No, in fact it’s four months worth of dryer lint. Pretty, no?

Mom has a new house, with a new fireplace… and every fire needs some method of ignition. Back when we lived in California, most of our friends lit their fires with fancy red buttons beside their fire screens, or a few by remote. But out in God’s country, where Mom will soon be living once the house is complete and her travels wind down, those methods are frowned upon as a tad too frou frou. So we are using leftover cardboard egg cartons, leftover lint, and leftover candle wax melted in a leftover pot to create little firestarters. It’s been fun collecting all the things we need while trying not to buy anything new, although old candles are hard to come by, and the ones we’ve found are quite, uh, fragrant. I thought that maybe we might be able to reuse the glass jars and lids that contained the candles, but I haven’t quite figured out how to remove all the wax residue, and MAN! That wax has some stinky scent to it!! Os into the recycling bin the glass went! And after the wax was melted and poured over the lint, I had to place the egg cartons outside while they cooled and make some pasta with tons of garlic and butter to push the cloying synthetic strawberry scent out of the first floor.

Yes, I know this has nothing to do with knitting… or spinning, or cooking, or sewing, but I’ve been putting together a craft room for the majority of the weekend while the husband was home and able to watch the kids, so I’m afraid that not much else creative has happened. A progress report on the new room will soon be posted as I’m rather excited to have all my “making” materials finally living in one location and the room is coming along nicely.

Geez Louise! I managed to get a lot done today! It definitely helped that I had someone here to help me with the kids while I cleaned up… I never heard of a Mother’s Helper before I moved to this neighborhood, but I have to say, it is an amazing concept!!

Last night I ripped into the dress. After the carnage was complete, I was absolutely covered in little bits and pieces of thread, as was the couch, the floor and the coffee table. It was a bit like unraveling a puzzle, and it wasn’t as monotonous as I expected it to be although it definitely was time consuming.

Today I manged to lay it all out to get a sense of how much fabric there really was.

Think there is enough fabric for a dress for a newborn and a three year old, and one little one year old boy? There are two layers !! of lining, all piled up in the front corner, and since it’s all polyester, maybe I can put some of that to use as well!

The only piece I left was the bodice… can’t really decide if there’s enough fabric to do anything with those little bits, so I’m going to leave it as is for a minute.

I also have these lovely bits of fabric just waiting to be made into some hot weather maternity tops and maybe an outfit or two for the kids.

Not really sure what to do with that striped silk… it’s rather too stiff for clothing, but I love it so much and I’ve wanted to do something with it for quite some time.

And finally, I have two gorgeous thrift finds–never worn with original tags!!–to show. Hoping to tailor them for maternity wear… but, uh, I haven’t really ever tailored anything before. We’ll see how I manage that. Any suggestions would be appreciated, as my searches for modifying for maternity haven’t really come up with anything other than instructions for changing up your favorite jeans!

I’m starting to think that I might have a bit more projects than I have time. Help!!

Today, after finally locating my seam ripper, I began cutting into the wedding dress which has been languishing in the corner waiting for some attention. I started by removing the beads.

When I bought the dress, I thought it had a minimal amount of beading. When I sat down to remove all of them, I noticed two things: one, there were a good deal more beads than I first believed and two, the dress was rather filthy. By the time I managed to rip off all the beads, I realized that maybe my original assumption was correct, there wasn’t really that many.

I was hoping to send these beads off to a local artist, Memphis George, whose jewelery I both own and adore, to have her create a necklace using what I have as a starting point. Now I’m wondering if there’s enough. Of course, I do have a little headpiece full of crystals to add, so maybe she’ll still be able to make something interesting. Plus, I was hoping that she could add some color as well, so maybe I shouldn’t worry.

Once it was time to start ripping out seams, I was really considering taking the whole thing to the cleaners to get the fabric ready for sewing. Maybe it would be easier to clean it if the dress was still whole, although I thought if it was silk, then I should be able to soak it and get some of the spots in the more obvious areas taken care of myself. Then I happened upon the tag.

Huh! Whoddathunk? I never once considered what the make of the fabric was, and although I still love the dress, it certainly made me feel a bit of remorse over how much I paid.

Into the wash it goes! We’ll see how it comes out in another few minutes.

I have actually accomplished some knitting this week!

