UPdate!

Heartfail for Mama, Baby, and Dollie

Eloise was asking me for a scarf, and apparently people outside the rock I live under have been making cowls for children, so I took some stashed Caron Simply Soft and some stashed Moda Dea Kickx and made this fuzzy cowl for Eloise.

Started another Clapotis years after my last one.

And I've been spinning, like, on a WHEEL!!!!!

Some cute baking...

Yum!  A pain in the butt with the layering, but mix all six colors with food coloring, and dribble in with a spoon.  It's 20% cooler.


And I finally finished that Pinwheel!!!  Took forever!!!!  Not b/c it was too hard to knit, b/c everything that could possibly get in the way GOT IN THE WAY!!

Twilight HeartFail

Took me about a week, and I loved it!

Yarn:  Lion Brand Heartland

Pattern: HeartFail by megi burcl

A Leaf Sock in the Car

I wanted to knit in the car on a day trip. So I have to finish knitting the pinwheel sweater...almost done (I hope it still fits Eloise when I'm finally finished!) and that grey and wasabi cardi with the horses for her, but both of those are out for the car. The pinwheel isn't ideal b/c I've had to quarantine that (a mouse got into the house and walked across it so I'm not into snuggling and carrying it around until its been finished, washed, and de-Mickey-fied.). The color work in the cardi makes it madness to do without concentration, so that left me with a serious gap in my two hour car trip.
I started an adult sock. I'm using Step-by-Step Cheat Sheet for Socks by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.  The yarn is some Ranco multi by Araucania.  And I got the strip of leaf lace pattern from the pattern encyclopedia at the knitting fool.

We went to Camden Adventure Aquarium and Eloise had a black as usual.  Her favorite ocean animal has to be the shark.  She has four different stuffed ones, one of which she carried around the aquarium, pressing again the glass to try to feed him the fish inside.:)

A little Spinning

No knitting today...I took out my spinning after a long while. I started spinning with the help of a friend last summer. This is one of the projects I have in my spinning bag.

I purchased the falkland wool roving on etsy from Eweniquelyewe. I love her roving. The little spinning I've done has always ended up with me using her stuff or wishing I had.

The spinning is slow going since it may not always be toddler friendly.  I may rip a piece off for Ella and let her play with it next time.

So I think a "while I was away" sort of update is merited.  

This past fall the Deity saw fit to pull our little Smudgie back to herself.  He'd been sick for awhile andhis body just couldn't go on.  The house is a little emptier without him. 

I've been watching Eloise and thinking that she's matured so much in the past few months that if he'd made it to this point that they'd be more in love with each other. She seems to be flowing out of that destructive toddler eat everything time. I'm afraid that she doesn't really remember him. I wish she did; he was really great.

On the job front, I was finally transferred from 5th grade math to 5th grade reading after waiting seven years. I was so rusty, but I'm slowly improving...I hope.

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:(

So I started a new project for Ella out of some Araucania I had sitting around.
The pattern is Elvira by Sanne Bjerregaard. It hopefully will eventually look like this...



So cute!!
On the baby front, my sister is almost due. She's so uncomfortable. My nephew is coming any day now. I'm so excited. I can't wait:)
- Posted by GrimmWitch

Baby blanket done!

Took me long enough!

A little smaller than I would have liked. And I think I bound off too tightly. But he can tote it around when he's Ella's age...
She's trying to walk:)



- Posted by GrimmWitch

No knitting this week

I got to meet my nephew as close up as possible, with sonogram. He is beautiful.

At one point he turned towards me. It was a different experience than when I had a sono, but it was just as amazing.

School has started. The kids seem cool. I'm super excited! I wish they'd all just understand that when things run smoothly we get to have way move fun; field trips, activities, events in school. I see all my kids from last year every day, but I miss teaching them. They are a terrific class and make teaching enjoyable.

This weekend we are celebrating little Elle's first birthday. My friend turned me on to a photo app called Hipstamatic, so I used it to document yesterday.

We went to the toy store on the hunt for the cuddliest Grover Monster we could find.


Mr. Grimmwitch had more fun than Ella did, I think!:) So, you see how the app produces an aged pic.

