surrounded by love and beauty

this spring has been busy busy busy. i wish i had posted more often over the past few months. i wish i had posted about our trip to new york. which was absolutely wonderful, save for the fact that ethan refused to be out of our sight, making it a bit exhausting. he was not a fan of the carousel in central park, but he did enjoy the zoo. mostly he talked about the "horses wheels" for a while (the horses and carriages in central park). he also enjoyed making two new baby friends (cy and ren) and getting a complete sugar high on berry sauce at a restaurant in my parents' neighborhood. he made such an adorable scene that the owner came over to photograph his purple sauce-covered face and brought us free drinks and extra dessert.

meanwhile, back at home. we have been spending more time in our backyard than we ever have since we moved into this house. i found a killer play house for ethan on craigslist and he basically wants to be there all. the time. sadly, the house is not enough of a distraction from massacring the garden, but we do what we can and i'm taking a lot of deep breaths and reminding myself that it is just a garden. it's okay.

i knit this vest for ethan last fall (i think) from one of my favorite baby patterns- pebble vest. i have made this pattern four times now and am still not bored of it. it is such a basic and classic baby vest. i adapted it to make a larger size, just using the same pattern but with bulky yarn instead of worsted. i ran out of the pale green yarn (it was leftover from another project) so i went with a color block look and finished the back panel with some doubled spud and chloe sweater yarn. this vest has been perfect for the cool spring days we've been having and i'm hoping it still fits him in the fall too. (on ravelry, here)

i have a few more crafty posts coming up and hopefully i will find some time to writing some more of the other posts i have in a queue in my head as well. about a month ago, right after the earthquake, i wrote a whole long post about nepal and my six weeks there in 1999 and what that meant to me. of course i then never made the time to scan some photos from my album (oh, the days when i used to meticulously make photo albums!). but it's not too late. i can still finish that story and share it here. this, i know.

i cleaned out some more of my sewing studio and found a stack of photographs and prints from some of my old flickr/blog friends. abby and andrea and chelsea and mary and tara. it made my heart so happy and i wondered why the hell these beautiful works of art were sitting in a pile under some other stuff. i vow to find some frames and hang them up soon so i can see them all the time and be surrounded by that love and beauty.

i have some film i finally shot and got developed and actually scanned! unsurprisingly, the entire roll is of ethan. it's lovely.

more soon.
xo

on being intentional, and other ramblings

first of all, i'd like to thank all of you, from the bottom of my heart, who took the time to read our birth story and send kind words our way. i was nervous about sharing such a personal and intimate story so publicly, but i found so much strength and inspiration in reading the birth stories of other families, that i felt compelled to share ours. i'm grateful for the support i've received from you all.

in the meantime...here's what's been happening in our little corner of the world.

as i'm sure you've heard, it has been incredibly freezing here in the north tundra. seriously, schools have been closed five times so far this year just for temperatures! and us hardy minnesotans don't take that lightly, so you know it's bad. i had many visions of getting outside everyday in the winter with ethan, snuggled in the ergo (which we have mostly transitioned to from the moby wrap-though not entirely) in his down patagonia snowsuit. but seriously, windchills in the negative thirties are just too damn cold for that. baby or not. so, we've been snuggling up indoors a lot. i've been knitting more (spreading the love to all the many many new babies in my life these days), trying to cook dinner on the regular, hanging out on the living room floor with a baby that desperately wants to crawl, reading up on ways to feed ethan solid food, and actually finally starting his quilt (with plans for a quilt for my brother and his new wife soon to follow).

i am quite happy with how i have managed my photo project for the year so far. i have missed a few days here and there, and most days (especially when i go to work) i don't snap a photo until late in the evening, but i am happy that i'm recording my days in this way and do hope that i keep it up for the year, at least. (again, you can follow along here if you like). these photos, in fact, were taken about three weeks ago and it is seriously insane how much i can see that his face has changed in that time (he was also getting over a weird virus rash thing then, so i'm sure that's part of it too). just makes me even more grateful that i'm recording our days this way.

