the girl's got rhythm

babies, and hats, and socks, oh my

Here is little miss Sophie wearing her Neapolitan Ice Cream Hat:



It's just a tad too big. Better too big than too small, though (another hat I made her for christmas turned out too small :(... oh well, I know a little baby who would look good in it).

And here's where I was at on my first sock yesterday afternoon:




I finished it last night and cast on for the second one a few hours ago. These two HAVE to match up! My favorite part of knitting the first one was turning the heel, it was almost like magic... I just followed along the row-by-row instructions, and it just turned itself!

winter wonderland

We had a very busy christmas around here... Santa brought Sophie a tunnel to crawl through, cardboard bricks, and wooden building blocks. She loves to stack things up and build things, as you can see here -



Instead of coloring with the crayons, she stacks them up.

She got lots of new clothes and some fun books, which she might enjoy someday... hopefully someday soon.

Mama got lots of neat things as well, including yarn and new needles (pictures to come soon!). I'm almost done with my first sock ever... I think I like knitting socks!

happy solstice!

The days are getting longer now... thank goodness! It seems like it's already been winter for a very, very long time.

I've been knitting with my new double pointed needles, my first project was a doll hat -



See?


And then I had to make another one for Sophie's friend Sierra. Because I'm sure her baby doll needs a hat too.

This is my second Robin's Egg Blue Hat - I still haven't taken any pictures of the first one, but this one turned out better anyways. I just put the button on this morning:




Not the greatest picture of me, but you get the idea. The only thing I don't like is how pointy the top is... if I make another one, I'll buy the right size double pointeds first so that there isn't a seam right in the front of the hat also. Another christmas present wrapped and ready to go...


And Sophie turns 19 months old today.

(I think I have more fun with these blocks than she does)

all wrapped up

Finally finished up a project that's been "done" for a while but needed the finishing touches... these mittens (same pattern as my last post but knitted up the same size, thank you very much!) needed to be lined with polar fleece for gifting.



Ta-da - lining 2-year-old size mittens is really much harder than it looks. I only stabbed myself with the sewing needle once (sewing needles are a lot sharper than darning needles!) on the way to getting it done...



...and now they're all wrapped up and ready to go.

It's supposed to be -20 degrees F tomorrow, and Sophie and I are planning a shopping expedition... we'll see how that goes!

why knitting during finals week isn't a good idea

Aside from the common sense reason that knitting takes away valuable time that should be spent studying for said finals?

This happens.



Yeah. See those two mittens? They are supposed to be a pair. As in they are supposed to be the same size.

They were both knitted in the same amount of time, with the same yarn, same pattern, same needles, same exact number of rows and stitches.

What the heck happened?? Well, I knitted one on Monday (the day before my Anatomy & Physiology final) and I knitted the other one on Wednesday (the day after my A&P final). Check out my gauge:



.... Yeah. I think I was maybe a little stressed when I did the first one? And a little relieved when I did the second one?

Ha!

I think I may have learned my lesson now... just in time for finals to be over! I'm so happy I'm done!!

the perfect lunch

There's just nothing better than homemade pel meni. Mine are potato, not meat, with some onion and garlic thrown in for good measure as well.

Eaten smothered in Sriracha hot sauce, rice vinegar, sprinkled with curry powder, fresh cilantro if you like, and sour cream on the side.

Food of the gods.

half sisters

Here are Sophie and Analia (oh, and me, too) a few weeks ago, photo curtesy of Charlotte's Facebook page -



Now check out this baby picture of Sophie:

(please excuse my halibut-belly-white legs)

Don't they look similar? It'll be interesting to see them together as they grow up.

Sophie wasn't very interested in Analia until I held her, and then she was jealous and had to wiggle her way into my lap as well, haha.

a teeny tiny hat and some stash enhancement

First the teeny tiny hat:



I had to include Sophie's favorite sippy cup in the picture so you could appreciate how small it really is :)
This is for a girl in my Human Physiology and Anatomy class who just had her baby. I saw her at the birth center yesterday with her new little one and couldn't resist knitting up a little baby hat for her. Her name is Ysabella and she is just sweet. Her mama is planning on bringing her to our final on Tuesday and wearing her in a moby wrap for the test - sometimes I wish Sophie were that small again! It would make my next semester easier (I need to find some child care!) I do love little babies though.

