Babble

So this is where I get to babble about what’s going on in our house. Not much babble this week. Everything is going well. Today I interviewed with another family so I anxiously waiting to hear back from them.

Sean has been working hard to get ready for his recording gig in a few weeks. He way ecstatic to get a set up going where he could record 24 tracks at once.

Other than that it’s been pretty quiet around here.

Fibery Confessions

On my needles right now is my Sheep Yoke Baby Cardigan by Jennifer Little of Looking Glass Knits (http://lookingglassknits.blogspot.com/2007/10/sheep-yoke-baby-cardigan-pattern.html). This adorable cardigan is a top down sweater with cute little sheep grazing on “grass.” The sheep are knitted in to the yoke using stranding and then when the sweater is done you go back and duplicate stitch the head and legs.

I decided to go with the Hobby Lobby I Love this Cotton yarn because it was cheap and super soft. So far I am loving this yarn! I can’t wait to how it blossoms after washing and blocking the sweater.

So I was pretty worried about reading the chart and working on a circular yoke. In fact I was so worried about it that I told Sean that this sweater might take awhile. Boy was I wrong. It was a little rough starting the chart because I didn’t quite understand what it was asking me to do, but once I got a good understanding of it the yoke just flew by.

I am now working on the sleeves. Thanks to bkff (besting knitting friend forever) Claire, I am doing two sleeves at once and they are just flying by. She mentioned to me that she enjoyed to two sleeves at once. I like doing this method too, but had yet to do it with a top down raglan or circular yoke sweater. When I asked her how to do she gave me the greatest answer! “Just do it” she said. Well alrighty then I just do it. Once I started the sleeves I realized that this technique was going to be my new best friend! I had to restart the sleeves a couple of time to get the tension down and keep the ladders out, but now that I have it, I’m loving it!

After the sleeves I will need to do the button bands and the duplicate stitch for the sheep faces. I can almost see the finish line 

My next project will be the matching hat and then a little sheep dress and overalls. I’m having too much fun with these sheep.










Favorite Thing

Spending time with my hubby 

Binding Off

“Knit On, with confidence and hope, through all crises.” ~ Elizabeth Zimmerman

Counting Sheep?

Babble

So this is where I get to babble about what’s going on in our house. It’s been a busy week with some end of the week perks. Between work, meetings, working on finding a new job, etc. it was hard to imagine that this week would end, but when Thursday finally rolled around I was a happy camper. We are dog sitting for some neighbors who invited us to use there pool anytime we want. Well I have spent a lot of time over there and plan on spending a lot more time over at the pool before they get back on the 31st.

Have I ever mentioned that I hate fire ants? I got bit on my ring finger by a fire ant on Thursday. My finger was so swollen that I almost could get the ring off and I was having circulation issues. 22 hours after the initial bite I woke up because my hand hurt really bad. That’s when I realized that the swelling was back but not just my ring finger. The swelling had spread across the back of my hand and little finger. Thank God I don't sleep with my rings on! I've always been sensitive to bites, but never remember it being this bad :( This was all from one bite. It looked horrible until Saturday when it started to subside. Would you know it as soon as my hand was better I got another bite… this time on my foot. Thank God it hasn’t been as bad. The swelling is bad enough though. Urg!

In other news: I had a great group of ladies come by for a lesson on Saturday. I had two knitting students, one knifty knitter student, and a friend who just wanted to hang out and knit at the house. The ladies and I had a great time and it seems everyone is doing well with their beginners projects.

Saturday for some reason I decided right before the ladies got here to grab the knitted sweaters out of the Hope Chest and make sure they all had size tags pinned to them. I got all of that done and am now going to be adding one more sweater and one jacket to the Hope Chest.

Beyond that everyone is doing well. I have to share a sweet yet funny Zuke story that I meant to mention last week (some of you might have seen this on fb):

So to set this up a bit, Zuke is no longer coming to work with me. We are transitioning him to being home with a sitter who comes in once to twice a day. On this day his sitter’s car was having issues and he was unable to make it to check in on him.

When I got home I realized that the poor guy had his first accident since he was 8 or 9 weeks old. He was so upset that he got his towel from the chair next to the back door and dragged it in to the kitchen to cover up his pee, then grabbed my kitchen towels and added them on top of his towel. He was terribly embarrassed when I go home and it took about 20 minutes before he would even look at me and than another 25 before I could pet him. He's such a sweet boy! I love Zuke so much!

Fibery Confessions

On my needles right now is a toddler hat that I’m making with Lion Brand Homespun as the brim and Lion Brand Buchele for the body. I am at the point where I need to start the decreasing and finish off this hat.

I have picked out a new project that actually makes me a little nervous. Charts and I don’t really get along that well… in fact I would go as far as saying I very much dislike them. Well the yoke of this sweater is not only a circular yoke (which I’ve never done before) but it is also charted out. Scary!

