In other wardrobe news, the little guy is quickly growing into the sweater that my dear friend Morgan knitted for him. She was the smart one, knitting things much larger than good ole mama here did. The sweater is knit from Cascade 220, a nice all-purpose wool that, best of all, can be purchased right in Orangeburg County... I know he will get a lot of good use out of it this fall at LEAF.

I think I forgot to mention that I won a lot of vintage buttons, complements of Baby Cocktails, in the Knitters Against MS Fundraiser on Claudia's blog. I donated in honor of my friend's father who passed this year. I didn't expect to win a prize... which made it all the sweeter. The buttons are perfect in light of my recent sewing adventures. Next, I will sew another romper (in the 18-24 mos. size) out of blue corduroy with embroidered trucks and use some of these lovely buttons.

Morgan is coming over to knit today... I have a little goal to reach. If I can complete one Jaywalker (they are pooling badly since shaping the gusset, which is not really motivating me) then I will allow myself to whip up a little hat for my boy. I'm so worried that he's going to be cold at LEAF!

FO: Feather Romper

Yesterday, while Little D. was napping, I finished the Tea Party Romper. I discovered this pattern by Oliver + S on the blog A Mingled Yarn. I finally splurged and bought the pattern not too long ago. I wasn't sure if my sewing skills were up to snuff, but I managed to start and finish the project all by my lonesome. No one wanted to sew with me! I struggled to take some pics of the little one modeling the garment. He's not really into holding still these days, so a flash is a necessary evil! I also took several pics of the romper on the front porch swing too. I concentrated very hard on my buttonholes and made several trial ones on a scrap of fabric. Then I proceeded to sew, reinforce, and clip my buttonholes on the garment, only to realize that I had sewed them on the front of the bodice instead of the back! I just sewed the buttons over them and kept right on going! I added a little tag, an old Levi's label, that reads "We sew our own" in honor of my independent sewing adventures (who cares about a few little mistakes!?)

I have a confession to make... I love Coinstar. You know, those things in the grocery store where you can cash in your piggybank for real money? I get amazon.com gift certificates and use it to splurge on little things for the boy without feeling guilty. I ususally buy him board books, but last week, I cashed the piggybank in for some American Apparel baby clothes and Sophie the giraffe, an overpriced teething toy that is so precious and old-timey looking that I couldn't resist. Here are some pics of him playing (in his new shirt) in his toy basket (Sophie is in there somewhere) this morning. Ok, he didn't exactly crawl in there by himself... but he was hamming it up on his own while I snapped a few pictures. He'll probably be too big to fit him inside a pumpkin when Halloween rolls around, right? Oooh, that reminds me that I need to start thinking about costumes. Any ideas/suggestions?

Here's a little teaser... some of the new skills we've been tackling lately. We also met the milestone, Baby's First Fever, this week. Guess what else?! Four days off in a row!!! Ooh, the mail-lady just left... Let's see, what did she bring? Jackpot-- the mortgage statement. Why is this a good thing? Because our loan/escrow account was reassessed, and the monthly payment went down about thirty bucks, that's why! What else? A package of goodies for the little one. He's asleep, so I'm going to tear into this package, and then maybe try to make some pumpkin scones in the food processor.

I have a confession to make... my bathroom has a name, and it's Pretty Paradise. You see, my bathroom is pink (with lavender tile on the floor.) This weekend-- Saturday, August 23rd-- marks our second anniversary in our home, and we moved here from a little lake house with only one bathroom that had a small stand-up shower. You see, I am a bath-taker. I knitted myself a special-edition lavendar cotton washcloth to commemorate my first bath as a homeowner.

When we bought our house, we decided to embrace the very 1970s bathrooms, instead of viewing them as a flaw. I bought a lovely floral shower curtain, began taking long baths nightly, and made a fairly stringent No-Boys-Allowed rule. Pretty Paradise has been completely disrupted since The Flood. In April, the toliet in the yellow bathroom (aka the men's restroom) ran and ran all day (on my third day back to work after maternity leave) with a broken donut or seal or something (excuse me for not knowing anything about plumbing, but you get the gist...) and flooded our entire home. We had to tear up the flooring and were out of our house for over a month, during which time our son quit sleeping through the night due to the disruption. We moved home in May but never took the time to fix our plumbing issues. When the toliet in Pretty Paradise started leaking around the base, it was time to take action! I was also tired of finding wood chips, beard hairs, and toliet seats in the upright position in my pink bathroom.

