Little Dana... weighing in at 16lbs 10oz! We had our 4 month check-up on Monday and our pediatrician said that we could start introducing rice cereal and other pureed fruits and veggies. But I don't think mama is ready! He is still solely on breast milk... and even though I have the Beaba BabyCook from Williams-Sonoma and a lovely baby food cookbook, both gifts from my grandmother that I am soooo excited about... I am just not ready for the spoon. I can't explain it! My friend, another new mama, assured me that they don't go directly to college after their first bite of food, but I think I am leaning closer to the six-month mark to begin our adventures at the table. However, I have been making a series of iron-on T-shirts with a food theme. The first is an album cover...

The second is a scan of the cookbook that my mom fed my sisters and me from. It's this wonderfully worn little paperback called Feed Me, I'm Yours. I must have picked up a slightly-used T-shirt from the laundry pile, because when I hit this one with the iron, the familiar aroma of baby spit wafted up. He looks so sweet in his Ts and cloth diapers! The only thing he's eating right now is his hand!
One T-shirt left to decorate... Still knitting the Monkeys... Still living with my folks!

Last week, I had two days off in row with a terrible cold, which makes for good knitting time... I finished the six repeats of the cuff of my first Monkey sock, the most popular sock pattern on Ravelry. I think I was about the 9,0005th person to cast-on for these.



I felt so badly on Friday, I didn't want to hold the baby all day and risk getting him sick(er.) So he spent most of the day kicking and cooing on his playmat/toy canopy thingy. And then... he rolled over!!! Again and again, I lost count at about nineteen times. I snapped a quick video with the camera to send to his aunties who live up north.

On Saturday, we celebrated my first mother's day early because I had to go to work on Sunday. We went to a wonderful plant nursery, and I got a red tea rose to trellis on our front porch and a pretty decent sized Japanese Maple to plant in the front yard. D. bought a white oak (Quirkus alba) to plant in honor of his son. Pics to come!

I miss my home! Shortly before The Flood, my one true love hung our front porch swing, creating a new knitting and tea-sipping nook. He also planted about a dozen large white azaleas for me to enjoy! I leave a wonderfully colorful acrylic afghan (crocheted by my mother, back in the day) out front for extra comfort. My friend who taught me how to knit was horrified at my love of acrylic thrift-store sweaters... and I have another confession to make-- I love acrylic blankets too! They are so easy to wash and are good for outdoor use! I also want to get a recycled plastic rug for the front porch to give the area a more home-y feel.

I'm still suffering from a terrible cold, complete with runny nose, cough, sore throat, headache, occasional sweats... Yuck! The good news is that baby is muuuuccccch better than mama. He has an occasional lingering cough and a boogie or two that needs aspirating. His daddy is an angel, letting me sleep in and trying to convince me to go to the doctor. How about casting on for the Monkey socks instead?

Where have we been all this time? Homeless... well, staying at Mama D's Bed and Breakfast. Shortly after my last post, our house flooded due to a major plumbing disaster, and we moved in with my parents. The repairs are still underway. In fact, we JUST got around to agreeing on and ordering our new flooring. I got lovely new kitchen tile out of the deal, so that is my silver lining. Also, it has been wonderful staying with my mama! Every woman needs a wife! She has been so much help as I've juggled work and motherhood. And to top it off, both baby and I have a cold. I'm feeling like a total slug today, sipping a cup of Nursing Tea and watching the baby doze on the couch.

What's knitting, you ask? The Orange Daisies are complete, save for the ends being woven in. While grabbing life's essentials out of my house and not-so-carefully throwing them in the back seat of my wagon, I selected three balls of sock yarn... Ok, it's been taking me about a month to knit a pair of socks, and we're probably only out of our house for another week and a half... So I'm not too clear on the logic there; let's just say I was in a panic.

Two of my selections were yarn I bought last May at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. I was so sad that I wasn't able to make it this year. What a different place I am in! Last year, I was a few weeks pregnant and didn't know it... Now, I am a working mother.

