our pink-and-yellow-kitchen even more colorful. ;) But happy colors for the coming winter sounds okay to me.


7. Okay, I think that's enough of that. :) Head over to Jen's for more quick takes!

Geese, Pies, and Feast Days (SQT 21)

1. It feels so good to sit at a computer and type using a regular keyboard. My husband finally fixed some internet issues and set me up an account on the working desktop! No more trying to type on a tablet touch screen! (To those whom I've communicated with up til now, I apologize for the typos. Know that even the effort of typing is a sign of my regard for you. ;) )


2. Now for a very important question: has anyone ever bought a goose? I mean, a goose that's plucked and ready to stick in the oven. I am determined to roast one for Michaelmas this year. But I have a feeling it's not something one picks up at the local Giant Eagle. And I can't really imagine a local butcher having geese in stock either. So if you've ever bought a goose for roasting, let me know how you managed to find it please? :)


3. Speaking of feast days, it was this guy's on Wednesday:

We had buttermilk pie (because I had some I needed to use up in the fridge) and he got to taste it after his twin was in bed.


4. Normally I shower during the twins' morning nap. Dominic woke up yesterday before I had the chance, so I brought him downstairs to play with Michael. I took a three minute shower in the upstairs bathroom and when I got out this face was peering through the door at me.

A huge bruise on his forehead and I-have-no-idea above his lip.

Now he's up those stairs ten times a day. Rather than putting up a baby gate I am trying to teach him to come back down the stairs on his own. We'll see ... the gate may yet go up.


5. Gregory's still just sitting there. Sometimes he tries to will himself forward to no avail.


6. Remember our pink dining room? Now it looks like this.

Yes, that's plain old drywall. But it's glorious. The room is already so much brighter--that pink was eating up all the light!

(You'll notice that the outlets are painted pink ... and we also have to remove wallpaper from the plates.)


7. On that note--I'm off to prime some walls while my husband paints the ceiling!


Linking up at Conversion Diary.

A Tale of Four

Still linking up to the yarn-along, although two days late. I haven't had access to a working computer. Despite the fact that we have three desktops. (And the reason I didn't have access wasn't because any of them were broken or techincally not working, but because they were in various phases of being updated or .... something. The hazards of being married to a computer person. :) )

Anyway.

One of my goals for this month was to knit the boys vests for the colder weather, all from the trusty Milo pattern. I started with Dominic's, picking the 1 year size since his birthday is in November. I knew it would be a bit big, but thought that wasn't a bad thing.

After I got about halfway through the shoulder straps, I thought perhaps I'd actually measure him. His chest was 2 inches smaller than the size I was knitting. In other words two whole sizes off.

And I kept knitting. I wanted it to be a little big, right? (Note to self: a two-inch difference on such a small person is NOT "little.") Well, I finished the shoulder straps, started on the body, and realized the torso of the vest looked quite a bit bigger than the torso of my baby.

And I decided to keep on going. I don't know. I knew I needed to rip it out and start over. But I didn't. By the time I was ready to knit the ribbing I found a post by the pattern designer, Georgie Hallam, who emphatically instructed knitters to measure the child's chest and if they wanted to knit it "bigger" to add length, not width. I knew there was no way Dominic was wearing this vest this winter--it practically could fit Michael--so I should've kept knitting and set it aside for next winter.

And then I bound off. So it's the perfect length for a one-year old but wide enough for a two-year old. (It would maybe reach Michael's belly-button. Maybe.)

I really can't explain this vest. I knew what I was doing wrong and kept doing it all anyway. So at some point I'm going undo the bind-off and make it a little longer. Just maybe not this year ... I don't really want to look at it.

Michael's vest, however, turned out beautifully. Although he kept saying he wanted yellow, and pointed out to me that I had yellow yarn on the shelf. (Not the right weight. Sorry kiddo.) But he likes it anyway.

Soon I will cast on a red vest for Gregory. And I've dug into the stash and found some DK weight to knit a fourth Milo for Dominic, this time in the 9 month size.

In the meantime, I've been taking a break by working on some leaves. Thirty down, eighty (or thereabouts) to go.

