Spring Break

So I'm on spring break this week.  So far everyone has been sick.  Eloise is feeling better today, so I'm planning on taking her out. 
I've been continuing work on the Pinwheel Sweater for Eloise out of tonal Berroco Ultra Alpaca.

I'm done with the one sleeve and finishing the next.  I also started work on my first colorwork project in a while.  I'm using the grid from Hestapeysa by Ístex Online Patterns and doing a top down cardigan in Vickie Howell's Sheepish.  I really like the yarn, but I really feel I'm doing a poor job on the colorwork.  I was once taught by an amazing knitting instructor to not go beyond, say, six stitches without using the second color again.  I'm going way beyond six, so I'm twisting in the back, but I'm still weirded out.



I'm back...

and i think for good...for no other reason than I used this blog today to look up something we'd gone through a few years back...like I was looking in a diary...so that's what I think I'll do...
ok...knitting
Elvira

That's Eloise modeling her dress made out of Arucania Nature Wool Multi.  She is two point five now, just went for her 2 and a half year visit today. 

 Here she is again.  She's now in the 80th percentile for height and 90th for weight.  She is 37 inches tall and weighs 34 lbs.

And this is her pinwheel, the second one I've started for her.  She out grew the first one in cotton tots from Bernat before I could finish it:)
This one is out of Berroco Ultra Alpaca...part of the last purchase I made at my favorite yarn store, Stix n Stitches in Montclair, NJ, before it closed down:(

Summer Cleaning

Everyone in the GrimmWitch clan is getting ready for L. Mom has been cleaning out the attic and found some pretty interesting stuff. She has a lot of pics on her blog along with a new belly pic of me.

First pic...some Ewoks ca 1983.
These poor guys were in good condition but smell so bad from a poor storage environment in the attic. I'm going to try to clean them up.

Poor Rainbow Brite! She just looked terrible and smelled not so fresh:( We chucked her:..(
I used to have a big one too, Mom just found her in great condition.

These wall hangings are I believe faux retro, but a bit too not me, and I assume, not L.

I loved these guys when I was young. I know the albums are around somewhere.

Knitwise, I frogged the Kanoko pants as I said last post. I started again in Bobcat by Wool in the Woods. This is a CTH colorway, wild cherry. This is the same yarn Id been using for my mother in law's shawl, also mentioned in my last post.

Here is the pretty much finished Baby Surprise in chunky Zauberball. I need help with button selection.

L's room...

Started these Kanoko pants for L in Trendsetters Merino VI. The Ravelry link to the pattern is HERE.

Her furniture came, so here are some pics of her room.

Yippy!

Almost ready for Little L

Poncho is done, and I didn't post the Whirligig.

The pattern is from the book Knit Baby Blankets by Bev Galeskas. Here's the Ravelry LINK.

For mine I changed the color scheme, used a size 5 needle and Vintage by Berroco.

The yarn for the Whirligig by Stephanie Japel is called Let's Twist by Ellyn Cooper. Later this summer Mom, Dad, Sis, and I are hopefully going to take a drive to Mystic Conn. pretty much for me just to pig out on this woman's yarn. It is amazing. I wish she'd sell online b/c I love her yarns.

Here's the Ravelry LINK to the pattern info (pattern for in Interweave Weekend 2009) and the LINK for the yarn info.

So...the belly...

Once upon a time, when L was as tiny as a grape in there I looked like this. This shot is from a trip to the Martha Stewart show. Mom has more pics here. I included the bottom of my face so you can see what it looks like when I'm semi normal.

Now she's bigger than a ruler and tumbling most likely over three pounds and I look a bit different. The first pic is from our quick trip to the Met Museum in NYC last weekend.

And you can see the difference in my face here. My kid is huge. And I really do look different. It's very startling b/c I feel like just yesterday I took the pregnancy test.

Finally, if you need a movie night I highly recommend Inception.

IMDB LINK.

The Money Pit

Construction has been the order of the day at the GrimmWitch home. In preparation for little L's arrival in September we wanted to break down the wall between the dining room and the living room.

Shot from the living room:
before (this was a shot with the previous owner's stuff):

after:

Shot from the kitchen/dining room
before:


after:

That project is pretty much done now, new pics to come.

My mom has new pics on her blog already.

Now the contractor is working on the bathroom. It still looks like this, minus the tub...

Every day my entire house is covered in a new layer of dust and crap. Poor mom has to help me clean constantly. Had a few friends over for the 4th and my family pitched in to help clean.

Mom also bought L a ton of stuff for her room. Here's the bedding we got.

The room was yellow when we moved in, Mom and my sister, Pepper, painted the room sea foam.This color looks amazing with the bedding and these wonderful letters I ordered from Pint Sized Designs on etsy. Here's one letter.

I love them!!!

On the knitting front I've done a bit more with the poncho. I adore the pattern. It's nice and easy, but looks great.

I'm also working on a Baby Surprise for L out of a chunky Zauberball.

Only about 11 more weeks until the due date!

Thank the Gods it's the Weekend!