A wee pair of Saartje’s bootees–free pattern!–to match the Koigu BSJ! They are teeny teeny teeny… I’m actually wondering if I might have to make a slightly larger pair just in case these are too small. I’m also thinking that it might be nice to have the Koigu as the main color, with the Charcoal yarn as the top contrast strip. It was a really fun little knit, and took me less than two hours to whip out, perfect for a break from other projects and for sitting and watching TiVo’s back log of History Detectives. Now I have to knit up the trim pieces for the sweater, knit up a little hat, find some cute buttons for all of the set and THEN I’ll call it done!

I also managed to finally finish up weaving in the ends for an lapghan that a knitting group I am in had finished up. It is now with the last set of hands getting a nice crocheted border before we hand it off to its intended to recipient. Hopefully I’ll get a shot or two of that to post. The majority of the women in this group are novice knitters, so this first project was a group of garter stitch squares knit up in garter, whip-stitched together with a contrasting yarn. It is quite warm!!

Woo-hoo!! Progress made!

One of the things I like most about my blog title is that I’ve kept it open to all endeavors in which I occasionally dabble in obsessively, not only knitting. Of course, the subject of the majority of the entries will remain firmly in the realm of knits and purls; after all I do have an ever increasing stash that needs working through. But I hope to more frequently write up a little about what goes on in my kitchen as I manage to spend quite a bit of my day there. Often I find myself wishing there was even more time and energy available to cook up another dreamy recipe or two… and an instant-extend-a-nap button.

This summer I’m spending some time learning how bake bread, something I’ve always had a fascination with that has only deepened the longer we spend time here in this city with it dearth of good and/or readily available bread. I have now almost conquered ciabatta–still have a few issues every now and then–and I’ve found a grilled flatbread recipe which brings me great joy, as well as yummy dinners. So far we’ve used it to dip into a lovely herbed oil, topped it with sauteed zuchinni with lots of garlic and plenty of lemon peel, or covered it with red ripe heirloom tomatoes my dad brought up from the South.

But my favorite so far was last night’s dinner when I took some very bland, cardboard-y tomatoes, de-seeded the chopped them up and threw it all in a pan with some beautiful olive oil, a clove or two of local garlic, salt, pepper, and a whole mess of saffron letting it cook nice and slow until the tomatoes found the sweetness they had buried deep inside. After I took the bread of the grill, I slathered some labne–a drained yogurt–stirred in a few drops of sherry vinegar into the tomatoes then dropped it by the spoonful onto the bread.

It was a rather yummy way to put the day to rest. The herbal sun tea was a perfect little drink to go along with it.

I cooked the tomatoes a little too unkindly in the first few minutes, so they fell apart into a mess, but if you have more patience and take your time with low temperatures, the tomatoes will keep their shape rather well.

But as soon as those local ripe tomatoes start rolling in, I’ll kiss my pan, put it back in the cabinet, and never give it a second thought until September.

Unless, of course, there’s bacon.

For my third post in as many days, I bring you not a lovely project in progress, but on sloppy bit of brilliant string waiting for something some clever idea to happen upon it.

This little pile is six skeins of a summery blend of unknown fiber. I actually have another skein lying around here somewhere, but who can be bothered to look for yarn when the summer sunshine beckons you to the front porch? Oh, we were also hosting a three family yard sale, so that probably had more to do with my lack of time than any romantic gesture.

I purchased these skeins back at the beginning of June at School Products in NYC–thank you Kirstin for the wonderful recommendations–and of course, I was convinced I would never forget the fiber blend, so now I’m left wondering what the heck it is that I picked up. I believe it’s linen/silk but it could be cotton/silk. It’s soft, shiny and has absolutely no give, so at least I know that no sheep ever blew kisses in its general direction.

I have been sifting through my patterns, waiting for something to jump out and smack me, and I’ve spent way more time than is healthy on ravelry. I have a few ideas, but I think the major problem is that I’m not really excited to knit up anything I can’t wear this summer, and since my belly is swelling at an alarming rate it’ not as if a slinky cami is realistic right now. At the same time, this is likely the last kid we’ll have, so knitting up a maternity tank is also not so exciting. Hmmm…. unless, perhaps, I seam in two gussets on either side… that would be easy to remove next summer, right?

