Have Yarn, Will Knit

Rusty Orange, Worsted Hand Dyes, lovely.

Soon to be a Drops Jacket of my very own.

Working at a looser gauge than I usually do with this yarn will give me what I hope to be the perfect spring and early summer sweater. Warm enough to ward off that bit of chill on a cool day (I am a total cold wimp, despit being a permanent resident of Minnesota) yet breathable enough to wear without melting.

I wound my 1st skein, cast on, and knit several inches of the back Monday night. If I can master any kind of project focus, this should knit up fairly fast. I'm loving it so far.

Our greenhouse trip was fun. It was cold and blustery outside and a balmy 74 degrees inside the greenhouses. The kids got a kick out of watching the 'dirt machine' fill the flats with potting mixture, okay, the moms got a kick out of it too. It's just cool that somebody made a big ol' machine to do that. Then they all got to transplant a pack of tiny marigolds, which, if we can keep them alive, will come in handy as companion plants in our summer garden. The highlight of the trip, for all of the little girls, was getting to keep handfuls of blooms that needed to be picked off the plants to keep them growing now, the time for full blooms will come later.

My teenager doesn't think it's right to be having a winter storm on the last day of March, no matter how many times I explain the March in Minnesota phenomenon. I'm just hoping the snowplow doesn't make off with our mailbox again... we just got that thing back up!

Thinking sunny thoughts, thinking sunny thoughts, thinking sunny thoughts... :-)

Happy knitting-

ali

More March in Minnesota

Guess who's 5 months?!

Remember that sweater?

Sigh. Yesterdsay, I awoke to something like 28 degrees and some flurries, yep, flurries. So much for that season formerly known as spring. It was a nice 2 days... This is now day 4 (I think) with no sun and I am in need of some 'happy lights', or at least some good coffee. There is more snow on the way, second sigh. Full spectrum bulbs, here I come.

Anyhoo, babykins seems to have finally cleared all the hives from his system- that was an interesting 14 days. Now, if the sun will come back and bring us some decent light, maybe even nice enough temps for an outdoor photo op, I hope to get some cute pics of the little guy in his new little vest. I may even have another piece of spring baby attire ready to add to the event. I'm working on a little bulky vest, kind of a knit equivalent to a North Face puffy quilted down vest (well, equivalent in my mind, it was kind of my inspiration...) Just need to get the seperating zipper, and maybe work up a coordinating hat. Fun, fun.

In non-baby/child knitting news, I think I've decided on my next personal knit. (ravelry link) I am also seriously considering Leslie's suggestion of knitting myself a good old Central Park Hoodie. I do love a good hoodie. I think the only thing holding me back a bit on that one is the fact that everyone and their neighbor has knit it, kinda like the adorable February Lady Sweater. I have a secret inner fear of showing up to a knitting night somewhere and seeing 4 other women wearing the same thing I'm wearing, kinda puts a damper on that whole I made this and it's unique aspect of creating one of a kind clothing... I know, they would still be unique, but not as unique...

Designing has become such a love of mine that I have more ideas in my head than I could ever knit up, but I really do appreciate having a knitting project in the works that I can sit and work on when I don't really have to think nearly as much (not at all is preferrable), when somebody else has done all the thinking and the checking and the multiplying, and I can just knit. I've knit my gauge swatch and now I just need some yarn, I'm itching to go...

Ooh, and then I think I'll be starting a summery skinny cotton Green Gable (got the pattern from my swap partner gyviolet- thanks! your package totally rocked!)- hafta finalize color choice on that one, but choosing is so hard, have you seen all their colors in person?! One of the best things about Blue Sky Alpacas' yarns has got to be their color selection. Their colors are so vibrant and rich and they coordinate so well with each other. Those ladies have such a good eye- I'm biased, I know, one of those lovely ladies is my lovely younger sister, but seriously, sister or no sister, their colors are fabulous and I may have to make more than one of these because I'm thinking it would be great in Squash, Pink, Cherry, Zinc, and/or French Blue...

