Now that Christmas is over, I’ve been knitting for myself. I finally finished my Over-the-Knee Socks, though not by the Christmas deadline I had set for myself. They are so pretty, if I do say so myself! I have also started a new sweater for myself. It’s a maternity sweater from last summer’s IK. I’m using Knitpicks Wool of the Andes and I’m really liking it. The bump in the front is because it has short rows under the bustline to accommodate a baby belly. Here’s a modeled picture of the front. I can’t believe I’m half done with being pregnant! One good thing about being back from my beach vacation is that I get to go to the doctor tomorrow and see if baby Sesame is a boy or a girl! I’m really excited but a little nervous too. We call the baby Sesame because when I first found out I was pregnant, I read that the baby was as big as a sesame seed and the name stuck. It’s a lot bigger than a sesame seed now but my family is starting to think that maybe the baby should actually be named Sesame!

I need to say a great big THANK YOU to my secret pal! She got me a ball winder!! I have already used and I love, love, love it. I don’t know how I went this long without one!

I picked up my frost flowers and leaves shawl/blanket and have started working on it again. I was surprised at how easily the pattern came back to me. Even though I hadn’t worked on it in weeks, I don’t have to look at the pattern very often. I’m going to put it on scrap yarn soon because I have no idea how big it is! It doesn’t look much different than the last photo I posted but trust me, it is.

I also knitted this quick baby sweater last weekend. It’s Inca Cotton and I wish I had enough to knit myself a sweater with it. It’s so soft! I found these adorable elephant buttons and they really finish the sweater. I sewed a ribbon to the inside so the buttons wouldn’t pull on the stitches too much. That’s all for now! You’ll be hearing from me more regularly now that I have things to show you! There’s nothing like the cold, rainy fall weather to make me start knitting again.

We saw a lot of great yarn and a lot of great fiber that made me with I could spin. The highlight, though, was the animals. Alpacas are the cutest!! Just look at this one munching his hay. How could you not want to take him home?

This pretty trio was for sale. Each a different color. I wanted them. I still want them. The weirdest animal was the Jacob Sheep. Look at all the horns! We weren’t allowed to pet them. It was probably so we didn’t get impaled by all the horns. They looked friendly but we followed orders. I got a great deal on some Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece. They were seconds so each skein was only $3! I have been wanting to knit Rusted Root for a while now so I bought some cotton fleece and started knitting. It’s a quick knit so hopefully I’ll get to wear it before the weather gets really cold. I also bought a big skein of organic Inca cotton and knit a quick little washcloth. It’s so soft! I wish you all could feel it! The pattern is from Mason-Dixon Knitting but the pattern is free on the web (that’s how I got it!) here.

I’m still working on the diamond trellis scarf, one repeat at a time. My new project is the Frost Flowers and Leaves shawl from A Gathering of Lace. I’m not really knitting it as a shawl, though. I’m using Devon from Elann. It’s 100% wool that they call unshrinkable. That seems like it should mean superwash but they say to handwash it. It’s really soft and nice to knit. The color is called mineral green but Mike insists it’s blue. Whatever it is, I like it! It’s sport weight so I’m making a light blanket instead of a shawl. I love the look of shawls but don’t really see myself wearing one anytime soon.

Backing up a little, here’s a picture of me knitting the second sleeve in El Salvador. The cute yellow building is the hotel we stayed at in Apaneca, a little town in the mountains. Rocking chairs and hammocks- what more could a knitter want? Okay, maybe cooler weather so that I actually felt like knitting, but I didn’t want to be picky.

Finally, here is a finished picture of the pillow I knitted for my friends that got married. I am still finishing the second, but the 1st one had a special assignment.
As part of the ceremony, they got lassoed together. As my friend Cindy said, “I’t like a unity candle but we get lassoed together instead.” Yep, those are exactly the same. Anyway, they needed a pretty pillow to kneel on so my gift was very fitting. You can just barely see the corner of my (their) pillow below.I had to fancy up the pillow a little for it’s big day. I folded the flap inside and then safey pinned some ribbons to the inside so I could tie it closed. To make it look balanced, I tied some bows and pinned them to the other end as well, keeping the pillow case snug around the pillow. The happy couple loved it!
Last but not least, my secret pal deserves a huge thank-you shout out. I got this great package, along with a stitch pattern book that didn’t make it into the photo. I got some soap (I love cute soaps!), pretty needles, felted tweed to make the knucks from the latest knitty, and some really pretty hand-dyed yarn that I’ve already started swatching.
Thank you, secret pal and good luck to all you knitters who entered things in your local fairs this summer!!

