special delivery

The stork paid our house a special visit! We had our baby boy on Friday, the 21st and he is the sweetest thing. He looks just like daddy. We're all in love with him. At the hospital we'd hear all these babies crying non-stop, but he wasn't like that at all. We feel so blessed because he has such a wonderful disposition. The only time he fusses is when we have to change his diaper. The rest of the time he is just so content.

It's been a whirlwind of a week getting adjusted to a new little one. Every night this week friends & family have come to visit. It is touching that everyone has been so happy and excited for us and want to come over, but it has been a bit overwhelming. Also, it's been interesting trying to work out the new schedule with our older child. My husband's been getting him ready for school every morning. But he goes back to work on Monday so we have to figure out what we're going to do next week.

The baby's taking a little nap and I'm somewhat caught up on my chores. This is the first chance I've had to write a little note in here. Not sure when I'll be able to do some knitting again but we'll see.

knitting and basketball

I popped in a DVD right after lunch and worked on Kurt's second beanie. If you remember, I already made him one but it came out too big for him! That's what happens when you don't measure your swatch carefully, plus the yarn I used seemed to knit up too loosely. I did buy the mesh to try to make the beanie into a newsboy cap (remember?) but I decided to make him another one anyway. Tonight Evan had basketball practice again so I worked on the beanie some more while I waited in the sidelines. I can probably start the decrease for the crown tomorrow and finish it up!

Next week is my sister-in-law's birthday. She really likes pink, so I think I will make a variation of the bow-knot scarf for her, in pink chenille. I love how you can tuck in one end of the scarf through the other end. The pattern is mainly in garter stitch, but I made one already for a friend's daughter in 2x2 rib and it came out great.

Latest on the baby: 11 more days until my due date! I thought for sure he was going to come home a couple nights ago, but it ended up being a false alarm. I guess he's taking his time. I can't wait to see his sweet little face...

Paid a visit to my favorite yarn store yesterday and picked these up!

I want to make a wrap with the pink Karabella Gossamer, and a scarf for my mom with the Rowan yorkshire tweed (the oatmeal-colored yarn with the flecks of color in it). Still deciding what to do with the single ball of Cascade 220. It looks blue in the picture but it's actually more of a slate grey.

 

Hollywood Knits Style

I was at the bookstore the other day and found a knitting book called "Hollywood Knits Style".


It has some really nice patterns--I especially like this one sweater with zippers in the sleeves and a zipper in the bottom front. The front zipper makes the sweater look like a tunic when it's open. I think the book has some great patterns, but I read some mixed reviews. Some of the downsides include the fact that the designer only uses her exclusive line of yarns with no recommendations on what you can substitute. Does anyone have this book already? I'd love to hear any feedback/comments before I go ahead and buy it...

Evan is getting so good at guitar! He's been taking lessons over a year now. He just learned the Green Day song "Time of Your Life (aka Good Riddance)", and his teacher wants him to start on this Bob Marley song called "Redemption". He's a little rock star in the making :) Here he is doing his daily 1.5 hour practice.

progress on poncho / cool finds

I made some progress on the harlot poncho. Evan had basketball practice tonight so I brought my knitting with me while I waited for him. I was only able to do a few rows though. I get so envious when I read on other blogs how fast they can knit! A woman I met at a craft store said she can finish a sweater in a week, which to me is so amazing. Some people don't even have to look at their hands when they knit...I wonder how long it will take before I can do the same. Well I guess I have to give it time. I've only been knitting a couple months. Anyway, at the rate I'm going it will probably take me at least a month to finish my poncho...*sigh*

Here are some recent cool finds:
Amyville - This is an online store that sells really cute jewelry. I stumbled across the link from reading someone's blog.
Rebecca Magazine - The latest Spring/Summer issue is now available! I checked out the preview on the website and there are some really nice patterns in it.
Stitches West - Stitches West is coming in February! It'll be held at the Convention Center in Santa Clara. I would really like to go but since I'm due in the next couple weeks, I'm not sure how I'll feel or if I'll want leave the baby when he's only going to be 1 or 2 weeks old.

On the needles: a pink scarf--I started this awhile ago and just now got around to posting a picture. 

My friend Lisa invited me over for lunch today. We had yummy spaghetti, salad, garlic bread, and a McDonald's ice cream cone for dessert!

No knitting done today...but I got a lot of other things done! I just put the diaper genie together a few minutes ago, and I packed my overnight bag and the baby's going home outfit the other day. I keep thinking the baby's going to come sooner than later but he's still not here. I've been having a hard time sleeping the last couple weeks. I get up at least 2-3 times a night to use the bathroom and then I can't fall back asleep. If I do fall asleep, either my coughing or a painful Braxton Hicks contraction wakes me, or my hip starts to ache from lying on one side too long. I wake up because it's hard to shift positions with this big 'ol belly. Okay, I'm glad I got that out of my system...I guess I'm just ready to have the baby already! Kurt and I are both as ready as we're ever going to be :) We got the stroller/carseat a couple weekends ago, and I washed and folded all the baby clothes weeks ago. The bassinet just needs to be put together. I even have a pack of diapers already. I don't think there's much else to do!

