What a Week!

Ah, a finished sweater. This one took nine months. Not bad, considering the last one took a year. Yikes. I like this one, alot. Already got my eye on another... but no plans to start it, yet. The details: Pattern by Flint Knits, called "February Lady". I used Louet MerLin yarn, which is a merino-linen blend. I poured through buttons at Michael Levine in Los Angeles and found these, love them. Thank goodness there's still a bit of cool weather left in this winter.
We had a couple appointments for Maia this week. First, a check up at UCLA on Wednesday. They are very pleased with Maia's progress and decided to keep her medicines the same. We had a blood draw on Thursday that was one of the worst yet - and probably had to do with Maia having had a tough week already. She took a bad fall at school on Tuesday - running full blast, she tripped and fell straight onto her face. Poor thing had a huge fat lip and swollen nose. Today, the swelling has improved a lot but the bruise is - wow! - every color of the rainbow and runs from her lip up to her eye. I felt so bad, picture day was Wednesday, the day after this happened. I was there because I was dropping her off after the UCLA appointment and it was hard to watch them try to get her to smile. It will be a memorable picture I'm sure.

Over the weekend I read the "Young Reader's Edition" of Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. It is a truly inspiring story and I hope to read the original version soon. I think I will hold off reading this book to the girls for a bit or skip a couple parts, I haven't decided. It talks about him being kidnapped and held at gunpoint and I'm not sure I want to explain all that. I don't know, I'm still thinking about it. Anyway, he's a neat guy and he has a neat family and I want my kids to know about his work, sometime.

A little knitting, a little weather

We have some friends who just welcomed their second little girl so I knit them up a little something. The booties (aren't they sweet?) came from Saartje knits (a free pattern!), and the hat is just a little something I copied and modified from a hat Erin made for Maia.

This week promises to bring lots of rain, they say. So far, 1.3 inches. It annoys me to live in a place that a week of rain requires so much news and preparation but eh, at least I can enjoy some rain for a few days. Today we are celebrating the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. by collecting gently used shoes to donate to Soles4Souls. I sent out emails to our local friends asking if they could spare some shoes. Since there is no school today, the girls and I will drive around to collect them from our friends. Sports Chalet is collecting the shoes at all its locations through January 31st. The donated shoes will be sent to Soles4Souls for distribution in Haiti.

In other news, Maia is recovering from another bout with bronchitis. We didn't bother waiting around to see if she could kick it on her own, straight to the antibiotics this time. It was a year ago this week that her scleroderma diagnosis was confirmed and we began treating her. Thankfully her leg has improved a great deal from where we were a year ago. The meds and PT are working, but it won't be a moment too soon when we can get her off these drugs and she can rebuild her immune system.

Thankful

I've been working on some thankful thoughts for a while now. First, I will mention that our cat, Rocky, or Miss Cat as we sometimes call her, has not been well today and we're facing the possibility that she may have entered her last days. She has been with us for 14 years. I'm thankful for that. And if she goes on a few more days, weeks, months, years (?!), I'll be thankful for that too.

Babies! I'm thankful for babies. Erin and Tom are preparing to welcome their little Nova or Sawyer in December and we just learned this week that another niece or nephew is headed our way next summer. Yes, it's early on so I guess I'll leave it at that.

Good neighbors. There are good neighbors, like those who are mostly quiet, keep to themselves and don't seem to be bothered by any of our activities. And there are good neighbors, like the ones our kids want to invite to their birthday parties (even though they have no children), who invite us over for tea and dinner, who look out for us and call us when we've left the car door open in the driveway (yes, I've done that), and who think to send us a Thanksgiving card (yes, they did). Turns out we have both kinds. Good neighbors and good neighbors. I'm thankful for them.

Work. I seem to remember that a year ago I was thankful for the little bit of work that was coming my way. Not much has changed in the work department and considering how tough things are for some folks out there, I'm thankful for the work that I have. And I might as well be thankful for Chris' work too. I mean, really, that's what is keeping us afloat.

Projects. I have a few projects in the pipeline that I'm really excited about. It's great to be inspired with ideas. My only problem is finding time to do them all. Some vintage fabric came to me via a friend whose grandmother (in law) recently passed away. This fabric is gorgeous (the picture does not do it justice). It's pretty heavy and I'm pretty sure it's cotton. It apparently came from a dressmaker in Hawaii. I'm on the lookout for just the right dress or skirt to pattern after - thinking on the lines of a square neck, fitted a-line dress to the knee.