It’s going to be really hard to part with this pillow. I want to keep it! Cindy will love it, though, and I even found a great quote about love and trees (I can’t remember it right now) that I’m going to write on the back.

Also for their wedding gift, I’m knitting some pretty heart lace using Mandarin Petit cotton. It’s so soft! Lastnight I told Mike he had to feel it. He did to humor me and I could tell he wasn’t excited to touch my yarn but then he exlaimed, “Wow, that is really soft!” I’m going to sew it onto some pillowcases like the ones in Weekend Knitting. I don’t know if I’ll have these done by their wedding since it’s just over a week away! I can’t believe we leave for El Salvador on Tuesday! I’m so excited but I have lots of packing and trip planning to do before then.

I don’t think I’ll be needing these inEl Salvador. I finished them because I went camping in the mountains last weekend and I needed some warm clothes. I finished the second one while I was sitting by the campfire just as the last of the light was leaving the sky. It was perfect timing and as soon as it got chilly that 1st night, I got to wear them!
It’s a great pattern. I totally recommend it! You can find it for free here. The only modification I made was to extend the cable pattern all the way to the top instead of ending with a few rows of plain ribbing. I used Lamb’s Pride worsted and used less than 1 skein!

Do you notice the green in the picture? That’s my new backyard!! It no longer looks like this. Our baby grass grew up and it’s a real lawn now!

Lasly, I’ll leave you with a pretty purple picture. This is lettuce that I got from the farm last week. It’s the prettiest lettuce ever and it tased really good too.

Speaking of femininity, I mentioned last time that I have a solution for my too-big, super-feminine “modern bustier.” I haven’t yet fixed it, though. I need a little distance from it right now. I’m mad at it for being too big but it’ll eventually show up fixed.

I have a backlog of pictures to share with you so my letter M is going to be a couple of things- Monolith and Mt. St. Helens. In the last week, I’ve been to both of these famous Pacific Northwest landmarks. Last weekend my mom came up from California and we had a girl’s weekend at the beach and went here.It’s Haystack Rock, the 3rd largest Monolith in the world. A monolith is a feature that is made up of a single stone or rock (what’s the difference?) and this one is 235 feet tall! It’s in Cannon Beach, Oregon. Supposedly, puffins live on it but I didn’t see any. My mom and I had a great weekend and it was so pretty at the beach! Today, Mike and I went to Mt. St. Helens – the volcano that erupted in 1980. It used to be pointy on the top but that blew off in 1980 and covered the area in massive amounts of ash. This web site has some cool pictures of it erupting.

Today we went to the Ape Cave Lava Tubes. It’s a giant underground tunnel that was created by a lava flow when the volcano erupted somewhere around 2000 years ago. It was so cool! We climbed over huge boulder piles, navigated out way around puddles and had to wear sweatshirts and long pants even though it was 80 degrees today (it was cool 42 degrees in the cave). All of this in total darkness. Well, we had headlamps and a mag light but it was still dark! When we turned of our lights, I couldn’t even see my hand when it was inches form my face. It was cool. Here are the best pictures we managed to take. I have a new knitting project but I think I’ve posted enough pictures for today and there’s really not much to show yet, anyway.

When I realized last weekend that Mother’s Day is coming up soon, I decided to knit something for my mom and my mom-in-law. I needed something quick, since I have to send it early enough for it to get there on time, and easy and pretty so I decided on the Airy scarf from Last-Minute Knitted gifts. Mike helped me pick out the color and it’s kid silk haze in a pretty seafoam green. I didn’t even think about it being a project spectrum color until today. I finished the second tonight and there’s enough yarn left over that I can probably knit a 3rd and have a matching scarf too! I followed the pattern almost exactly. I added a selvedge stitch on each edge and I did a few extra repeats because it was shorter than the pattern said it should be. I haven’t blocked them yet but they’re about 6″ wide and 34″ long. Still 2 inches shorter than the pattern says to knit it but they’re long enough.