It has been sunny for the past two days, quite a nice break from the seemingly never-ending rain we’ve had so far. Don’t get me wrong, I love summer thunderstorms, and now that I have the back porch properly set-up for the kiddies with a gate to keep them nicely corralled and porch swing for me, we’ve been able to get outside even when the rain has kept us out of the yard. Yet having rainy days back to back to back makes it a little difficult to experiment with one of my favorite summertime drinks, sun tea. This year, I’ve been concentrating on making my own herbal blends as I seem to be getting more and more sensitive to caffeine the older, er-hem, I get. After a few internet searches, some rummaging through my personal recipes, and a few gallons of trial and error, I think I might have finally hit on the just the right combination for a nice mid-afternoon refresher; not too sour, not too sweet, and such a brilliant ruby red.

So, for those of you with maybe a little more sunshine than we’re getting, here’s a little herbal sun tea recipe for you to enjoy! A note of warning, I will only give you approximate ratios, since I’m horrible at exact measurements. I’ve been using a large, shallow, Asian style soup spoon to portion it all, and I think it holds a little over a tablespoon. But hey… it’s tea! No need to worry!

For a half gallon of water add:
2 full spoons of Hibiscus flower
1 full spoon of Rosehips
1 full spoon of Chamomile
1 full spoon of Orange Peel

I put it in a glass pitcher–don’t want your plastic getting hot in the sun and leaching those nasty chemicals–cover it with plastic wrap–since I don’t have a lid and I need to keep the bugs out–and set it out in the sun for four hours or so. Then I bring it inside, pour it over some ice, add a few splashes of apple juice if you’d like a bit more sweetness, then sit back, relax, and enjoy the summer.

A piece or two of cinnamon bark might be lovely. Also I would imagine a bit of gin, vodka, or cointreau would make a nice addition, but alas, no alcohol for me until the new year.

Hopefully I’ll be able to bang this post out before my battery dies. Actually, these days, my personal battery is running rather low and is becoming more difficult; not such good news as I’m only half way through the second trimester and this is when I’m supposed to be feeling my best. Yug.

I’ve gotten the yarn I needed to finish up the newest little gal’s BSJ. I’ve been waiting to finish up the jacket hoping that I could find a nice contrasting/coordinating yarn to get a little trim work done.

A lovely skein of Lorna’s Lace, colorway Charcoal. Yes you read that right, Charcoal. I actually took it outside to look at the color just to make sure it wasn’t grey. I’m so excited to not have to buy more Koigu! After I get the trim work done, the last thing I have to do is find some great buttons. We don’t really have any great button shops here in town, so I have to rely on visits to NYC or, of course, the internet. Currently, I’m really excited about distinctive buttons; great selection of modern style buttons. What’s really awesome is their “best match” service where you can send in a swatch and they send you buttons. Not sure how I feel about someone else picking out my trimmings, but I like their products so much, that I might just give it a try sometime.

Unfortunately, I have a few other things that need to be finished up before I can get to all of that. You see, two weeks ago, we heard of a local family who just recently gave birth to quadruplets. I don’t know many details, but they are all healthy, all around 2lbs, and there are three girls and one boy. I think it’s time to knit up a few preemie sweaters.

I plan on using Crystal Palace Maizy for these four little sweaters.. and I’m finding a whole lot of advice online about what is useful for these teeny little folk. What I’m not so excited about are the free patterns I’m finding, few of which, if any, contain any schematics for measurements, or even worse, any mention of gauge. Yug. The majority of the patterns only specify which needle size to use, and few here an’ there might even mention yarn weight. Since I’ve never had a preemie, nor known any preemies before they were older, I really need the required measurements so I can make sure that I’m knitting something that has any hope of fitting. I did receive a pattern for a preemie version of the BSJ from a great lady on Ravelry, no1grandma; that might be the sweater I make this round.

Well, at least I managed another post… although I’m starting to realize that I might have a few more projects lined up than I have time for.

It’s been almost a month since I’ve posted! I just don’t understand where the time goes as I stand idly by. OK, maybe not so idly… taking care of a one and three year old, being pregnant with our third, chasing after two dogs, trying desperately to keep ahead of the household mess, and getting our first house on the market doesn’t really quite stand up to “idle” now, does it?

But I can’t seem to remember how quickly it all slips through your fingers. So as I sit reading the other blogs and think to myself how I should post to my own, what I really need to be doing is less thinking and more doing. Because in the two moments I have between thoughts, I manage to forget that I might actually have something to blog about.

