Bird and Little Bird

Quilt Talk.

Some of you may remember my mad attempts to finish making a quilt for our bedroom during my overly ambitious days of late pregnancy.  Perhaps some of you even wondered if I managed to get it done on time, although probably not.  I'm guessing you have plenty of other things to think about. 

Anyhow, the quilt did, indeed, get finished.  But here's the thing: I'm not really a quilter, although I do occasionally play one on the internet.  I pieced the entire thing myself, and was pretty pleased with how it came together, but I was also smart enough to know that my feelings of goodwill towards this project could be easily done away with by frustrating attempts to quilt and bind the whole thing while eight months pregnant and absolutely enormous.  Plus, when it came right down to it, I just didn't really feel like doing it.  So, I bundled up the quilt top, stuffed it into a box and sent it off to Alewives.  They did the quilting and binding for me, and I had them add the batting and backing from materials in their shop.  By the time I got the quilt top off to them, I was really, truly, ridiculously pregnant and I found the Alewives folks to be extraordinarily tolerant of my particular brand of third trimester crazy.  Like when they called and asked how I wanted the quilting pattern to look and I said "Oh, I have no idea.  Why don't you just think of something and do it?  I'm sure it will be fine." Like I hadn't just spent months working on this quilt only to turn it over to strangers and tell them to do whatever they wanted with it.  Ha!  But they did a lovely job, so my faith turns out to have been very well placed.

The batting is washable wool, and so far I think it is amazing.  I don't know that I will ever go back to cotton after experiencing how well wool works in a quilt. From the beginning, this quilt was designed to be used.  I wanted to make a quilt that would be woven into daily life and that could be washed when it got kid dirt on it and that would feel warm and cozy during the long Vermont winter.  And that is exactly what I made.  So as far as feeling some latent guilt over the fact that I had a little help with the nuts and bolts of the operation? None.  I'm sleeping very well at night under my new quilt, thank you very much.

 

Valentine's Day Mail.

When you are in second grade, Valentine's Day is exactly the sort of holiday that is important.  It trumps many a holiday that boasts less in the way of pink decor and the possibility of candy.  Plus, as far as I can tell, people under the age of ten or so are all about love and telling other people that they are nice.  And holidays that celebrate telling folks that you think they are nice?  It's pretty hard to argue with that. 

So, we've been making valentines.  And cutting out tons of tiny paper hearts and leaving secret little love notes for each other when someone is in a bad mood.  Dan has two exams to take in the next two weeks and has been at the hospital for about fifteen days straight, so Mariam has sent most of the anonymously placed paper hearts in his direction.  For my part, I've been using the mailbox templates from Alphabet Glue Volume Five to make Valentine's Day mailboxes.  I just cut out the templates, traced them onto colorful paper and then filled the boxes up with little paper hearts.   This is the kind of overly cute crafting that one can only get away with this time of year, and I'm just going to roll with it.  I was thinking we may tuck a little box of chocolates and a tiny card into one of these mailboxes for Mariam to give to her teacher on Tuesday.  I'm pretty sure she deserves something way better than chocolate, but it's a good place to start.

Tools of the Trade.

 

I've been saying that I would really, very much like a yarn swift for a long time now.  It has existed on a list of permanent "wants" but couldn't quite be justified as a "need."  Then I cast on for this sweater.  I'm knitting it out of Quince & Co. Tern, which is just about the nicest yarn I've met, but I don't find it fun to wind by hand.  At all.  In fact, thanks to my uncanny ability to always pull the wrong thing in the wrong direction, the last ball that I wound by hand took me about two hours.  Things got a little complicated, you see. 

So, the yarn swift.  It's like happiness made out of wood.  Sigh.

Big Socks on Tiny Needles.

I've said it before, and I'll say it yet again (because it is as true as always): you have to really, really like someone to knit them socks out of fingering weight yarn on size two needles.  So, in the event that I have been at all unclear in my intentions over the last decade, Dan can take receipt of these socks as a sure sign that I'm kind of a fan of his.