What’s this project of mine? It’s the Sheep Yoke Baby Cardigan by Jennifer Little of Looking Glass Knits (http://lookingglassknits.blogspot.com/2007/10/sheep-yoke-baby-cardigan-pattern.html). This adorable cardigan is a top down sweater with cute little sheep grazing on “grass.” The sheep are knitted is to the yoke using stranding and then when the sweater is done you go back and duplicate stitch the head and legs.

It looks like a great project and I can’t wait to start it. I just need to get some DK weight yarn in the right colors.

Wish me luck! Like a said I’m a little nervous about the whole chart thing. We’ll see how it goes.

Favorite Thing

Mangos! Sprouts was having a great sale on mangos recently and I got 12 for $4.00. None of them were very ripe so I’ve had them sitting on the counters and one by one they are ripening to where I can peel them and enjoy juicy, delicious mango for breakfast or as a snack. This evening I even made mango milkshakes. So YUMMY!

Binding Off

Proverbs 27:23-27 (MSG)
23-27 Know your sheep by name;
carefully attend to your flocks;
(Don’t take them for granted;
possessions don’t last forever, you know.)
And then, when the crops are in
and the harvest is stored in the barns,
You can knit sweaters from lambs’ wool,
and sell your goats for a profit;
There will be plenty of milk and meat
to last your family through the winter.

I’m Back

Babble

So this is where I get to babble about what’s going on in our house. Obviously I’ve been away from blogging for a while now, but I am going to try very hard to get back to it and keep you all informed on what’s happening. Around the house there is a lot going on right now. I’ve put in my resignation from my current nanny position to pursue either home child care or a nanny position with a family in the Round Rock area. So far I’ve phone interviewed with one family and met with another family. We’ll see what happens with the second family. I’m still waiting to see if we can work out a reasonable pay.

The other news on my end is that I have been gluten- free for four and half months now. I’m amazed that I have lasted this long and even more amazed that I am willingly continuing on the diet. If you want more information on why I’m gluten free just ask and we’ll talk. I don’t want to bore everyone with the details.

Sean’s going to be moving to the Guitar Center that is opening up in Round Rock toward the end of August. He’s also preparing to record a band at our house.

Beyond that, Zuke is growing up. He’s now approx. 60 lbs and a bundle of energy.


Fibery Confessions

A week ago I started the Mossy Jacket (http://fpea.blogspot.com/2007/01/free-pattern-friday-mossy-jacket.html). I found some beautiful purple Lion Brand Homespun in my stash. I also found a Homespun, burnt sienna with flecks of other colors, that I used as the trim color.

This top down, raglan jacket was a quick and easy knit. It has a funky off-center button band, it's cute, colorful, fairly quick to knit. I was done with the main body in two sessions of knitting, the sleeves went fast (and I normally despise sleeves), and the trim was pretty easy. Over all it was a fun project that came out stunning.

Since I had some extra yarn left over I decided to make a matching hat and am now working on a garter stitch scarf. Nico, my 2.5 year old boss is modeling for me.




Favorite Thing

Sean’s root beer floats. They are perfect end to a not so perfect day. The creaminess of Blue Bell ice cream mixed with cane sugar, high fructose free root beer makes me smile.

Binding Off
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
~ Psalm 139:13-14 NIV

I’m a Happy Hooker

Babble

So this is where I get to babble about what’s going on in our house. So another week has passed. This week we really focused on coming straight home from work instead of running a bunch of errands. Tuesday and Wednesday were the only days we really ran errands and it wasn’t nearly as bad as the week before.

For the most part the week was somewhat uneventful. Sean and I are realizing that we both would really like our schedule to permit us to attend a Bible study at church, but as of right now it isn’t going to happen so we are both a little bummed about that. We are, however, working with the associate Pastor of our church to try to have a study on Sunday evenings which would be a perfect time for us. Hopefully that gets set up and we can start enjoying that.

In other news… I LOVE TEACHING! I have had a great couple of classes. I love having Chrisi over and chatting with her. On Saturday, our hour lesson ended 3.5 hours later. There was only an hour of instruction but she stuck around and finished the baby hat that she was working on while deep in conversation about child birth and infant care. It turns out that we both have many of the same ideas and both tend to lean towards more natural/ attachment parenting. It is so awesome to talk to someone who understands my ideas about child raising. It’s also nice to have someone to hang out with on what used to be lonely Saturdays. Since the Acura still needs a new master cylinder, we are surviving with one car right now which means on Saturdays I am at home all day and Sean has the car to go to work. This is fine and I sure don’t mind but in all honesty it can get a little lonely at the house when you’re home alone all day. Good conversation and company makes the day much more enjoyable.

