New Jammies.

So, here I am, 38 1/2 weeks pregnant.
Work is finished, and I am spending my days bored out of my gourd, playing online scrabble.
Today I opted, instead, to spend some time at the sewing machine, and I was able to whip up these jammies for the kids' impending visit to their grandparents while I am in the hospital.
The weather is pretty amazing in the daytime, but it's still a little chilly at night, so I think the flannel will be just the ticket.
The Elder helped me choose the fabrics this weekend while we were looking for fabric for her Easter dress.
She chose the puppy flannel for the dress, but I convinced her that it might be better in jammie pant form.


I can't wait until I am able to spend some time on my hands and knees and get digging in the dirt like the Younger here.
The garden is calling...

New Sweater (almost) Finished

Last week I started knitting a sweater for the Elder in anticipation of Easter.
I finished it up on Saturday, only to realize that it was too small.
So I ripped it back and made it a little bigger, only to realize that the sleeves weren't right.
So, I ripped it back a second time and finished it up yesterday.
All that remains is choosing and attaching the buttons.

I may also add some decorative stitching to the hem.
The fabric I have for her Easter dress is floral, and I think some small leafy vines travelling around the edge of the sweater might be just the thing.
Or, they could be too much.
But, since too much cute is kind of my thing lately, I may just go ahead...
Upon reflection, I could have made the sweater a little more full, but I was working with stash yarn and I was afraid of running out and not finding a close enough dye lot to finish it up.
She's a bean-pole of a girl, though, so this should work out just fine.

The modifications I made to this pattern were minimal.
First, I knit Maile in a worsted-weight instead of the fingering-weight it called for as an infant pattern.
I added a lot of stitches (about 20) to the sleeves to make them puffier.
I ended up taking a tuck in the bottom, I just like the look of a nice full short sleeve.
I also eliminated the side shaping, since I had to make it big enough around for the 8-year-old.
The other thing I did was eliminate the lace around the hem. I didn't think it matched the spirit of the raglan lace, which is truly lovely.
A nice quick knit, which would have been even quicker had I taken the time to think through my ultimate design goals.
Are you knitting anything exciting out there?

Caritas Vocal Ensemble

Yesterday I sang the last concert on my list until I give birth, and it went pretty well.
We got recordings of a few of our pieces, and I thought I would share them here.
The Younger recognized me in these because he could see my big belly :)
If you're local, we have 3 more concerts coming up in late April/ Early May.
Visit www.caritasvocalensemble.org for more information.

New Sweater

This week is Spring Break for my kids, and we have been living it up.
We've been to the Zoo, the Children's Museum, and since the weather has been beyond perfect, we've also been spending lots and lots of time at the playground.

In addition, I have been able to start in on a new sweater for the Elder. I have plans to try to pump out something for each of them before Easter comes, we'll see how that goes...

This morning we're also addressing a serious monster problem.
For about a year the Younger has been afraid to be upstairs alone.
It came about very suddenly, and it's a big problem.
I asked my facebook support system last night for help and my friend suggested No Monsters Allowed! signs. He was way into it and we made a bunch this morning.
We haven't seen the results yet, but I have high hopes.

What a Day!

Today was a truly beautiful spring day.

We had temps in the mid-sixties, the sun was shining, the birds were singing, the windows were wide open, ahhh. 

We took our bikes to the playground and had a marvelous time hanging out with friends, and playing in the sand.

 And, just when it seemed to me that my lovely Elder Hug-a-Bug was turning into a big girl right in front of me, she showed that she still has some silliness in her, as she and the Younger practiced being Airbenders with the smoke from our cook-out fire.

I hope your day was just as full of fun, friends, silliness and hot dogs as mine was.

Snomaggedon!!! (not really)

We're under a Winter Storm Warning here in the Cities, but so far it's been mostly rain with a little snow thrown in for sloppy driving and beautiful trees.  

The kids and I waited for 25 minutes at the bus stop this morning, but we made good use of our time by building a whole family of snow people.

Bus Knitting and Yarn Along

Joining Ginny.
One major bonus of a road trip is all of the knitting time on the bus.
I cast on the Morrison Cardigan on Thursday, and was able to finish up the back on Saturday.
I didn't get very far on the front while on my trip, but I made up for that catching up on the Oscars last night.

The yarn is super-soft and yummy Tracie from Imperial Yarn.
I have had the lighter color for a year, and I just got the darker green this week.
It's knitting up pretty easily, though being a perfectionist (in knitting alone, I assure you) I did have to make a couple of adjustments so there wouldn't be yarn carried up the exposed side of the right front.
Since I have cut back on my daytime commitments I have a little more knitting time between kiddo drop-off and pickup, so I may be able make some more headway this week.
If, that is, I am not too distracted reading Game of Thrones, which is awesome!
I didn't get a shot of my knitting with my book, but I'm reading on the kindle, so that's kind of boring to look at anyway.
Game of Thrones is so engaging!
I have been a fan of the show, and was a little wary of reading the book, since I already have a concrete idea of the characters; how they should look, sound, etc... but this is one of the only instances where reading the book is only making the show better.
For the most part the show is taken almost verbatim from the book, but what you get when you read it is more fully fleshed-out background characters and the history of Westeros which is the fictional land where the story takes place.
What are you reading and knitting these days?