Ella did not like her cake. Due to her food allergies she has not eaten a large variety of foods and is unaccustomed to texture in her food. She puked up her tiny crumb of cake:( She wouldn't even eat the liquidy mix I made for her with formula, poor thing. Oh, and we got the awesome moment on video... from two points of view. Americas funniest home videos, here we come.

Other than that, Ella had a blast.



Here we are flippin' out.

Hopefully I'll be able to squeeze in some knitting at some point this week.

In addition I want to get back to keeping up with Lesser Known Skeins, a group and web site my mom started on ravelry to link together many smaller blogs...button on the side here.
IDK:)
- Posted by GrimmWitch

The blanket ain't done

Sadly my sister's shower came and went and I have not yet finished the yellow and blue blanket
Oops!
We did, however, have a great time. She was not surprised but I think she had lots of fun!!:)

Babywitch was her usual cute and crazy self. Here we are trying to get her to pass out.




Ella has been expanding her knowledge of the crawl level of the house slowly. She has now gotten into the living room. I think the table guards need to be released upon the room now.




- Posted by GrimmWitch

Come'on, Irene

Waiting for the storm. I may have gone overboard with the prep shopping.

The NJ governor was scaring me crapless on tv and this was the outcome.
Ella and I are killing time until Mr. G comes home from work.







Ever striving to improve the house, we have begun to work on the once mouse-poop-littered sunroom.





We had the room empty for the workers, but the storm forced us to shuffle furniture around.

We here in Jersey rarely have terrible hurricanes, but we did have a very snowy winter like other parts of the country.

So, the big business...
Ella walked two steps on her own yesterday. She hasn't tried again, but I'm sure she will today. Like my mom would says, 'you're not going to carry her to college.'
In knitting news...
Benny's blanket is a little more than half done, but may not be done for my sister's shower:(
It did, however give me an idea for a two sided blanket. I need to look on Ravelry and see if one is on there.

UPDATE
Got naptime knitting done!



So I need to do about three more sections of the basket weave, then I want to go around in garter with a mitered corner trim that's thick. Time's a' ticking...we'll see how far I get before shower day...

- Posted by GrimmWitch

The loss of an Amazing Knitter

Lena of Lenal has passed away. She was an incredible designer and knitter, and one of the nicest women I've ever met online or off. We will miss you so much.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Turdblastic!:(

The rib's getting some kind of elastic thread sewn in or something. I can't keep ripping this out. It'll be next summer before I'm done! No, no. Elastic or it gets forever frogged. It's better suited for wool, but she's allergic to synthetics and wool so I chose cotton. Eek.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Long time no Write

This is why...

Baby Elle is almost a year old. I have done pretty much no knitting at all...but I'm starting up again.
Here's a horrendous shot of a hat I'm working on right now for a friend of mine.




I've since ripped it out and started again. This is it's 3rd incarnation, having gone through needle and color changes.


Pattern:
Star Crossed Slouchy Beret by Natalie Larson

Yarn:
Lion Organic Cotton

I've also been working on a simple basket weave pattern blanket. My sister is having her first child in November and it's for him:)




Yarn:
Lorna's Laces Fisherman

Wish me much luck:)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Taking a Break for Good Reason

First of all...Happy Halloween!!


I hope this greets anyone who reads it with good health and happiness through the dark winter to come.


I clearly haven't been posting...and for very good reason.





Monday, September 13th, I went in to the OBGYN b/c L wasn't moving as she usually did, and I was worried. He thought she was fine, but asked me to come in again the next morning.





Tuessday, September 14th, I went in to the OBGYN and he said, "She's comin' out,"





Little L was born by c-section on 9/14/10 at 5:14.
7 lbs 6 oz
19 in
She came out screaming even though she had been exhibiting poor movement and poor lung activity before hand.





She is celebrating her first Halloween here at home today!

So I will not be updating until I get used to all this Mama stuff. I will probubly update for Thanksgiving, Yule, and New Years, and I will post a pic of her Halloween costumes (plural, yes) and the fiber stuff she's been sporting.

Until I get settled my mom, Lupie over at Knitting with my Mother's Hands will be posting any stuff I'm working on (all but the secret stuff!!)

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.