We have also been blessed with a “new to me” bread maker. Our neighbors were cleaning out their garage and found a bread maker that they no longer used. I love having it and can’t wait to get into a bread making routine. I made a loaf of oatmeal bread on Sunday that was super yummy. This week I have been enjoying pb&j on homemade bread. I’m hoping to find some more fun bread recipes so I can start phasing out buying bread at the store.

Fibery Confessions

I am done with the “Classic Camel Vest” by Tara Jon Manning. I am so proud of the vest! It came out nicer than I though it would and it makes me very happy to know that I’ll be adding to my Dad’s already impressive sweater vest collection. Over all, the project was pretty fuss free and would definitely do this pattern again.

Now on to Mom’s afghan. On Wednesday, August 25, 2010 I headed over to Michaels to see if they had the Vanna’s Choice I’d be needing on sale and lo and behold they did. I picked up all the yarn I would need and that evening after dinner managed to knock out the first of nine panels for the afghan. So far it is going well. I am averaging one panel a day which is perfect. The only thing I concerned about is the joining rows. The instruction say that one skein should get you through the panel and joining row, but by the time I’m done with a panel I have very little yarn left. I think I might introduce a ninth color for the joining rows. I’m thinking the Vanna’s Choice Dusty Purple would look really nice. For now I’m just going to focus on getting the panels knocked out and worry about the joining rows later.

I also have another raglan baby sweater on the needles. I haven’t done much with it so far but I will keep plugging away at it. This sweater is going to be a part of a baby gift for my student who is due around Christmas. I’m making the Easy Baby Cardigan by Diane Soucy for her little one along with booties and a cute hat. Since we live in Texas and winters are unpredictable around here I decided to use Cotton Tots. I figure this way little one wouldn’t be too warm and of course on colder days Chrisi can always use it a layering piece.

Favorite Thing

Clean sheets. Saturday morning I stripped the bed and got our sheets washed. For anyone else this would be no big deal. Unfortunately, we don’t have a washer or dryer so laundry is a bit of a task. I got the sheets hand washed and then took them out to the clothes line. To rinse the soap out I ended up taking the hose and spraying the sheets down until the water ran clear. It was awesome. After drying on the line we brought them in and prepared our bed. The smell of clean sheets that have hung outside was fabulous. In the past we had taken the sheets to Mom and Dad’s and used their washer which is much easier but the sheets never smelled this good. So this weeks favorite thing is line dried clean sheets.

Binding Off
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
~ Psalm 139:13-14 NIV

If you can’t find it, design it!

August 20, 2010

Babble

So this is where I get to babble about what’s going on in our house. Not much has happened over the last few days. Our lives have pretty much settled in to a pattern of drive forty-five minutes to work, work all day, drive forty-five minutes back and then take care of dinner and feeding the zoo. If we have errands to run that just prolongs the whole process.

Work has been a little rough this week because poor Little Man (20-months old) is cutting molars. This week he has ranged from slightly annoyed to absolutely miserable. I really do feel bad for him... poor little pumpkin.

The big news around here is that I’m finally starting to teach again. A few weeks ago a student of mine from Michaels contacted me and asked if I was still teaching. When I said yes she was excited and set up a private lesson time for tomorrow. That private lesson has turned into a group class since she is planning to bring a friend or two. She was one of my crochet students who, if I remember correctly, was a fast learner and loved a challenge. It’s going to be great to see her again and I am very excited to be back to teaching.

Fibery Confessions

I am done with the bulk of the knitting on “Classic Camel Vest” by Tara Jon Manning. All that is left is to block it, assemble it and knit the button band. I’m very happy with this pattern so far. It’s a quick knit which is great for Christmas knitting. I can’t wait ‘til it’s complete and I have pictures! This weekend’s task: block the three pieces and knit the button band.

Since I’m waiting for the weekend to start blocking I needed a new project. I was looking everywhere for a fairly simple, top-down, raglan sweater to make for Little Man’s Christmas present and just couldn’t find anything I liked in the yarn that I had set aside, so what did I do? I designed one. I found this great website that gave all the formulas needed to design a custom fit, top-down raglan. Since Little Man was absolutely not going to allow me to do measurements I used the chart that they gave to approximate his size. Well, that would have been fine and all except I made a 2T and it fits him now which means by this winter he will have out grown it. No worries! That one is going to our Hope Chest once I finish the sleeves on it. For now that project is going to be put on the back burner until I get a little more Christmas knitting done.

Jr. Carolers Cable Sweater designed by Charu Anne Slawek Robertson
Not a very good picture because of lighting :(

Yesterday, I did all the calculations again… this time for a 4T… and cast on. I have worked down to the sleeve divide and am about to start the body. I’m hoping I can work a braided cable on this one to make it slightly fancier. Not that Little Man will care, but I think it’ll look nice.

