What happened to July?

Sorry it's been so long. July turned out to be a crazy month. I filled in at the Hutch in my old group for vacationers. It took a couple of years to really understand how much employer paid benefits mean to a family budget. I still have every intention to pursue my landscape design work, but I'm hoping to get back at my old job at half-time so that I can get those beni-s again. Of course they are in a hiring freeze right now so I'm waiting; in the meantime I'm doing on call hours. Working basically full time and juggling the day-care stuff meant very little time devoted to blog/knitting/gardening, etc. Especially since every waking moment was spent getting our trailer ready for it's first trip.

We had made reservations last November to go to our favorite Washington coast spot, Grayland Beach State Park. That put a time crunch to get the Airstream ready to go! (If you don't know the backstory, please go to the trailer link...) We were up into the wee hours the week before the trip doing everything we could to get the place ship shape.

And then we got to do this:

















Needless to say we had a great time!



And now? I've finished my Leyburn socks. So yummy. A little big, but totally wearable. I haven't taken photos of them because they're packed in my suitcase. I'm heading down to Portland tonight for Sock Summit! I'm taking a class from the Yarn Harlot, so maybe she'll take a picture of my socks when I show them to her on Saturday. I'll fill you in on all of it when I get back.

And it fits!

The boys can't believe it, and neither can I.



My cardigan is not only complete, but it fits! I completed the knitting on Saturday and the little amount of finishing on Sunday (weave in ends, graft armholes). I did a 15 minute soak in wool wash (Kookaburra) and laid it out flat on the carpet in my room. By Monday morning it was almost dry, so I carefully laid it on the sweater rack in my dryer and gave it a little heat. Perfect. I waited to sew the buttons on until it was blocked and that seemed to work out great.

I recruited our fledgling photographer (Emmett) to take a couple of pictures, and this was the best shot:



Just kidding. The light was bad and I looked awful. I tried again with the self-timer and the result was only barely acceptable. I'll hopefully enlist Ryan and the weather (it's been SERIOUSLY nasty in Seattle this week) to get some more flattering shots this weekend. I cropped one so that I could share:



I also did a preemptive strike on the bottom hem to keep it from folding inward and upward. It involved a crochet hook and more yarn. I'll give details once I can take a detail shot.

Other than that the week has been spent entertaining boys with dribbling noses and ear infections (Emmett, but not Leon). Here's a good moment from Monday:



As for what I'm knitting now; I've picked Ryan's socks back up and will dedicate myself to them until completion. (I swear.) I'm knitting heel flaps now. Yippee!

A Sweater for Myself

I've got a lot to show you today. First is the sweater:



I'm just a couple of rows shy of the arm-hole and boy am I excited! This is only my second sweater knit for me and I'm thrilled with how quickly its come together. I'm loving everything about it: the color, yarn, pattern, speed, you name it, I probably like it.



I am also pleased with the cables. There are 2: one on each edge of the cardigan. I have some experience with cables, but this "double fantasy" cable is my most complicated one to date.

The whole sweater is going to need a good blocking when I'm done, and all the sloppiness will (hopefully!) disappear. I am especially concerned about the 2x2 ribbing at the bottom edge. It folds up pretty determinedly toward the inside. Blocking will fix, right?



Pattern: Asymmetrical Cabled Cardigan by Yahaira Ferreira
Yarn: Jamieson's Shetland Heather in Seabright 1010
Needles: 5.5mm Addi lace 80mm
Size: 39 (I hope for 0 ease with my nursing mommy cup size.)

Speaking of kids, here's a couple of pictures of both of my big guys hanging out on the couch last week:





Get outta the picture, Emmett, this is all about me.

Oh, and guess what we started this week?



Mmm mmm! Solid foods! We've tried two so far, rice cereal (which got a big thumbs down) and sweet potato. (Yummy!) Like with Emmett, we'll be introducing one new food every 5 days; so if Leon has any sensitivities, we'll know what it is right away. Next up: avocado, peas, bananas?

Sun is out and the baby is hungry, gotta go!

Seed-Stitch Jacket

Are you ready for cute? I mean, are you READY? 'Cause I'm about to hit you with some serious cute.