ethan is finally starting to (some days, kind of) go down to sleep around 7pm-ish and stay there for a few hours. so i am savoring that time as we can eat dinner together, and then have longer chunks of time to actually accomplish things. i try to stay off my phone/ipad during that time and do something that i just can't do while ethan is awake. like cutting fabric, or doing something in the kitchen like making diaper wash or deodorant or crackers.

i have never been one to choose a word for the new year. sometimes i make loose resolutions or goals for the year, but not this year. i did think of a word, without intending to, that i'd like to guide me for the year. intentional. mostly i mean for this guide how i spend my time. i want to be intentional with my free time, since i have so little of it now and i want to use it wisely to do things that are fulfilling and meaningful so that i feel happy with what i am able to accomplish. i want to be intentional in how i spend my time with ethan. especially as he grows older, i want to be a good role model for him. i want to be intentional with my relationships with others, friends and family members. more than ever before, as a new parent i have experienced how meaningful it can be to have strong and supportive friends and family in your life and i'd like to be that for others. sending handwritten letters and thoughtful packages is something that i always love doing (what more could brighten someone's day than a beautiful, unexpected package from a friend arriving in the mailbox?) and i want to do more of it this year.

here is another one of the sweaters i knit for ethan before he was born. it's an old lion brand pattern that i made for my cousin's baby years ago. i really like the kimono style, but the way this one ties is a little annoying. i think i'd find a different kimono pattern in the future. i used a super soft cotton/tencel yarn that i had in my stash (on ravelry, here). oh, and the booties. when i first made them at the beginning of winter, i thought they were adorable, but i wasn't sure how practical they would be. well, he's worn them almost every day of this frigid season, and i've now made two other pairs for more of the new babes in my life this year (on ravelry, here). like i've said, this baby is definitely not wanting for handknit sweaters, or anything else. i already have two more that i've finished for him, not to mention my mom and others who are keeping him well stocked for this insane winter and many more to come, i'm sure.

so that's the news from here. cold days, a little bit better sleep and more free time, and more intention in my days. how about you all? what's happening out there?

xo

and again with the baby in handknits

and here we are...over two weeks later. what was i saying about becoming a normal person and doing normal things again? right. i still do feel like we're getting into a nice rhythm here and we go out almost every day. but then, it just takes three days to fold the laundry (just in time to do it again) and photos are taken, but never posted. and blog posts, well. they get composed in my head while nursing or on walks or in the morning when we're staying in bed late. and then two weeks later, they actually get written and shared. [case in point...this post was actually written on monday, when ethan was actually wearing this sweater, but of course i failed to photograph it first thing in the morning and by the time i got around to it, he had spit up all over himself. then it took a couple of days while i washed the sweater and waited for it to dry, then got around to photographing and posting. rookie mistake.]

i'm finally getting around to writing ethan's birth story. i've told it a number of times over the past two months and relived it in my head many times. i'm still deciding whether i'll share it publicly or not. i do love reading the birth stories of others. mine is just very, well, long. we'll see.

we are going on our first big trip with ethan next week. flying to arizona for my grandfather's 90th birthday celebrations. i'm really excited for ethan to meet his great grandfather (ethan is the first great grandchild and my grandpa could not be more excited about this) and many other relatives. i'm probably being naive, but i'm not too worried about the traveling part. everyone has told me to nurse during take-off and landing. check.

and as soon as we get back... i am going back to work. i admit that i'm not ready at all. i'm not worried about ethan one bit. he'll be in wonderful hands in a small nanny share with a great woman and two adorable little girls who i have a feeling will quickly become like part-time sisters. no, he'll be just fine. it's me i'm worried about. to say the least, it will be an adjustment.

and last, but not remotely least...the next sweater. this was actually the first one i made for ethan way back in march. i wanted it to be something special so i chose this cascade venizia sport yarn, which is a wool-silk blend, in a beautiful rust color. it's lovely, but not, um, the most baby friendly. oh well. i still love it and so far have kept up with the handwashing just fine [see above]. mostly because i want him to wear it as much as possible before he outgrows it. so i won't let it sit around waiting to be washed.

