Plum Stitches

Northbound

We're headed to Vermont soon to spend the Fourth of July holiday with my parents.  We bought kayaks several years ago, which have become permanent fixtures in my parent's basement.  They were moved to Vermont after spending a summer in our living room doubling as some type of artwork ;-).  We're looking forward to using them next week on Lake Champlain.  We even managed to get Sadie to sit in them for a trip around Button Bay.  This required a little dry land training, first, then she was ready for the lake:

If only Chloe were a bit older - it would be lots of fun to take her out on the lake.  Both kayaks have toddler seats that pop into the front. 

Hopefully we can fit in a trip to Shelburne Farms, I think Chloe might enjoy it.

I'm making some progress on my Mini Shrug, although I frogged it last night.  I have a tough time with the lace patterns.  Inevitably, I end up not adding back the right number of stitches with all the slipping, yarn forward, etc.  I've also been a bit distracted with Ravelry.  I received my e-mail to beta test the site a week or so ago, so I've been busy uploading projects.  The site is really great.

Little Smocked Dress

I started this awhile ago, but finally finished it up yesterday, for Chloe.  The buttons are for the straps, so that I can make them adjustable and came from the gazillion buttons my mother gave me for Christmas.  I only need two, but there were some of the ones I pulled out.  The dress doesn't really follow a pattern.  Last summer I took a baby clothing making class at Purl Patchwork with Heather Ross, which was fabulous!  We made a dress like this as one of the projects.  More pictures of the dress later...

The Mini Shrug

After a day of staring at the pictures in my newly acquired knitting book, Lace Style, I decided to jump right in.  Instead of spending yet more money on yarn (I'm trying to control myself) I ventured upstairs to our guest room, turned craft room, that's, well, really kind of a disaster right now.  After shuffling things around...I found my secret stash. 

I'm taking a shot at making the Little Silk Shrug, which so far seems pretty easy.  The yarn is from my secret stash.  I think it's Frog Tree Yarn, the label is long gone, so I'm not positive, but it appears to be a merino wool.  Not sure that this is the best material for this shrug, but I'll give it a go.  I also discovered the Lace Style KAL, which I may join as extra incentive.

Funny thing is I remember clearly the acquisition of these two balls of yarn in Ashland, Oregon when I was living in San Francisco and visiting a family friend up there for a long weekend.  Oh how this yarn has traveled in the 12 years that I've owned it!  I really do need to start purging.

New Books

Just a quiet weekend at home for us, well sort of.  We went to an 8th grade graduation party on Saturday.  Managed to have some de-licious cake that the graduate herself made for the party.   Oh, and we also went to the Union Square Green Market on Saturday morning.  I just love this farmer's market, particularly early in the morning before the crowds arrive.  Other than that not much going on in these parts over the weekend.

Thanks to everyone that has left encouraging comments on my site, since I started last September.  I just noticed that I've reached over 100 comments and posts!  Guess we've all been busy...

I added two new books to my library today - Lace Style and Simple Sewing with a French Twist.

I really like almost all of the sweaters in the Lace Style book and think this might be what I need to move beyond the baby sweater craze I've been in for quite awhile now!

Just need to figure out which piece to start with...

Finishing Projects

Not much happening in these parts today.  I did go to my book club last night (even though I hadn't finished the book, oops!).  Nice to be out of the house for a few hours in the evening. 

I also signed up for a "strollercise" class.  I know, I know strollercise?  It's with a trainer and some other mother's/babies in my neighborhood, and you know what?  It's been pretty good!  Although I do go to the gym frequently, and dream of running a 1/2 marathon again (dreaming is the key word here), I needed a little extra push.  With this, there's a person standing there telling me to do squats.  I mean, who really wants to do squats on their own? 

I have made progress on several knitting projects that were lingering in the unfinished category.  First up, the Katja halter.  Having a hard time caputuring the color of it on film, but here goes:

Pattern:Katja, from Knitty
Needles: Addi size 6, 24 inch circulars.  I used the "magic loop' method to make the body of the halter seamless
Yarn:  Knitpicks Shine in Violet




Notes:  I made a few modifications hoping to make it a bit bigger, for Chloe to grow into it.  Instead it fits her perfectly, and hopefully for the rest of the summer.

