Viking Tea Party

Spending a Birthday Together

Even though we were 4,000 miles apart last year, Matt made my birthday something really special.  There were banners and balloons hanging behind him when we Skyped that morning and cake with candles (and Matt in a jacket) later on in the day.  Just really nice. 

So you can only imagine what it was like this year since we could finally share the same space on my birthday.  The day started with tea and toast and pastries in bed with cards and lots of fun presents to open.  Fun little presents are the best.  One of my favorite childhood birthday memories is of a giant wrapped box filled with smaller wrapped presents.  In my memory the giant box was a refrigerator box.  More than likely, though, it was a small television box but, still, it's an awesome memory.  

Then we packed a picnic in the hamper he bought for my last birthday and drove out to the beautiful Wardour Castle.  This was the view from our picnic blanket...

 

There was a really good bottle of non-alcoholic wine...

 

...and homemade pasta salad...

...and Ben's Cookies which didn't get photographed but are almost as good as having a birthday cupcake from ele Cake Co. back in Ohio.  Almost.  

And then Matt took some bump photos...

There's a bench full of people behind my bump in this one...

 

This one is my favorite...

 

And on our way home I experienced my first cow crossing! 

 

And that night we had delicious homemade (not by me!) chocolate cake and Matt managed to actually fit 36 candles on it.  I won't post a photo of that, though, 'cause no one needs to see a fire hazard!

I finished a little pair of knitted trousers the other day and will hopefully get to take photos of them later today.  Right now we're waiting for Matt's dad and stepmom to drive down from Oxford for lunch so I should shut down the computer and finish getting ready....

Green & Growing Sweater

Finally - a finished sweater that isn't teeny tiny or a Pebble Sweater Vest!

This is the Offset Wraplan knitted in the 3 - 6 months size with Rowan Extra Fine Merino DK caught on sale for £2.25 a skein which makes this little sweater a steal!  

I'm contemplating adding a little frog face or oak leaf applique but I also like it just the way it is.  The color - Emerald - is bright, cheery and fantastic. 

The pattern is a breeze (except perhaps for picking up stitches for the button and buttonhole packets - it always takes me at least two tries to pick up the correct amount of stitches) but I put it aside for a couple of months due to holes under the arms.  Thankfully a little time out did the sweater good and my second attempt was successful.    

I've been trolling Ravelry for two days now, trying to figure out what to knit next.  I even contemplated knitting something that would fit me but that didn't last long.  I crocheted one little super cute bootie today but it was a bit tedious so it might take a day or two before I start the second (but it will happen!).  These little Kanoko Pants might be next.  I'd also like to knit one of these Pixie Hats to bring him home in but I'd like to find a really special little ball of brown wool since I think we'll either be bringing him home in the Desolation Island Pebble Vest and light brown trousers or a cute little two piece brown pajama set we bought in Ohio (with little puppies for feet - so cute).  

Tonight we're looking forward to the last episode of the BBC series Sherlock.  It's not exactly a remake of the Conan Doyle stories but it is based on his characters.  It's placed in modern times and, while it has it's faults, it's pretty fun to watch.  But first, time to put together something for a very late supper....

Postcrossing and Another Kind of Baby

Thanks for all of the suggestions regarding the fate of the little green sweater.  I'm still deliberating but will let you know the outcome soon, I'm sure!

In the meantime I picked up another sweater that I'd started awhile ago but sent to the naughty corner due to ginormous holes under the arms.  This time I was able to pick up the arm stitches with only small holes that were easily closed up so it's finished and blocking on my big pink yoga mat.  As overcast as it is here, it might take a week for it to dry....

I have something else fun to talk about, though.  A couple of weeks ago I sent out my first two Postcrossing postcards - one to Colorado, USA and another to St. Petersburg, Russia - and yesterday I received my first!

This card came from Germany - isn't it beautiful? 