the pattern, beyond puerperium, is pretty awesome. besides being an adorable design, the pattern is actually written to accommodate many different yarn weights as well as design choices like short or long sleeves and tapered or flared sleeves. i will definitely be making this one again (in fact, my mom is making one for another baby now too!). i made the 0-3 month size and as you can see, at just over two months, he still has some room to grow into this one. on ravelry here.

 right now, ethan is sleeping on my chest. all cozy in the moby wrap (which we love). i think i'll lay back and just enjoy this moment...

getting to be sweater weather

fall is arriving, which as you know makes me pretty much giddy. not that i haven't enjoyed this summer, oh man have i enjoyed it. but you know, fall is my gig.

being that i'm his mama, and being that his grandma is pretty much a nonstop knitter (not to mention all the other friends and family members who have sent beautiful knits), ethan's wardrobe is awash in handknit sweaters and the like. i started knitting for our baby way back in march but i had somehow been shy about sharing anything before he arrived. you know, that whole superstition thing. but here he is. and now it's finally cool enough (and he's gotten big enough!) to start wearing some of the sweaters that have been waiting ever so patiently in his dresser.

yesterday's sweater was the pebble vest. it was the second thing i knitted for him. i've made this vest three times now and it's always a winner. so easy and quick and super adorable. i will totally make him another one in a larger size (just use heavier yarn, or knit double with worsted weight) once he outgrows this one. i used a gorgeous manos maxima yarn. (on ravelry, here)

ethan turned six weeks old yesterday and, well, you know where i'm going with this (WHERE IS ALL THE TIME?!). but seriously. we are getting into a little bit of a groove here and everyday i do something else that makes me feel like a normal person again. like i can do this whole mama thing and do all the things (well, at least some of the things) that i used to love too. like blogging about knitting and other things i'm making. (like those little scrap black and white patterned cards up there...just wanted to give him something to look at while he's getting a fresh diaper. which, by the way, he happens to love doing. go figure). so yeah. a little bit of normalcy returning here. though, given that everyday is a new one, come back to me next week and we'll see if i still feel like a human being.

 you can pretty much get ready for a steady stream of baby knits and other handmade goodness now. i mean, not that we don't all love the straight baby photos. but baby in handknit and sewn goodness? well... burst my mama heart.

also, i know september is already halfway over, but i would be remiss if i didn't mention that i've been posting over at habit this month. i love love love being a guest there. check it out!

three cowls

a little more project catch-up...

apparently cowls were my thing this winter. it started with two skeins of manos that i randomly purchased on the expiration date of a groupon to my local yarn shop. i wasn't sure what i would do with them, but they were beautiful and within the price of the groupon. after i finished the wedding blanket and last year's pair of socks, i wanted a quick project and happened upon the honey cowl. a super easy, mindless pattern that can be easily adapted to almost any weight of yarn or size that you like. it knit up pretty quickly. (on ravelry)

 

once it was completed, i was in need of another quick-ish project while i waited for the yarn for jared's sweater to arrive. i picked up some stash yarn (with a lot of random bits of colors) and started on another honey cowl. i believe these scraps are blue sky alpaca sportweight. super soft. and i love how the stripes work within the pattern. i've been wearing these two pretty much nonstop this winter. (on ravelry)

soon after i finished that, i decided to make one for jared since i was tired of his very old fleece neckwarmers. he picked out the yarn from my stash (leftover from the wedding blanket) and i made up a simple 4x4 basketweave pattern. i actually had to make this one twice since the first one was way too loose. not very helpful for staying warm. i'm happy to report that this one has been in heavy rotation as well, and the fleece neckwarmers are nowhere to be found :) (on ravelry)

some socks

i mentioned recently that i had some knitting to share with you all...over the last three years, i seem to have embarked on a one-pair-of-knitted-socks-per-year kick. i completed my third pair about two months ago. as i was getting ready to share them here, i realized that i never shared the pair i made in 2011, which i have absolutely been loving up since they came off the needles.

