Knitting Sandwich

happy blogaversary! (and a giveaway!!)

today the sandwich is one!  happy blogaversary!!  i know i speak for the entire sandwich when i say what an amazing year this has been.  our journey into blogland has been inspiring and rewarding in so many ways.  and the best part?  meeting so many wonderful, talented people!

so in honor of YOU our wonderful blog-friends the sandwich will be celebrating it's inaugural blogaversary hobbit-style, with a sandwich-made giveaway!!  (for those of you who may not be as well versed in hobbit-lore as say maybe i am, it is traditional for hobbits of the shire to give away gifts on their birthdays.)

we each made a little something for the giveaway.  lindsey painted this completely adorable project bag:

(don't you just love these sweet, unsuspecting fishies?)

claire put together a set of note cards featuring some of her favorite nyc pictures:

i knit up a rainbow set of dishcloths:

now all you have to do to win is leave a comment.  you have until noon on tuesday december 1st and then we'll close down the comments and draw a winner.  you don't have to, but i thought it might be fun to also leave your guess as to whether lindsey will be having a boy or a girl.

come celebrate the sandwich blogaversary with us!  because this wouldn't be nearly as much fun without all of you!  

-melissa and the sandwich

how lovely are your branches

i hope that everyone had a lovely thanksgiving.  we've been having a wonderful time in omaha with my family.  this morning we went out to pick up my parents' and my sister's family's christmas trees at the christmas tree farm.

it was a beautiful sunny morning and lily and her cousin had a blast running through the trees.

 

 

-melissa

late november light

so this morning, melissa and i were chatting via ravelry email and talking about our plans for the day. both mankato and new york were enjoying beautiful and warm-ish late november days. perfect for a photo walk. so we cyber high-fived and made a plan to go on respective photo walks and report back at the end of the day.

it's fun to contrast the solitude and rugged beauty of mankato

with the motley cast of characters and streamlines of nyc

one thing is for sure, though.  no matter what part of the country you are in,

the late november light is simply breathtaking!

thanks for playing along, melissa!  this was fun!  

lindsey can you join us?  and what about all of our lovely readers?  can you show us what late november looks like in your part of the world?

-cmv

eye on the goal

first i need to say that i am loth to post over lindsey's big news, i like having dear baby lks hanging out at the top of the blog.  so just go look at sweet sonogram blks one more time... it's amazing how much love you can feel for a babe not yet even born.

believe it or not, i've managed to refocus on holiday knitting.  here's the line up of holiday fo's:

snugglers are done (rav link).

this is a little vest i knit up for the bamboletta doll lily is getting for christmas (shhh... don't tell her!).  i made up the pattern to echo her milo vest, and i'm really happy with how it turned out.  i am so excited for lily to see the doll on christmas - she is going to flip!  i have a few more knitted garments for the doll on the to-do list, so expect to see her again soon.

and this is a little sweet baby cap (pattern or rav link) i knit up as a gift for my friend's daughter.  but i stealthily tried it on her and it totally doesn't fit!  so now it needs a new home.... melinda, does henry want a purple cap?

-melissa

Great Expectations

Pretty soon the baby blanket (rav link) I made last year can be put to use. 

I'm due May 5th.  That being Cinco de Mayo makes it very hard to resist naming the baby Margarita if it is a girl - but I will. 

Here are some pictures of the little tyke.

This foot is so going to be gobbled up in May!

I'm going to have to make these fuzzy booties so I don't nibble the baby's toes all day long!

Michael and I are so excited.  Well, we actually vacillate between glee and terror.  But that is usual I hope.

-Lindsey

my little knitter

lily turned to me today and announced, after a hiatus of many months, that she would like to work on her knitting.

she sat down with it and i fully expected to have to have a little refresher course to remind her how the stitch worked, but she simply looked at me like i was silly and said, "oh no mom - i remember what to do!"

and you know what?  she totally did.

so excuse me now, i have to go sit on the couch and knit with my daughter.  (right after i wipe the small tear of joy/love/pride out of my eye.)

