Sunday, February 19, 2012

Curled Around His Little Finger



I've been gone for awhile because I've been so busy with the kids. Four kids and their activities keeps me a little busy (read crazy) sometimes. However, my oldest son Caleb is such a pure delight and truly makes life as easy as can be. Over this past year or so of my not being well he has been my rock. I adore this child and try to support him as much as I can in all of his endeavors. He is so passionate about Curling, which is a huge sport in Wisconsin. Yes, it is a sport. In fact, it's nickname is Chess on Ice. It takes a great deal of skill, effort and strategy. He has been busy with a lot of games and Bonspiels over the past month of so. He and his buds put together a team for Badger State Games and took Silver and this past weekend, his High School Varsity team participated in the High School State Championship for Curling in Portage, WI so I went to watch him. They won most of their games and lost out from getting into the Semi-finals on a shoot-out when they tied for a place for the semi's. It was pretty intense. I couldn't be more proud.



So I find it funny that as he is my rock many times, he also has a love for the Curling Rocks. We have a very close relationship and I loved watching him as he played this past weekend. It was so intense that I was knitting a baby sweater and I was supposed to start the armhole shaping at 3", but I found that I'd knit right on through to almost 6" before I'd realized what I'd done. I thought I would share some photos from this past weekend to show you what I'd been watching.


Enjoy the pics. Caleb is the handsome blonde with the glasses. So handsome! I am obviously completely curled around his finger.



















This is an old picture (Christmas 2010) but I love it. I couldn't love this kid anymore!

Thursday, February 02, 2012

Baby Love

This week I had yet another baby shower to attend so I to go along with a gift I was going to give, I always like to knit something. So I quickly whipped up this hat (thanks to Beth at Black Purl who had knitted the original and was the inspiration for this hat). It was ridiculously fast (an hour) and so much fun to make. Classic Elite Ariosa yarn (one of my go to yarns these days) and scraps for the x's and o's. The baby is already three months old and I felt she needed a valentines hat, I mean who doesn't need a valentines hat?! I cheated a little and stitched the hat and duplicate stitched (rather quickly and a little shoddily - though we'll call it rustically) the x's and o's on the hat with scraps. I love it. Madison wants one in her size for Valentines day but I have a different hat in mind for her, so I'm sure she'll live.

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Pattern: Beth at Black Purl
Yarn: Classic Elite Ariosa 0.7 White and scraps of Red and Yellow
11th Project for Warm Up to Winter 2012
13th Project for 2012



I do love how much my children appreciate the knits I make for them. The boys are starting to complain that they have been being neglected and I'm going to have to work on that very shortly. I'm struggling to find just the right green for Declan's ski coat.

Here is a picture of Declan skiing which he and his friend made that shows his Sexy Ski Outfit (his words not mine - he's 13 just go with it) Any suggestions on colors? Jess, what cascade color would I use and do you have it in stock, oh Queen of 220?!




This is off topic, but doesn't he have the most beautiful eyes, if I do say so myself. I made a good one there. Pat on mine and husband's back.



I also knit another Viveca Beret in Berroco Flicker Black for a friend. I have friends galore asking for this hat. I don't mind, it's relatively a fast knit. I just dislike the k4tog. Never a fave of mine. It's not hard, just a pain in the hinder.





Pattern: Viveca by Berroco
Yarn: Flicker by Berroco Black
10th Project for Warm Up to Winter KAL
12th Project for 2012

I'm currently working on a cowl to match the Beret for the same friend. Once that is done I have a couple more hats to knit and maybe a couple mittens to knit before the Warm Up to Winter KAL ends on February 8th. It has been such a great motivator for me and I have used a lot of stash and crossed some projects of the queue. I've felt so productive. In between I have made some progress on some of wip's but they still have a little to do to get done. February seriously needs to get some focus on them. I also have a red sweater that I'm planning on casting on and working on. I've been so excited to knit this for a while and now is the time. More to follow on that soon.