(This might be an appropriate time for me to admit that, yes, there are many of those Drops jackets out there, and almost as many Green Gables, but not so much in my circle of friends, in real life or on-line. I do, however, have friends with Central Park Hoodies, and I manage to run into people wearing them at various knitting events. There is nothing wrong with that, mind you, it's kind of fun to recognize a knit like one would recognize a painting or some such piece of art. This weird phobia of mine will probabaly not keep me from knitting a Tangled Yoke cardigan, however, and there is a very good chance that I will succumb to the lure of the CPH, after I save up for the yarn- one adult size garment at a time, thank you very much. I may have to draw the line at the FLS though...)

Okay, it's 25 degrees outside, 62 degrees in my house (no fire last night), and the sun isn't supposed to show it's face until late next week- I think I'll be baking for breakfast...

Happy knitting-

ali

ps- We're heading out to my uncle's greenhouse for a field trip tomorrow! Fun stuff! They're gonna let all the kiddos plant a pack of flowers- yay! Hopefully I'll have some fun pics on Monday!

March in Minnesota

It got to 63 degrees on Monday (yesterday), and after a sunny and mildly warm weekend, last Friday's snowmen are gone... Mid 50's today, mid 40's tomorrow, and I should know better than to have even looked at the 10 day forecast. It may snow again next Tuesday, but then again, it may not, those 10 day forecasts aren't always that reliable...

At any rate, even given Minnesota's reputation for snowy Marches and even Aprils, now would not be the best time for this knitter to embark on the pair of beautiful mittens I intended to knit this year. Which beautiful mittens? Oh, any beautiful mittens... I hadn't even decided, there are so many I like, I just knew I wanted to make a pair of fancy, beautiful mittens. But do you know what I wore all winter? I wore a pair of those stretchy little glove thingies I picked up last year for $1. Pathetic. Though I did think they were pretty cool when paired with and worn under my Evangelines.

I'm not going to feel like knitting mittens in August, but would somebody be kind enough to remind me to start some lovely mittens towards the end of summer? Thanks.

I think this time of year would be good for a big comfy pullover- kind of like a hooded sweatshirt but less like something you'd wear to the gym. Or maybe a cozy cardigan, for when easy layers are needed. I'm itching to knit something big, like an actual sweater, for me, but I'm having serious decisiveness deficiency issues... Any suggestions?

In the meantime, while I hem and haw over that one, I've got some more little things to put some finishing touches on. Right now I'm working on a girls' shrug and I'm playing with some embellishment ideas. Embellishment can be so tedious, but it can make a garment so much more than ordinary, it is almost always worth it.

One more sleeve to embroider, then I'll pick up and knit the edging, then, hopefully soon, I'll have a finished object- yay!

Teenager has a violin 'performance class' tomorrow- I need to get a better/faster memory card so I can catch some good video, that, and look up the studio's address so I know where in Minneapolis I'm supposed to be heading... Probably shouldn't knit at a function like that, eh? We'll see...

Happy knitting-

ali

Happy Pi Day!

Could this be the last of it? (The white stuff) Probably not. This is, after all, Minnesota. Remember last year?

We spent the day with some friends thinking spring thoughts, planning a giant kid powered garden, and starting some seeds in some fun new buckets. Every kid got a bucket, even the babies, so with my kids and my friend's 8 kids, that makes 15 buckets of dirt on my table, and then on my counter. I'm making definite progress in my OCD therapy...

Some of you, dear blog readers, live in sunnier, warmer climates, and are already turning on your air conditioners, and you're already growing things with long growing seasons, like sweet potatoes. Please, don't take it personally when I don't comment on your blogs, with your pictures of things like daffodils, unless maybe they're from Pro Flowers, or made out of plastic or porcelain. It's just that we still have to wear coats like this-

And 'get to' roll things like this-

They say the warm air is moving in this weekend, so it looks like we'll be moving into mud season around here. That's always fun. Pollyanna would tell me to look at the bright side- and that would be that our carpet is old and brown, so, no biggie, and the tile and the wood like stuff? They're washable, so it's all good.