I'm still plugging away on the linen/wool sweater, there are booties (and now more booties!) to make, and there's that kitchen wall chalkboard frame I need to get back to.
Last, but certainly not least. I'm thankful for my friendship with Chris. Some time this year, Chris and I started to meet each other for lunch at our local Peet's coffee shop. It was probably around the time things had settled a bit with Maia's treatments and around the time work got reallllly slow for me. We always pack a lunch, order lattes and sit for an hour or so to talk. It's fun and good and nice. And I'm thankful for it.

On Friday, Chris turns 40. I'll be back around then to show you a little something I made for him. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

A Very Happy 7th Birthday

Sofia invited a few friends over for her Kings and Queens Brunch. The crowns were lovely but I didn't expect the kids to wear them much. One friend wore hers the entire time and she was an adorable queen. The crowns were made using a process similar to that described at Bitterbetty's blog here.
The kids seemed to enjoy the restaurant-like party. I took their drink orders, brought them drinks, took their food orders and helped Chris briefly in the kitchen. Then we played a few rounds of 20 questions while waiting for their food. They were very polite (mostly) and I had fun being their server. Chris did an excellent job preparing the food. We served it all at once and most of the kids cleared their plates - those who didn't had eyes bigger than their stomachs ;)
After the party, she opened some presents. Part of Sofia's gift from us was her own knitting basket with a starter skein of red wool and size 8 needles. We also gave her three horse books. Her face says it all. She was very happy.
We spent the afternoon working on a puzzle and rounded the day off with a movie and bean and cheese burritos for dinner (Sofia's request).
I've heard 7 is about the right time to learn knitting. She has been asking for a couple years for me to teach her but I have held her off. We started a simple garter stitch scarf. I was a little nervous about teaching her to knit because I'm not the most patient teacher and she's not the most patient apprentice. That and I'm left handed and she is not, so I am learning to knit right handed along with her. She seems to be picking it up pretty well.

Hello Blog

I have written so many posts in my mind since my last post but somehow they haven't managed to show up here. Summer time kind of kicks my butt.

There's the one about my sister, Erin - pregnant - yay!! And all the stuff I want to make for that new baby coming to us in late December. I mean, it is OUR baby, too. Can't wait, really, I'm very excited.

There's the one about this sweater I started. And the wonderful linen-wool yarn I found at the LYS in Encinitas while we were visiting last month. I could go on and on about this project, mostly because I seem to be having some trouble reading instructions... or paying attention or something. I have started this project over twice and fixed several major mistakes involving going back several rows. But, I guess the bottom line is that I must really like knitting because I don't really mind. I mean, I hope to get a wearable sweater out of this eventually, and hopefully sooner rather than later, not that I need it now - hello July heat - but it's the process, man.

Then there's the one about some sewing I did back in June. My niece and nephew turned 3, so I made a "Kai's Shirt" and a "Smocked Sundress" from Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross. There are so many projects I want to try in that book but so far I haven't made it back to sewing. And since I didn't want to leave out big sister Shealyn, she got a peasant skirt. Shelley sent this picture of them in their outfits, so cute!!


Then there's the one about how much I hate the poking. And I'm the poker. Not the pokee. Enough said of that.

And the one about our 4th annual 4th of July party with friends, neighbors, and family. There was a pack of wild animals here, too. Actually it was the crowd of 6 and 7 year old girls. They had so much fun but they sure are loud! I put together a little craft project that was a bit too ambitious but it all worked out. Next year, I'll make something ahead of time so I can socialize a little more. The project was in a nutshell, a half of a toilet paper roll wrapped around a LED tealight, with a piece of white German kite paper wrapped around and taped to the other end of the tp roll, which was decorated with stars of various colors (this part was done by the kids). It made a fun light saber sort of thing for the kids to take on the walk over to our fireworks viewing spot. Pictures? No, darn. But it was a hit from the 2 year olds on up to the almost 13 year old boy.

Well, that's going to have to do it for this evening. I'm off to make some chamomile tea, and hit the sack. Tomorrow we've got a blood draw for Maia in the morning (didn't we just do one of those??), maybe a trip to Pandora's Paintbox as a treat, and swimming in the afternoon.