-Used seed stitch instead of garter for the rows within the body. 
-Cast on an exta 6 stitches for the body
-Added two inches to the length

Next up, the Embroidered Kimono from Debbie Bliss:

Pattern:  Embroidered Kimono, Debbie Bliss
Needles: Addi Circular, size 5
Yarn:  Blue Sky Alpaca in Pistacio
Notes:  This is the second time I've made this sweater.  I made several changes, a highlight of them:

-Modified the directions to fit an 18-24 months old, which seemed to work pretty well.
-Edging is in seed stitch, not garter and in the same color as the body.
-The embroidery, I much completely changed and think I will have only close to the edge.

As demonstrated in both these projects, I'm not so great at following complete directions.  This also goes for cooking;  I follow 60% of the recipe and then deviate the remaining.  I tend not to like lines that perfectly match up, I'd rather have things slightly off than perfectly aligned. (Which is one reason I adore so many of Denyse Schmidt's creations) I think I'm searching for my own quirky perfection. 

Hmmmm, wonder what that all means?

Catching Up

No pictures for today, just a quick post.  I received my invite to Ravelry.com, which I'm very excited about.  I've update my profile and now just need to add projects.   It looks really neat-o, the small part of it I've been able to explore.

It's sooooo HOT here today.  I'm just not ready for it and I hate taking Chloe out in this heat, she gets all sweaty and looks uncomfortable.  We did head over to Hoboken this morning, for Art in the Park, under the shade of the trees, right on the waterfront.  Perfect.  And then had lunch at Legal Beans.  Chloe zonked in her stroller on the way home. Too much activity over the weekend + not enough sleep = crabby crabbington.  Hopefully the nap will snap her out of it.   Well, that's it for today, more tomorrow...

New Door!

Molding still needs to be installed and the new window above the door, but...viola!  Our new door:

Happy Friday

Not much crafting going on at our house over the past few days.  I seem to be running around like crazy!  Doing what, I'm not so sure. 

Our contractor is set to install our new mahogany door tomorrow (yippee!).  I'm very excited, we also bought two new lights for our parlor level entry and the entry under the staircase.  Although, I'm not sure that the finish is quite right.  Hopefully by tomorrow we'll be the proud owner's of new handmade door.  I'm sure there will be finish work to do on the trim, but I won't have to look at this one anymore.  I did finally find the right color for the trim too, a deeper, more cranberry red. 

Chloe and I went to a finger painting playdate earlier in the week.  She left wearing as much paint as she put on the paper, but she had fun! By the way, we got caught in a huge rainstorm on our way to the playdate, thus the wet hair.

That's it for me today.  Hopefully, I'll finish my Katja project this weekend.  I also need to finish Gilead, my book club's book of the month before next Tuesday.  Have a great weekend! 

Martha's Vineyard

We're back from after an extended weekend on Martha's Vineyard for a good friend's wedding.  Jim's best man speech and my reading at the ceremony went off without a hitch.  Funny, how you get so nervous about that stuff.  The Vineyard was gorgeous!  We stayed at the house where the wedding reception took place in a town called Chilmark.  The views from the house were beautiful. Chloe had a great time running around the yard and deck, as you can see.  Recognize those pants?

 

True to my track record, I didn't work on my Phildar Swing jacket, but started a new Katja, using some Knit Picks yarn in my stash.  This is my third one - I made one for Chloe last summer and the picture of her in it made the honorable mentions gallery for the  Knitty 2007 Calendar Contest.

 

More Blooms

If you haven't figured it out, I have a new obsession with all of the blooms in our tiny backyard.  We've been clearing out and moving plants around for the past two years and this year it seems to have paid off.  Our Lupine has produced one glorious bloom, I don't see any others on the plant, but this is enough to make me happy.  I remember a house, about a mile or so out of the town I grew up in that had Lupines growing in the slopping hill in front of their house, in a rainbow of colors.  I love those kind of memories.  Summer.  Vermont.  It doesn't get much better than that.

We're headed to Martha's Vineyard later this week.  A good friend of Jim's is getting married and Jim is the best man.  I've only been there once before a few years ago and loved it.  Looking forward to getting away, and of course being a part of the wedding.  Rumor has it I'm doing a reading, although I'm not sure what I'm reading, yet.

I thought for a few minutes that I would just pack the Phildar Swing Jacket as my only project for the weekend.  Of course, I've never been very good at just packing one knitting project, it always ends up being multiple projects.

Here's Chloe learning to blow bubbles in her new top.

Over the weekend we went to a picnic in Liberty State Park, with friends from Jersey City.  This park is enormous and underused.  The section we were in has lots picnic tables and a view of the the Statue of Liberty, which is somewhat surreal.  I'm so used to seeing the statue from a distance, that to be that close, you realize just how enormous it is.