for babe. une.

i can only imagine there will be dozens of these posts so i'm starting a series: for babe.

my handmades for the baby.

i have a feeling i'm getting a winter babe this time around because god knows that this knitting-mama needs to be able to wrap her wee-one in the warmth of a handknit blanket (or cardi, or trousers, or booties, or hat...) and so here's something that's just about to come off the needles. it's been so nice to have this small project - each panel has been completed in a different country - the uk, canada, italy - a little of this babe's travels woven in. hours of sitting on planes and in cars. time available to think and ponder and pray for whomever this small soul will become.

dogwood from tincanknits - a canadian(!) affair - when pieced together i'll post the whole thing for now - the first panel as it was being blocked.

weekend plans.

this weekend i will:

• host dinner tonight for a few good friends, i prepped much of it this morning. i'm doing a lentil & tomato salad from ottolenghi's plenty, this broccoli & bacon salad by jamie oliver, and bbq'd sausages and chicken with our new favourite (and spontaneously created by me last week) sauce: tomato ketchup,  worcestershire sauce and red wine vinegar.
• meet some old girlfriends for picnic (hopefully) lunch - haven't seen these girls in years! 
• buy a new sewing machine, mine has bit the dust and it's time to replace it!  
• go to the movies with my guy 
• sew a slip cover for a bookcase-cum-sidetable 
• enjoy a free day while le boy is in an incredibly long cycle race, luckily he doesn't ask me to attend as well 
• go to evening church and enjoy the late evening light on the walk home 
• listen to podcasts 
• chat with the fam 
• read more of my current (and excellent) book: canada by richard ford 
• block my recently completed cardigan! 

happy weekend. 

for bebe.

we all know how much i love babies, and maybe more than that, i love making for babies. in the past couple of years i've made dozens of little items. there are a few good things about making for baby. it's fast, the wool is soft and the stuff is cute. i never look at a baby item and not swoon. well except for maybe weird things with monsters - what is it with monsters on baby items?

i digress. in a few weeks another of our clan will welcome their first babe. it's an exciting time. and while i pretty much make something for any baby i even hear of appearing on the scene, there are some babies who are just that little bit more special. they tend to fall into the category of 'family, or might as well be family we are just that tight' this babe is of the second order. and because i've not yet made a baby blanket that hasn't been well received (no pun intended) i thought i'd do it again. seeing as this wee-one is to be a summer child, we needed something a bit lighter and more airy. and because i actually did much of this while travelling last month, i opted to crochet instead of knit.

i worked off this pattern on purlbee.com - just sized it down to be about 22" x 26". i finished the edges with a single crochet edge. this was very simple, if not a little repetitive. the colour, well, i went with a grey because the gender is, as yet, unknown. i think the element of surprise is so much fun! and i'm all about neutrals anyway. the yarn is drops baby merino. it's my go-to for all baby projects, great feel to the yarn and fully washer and dryer friendly, which is so important with baby items.

we hope the wee-one will snuggle up with the blanket for years and years to come.

march.

a day behind. i feel that way a lot recently. like i'm coming to life late or something. i wonder if i need to slow down or speed up or evaluate what's on my list and what's possible or get a better routine or abandon routine? but i'm also here. so that's good.

a recap on february. i'm trying to be gentle with myself. some great things (great big things) happened, but they took energy and time, and so there was less of me to do the things i absolutely love. i've also decided to set myself a monthly creativity goal - most often sewing or knitting i expect, but we'll see what else makes it's way in...

creative: i finished a baby blanket for our closest friends' new baby, she is now snuggled up in it, so it was finished and delivered just in time. no pictures of the blanket yet, but i used this purlbee pattern and i LOVE the way it came out. possibly the cushiest, softest, loftiest baby blanket.

spiritual: memorised hebrews 4:12 & john 10:10

physical: ran/walked my first 2 km in more than 13 months! this is huge. i've not lost weight as quickly as i'd like (we went to france, they do bread and cheese and chocolate particularly well...), but i am reinvigorated to stay focussed on the goal!

mental: this was pretty much a failure. i started off with my fiction pick - the children's book by a.s.byatt. a.s.byatt is notoriously dense. and this is no exception. i am liking the story, it's just taking a long time to plough through. i may set it down to read the hunger games, which a.b. emailed me about to say that i HAD to pick it up. i'll report back. in other news, i've decided that at the top of my birthday wish list is a kindle, perhaps this will make reading novel (no pun intended) again! i've also started eat this book by eugene peterson, in the non-fiction category, i'll report back.

