The Yarn Harlot

Last night, I went to a book reading by the Yarn Harlot. As expected, I laughed so hard that I cried. Plus, it always helps to hang out with people who don't think you're weird for asking to pet their sweater.

I managed to start the foot of my second green sock. I have dreams of finishing it by the end of the week. We'll see....

I'm pretty tired today, and my annoying allergies have turned into a full-blown cold. Luckily, I had some leftover soup for lunch

Green is the Color....

Of the sweatshirt I've been wearing

Cooler weather has finally settled in

Of the socks that I'm knitting

The August Summer of Socks socks are coming along slowly


Of Little Boy's Cast

He fractured his arm on the school playground by running into a pole

Of the Kitchener Stitch Key Chain my mom gave me

Will come in handy, since I have one of the Summer of Socks socks waiting to be kitchenered

And maybe of me - a little envious of all those attending the NYS Sheep and Wool Festival this weekend!

New Year Resolutions

Since once upon a time, I was a teacher, and before I was a teacher I was a student, and I'm married to a teacher, and I have three kids in school, the start of a fresh new year is truly September. You've probably noticed that there hasn't been a lot of posting on the Mommy+Knitter blog lately, and you've probably noticed that there is even less knitting.

This is an accurate reflection of my life at the moment.

We had a great summer. I've had a spectacularly busy new school year.

1. Little Boy started kindergarten yesterday. He did great. He loves it. I'm sure he'll have a great year socially, and I hope he pays a little attention in class!

2. I signed up to get Flylady daily digests. Over the last year my house has become more and more disorganized, and I needed a plan. Over the last two weeks, things look a lot better, and that's making me a lot calmer.

3. I joined Weight Watchers. Over the last year I've gained about 20 pounds. That means I weight about 25 pounds too much, and the weight has to go. I've looked into WW before, but it was always too expensive. HOWEVER, right now they have a deal where they waive the registration fee and you get two months for the price of one. I've been working the program for one week, and I've lost 2.4 lbs. Yeah me!

4. I also bought a Zumba DVD set, since I really loved the Zumba class I took last spring, and realized a. my husband teaches the same night as the class and b. I need to exercise more than once a week. The set came with a 10-day drop a dress size plan. I'm sure that's contributed to my weight loss, but it also means I'm really stinkin' tired by the end of the day.

5. After dinner, I've been making an effort to spend good time with the kids, shine my kitchen sink (it's a flylady thing), make 4 lunches so they're all ready for the next day, read my Bible, and do assorted other things that just have to get done. You'll notice, knitting isn't anywhere on that list.

I'm hoping that after we settle into the kindergarten/grade school/middle school schedule, I'll be able to carve out some knitting time. In the meantime, I'm trying not to let it upset me. The yarn isn't going anywhere.

Happy knitting to you, if you have the time to do some!

Fairytale Dress

Last night, I finally finished Baby Girl's Fairytale Dress. Actually, I finished it yesterday afternoon, except for the flower, but I had some flower issues. I finally appealed to my neighbor, and she quickly crocheted a flower for me. I sewed it on last night, and Baby Girl wore the dress today!

Not only do I love it, but so does Baby Girl! As of today, it fits her perfectly! (Which her big sister's flip flops do not!)





The yarn is Bristol Yarn Gallery Lyndon Hill. I love this fingering weight cotton/silk blend. It's a dream to work with in the summer, and it washed really nicely in the machine on gentle cycle. (I used this same yarn to knit up Little Sister's Shirt last summer). I did make a few modifications to the dress. I don't like knitting i-cord, so instead I picked up stitches around the armseyes and did a few rows of seed stitch. I also picked up three stitches on each corner of the dress, and knit seed stitch straps.

The pattern does state that the outfit can last for several years, going from a dress to a tank top. The pattern cleverly inserts ribbing along the side of the dress to help facilitate the multiple sizes. I think this is brilliant! However, I didn't check gauge, and right now, the ribbing is pretty much stretched to its limit. I'm not sure how long this dress will fit my fast growing girl (who has skipped size 2T altogether, and is quickly growing out of her 3T clothes. And she's not even two and a half yet!), but I'll make sure she wears it often in the next few weeks!

I've been carrying around my August Summer of Socks socks this week, and I finally pulled the Birthday Pi out of hibernation. I'd love to get both of these projects done by the end of September, but we'll see how it goes.

Happy knitting!

Waiting for Irene

We're hanging out inside today, periodically checking the basement for water, watching the wind, and waiting for the storm to blow over.

We spent most of yesterday getting ready for Irene - getting anything off the floor of the basement, stocking up on bread, peanut butter, and water. So far, it's rainy and windy, but all the trees are intact. We've had a little bit of water in the basement, but not much. Thankfully, the power is still on. We're hoping it stays that way!

Last night, I finished up the body of Baby Girl's Fairytale Dress, and today, I'm hoping to finish knitting the straps. I'm working on it now, while we watch The Sound of Music.

Happy knitting!

I'm an Idiot

I've been knitting the Fairytale Dress for the baby. Today, I bound off the front of the dress, four different times. I had various problems with the give of the bind off, dropping some stitches, and running out of yarn. I eventually solved all those problem and managed to knit the back and bind that off too.

And then I went and read the directions, and realized I had a skipped a whole part of the dress.

I've put the dress in timeout, and will rip it out tomorrow.

How's your knitting going?

Vacation

I know, I continue to be a bad blogger. But this time, my excuse is really good! We've been on vacation!

We headed up to my parents' house outside of Buffalo for a week. We went to the beach, visiting the county fair, and had a generally relaxing time as the kids ran around the yard. Even better though, DH and I left the kids with my parents for the weekend and headed to the Finger Lakes Wine Region.

We toured Fox Run Vineyards, during their annual garlic festival. Not only did we get to see how the grapes are grown
and how the wine is made,
we also got to taste some!Besides wine, we learned that there are a whole lot of garlic varieties, tasted some yummy maple sugar cotton candy, and I bought some really pretty beaded bracelets. In retrospect, we probably should have visited another vineyard, just to compare experiences. If you're really into wine and tastings, the Finger Lakes are a great place to go on the East Coast!

The weather wasn't the best, but didn't really interfere with our plans. We moved our picnic to the porch of our amazing Bed and Breakfast
and hiked Watkins Glen in the rain.
We also spent a lot of time on the porch playing Scrabble and Backgammon, walking around Geneva, and soaking in all the uninterrupted conversation time.

I can't say enough about what a treat our weekend was!

As an added treat, I won a contest over at Irisheyes Kathy's knitting blog! She sent me the most lovely skein of sock yarn! Thank you, Kathy!
I recently read something (on Knitting Daily maybe?) about pattern stitches designed specifically for self-striping yarn. Any ideas?

Happy Knitting!