Knitting Sandwich

naptime catchup

so i find myself sitting during naptime with the computer within easy reach!  

 that's a pretty rare happening of late, so i figured i better jump on it and get some computering done!  i made a quick round to a few blogs, just to see what i've been missing (it's a lot by the way, y'all have been busy in my absence).  

i've been using blog lovin' to keep track of blogs and while i don't mind it on the computer i really don't like their mobile app.  it's frustrating to me when i'm on my phone, which is much more likely to happen during naptime, and then i never get around to checking the blogs like i want to.

so tell me - what service, if any, do y'all use to keep track of your blogs?  and do you find it mobile device friendly?  i need a new system so i can keep up with reading posts from my phone.

 this photo, which while showing how sweet thora is when she sleeps, also serves to show you why i'm on the computer and not crocheting... my crocheting is just out of reach... that little spotty pile of baby blanket in the background... also i find crocheting a little harder to do while holding a sleeping baby than knitting.  so this most recent crochet blanket is going slower than it might.

 this is an older photo of the project (an annie baby blanket - rav link) that i found on the computer (since i obviously can't get up and take a picture with a sleeping baby and a computer on my lap!).  i'm guessing that i've got about twice as much done on it now as when i took this.  i'm loving this pattern, it's so sweet and reminds me of those candy dots from when i was little, that came stuck on the paper in rows and you always ended up eating almost as much paper as candy (or was that just me?)

i feel that perhaps i've rambled on enough here, i've covered topics from blog reading to paper eating, so i think we'll call it good for today!  i was just so excited to have the computer and some time to use it i figured i should pop in and say hello!!

-melissa

 

all i want to do is crochet blankets

it's true... i've been gone from blogland for a while now, and all i've been doing is crocheting blankets.  i can't stop.  i don't want to stop, so i'm just gonna roll with it until i decide to make something else.  

so let me catch up... back in ahem february/march i made this granny stripe blanket for kathy's new baby:

 i also made this random granny square blanket with some leftover acrylic yarn to send to bundles of joy:

 i believe it was at some point in march or maybe april that i finished the 2015 weather blanket... 

 i have to say, this was a pretty momentous occasion... i really loved making this blanket, and i love how it turned out!  the edging reminds me of kneesocks someone would wear at the roller rink in the 1980's.  

 ever since i discovered lucy of attic24's blog i've wanted to make one of her afghans for my family to snuggle under.  for two years i had a big pile of vanna's choice yarn set aside for this very project.  well this spring/early summer i brought that dream to reality!

 it's her cosy stripe pattern and it's already seen it's fair share of family snuggle time:

and then, (i told you i have a problem) i used some of the leftovers from the cosy stripe to crochet some solid granny squares to make a blanket for bundles of joy:

 there you go!  pretty much all caught up!  i've started a new blanket project, but i think that can wait for another post ;) 

i hope that all of you have been well, i look forward to visiting your blogs and seeing what you've been up to!

-melissa

a crocheted easter

It seems the Easter bunny is partial to crochet.  I didn't even realize it until sitting down to write this post but somehow all of my Easter projects were crocheted this year.   

First, I made a set of egg-rattles with the leftovers from Johan's weather blanket.

 

And then couldn't resist making Mateo a snuggly grey Totoro (inspired of course by Melissa's blue totoro ). 

Since I was hosting Easter this year for the first time, I made these egg vase holders to help dress the table.

I got the idea from a picture I saw in a German magazine.  I just crocheted around wooden rings that I found at the craft store (and had to eat a LOT of eggs that week). 

I have to say, as a person who considers myself to be pretty exclusively a knitter, it's surprising to see how all these crochet projects snuck in there.  But, you know what, I enjoyed making every one!  Three cheers for crocheted Easter! 

-claire

 

patience is a virtue...

looking at the time stamp on this photo i see that i put the last square of my 2015 weather blanket in on january 20th.

and as much as thora enjoyed playing with the little fringes along the edge of the blanket...

 i got started right away on the border.  i had a plan and a vision in my head, all i didn't have was a concept of how much yarn was going to be needed to get around the entire perimeter of the blanket.

 so yes, you guessed it, i ran out of yarn.  again.  for real.

 and this time the yarn i need is backordered until feb 20th.  so weather blanket is on hold.  again.  but that's okay, i have other things i need to work on, the deadline for my knitnight group's 3rd annual swap is fast approaching and i need to finish the (currently top secret) project i'm working on for that.  plus it's february, so i have a february square to make, and a friend who just had a baby... so lots of knitting to be done while i wait for what i hope will be my last order (please, please let it be my last order) of yarn for this project!

-melissa

weather blanket update

when last we checked in with my 2015 weather blanket, i was almost done with september, waiting for more yarn to arrive to continue work.   well that yarn arrived and i took the blanket with me on our 15 hour drive to tennessee to see brian's family for christmas.  i made it until mid-november before... you guessed it... running out of yarn again!  this time it was a different color, but none the less frustrating.  more yarn was ordered (not taking any more chances i ordered a skein of anything that looked remotely low!) and this is how the blanket looked while we awaited the second arrival of yarn:

 it's exciting to see 10 1/2 months laid out like that!  and i'll let you know that thora and i have used the blanket a couple of times when we were in a pinch...

 its snuggle-ability has been fully tested and it works great already!  

the rest of the needed yarn arrived earlier this week and now i am ready to get to work and finish this blanket!

 -melissa

baby knows best

while in tennessee for christmas i finished the zen circle i was making for bundles of joy with the leftovers from rachel's log cabin blanket.

 while i was taking photos yesterday i thought to myself, "wait!  i have a baby!"  said baby had just woken up from her nap and was promptly placed upon the blanket.

 she wasn't quite sure this was what she wanted to be doing...

 she rolled over and decided, nope.  this was definitely not what she wanted to be doing!  so i scooped up the baby and we went back to photographs sans model...

 because around these parts, baby is the boss!

