"John the Rabbit, AGAIN!" he says

Locals

Baby's first trip to the library!  After "school" last Monday, we went to the library.  I was put on-call at work due to low patient census, so I ended up with a whole week off to play with my buddy.  Since I don't have any vacation time built up at my new job, I gladly took a little pay cut to have a week to play during my favorite month of the year with my favorite kiddo.

Peggy Parish, the author of the Amelia Bedelia books, was from Clarendon County.  Dana got to "meet" the statue of Amelia Bedelia outside of the library's front entrance.  At first, he was a little shy, and he would only give her knuckles.

 But then he got up enough nerve to really check her out!

As a child, I did not like Dr. Seuss books.  I could do the ABCs until we got to F, and then he lost me on the "fiffer-feffer-feff."  Wha?  Huh?

BUT I LOVED AMELIA BEDELIA!  All of her misunderstanding and sillyness and good-heartedness.  She is a great character, and I can't wait until Dana is old enough to laugh at Peggy Parish's books.  But in the meantime, he looooooves a "Barber, baby, bubbles, and a bumblebee."

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Click here to view these pictures larger

Fruits of my Labor

Baby Lulu's mom happens to be a really cool lady.  She's one of my dearest hometown friends, and I love the way she nonchalantly asks me, "Want to go pick some fruit in the Enchanted Kiwi Forest?"  Of course, the answer is yes!  And then I probably say something like, "What?  You have a kiwi forest?"  I thought we would frolick and the bairns would play... but kiwi picking can be hard work!  Poison ivy, a coyote-beating stick (just in case), and some good old-fashioned sweat.  Good thing both babies were napping in our cars.  Page's in-laws rent 16 acres of kiwi!  I can't wait to go again... I donated most of my kiwi to The Cause (they are selling 7000 to a local CSA), but I have about fifteen furry little brown fruits ripening on the kitchen countertop. 

I've never seen anything like it. 

The tree of life grows, too!  I am on my third repeat of the tree of life design on Lil D. Mo's sweater!

Speaking of little D, he just said, "Dana Out!" so I guess naptime/blogtime is over.

Thunderstorm Knitting

A great dark thundercloud has just rolled over my house... the babe is sleeping... I have a hot cocoa packet left over from camping at LEAF...  Clearly, it's knitting time!  I cast-on for a sweater for my little guy while driving up to the mountains (he calls them "mounts.... big mounts") for LEAF two weekends ago.  It's coming along slowly, steadily. 

Here is my rainy little knitting nook:

It's really coming down!



Baby Lulu Photo Shoot

Finished romper on a precious baby!  These photos were taken a week or so ago, but I haven't made the time to post.  (I did put them on FB so her mother's friends could admire her cuteness, though.)  The romper was a little too big but she is growing like a weed.  I can't believe how well she is holding up that pretty red head.

I can't help but include a few pics of my buddy... taken at a wedding in the Upstate two weekends ago.  I used this cupcake-eating shot for a photo thank-you card on Shutterfly last night.  Big D. was about to kill me because I was making greeting cards at 11pm (but the offer for 10 free cards expired at midnight!! So how could I pass up that deal ?)

 My mom tried to dress the boy is this outfit to go to church last weekend and he went balistic.  I think it's because we were in the car for 6 hours roundtrip for the wedding!  It must bring back bad memories for him.  His daddy and I were so jacked up on lattes that we kept singing "You Got To Fight For Your Right To Paaaaarrrrtttty!"  But we could only remember one verse, so it was pretty bad.  This outfit was a hand-me-down from his cousin Drew who is now a sophomore in high school!

I have been lazy... knitting nothing but washcloths for weeks now.  I did start another little sewing project for Lucy.  Butterfly Bloomers... every gal needs a pair.  The butterflies are making their final hoorah-- it's the twilight of summer.  Today has been the most autumn-like day so far this month.   A nice long, cool morning.  It felt so good in my sunny laundry room, folding clothes on the church pew and soaking up the sun.

The boy has two long sleeve shirts... not much of a Fall wardrobe, and I really really want to knit him a sweater.  I just feel so unmotivated to use my brain to do something New with my hands...  Unless it's making Pumpkin-Cranberry Scones, which have been calling my name for some time now. 

Twenty Months

My baby is soooo close to being 2!  He says "two" a lot now and tries to hold up two fingers, although I'm not sure he knows what it means.  He says "home," mostly when he picks up the phone and pretends to talk.  His conversation is usually something like, "Hello (pronounced ah-lo) Daddy Home."  We are working on colors.  He says blue, yellow and green, although without much rhyme or reason.  Here's a little video of him with my mom and his 90-year-old great-grandmother yesterday. 

