Cool weather knits

One of the things I appreciate about being a knitter is that when the weather gets cool, I’m not as bummed out about the departure of summer because I have something to look forward to- wearing my creations!!! The temperature dipped this past week, and thus the opportunity presented itself to bring out the Cabled Coat for Sweet Pea.

At nine months, it fits perfectly and looks like it will last through the winter.

It was a tad big for her back in May (above).

My hourglass sweater has not seen a public outing but if this cool weather continues, I may be wearing her soon!

What are you looking forward to wearing this fall?

Big news!

We’ve found a home and we are going to be moving! We are very excited, to say the least, and very busy. Cleaning up the condo, packing when we can… and all the million papers, documents, & insurances we need to get taken care of in the mean time. Our closing date is in mid-July.

At last, a garden to call our own.

My hourglass sweater is complete, and I am waiting for the weather to cooperate for an outdoor photoshoot!
In the mean time, I have decided that a “sanity” project is needed for me during this transitional time.

Daphne’s Baby Cape is back on the needles, the, uh, correct size needles I mean.

Garter Stitch. All garter stitch. Doesn’t get any better than this.

Except for the fact that I may run out of yarn. Ravelry talk points out that 3 skeins of Cascade 220 will NOT be enough, despite what the pattern says. Hopefully I can get ahold of a fourth skein.

I can pause in the middle of a row and not worry about messing up anything. It’s also great Stanley Cup playoff knitting too.

GTG! The puck drops soon!

Covered in Cables

And I think she likes it! I know I do.

It’s the Cabled Coat with Hood from Debbie Bliss’ Baby Cashmerino book. This pattern was the reason I bought the book!

The specs:

Size: 6-9 months

Yarn: Knitpicks Swish Superwash DK in Cornflower (I couldn’t spring for cashmere when I knew there would be spit up on it!)

Needles: Size 3 addi’s- the pattern said that you would need size 2 and 3, but nowhere in the pattern did I see any indication to use the size 2’s… so I just used the 3’s.

Started: January 2008

Finished: May 2008

I love this coat. I am SO happy that we have a little bit of a cold spell here in late May so that Sweet Pea can wear this!

The 6-9 month size should, by all indications, fit her throughout next winter, due to the longer style of the coat.

I do no have any buttons for this yet, because I am a little nervous about the choking hazard it would pose. I plan on waiting until Sweet Pea is past the put-everything-in-your-mouth stage before buying buttons. I also had not sewn the pocket linings down when I took the above photos.. I’ll get to that soon…

Cabling without a cable needle is a must for this project and a new skill that I have mastered after finishing this!

And we got to show it off last week at my cousin’s lacrosse game:

Taking shape

Sweet Pea’s coat is finally starting to take shape.

I still have a ways to go… like finish the hood, the button band, and set the sleeves in, oh and do the pockets… but at least it’s starting to look like a coat instead of random cabled swatches of fabric. My husband reassuringly told me that if the weather is too warm for Sweet Pea to wear it, he’ll just have to crank up the A/C and take her on field trips to the polar bear exhibits… I just love that man! He always keeps me smiling and positive. His view of life is ALWAYS the “glass is half-full.”

I feel like I am starting to take shape too, finally! Although the scale says that I am pre-pregnancy weight (actually a few pounds less!), this deflated-beach-ball-looking stomach makes me wince. So I keep trucking along… I’ll get there eventually!

My running plan has changed, as I mentioned last week. I am now working towards a 10k race at the end of June to boost my speed before beginning to train for my fall half-marathon.

I have stopped using PeerTrainer and started using Runners World online Training Log. Running is my main gig, so naturally a running based training log suits my needs much better. I am a graphs and charts kind of gal, and the RW training log makes cool bar graphs that are color coded based on what type of run you did- easy run, tempo run, long run, speedwork, etc. They also have a place to record your average and max heart rates during your workout and will make you a cool graph of that too. Graphs and charts make me happy.

The downside of not using Peertrainer was that I don’t record my daily nutritional intake, but that was a pain to do anyways. I’ve been eating pretty healthily lately and that is partly due to trying to cut down our grocery budget! It’s expensive to eat junk food!!!!! If you don’t have it in the house, you can’t eat it.

And an extra 50 bucks a month that I don’t spend on snack food equates to six hundred dollars a year to spend elsewhere.

Like yarn.

Nice.