 -melissa

yarn along 12.16.15

joining with ginny at small things for this week's yarn along:

 reading: lily and i are on to book two of the redwall series, mossflower by brian jacques.   they're still sweet books, fun little adventures...  i think i like this one better than the first, but i'll wait until we're finished to render final judgement.  we're close... just a few more chapters.  we read a little bit each night before lily goes to bed.

crocheting: i'm making a zen circle blanket for bundles of joy.  i love this pattern for when i'm just wanting to enjoy crocheting and not have to think very hard, just zone out and crochet.  all it is is a giant flat circle from the tutorial by lucy of attic24.  

as you can see i'm not really challenging myself in either category right now.  but with a four month old baby somedays all the challenge i can handle is getting us both dressed in time to pick lily up from school!  so we're taking things nice and easy for now.  

now it's your turn - what are y'all reading and knitting/crocheting right now?

-melissa

the best-laid plans...

i was planning on using our thanksgiving car trip to and from omaha to make a lot of catch up progress on my weather blanket.  

things started out well, i finished weaving in my ends for the month of august (and snapped a quick crappy iphone photo on the dashboard of the van to commemorate)...

 as i started in on september's squares in quickly became apparent that i was not going to have enough of the orange (70's deg) and yellow (60's deg) to finish out the month.  (we've been having an unseasonably warm fall and i guess i was caught unprepared in the yarn department.)  

i was able to work on the inner sections of the blocks though, which is better than nothing.  so now i have the blanket done up through september 24th with all ends woven in and a big pile of granny square centers awaiting the arrival of my orange and yellow yarn...

 so not exactly the progress i was hoping for, but progress nonetheless.

-melissa

 

crafty catchup

good grief!  time waits for no man indeed! how is it that it is already november 20th!  sheesh..  i'm going to run a quick crafty catch up post to cover most of the projects that have been happening around here...

back in september lily's bff had her 10th birthday party - it was a whole family party, with costumes.  the theme was greek gods and goddesses, it was super fun, and i was pretty pleased we managed to pull off four finished costumes in a short time with a new baby around.  wanna know my secret?

the hot glue gun!!  true story!  the only thing i actually sewed was lily's dress, and that was just a basic sheath out of a sheet:

 here she is, nike goddess of victory!  she did all her own accesories, except we did purchase the wings!  

i hot glued the heck outta thora's costume:

she was persephone, and so needed a tempting pomegranate  on her shirt and a springtime themed laurel wreath (the pink tutu was conveniently given to us as a baby gift)

i went as medusa, and just hot glued a bunch of rubber snakes to a bunch of hair clips.  luckily i already own a pile of black clothes!

 brian was on his own, but i think he did a fantastic job of creating his bacchus costume (bacchus is roman... but i'm forgetting the greek equivalent right now... dionysus?).  here's a shot of the whole family:

 it was a super fun night!  i love that we have friends who throw funny costume parties!

now on to october... 

with halloween fast approaching i was working to crochet a mermaid tail skirt for my sister.  she had seen that link of the mermaid tail blanket and requested a skirt for her airel costume.  i used the crocodile stitch skirt pattern (rav link) with the mermaid tail fin pattern (rav link) attached at the end.

 i had also volunteered to make some door prizes again for this year's earth conference - a set of napkins and a crochet market bag.  i can't get out the sewing machine without lily wanting to sew as well!  her class has just started learning recorders in music class and she decided to make a bag for her recorder!

 she was super stoked that i let her use the rotary cutter!   here's her fabulous finished bag:

 i got my napkins done too:

and also the promised market bag (although i had originally planned to make two... no one seemed to mind that there was only one).

 i've made this bag a couple times before, it's the five-hour market bag (rav link) and i always enjoy making it!  the mesh section seems like "magic" when i'm working it up!

one more project to share, it's a lily project that involves the hot glue again, and i pretty much saved the best for last.  

backstory: our good friend and neighbor evan and lily were talking one day about how lily loves to dress up in matching clothes with thora but since evan is single and doesn't even have a dog he doesn't have anyone to dress matching with... so lily came home and made him a dog out of a milk jug complete with minnesota twins sweater, so he could have a matching buddy!  that girl cracks me up!  

okay, that pretty much catches me up!  but i'm not caught up with y'all!  as you've probably noticed i'm waaaaaay behind in my blog reading.  so far behind that i feel i will never catch up.  my new plan is to just mark everything as read and start over, i'm going to put bloglovin' on my phone, as i seem to be able to use my small phone easier that the big computer when nursing thora.

but then i've missed out on 3+ months of posts, which i feel bad about... so i am apologizing and hoping that no one is too offended!  

-melissa

ps - those photos of thora are two months old.  need a more recent one?  here she and lily are yesterday morning.  that's about as current as it gets!  onwards and upwards! 

 

yarn along 10.01.15

 joining up (just one day late) with ginnie at small things for this week's yarn along:

reading: lily and i are currently reading redwall by brian jacques outloud together.  it started when thora was first born as an "excuse" for lily and i to snuggle while i was nursing thora, but now that school's back in session and  schedules are busier it's mostly a read-at-bedtime-while-nursing-thora story.  it's a sweet little story, where the good guys are very good, and the bad guys are very bad.  a little too sweet for my personal taste, but lily is enjoying it which is really all that matters.

knitting: still more of a not-knitting going on around here.  i did manage to finish the august squares of the weather blanket, but have yet to get all the ends woven in.  i'm slowly working on that.  mostly though i'm still just snuggling and staring at thora while she sleeps...

 but tell me - what are y'all reading and/or knitting these days?

-melissa