I knit these socks out of self-striping yarn, and used this sock pattern, which was recommended to me by my friend and personal knitting advisor, Sarah.  I'd recommend it as well.  It is very well written and easy to follow, even for people who have no idea what they are doing, like myself.  I stole a pair of Dan's favorite wool socks to help me with the sizing for these, which seemed like a great idea until one of the socks came flying out of my purse in an elevator at the hospital when I went to dig around for my car keys.  I assumed that this would lead to Dan putting two and two together, coming to the realization that the knitting I'd been hiding under my basket whenever he came into the room was actually a pair of socks for him.  Particularly since I'm pretty sure that Mariam had already accidently told him that I was knitting a pair of socks for his birthday present.  But, no! I guess he just thought I was a complete nut for having his socks in my purse for no apparent reason at all, and since me being a weirdo was nothing new, he decided to let the whole thing go without remark. 

Anyway, the point of all of this is just to say that now that I have knit up a pair of socks that actually look kind of normal and can be comfortably worn in public without significant embarassment, I have a pronouncement to make: 2011 was the year when I officially became a knitter. 

Buckets for Baby Things.

 

With only about six weeks left to go, I'm starting to realize that the pre-baby to-do list is a little on the lengthy side.  The crib is assembled and nestled into a little alcove opposite our bed, and the bedroom walls have been repainted, so a few things have gotten done.  But there are quite a few more.  One item that had been hanging out near the top of my list was stitching up some fabric buckets for storing baby clothes.  We are using up what little space we have for furniture on the mini-crib, so the little guy won't have a dresser of his own.  Instead, I found a small, low bookshelf that I'm planning to line with baskets and bins to hold all the little socks and onesies and whatnot.  Goodness, I do love the little socks.  I finished the first couple of buckets today, using the incredibly simple but perfectly genius nesting buckets pattern from Maya.  Do you read Maya's blog?  If not, you should.  She is one of the nicest gals on the interwebs as far as I'm concerned. 

Anyway, I used a natural colored linen for the main fabric for the buckets, and some Heather Ross Far, Far Away III for the rest.  For the middle layer, I used The Mystery Batting.  The Mystery Batting is a random cut of batting made from unknown material that I picked up at a fabric warehouse sale a few years back.  I've always suspected it was wool, but had no proof.  Anyway, The Mystery Batting is pretty fluffy, floppy stuff, so for the next round of bucket sewing I will probably go with something a little stiffer.  But since I'm assuming that these buckets will be fairly well filled, I think that having such soft sides won't really be a problem for them. 

Longer than necessary story made short: I'm really happy with how these turned out and am planning to make a bunch more in different sizes. 

 

Oh, and if you don't need buckets for baby clothes, you could absolutely put other things in them instead.

Fall Afternoons (and Some Knitting Talk).

 

Goodness, the days are getting shorter here and quickly.  It isn't that I don't know this will happen, obviously I do, it is just that I forget how dramatic it can be.  There isn't any way to doubt that the season is really and truly changing when all of a sudden it is dark outside before dinner time.  This week we've been lucky enough to have a few of those clear, shining fall afternoons where the sun comes through the windows and lights up everything in its path.  I love that, and I'm trying to soak it all up since I know that it won't be quite the same once the sun is much lower in the sky. 

The problem with the shorter, cooler days is that I find myself really just wanting to sit around and knit all the time.  Of course, the folks I live with seem to have all these funny ideas about regular meals and clean laundry.  Knitting is kind of both the best thing ever and the worst.  Why is it so addictive?  I don't know.  But here's what we've got going at the moment:

- A Jane Richmond pullover. Okay, maybe two. Both in Osprey. One in peacoat and one in lupine. And can I just say that small people knitting patterns are the best because they give such a wonderful sense of false efficiency? Thank you.   

- I may or may not be knitting someone that I really like a secret pair of socks with this self-striping sock yarn.  Honestly, you have to have serious enthusiasm for a person to knit them something out of fingering weight yarn. 

- Next up I think will be this little cardigan for the small guy.  I love the Madeline Tosh merino but also must admit that I am still adjusting to this "knitting for boys" business. I'm just not all that confident with color choices yet. 

- This vest is also a very good possibilty, and the word on the street is that it knits up really quickly.  However, I haven't yet determined how afraid of buttonholes I am.  On a scale of one to ten, how scary are they?

A Bit of Book Exchange Help.

 

Greetings from the land of sudden and surprising sub-freezing temperatures!  Apparently, this impending winter business is not just a rumor.  Anyhow, I've had a few emails regarding the book exchange in the last week or two, and it would seem that a number of books have either not been sent to begin with or, have been lost in the mail.  A particular quirk of this round of the exchange seems to be some kind of problem with international mail; most of the missing books that appear to have been legitimately sent on time were sent between the U.K. and the U.S. 