While the plumbers were here to fix both toliets, they installed the new faucet I ordered online. I knew exactly what I wanted, but it took me a fair amount of time to find it. It looks soooooooo cute! Here is the old faucet. The knob that held the hot water handle in place fell down the drain... and it was a bit rusty.

And here is my shiny new one!

What a forgetful day I've had! I changed up my routine a little bit this morning-- I didn't wake the little man up to nurse, but he woke up anyway as I was leaving. I ended up walking out the door with him in my arms, getting in one quick snuggle, instead of the lunch I had packed. Later at work when I took my first pumping break, I realized I didn't pack any milk storage bags either! If there hadn't been another breastfeeding mother on the job, I don't know what I would have done... Pump into sterile specimen cups or a colostomy bag??? I had to stay late for a training tonight, so I didn't get to see the little one at all when I got home. Man, that lunch made a good supper, though! I made a cauliflower-mushroom potpie with an olive biscuit crust from the Veganomicon cookbook last night for supper. It was a definite do-over.

The little one has been doing the cutest things lately... sleeping on his belly with his little rump in the air... and he's figured out how to get into a seated position by himself. It's a four-step process that involves rolling to his belly, getting up on his knees and then plopping back on his bottom to play. The past two mornings when I've gone to get him out of his crib, he's been just babbling and playing and sitting upright like a real little kid. I can put him on the rug in the den with a basket of toys, and he will rifle through it like he's at a rummage sale, playing with it all (which means putting it in his mouth or banging it on the ground.) He does a lot of "revving" and rocking on his hands and knees. Here is a video of him rocking out in his crib--

He seems soooo ready to crawl, with just a few minor details to work out. With all of his activity, there hasn't been much knitting lately. I cast-on my my sister's Jaywalker socks on the way to the airport for our Vermont trip. I did the second size of the pattern (84 stitch cast-on, I believe?) and I hope they are not going to be too large. My sister has long, narrow feet. I was so surprised and excited when she asked for handknit socks, and I want them to be right. She plans to only wear them as house socks, but I think she will discover how practical they are and how nothing else really compares! She just moved to London, so I know she will get good use out of them.

P.S. After typing this post (in the spirit of being forgetful) I left a whole bag of freshly-expressed milk out overnight! Ack.

Vermont is for knitters! I had such a relaxing, wonderful time in the Huntington/Burlington area for my dear friend's wedding this past weekend. I narrowly avoided a knitting disaster with the Flower Basket Shawl, and it turned out PERFECT (if I do say so myself!) Two Sundays ago, as we were driving to Charleston to take my sister to the airport, I somehow lost the pattern to shawl... It must have fallen out the car at some point with all the loading and unloading of sister, luggage, baby, stroller, etc. On the same road trip, I knitted up the last few yards of my last skein of yarn with five rows and the bind-off left to complete the project! It was not my day... My friend who taught me how to knit, Dawn from California who is pregnant with a little boy, emailed me the pattern with lightening speed-- Thanks, Dawn! One disaster down, one to go. I guess the yarn shortage wouldn't have been that big of a deal if I hadn't run out on Sunday, discovered that the yarn store (in Columbia, one hour+ away) was closed on Monday, and scheduled myself to work from 7am to 7pm on Tuesday. That left me only Wednesday to procure the yarn, finish knitting the shawl, pack our family, and ready the house for leaving Thursday morning. Then what about blocking??? While at work on Tuesday, I called the store and had a momentary freak-out that the yarn was sold out. I realized at this point that maybe I should have ripped back the last repeat and made the shawl slightly smaller instead of waiting and packing all day on Monday! The wonderful and friendly store owner at In The Loop, Lara, found me a skein, and my mom drove to Columbia to pick it up. How am I 29 years old and my mom is still taking care of me? Anyway, moving on... I finished the shawl Wednesday morning and decided not to block it (which I wasn't exactly sure how to do) until I got to Vermont. The good news about this is that I would get to visit a local VT yarn store! On Friday in Vermont, after some coffee and maple syrup, we drove to Essex Junction to the knitter's heaven, Kaleidoscope Yarns. The shopkeepers were so helpful, and so I had to pick up a few extra souvenirs... the long-coveted Namaste Newport bag in the saddle color... a ball of Opal Rainforest yarn in Daggy... and the super-cute Prehistoric Pals pattern by Knitting at Knoon. My kid needs a Noro Triceratops!.. Oh, and I picked up some T-pins for blocking. The shawl was blocked and dry by Friday night... Here is a picture of it blocking on the daybed in our room at Sleep Hollow Inn. Honestly, I had little idea what I was doing when I pinned it out. I figured the bride was going to be holding still very much, so it didn't matter if it wasn't perfectly symmetrical. I would love to become a better blocker... as I see more lace shawls on the horizon.