the 2011 pair was the toe-up socks from more last minute knitted gifts. i appropriately titled this project "forever socks" on ravelry since they were knit with size zero needles and really felt like they were going to take forever. in truth, i have no idea how long they took because i never noted the date i finished them- i'm guessing it was a couple of months (though i did put them on hold to work on all those shawls...). i used a lovely koigu premium merino that my mom had gifted me for my birthday a few years back.

and the 2012 pair was the abbey road socks, by ann budd. i used another amazing yarn from my mom, this one a hand-me-down from some project that didn't work out for her. it's blue heron sock plus. the color is called cloudlight and i couldn't agree more. it's beautiful. when i was finishing these up on a plane ride last fall, the woman next to me told me it was a shame that no one would ever see all of my beautiful work since it would be hidden by my shoes. oh well. i'll know it's there. and the truth is that there is nothing more comfortable than a pair of handknitted socks. that squishiness under your foot in the dead of winter? love.

i have some more sock yarn in my stash, so i guess i'd better get planning for this year's pair :)

details on ravelry here and here.

you have a year, or more...

this is my motto for wedding gifts. over the past few years, we have had many many weddings in our life. for many close friends. naturally, i always want to make something handmade for gifts, but this is just not always possible. if i did that for everyone, i would just be a wedding gift factory over here. rare is the occasion that i've even thought about the gift by the time the wedding date rolls around, much less purchased anything. it's a problem, i know. but i also know that it's kind of how i roll and it's okay. i mean, who doesn't love a belated gift? it just extends the celebration!

anyways, about nine months after jared's brother's wedding last summer, i finally decided to start thinking about a gift for them. being family, they are obviously entitled to a handmade gift (reserved for the very very closest of people). i ended up choosing the umaro blanket, by jared flood. i picked out some gorgeous quince & co puffin yarn, in a lovely mustard color (honey, to be exact). this project took me longer than it might have given all the traveling i did this summer and how knitted blankets are not good travel projects. i finally finished it and got it all washed up and gifted to them about a month ago (just under three months after their first anniversary). i know it's found a good home with them, belated or not...

details on ravelry here.

for truly

a couple of months ago, i knit up this little sweater for my friend melissa's newest little one, a beautiful girl named truly. frankly, i can't think of a more perfect name for the latest addition to one of the most inspiring families i know. if you're not familiar with melissa, you should be. she is one of the kindest, most honest women i know. last year, i mentioned somewhere online that i was madly potting little succulents for our wedding centerpieces and what did she do? well, she went out into her yard, dug up some succulents, and mailed them to me. nevermind the fact that she was somewhere around five months pregnant, with three other little boys running around and she was probably in the middle of madly pickling something. see what i mean?

melissa is one of those (many) people, that give me hope when i think about someday raising children into this crazy, complicated, and often depressing world of ours. she speaks the truth, fights for what's right, teaches her (crazy beautiful and adorable) children to be good people, plus she freaking rents a bouncy house for birthday parties! if you happened to miss her two incredibly moving posts on trayvon martin and how she is navigating raising two black boys in a family with white parents and two white siblings, go check them out right now (here and here). be prepared for tears and goosebumps.

also, she's hilarious. and so, i knit a sweater for her baby girl. truly.

details on ravelry, here.

larch

i doubt any of you have been reading long enough to remember a horrible sweater that i knitted circa 2007 (don't worry, it is not worth remembering and i therefore will not link to the very old blog posts about it). it was a long-sleeved wrap sweater and the pattern was near-impossible for me (and even my mom, who's been knitting for decades) to decipher. i wrangled my way through it but pretty much as soon as it was finished, i threw it in a bag and ignored it for years. recently, i'd started thinking that it was time to rip out the sweater and find another use for the beautiful yarn i used.  that other use turned out toe be the beautiful larch cardigan. as soon as i saw the pattern on ravelry, i knew i wanted to make it and that this frog tree sport weight alpaca would be perfect. off i went.