So, I could use a bit of help. This hasn't ever happened to this extent in the past, and I really don't like the idea of there being kids out there who worked hard on books to send out to their exchange partners and then received nothing in return.  Because who likes checking the mailbox and not finding what you are so, so hoping will be there?  No one.  In the past, Mariam has always been willing to make an extra book or two to cover shortages like these, but honestly, Dan's crazy schedule at the hospital is taking its toll on us all and I can barely get her to do her school work these days, let alone anything else that isn't her idea to start with.  If anyone has a child who is willing to make an extra handmade book to send to one of the kids who hasn't received one, I'd be forever grateful.  And, if you don't have them all already, I'd happily let you choose an issue of Alphabet Glue in return for the favor.  Here's what I need:

- a book for a nine year old in the U.K.

- a book for a five year old in the U.S.

- a book for an eight year old in the U.S.

- a book for a seven year old in the U.K.

- a book for a twelve year old in the U.S.

If you are willing and able to help out, just send me an email at birdmail@gmail.com and I'll get you all the information that you need.  Thanks in advance!

One Step Closer.

You know how sometimes the best way to get something done is to do it while feeling like you are really, really supposed to be doing something else?  Such is the way with the quilt.  For some reason, the fact that I need to write a semi-enormous paper about my local library and its collection of cookbooks has me feeling like quilting is the most important and logical use of my time.  Well, I suppose there is also the element of having reached the thirty week mark in my pregnancy and feeling like it is time to start doing something to get ready.  The small fry is going to be sharing a room with Dan and me, so part of the preparation process is a somewhat major overhaul of bedroom decor.  I'm trying to convince Annie 2.0 to help me repaint this weekend, and we've already ordered the small amount of "nursery" type furniture that we think will be useful enough to justify the space it is going to take up in our not-so-spacious bedroom. 

So, the quilt.  I really want it to be finished sooner rather than later, and laying the pieced rows out on the bed today to make sure that they look like they actually belong together gets me one step closer.  I didn't actually lay out the individual triangles before piecing them; I couldn't seem to find enough cat-free time and space to do that.  Instead, I made piles of the different triangles and then put together rows by pulling from each pile in a different order so that ideally, each row would be slightly different.  Of course, it wasn't a perfect system, so there was some adjusting to be done with the rows themselves once they were stitched, but in all, I still think it was much faster to do it this way.  Also, I was less confused, which counts for quite a bit.

Now, there is a lot of pressing and sewing in my immediate future.  After cookbook cataloging, that is. 

The Appearance of Productivity.

It is not yet clear whether all the time I'm spending on homework these days is an advantage or a hindrance when it comes to the to-do list.  It does keep me focused, which is a plus, but it also sometimes keeps me at the dining room table reading stacks of articles with a highlighter in hand for hours at a time.  In the event that you require translation, that would be less of a plus.

One thing all the table time is good for is bread baking.  If I'm going to be home reading and writing all morning (and sometimes into the afternoon), I might as well throw together a loaf for dinner, right? It makes me feel as though I'm not totally neglecting things on the domestic front. I've been making the herb bread from Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food at least a couple of times a week and it has had a very warm reception around these parts.  I tend to like focaccia type breads but am wary of making them at home because they can be on the dry side if not done properly.  This recipe is a reliable one, which I very much appreciate.  I've been replacing an extra 1/4 cup of the all-purpose flour with rye flour, and now that I'm feeling fairly confident with my success doing that, I may start experimenting with upping the ratio of whole grain flours.  We shall see. 

I think I have to write a paper or three next week, so I'll likely be making plenty of bread. 

Self-Imposed Limits.

Say it with me, everyone: no new projects allowed! Really. Not until I finish knitting a sweater, sewing a quilt and maybe even actually doing something to get ready for this baby. Apparently he's going to need things like diapers and socks.  I keep having this dream where we have the baby but then can't come back home afterwards because we forgot to get a carseat. Right then.

Oh, the stuff in the photo?  Right. That doesn't count.  I had to.  Stephanie and MAV take the most beautiful photos and we all know that I like Quince & Co. just a little bit.

In other news, Dan just texted from the hospital to say that he helped deliver three babies this morning.  I was like "Yeah, I ate some pasta and folded laundry." Ahem.