This week was exhausting, but I've had a nice weekend so far...
On Friday night, after work I went with eighteen of my co workers into NYC to see the Broadway musical, Memphis. We ate at Carmine's just across the street from the theater. The food was amazing. Since entering my second trimester (I'm 6 and a half months now) I feel like I can't stop eating so the meal was great for me, delicious and seemingly endless. The musical dealt with prejudice and race issues, but had a lot of humor and upbeat music. The set design was great. Not even a seriously ripping migraine could have brought me down.

And for sure I was out yesterday Knitting in Public @ Stix - n - Stitches in Montclair, NJ. Haven't been there in a super long time.

There's Mom armed with her camera. She'll have more pics from the day...
Here's Pat working on a crochet skirt for her granddaughter




While there, I purchased yarn and started on a poncho for the baby (still weird to say I'm having a baby sometimes...was beginning to feel like to would never happen towards the end there).




I'm using Vintage by Berroco to make the poncho. The pattern is from the book Knit Baby Blankets by Bev Galeskas. Here's the Ravelry LINK.
I'm only doing two colors instead of the three the pattern calls for. I have never used this yarn, but love it. It has all the squishy springiness of Ultra Alpaca without the slight fuzz - good for you to use, Mom.

My sister presented me with a beautiful diaper bag...but I'll post about all my baby stuff later.

In the evening we went to a surprise 60th birthday party for our friend, Karen. The cake was frickin' remarkable.




How cool is that!
Karen was totally surprised. The baby and I chowed down on tons of food...




All in all, a scrumptious weekend...I love my students, but do I really have to go back on Monday????

Thank heaven for little girls....

It's a GIRL!

This is my daughter...we'll call her L.

I would have been just as happy with a boy, but she is a she for sure. There she is. I couldn't stop crying when I was watching her on the monitor. She was dancing the whole time.
I just bought her something cute from Etsy.


And I started making her an autumn color Whirligig Shrug by Stephanie Japel.

I love this yarn by Ellyn Cooper called Twist...it feels great!

Smudge is very happy he will soon be an uncle. The inability to control his own pooping, as you can see from the pic (he is pee litter box trained, though) leads me to think that he will not be helping to change any diapers...

The Knitting Bag

So, I've been knitting a BSJ in stockinette. It's turning out nice. Here it is, in Araucania Ulmo with my many pictures of my kid. I keep thinking how weird it seems that I'm so proud of this person. She's done nothing but grow, probably sleep, absorb nutrients, that's it. But I think she's super amazing. I'm saying/typing she for two reasons a. I hate that he is the default pronoun to this day, and b. I really think it's gonna be a girl. If she is really a he I'll apologize:)



After taking that shot I went to go pull out the Dax sweater from my knitting bag to take a pic of that and found that one of my survival banana's had remained in the bag since Friday and had expired into a frothy, sticky mess. Thankfully, there were few casualties, but I found that there was an enormous amount of crap in the bag.



I have to carry around survival supplies now because the legendary morning sickness that comes with pregnancy is translated in my body to all-times-of-day sickness. I am not complaining, but like the honorary boy scout that all tom boys are, I do like to be prepared. So I always have Canada Dry, crackers (not in pick - sadly they were a casualty of the banana incident), oranges, breakfast bars (not in pic because they've all been eaten), and the dreaded banana. The pic also features an advert for the upcoming gem show in NYC...I'm super excited!



Also in the bag, my pretty new Anne Taintor knitting bag from Yarn Diva!



I always carry around reading material. Right now in addition to the two night table books I'm reading at home I'm finishing Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, just finished Blood + Water, and just got the new WeirdNJ special issue. In the center, surrounded by all this wicked dark stuff, a picture of my kid. She's going to either accept all this and become the most awesome darkling on the playground complete with Wednesday Adams braids, or she'll rebel and be a *GrimmWitch vomits in mouth a little bit* cheerleader.

I have friends who were cheerleaders and they've turned out okay, so even worst case scenario she'll be fine, but the poor thing will be the only one on the squad who's biggest fan sports an Ozzy halter, black long sleeve bolero, Betty Page bangs, and knitting accessories with prominent skull decorations.



The Dax sweater, in Bamboozle by Crystal Palace Yarns is turning out great. It feels wonderful, and the pic doesn't do the colors justice. The blue is a gentle gradient of light blue, sea foam, and all the good stuff in between.



Ah, the casualties of the famous banana explosion of 2010. You can see my Raymore and Flanagan envelope...we finally bought a bedroom set after five years of marriage.



Last night at the Lowes I went berserker with gift money from my parents and took care of the whole new room with curtains...



Paint (sea foam)



and curtain rods...it was a great day with only one hitch....



In moving up to the new room we discovered that the furniture would not fit up the stairs. So Dad and Mr. G removed the banister.



This was the room as the previous owners had it...


And this is what it looks like so far...




The chair surprisingly goes great with the furniture but it's my brother-in-law's, not ours. I don't know, however, when he'll be able to send for it to be shipped to Texas, so I guess it can stay:) I do wanna put a mini fridge in the spot where it is for baby stuff so I don't have to run downstairs at night.

I'm really happy with the set.

And last night, Mr. G and I, reveling in our last months of freedom, went to see Shutter Island. It was great and I highly recommend it. I dare you to guess the ending within the first ten minutes.