Plum Stitches

Grey Day

A gloomy day here in the Northeast.  They say maybe some snow, maybe some rain, but we'll see.  I've decided I really must organize all of these digital photographs that we've accumulated since Chloe was born.  I was thinking that I might try and see how one of these photobooks works and what they look like as a finished product.  As I was looking through the folders, and folders of pictures, I came across a few that made me smile.

Our friend Andy took this last May, while we were visiting friends in San Francisco and hanging out near the Warming Hut at Crissy Field.  I don't remember what the format of the camera was, but I think it was his grandfather's.

We planted this Rose Mallow at the beginning of last summer at Jim's family's house at the beach.  It was spectacular all summer!  Hopefully it will return this spring. 

I just stumbled upon this hat that was in the Spring 2004 Knitty Surprise, and a few knitters (anny purls, something from nothing) out there have adapted for an infant.  It's so sweet.  Chloe's a bit big for the infant size, but I'm thinking I might make this one for myself.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Oops, now I have the song "The Three R's" (reduce, reuse, recycle), from the Curious George soundtrack in my head.  Speaking of Curious George, we have some friends in San Francisco that used this fantastic photographer, Lori Paladino, to photograph their son.  They sent out an electronic holiday card and "Upside Down" (another song from the soundtrack) was the background music.  So sweet and such beautiful pictures!  Wish I still lived in San Francisco, so I could use her to photograph Chloe.

The new issue of Domino arrived on my doorstep yesterday, loaded with reviews of
'green' products, in its The Green List.  The list covers everything from renovating, and cleaning products, to bedding and clothing.  Lots of cool things to check out.  My favorite site for general information so far is treehugger.com.

Way back when (four months ago), I cleaned out my closet, thoroughly.  While, I donated at least two bags of clothing, I saved numerous sweaters.    My big idea was to felt them, cut them up and use the felted wool for projects.  My first project was a little vest/sweater/shirt (not sure what to call it) for Chloe.  The pattern I used was from a Japanese pattern book, a very basic  A-line  shape.  Then, using scraps of yarn from my secret stash, I've been making the flowers from the Four-in-One Brooch pattern of Felt It!
I need to make more flowers and felt them much more so that they're tighter, but here's my progress so far:
 

Little of this, little of that

Just bought a new mailbox. We looked everywhere, but ended up with this one from Restoration Hardware in iron (black, not the color shown).  Our current one is pretty sad looking, so this will be a welcome addition to our exterior.  Next up:  new lights.  We've looked, but haven't purchased, yet.

The new Anthropologie catalogue arrived yesterday.  I've got my eye on this Beanstalk Skirt, so cute!  Would be perfect for the spring.

I'm almost finished with a sleeve from my Phildar Swing Jacket.  After many false starts and much frogging, I think I'm on the right track (phew!).  Also, I've been working on the Little Star Sweater (pictured on the cover of the book) from Zoe Meller's Adorable Knits.

Chloe's finally feeling better, and I'm happy not to be doing an unending amount of laundry!

Nesting

Oh boy to I have an itch to paint, move furniture, plant bulbs, redesign our garden...and the list goes on.  Not sure why I've been struck with this bug, maybe the winter blues?  Or possibly the 50 degree weather today.

First off, and this is a bit of a tangent from when I started, way back in September the contractor hung his scaffolding to start renovations on the exterior of our building.  The renovations included repairing/painting our cornice, fixing damaged bricks, replastering our staircase, and much more.  Well, here we are five months later and the job that should have taken three weeks, doesn't seem to have an end in sight!    The cornice has been fixed and painted, and the staircase is repaired (although the plaster seems to be flaking in spots). 

Still to go - replacing all the windows, painting the window trim, replacing the front door with a handmade mahogany door, and fixing the aireway (I think this is what it's called, the space in front of our house for landscaping).  Also, we'd like to replace our iron work on the staircase and the front.  Regarding the windows, if you look really closely you'll notice that the contactor took out about a foot of brick directly under the windows on our second floor.  These short windows will be replaced by replicas of the originals that are close to being floor to ceiling.

Here's what it looked like before we purchased, in November and now:

More on my nesting aspirations later...

More EZ

I love this little February Baby Sweater from Elizabeth Zimmerman - so cute!  I splurged and bought The Knitter's Almanac a few weeks ago.  Not a huge splurge at $7.95, but I did feel guilty since I've only been knitting from my stash and have been avoiding purchasing books/knitting patterns.  The books almost seem to be almost a bigger weakness for me than yarn! 

