mama urchin

Last evening we were driving home from my parents’ house and had to turn around three separate times because the roads were flooded and blocked by all manner of emergency vehicles. Two other times we only got through a flooded road because we drive a tank that is rated to ford streams up to a depth of 20″ without a snorkel — not my car in that photo. So yeah, it was kind of an intense end to a lovely Mother’s Day.

Today the rain continued and the temperatures reached a high of 45 degrees. Tristan wore his wool sweater he got for Christmas and Katie asked for a fire late this afternoon. May 12, that is the date, right?

Another delayed baby gift. This is for a sweet little boy who arrived at the end of last year. The free pattern is called Super-Natural Stripes and it is knit in super soft Blue Sky Alpacas‘ Organic Cotton. I used the colorway pebble instead of the sage and I’m happy with the variegated effect. My only modifications were I didn’t knit the single row of bone at the cuff, hem, or button band/collar. It wasn’t really necessary with the pebble yarn.

Baby Stripes
Pattern: Super-Natural Stripes
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas‘ Organic Cotton in colorways 80 (bone), 82 (nut), and 84 (pebble)
Yardage: less than one 150 yard skein of the bone and nut, less than two 150 yard skeins of the pebble
Needles: US size 7 and US size 5
Gauge: 16 st = 4 in
Size : 6-12 months
Modifications: Omitted the bone stripe at the cuff, hem, and button band/collar.

I feel a little out of the swing of things in this space. No real reason, I guess, just hazy, you know what I mean? I have a bunch of stuff to finish up this week though, we only have three weeks until preschool is out for the Summer. Seriously, Summer. Anyway, the garden was looking very purple-y this weekend. My grandmother loves purple. LOVES it. She always has, as long as I can remember. So all the purple got me thinking of her and this silk yarn — Posh Yarn’s Lisette — I scored when Vanessa recently destashed. I’m planning to make something lacy for my grandmother for Christmas with it. The yarn is aran weight, any suggestions? I’ve decided to dangle the yarn as a carrot in front of my nose for me to finish up all those things I need to do. Hopefully I can cast on by the end of the week. And speaking of carrots…

I finally got to the bookstore this week and got a hold of a copy of Larissa’s new book Knitalong. Longtime readers of my blog may remember that I knit some hats and my first socks ever as part of two knitalongs Larissa hosted to prepare for the book. Then she asked that I send the holly hat to be included in photos for the book. So I was hoping that there was at least a photo of it in there — for no other reason than to brag to my mom and mother-in-law. Well, now you have to hear me brag too because it looks like I have two photos in the book as well as two mentions. Hee hee, I’m almost famous. Okay, not really. But I have to say it’s a great book with that meathead pattern I get asked about so much as well as a bunch of other awesome stuff. So get your hands on a copy.

I’ve been feeling like I’ve been trudging along crafting away and don’t have much to show for it. I decided to stack it all up and see if it made it seem like more. Not really…

The only really completed thing is those pillows and they’ve been almost done for a long time. I just needed the zippers — an afterthought, I’m amazed they turned out — and I picked them up this week. The yo-yo flowers are a label for my Virtual Quilting Bee quilt. The mitten is actually looking like a mitten now but still, there’s only one, and the big seamless hybrid has a long way until it lives up to it’s name.

So, how was your week, did you get anything done?

I’ve been working on this mitten for what seems like forever. Do you ever have a project that just seems like it doesn’t want to get done? First I didn’t have the right yarn. Then it took a while for me to figure out the right cable pattern to use to go around the cuff - I’m making the pattern up as I go, I’ll share in the end if anyone is interested. Then shortly after the cuff was completed I simultaneously broke a needle and lost a needle. You cannot knit in the round with only three needles. A new needle set has been procured and now it’s just slogging along in stockinette on size 2s. Hopefully I can park myself in front of the television tonight and make some serious progress. I have to decide who is going to be my new favorite designer on Project Runway since they keep auf-ing everyone I like. That should keep me kntting for a while.

Finally, two late gifts checked off the list. These mitts are so quick to make I can see why Erin decided to make seven pairs. Both the yarns were in my stash and quite luxurious — just the thing for tween-age gifts. Now I just need to cross my fingers and hope they like them.

Green Fetching
Pattern: Fetching
Yarn: Malabrigo in colorway 37
Yardage: less than one 216 yard skein
Needles: US size 6
Gauge: 21 st = 4 in
Modifications: Omitted the picot bind off.