Baby, daddy, and I were in D.C. last weekend, and we didn't even go to a yarn store! Can you believe it? I am still yarn fasting. We did go to the lovely Textile Museum, though. Baby's First Museum!

Spring is over... It's getting pretty darn warm here, and the mosquitos chase us inside after late afternoon stroller rides. Before the flood, I packed up all my hand-knit socks and moved them to the attic! Bye-bye, winter!

The Jaywalkers are complete! Yes, that means I wove the ends in and everything! Now I'm meditating on my next sock pattern and yarn choices... My husband is encouraging me to continue to branch out with my sock choices, knitting ones that are more complicated and fancy-looking (and therefore take longer to complete.) I have so many pairs of 4x4 ribbed socks in my drawer that it's not like I'm knitting them out of necessity for warmth anymore. Sooo, I really love these daisy eyelet socks or there's Pomatomus by the famous Cookie A... Pulled out the box of yarn from underneath the guest bed and chose a brilliant orange Casbah sock yarn by Handmaiden.

This is an old post! Here are the socks in progress... the Orange Daisies.

Last night, while watching The Secret Life Of Bees with my mom and sister and sleeping babe, I cast-on for the Organic Guernsey in Blue Sky Organic Cotton. This morning, with a mug of Earl Grey in progress and before the sweater was joined for working in the round, I slipped the baby into the yoke of the pullover... It already fits! Granted, he was wearing a sleeper underneath, but he's not even three months yet! I think I either have an exceptionally big baby or I didn't get gauge. The thinking is that perhaps I shoud cast-on with size 8 (or even 9) needles and knit the largest size (18 months.) However, I only have two balls of yarn, so I may end up running out. I could always do the ribbing in another tone?

This project is still languishing, untouched in the fiber basket.

The moebius Easter baskets are felted and drying. They look so cute. I wish I had a staircase to set them on the steps and take a sweet picture, like the one in Cat Bordhi's book. We are having the baby christened on Easter Sunday and going out for a dutch-treat lunch afterwards. Yesterday, my mother-in-law and I went shopping to scope out the local availability of christening gowns, and she also brought over my husband's gown to try on the wee one. It was a little on the small side to use, but I snapped a few pics to remember the moment by. He looks like this doll named Victoria that I had as a little girl... Will have to resurrect a pic of her!

I need to be outside in the sunny, breezy afternoon, so it's time to go... Look what I baked for lunch! Black cherry & bourbon brownie-cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I used organic dairy yogurt though, because it's all I had.

The wee one is 10 weeks old today! I have two more weekends of maternity leave, and then it's back to work on April 7th... To be honest, I'm getting cold feet! I can't really complain about my schedule-- I work something like: a day on, a day off, a day back on. This will probably kill our social life (ha!) and our ability to go far distances on the weekends, but at least I won't have to be separated from my baby for two days in a row.

My goal is to breastfeed/express breastmilk exclusively for the first six months and nurse in tandem with baby foods for at least the first year. We will see how this first month back at work goes... how I manage, I mean. My goal (I realize I keep talking about goals) is to be superduper organized-- all scrubs ironed and meals shopped for and prepped as much as possible-- one week at a time. This will cut down on time spent doing the chores of living and more time to bathe and snuggle with baby on work days.

Really, I haven't gotten the baby in much of a routine. For instance, he barely napped on Tuesday and slept almost all day yesterday. I feed on demand/cue during the day and am working toward a midnight/1 am feeding and one when we wake up for work around 5 am. Baby and I travelled to Florida two weeks ago, and he's been sleeping in his own crib, in his own room since then. It has helped us both sleep for longer stretches, since I don't hear every sigh and coo. I've spent some energy working on his nursery, which was terribly unfinished when he was born, and we've been spending some of our free time hanging out in his room. I hung a lovely Amish quilt that was given to me by my Aunt Pam on the wall, organized his cupboard, and hung a little shelf of Hummels, the cutest German kiddos you've ever seen. The rocking chair was my great-grandmothers, draped in the yellow Never Ending Baby Blanket that I made for him.

