Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Maggie is 18 weeks old!


Miss Maggie is doing well. She is growing well, yammering up a storm, working on rolling over and trying to sit up- neither of which she has actually accomplished yet but she's trying hard. She had her four month doctor appointment yesterday and all is well.  She weighs 14lbs 15.2 oz and is 25 inches long which according to her doctor makes her perfectly proportioned. She looks more and more like James everyday...but girly. I don't know how that works exactly but she is a girly version of her brother.

I've had some knitting ADD recently.  I've been working on several little project but nothing really exciting. I'm making another Little Pearl for a baby gift. This one is taking me forever, mostly though because I decided to knit it with some fingering weight yarn I had in the stash. So good for the pocketbook but not so good for a quick knit. I also started on knitting some stuff from Spud and Chloe on the Farm.  My goal for this year is to make most of the projects in the book and give them to the boys for Easter, birthdays, Christmas etc.  So I'm starting a little bit at a time. I started with the barn because I needed something mindless but I want to make the chicken for Easter so that will be next up.

Come and yarn along with us at Ginny's place.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Friday, January 25, 2013

It's never too early to start...

skiing that is.  This past Sunday was really a lovely day, cool but not too cold like it has been the last couple of days.  Sunday there was a light snow cover but not too much wind and lots of sunshine.  A perfect days to drag the kids outside for some winter fun. Usually James gets cold very easily so it was nice to be able to go outside and have fun and not freeze.  Nanny got the kids skis for Christmas (well they got hand me down skis for Christmas but....) so we did some skiing and some sledding on our front hill.  Here are the boys first few attempts at skiing.
Xander
James

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Maggie is 17 weeks old!

Isn't she cute? Maggie has survived the swath of illness that swept through the family this week. James went down Monday afternoon, Xander Monday night, and me on Tuesday.  Luckily Maggie and Frank were spared so there was at least one adult to take care of sick and cranky kids and mommies. The boys seem fully recovered today and I am on the mend. It's been our second nasty illness this winter and as luck would have it each time one parent has not gotten sick. It so much easier when you have one functioning adult in the house. Maggie is doing so well.  She is such a joyful and happy little chub. Recently she has started to laugh and it is just the best sound in the whole world. She smiles all the time and is a really good sleeper.  The only time she fusses is when she is overtired and when she is hungry.  And when she is hungry she means business.  Patience is not a virtue that any of my children seem to possess! We go to the doctor next week so we'll make sure she is growing appropriately (of which I have no doubt).

So I finished Maggie's sweet bunting sweater. Of course as I was knitting the yoke I kept thinking to myself this is too long.  So several times I went back to the pattern and read it over and over again to see why my yoke seemed so much longer than the example. Every time I read the pattern over I couldn't see where I had made a mistake.  So I kept going and finished it.  I picked up my stitches along the front and knitted the front bands and it looks so cute!  But still I had this nagging sensation that it didn't look like the example and while my children are tiny I knit this is a 12-18 month size and yet when I tried it on James it wasn't that small.... So I went back to the pattern one last time and realized I had made a huge, horrible mistake! In the pattern it talks about the part where you bring the bunting string across as the "bunting join" and then in the next section when it describes how to knit the yoke it says to knit 4 inches from the "join" so I knit 4 inches from the bunting join, however what I now realize is that the "join" was the sleeve join, not the bunting join, so my yoke is 4 inches too long!!!!! Which is why it is more like a size 2 than 12 months and why it doesn't look like the example. So the age-old question becomes is it ok the way it is or do I rip out the front bands and rip the yoke back and reknit it? The idea of basically ripping apart a completely finished sweater is somewhat nauseating to me but I also want it to fit her. The photo below is of the sweater on James...and although it is a little small (but he is 3 1/2 years old...) I think it actually looks ok.  What would you do?

In any case I used the leftover yarn, which is totally scrumptious by the way, to knit Maggie a little hat. It is sort of a bel cloche but I didn't have enough yarn to do the brim and while I had intended for it to be worn with her sweater I didn't have enough yarn to make a bigger hat (although if I ripped back the sweater...). So I modified the pattern to work with what I had and it fits her now. It is seriously cute on her- looks like she is wearing a little purple cupcake on her head. It is also the first hat that really seems to stay on her head, although it does keep spinning so the "seam" is in the front. I'm gong to have to save my pennies to buy some more of this yarn because it is really lovely and the dusty rose color is calling my name.  

So not much reading going on this week- just some magazines and a couple pages of my dyeing book. It's been hard to read while not feeling well. Come and join the fun over at Ginny's place.

Friday, January 18, 2013

Maggie's First giggles...

Maggie laughed hysterically when I ripped open her velcro diaper cover. I tried to get it one video but all you get is these few giggles.  I then discovered that she has a ticklish spot on her inner thigh so now i can elict giggles whenever I need a mood booster!

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Maggie is 16 weeks old!

Miss Maggie is 16 weeks old today! She is getting so talkative it is very fun.  She has long, grand conversations with herself daily. She's pretty loud sometimes but I guess she has to keep up with her brothers so she has to be loud. She is very close to rolling over but hasn't quite managed to get off her side yet. She keeps getting her arm in the way.  We took her swimming for the first time on Monday which was going really well until Xander threw up in the pool! He had swim class and then we all got in the pool and I think he just swallowed too much water because right afterwards he was running around the locker room and hasn't been sick again.  What a way to clear the pool! Anyway, Maggie really seemed to enjoy herself after the initial shock of the water.  She was very content just floating away in my arms. Of course since I had brought a regular disposable instead of a swim diaper she had that as extra floatation. The boys have swim classes on Mondays so I am hoping we can all go again frequently this winter and she will be well acclimated in time to start mommy and me classes when she is six months old.