Spring Project

What started out as a "free" project has blossomed into a little more than free. I was just going to use up some cotton yarn that I had in my stash and make a cute little shirt for Maia (pattern at Soulful Hues Hobbies & Random Thoughts). And if it worked out, tweak the pattern to make a bigger one for Sofia. My mistake was asking the opinion of the intended recipient of the project... which led to a new yarn purchase. Oh and then I decided to make skirts to go with the knit tops... I went to the local big box fabric store with 40% coupon in hand and left thoroughly disgusted with their selection. I ended up at the local quilting shop, which has oh so much more to offer in the way of pretty fabric. So much for free.
Don't laugh, but I had to tack on the green because I had miscalculated how much of the blue yarn I had. It looks a bit like green grass under a blue sky, so I added the flower to increase the chance that Maia might actually choose to wear it without some sort of bribery involved. She is quite selective these days about her clothing. If it's not a pink dress, it's got a snowball's chance in, well, you know.Hopefully my pattern adjustments will work out for Sofia's version. She may need a camisole underneath if the arm holes ended up too big. I'm thinking about a simple wrap around pattern for the skirt found here. Or a may do an even simpler 3-tier peasant skirt.

I did it

Yep, you got it. You can call me Nurse Alexis now. Phewwww! I think I'm still on an adrenaline rush and it's been several hours since I gave Maia her first shot at home. It went great. In fact, best shot she's had since all this stuff started - and by that I mean there was just a little tiny bit of crying and she had basically forgotten about it within a few minutes. I don't expect that every time, but I know this is the best way for Maia and for all of us. Thanks to my nurse friends and family for their advice, my mom for her encouragement, and Maia's nurse at her ped office for all her help. I did my first shot last week at the doctor's office, and it went well, but I knew today's shot would be a big mental hurdle too - having to do it here at home without the nurse. Chris was the holder, I was the poker, Sofia provided singing entertainment. Lots of hugs all around afterward.
I started a little shirt for Maia on Saturday. It's going really fast, which is nice after that year-long sweater. I saw it first at JC Handmade, but the pattern is here.
I added a little ribbing on the sleeve to keep it from rolling and will probably do the same at the bottom. Next issue is that I will probably run out of yarn. Oops. I was trying to use something in my stash but miscalculated how much I had. Unfortunately, this yarn came from a shop in LA. So, we'll see what I decide to do about all that...

What One Does...

when one is supposed to be putting together a resume.

One knits fingerless gloves.

One draws a ladybug with watercolor pencils.

The resume writing is incredibly s-l-o-w, but necessary. I haven't had to do one since 2000 so I'm having to dig deep.

I'm mowing the lawn

Can't you tell? That's probably what I should've been doing, but did this instead. I haven't had too much time to knit this summer, so I squeezed in about 15 minutes while the girls played on the hammock chair. I had the camera out in case an Oriole showed up but took this picture instead. Shhh, we've had some really nice weather lately. If I didn't know better, I'd say the summers here are *lovely*. But we still have August and September, and October to go when a heat wave might be just around the corner.

Cotton Scarf

I took a break from my wool hooded zipper sweater to knit this scarf. I picked up this yarn at a spinner's and weaver's fair a while back. I kept looking at it and putting it down and in the end I couldn't resist - I'm in love with the colors. I didn't have a project in mind for it, but when I saw this at JC Handmade, I thought of this yarn. It's a 1x1 rib (20 stitches) knitted with size 11 needles. The yarn is 100% cotton by Araucania.

Needle Roll

I worked up this needle roll this weekend to organize my knitting needles. I am slowly getting my workspace more organized and this was just one piece of the puzzle. It is made with wool felt, sewed on the machine and then embroidered along the edges. The tie was a bit of an afterthought, which made it a little tricky to sew on. Overall the project was pretty simple. I'm not sure I would even embroider the edges next time.

Next post: a proper blog thank you and a little PIF promise.

Knitted Elephant

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Originally uploaded by mscahillman

I finished this elephant a while ago, but I didn't post it because it is a christmas gift. I decided that since the recipient probably won't be checking my blog (although her mother may), I would post it anyway. It's knitted with that kool-aid dyed yarn from a few posts back. The pattern came from Zoe Mellor's "knitted toys", which has a bunch of really cute stuffed toys. I'm working on the rabbit now as another gift.

Kool Aid Dyeing

My friend hosted a yarn dyeing play date and this was the result - yummy colors! This was a skein of undyed wool from Joann's. The basic recipe is, unwind ball and rewind into a big loop and tie in several places to keep from getting tangled, soak the wool in water (we used large basins outside), add vinegar, and sprinkle several packets of kool aid in the bath (do not stir to get the nice variegated dyeing), sit for a while, then rinse until water runs clear. There are many recipes out there on the internet. I have a cute knit elephant pattern that I think I will use this yarn for.