Here is the lovely bride in the FO!

Nooknook pics, posted especially for Aunt Lolly-

-

Dinner is simmering, the boy is down for the count in a spiffy new pair of PJs... Ah, where were we? He is eating like a champ... peas, carrots, rice, oats, sweet potatoes, winter squash, apples, bananas, plums, blueberries, peaches... His first (and only) spice was cinnamon. Here is a picture from his first feeding. He started off fairly interested, shoveling down bite after bite of liquidy rice cereal. He eventually was making terrible faces, even at an empty spoon... and then tried to escape from the Bumbo chair all-together.

While Daddy D. was away in California, we sent him this picture via cellphone. The baby began sitting up unsupported the very day his dad flew cross-country! My mom thought it would be fun to wash him in the kitchen sick, now that he's a big boy and can sit up on his own. We ended up with a very wet kitchen, but got this sweet snapshot in return. We tried some organic rice cereal after a family nap on the day his dad arrived back home in SC. Pics to come!

No knitting pics today. My camera is in California... with my husband. The little one and I are roughing it without daddy for a week+ while he climbs giant redwood trees with friends on the west coast. To make matters worse, Aunt Lolly went with him! What are we going to do without them?!

I've completed five repeats for Laura D.'s wedding shawl... Made up the bed with soft, secondhand, girly-licious pink and purple sheets... Picking out paint colors to re-paint the entire house... Trying to remember to do all the things he does for us. This list is rather long-- making sure the dog and cat are fed, watering the veggie pots, making childcare/dogcare arrangements on my workdays, figuring out healthy meals on my workdays, and on and on. Well, last night supper was a spinach and cheddar omelet with oven fries, but you know what I mean.

Little D. and I are waiting for the arrival of a new friend, the Myers baby, due any day now. We don't know if we are waiting on a little boy or a little girl, so it is even more exciting. I don't want to call and bug them-- I remember ALL the is-he-here-yet calls I got when I went into my 40th and then 41st week of pregnancy. It's not like I was going to forget to tell the biggest news of my life. The birth of my son was the most grueling and euphoric experience of my life, and I cannot wait for Jennifer to experience birth and her new identity as a mother.

What is my little guy doing these days? He babbles a lot now... "Da-da-da-da" was the first syllable, which thrilled his father to no end. The baby was clearly saying daddy, right? I'm using these 10 days while he's in California to work on "ma-ma-ma-ma," especially while nursing, ha! He can sit up without support now. He topples over every so often, but he can sit and play and look around. He loves the view from off the ground! He doesn't want to lay and kick in the bathtub anymore... He wants to sit up and splash with his hands. We meant to try cereal before Dana left for California, but there just wasn't time. I think when he comes home, I will be ready for our adventures in food.

My grandmother's 89th birthday was last weekend. We gave her the digital frame that we have been working on with over 300 family photos. Here are a few of my favorites-- her as a young mother with my uncle, and then six years later with my father.

I had two days off in a row... so back to Edisto I went. While the kiddo was napping and everyone else in the family was sunning on the beach, I cast-on for the Flower Basket Shawl. I was desperate to get knitting, so I had to use a piece of twine and my finger as a crochet hook for the provisional cast-on! The Mirasol Nuna knits up nicely, is very soft, and has a pretty sheen. I'm using a size US 8 needle, which might be too large for this lace pattern... but I'm learning as I go. This is my first lace shawl, and the first time I've done much chart-reading. I finished the Upper Flower Basket chart on the beach, having to rip back once for a missed yo. Otherwise, it's been smooth sailing, and I am working on the second Lower Flower Basket repeat now. Since every other row is purling, I get a little break. I need to blow the chart up on a photocopier because it kills my eyes. Here is a WIP photo of the first twenty-four rows.