The hat is knitted out of Frog Tree alpaca, the same stuff I used here and here - the pattern I just winged, I hope it fits her! It looks awfully small, but then again so did little Ysabella.

Tonight was Gallery Walk, so Sophie, Grandma and I headed downtown to check it out. Sophie wasn't really in a shopping mood so we didn't stay very long, but we did manage to get to the yarn shop and the toy store! Sophie picked out this toy - she wanted to play with it right then and there, so of course Grandma obliged her and opened the box so she could play with it. And then she bought it for her, but by the time we got home she had forgotten about it and so now it will be a Christmas present... added to the mountain of Christmas presents in Grandma and Grandpa's closet, all for Sophie! Oh man.

More beautiful Frog Tree alpaca yarn. I just can't get enough of it! This yarn is destined to be a sweater for my own little one, who is not so little anymore. I still need to find a pattern to follow, I keep finding cute ones that only go to 12 months or 18 months. I'm going to make it in size 24 months or 2T because it just might take me that long to make it! (She's in 18 months right now).



This sweater for Sophie will be my first sweater, but I already picked out the pattern for my second - the Central Park Hoodie. I want to make it for myself, crazy right? But I like it sooo much :).

winter's here

Yep. Solstice is still... 19 days away, but I guess mother nature doesn't really take that into account anyways. This morning it was 23 degrees out, and it didn't seem to get any warmer during the day either, Sophie and I had to run some errands and it took me about 5 minutes to pry my frozen car door open.

After we managed to get the windshield scraped and the doors open, we headed over to the library where we found this book -

<--- (that's it)

which I think is super cool and which Sophie shows minimal interest in. She did like the page with the fish (FISH! FISH!) though. All of the illustrations are made with food - very cool.

We spent almost a whole hour at the library - it's just about the perfect place to spend a winter day, I guess. Sophie took all the puzzles off the shelves and took all the pieces out of all the puzzles. She took all the stuffed animals off of their chairs and rearranged them. She unstacked all of the shopping baskets (why does the library have shopping baskets?). Then she started pulling all of the bookends off of the shelves and making the books all fall over, but that's where I draw the line. Then we had to start the whole process over; as soon as I had all the puzzles put back together and put away, and started on the stuffed animals, out came the puzzles again. Finally I distracted her with the HUGE stuffed dog in the corner, which she loved. She took off her coat and snuggled right up to it... I think she was happy that it didn't get up and walk away like Daisy always does.

In other news, everyone's been sick around here - it seems like a never-ending thing lately. I haven't taken either dog for a walk in weeks, poor babies. First, a few weeks ago now, I got the flu; and then I developed reactive arthritis in my hand; and then Sophie got hand foot and mouth disease; and then both my parents got this horrible chest cold; now I have it; and now Sophie's acting like she's getting it too! Ah, well. This too shall pass, right?

This semester is almost over and I'm so, so looking forward to having a break. I've already registered for next semester's classes and even though I'm taking less credits next semester than I did this semester, it seems like it'll be a heavier class load, especially since all three of my classes will be on campus. I'm definitely going to need to find some child care, but I'm excited because after this next semester is over, I'm all set to enter the nursing program in 2010 - that is, if I get in. They only accept the top ten students. Fingers crossed!



In spite of it being finals next week and having term papers to write and finals to study for... I've still been making time for knitting (staying up way too late, mostly). It just feels so good to curl up with a mug of hot chocolate, yarn, and needles. And a dog or two.

I just made Rachel Iufer's Robin's Egg Blue Hat today, it knit up super fast. I'll have to take a picture soon and put it up. I will definitely knit at least one more, but probably a lot more than that! It went by super fast, and it's really cute. For this first one I used cream-colored yarn of unknown origin and fiber, but I've got some of her recommended Paton's Shetland Chunky in the stash to knit it up for gifts.

Can you believe that it's almost Christmas already?!

sophie's neapolitan ice cream hat

Sophie's Neapolitan Ice Cream Hat:



Ta-da! I just finished sewing it up. So much fun to make - I hope it fits her!