I'm bad at Secret Santa

I'm part of a Secret Santa with some ladies on a forum I frequent. I got my goodies last week, some delicious cookies and a cookie cookbook. Sadly, I was not able to even start my present until today...3 days after Christmas. Better late than never, right? My Secret Santa is starting to crochet, so I made a hook holder using my sewing machine in my newly cleaned sewing room (finally!!). You can tell it's made by someone new to sewing, but it's the thought that counts most, right? Despite the little errors I'm proud of how it turned out. The errors give it character.

We survived the holidays!

I admit, I'm one of those people that gets stressed out around the holidays. Between all the family activities and us all getting sick, it was a lot to juggle. But it's over and we survived. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of Baby G yet because I left my camera at our house so have to get the pictures from my mom. The only picture I have with me right now is our awesome roasted chicken from Christmas Eve. I made a compound butter with fresh rosemary, sage, and orange and lemon zest and slathered it under and on top of the skin. There's a whole head of garlic, an onion, the lemon and orange, carrots, and celery for aromatics. It was pretty much the best chicken ever!




Baby G wasn't so sure what to think of her first Christmas. She had a lot of fun at Grandma and Grandpa's house (and was absolutely spoiled by them!). By the end of the day at her Great Grandparents' house she was about ready for a meltdown Or two. Or three. There was a lot of action that she's not used to at home. She seemed to calm down a little after her Christmas feast of carrots and rice cereal (yum?). She slept the whole way home then went right to bed like a good girl. We were worried all the action of the day would keep her up all night, but she did great.

I hope everyone out there reading had a wonderful Christmas!

This is embarrassing

I'm still not knitting. I had a few elbow X-rays. Nothing is broken, it's just badly sprained. I'm probably to the point that I could pick things up again, but there's so much going on right now that I haven't had the time. After the holidays I'll get back into it. So much for a Christmas gift for Grandma!

Now the embarrassing part. We have a three bedroom house. The third bedroom has become a catch-all. By catch-all I mean ALL. This is supposed to be my craft room. There's a sewing machine that's been sitting there since LAST Christmas that's still unused. I have so many ideas for it floating around in my head and now I want to use it. So here's the embarrassing part...the mess.



I found things I didn't even know we had. Mostly I found a bunch of junk (to us) that will be donated to Goodwill because someone out there will find it useful or like it. There's still a lot of work to be done. Progress is slow moving in a room that bad.

No knitting for awhile?

Well, I finished my sister's housewarming gift. It turned out pretty cute. The picture doesn't do it justice. I did mess up...at the end I wasn't paying attention to where I was in the pattern and started working the wrong side on the right side. Luckily I was about done anyway so ended it a litte early. She told me that if I hadn't told her about the mistake that she wouldn't have noticed. I think it's really noticeable, but she's happy so I'm happy.


I started a purse for my grandma. She mentioned wanting a felted purse at Thanksgiving, so I'm making one up as I go along. I'm using Cascade 220 in two shades of green. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures because there isn't much progress to report on at this time.

Today was the first real winter weather of the season. Everything was covered in a sheet of ice. When I got out of the car at work this morning I slipped and fell (imagine that, klutzy me took a fall!). I caught myself on my left knee and hand. My knee has a huge bruise and my hand/elbow feel a little like it felt when I broke my right elbow when I was 18. I'm going to wait it out and see how it feels tomorrow. I probably shouldn't even be typing right now, but Baby G is sleeping so I have a free minute for once at night.

You might be wondering how I broke my elbow. I worked as a cook at Pizza Hut in high school. I was working the night a tornado hit town, knocking out power to have the residents. Naturally these people had to go wherever was open to eat supper, so Pizza Hut it was. Another cook had just spilled some pizza sauce on the floor and (kind of) cleaned it up. As I was walking to the oven with a pizza in my hands, I slipped and fell. I caught myself with my right hand and ended up sitting right in the pizza I was carrying. After a trip to the ER on Pizza Hut's buck, they found a fracture in my elbow. I had to wear a sling for a few weeks, go to physical therapy, and explain my embarrassing broken bone to everyone at pretty much every graduation party in town. Fun times!!

Housewarming gift

My sister and her husband moved into their first house this past weekend. I'm working on a housewarming gift for them, though at the rate I'm moving it'll be more like a Christmas gift. The first part of the gift is a dish scrubby. I saw the idea on the Berlin's Whimsey blog. My sister had leftover netting from her wedding so I cut that into strips and tied it together. It's knit together with Lily Sugar 'N Cream in Summer Splash on size 8 needles.


The second part I'm working on is the circle cloth by hakucho to match the dish scrubby. I'm using the same yarn and needles as the scrubby. I think it would look a lot better if I would have used white as a contrasting color, but I didn't feel like messing around with two colors. It still looks pretty neat. The finished product looks much more complicated than the pattern actually is.