i don't have too much to say about the pattern- it was extremely well written and easy to follow (though, definitely not a beginner's pattern). my only screw up and word of wisdom if you're going to knit this pattern is to pay attention when you are picking up the stitches around the neck and make sure that you are picking up stitches evenly on both sides of the neck. because it's a pain in the ass to have to un-knit that 1x1 twisted rib. otherwise, i love it. i brought it along on my trip to new york and pretty much wore it about 70% of the trip. now that it seems like we're having real spring (instead of the freak early summer weather we had last month) it's the perfect everyday sweater.

details on ravelry, here.

adding some life to the living room

i've been making pillows lately. after a plethora of houseguests last year, i started looking around our home and thinking about what i could do to make it more cozy.  there is a long list (believe you me), but pillows seemed a good place to start. they're relatively easy, quick, and super functional.

i made this knitted one last fall...it was my first post-wedding project. i was itching to make something and i had the yarn, buttons, and pillow form in my stash. the pattern (which i modified a bit to fit my heavier weight yarn) comes from hand knits for the home. i think this is the first pattern i've made from the book, but there are some good ones (lots of pillows and throws). i think the closure is a bit skimpy, but i was running out of yarn and it still works out pretty well. in fact, even though it's supposed to be the back, i usually keep that side out front.

this wonky log cabin pillow was another post-wedding project. i had barely sewn in months and just wanted to play around. can you believe, i had never made a log cabin before? easiest thing ever. and this beautiful hand dyed linen fabric came from sara, i absolutely love it! i wasn't quite sure how to close it in the back and was feeling too lazy for a zipper (which of course now i wish i'd done). i went for a plain envelope back, but the overlap was (again!) too skimpy, so i added this button and a scrap of japanese cotton ribbon. excellent.

these two pillows are totally different styles, but they both match my couch and living room perfectly. i love the contrast and they definitely spruce up our living room.  i have a few more up my sleeve for the bedroom, so stay tuned...

just one more [for now at least]

oh hey look, it's another baby blanket! imagine that. this is the last one...for now at least, i'm sure there will be more than enough opportunities to make more in the not-so-distant future.  this latest installment in "julia makes a blanket for every baby around" comes to us courtesy of the beautiful dream in color: classy yarn and the purl bee's forever blanket pattern. i hesitate to even call this a pattern, since it's pretty much just ribbed all the way. i'll admit that after 1000 yards of this, i was ready to be done.  but, all in a day's work (or, two months' work) for my dear friend's baby nora, who was born back on thanksgiving day. such a treat.

since i don't have a photo of baby nora with the blanket, i'll just share these shots that i took when i visited them for a weekend back in december. it's been so lovely having these two (three, now!) nearby for the last year and a half and i'm totally going to miss our weekend visits back and forth when they move back to oregon this summer. hopefully this blanket will be a nice reminder of their time in wisconsin and our fun times together.

[details on ravelry]

one for me

despite all the knitting i've been doing, it's been quite a long time since i've knitted something for myself. don't get me wrong, i love knitting (making of any kind, really) for others. but once in a while it's nice to enjoy the fruits of your labor yourself, you know? on top of that, it's been a long time since i've knit myself a sweater and this particular one was just what i needed--quick, easy, basic, extremely wearable, and totally stash-busting (buttons included). not to mention that it was an immediate contribution to my wardrobe project of 2012.

in my ongoing effort to use up my (fairly sizable) stash, i spent some time earlier this winter searching for patterns that would fit 5 skeins of manos del uruguay wool clasica. i settled on this pattern, the trail jacket by hannah fettig. i was a bit short on yarn, but luckily it worked out perfectly with some of the modifications i made to the pattern. i know this is technically a "jacket", but that wasn't exactly what i was looking for, so i nixed the body increases and added some decreases to the sleeves (see ravelry for those notes, it's simple i promise) to make the fit a little more snug. the worst part about this sweater (the only bad part, really) is that fuzzy black yarn is pretty much a death-trap when you have a white wirehaired dog. i think i need to resign myself to the fact that every dog hair and tiny piece of fuzz will be visible on this sweater. aside from that minor detail, i'm super excited about this one and it's already in high rotation. as a bonus...it only took two weeks to knit! seriously. talk about sweet.

