Month: August 2009

Weekend of Cards, Knits and a Wedding

Marie Haigh7 Comments

My weekend started off with a crazy plan to make all 50+ of the birth announcements we will send out after the happy occasion. (Yes, I know that the event is still 5 months away, but I’m ever so slightly concerned about my energy level plummeting in another month or so. Best to take the bull by the horns whilst I still have the gumption).

I had picked up a packet of stencils from my favorite consignment store in town, Memories & More. From it I was able to make several different cards.

I made another batch of cards by cutting up some wrapping paper and pairing it with other simple supplies I had in my card drawer.

My favorite card from the entire day of card making was a baseball-themed card I made. The glove is from a button that I cut the back off of.

21 cards later, I finally packed up my supplies and took a well-earned break.

A well-earned break in my mind typically involves knitting of some sort. In this case, I completed 1 section of the Reverse Baseball Blanket. The right “eye” is done.

As a reward, I allowed myself to cast on for a new project. Due to my insomnia (this baby wakes me up nightly to eat and he’s not even born yet!), I finished the project in 1 day.
[Let me reiterate that we do not know the sex of the baby yet. It just seems more personal to refer to the baby as ‘he’ rather than ‘it’. Besides, Tamsie did mention to me that she had a feeling the baby was a boy. On Friday, we’ll find out for sure whether we’re having a boy or a girl, assuming the baby cooperates.]

Details
Pattern: Baseball Bat Dishcloth (Ravelry link)
Designer: Emily Jagos
Yarn: Lily’s Cream and Sugar in Red
Needle: Size 6
Alterations: Changed the border to Garter Stitch from the seed stitch. To ensure that the width of the border matched the height, I added 2 rows to the top and bottom borders.
On the bind-off row, I used EZ’s trick for a cleaner edge and purled all stitches.

In general, this was a fun and easy knit. The design is perfect for the nursery theme.

To top the weekend off right, Dan and I attended a wedding reception. The couple’s theme was Las Vegas, since that was where they tied the knot (and the reason for Dan’s absence during the brutal storm last week … see previous post).

The main course of the reception was a huge pig roast. Delicious!

Since the reception was held at Snipes in Morrisville, we decided to swing by the house where Dan’s mother and step-father used to live before they moved to Maine. During the drive through town, I complemented Dan on his good sense of direction for even after 8 years of absense, he knew exactly where to go. If it had been up to me, we would still be driving through the streets of Morrisville.

We were both shocked by the house’s appearance. It was red!

It used to be white.

Tomatoes and Lightning

Marie Haigh7 Comments

On Tuesday of last week, a major thunderstorm rolled through our area. The thunder claps that followed the huge bolts of lightning shook the whole house. Poor Jake spent the entire time laying underneath my feet.

We lost electricity several times, but each time it snapped back on. It seemed we had escaped the worst. When I started to turn lights and appliances back on, it became clear that not everything was still working.

As luck would have it, Dan was in Las Vegas attending a bachelor party and wedding. That left Jake and I to tackle the long list of broken items. You can just imagine how much help Jake was.

Both of the GSI outlets in the kitchen had been tripped. The less important one could be reset, but the one that the fridge was plugged into could not be. An industrial extension cord solved that little problem until the handyman could arrive the next morning to replace the outlet.

The home phones didn’t have a dial tone. Verizon had to come out and replace the wire that ran to the telephone pole. It had been fried. The tech was the first one to suggest that we might have been struck by lightning.

The exhaust fan in the kitchen died. We still haven’t come up with a plan to address that problem.

The cable modem, router and everything plugged into the router died. Since Dan is the official techie  in our house, the internet stayed down until his return.

Which left me with ample time to reap the benefits of my vegetable garden:

Tomatoes Galore!

The large tomatoes were cooked up into tomato juice (the ones that didn’t end up in my salad, that is).

The smaller Roma tomatoes were made up into a soup. Plus I still had extra to throw into a chili.

And more tomatoes are still coming off the vine every day. Oh, how I love this time of year.

Baby Notes:
I had my 19-week appointment yesterday. I have gained the appropriate weight and am right on target for belly growth.
The baby’s heartbeat was holding steady at 140.
But the big news is that I am scheduled to have an ultrasound done on Friday, Sept 4th. Hopefully, we’ll find out whether the baby is a he or a she.

Bibs for Baby

Marie Haigh7 Comments

I finished another project for the wee one.

5 reversible bibs to catch the spit-ups (or at least make a valiant effort to)

Details
Pattern: Baby Ella Bib
Designer: Romeo & Mae on Etsy formerly known as Lil Peas & Carrots
Alterations: I opted to use snaps instead of the Velcro. Plus, I took the extra time to slip-stitch the opening closed (the opening that was used to turn the bib right side out).
Fabrics: Mix of 100% cotton fabrics that were leftover from previous projects and denim from a pair of jeans that no longer fit

The reverse side of the bibs:

OK. Now that I’ve gotten my sewing fix, I’m going to stop procrastinating and go tackle the nursery. Honest!

Older and a little Bigger

Marie Haigh15 Comments

For my birthday yesterday, I made myself a cherry pie.

It was delicious with perhaps the best pie crust I have ever made. Credit goes to my How to Cook Everything book.

But the real “To Me; From Me” present was a shirt I made.

Details
Pattern = Simplicity 5756
Alterations = Lined the bodice and skirt portions of the shirt since the main fabric is see-through (and nobody needs to see what color brazier I’m wearing or how cute my tummy looks), drew up the elastic tighter than instructed to hide the bra straps and opted to tie the bow in the front
Fabric = unknown material; it was brought back from India by my best friend
Lining = satin fabric
Time frame = 1 long weekend

Thankfully, there is room for growth in this shirt. I think I’m going to need it.

In Knitting, There are no Mistakes

Marie Haigh13 Comments

Long time readers may remember a pillow I knit last year while stuck in a car for 15 hours on a drive back from Talbott, TN.

There were so many things wrong with it. The most grievous error was my forgetting to insert a pillow form before seaming up all the sides. Even if that was overlooked, the knitted strips curled inward since I had knit them in stockinette stitch rather than a stitch that would lay flat. The strips did not alternate in color when woven together. The pillow required massive amounts of mattress-stitch seaming. It was so small that only a doll could realistically use it.

So, I scrapped the design, but I couldn’t let the idea go. I loved the way the knitted strips looked when woven together.

Four attempts later, I had finally resolved all those silly, little problems.

I am proud to present my latest two knitting patterns:

Woven Checkerboard Purse

Photography by The Unique Sheep

Woven Checkerboard Laptop Bag

Photography by The Unique Sheep

The patterns may be purchased through my Ravelry store or my website store.

They may also be purchased from The Unique Sheep along with the recommended yarn. Click on the following links to be taken directly to the pattern page(s): Woven Checkerboard Purse and the Woven Checkerboard Laptop Bag .

My advice to new knitting designers: If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.