So I am not big into New Year's Resolutions but I do tend to get a little distracted in my knitting so I thought I would make a list of knitting goals for this year. I make no guarantees that I will finish everything on this rather ambitious list but I thought it was worth setting out a good year's worth of knitting. With that being said I still didn't include a few more "mundane" project like at least one more baby gift and Maggie will need a pair of medium longies and a skirty. So here is my ambitious list:

1: practice practice practice so I can get faster
2: Be more adventurous with cables, here is my goal piece
3: Finish Maggie's blanket (Before she goes to kindergarten)
4: Knit my boys and my husband each a sweater- campfire pattern I think
5: try color work, starting with a Sweet Bunting for Maggie
6: Knit myself a sweater or a shawl
7: Finish my hundredth project on ravelry , I'm almost there!
8. Knit a few project from Spud and Chloe at the farm. Ideally for the boys birthdays.
9. Finish Francois.
10. Dye my own yarn.

So in order to get started on my goals I have been working on Maggie's Sweet Bunting.  I had actually cast in on around Christmas but it got put down for awhile in favor of knitting baby gifts so I picked it back up again and have knit the bodice to the underarm join and have just casted on the first sleeve.  This is the first time I have constructed a sweater this way so hopefully it will go well.  I got the yarn and pattern in a kit at the New England Fiber Festival last November and so far I am really liking both.  The yarn is wonderfully soft and is coming out subtly striped which was a welcome surprise.

Also at the NEFF we saw Gail Callahan do a demonstration on dyeing. Xander was fascinated with all the color mixing and I have always wanted to try my hand at dyeing.  I have actually seen Gail many times before at Webs, where she works and didn't realize who she was. I spend way too much time (and money =)) at Webs but when it is almost as close as LYS it is very tempting! For Christmas my mom got me Gail's book Hand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece and I have just started reading it.  I want to try some dyeing with Xander since he seemed so interested in it and we have tons of roving from the sheep.  I'm a little worried about cleaning the kitchen after dyeing with a four year old but if we use food coloring we should be ok, right?

That's enough ambition for now.  Come yarn along with us at Ginny's Place.

Monday, January 14, 2013

First lamb of 2013

Mindy graced us this morning with a suprise- a not so little ewe lamb in the dead of winter.  She did this to us last year too (although less of a suprise last year).  Momma and baby are looking great despite the cold weather. I guess Mindy just likes to have winter babies!

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Maggie is 15 weeks old!

The little princess is 15 weeks old this week and weighs a whopping 14 pounds. I went to a baby shower at work the other day and threw her on scale and she was 14 lbs 1.4 oz. with only T-shirt on. I can only hope her growth slows down a little bit because otherwise she will be too heavy to carry pretty soon. We are so lucky to have such a good baby. She's almost sleeping through the night, only getting up once sometimes twice to eat. And most of the time she is content to just hang out and watch the chaos swirling around her and only cries when she's hungry or has a wet diaper or is over tired. I'm sure we'll have plenty of moments to come but since her brothers seem to be in full blown limit testing mode I'm taking the calm, happy baby very gratefully!

Speaking of baby showers I went to that one at work and I'm going to another one this weekend so I've been busily knitting away at baby gifts. For this one I made a Little Pearl Vest. It knits up very quickly and easily and is a nice little vest. I don't think it's too girly if done in a very boyish colorway. Since it is almost all knit it's very fast. Size wise it's also very small which is okay as long as you're aware of that. According to the pattern notes it is meant to be snug anyway. I took up Gretchen's challenge to not count too carefully when doing the increases and failed miserably. I put too many increases at the beginning and not enough towards the end so it's kind of slanted when it comes together but it comes together so I'm going with it. I'll have to be a little bit more careful if I do this vest again. Although until I took this picture I never noticed the pooling along one side- oh well!

Still not much going on on the reading front. Just too busy these days. Come and yarn along with us at Ginny's place.



Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Maggie is 14 weeks old!

Well little miss is officially 14 weeks old and survived my first weekend back to work without too much difficulty- at least on her part.  I'm not sure Frank was entirely unscathed. We are still working on figuring out what her routines are going to be and how much and when she is going to be eating. That way I can make sure she has enough pumped milk to last the night without Frank having to defrost milk in the middle of the night. She is a very happy baby for the most part and just lights up every time she sees me so that makes me feel like a million bucks!

I've been working on several baby presents recently.  I have 2 baby showers in the next week and another friend due early next month. What is it with January babies this year? My baby presents of choice recently have been little vests- perfect for these winter babies. I've done a Milo and a Little Pearl so far. For one I made a hat and booties to go with and the other just a hat so far.  I'm not sure I have enough yarn to make booties. I'm going to move onto my third vest now and then come back and see if I have enough time and yarn to squeeze out a pair of booties too. I went back and forth about the hat vs booties dilema but decided that in most cases people would probably prefer a hat over booties.

Not much going on on the reading front these days.  With my return to work and the craziness of Christmas I'm feeling like I am drowning a little under the dishes, laundry, pumping, etc.  I'm using my knitting as mediation and hopefully I will have time to pick up some reading in the next few months.

Come and yarn along with us at Ginny's place.