If you haven't heard of Postcrossing this is how it works: you sign up for free on their site and request and address (up to five when you first sign up).  They'll send you and address as well as a code that you write on the card.  Once your card is received and the code is registered, they send your address to someone and you get a card in return from some mysterious location.  I definitely need to start a postcard stash so that I can request more addresses- it was so nice to get a real piece of mail yesterday!  Although, we have been getting a little more real mail than usual since my parents have started sending us a baby card a week.  It's been really nice since we're so far apart.  Granted, reading them makes me a little teary but we have them lined up on the mantel and seeing them everyday makes me really happy.

Speaking of things that make me happy - we went to Fisherton Mill for tea yesterday and managed to glimpse this bit of cuteness on the walk home.

 

This mother really has her wings full.  It was really cute to hear them chirping to one another as they passed under the bridge. 

Please Help Me Decide Whether This Sweater Lives or Dies

Tonight, rather than casting on a new pattern, I thought maybe I should work on one of the two sweaters that have been in hibernation for a little while.  I picked this one - which needed edging and both (long) sleeves - merely because it was conveniently located in a basket on the other side of the room.  :)

I started crocheting this little sweater after I knew I was pregnant (this statement is not as strange as it sounds - somewhere upstairs is a baby sweater I knitted last summer that still needs buttons) but before we knew it was a girl or a boy.  Once I got to the edging I stopped working on it, thinking that if we were to have a girl I would perhaps edge it in another color and add a crocheted flower and if we were going to have a boy...well, I didn't know what I would do to it if we were having a boy.

And now we're having a boy. 

Knowing that I didn't have anything in the same weight (fingering) or in a complimentary color I went ahead and crocheted the edging and two rows of one sleeve...and then I started thinking about frogging it.  My reasons are as follows:

• As much as I love the color and know that green is, without a doubt, masculine, I still think it looks a bit feminine.  I think it's the fact that it's crocheted.  
• It's tiny.  I already knitted two tiny sweaters.  He's only going to be tiny for so long.
• It's so plain and I have no idea how to spice it up other than with buttons and, while buttons are great, they can only do so much.  

Matt likes it but, honestly, the man is so wonderful he'd say that about anything and really mean it.  His suggestion was to put it aside for a little while and think about it which is great but it's been aside and I've been thinking about it (or not) for at least a couple of months now.  So I decided to take a picture of it and ask your opinion.  Should I bother with it at all or just frog it (and not use the yarn to make another Pebble Sweater Vest, I swear)?  Or, since it looks like it's only going to take one skein of the four I have, should I just ago ahead and finish the last eighteen rows, slap on three wooden buttons and maybe actually never actually put it on the kid?  Or, better yet, does anyone have any embellishment ideas? 

Thoughts, suggestions and opinions are very, very welcome! 

Thanks in advance!

Another Sweater Vest

I love this color but there was only one skein of it available so I thought I would give the Baby T-Shirt Vest pattern a try.  "Try" is the key word here.  I got to the point where you put some stitches on waste yarn and knit others for the armholes and I got completely turned around.  Forty-five other people have knitted this patten with no problem at all so I blamed it on pregnancy brain (the same brain that almost brushed my teeth with hand soap the other night), frogged it and fell back on the lovely Pebble pattern again.

Love the color, love the pattern, do not love the yarn.  That’s what I get for knitting this pattern in a soft wool/alpaca/tweed (Knit Picks City Tweed) and then knitting it a few days later with something that’s 70% acrylic. I’d say I’ve become a yarn snob but I just knitted a hat with Vanna’s Choice which is 100% acrylic but still nice to knit with.

I found these little anchor buttons in my stash while looking for red buttons for the other Pebble sweater.  Unfortunately there were only four of them but I still wanted to use them so on the shoulder they went.  I named this - the Desolation Island Sweater Vest - after a book from the Master and Commander series by my Matt's favorite author, Patrick O’Brian.  And here's a little geeky tidbit: last Monday Matt had lunch with the man who painted all of the covers for the series with the thought of perhaps doing a documentary on them.  The documentary is still up in the air but, regardless, I think it's pretty cool that Matt got to hang out with him for an afternoon.  