Creative Juices

My housework has been sadly neglected this week, as I have tried to spend all of my extra time crafting and creating.  I suppose everyone has the feeling that they want to burn their house down and live a very tidy and simple life, say, out of their station wagon or garden shed... right?

Maybe I could live here?

(don't you love this mysterious place?  I'm not sure what it is... but it's behind the hardware shop in town)

I had a long weekend for Labor Day and decided to pull the fabric out from underneath the guest bed... I wanted to put my days off to good use, so I thought I would sew a little romper for "Baby Lulu," the nickname D. has given to by friend's daughter, Lucy.  I have lots of great girly fabrics, many of which were purchased in very small quantities when I was either dreaming of quilts or didn't have much of a plan. 

Meet Baby Lulu:

She's a redhead... and nothing looks finer on a redhead than green.  I just happened to have this bright green fabric with dogwood blooms in my stash, so I decided to make Lucy the Oliver + S pattern that I made for D. last year. 

It is mostly-finished... I am befuddled by the snap-tape that I am somehow supposed to install in the crotch.  I know it is important, but it is so tricky too!  I skipped this step on the romper I made for baby D. and regretted it.  It is a pain to have to wiggle a baby in and out of a jumpsuit for a diaper change, and I want Lucy to get plenty of wear out of it before it cools off for autumn.

I feel entitled to typing up this post because the babe is asleep, and I am completely ready for work tomorrow... The scrubs are ironed (yes, I iron my scrubs)... the supper is cooked... (Not Yo Mama's Pot Roast-- a new recipe today since it did not involve going to the grocery store)... the coffee pot is set... the automobile has sufficient gasoline. 

Believe it or not, this beauty is vegetarian!

The boy picked my mom (he calls her Ma) one of the last zinnias around.  Here is the view from my kitchen sink-- I think it's pretty lovely.

I cranked out a few washcloths for my kitchen-- There were a few new colors of kitchen cotton at our local yarn purveyor (haha!.. that would be Wal-Mart), and sometimes the littlest things make me happy.  Well not sometimes... most of the time. 

Other Firsts... and a Lace re-bound

This week we had another big first... the first day of "school."  We signed Little D. up for a Mother's Morning Out (MMO) program at a local church. He goes from 9am to noon on my workdays. and it gives his babysitter a little break.  We also thought it might be time to socialize our little wild animal.  He has a sun with his name on it and his own little hook in the classroom to hang his doggie backpack, pronounced  "backback."  It is too cute.   He calls the other children "babies," and if he hears you say the word "school" then he automatically says "backback."

Meanwhile, back at the ranch (house), I have been rebounding from the lace shawl accomplishment with some friendly and simplistic garter stitch wash cloths.  Over a year ago, I asked my friend Mary what she wanted as a gift for her blessingway, and she said some handknit kitchen washrags... Her boy just turned ONE, and I just put them in the mail.  I love me some Mary.  She is my mommy role model.  She sent me the most encouraging text message on Little D.'s first day of school.  "LUV some MMO!"

A few more favorite pics from this week... a family portrait from our VW ride and a very sleepy baby. 

FO: Sarah's Web

At Bayly's wedding in April (after several glasses of wine,) I promised the lovely Sarah a wedding shawl of her own!  After all, it was April... August was so far away.  Plenty of time to plan and to leisurely knit while the little one naps, right?  Well, apparently I love deadline-knitting, knitting under pressure, last minute Lindsey strikes again... etc.  Sarah was a wonderful, flexible, creative bride and let me do absolutely whatever I wanted.  She sent me a sneak preview of the bridesmaid dresses and of her own gown.  Rather than making something to match or 'go with' her wedding dress, which was very romantic and kind of timeless... I thought it would be more fun to have something a little bohemian that would contrast with her dress and hopefully be something she could wear to a future LEAF or under her coat while she's off lawyering in D.C.  I am (again) ashamed of the photos I took. 

The details on the shawl... I chose the Charlotte's Web pattern by Koigu which has been in my Ravelry knitting queue since 2007 and on my to-knit list for much longer... Probably since I saw a sample knitted up at Knit in Charleston.  I put together five skeins of Koigu KPPPM with colors ranging from a peacocky green (the color of the bridesmaid dresses), Sarah's favorite color (a mossy green), yellow (she told me that the lace of her dress was an almost-yellow that was hard to match), browns, and pinks.  While it was on the needles, I thought the green section might look a little too muddled... but when I took it off the needles!  Ah, I was in love.   Here she is, pre-blocked. 