knitting for little people

and more knitting. i'm trying to break it up here, but i really do have a lot of knitting to catch up on.  this blanket for our newest nephew literally took me a week, which was so perfect as i was able to start it after the first time we saw him (when he was just five days old) and have it all finished, including blocking, by the next time we saw him just one week later.

the pattern is wool leaves by jared flood.  it was easy to follow and i got the hang of it quickly.  it's a bit small, so i wish i had added one or two more pattern repeats and knitted it a bit longer, but i wasn't really thinking when i started it and after blocking, it measured about 27"x39", which i think is just fine.  i knit it in cascade 220 superwash holding the yarn double.  i will say that this used a bit more yarn than the pattern called for (either that or there weren't really 220 yards in the skein) since i ended up using a bit of a fourth skein when three should have been a bit more than i needed. oh well.  another thing about this pattern is that from the photos in the pattern it's hard to tell just how lacey this pattern really comes out.  obviously i knew there would be holes from all the yarn-overs but it was a bit more hole-y than i expected. still, a beautiful, easy, and quick knit. [on ravelry]

and now this babe won't have to share his older brother's blanket (see a glimpse of it in that photo?), which i'm told he still sleeps with every night except for laundry night.  when my sister-in-law told me that, i just about melted.  we were over at their house last week to celebrate a belated christmas and ended up looking through some little family photo albums that they boys keep in their playroom. my heart filled when looking back at all the different pieces i've knit and sewn for them over the past six years.  i was also informed that they often opt for their auntie-made sweaters for picture day and other dress up occasions.  again, melt.  so just as i was trying to talk myself out of knitting this blanket (why i was talking myself out of knitting something i have no idea), i realized that these pieces really do mean something to them, even if i don't always see it.  and that makes all the work worth it (as if the joy of just knitting wasn't enough).

oh, and i also made him a vest. this one, again. but with no modifications this time.  [ravelry]

holiday handknits

last year, i went all out and knit sweaters for each of my three nephews.  what with the wedding and everything else going on this fall, i knew there was not way i could manage that large of a project.  of course i couldn't give up on handmade gifts altogether, so i settled for hats.  i used the simply fair isle pattern by kate oates (looks like it's only available through ravelry) and got to using up some of those half skeins of worsted weight yarn that i have lying around (i have a lot).  i used some malabrigo, plymouth superwash, lorna's laces superwash, berrocco vintage, and mission falls superwash.  the yarn was leftover from such projects as: this, this, this, this, this, and this (pretty good, huh?).

these were super easy to knit up, each one taking a few hours.  i started out with three for each of the nephews (two in the "child" size and one in the "toddler" size for a 7, 5, and 2 year old), but since we were doing a belated christmas gift exchange, by the  time we got around to it their newest little brother had arrived on new year's day.  so last week, i whipped up a fourth hat in the 0-6 months size. perfection.  the only modification i added was to crochet a row of contrasting color trim around the bottom edge and the braided ties. seriously? how can you say no to those faces? love these kids.

[more details on ravelry]

knitting season

the truth is, it's always knitting season in my book, though i feel like i've definitely been kicking it into high gear these past few months (watch out, i've got lots of knitting catch up to do!).  after all the shawl knitting i did last spring and summer, i took a quick break to knit up this beautiful blanket for my friend's new baby boy, hartley.  i started this blanket just a few weeks before hartley made his arrival in august [at which point we didn't know if he would be a he or a she] and worked on it all the way on our trip to california and back, finishing it in late august and finally getting to wash, block, and mail it in september.  

the pattern is the baby chalice blanket by karen lauger.  it was narrower than i expected, so i made it longer so that it would be what i think of as an acceptable size for a baby [i repeated the pattern 12 times instead of 9 and stupid me i forgot to take the final measurements].  i used three skeins of lorna's laces shepherd's worsted, which was a dream to work with.  

my only wish is that i could see this little guy all wrapped up in this lovely blanket.

[more details on ravelry here]