In other news, I have finally decided on my Mom’s Christmas gift. I found a beautiful afghan on the Lion Brand website that I am going to crochet up for Mom. The colors are perfect and it’s a beautiful afghan. I am currently looking for a good deal on the yarn. Hopefully, the afghan will be started no later than 1.Sept.2010.

Picture from the Lion Brand Website

Favorite Thing

Rain! We got rain twice this week and I loved it. I love the smell of rain and the cool clouds. It was wonderful to come home and see everything wet and happy. So this week my favorite thing is rain. Thank you God for rain!

Binding Off

Have a great weekend all and don’t forget “Memories are knit with love.” ~ Author unknown

The Confessions Begin

August 16, 2010

Babble

So this is where I get to babble about what’s going on in our house. It’s been pretty exciting around here lately. Sean, my hubby, is getting busy working on my craft studio. He has the holes in the wall where he will be building recessed shelving for knitting notions and scrapbook supplies. He is in the planning and designing phase and hopefully soon he will be in the constructing phase. Until my studio is finished I have my knitting stash spread out in different areas of the house and my scrapbook supplies in boxes in the garage and closet of the studio.

Our 5-month old puppy, Zuke, is growing like a weed. He is now 38.5 lbs. I have to say he is just the best little puppy anyone could ask for. He has only once grabbed my knitting but luckily did no harm. Since he will happily watch me knit but has no interest in stealing my yarn.

Our two kitties, Alice and Joshua are finally starting to adjust to having a puppy in the house although they still would prefer that Zuke just let them be. We have many moments around here of Zuke attempting to herd them and the two of them running and hissing. Prayerfully, one of these days they will all just get along.

I have been knitting away and trying to keep up with the house. We still don’t have a washer or dryer, so I am doing laundry by hand…yuck! I guess I’m just spoiled and haven’t found the beauty in hand washing our laundry. I do love hanging laundry outside to dry because it leaves everything with a nice fresh smell. Besides laundry, I have been working on saving my dying garden. The heat this month has made my plants very sad. Everything indoors is doing well though. I have lots of fresh basil and oregano growing in my kitchen window box along with lettuce and some flowers. Hopefully as it cools off the garden will start to look better and produce. If not there’s always next year 

Fibery Confessions

I am currently working on a “Classic Camel Vest” by Tara Jon Manning. The vest is going to be for my Dad who loves sweater vests and cardigan vests. I would have loved to do this project in merino, alpaca, or any other natural fiber, but I ended up settling for Lion Brands Wool-Ease in Wheat. We simply could not afford the nicer stuff this time around.

So far I have finished the back and left panel and am feverishly knitting the right panel. I am trying desperately to get this vest done (knitted, blocked, pieced together, etc) by the end of the month. Right now I think I can totally do it but you just never know when a snag might come up. The project to date has been fairly easy with the cables being my play time. Today, I finally got up the courage to try working the cable without a cable needle and I love it! Thank you Cat Bordhi for your video podcast on cabling. It was my inspiration to drop the cable needle and try a new technique.


I also have a pair of baby booties that I need to finish up for a couple at church. Those will need to be done by the end of the week. Last but not least I have a pair of wrist warmers that are finished but are waiting to be blocked and have the buttons added.

Binding Off

Well folks that’s all for tonight. I want to leave you with a scripture from the Bible that I found very appropriate:

"As I live and breathe," God says, "every knee will bow before me; Every tongue will tell the honest truth that I and only I am God."
So tend to your knitting. You've got your hands full just taking care of your own life before God. – Romans 14:12-13 The Message Bible

Welcome!

Welcome to Confessions of a Serial Knitter. I'm a craft and photography loving, earth-crunchy Christian wife and nanny who loves to knit. I learned to knit years ago from my grandmother in India and am proud to carry on her love for knitting.

We have a Hope Chest that I knit for quite often. I pray that some day we will have little ones to wear all the sweaters and hats that I have made, but until then I am continuing to learn new techniques by knitting baby sweaters, diaper covers, blankets, hats, etc. Of course I also knit for my family, and I do a lot of Christmas knitting. Year ‘round I’ve got a project and when I don’t, I’m finding one. I knit a lot at work while the toddler I care for naps and at home while hubby and I are relaxing, not to mention in the car and church, etc (too many places to mention)

I hope you enjoy reading about my knitting adventures. I plan to blog at least twice a month if not more. I will base the layout of this blog loosely off of one my favorite podcasts “Stitch It!” by It’s Just Megan. I’m not going to use all her sections but I will have a place for Babble, Fibery Goodness (which I will call Fibery Confessions), a Favorite Thing, and Binding Off (my final closing thoughts).

So lets get started and let the confessions roll.