-melissa

because, really, who am i to argue?

since probably mid-september lily has been wanting to put up a christmas tree (i blame the hobby lobby.  they had their decorations out in august for peter's sake!).  she and i struck the following bargain: we had to wait until after halloween and it had to be the mini tree, our regular tree won't go up until after thanksgiving.

true to the deal on november first we set up the little tree.  my only other stipulation was that she would have to make all the ornaments on it herself, which she readily agreed too.

this brings us to yesterday when we spent a pleasant late morning making a paper chain for her little tree.

(she called the one on the far left, "tomato plant at night."  how cute is that?!?)

she's been in heaven with the little early foray into the land of christmas crafting, my only worry is that i may come to rue my decision to break out the christmas tunes on the day after halloween as well.  but you never do know...

because, really, who am i to argue?  i love christmas decorating just as much as she does.

-melissa

taking you to squaresville man...

i finished up my little bundle of sweet baby hats (pattern or rav link) for the bundles of joy group.

now it's back to my regularly scheduled holiday knitting queue.  except.... except for the fact that i can't seem to get the idea out of my head that i want to make them a baby blanket as well.

they ask that all baby blankets be a minimum 40"x40", and honestly i know that i don't have time to knit up an entire baby blanket right now (not that that's stopped me from obsessing over it while i was finishing up the final hat yesterday).

which brings me to you - would you like to knit a baby blanket with me?

here's what i'm thinking: for the blanket to be the required 40"x40" we would need 25 8" squares.  they ask that the blankets be machine washable, so any washable yarn (acrylic, blends, superwash wool - what ever you have collecting dust in your stash) would work (perhaps though we can avoid fun fur and other wack-a-doo yarns?).  the above square is worsted weight, but i'm thinking anything from dk to aran would be okay, just as long as it's 8" square.  and no restrictions on the colors, use what ever you have!  (my example square is solid, but feel free to use up smaller scraps and make stripes - do what ever inspires you!)

what do you think?  is there any interest in participating?

i'm thinking that each person would only have to commit to knitting one or two squares.  each of us contributing a little can add up to something great, wouldn't you agree?

if you want to play along leave a comment telling me how many squares you want to make and i'll send you my address.  i was thinking we could all aim to have them in the mail in a week or so.  (if you're desperate for a deadline i could say monday november 23rd, but i'm feeling pretty laid back about the whole thing.)

i would crochet them all together and we could get it in the mail to pine ridge in early december.  just in time for the cold winter months ahead.

can you feel the love already?

-melissa

You can never have enough bibs, right?

These are finally finished and ready to send to Ben and his mom Courtney.

I call this one peas and carrots - washed down by grape juice.

Any ideas on names for the rest of these?  All I could come up with (left to right):

Little blue, Luck of the Irish, Waves, Disco baby, The matrix, Are you ready for some football (Da Bears) and peas and carrots. 

Any suggestions?

-Lindsey

a bundle of hats for bundles of joy

now i know that my last post was all about how i was focusing on my holiday knitting, determined to avoid turning my couch into the annual knitting sweatshop... but you know, there is a reason i always end up working in a sweatshop of my own making.

i'll tell you the reason - it's that i'm easily distracted.

but this time i feel that my distraction is justified!  (i mean, i always think that, but this time it actually might be true.)  you see i found this new group on ravelry called bundles of joy which knits baby items to send to the o.b. ward at the pine ridge indian reservation in south dakota.  they put out a call last thursday for hats, socks and blankets.  and honestly, how was i expected to resist?

  i'm making up a small bundle (four, to be exact) of sweet baby caps (pattern or rav link).

i'd encourage you to go check out the group and to perhaps knit up a quick baby item or two.  because if we're all distracted together then it's more like we did it on purpose, don't you think?

-melissa