Author: Marie Haigh

I started knitting 15 years ago right around the time of my marriage and the birth of my niece.

Yarn Arrived for the Bump

Marie Haigh15 Comments

After failing twice to use yarn from my stash for the baby’s baseball blanket, I caved and ordered yarn from Webs. It arrived today!

The yarn is Schachenmayr Nomotta’s Extra Merino Big. It is 100% washable Merino wool in Ruby Red. The stitching will be done in bright white. Thus, Dan has dubbed the blanket a “Reverse Baseball”.

During the baseball game tonight, I plan to cast on for the swatch. I can’t wait to get started!

Baby Notes:
B6 vitamins are my friend. They are taking the morning sickness away and returning my energy level to me. For the first time in weeks, I’m starting to feel like a real person again.

Since I was a little dismayed for not looking exactly pregnant yet but no longer looking like my normal size, I bought myself a “Walking for Two” t-shirt to wear on the morning walks with Jake.

[Yes, that is my walking partner rolling around on the grass behind me. Silly dog].

As comfy and as cute as the shirt is, it hides the bump. The outfit I wore today showed it off a bit more.

Yarn Crisis and Tag Blanket

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I visit my neighbor at least once a week. I love to chat with her about knitting and the neighborhood gossip; she always has the best stories.

Yesterday, she casually mentioned how awful it would be to run out of the gorgeous handspun wool I was starting to knit the baseball blanket out of. The more I thought about what she said, the more I realized just how right she was; it would be awful. I can’t buy more of it. So, I opted to run the numbers. Ever am I glad I did. Not only would I have run out early, I wouldn’t even have completed half the blanket!

Last night I searched through my entire Ravelry stash and didn’t find a lot of back-up options. I have tons of wool, but very little is soft enough for a baby. If the Decadent Fibers Cookie Dough doesn’t prove to be enough yarn (I’m knitting a swatch now to test it out), then I’ll have to go yarn shopping.

This is the Decadent Fibers (80% merino wool and 20% mohair). The red wool will be for the baseball stitches.

To cheer myself up from the yarn dilemma, I whipped up a tag blanket for baby.

Cost = $0.
The cotton dragon fabric on the front of the blanket was leftover from a quilt I made for my friend’s daughter. The ribbons were a gift from Tamsie during the swap we were both in last year. Dan kindly donated the fabric on the back of the blanket. It used to be one of his favorite shirts because of how soft it is.

Appliques for Baby

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On Wednesday of last week, after feeling miserable all day long, I decided to reward myself. I bought 2 new work shirts for Dan and 5 new Kimono shirts for Baby. It hardly seems like a reward when I didn’t buy anything for myself, but that is deceiving.

Digging through my fabric stash is always rewarding. It didn’t take me long to locate 5 different fabrics to adorn the Kimono shirts. Afterwards, I quickly assembled my supplies:

  • Iron-on adhesive
  • Cookie cutters
  • Shot glass
  • Scissors

In a few hours time, the shirts were decorated in fine fashion. No Plain Jane shirts for our baby.

My favorite and the reason for the shot glass:

The heart, shamrock, and bird were cut out using cookie cutters. The monster’s fabric was ‘fussy-cut’. Of course, the shot glass was used to trace out the five sections of the caterpillar’s body.

Using the iron-on adhesive, I attached the fabric shapes to the shirts. Afterwards, I used the satin stitch on my sewing machine to gussy up the shape’s outline. The eyes and the antennas were added by hand using embroidery floss.

It was so much fun!

Baseball Blanket Yarn

Marie Haigh4 Comments

It’s now 2 different colors and folded in the middle because I got carried away and added an extra – and unnecessary – two inches.

But, it’s looking more round these days if I do say so myself.

Now I can finally cast on for the ‘real’ size: a 39-inch diameter.

I have chosen yarn from my stash.

It’s not just some leftover yarn I had sitting around. Au contraire, I have been saving this yarn for almost 2 years now. My MIL purchased it from a craft/wool festival in Maine. The yarn was hand-dyed and hand-spun. It is soft as goose down. When my MIL couldn’t locate a pattern that would showcase the yarn’s splendor, she gifted it to me and told me to use it for something special. Using it to knit our first child a baseball blanket surely counts, right?

Knitting Projects for Baby

Marie Haigh8 Comments

Like most knitters, I typically have several projects going at once. Not anymore.

Thanks to the lovely side effects of the 1st trimester (morning sickness and sheer exhaustion), I can barely muster the energy required to design and knit 2 projects. Until yesterday, it was just one.

I am still working out the kinks in the baseball blanket. The problem lies in with this construction of the middle panel. Once I fix that, I can cast on for the ‘actual’ size: about a 39-inch diameter. The size should be perfect to wrap a newborn in. (No, we don’t know that this baby will be a boy nor do we have a preference. The nursery will be decked out in a baseball theme no matter the sex of the baby. As I said to my Aunt while defending our decision, “I’m a girl and I LOVE baseball”.)