::intentions for march::

physical: get to running 20 min straight through. lose 2kgs (but i have a good incentive, we've just booked a florida trip for easter, so it's bathing suit (or swimming costume, as they say here) time! 

mental: read the hunger games - i'm so serious about this i'm picking the book up on my way home tonight :) finish the children's book and eat this book. 

spiritual: i've started a lenten devotional on my youversion bible app - i want to make sure i finish it! and to continue memorizing two scriptures this month. 

creative: working on a short sleeved alpaca sweater knit sideways - i'll be interested to see how this goes, and sew a slip cover for a storage unit in our living room. 

to simplify.

a simple advent. that's all i want for christmas this year. oh and to get le boy's jumper (sweater) done in time. but how do we prepare? how to get it all done? the baking and the making and the visits and the work and the decorating and the events? how do we keep the event of jesus coming to earth as the central idea of our days? how to keep from becoming caught up in the busy-ness of it all and forget the business of christ?

by stopping. and stilling. by bending low and thanking god for humble beginnings and babe-grace. by putting the needs of others ahead of our own. by focusing on the truest thing we can, the sacrifice of praise for he who would sacrifice it all.

this year we have chosen to remain in one place. and we are delighted at the prospect of standing still. for years we have each travelled, across land and seas to be home with our families, and those are times we cherish and times, i'm sure we will miss this christmas. but we are also learning how to be our own family. to establish and develop our own traditions.

it's slow around here at the moment. a joint stiff with swelling and pain, and a girl who is always eager to do one more thing can be a challenging combination. i am learning. i am preparing for a season of slowness. of incremental progress, measured by the degrees i can bend my knee. of being patient and pacing myself. of learning how to pace my days, rather than fill them to the absolute brim.

trees will be trimmed this weekend, rows upon rows of double moss stitch knitted, and we will begin our advent study. in the midst of it all, i pray we prepare not just our home, but our hearts for the coming of christ.

baby blessings.

i'll start by saying - we're NOT pregnant. we don't intend to be for a while. but as it turns out, everyone around us, is pregnant. i've lost count, and really this makes me extremely happy. i get to knit super cute baby items, i get to hold and play with new babies, i get to give the babies back. someday, someone will hand a baby back to me, just not soon!

and so, i'm always stuck with a little conundrum - what to get the wee babe? there are a ton of cute things out there, but i can make stuff. and i like making stuff. and i like that it's fast. baby knitting, is so so so fast. i love it. in fact, i've been pre-baby knitting. the other night le boy asked who the latest item on my needles was for, and i said, i don't know, but there will be someone. the littleness of it all is super cute. and the quickness of it all is super gratifying. plus, i love knowing that new babes are wearing something made with a little bit of love.

i found this darling printable on the 'on to baby' site - the follow on site from the weddingchicks - we used wedding chicks for all our stationery at the wedding and i LOVED it. as a cute little gift i made booties with some matching note cards. one of which i used as our card, and a few others for them to use as notes from the babe.

the bootie pattern can be found here.

things i am liking.

diy wedding tutorials online.

stationery
water bottle wrappers
fan programmes
centrepiece ideas

international shipping from key retailers.

williams-sonoma (warms my kitchen-loving heart)
banana republic/gap etc (hello sale, how are you?)
shutterfly (you make gifts oh so easy!)

reading excellent books.

the glass palace : amitav ghosh (oh.my.word. three generations of incredibleness set in east asia in the first half of the 20th century)

any human heart : william boyd (the diaries of a man from childhood until death, so alive to me that i'm still wondering about him)

planning projects for my post-knee surgery recovery (note they are all possible to do sitting down).

pull through wrap
mirrored candle holders 

nai-nai dishcloths (these are by far my favourite, in fact, they may warrant their own post entirely!)


guessing where we are going for honeymoon (this is a complete surprise to me, le boy is taunting me with his knowledge).

martha's vineyard 
luxury carribean resort
savannah, ga 

dishwasher.

if there is one thing i hate in terms of housework it's dishes. i am the girl for whom the dishwasher was invented. and i am overjoyed that our new flat comes with a dishwasher! but it's a small dishwasher, a plates and glasses kind of dishwasher. so we'll have handwashing. we'd have handwashing anyway, i know, but i don't like it one bit.

i'm hoping to improve my attitude toward dishwashing. i thought i'd start by making some long-lasting, hard-wearing, pretty-looking dishcloths. my grandmother made dozens of these every year and dutifully supplied her daughters with a new set for christmas. i grew up with homemade dishcloths and was utterly surprised as a child to realise that not everyone had such things hanging from their kitchen taps. in my humble opinion handmade dishcloths are superior to all other cloths, they don't fall apart, they've got great nubby bits to scrub with you can make them in bright and fun colours...and they are SIMPLE to make. plus their fairly inexpensive, seeing as they last for years and cost less than $2. oh and they make great gifts - people get genuinely excited about them!