Like this: Turns out were going to have more estrogen here at our home! We’re having another little girl. Truth be told, we were both hoping that we would end up with two girls and a boy, as I’ve never had a sister–six brothers, no sisters–although we really would’ve been happy with two boys and a girl as well. There was only a slight preference. Her official due date is December 17th, which is also my father’s birthday, but more than likely, she’ll be a few days early as this will be our third, and this time planned, C-section. It’s a strange feeling, picking out the date on which your child will enter the world, uh, barring any unforeseen circumstances of course.

And in celebration of our recently gender discovery, I managed to cast on a new project for the new little life! Drum roll please!!!

It’s another BSJ! If you would’ve asked me two months ago if I would foresee casting on another one of these suckers in the near or distant future, the answer would’ve been a slight shake of my head and a teeny little grimace. Yet here I am, with one waiting for a little embellishment, and yarn set aside for another! I guess it’s true what they say; the BSJ is truly addicting. Whodda thunk it? I’m not showing the whole thing yet, because I have plans for a few embellishments… a little edging, some cute buttons, a pair of booties, and little hat. I’m pretty sure this will end up being our coming home outfit. If anyone has any idea where to find some truly unique/adorable buttons online, I’m all ears. I’ve looked on etsy, and I have a back-up plan, but I’d really like to know where you all go to find some crazy little notions.

And I’ve also managed to get in some spinning. I had my eye on some gorgeous merino at one of my LYS’s but decided that I was too novice to try something so beautiful. Of course, reason gave way to insanity when it was still there three weeks later, and since it obviously needed a loving home,I had to  bring it back with me. What the heck! The worst that could possibly happen is that I sit and pet it all day and forget to feed my children… and let’s face it, they’ve got to learn how to fend for themselves at some point, right? So here’s beautiful basket of lorna’s laces merino that I’m slowly but surely spinning up.

I’m pretty excited about how fine I’ve managed to spin it so far… of course, I’m sure once I start plying it, it will be ten times thicker than I thought it would be. Oh, and it’s also superwash, which seems to make the fibers even more slippery.  At one point the spindle kept dropping every single time I had to give it another spin. Eventually I figured out I was under spinning the fiber and it was just a little too weak. Huh! Looky Ma! She’s learnin’!! I’m sure all you experienced spinners out there can see that there is a few obvious deviations in the thickness, but I have to say that even with the uneveness, I’m still pretty doggone happy with my progress. This is, after all, only my second spin. I’m trying to be a little less rigid in this particular endeavor. We will see how that goes.

I have more to show and tell, but I’m afraid that it’s time to go get one of the wee ones up from his nap and get him some dinner. So hopefully, another post soon… you know… before another month is up!

Almost four years ago, I got married to a pretty fantastic man. We had been together for quite some time, moving across the country twice, breaking up once or twice, and had considered the matrimony question several times. Finally, we took the plunge, and the two weeks before the final year of my Master’s degree began, he proposed. We got married two weeks later in a small, intimate ceremony performed by one of our closest friends in the garden of the local inn in our beloved neighborhood. Forty of our friends and family members joined us, I wore a dress, E wore his new tuxedo, and we had our favorite restaurant overlooking the city all to ourselves and our guests for one of the most memorable meals I’ve had. There is not one thing, other than to include two more special guests that we decided at the last minute not to add due to space constraints, that I would change, and every single time I watch one of those crazy wedding specials they seem particularly fond of on the afternoon cable line-up I am so very thankful that we were able to skip all the months torturous planning and gratuitous overspending in which so many couples find themselves, although we were able to splurge here and there. I spent the morning of the event at the spa with my mom, stepmother, and best gal, and I was able to wear a beautiful wedding dress.

Now that wedding dress hangs in my closet, after having been worn twice–we threw a reception two months after the original ceremony in order to celebrate with the larger portion of our friends and family–and I refuse to “preserve it”, box it up, and hope that one of my future children might want to wear it.

Instead, I’m going to cut it up and make some baby clothes out of it. Now that I’m pregnant with my third and final child, I think I’ll make a special outfit for each of them for Christmas, since number three is due on the 17th. I’m having a c-section, my third, so we’ll pretty much know what day the baby is coming, or at least, the last possible day that the baby is coming. I don’t have any ideas of what to do with all the fabric yet, but I have a seamstress friend who I’m sure can help me come up with some ideas.

If you have any ideas, pretty please, share!

I have to say I’m kind of excited to rip it to shreds!