Doesn't look like much yet, but here is how far I've gotten on the harlot poncho (free pattern can be found here). I'm using circular needles and the loop is all kinked. I should've straightened them first...that would probably would make it easier to knit! 

Here's the needle case I want to make...I didn't end up starting it yesterday because I decided to do a poncho instead. 

It's a wrap!

I finished Kate's shawl/wrap last night! Will post of a picture of it soon--for now here's a picture of it when it was in progress. I noticed when we rent movies I end up getting a lot of knitting done...we rented a couple last night so we were in front of the TV for at least 3 hours. I should keep that in mind and rent videos more often, so I can get more knitting done :) Anyway the shawl came out nice! I wrapped it in tissue with a nice gold ribbon. Kurt's going over to Kate and her husband Joe's house this morning to watch Moto-Cross videos with Joe. He'll give them her present and his present at the same time. We didn't get to see them over the holidays...

I think the next time, if I were to make another shawl like that I would double up on the yarn. I used such a fine mohair. I think it would have knitted a little better with two strands held together. I wanted to use the Karabella Gossamer yarn, which is a fine mohair with little tiny crystals scattered throughout. I saw a sample of it knitted up in my favorite yarn store and it looks beautiful. They were out of it when I started Kate's shawl, so maybe when they get some in I'll pick up a ball of it, and then a ball of regular mohair with no crystals and hold those two together to knit up another shawl.

Wondering what project I should start on next. Instead of starting a new knitting project...I was thinking of making a needle case. I really need one and don't want to buy--too expensive! The Stitch 'n Bitch book has a pattern for making your own. Maybe I should hit up the fabric store today and make one for me

This week's projects

Completed: Kurt's Hat
Basically the only things I've ever knitted are scarves and beanies. My husband doesn't like wearing any of those things so I thought, until I learn how to make a sweater or something, I'll never be able to knit something up for him. But this weekend, he decided he wants to get a beanie for when he goes running outside -- so now I can finally make him something! The requirements were, it had to be black, and it had to be simple--nothing fancy-schmancy. I hit up my favorite yarn store and bought some Karabella Aurora in black. I held 2 ends of the ball just like Noah's beanie so it came out pretty thick. I was so happy to be able to make something for him :) The only downside is, it is a little too big! :( But I have an idea...actually Kurt was the one who inspired me. He had on a baseball cap and he put the beanie over it--we were both cracking up because the beanie is so big it stretched and fit right over the hat and around the brim. Then I realized it looked just like these hats that are all the craze right now with our 20-something-year-old-nephews. They sell the hats at the Fox Racing store and they're basically a beanie with a small hat brim/visor on them. They remind me a little of a newsboy cap. It sounds like it would look strange but they actually look really cool. Anyway, I am going to go to the craft store and pick up some plastic mesh, cut it into the shape of a little visor, and then somehow stitch it into the hat. Doing that will take up some of the extra fabric and then it should fit Kurt just fine. If that doesn't work I guess I'll just have to start on a new beanie!

On the needles: Kate's Shawl
I started it several weeks ago but I keep getting distracted with other things/projects so I still haven't finished. I've made some good progress on it though, and I knitted a few rows today. I used this really fine mohair yarn in a chartreuse color. It's one of her favorite colors. I'm just doing it in stockinette stitch, but since it's on such big needles (size 15), it has this lacy look. Hopefully I finish soon so I can give it to her!

Kate's shawl (work in progress) 

Kurt's hat 

Happy 2005!

I finished Noah's beanie! I only had a little bit of time each night, so it took me a couple nights. I think it came out really nice. I used Cascade 220 yarn in Color No. 4001 (a nice blue), and I used a simple 2x2 rib. I didn't have a pattern for a child-sized beanie so I kind of just made something up. I wanted to make it nice and warm so I held 2 ends of the ball together to make it thicker. I did a swatch to figure out the gauge, which was 3 stitches per inch on size 9 needles, and then I cast on 60 stitches (his head measured at 20" around). I knitted until the hat was about 6 inches and then I started decrease for the crown. It fit him perfect! I gave it to Lisa and she said Noah ended up wearing it the whole afternoon.

Last night we went out for dinner at one of our favorite Thai restaurants. We didn't feel like going anywhere else so we rented several DVDs and plopped ourselves in front of the TV. When the movies were done it was just about midnight. We flipped channels to watch how others were celebrating the change of the year. The Pointer Sisters were performing at the Embarcardero Center, and Earth Wind and Fire in Times Square. We also saw people at Disneyland. I was not at all envious--I just don't think it's comfortable being jammed in the middle of a huge crowd of people.

We did a little running around today. It's surprising that practically everything was open! Every year I've always remembered everything to be closed on New Year's Day. Made it hard if you were craving a nice cup of Starbucks!

For lunch we went out with Kurt's mom to the Fish Market. Evan had a crab cocktail without the sauce, Mom had a tuna sandwich, I had a crab sandwich on sourdough, and Kurt had trout. We used a gift certificate we had been saving, which ended up being enough to cover the whole bill. What a nice treat!