Thanks to Vicki, I also have cast on for a baby shawl. I won a skein of gorgeous red and blue kid mohair yarn on her blog. Paired with a skein of red merino laceweight yarn, I plan to knit a Pi shawl as made famous by EZ. It’s cold in January, you know.

 

Baby Notes: I had an ultrasound done on June 19th. The little alien inside of me has a huge head, stubbly little arms and legs, and a wee heart beating away. I laughed my way through most of the exam; it was such a joy to see this baby growing inside of me even if s/he is a bit odd looking right now.
Additionally, my due date was pushed back to January 18th, making it more unlikely that I’ll deliver on or around Christmas. What a relief!

In a Family Way

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The computer has been moved into our master bedroom.

The boxes labeled “Nursery” have been drug down from the attic.
My entire collection of children’s books has been corralled into one small bookcase.

The receiving blankets that were given to me for safe keeping have been located and are waiting to receive a little bundle of joy.

Our little bundle of joy.

After 9 years of a wonderful marriage, Dan and I are expecting our first child on January 15, 2010.

We couldn’t be more thrilled.

Guessing Game

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Can you guess what this is?

What about now?

It didn’t come out exactly as I has envisioned. I had wanted it to look round. It’s looking distinctly square right now. Plus, the colors are wrong. Imagine it in white with red stitching.

I’ll have to keep fiddling with it.

Back from a Long Rest

Marie Haigh4 Comments

I’m still here!

I apologize for my long absence. I have been busy and will explain why soon.

Of course, I never stopped knitting. I’m pleased to report that the 2nd slipper is finished!

Stats
Pattern: Grown-up Booties
Designer: Ysolda Teague
Yarn: unknown wool – just some leftover yarn in my stash
Made for: Me. I love to wear slippers around the house. Sometimes I even wear them when visiting my neighbor across the street.

They are warm and comfy. Too warm. I’ve relegated them to my cedar closet until Fall arrives.

Tomorrow is the baby shower for the twins. I can’t wait to give the two BSJs I knit to the proud Mom-to-be. Here’s hoping she likes them.

Though I had a card all picked out, I couldn’t resist making more ‘baby’ cards for the occassion.

Not able to stop there, I made just a few more cards. Some are photo cards. Some are fabric cards for the 4th of July. The flower card and the bird card are made from used/recycled papers.

I just love cards!

Have a wonderful weekend.

Partially Grown-Up

Marie Haigh8 Comments

I have been a fan of Ysolda for about two years.

It goes beyond just reading her blog and staying updated on her latest pattern releases. Perhaps if she knew how much I stalked her, she might get a bit weirded out. I have tried to apply the way in which she built her self publishing career to my life with the hopes that I too can break into the design world. It would be more accurate to say that I stole a lot of ideas from her: building a blog and website on WordPress, listing patterns on SandraSingh.com, hosting patterns on Ravelry, and submitting designs to online magazines. All this I learned from Ysolda without ever meeting her.

I was thrilled for her when she published her first book of patterns: Whimsical Little Knits and promptly bought myself a hard copy of it.

The first pattern I chose to knit was Grown-Up Booties.

 

Like all patterns, I researched the booties on Ravelry before casting on. Several people complained about the booties being too big (more specifically, too wide). Rather than adjust the pattern as would be required, I ignored all the advice and followed Ysolda’s pattern to a ‘T’. I lost faith after knitting just one and tossed it into my knitting basket, ignoring it for a week. It looked like the Ravelry people were correct. During last night’s baseball game, I finally bore down and sewed up the booty.

As you can see, there was no reason to fret. The booty fits perfectly.

Now, I just have to knit the matching pair.

Watching a Garden Grow

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Except for the tomatoes and anise, all the plants in my veggie garden were started from seeds or tubers. If I didn’t remember what I planted, I be hard pressed to even tell you what everything was. They all look the same in the sapling stage.

These will be chives when then grow up.

The onions are obvious, thankfully. It’s such a joy to see ‘something’ growing in the veggie garden. In the upper left hand corner, you can see the saplings that will one day be lettuce heads. In the upper right hand corner, if you squint really hard, you might be able to see the carrots growing.  

The main reason I started a veggie garden was for the tomatoes. Nothing tastes better than a vine-ripened tomato warm from the sun.

Despite all my attempts though, Dan still hates uncooked tomatoes. I really don’t understand him. I pine for the fruit from the moment I put them in the ground until August when it’s time to harvest. Periodically, I go outside and just stand over them, drumming my fingers on the cages.

Yesterday it was raining, so I couldn’t play in the garden. Instead I cleaned my red desk off and hung my latest swatches. Here’s hoping it inspires me.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!