Chloe's too big for the sweater these days. I've been scouring the Web and Blogs for suggestions on how to make it bigger, but so far have come up empty handed.  So I'm thinking of making it and saving it as a future baby gift.  These were some of the adorable ones that I found out there:  Elliphantom Knits (love that YoYo!, the color and buttons too), Zimmermania, Knitting is Kneat-O and of course from Flickr.

Chloe picked up the stomach bug that has been going around.  This is the second time around for her, our entire house was sick (well, not the cat and dog) last month and it was not a pretty sight.  So far this morning I've done about four loads of laundry and given her two baths to clean up.  Poor thing, she just sits there and moans!  I'm hoping it passes quickly and that I don't come down with it.  My fingers are crossed.

Dreaming of Topiaries

I have a long history of bringing my potted rosemary plants in the house in the fall and attempting to coax them into something as attractive as the topiary in this picture.  Sadly, they last for a bit and then, well, let's just say it's not pretty.  My current attempt is on its death bed.

I've tried all of the tips and hints in the various gardening magazines, but nothing seems to work.  Some day I'll figure out the trick to keeping these alive and healthy, but for now, I've got the green eyes for this one.
 

Storm

Last week I went to spend some time with my Aunt and Uncle.  They were watching my cousin's daughter, who is Chloe's age.  Well, a bigstorm hit the east coast and the next thing I know, my back windshield is smashed in by a falling branch.  Of course, the windshield is a special order piece, so visit was extended by several days waiting for the windshield to come in and be replaced. 

Here they are looking out the window at the snow/rain/sleet mess and Chloe cruising around like a champ.

I did make some progress on this little sweater from Lucinda Guy's  Handknits for Kids.

I used Rowan Cashsoft 4 ply, in an eggplant color that was in my stash.  Also, I decided to make the sweater without the sweet flowers.  I'm sticking to my no new yarn policy and only knitting from my stash.  BTW, my secret stash is s-l-o-w-l-y getting smaller, whooohoo.  Haven't bought any yarn since our trip to London in December.

BSJ

Just finished EZ's Baby Surprise Jacket.  This was a quick project, perfect if you're short on time for a gift.  I used the pattern from The Opinionated Knitter, but it looks like you might be able to buy the pattern separately. 

It came out much smaller than I aniticipated, so I'll save it for a gift, or for the next baby in our house.  Next time around I plan to up the needle size and use some of the suggestions contained in the book, Zimmermania and on others blogs to increase the size.  I'd say this would probably fit an infant 0-6 months, depending on the baby's size.  Also, the buttons are from the fabulous button gift my mother gave me for Christmas.

Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket
Yarn:  Phildar Auteuil
Needles:  Addi Size 6 circular
Size:  0-6 months

More photos of the sweater are on my Flickr page.

My Mom found this Jar of Whimsies on Etsy, how cute is this?  Might be fun...

Lots of Projects

First off, it being Goundhog Day and all, the little guy didn't see his shadow, which means we'll have an early spring.  Early spring you say?  Heck, we haven't even had winter here in the Northeast!  Although today, we're supposed to have a chance of a 'wintry mix.'  I guess that covers all the bases for the weather forecaster.  But I must admit - I WANT SNOW!  If we're going to have winter at least let's have some of the white fluffy stuff.

On to my various projects in the works.  I've cast on again for the Phildar Swing Jacket (I'm starting to sound like a broken record), blocked the Child's Placket Sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts (pictured below), and am about half way through a Baby Surprise Jacket from EZ for Chloe.  Actually both of these sweaters are for Chloe.

I've dusted off my sewing machine and attempted to organize my supplies.  Quickly sewed some rick-rack & ribbon onto two pairs of pants for Chloe.  I picked these pants off the sale rack at Target, ages ago thinking that since they were 18 months, I'd have some time to jazz them up before they fit her.  Wrong.  The little lady is eating like she's in training and looks like she sprouted about three inches in the past few weeks.  Needless to say, at 14 months, I think she'll be outgrowing her 12-18 month clothing shortly.

This is the fabric from a baby quilt I started last fall after taking a quilt class at Purl.  Lots of information in the class, but not enough time for me to wrap it up.  So, here I am almost five months later pulling it out to finish. 

Phew, think that's it for today.  Oh, one other thing, I've decided I want to rearrange out guest room so that I might have some space in there to set up my sewing machine and various other projects, but more on that later.  Have a great weekend!