I love Kwik Sew!

I've started sewing the kids summer wardrobe, and I've liked Kwik Sew patterns for a few years, but I gained a new appreciation for them over the past few days. This outfit for B took one afternoon to make, even with J waking up to eat, and a few other interruptions. It is KS 2596 and is sized from 1-4T. This probably wouldn't have been my first choice in prints, but it was on clearance, and it is still a nice print, and the lavender matches the flowers. It was my first time using twin needles, and I was surprised at how easy it was. I really like how professional it makes the hems look. I used to use a stretch stitch on knits, but I think I like the twin needle method better! And here is B modeling her new outfit (excuse the hair she just got up from her quiet time/nap!).

Here are J's ducky feet, just because!
With a gift card that we had from Christmas, I bought Kwik Sew's Sewing for Baby and Sewing for Toddlers. The pictures look pretty dates, but the styles are really classic and are so easy to update. Here are the short overalls in 3-6 on J. I'll be making the rest of his 6-9 for the summer! He's a super chunk, but we think he's cute!
And because he doesn't have any clothes to model yet but was so cute when painting this morning, here is A.

Munckin Pictures, Sewing, and Knitting

First, a new picture of the munchkins, taken a few days ago. A likes to hold his brother almost as much as B. You can tell it was still early by her crazy hair! Both of the older kids like to be next to J. A will climb up on the couch and pat his back. B did the same to A when he was this age too.
B loves to help with J, and here she is helping to snap up his clothes after a diaper change.
For the few weeks following the holidays I didn't want to knit anything too complicated, so I made this fluffy little bolero for B out of some Lion Brand Fun Fetti that I found in the sale bin at Joann's. She loves it, of course!
Two weeks ago, I washed, carded, spun, and dyed some Dorset/Romney fleece from a sheep named Maggie, who lives at Ewe and I Farm. It made a wonderfully bouncy and lofty yarn.
The yarn was knit up into soakers, which were auctioned off to help a friend whose family business was lost in a fire last month. The hat ans booties were made with Lion Suede. The hat features an owl cable, but the brown really didn't photograph well. I designed the booties on the fly. I knew that ribbing in this yarn wouldn't work well, so I added the button and strap instead. The diapers for this and the girly set were knit by my friend Rachel from the Darling Diaper newborn pattern. The brown wool for the i-cord and embroidered owl came from a sheep named Maxine at Serenity Farms. Her wool was a dream to spin! It was so soft and bouncy that I had a hard time putting it down, I wish I had more!

Here is J modeling the booties. They are nice because they don't kick off easily!

The girly set has the patterns, except the hat has a scalloped edge, and the booties are mary-jane style. I added croched flowers to the soaker ties.

A and J were needing new soakers to go over their diapers, and I haven't had the time to knit as many as they needed. So I've been shopping in Joann's remnant bin for fleece, and made them some embellished Sweet Baby Soakers. They fit like the knitted ones, but are so much faster to make! I had fun adding the goldfish, and A liked them too!
I have more knitting in the wings, and I hope to have pictures soon!

Blueberry Picking!

Thanks to my parents visiting for Miss Peach's birthday earlier in the week, and my daddy spending the better part of 2 days working on our computer, we have a new hard drive and I have access to my pictures again! Two weeks ago we went blueberry picking at a local farm for the second time. We hope to go one more time before the season is over! Here is Mis Peach eating and picking some berries. She usually eats about as many as she puts in our bucket! Munchkin Boy just likes to eat them! If I didn't refill his bowl quickly enough, he would grab the closest branch to pick his own, green ones and all!
B hard at work again!
This time we only picked about 5 lbs (one bucket). The first time we went we ended up with 12, but Daddy was around to help the kiddos out too. We froze most of the first batch since they were tarter and better for baking. I also made 4 pints of blueberry topping for pancakes come the fall and winter.

