Ochre

Hellooooo!
Has it really been so long?
Is it actually almost AUGUST?!
Is my little baby (can it be) 10 weeks old !!!!!!!!

Life is a sweet sweet summer blur at the moment, but I am gradually stepping out of my new mama
cocoon and into the 'real' world again. And so i'll start here !

Look a here ! My OCHRE sweater ( after one year ) is complete! :)

THe pattern is Veera Valimaki's Ochre sweater pattern 

( i havent found out how to copy/paste on my new laptop yet sorry!)

Speaking of.... i loooove my new laptop. 

Apple MacBook. Oh yes.

And now....baby is asleep, off to read my 

Taproot Magazine and make strawberry jam.

:)

Things Thought

Hello friends.
IT's been cold here this week, brrrr.
Lots of resting and knitting in bed.
Working toward exciting things to come.
Excited, antipicating, waiting, day dreaming ...........

Making, slowly making, a colourful Wollmeise baby blanket.
Feeling so lucky, and a bit anxious, about a new baby.
IT's been so long -- and i do feel 'older' now.
I've been looking up pictures of 23 week old infants born prematurely,
just to see what this little baby of ours actually looks like right now.
Amazing!
Lots and lots of movement, sometimes violent feeling. Clearly it must be
fun and entertaining and peaceful to spin and whirl round in the womb at this
stage in one's preconscious life.
My children and mother talk lots to the baby now, supposedly the little one in
there can fully hear all that is happening in our world.
Starting to feel cramped in the lung department.
Also the stomach/digestive department.
Aah, the joys of pregnancy!

I do hope this cold weather perseveres till ,,,, say ,,,,, March  at least.
A cold pregnancy is much MUCh nicer than a hot one !

One of the ultimate joys of pregnancy for me is cloth nappies !!!!!
I love looking at them, reading about them, and buying them.
I realllllly love using them. I have always been * sad * when my children
decide (for themselves) - always at around 2 1/2 years - that they no longer
need them.
Looking at these little nappies, wondering, daydreaming.
Is this little baby really going to be this small i keep saying :)

knitting

 Lots of Sweater knitting !
The Angie Test Knit is really going well - i love this sweater pattern.
I have been trying it on during the top down knit { a wonderful treat / incentive !! } and the small is fitting me to a T. I love the neck line. I love the higher back. I love the easiness of its construction. I have made a few tiny mistakes along the way, and speaking with the designer has been really helpful. I do love test knitting, I feel like I'm really helping someone out and doing something I love all at once. Me being a Leo, I do LOVE to tell people what i 'think'. So now I'm asking what YOU think !!  This pattern has a beautiful crochet edging sewn in around the neckline. At first I thought I would do mine in a Madelinetosh Pink. But now that I see how this beautiful colourway {Magenta Dark} in Wollmeise looks, I don't want anything to spoil it. I thought maybe a dark gray or black instead ? What do you think ?
Happy Weekending to you all !

Playing with Wool

Hellooo!!
Here's what we're up to today ::

• make mom a new heatpack
• work some more on the fiddler's mitts
• play with cool birthday presents ( knitting doll and wool felt ! )
• work some more on angie

My Wollmeise has arrived - and i love it.
The fiddler's mitts and angie will be a matching set to wear ,,,,,, eekkk!!
So excited , it will be awesome.

The fiddler's  mitts are my very first colourwork, i've taken little hints from others. Cutting yarn into little balls, wrapping the two strings every 2 stitches or so to prevent holes. I am going somewhere in between really tight tension and loose tension. Add that into following a chart for the first time, and its exciting and mad in a feverish sort of way. But look ! The stranded colourwork is starting to come thru. I don't expect this first stranded project to come out perfect ( too late for that ) , but I see this as a great learning opp. I'm expanding my knitting horizons. You should see how far along i've come , just in the past year. It feels great.

American Today

Hello all !
I do hope you who are reading this are finding yourselves quite perky and happy in life.
I myself am working now on three sweaters !!
This first little beauty i showed you just last week, it is a Veera child's sweater. I have stuffed up the neck cuff, but we won't talk about that just now. Birthday Boy has chosen silky green stripes. I can't wait to get to the stripes. I love stripes.

Just cast on this week is a  garter stitch sweater for my self.  I bought a case {can i say a case?} of this yarn over a year ago, so it feels nice to give it purpose now. The dk weight yarn and I are really getting along. It is going fast. I do like fast sweaters. The lanolin was left in this yarn also, making it very nice to knit with. Soft and silky, no splits, coiled and springy. It reminds me of Colinette Jitterbug.

Now for my favorite special sweater.
Veera's got several new sweater patterns coming out in the new few weeks, so get your wool stashes organized. This cabled up cardigan makes me so happy. Knit in a sturdy worsted Madelinetosh Vintage. This yarn is amazing. Just as it's name implies, the soft feel and colour is very 'worn' yet rugged. The sturdy yet gentle twist of the yarn gives great stitch definition and is perfect for cabled cardigans. Oh Madelinetosh !
And now.... a stash update this week !! 
{ I buy all of my yarn online, there are no craft shops within a plane flight of where i live.}

If you click on the yarn pictures, the name should pop up. Or maybe not?

Anyway, some Madelinetosh sock ( which i've never used )

and some more MadTosh Vintage in thunderstorm -

which looks to die for and i'm going to make this

and some gorgeous Wollmeise which does

not yet have a purpose

but believe me

it

will.

And guess where I'm going today?

To Broome, to take my Australian Citizenship Test !!!

If I should pass , I'll carry a dual citizenship.

American today, maybe American/Australian tomorrow !

Knitting a Fool

My new years resolution?

To knit like a fool.

I finished my study shawl  !!!!
It is so lovely i've been wearing it round the house.
Veera has some lovely striking designs, doesn't she.
ps. Test knitting coming up soon :))
Also, do you see how my sunny day scarf is growing !?
I am so encouraged by that lace ball slowly getting smaller, smaller, smaller.
Truth be known, the only reason I am working on this one is because I am
waiting for more exciting things to arrive in the mail !
Test knitting times two :: COWLS.
With that beautiful blue MadTosh Vintage you see there..
Joining up today with Ginny's yarn along  - (my word there are alot of link to get thru nowdays)
xo