Dining Room--Before

Now that I have time to do more than nurse babies and change diapers (our twins just turned nine months old!!), I've been itching to do something about our dining room. Itching. So I hope this "before" will soon be an after--or at least an "in progress."

You may recall that this room is a rather shocking shade of pink. It has a beautiful picture window--the only window that lets you see straight into the house from the road--and in the evening when we're eating dinner the pink literally glows out into the dusk. Neighbors can't help but slow down and gawk at us while they drive by.

We've had paint chips sitting on the desk for a while now, and we've decided to ask Keith's dad to bring us the wallpaper remover next time we see him. So we're hoping to get started on this very soon--if not this weekend, then the next. Ideally, I would like to have everything done by the end of September so we can have friends over for a Michaelmas goose. :)

I imagine that the layout will stay the same for now. It's very bits-and-pieces; furniture that doesn't have a home anywhere else lives in here. Someday I'd like to get a used buffet or china cabinet and refinish it. After we paint, I'm hoping to hang some sort of shelving for my teacups, and put a little more thought into what goes on the walls and where.

Keith really dislikes our chandeliers (we also have one in the living room), so we're going to be taking this one down and replacing it with a drum-shade pendant. Eventually we'll replace the sconces too, or else just get rid of them. And then there's this switch plate. 

It's pretty, but very ... feminine, for a house full of boys. ;) And it really doesn't go with the wallpaper at all ... bronze with pink?

Eventually I think we also need to do something more substantial about the windows, but I'm not sure what. We like the natural light and truthfully, I'm not that concerned about privacy since we live on a very quiet street. But they just look kind of under-dressed, don't they? Or am I overanalyzing? The curtains are from Ikea--inexpensive and very pretty.

Michael has his own little corner. :) Both chairs are cracked from adult men sitting on them, but he doesn't seem to mind!

Knitting for Autumn

I've been on a real leaf-making kick, but yesterday I decided to switch gears and knit up a Milo vest for Dominic. This tweedy blue is quite lovely--it's called Seasalter. Gregory shall get a rust-colored vest ("Cardinal"), and Michael an asparagus green (aptly, "Asparagus"). (I am hoping there is enough green leftover to knit a leaf for his blanket, of course. :) ) All my boys shall have vests to layer in when the weather takes a turn towards cold.

And just some light reading for now. My "to-read" list keeps getting longer and longer, books that I must either buy or find at the library (probably in e-book form as our local library doesn't have a good adult selection at all ... I miss our old library very much). But then I remembered I had this book sitting in the stack on the end table. I am enjoying it.

Linking up with Ginny!

Knitting, crawling, leaves

Taking a break from scrubbing the kitchen floor to blog! It's been bugging me for a looong time, and we're having out-of-town company this weekend which finally gave me enough incentive to tackle it. :) 

This week is the Steel Valley Yarn Crawl. Do you remember those leaves I was knitting, and how I ran out of scraps for them? I decided that the yarn crawl would be a perfect time to buy yarn for Michael's leaf blanket--one skein at each store and I should be set for a while. 

What I didn't count on was how hard it is to build a color palette as you go ... especially if your first five colors came together randomly. Luckily fellow knitters are always ready with opinions about color. :) Here is the palette so far ... what do you think? 

About the green yarn on the far left ... I'm not sure if I want to use it for the blanket, or a Milo vest for one of the boys. It's a (non-super-wash) blend of merino, alpaca, and silk, which is not exactly the best for a blanket on a little boy's bed. 

I am thinking I want one more shade of blue--perhaps a little richer and deeper--maybe a brown, and then several more shades of green. 

Babies like to yarn crawl too! Taken by a friend. :)

(The baby that actually CAN crawl was there too, but he wasn't allowed on the floor. Except that one time I let him on the floor and he ate a tag and forced me to buy the skein of yarn it belonged to. Horrors.)

I'm a bit disappointed that I won't be able to make it to one of the stores. It's over an hour away, and a weekend daytrip is out because of our guest. Sigh. :( Maybe next year!

Linking up with Ginny.