Hive baby keeps spreading new hives. It looked like it might've been clearing up on Wednesday, so I didn't start the steroid, just kept dosing with Benedryl. Things still seemed to be improving on Thursday morning, though by that night things were looking mighty uncomfortable for him again, but I had just given a dose of Benedryl, so I waited until Friday morning to start the steroid, as they told me not to give both at once. By that time his arms and legs were covered in hives, swollen, and purplish again. This has been very perplexing. Within a couple hours of starting the steroid things were almost clear, only to flare back up quite a bit in the evening. The doc wants him on it for 4 days, so here's hoping and praying that it's enough, and that whatever he's reacting to will clear his little system, and we can be done with all of this...

In other randomness, we were playing Apples to Apples last night, and the green card (adjective) was 'Quiet', my friend, Traci, read the first red card (noun), which was 'creamed corn' and my 4 year old queen of random wit declared "I was afraid you were going to say that!" (What?!)

Enjoy your weekend,

happy knitting-

ali

*oh, and for those of who appreciate things like pi, this is fun... how many places can you remember?

Why I Won't Be Eating Indian Again Any Time Soon

Poor guy. The hives spread from his face, ears, scalp, and neck, down each arm to the fingers, and each leg to the heels and toes (these pictures don't show it at its worst...) Poor guy. At least he's not old enough to realize how itchy and uncomfortable being covered in hives is...

Our best guess is something in the curry. My youngest sister treated the family to Indian take out for lunch on Sunday. (And oh, man, it was good!) This is how baby woke up on Monday. (Not as good.)

24 hours of Benedryl in the system, and while some hives are fading, others are forming, and his poor face looks so inflamed. Poor guy.

Pediatric allergist told us to keep dosing him with the Benedryl, call back if they don't go away, and definitely call back if they get worse. We do have a couple Epi-pen Jrs, thanks to some pretty bad asthma issues, but I really don't ever want to have to use one of those. I came close to needing to with one asthma attack, scary. Anyhoo, then we're supposed to watch closely and keep a food diary, etc... when he starts solids, as he obviously has some sensitivity issues. Poor guy.

I need him to get all better and all clear, because, well, because he's my baby, but also to model this...

Fun, fun.

Oh, and this is fun, except that I'm totally lying...

"... WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 AM CDT WEDNESDAY...

A PERIOD OF FREEZING DRIZZLE AND SLEET WILL BE POSSIBLE. THE SNOW WILL CONTINUE FOR MUCH OF TONIGHT. STORM TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS WILL RANGE FROM 4 TO 10 INCHES BY WEDNESDAY MORNING... WITH THE 10 INCH AMOUNTS MOST LIKELY ACROSS THE INTERIOR OF CENTRAL MINNESOTA.

STRONG WINDS WILL ALSO RESULT IN BLOWING SNOW AND REDUCED VISIBILITIES. ONLY TRAVEL IN AN EMERGENCY. IF YOU MUST TRAVEL... KEEP AN EXTRA FLASHLIGHT... FOOD... AND WATER IN YOUR VEHICLE IN CASE OF AN EMERGENCY.

IN ADDITION... THE STRONG NORTHWEST WINDS AND ARCTIC AIR WILL CAUSE WIND CHILL VALUES TONIGHT AND WEDNESDAY MORNING FROM 25 TO 30 BELOW ZERO ACROSS MUCH OF WEST CENTRAL AND CENTRAL MINNESOTA.

THE COMBINATION OF SNOW AND STRONG NORTHWEST WINDS WILL CAUSE BLIZZARD CONDITIONS IN WEST CENTRAL MINNESOTA... WHERE A BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR TODAY AND TONIGHT...

The joys of March in Minnesota. Oh, well, snowed in and homebound means more time for knitting, eh? Well, it should...

Happy knitting-

ali

eta: after 48 hrs of Benedryl, the hives keep coming and his little arms and legs keep getting purple... we're starting steroids, sigh... so far no breathing issues, praise the Lord.