Kiddos and socks

This is a dress that I made for Miss B when she was a year old. She'll be three in a few weeks, and it still looks cute. It has shoulder buttons and a cross-over back. I just love this style for little girls! I made the hat too, but it is too small now. The pattern is McCall's Easy Stitch and Save M5353. It was huge when I made it and the bloomers were about 4 inches too wide, but they are perfect now! She loves wearing the things that I make for her. It does a mamma's heart good! (Of course the glasses have to match!)
Since I don't have any pictures of A in his new sweater yet, I thought I'd put up this cute one of him running around outside. Both the kids love to be outdoors, and the love to walk up and down the sidewalk in front of our house.

Melissa requested a picture of the watermelon dress modeled, so here it it. This dress (and purse) garners numerous compliments every time that B wears it! It helps that she is so cute too. Time well spent!
This is the second sock of a pair that I've been working on off and on (mostly off) for a few years. It has gotten packed away during several moves. It resurfaced during our latest move, and I finished it on our trip to CT a few weeks ago. They fit well, and the cuff isn't too long. The yarn and pattern are from the Opal SOTM club that was sponsored by PT Yarn from 2001-2002. It is good to finish a pair of socks for myself, since I only have one other pair. I'm working on th second sock of a pair for hubby, then the sock yarn that I spun here will be next!

Easter Pictures

Here are two pictures of the munchkins on Easter. B loves her pretty purple dress! She also loves having her Auntie S here with us for the weekend. On Monday, she kept saying that she didn't want her Auntie to back to school, that she wanted her to "stay here and keep me company." They didn't want to pose together, and A didn't want to sit still at all. So daddy caught him examining this egg. He was so engrossed with these! But here is his all dressed up in a little suit. He had a tie, but the collar was a bit too snug on his shirt for it to fit.


Here are the two of them playing the piano, one of their favorite activities! They take after their daddy and his love for music!

I've been busy, but don't have much to show

I have been doing a lot of knitting, but I don't have any pictures. I've been slogging away on a shawl that I plan to enter into the garment competition at MD Sheep and Wool (my first fiber even outside of Stitches Market!) and I'm at the point where I have 1000+ stitches on the needle, and I am trying to get 2 rows done per day. It is not very kid-friendly, so I tend to work on it in the evenings. I'm also test knitting some patterns for the EZasPi group, and and nearing completion with that. I hope to have some knitting and spinning pictures soon!

I did finish sewing some bags for two dear friends. The first is yellow with ladybugs and a watercolor-like interior.

This one had rainbow flowers and a dot inner. They are both reversible.
And so as not to leave the post too short, here are two pictures of B and A enjoying their new slide. It has been so nice here lately that we have been walking most days, checking on the progression of the daffodils and tulips. The afternoon often involve time in the back yard, with B on the slide, and me trying to keep A from actually swallowing any of the rocks that he like to try to eat.

The only green around here is yarn!

Well, I haven't been knitting much lately, but I've been spinning and sewing. I did finish knitting the afghan, but sent it off before I got a picture. But is is loved and being used.

I finished up my second skein of yarn for the Interweave skein swap for Julie. It is a mixed fiber batt and I spun it thick/thin. I hope that she likes it! The color is called Godzilla. The snow in background is some left over from our storm this weekend.

After struggling for several years with crib sheets that don't fit after a few washings and rip at the corner seams, I decided to sew a few of my own. I bought the flannel on sale at Joann's and used the pattern at Bundles of Love as a rough guide. Here is B's sheet, which has pink guitars, to match her pink guitar (she's a girly girl!). My mom made the blanket and pillow out of patchwork flannel and chenille. It was her first project on her new sewing machine. B carries the pillow downstairs with her in the morning, and back upstairs for bed at night.


I made A's sheet out of a cute train print. The little blanket bunny is a modified version of the one at the Lionbrand website, but I rewrote it for a different yarn and gauge. A loves it and plays with it before he goes to sleep and after he wakes up.

Since we moved here just over a month ago, we have had some snow every week. The last one froze into a 3 inch sheet of ice. But on Sunday we hat 6 or so inches of wet snow. My husband was shoveling, and B wanted to join him. She made snow angels and played, and he helped her make her first snowman when he was done.


A spent some time outside too. He was my intrepid little explorer, trying to dig out the rocks and pick at everything. He didn't like his mittens too much, but he did like to try to see what the snow tasted like!