i'm working with a new pattern this time. called 'chinese waves' it's making a denser cloth than i'm used to, but i think it will be built to last.

the pattern is from maggie's rags. i'm going to try out many different patterns and decide which ones i like...

bootie baby: take two.

the babes are abounding! last week a lovely's sister had her first wee-one! as a firm believer in babes having handmade items, i quickly cast on for a sweet weekend project!

as i mentioned in a previous post, i thought i'd try to make a different bootie pattern for each new babe this year and then decide on my favourite(s)!

this time i tried this pattern from the handknit librarian. i modified it slightly with a colour change (i ran out of the grey and le boy expertly suggested the navy!) and rather than continuing up the tube, kept on with the 1x1 rib for 6 or so rows...

they almost look like small athletic socks! and i absolutely adore the detailing around the ankle.

baby knitting is oh so satisfying - no more than a few hours total, and oh so sweet when it's finished up!

flirting.

people often ask me where i get the time to knit or sew. or why i go to the trouble? i don't magically have more time - i find it. in snatches: on the train, in the car, on the bus, during lunch. while watching a tv programme, early in the morning. with knitting particularly i find i'm calmer, more settled and i like being a little bit productive and creative in those in-between moments that can otherwise seem like time wasters...

sewing's a little more difficult - it depends more on being in my house and setting up the kitchen table to be my work station, while not making life difficult for my housemate. thus, sewing has been less this year, but hopefully a guest bedroom/study/craft room will solve that problem once le boy and i have our own spot. a couple weeks ago i was left to my own devices when both my roommate and my fiance were away for the weekend - and the sewing machine made it's spring debut! 

when anna maria horner posted this skirt tutorial/pattern some weeks ago, i knew i had to make it!

i used an anna maria voile - it feels buttery smooth and SOOOOOOOO lovely. if i wasn't in the throes of wedding planning and the like i'd probably be making many more...

'flirting the issue' is a full skirt with a wide waist band actually made from a series of thin elastic strips - and the best part is that this skirt is completely customizable - shorter, longer, fuller, sleeker - the options are many!

this might be the only one that is crafted for the 2011 season, but i see more in my future, even if it's next year...

bootie baby : take one.

we're in one of those seasons where every other couple we know is either getting married or having babies. it's hard to knit for weddings, but babies? they demand small handknit items. the knitting is quick and really really cute. i'm known to get carried away so i decided a while ago that family members get big, involved baby gifts - everyone else gets booties. babies deserve something handmade - and it's such an excellent opportunity to pray for the expectant family and for the newest little one.

 

and so i'm making for babies. and i though this would be an excellent opportunity to try a series of bootie patterns available on ravelry. there are, i kid you not, more than 1500 projects available. so i set some parameters: free, one piece, preferably minimal seaming, and can use up scrap yarn. this narrowed the results to about one hundred - then i just decided which ones i thought were cute...

 

first up was magic slippers. super fast and simple, knit entirely in the round - which means no seaming! they were a treat to knit, with a clear pattern and a great structure. i will most definitely be making these again.

let's hope that baby c like them as much as i do!

friday night in.

i've noticed a disturbing trend in my life. in my married friend's lives. we spend friday night in. this is only disturbing because surely friday night is supposed to be 'fun' night. or 'date' night. or some kind of 'special' night. in our world however, friday night is rapidly becoming the night when we cook a good dinner, drink some good wine, have a good conversation and watch some good (hopefully) tv/movie. friday night in seems unglamourous. but really, it's not. really it's fantastic!

our most recent friday night included:

• pan-seared steak

 

• new zealand red wine 

• after eight mints (le boy's absolute favourite!)
• knitting (yay for me!) 
• le boy learning the very important role of 'hank-holder' while i made a centre-pull ball of the newest wool! 

• spending time with neil caffrey - the lead character in 'white collar'
  

• spending time with the le boy. we're in one of those phases when we'd like to see each other all the time...i suppose that might be necessary as we move into married life! 

finished.

i completed the white jumper last week, blocked it this weekend and wore it to church on sunday!

 

on the whole it's a little bigger than i'd really prefer - but it still fits great and it's a wonderful weight for this time of year. yesterday le boy and i took a wander around wandsworth common, complete with a photoshoot of my new sweater! 