Purple Fetching
Pattern: Fetching
Yarn: Knitting Fever Peru Luxury DK in colorway 05
Yardage: less than one 124 yard skein
Needles: US size 5
Gauge: 22 st = 4 in
Modifications: I knit three extra rounds before the thumb. Omitted the picot bind off.

I made these mittens for my sister. My intention was to make her the mittens and a rubblework scarf using this fabric. Well, I realized that wasn’t going to happen so instead I serendipitously found this squirrel bottle bag — I don’t know anything about this seller, they just had a decent photo — on sale at Oilily. And the best thing is my sister is smart enough to appreciate the handmade and the Oilily, I’m not sure anyone else in my family would appreciate both.

Squirrel and Oak Mittens
Pattern: Squirrel and Oak Mittens by Adrian of HelloYarn
Yarn: Lana Gatto Wool Gatto in colorways 20495 and 2290
Yardage: less than one 165 yard skein of each color
Needles: US size 3
Gauge:
Modifications: I didn’t knit the year on the tops of the mittens, I just knit that part in the natural color.

Enough with the bragging, don’t you think. How about admitting that I gave Papa yardage of brown wool flannel, wool tweed, and two patterns for Christmas. I heard Katrina ask him Does Mommy think you want to make something with that? Uh, yeah. Merry Christmas and by the way you still need a zipper. The pants and a coat will end up being more like MLK Day gifts.

There’s also the holiday gifts for Stefan’s cousins who will be 13 this year. I never know what to get them so I heard from a reliable source that the tweens/teens are into the fingerless gloves. These girls live in southern California so their climate is right for them too. An email exchange with their mom clued me into their favorite colors and a great gift idea was formed. Unfortunately, the first pair didn’t materialize until New Year’s Day and the second pair will hopefully happen this week.

Next offense: My brother was dropping hints all Autumn that he wanted me to make him a sweater. Well, it’s started but there is a long way to go, a really long way. Did I mention that he’s 6′4″? He hasn’t seen the yarn yet, since we haven’t seen him since over a week before Christmas. I hope he likes it because, it’s a whole lot of yarn.

The last and latest gift is for my sister-in-law who celebrated her birthday at the beginning of December. She actually doesn’t have her Christmas gift yet either but I’m not making that at least. She lives in Colorado so she’s getting a pair of warm mittens for the days she walks to work.

So, 2007 was a pretty good year on the crafting front. There are 84 photos in my Finished - 2007 set on flickr. Even I’m a little impressed by that. I’m particularly happy with how many new things I learned in 2007. Let’s review, shall we?

First, in knitting, thanks to Larissa I learned to knit socks. All in all I finished six pairs of socks plus two pairs of baby booties this year. Ten sweaters came off the needles and while all but one were child sized I’m still very happy about that. I made my first Elizabeth Zimmerman sweater and my first colorworked yoke sweater both for urchin number two. Katrina didn’t get quite as many sweaters but she was definitely the main beneficiary of my newfound sewing skills…

I think 2007 might just be remembered as the year I learned to sew. Wow, I’m so happy I finally conquered my fear. There have been a lot of pajamas and quite a few dresses. I even made my sister a bag. I also made my first quilt in 2007 and my second, third, fourth, and fifth as well. They were all doll quilts but I have full-sized quilt love for them all.

There was plenty of food in 2007 although not too much of it made it onto the blog. I’m glad that some jam made into some of your homes though. Lots of paper stuff happened as well including garlands, folders, and altered bottles. And let’s not forget the altered tin for Father’s Day — one of my favorite projects from the whole year.

We played games, we gave gifts, we swapped, we had two great birthday parties, and took about a million photos. So 2008 has some big shoes to fill. What do I have planned? Knitting wise I’d like to make more socks using a variety of techniques. I’d like to conquer a lace project and I am going to knit a sweater for Papa. At the sewing machine I want to continue to improve my garment-making skills and conquer my fear of knits. I also want to make a bed-sized quilt top — I’ll probably send it out to be quilted. I want to tell you more about some of the great food we’re eating and I really want to try to compost less of our CSA share each week. Thank you guys for being such a great inspiration to me, and not just when it comes to being crafty. Your talent in knitting, sewing, mommy-ing — making in all regards — inspires me everyday. And that you take the time to tell me you enjoy what I make is really wonderful to me. Ready or not 2008, here we come.