See what I mean?

We had the reprieve from wetness on Sunday and that was the last Seattle has seen of the sun. As a result, Leon's seed-stitch jacket took two days and a trip on the dryer sweater rack before it was finally dry. Oh, but today I made him wear it all over, finally taking it off around 2 when I laid him down for a nap.



Stats:

Seed-Stitch Baby Jacket by Elinor Brown
Yarn: Lamb's Pride Worsted by Brown Sheep in "blue heirloom"
Needles: US 5 (3.75mm) circular needles
Mods: I knit the sleeves in the round, 2-at-a-time.
Additional photos on my Ravelry project page.

I need to research some optional cast off methods. When I cast off the sleeves, I thought I did it loosely, but compared to the stretch of the seed-stitch fabric, it was tight. It made setting in the sleeves a bit hairy, but the results are still good. I love the finished results.



And now that I've finished, I've cast on a sweater for me! Yippee! I've got no progress photo to show you, but I'll lay out a couple of dets: I'm using some lovely Jamieson's Shetland Heather in a gorgeous color called "Seabright." Yummy. And the pattern? Check out the designer's page. Looks fun, huh?

As a send off, check out this shot of what Emmett got to do this morning...



Yea Whirligig!

Growing

I'm back. I've been intending to blog for some time now, but have been waiting for one of two things to happen: plant some of my vegetable garden or finish Leon's jacket. Can you guess which one got done?

Here in Seattle we have had what seems to be a prolonged stretch of gray and wet. Ha ha, you say, isn't Seattle always like that? We'll yes, it can be both gray and wet quite often, but we do usually get a break of at least dry and sometimes dry and sunny in March. (We are grateful and awed when the holy trinity of weather happens in March: dry, sunny and WARM.) Well, on Friday the wet held off long enough to finally motivate me get to the garden soil and start some seeds for the flower and vegetable beds.



For vegetables I've started salad greens, cauliflower, and watermelons. Last year I had no luck with my watermelon starts; this year I plan on direct sowing as well and see which way works better. Emmett would LOVE some home-grown watermelons! I plan on purchasing 2 tomato plants and a pepper plant at the farmer's market sometime in May. Since I don't have space to grow several tomatoes in multiple varieties, its actually more cost effective to buy 1 each of two types already started; so that's how we'll go this year.

I stopped by West Seattle Nursery this week and was able to buy seed potatoes, onion sets, as well as starts for broccoli, brussel sprouts, and cabbage. Friday I got the potatoes in the ground: 4 plants of a type called Russian banana. I've never grown potatoes before, so it should be a big learning curve to figure out how to do it. I think Emmett will love digging them up, though.

After that, the rain started back up and didn't let up all Friday through Saturday. Ugh. I think we saw 37 F midday on Saturday, which seemed so cold! But this morning, yippee, the sun was out. Ryan and I practically ran outside to get going. (Thanks to Grandma for being here and watching the boys.) Ryan and I first got a new raised bed installed and ready for drip irrigation. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough garden soil to fill the bed.



Later on in the day, Ryan brought home enough soil to fill it. Since it is in a pretty shady spot in our vegetable terrace, I plan on using this new bed as our lettuce bed. We were also able to get the onions, b.sprouts, broccoli, and cabbage planted. I'm going to try my best this season to really keep things moving in the garden so that as crops finish out (like all I planted today), I'll get new things in the ground. If the rain continues to hold off and all things work to my favor, Emmett and I will get out this week and plant lettuce, carrots, peas and beets.

It feels so good to have the garden started! Now if I can just get to the rest of the garden, because it is a mess.

And lastly, I'm proud to say that Leon's jacket is finished and blocking! I'll write more about it soon; in the interim, here are a couple of teaser photos before it got buttons and a wash.



yummy, yummy toes in sunshine, outside!



my sweet guy.

quick note

to say that Leon slept from 7:15pm to 6am last night. He's been taunting us with these nights of sleep randomly dispersed amongst nights when he wakes up once (usually around 3am). However, this week has been promising: 7-5 one night, 7 to 11 then 11-8 the next night, 7-5 again, and then last night. Let's hope its a trend!