In knitting, plowing away on the second Jaywalker... The gusset shaping is complete, just knitting onward toward the toe shaping. I felted the three moebius baskets last night, using my mom's top loader. Pics to come! Still have not begun any purposeful knitting. Alas, it seems like I won't get a "real" project completed during my maternity leave.

The first picture is baby enjoying himself in Florida... the Garden of Eden...

What have we been up to? Knitting in the hammock...

Sleeping in...

Experimenting with cloth diapering...

These are the Bum Genius brand. I've also used some hand-me-downs and some homemade ones. The diapers I sewed were using the Rita's Rump Pocket pattern. The Bum Genius definitely take the cake for ease of use. They are the most like standard disposable diapers that I have used. They also seem to wick away moisture the best and don't seem as cold on baby's little tush. There are some very high-tech sewing patterns and materials out there to hand-sew diapers that are very similiar to these, but I'm not sure if my skills are up to snuff. I have followed Stephanie Japel, at Glam Knits, through her diaper-sewing adventures to get most of my information. My goal is to cloth diaper on my off-days and use a disposable such as Seventh Generation on the days when I have to work. I think the cloth gives the skin a rest while cutting down on all the waste!

Finishing up the last of the mitered hanging towels...

a lovely trio in bold colors to match some of my favorite kitchen items, a yellow picnic-y checkered table cloth, an embroidered wall-hanging made by my sister (lyrics from a Joanna Newsom song), and little candle-holders from Pakistan, given to me by my friend Julia.

You know what they say: Out with the old red station wagon!

And in with the new(er) red station wagon!

The little one is wearing a variety of custom baby things this morning... Actually, we've already gone through two other outfits. Lost one to spit up and the other to a massive poo blow-out. I thought I'd take a picture of this one, since it includes some homemade items that he is fast outgrowing.

The britches were sewn from the Crescent Moon Yoga Pants pattern by Little Comet Tails. I love this fabric because it reminds me of old man bath robes. The onesie is something that I ironed-on on a whim... I guess that's what listening to a Scottish highland romance time-travel novel does to a girl. The hoodie is a gift from Aunt Lolly.

And mama is wearing... non-elastic jeans today!!!

The poor man's pantry... that's what we're working with today. Feeling particularly broke, I've drafted a list of six meals that I can prepare this week almost entirely from the cupboard. I'm in need of a half-dozen or so items from the grocery store, so I'm hoping to feed my family this week on a budget of twenty dollars. Simmering on the stove right now is a pot of organic brown rice and green split peas, which will be the base of a soup for tonight. The recipe is from The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook by Cathe Olson. I purchased this cookbook online when I was pregnant, and at first, I was disappointed with the simplicity of the recipes. Then I realized that this might be the key to successful vegetarian pregnancy and postpartum... cheap, easy, hearty and healthy meals. I lived on the pumpkin scones with my morning cup of milky black tea for many months of my pregnancy.

Happily, I'm realizing that the pantry includes all of the ingredients needed for another loaf of the Rosewater Pound Cake from Veganomicon!

On the thrifty knitting front, I've completed the three moebius baskets (except for felting.) I'll post the baskets-- they just look like not-very-impressive bags until felting-- in the order that they were knitted.

This morning, I cast-on for a tea mug cozy in warm heathered gray Cascade 220. The pattern is from the Holiday 2007 issue of Interweave Knits.

The surprise party was a success... and it made for a sleepy weekend. Saturday was a rainy day, spent by sitting around with coffee or bloody Mary (choose your weapon) in hand and telling stories with my husband's family. My mother-in-law made an out-of-this-world brunch, and because everyone was dying to hold the baby, I got lots of knitting time in! We were expecting bad weather on Sunday night, so we took dog and baby to my folks' house and spent the night. Even though we didn't get snow or ice, it was so cozy sitting by their hearth and around their kitchen table. I'm going to miss this tea and wool weather.