Calorimetry, take 2

I needed to make something with pretty much instant gratification. I made Calorimetry for my sister last year. It was such a quick, easy knit that I decided to make one for myself. I started a week ago and finished today (that's quick in my world). I had some beautiful Noro Kureyon just sitting around, so I used that. Stash busting is always a good thing. Here's what I've come up with. It's not the greatest of pictures, but it was taken between football plays (go Hawks!!). Just look at those colors! The gray and purple-ish color fade beautifully into that vibrant teal and green. I love it!

It's good to be green

In an effort to be more environmentally friendly and to save money, we are using cloth diapers on Baby G. Most everyone's first thought is of the diapers our moms and grandmas used on us and plastic pants. Well, that's just not the case anymore. Sure, you can buy prefolds and covers for the most economical diapering system, but the world of diapers has expanded. Pockets, fitteds, all in ones are just a few examples.

And what about the ewwww factor? Well, yes, it can be messy. But so can disposables. Breastmilk poos are water soluable, so you can throw those straight in the wash. Solids you can shake off in the toilet. It's a little more work than a disposable, but I think it's better than throwing all those non-biodegradable diapers into landfills. Diaper laundry is easy. You just throw it in the wash straight from the diaper pail.

The savings are another great benefit. You'll spend thousands to diaper your baby until they are potty trained. You'll spend maybe about $500 or so on cloth that can be used for multiple babies.

And the best benefit? Baby G is much more happy. She always had a rash with disposables. I felt so sorry for her. She's so much healthier with cloth. It's much cuter, too.

My two favorite cloth diaper stores are:
Cottonbabies
Kelly's Closet

When we were at the photography studio getting her pictures taken the other day, I ran into a mom in the bathroom that also used cloth on her kids. I know a few others that do it, too. I'm so happy to see the trend catching on!

A hat for Baby G

Since Baby G's blanket is going nowhere, I decided to knit something with instant gratification. What better than a baby hat? With a little one at home, I only get a few minutes here and there to pick up my knitting needles, but I was able to finish this in only a few days. It's too big on her, but she'll grow into it this winter, I'm sure. I made the pattern up, so I don't really have anything exact to post. I didn't keep track of rows or decreases or anything. It could be prettier, but I just wanted quick results.


Caron Simply soft
size 8 needles
cast on 70
2x2 ribbing for an inch or so
row 1: *(ktbl, p)*
row 2: p
row 3: k
row 4: p
Knit until desired height. For decreases:
row 1: *(k2tog tbl, p)* to end of row
row 2: p
row 3: repeat row 1
Do this until you have about 12 or so stitches left on the needle. Pull yarn through and seam up the side.

Is anybody out there?

It's been a crazy year. I got pregnant then dropped off the face of the blogging world. Now here I am, with a three month old, ready to get back into my knitting, learning to sew cute baby girl clothes, and blogging again.

I'll give a quick pregnancy and baby story. I was hospitalized on July 9 with pre-eclampsia. I went to a routine doctor appointment one day and was told I couldn't go back to work because I was being admitted. I went into premature labor on July 16. After 20 hours of labor and 4.5 of pushing, Baby G made her entrance into this world 6 weeks early. She spent 10 days in the NICU for jaundice and to learn to eat. Other than that, she was as healthy as a full term baby. I was on maternity leave through October 5. I loved spending every minute with out little girl and was very sad to go back to work. We're getting into a good routine now. I can't believe she's 3 months old!

Now that things are settling down and my hands aren't terribly and painfully swollen like they were when I was pregnant, I have picked up my knitting needles again. I'm still working on my blanket for her that I started in March. I also started a hat the other day since it's getting so cold. I have some pictures, but those will have to wait for now. I need to figure out how to post them again since I've forgotten.

But for now...I'm back!

I've been MIA

I don't even know the last time I posted, like a month or two ago? I thought I was just getting lazy when I didn't feel like knitting at all and wanted to go to bed at 8:00 each night. No, it wasn't laziness...it was pregnancy! Believe me, it was a shock to me and DH, but of course we're thrilled. I just haven't had the energy to do much of anything after work, be it knit, blog, cook, or move off the couch. It's getting better. Now I'm starting to get a little more motivated to knit because I'll need to make blankets, hats, and booties for my baby. As slow as I knit I'll need to start now if I want anything done by August.



In other news, The Preemie Project's Craft-a-Thon is coming up this Friday. As the name suggests, it's a day long knitting marathon. There are classes and drop in lessons for beginners and a contest. There's still time to sign up for classes or submit an entry for the contest. Betty Christiansen, author of Knitting for Peace will be our guest speaker. It should be a fun day, so join us if you can!


And now I need to lay down because the heartburn and fatigue are too much. :)