A Long Overdue Update

It's been a long time since I've posted. I made a bunch of hats and mittens for Christmas gifts, but I didn't have a chance to snap any pictures. I finished up a few last minute projects, and visited both my extended family and my husband's extended family for Christmas. We had a blessed, if exhausting trip. Here's a picture of the munchkins on the Sunday before we left.

I was working on spinning a grey/purple glitz yarn in the two days before we left on our Christmas trip. I really wanted to get it finished in time to take with me to knit during our long drives, so I worked on it while the munchkins were awake, which I usually don't do. As I was spinning, I looked up to see this from my chair (A was just starting to get into things then, now he is all over!):

And her is one skein of the finished yarn, the purple is a little difficult to see:

As soon as we returned home, we started packing for our move halfway across the county. And that is where I stand, in limbo, waiting for our move to be completed. But I have been busy with crafting too, it has made things seem more normal.

My husband loves to play the piano. He doesn't get to play as often as he would like with the kids around, because they love to play too. Here is a picture of B at about 11 months "playing."

A is more active than B was at his age, and at 8 months, can barely reach the keys, but like to play as much as his big sister!

Currently the munchkins and I are staying with my parents while our belongings are packed and moved to our new place. I've actually finished a few things in the past few days. In the three days prior to leaving our old place (do you see a trend here?) I spun up 2 ox of mohair fluff from Margarett at Running Moon Farm. The picture can hardly do it justice. Browns are not really my color, but there is a beautiful range of browns and oranges. I spun a medium singles and plied it with sewing thread to make a loopy boucle. It was kind of fun to make, but it was a bit labor-intensive, so I don't think that I will be making this type of yarn a lot. I spun this for my Spin to Knit secret pal, and the exchange has inspired me to try things outside of my comfort zone. Here's a picture of the two skeins, although they are much prettier in person.

For Christmas, B received a kitchen set from my parents. It is staying here until our move is complete. So she has been cooking up a storm and "needed" a dishtowel. So I whipped this one up on Thursday for her. She loves it! I found some dishcloth cotton in my mom's stash, and designed it on the needles.
I don't like to carry a purse or a diaper bag, but I do need something to keep my wallet, phone, a diaper, some wipes, and frequently a snack for the munchkin in. I have a lovely bag from Rebecca that I received as a gift in a swap. I like the size, but I really wanted pockets. So I found a pattern for this cute bag in the Winter 2006 issue of BHG Quilts and More magazine. The long strap slides through the shorter one to close the bag and form the carrying strap. I like it so much that I bought some more fabric to make another one today. And I made it in just one morning, which is even better!
Sorry to have gone on so long, but I had more to share than I thought! Wishing you all a belated happy and blessed new year!

Knitting the blues

In my last post I forgot to show what else I had finished in the last week. I've been spinning up some blue and green merino to knit into a hat for A. I'll spin up the rest, with added glitz, to make a hat for B. I spun a firm but springy two ply and is 270 yds in the two ounces. I probably won't start the other two oz. for a week or two.

It has gotten chilly here lately, so I took out some fruit hats that I made last fall while I was pregnant. It is a blueberry hat, inspired by several other fruit hats I've seen, but I didn't knit with a pattern, I just used my basic hat formula and added green at the top and a little leaf. I used Wendy/Peter Pan Velvet Touch. It is like knitting velour and, unlike chenille, it doesn't worm. I love this for baby things! It is so soft. So here is a picture of A today, before our walk to the park.

Baby sweater progress, and Harvest Sock Swap yarn

I've been working almost exclusively the honeycomb baby sweater. I finished the body last night, and the sleeves should only take a few more days. The button band is a braided cable with the button holes in between cable twists. Here's a picture of the progress:

I also decided on the yarn for my Harvest Sock Swap sock. It is a variegated blue Sockotta. It should work up nicely and I'm leaning towards more cables.

And here is a picture of B playing her guitar with her daddy. She loves music!

A is getting so big. He is the happiest little guy. His sister just dotes on him. They are so cute together, even when they are threatening to drive me crazy!