My knitting nook got a face-lift. I ordered a recycled plastic rug for the front porch to jazz it up a bit. Speaking of places to knit, I read on Ravelry about a yarn store in Summerville called the Village Knittery. It looks lovely and very well-stocked. I feel a field trip to Summerville coming on!

I am proud to report that the Monkey mission was accomplished! I finished the socks before the clock struck midnight on my birthday... In fact, around midnight I was wearing them while eating a big bowl of icecream. I had a lovely, lazy birthday, complete with blueberry pancakes, lots of knitting time while my sisters entertained the little one, a late afternoon on the beach, and then a glorious thunderstorm. Four days in a sleepy beach town is a good way to knit a sock... but I had a good headstart. My local knitting friend, Morgan and I traveled to Columbia to the Thursday night Stitch & Bitch at In the Loop on Devine Street. The Columbia knitters are so nice to host us when we are able to drop in to knit. I bought three skeins of Mirasol Nuna, a lovely merino, silk and bamboo blend to knit the Flower Basket Shawl for my friend Laura. I think I might cast-on today...

It's funny that the one thing I didn't request for my birthday was yarn... (A coworker and fellow knitter came through and gave me a ball of Noro Silk Garden sock yarn anyway!!!) This is very unlike me. There are a few knitting accessories I have been craving... I would like to try some of the Knit Picks needles (size 1 dpns for socks, of course-- nickle-plated and wooden, if you're out there reading, honey) and I love the Namaste knitting bags. But lately, I've been feeling like I have more yarn (and STUFF, in general) than I know what to do with. That said, the gorgeous ball of Noro is the only thing that got me through a long, busy day on the job. Four days off will ruin a person, apparently.

Ah, what a lovely day off! Still in the cut-off sweats & drinking coffee at 10am... Is this too much information? Please don't visualize the tangled curls and crooked glasses! Just finished kitchener stitching the toe of my Lotus Monkey sock. It is a perfect fit, and I loooove the pattern. My next socks will definitely be another Cookie A. pattern. I have crossed a few things off the to-do list this morning... mostly things that can be done over the phone/internet. Been padding around the house with one new sock on my foot, listening to WNCW online, hanging out on the front porch swing to enjoy the blooming lavender. It's been a busy morning! My goal is the complete the second Monkey by my 29th birthday-- June 16th. Is this possible? It has been taking me an average of one month to complete a sock. I will be spending four days relaxing on Edisto Island next week, so it MIGHT be an attainable goal. We shall see. Better start casting-on... Here is the solo Monkey... I love the background details of my life.. Pup-chewed ottoman, new wood floors, crocheted baby blanket, one bare foot-- oh, and those cut-off sweats...

There are a few new projects on the horizon, including socks for my sister who is moving to London. I will have her take a look at the stash sometime soon... Second is a triangular lace shawl that I will give to my college roommate as a wedding gift. I am thinking of knitting the Flower Basket Shawl by Evelyn Clark, which seems like a simple enough first lace shawl. I will have to go shopping for the right yarn for this project.

What's new with the little one? I had to work Saturday and Monday... So we made the most of our Sunday... Early morning coffee on the front porch and then a boat ride on the lake. We splurged on a bimini top for my dad's boat (a thank-you for letting us crash with them for over a month while our house was under construction.) This makes for shade for mama and baby... Soooo nice! He did great on the boat-- covered in sunscreen and then wrapped like a gypsy in my Kenyan sarong. He got to kick around in the lake with Dad too.

Home sweet home! We cleaned all day last Friday... Then enjoyed a day at the Iris Festival at Swan Lake in Sumter. We found a homemade Raggedy Andy for Little D.

Nothing like a festival to give you the worst stomach-ache from lemonade and butterflied french fries! At home (after a bath, a nap, and a rain storm), we caught our second wind and planted our new trees. My japanese maple is now in front of our large bedroom window. My idea is that when the tree grows and branches out, it will provide a privacy screen while still allowing lots of natural light. I have a lovely wall of corn across the street too! We planted the baby's white oak on my favorite side of the yard... with all of our flowering trees, azaleas, shade trees... where we will have a courtyard one day soon. Please pardon the spit-up on my dress...

Is he starting to look like me???

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!