In nursery news, the tree has been painted but I think I'll wait until Matt paints the wood trim before I take any pictures.  It looks fantastic!  Matt dug out my fabric stash boxes and I found some fabric to at least start making leaves with once we pick up some glue and he does the icky, chemically, spray part for me.  It's really starting to look like a baby's room!

And now - starving - must eat!

Finished Bowls and Beanies

A lot can happen in 24 hours.  Matt's upstairs putting the second coat on the tree.  He deemed painting it "overrated" and suggested, instead of helping him, that I go in tomorrow with a small, not so fumy pot of paint and put on the final touches.  That's okay by me - I'll gladly use the time to add a few projects to Ravelry and write up a post!

I had to bring the outdoors in this afternoon to photograph my little Turtle Bowl since we ended up not going out after all. 

I'm not really sure what we'll put in this little bowl but it'll look really cute on his chest of drawers.  You're actually supposed to double the yarn but I didn't want it to turnout ginormous (and I don't follow directions very well) so I only used a single strand.  The bowl is a bit flimsy so I think I'm going to line it with a little felt.

I know I've already mentioned the Baby Beanies book a million times but it is so freaking cute!  My plan is to knit all of the hats in it that are suitable for a boy over the next couple of years (or, at this rate, months).  I started with the Bedtime Stocking Cap.

We went a little crazy with a line of baby clothes (onesie, hoodie, sweatpants and a blanket) that we found on sale at Target that featured helicopters in these colors so I figured they were perfect for a stripey hat.

And this is my second hat from the book - the Chocqua. 

I knitted both of these in the 0-6 month size but I feel like I should have made this one a little taller.  It's cute, regardless, and makes me wish I had some Thin Mints...or Junior Mints.  Mmm, Junior Mints....

I can't help but think these beanies would be SO much cuter if we had a little noggin to model them but even if our little acorn were already here, he still wouldn't be posing for any blog photos.  When I posted that first scan photo we decided that that would probably be the last photo of the baby that I would post.  That rule might temporarily be broken when the baby first arrives but after that it will probably just be glimpses of chubby baby fingers and baby toes.  I think there's just something a little...scary isn't the word I'm looking for but it's close...about putting photos of our little one out there on the world wide web.  But do note that I used the word "probably" twice.  :)

I can't wait to to take the tape off the wall in the morning and see what our tree looks like.  After the tree is finished, Matt just (easy for me to say) needs to paint the trim and the ceiling and we can start moving in furniture and hanging pictures (that all need frames - yet another thing to add to the list of things to do)!  My future is also FULL of leaf making....

The Nursery, Bumps and More (Almost) Finished Objects

Yesterday we started taping the stencil for the tree we're going to paint in our little acorn's room and will, hopefully, start painting tomorrow. I know pregnant women aren't supposed to be anywhere near a room while it's being painted but my mom pointed out that she and Dad painted every room in our first house while she was pregnant with my brother and he went on to join a special program in elementary school for super smart kids and also made his older sister look bad by constantly being a straight A student. 

That said,  Matt has agreed to let me help paint the tree as long as the window is open, both fans are in the room and turned on high...and that I wear a mask.   Not too keen on the mask, honestly, but I did get him to let me swap an actual painter's mask for a handkerchief tied around my face like an old fashioned bank robber.  I''m short, too, so I won't really be able to help paint too much but I really wanted to have something to do with painting the tree.  We came up with a couple of cute ideas to make it very personal that I'm really looking forward to as well. 

 

Hey look, I'm pregnant!  First off, this is not a very good photo but it was the only one where I didn't happen to be holding the tape in front of my bump.  Second, I have to tell you that I have been really bump-shy.  I'm a member of the November 2010 Parents group over on Ravelry and have been avoiding the "show your bump" thread like a pregnant woman avoids unpasteurized cheese.  I do not have a cute bump like the girls do over there and it's a little frustrating and, honestly, a bit disappointing. 