Spring Swap

Katie sent me a wonderful package for the Dogs on Thursday Spring Swap.

What a wonderful package! It included some Sugar & Creme cotton, towels for Mercy, a squeaky squirrel, a tug toy, a package of sunflower seeds to plant, and some gourmet dog treats in the most adorable basket. Oh, yeah.. there was a package of chocolate & carmel Werther’s Originals… but I um, ran 6 miles yesterday and threw my willpower out the window. ooops. Thank you Katie for such a lovely swap!

Here’s an action shot of Mercy with her new squirrel toy:

All you dog people out there know how hard it is to get a non-action shot when you introduce a new toy!

This was the first swap I participated in since Sweet Pea was born… and it was fun! Thanks to the gals at Dogs On Thursday for putting it together.

Back to Business

Sweet Pea turned 5 months on Thursday.. which means I have less than a month to complete the Cabled Coat with Hood, since I opted to make the 6-9 month size.

This is the left front, which leaves the right front, sleeves, hood and button band to knit. I think I can… I think I can… I think I can…

Little diva

We attended an auction last weekend to benefit a local school and picked up quite a few lovely items.

Among the baskets we won? A “diva” dog package, that included Mercy’s new snuggle toy…

And some watermelon “in between bath wipes”, since ALL dogs need that, right?

The basket also included a collar, leash, gift card, bowls, and treats. It’s an early birthday gift for Mercy I think that the wipes will come on handy after those muddy romps in the park.

Among all the lovely baskets at the auction, of which there were hundreds, I was astonished to see that there WAS.NOT.ONE.KNITTING.BASKET!!! I believe I will be putting one together to donate next year. There have to be other knitters in attendance, right?

There are several other goodies that we came home with, but I’ll save those for another day… and show you my hourglass progress instead:

Today is the first day of spring, but there is snow on the ground, therefore I believe that I might just be able to wear this beauty soon. Keep your fingers crossed!

Swift action required

Presenting… my new swift and ball winder!

I can’t believe I went without one for so long! Imagine, winding up skeins in the kitchen by hand, going round and round the chairs… now I just set up the swift and wind away. Looks like I may need more yarn to practice winding.

Another baby hat!

My hourglass sweater progress was interrupted by a new baby boy, Noah, who came two weeks early. This is the second time a friend of mine has gone into labor early and sent me scrambling to knit something. Maybe I should just start knitting for babes earlier?

Another Child’s Cotton Hat, from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I truly love this book and the last minute-ness of this particular project. I suppose I could probably finish one in a day if I didn’t have, umm, interruptions. This is the fourth cotton hat I have knit in the past 6 months and the first time I experimented with color changes. I am quite pleased with the way it turned out.

Noah’s mom is my table leader at MOPS, a Mothers of Preschoolers group I belong to . When Sweet Pea was born, she organized meals for us the first two weeks after we came home from the hospital. Yesterday was my turn to bring over dinner to her house. And a cute knitted gift.

MOPS, is a group of mothers who share the common bond of having little ones at home, from pregnancy up to kindergarten. We meet twice a month and cover all sorts of different topics, share stories, and enjoy a little time away from our little ones (who are being cared for by a loving nursery staff).

The support from a group like MOPS is great, for first time moms and fourth time moms alike. It’s nice to have somewhere to go, to meet other women in similar situations, and to be encouraged! Being a mom is NOT an easy job. You can’t clock out at 5 or 6, you are on call 24-7. I would highly recommend a group like this to everyone!

People ask me often how I am adjusting to motherhood, if I’m going stir crazy, etc, and I have to say I really feel pretty good. I don’t stay cooped up in the house all the time, I am out just about every day, doing something, whether it be bible study once a week, MOPS twice a month, or exercising with a friend. Even on days that I am home ALL DAY LONG I usually feel okay about it. I’m raising our daughter, and I can’t think of a more important job I could be doing. It’s a privilege to be a wife and mother.

Always double check your needle size…

This is what was Daphne’s Baby Cape.

Cast on 261 stitches, knit about 15 rows, frogged all 3,915 of them.

I was using my size 3 Addi’s instead of size 6. The 3’s were hanging around because I had just finished the back of Princess Sweet Pea’s cabled coat.  I don’t know how I will be able to catch up!!!

I blame baby brain. You know, the mysterious forgetfulness that shows up during pregnancy and then doesn’t leave after the baby is born?

At least it’s still snowsuit weather here and not cape-weather yet.