 

photos courtesy of le boy. he indulges me so...

in other news our wander in wandsworth brought us into the path of new spring buds (see header!), canadian geese who surely must be on their way home soon?, and celebrity chef gordon ramsay trying to corral his two wayward dogs...

 

link : white jumper on ravelry. 

started.

jumper is done and blocking. what's next? 

read.

i love reading. i feel blessed to have grown up in a house where reading was a daily activity and books were discussed at dinner (yes, we ate at the table as a family most nights, and i think it was incredibly formative for us.)

i'm trying to read more. it seems the more i knit, the less i read. weird, i know. in my mind, reading and knitting somehow are connected - maybe it's the sitting aspect? or the portability? or the ability each gives me to lose myself in the moment. a thing i don't like, is that knitting seems to increase the amount of tv watching i do. i'm really not thrilled by that. don't get me wrong, i'm not anti-tv, i love more than my fair share of television, and there are some really fantastic programmes out there - but i do think that less tv is better. le boy and i have actually made some clear decisions regarding the role of tv in our home and our lives.






so i'm hoping to read more this coming week. to be intentional in how i'm spending my time. on the go at the moment are the following:

- a million miles in a thousand years : donald miller (my book study with american girl)
- olive kitteridge : elizabeth strout (2009 pulitzer winner)
- the mitford sisters : charlotte mosley (unfortunately it's so large it resides permanently on my bedside table)
- daily bible reading via the youversion app on my iphone






ideally i'd like to be done olive kitteridge by the end of next week - i'd also like to be done the jumper i'm working on, so we'll see how it all pans out.


:posted on the go:

lunchtime.

all this sitting around does have its benefits: knitting at lunch! and serious progress on the latest jumper pour moi!

there's been a lot of sitting - in france while laid up and watching dvd box sets, (how happy was i to have had the foresight to pack the needles?), on the slow bus that i'm taking into work these days rather than the crowded (and standing mandatory) train, in dr's offices while waiting for appointments - the latter two also requiring podcasts to get me through.  hopefully my knee will heal as quickly as this bit of knitting for myself is coming together.

i'm excited to get this finished up...both the knee and the jumper!

christmas begins.

we've had quite the week here. the family was in london-town for a.b.barton's graduation from lse. and for christmas festivities. it was a great confluence of events - with le boy and i flying the coop tonight for down-under, there will be no winter-white christmas in the great white north. so we've been hugely fortunate to enjoy the company of the family, hanging out in the city and tooling around together. not exciting would be the elusive search for a pair of jeans that fit well - they still elude me. i'm taking any and all suggestions for a good pair of jeans - i will not give up until they are found!

 i also - very excitingly - finished the sweater (or jumper, if you please) on time!  a.b.barton is extremely happy with it - and i'm pretty chuffed as well. (that's british for pleased.)

 

monday night was a dinner to end all dinners - lots of wine and extremely good food and really rather fantastic company.

i heart my family. and the extras too - so glad that jose found his way over here as well!

measuring.

i have very few things of my paternal grandmother. but i have one thing. something she probably used almost daily. something i use almost daily.


i am the granddaughter who knits. perhaps to everyone's surprise.

and as i sit and i knit, i contemplate and i pray, and i feel connected to those who have taken time and marked it with stitches.

have measured it in centimetres and inches.

have said i love you, with their hands, stitching love.

the silver seashell measure, once my namesake's, now measures my love in centimetres and inches.

photos: the beginnings of a.b.barton's christmas jumper

made.

a few months ago i was making for baby (not mine!) well baby has arrived. and making finished up just shortly after he made his way into the world.

brown paper packages were sent airmail to a little someone an ocean apart. the first of the next generation. it hardly seems possible that we're there now. that we're at the getting-married-having-babies-being-adults stage. i always remember the antics with my cousins, the fun and the laughter and the roads we've walked together. i'm oh so blessed to have grown up with them near and to be still close (at least in spirit) today. 

and while we didn't grow up around our second cousins, i surely hope that this newest generation will. i simply cannot imagine life and family and celebrations without them all around. even if i do tend to miss a good number of those comings-together at the moment. 

 this was insanely easy to knit up. i mean almost boring. but i used the time to teach myself continental knitting. so that's good. and in the end the baby merino super wash, super soft, stripy, gender neutral (the babe was to be a surprise!) worked just perfectly. and it reaffirmed my love for drops wool. much less expensive than other wools, just as nice to work with. the pattern is from purl - super easy baby blanket. and it was.

hoping it keeps a wee-one warm in the now blustery true-north.

links: baby blanket pattern : drops yarn