I know this because I tried one on.
I hope my moms like them! I know I do. I’ll knit one for me in a while. After cranking out 2 of them in only 3 days, I’m not really in a hurry to knit a 3rd right away. Besides, I have my corset pullover to get back to. I had about 4″ of a sleeve done but then I ripped it out and started over because I didn’t like it. Now I only have less that an inch done. The scarves were a nice interlude but back to the sleeves I go.

After knitting this pattern, I realize that the book’s directions are a bit sloppy. Every decrease is a k2tog and the finishing directions are lazy. The apple holder was to be knitted in 4 flat pieces and then sewn together. That seemed like too much work so I knit it in the round, added paired decreases to make it a little neater and modified it some. I used size 8 dpns and some yarn left over from this project.

I went to the craziest place yesterday! The Bins, aka the Goodwill Outlet. Yes, Goodwill has an outlet. I guess it’s all the stuff that hasn’t sold in the regular stores and is an inch away from the landfill. I’ve been hearing about the place from my friend Rosie a lot and finally decided to go see for myself.

It’s a warehouse filled with huge plastic bins. Fabric items and books are seperated from everything else but that’s as far as the organization goes. People dig through these huge bins looking for treasures and most things are sold for $1.29 a pound! It’s insane and a little disturbing. They have signs cautioning the shopper (aka bargain vulture) that there could be sharp objects in the bins. I spent a fair amount of time dreading the used syringe or dead rat I was sure I’d come accross in the next bin. I even saw some “professional” bins shoppers wearing gloves to sort through the stuff. I’m not exaggerating. This is how some people make money. With enough determination, there is some valuable stuff to be found and purchased for $1.29 per pound.

I came out feeling grimy and dirty and $9 dollars poorer. I got several sweaters I’m planning on felting, some linen fabric I’ll make into a skirt. a really cute, old apron and one of those woven grass mats people take to the beach. This is what I did with one section of the mat. With some hot glue and scissors, I transformed my old, ugly, plastic planter to the new, improved tiki planter!
It now holds mint and chamomile plants. Come join me for some sun tea later this summer!

I am now knitting the “modern bustier” from Alterknits with Main Line from Knitpicks. It’s a new yarn from them and it’s 75% pima cotton, 25% merino and it feels lovely! I don’t have any pictures yet but it seems to be a quick knit so check back soon for an update.

In non-knitting news, I present my letter G for the ABC-along. G is for Garden, and since my vegetable garden isn’t growing yet, I am showing you my cactus and succulent garden. I used to think that crowing cacti was a stupid idea because they’re all prickly and not very touchable. Then my great-aunt Amy died. I couldn’t go to Colorado for her service but my mom told me that she had a huge cactus garden in her yard and that at her memorial service, all her friends brought a plant to add to the garden. My mom was telling me about all the interesting plants people brought and it made me look at them in a new light. Then in May, Mike and I bought a house and it has a great enclosed front porch with huge windows and we wanted to fill it with plants. I decided to make the porch my cactus garden and that expanded into a cactus and succulent garden because there are some cool succulents out there! It makes me think of Aunt Amy and, in a way, my grandma, who was her sister. This one reminds me of seaweed, though it also looks exactly like the things that come off the heads of the Snorks. This is a string-of-pearls and is my most special plant in this collection. My grandma (other one-not Amy’s sis) gave my mom a lot of plants when she moved into a smaller home. My grandma had a lot of really unique plants and the string of pearls was one of my mom’s favorites that she got from her but my mom wasn’t able to keep it alive. This was all before I was old enough to remember but I heard the story. I saw the plant in a nursery while I was on vacation and really wanted to buy it but I couldn’t. Two Christmases ago, Mike found some at a nursery and bought me 2 little plants. It’s not thriving the way I would like it to but it’s a really slow-growing plant so I’m being patient. It reminds me of my grandma and I love it.

Some of you may have noticed (although you probably didn’t) that I skipped the letter F. I just wasn’t feeling inspired so I skipped it. Maybe it’ll make a surprise appearance later but don’t hold your breath. Blogging should be fun, not forced.