I actually have two bumps.  Bump A which is my belly bump and Bump B which is my uterus bump. Bump A has always been bigger than Bump B - even before my uterus got big enough to actually be part of Bump A - so I didn't look like I was pregnant, I looked like I had a pot belly.  Not cute.  About a week ago, though, it suddenly popped out and I look like I have a baby in there, not just a few pints and a very large lunch.  Thank goodness.

And even though I love the thought of getting the nursery painted and the furniture ordered so that I can start putting away all of the cute little things we've bought so far, I've yet to feel any real nesting instinct other than the one that's in my head when I first wake up.  This instinct thinks getting a long list of things done sounds not only very rewarding but also like loads of fun!  Fortunately, that voice has gone totally silent by the time I've had my All Bran and settled down with my knitting/crocheting at 10:20 a.m. to watch Gilmore Girls.  I do manage to get the basics done, though, and I figure the days of casually watching tv with some yarn in my hands is going to come to an abrupt end here in about three months so I'm going to cram in as much as I can while I can.    

Yesterday I crocheted up a cute little addition to the nursery but still need to take photos of it. It's the kind of project that would really benefit from an outdoor shoot, though, so that will have to wait until tomorrow.  And today I knitted up a bit of stripey goodness...

...but with stripes come lots and lots of ends to sew in so that and attaching the tassel are my two jobs for the evening.  After I wash the dishes, hang up one more load of laundry and vacuum the floor...which I should get started on now....

A Sunday Sweater

I've finally finished a sweater for the little acorn!  Okay, it's not a sweater exactly - it's a vest - but it's finished.  I have one sweater needing buttons and two that need sleeves and buttons so finishing is a pretty big deal. 

I have a lot of love for this pattern - the Pebble Vest by Nikol Lohr - and am resisting the urge to cast on another in a different color.  I found one skein of a beautiful blue wool on sale today and stumbled across some really cute little buttons with anchors on them while looking for these red buttons in my stash today so I might give the similar but completely different Baby T-Shirt Vest pattern a try instead.

This would make a great little gift for a mother-to-be.  I was able to knit it in a day - granted I spent a couple of hours working on it at my knit group and happily spent most of the evening on it as well - and blocked and sewed on the buttons today. 

It's just the teeny, tiniest little thing, though, so he won't get too much wear out of it.  Unfortunately, I didn't check the yarn label of this Knit Picks City Tweed DK until after I'd finished knitting it so I didn't know that I was knitting up a hand wash only baby garment.  That said, in this case not getting a lot of wear out if it is not exactly a bad thing.  Thankfully, the wool I bought today is machine washable.  I made sure to check before I bought it. 

A Whole Lotta Bibs and the Yarny Mojo Returns

Our little boy has so many bibs already that it's silly.  It seems to me, though, that they're the kind of thing you really can't get enough and they're such a quick knit that I made some more!

I actually made these Baby Bandana Bibs last month.  Can't say that I'm a huge fan on applied i-cord but it's a really cute pattern.

And I made these Owl Bibs on Saturday while Matt was at work.  Crazy cute and it only took about an hour and half to crochet each one. 

I seem to have finally gotten my knitting/crochet mojo back.  Yesterday I knitted an adorable little baby sweater vest that I'm hoping to post later tonight or tomorrow.  It's blocking and I need to get some thread to match the buttons (as I, again, curse the fact that I've never been able to unpack my craft boxes).  I need to at least drag out some necessities.  It's ridiculous to keep buying things I know I already have but can't get to. 

Next up - the Bedtime Stocking Cap!

My parents had just Skyped with my brother and his fiance when we talked to them yesterday.  They're getting married on April Fools Day next year and not only was is fun to hear about their plans to get married at Audubon Park and the crawfish boil rehearsal dinner they're going to have in their backyard but it was weird and wonderful to think that we'll be toting around a five month old by then!   

Caught Up On a Little Correspondence Today

...and drank a little hot chocolate...which promptly gave me heartburn.