The only post-blocking picture I took...

Baby's First VW Van Ride

It seems as though our family has a lot of "firsts" that are not included in most baby books... For instance, baby's first bluegrass festival... baby's first experimental film screening, baby's first black eye, and baby's first VW van ride.  It was hands-down THE best trip to the grocery store EVER.  We all three went, coupons in hand...large thermos of iced mint tea... taking our time,  plotting future VW adventures.  To make it even better, we ran into a friend who gave us a big container of homemade strawberry icecream.  We even had a spoon at the ready!  Although we've kept the VW legal all these years (insured and properly registered), we have major rust issues and haven't trusted the engine to take us very far.  We are daydreaming of blowing our tax return on her this year and having her ready for Spring LEAF. 

Bayly's Something Blue

I found a few more pics of Bayly's wedding shawl.  I knitted this up with a lovely silvery-blue yarn by Debbie Bliss... believe it was called "Pure Silk."  Bayly picked out the yarn, and I got to choose everything else.  I had to choose a pattern that I knew I could finish by the wedding date deadline, while working, living, chasing little Dana, etc.  I also contemplated knitting this... but wasn't sure if I could pull it off.  Knitters out there seem to have a love/hate relationship with Kidsilk Haze.  I have only attempted to knit with it once, and that project is RIP-ing in my cedar chest.  To my credit, I was making one of my first attempts at lace while knitting on a cross-country road trip in a pick-up truck with a 45 pound dog and a man who believed that riding with the windows down instead of running the AC would give us better gas mileage.   Keep in mind that this yarn is 'airy' and creates a 'cobweb' like fabric... 

The Pure Silk Clapotis was a perfect choice, after all.  I love the one I made for myself years ago, and after making Bayly's, I think it might be nice to have a silk one of my own.  I do have a cone of silk from a San Francisco trip lying around somewhere... now that I mention it.

Had to include a pic of the beautiful bride with my handsome devil in his seersucker suit. 

Getting Up to Speed (January to April 2010)

In January, my baby boy turned one!

I FINALLY finished by sister Lauren's Jaywalker socks, and she FINALLY sent me a picture of them.  My sister Lauren is a bit more style-conscious than I am.... so I was thrilled that she wanted a pair of *my* handknit socks. But you would never know it... since it took me so long to finish them.  I cast on in August and didn't mail them off until January!  Or maybe it was because my little one starting crawling, pulling up, and walking... Lauren thought it was weird to have random sock glamour shots on her digital camera... in my world, that is just the norm. 

In January, I also began knitting a pair of Jaywalkers socks for myself in the most ice-creamy colors I could find.

We also had a reunion of our Charleston Birth Place/Birthing From Within class... It was so great to see the boys together again and to compare notes with other parents.  I hope the boys grow up knowing each other.   Little D. is wearing his Wolverine hoodie in the middle. 

In February, it snowed!

I was with my knitting girlfriends on a little retreat, and Daddy D. brought the wee one out to me so I could see him play in the snow.  (Notice my handknit hat and scarf!)  We dorked out on wool that weekend.  We didn't even finish a bottle of red wine among 4 knitters-- Just stuck to hot tea since no one wanted to drop a stitch. You can read more about it on Knitty Nikki's blog... She's such a better blogger than me!  The snow came at dusk and was gone by late morning the following day-- it was the perfect snowstorm.

February also marked a milestone for my father-in-law.  On his 71st birthday, he was admitted to MUSC to have surgery for esophageal cancer.  He is a former Hokie football player and a diehard Virginia Tech fan.  I knitted him a little VT-inspired cap to keep his head warm and to show his Hokie Pride.

In March, my father-in-law was cancer-free!  Yay!

And I was knitting like crazy on a silvery blue silk Clapotis for my college roommate's wedding day...

In April, I finished the shawl at the last possible minute for Bayly's big day.  She wore it to cut the cake, and it really looked lovely with her dress.  I have to admit that I was nervous about this handknit gift.  Bayly has a very unique style, and she knows what she wants.  I was worried that it wouldn't work with her dress or that she would fee obligated to wear it for my sake.  I think we were both happy with the way it turned out... Unfortunately, I didn't get too many great shots of the Clapotis because of the lighting at the reception.  I will have to see if the photographer got any better pictures.