I thought I would post Aunt Ione's Coleslaw recipe because it was such a hit at the party.

Aunt Ione's Coleslaw
Finely shred and toss together in large bowl:
1 medium head green cabbage
2-3 carrots
1 green pepper
1/2 to 1 red onion
sliced green olives (to taste)
Bring to a boil the following ingredients for the marinade:
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup oil
2/3 cup sugar
1 teasp salt
1 teasp celery seed
1 teasp yellow mustard
Pour the boiling marinade over the slaw and do not stir until serving time.

Two of three moebius baskets are complete, except for felting. I'm feeling the urge to start a significant knitting project, a sweater for me or the babe, to accomplish during my time off from work. I have enough stash yarn for several types of projects. I'm vacillating between Estes Vest and the popular February Lady Sweater.

I used this video by Cat Bordhi to relearn how to do the moebius cast-on and to remember how to count the number of stitches that have been cast-on. I only had to do it twice before I got the hang of it again. I've made one successful moebius basket, a pink one for me, in a class at In the Loop in Columbia. My pink basket resides in my pink bathroom, Pretty Paradise. My next moebius was a disaster-- It was supposed to be a cowl and ended up being more of a jump rope. I think I cast-on twice as many stitches as were needed and didn't even realize it until I was binding off! Although I don't understand the mathematics of a moebius, it makes me feel very clever when knitting one and tracing the line with my finger.

My current moebius basket is in several shades of blue... it's for the little one. I will knit up three or four before felting, probably. His daddy's will be green and gold. I might even make a Clemson Tigers one. Cascade 220 stash, be gone!

While the little man sleeps today, I have to shred two heads of cabbage (everyone knows it's best if you do it by hand!) and some of the other fixings for coleslaw. My father-in-law turns seventy this weekend, and we are hosting a surprise party at our place on Friday night. I'm in charge of a double batch of coleslaw, six pounds of potato salad, and if feeling like a total overachiever, another rosewater pound cake. This afternoon, we go to The City for our six-week checkup with the midwives. For supper tonight: Wheat Meat Stroganoff. Other not-so-crafty things that must be done today... wash the guest bed sheets, wash the dog.

The little man is wearing this hilarious bright yellow sleeper with blue and green robots, planets and rockets. It reminds me of the Highwoods String Band album Feed Your Babies Onions (so you can find them in the dark!) Hmmm... that would make a great iron-on transfer onesie!

These two pics taken back-to-back... They don't call it a pacifier for nothing.

I've made a pact with myself to do something creative, no matter how small, everyday of my maternity leave. Now that I'm at the half-way point, it occurred to me that it might be a good time to revitalize this blog space. Yesterday's adventures included baking a rosewater pound cake and finishing the knitting of one Jaywalker sock. Baby Dane and I nursed throughout the day to the audiobook Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon.

The sock reminds me of a snake, stretched out flat like this...

I think I might take a quick break from the Jaywalker socks (the double decrease hurts my hands a bit) to crank out a quickie distraction project. I was drooling over a Williams-Sonoma catalog that came in the mail and realizing that I couldn't afford anything out of it, when I got the idea to knit moebius Easter baskets for my boys. I can use Cascade 220 stash yarn and make them for free! Yum, I can just see them on the lowboy on Easter morning filled with Reese's Easter eggs, quite possibly the best thing about being a regular old vegetarian and eating dairy again!

I'm also eyeing the Garter stitch mug cozie pattern from IK's Holiday Gifts 2007 issue. I know I have this magazine somewhere... just when I thought I had my crafting supplies organized... Another great use for my bag of Cascade 220 . Here is the mug I want to keep warm, my 2008 Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair mug:

My final distraction will be a third Mitered Hanging Towel from the second Mason-Dixon book. In red.

testing testing