rosas

This past weekend we had such wonderfully cool, sunny days. We spent an entire afternoon outside and didn't break a sweat. We went for a morning walk and I had to wear a shawl! It's what I imagine summer in northern climes must feel like. Now I understand why some people claim summer as their favorite season. My heart still belongs to fall, but I'll take more summer weekends like this past one.

Come fall I'll have a new hat to warm my ears on crisp days because I finished this blue-gray Rosa hat. I loved knitting with handspun yarn! As soon as I cast this Rosa off, I cast on another one, this time in pink with gray stripes for my sister. It will match the fingerless mitts I made her a couple Christmases ago. I showed her the hat in progress, and she got goosebumps because she liked it so much! She's definitely knit-worthy!

I'm joining Andi's KAL/CAL, and it's already motivated me to get my knitting organized. I'm still trying to be resourceful (and frugal!), so I combed through my stash and picked out yarn for a Cable Baby hat, a baby-sized Antler Cardigan, and a Pei hat (my first stranded knitting project! wish me luck!). Are you joining in? I completely failed at the one knit along I joined before, but this one is just about finishing any projects you happen to have on the needles. I can handle that!

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And finally, I'm joining in Ginny's yarn along. I've been in a nonfiction mood for quite some time. I'm currently engrossed in The Cornbread Mafia, a book about a large-scale marijuana-growing operation (and bust) centered in Marion County, Kentucky. I find it fascinating that the author links Prohibition-era attitudes and activities in Marion County with attitudes on illegal drugs a generation or two later. The book can get pretty tangential at times, but overall it's an interesting narrative. I'm also reading Gulp, which makes me queasy. Even so, I can't stop reading it! 

woodland quilt (and a sweater in july)

{baby surprise jacket}

{woodland quilt}

{kick, kick}

Whew. My baby can't even crawl yet, and I'm already worn out. He seems to become more active every day. Suddenly he's splashing in the tub, blowing raspberries, and grabbing everything he can. How does he learn this stuff overnight? My days of taking photos of him laying still are limited, so I better show you this quilt while I can.

My mom and I made this quilt together when I was pregnant. We made a practice quilt first, then dived right into this Timber and Leaf fabric. I love the modern woodsy vibe and the cute animals (the deer are my favorite). We're both new at quilt-making, so it was fun to learn together on this simple patchwork. I did the cutting and arranging, and Mom did all of the sewing on this one. We used five-inch squares, and the finished quilt is approximately 36 by 45 inches. We've been using the quilt as a play mat for now, but I'm sure when he's older he'll be snuggling under this mama- and Gigi-made quilt, finding bears, foxes, birds, and deer before he falls asleep.

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And yes, it is much too hot and humid in Kentucky to actually wear sweaters and booties at this time of year, but I couldn't resist trying these on. They fit (darn!). I made the Baby Surprise Jacket as part of a knit along before I was even pregnant, so I had no idea on sizes. And the booties were too cute not to knit, even though I had a hunch they'd fit him during the height of summer. I'll just have to make some booties in a larger size for him to wear this winter.

yarn along: old-fashioned baby hat

This week I've nearly finished a type of baby hat known in some circles as a bonnet, but because my husband refuses to dress our son in anything called a bonnet, this is simply an old-fashioned baby hat. I think it's sweet and practical; the i-cord ties will keep the hat in place so Baby J will be snug on outings next winter.

This is the first time I've made an i-cord and, well, I'm already looking around for things that could benefit from a stretchy knitted cord. The pattern includes links to all the techniques it uses, which makes them really easy to learn.

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For months I felt too tired to make it through anything longer than a newspaper article. And then I read a few blog posts that mentioned babies who go to bed in the 6 or 7 o'clock hour. "Who the heck are these babies?" I asked. And the bloggers just mentioned that their babies went to bed early in passing, as if, you know, this is something babies do. Not my baby. My baby wanted to stay up late and nurse every few hours. I had no time to even think about reading. But this week we've finally settled into an earlier bedtime routine (I'm knocking on wood right now so I don't jinx it), and so I've had a few hours to myself each night. I'm not any more well-rested than I was when I had to wake up and feed the baby every few hours. Oh no. I'm like a kid at a slumber party who wants to pack in as much fun as possible before dawn. I've been staying up too late knitting and reading, playing board games with my husband, baking cakes, and watching stand-up comedy. Yeah, I'm really letting loose.

All this to say, I'm reading Cooked by Michael Pollan. I love reading about food, and Michael Pollan uses words that I sometimes have to look up in the dictionary, which I also love doing. My nerdiness knows no bounds.

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Do you love knitting and reading too? 

See who else is participating in the Yarn Along.

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P.S. Follow my blog with Bloglovin'.

jumping back in

Hello there. I feel like I've been away for such a long time. Sure, I've popped into this space every once in a while, but I haven't really sat down and had a good visit. I miss it. I miss interacting with all of you.

These first three months of motherhood have consumed me. I've been completely immersed in the daily happenings of my little guy. He has needed so much of me. I've spent many hours cuddling, nursing (oh, so much nursing!), and making a variety of funny noises to see which ones coax a smile from him. My conversations have revolved around spit up and poop. At the end of each day, I've taken a hot shower and dropped into bed for a few hours of sleep before being roused for a middle-of-the-night feeding.

Suddenly this weekend I felt different. As cheesy as it sounds, I really did feel awakened to the outside world again. I wanted to emerge from the all-consuming baby time and get back out there. I wanted to reconnect with friends and spend time here on the blog with you. So here I am. 

I have a lot to say but of course can't say it all at once. Who has the time? Not me. Anyway, here's a start.

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I quit my job. It felt momentous and awkward. I never quit things, so it took all my guts and many deep breaths to tell my boss that I wasn't coming back. Later I felt a flood of tears, tears of relief, but also of mourning. I grieved for the loss of two stable incomes and the feeling of competence I found in doing something every day that I knew how to do. I had a sense of pride in my work that helped shape my identity. My work certainly didn't define me, but it did form a part of me.

For years I've known that I wanted to stay home for at least my baby's first year. I've also known that it probably wouldn't be financially feasible for our family, and I had come to terms with that. However, when K and I took a good hard look at our budget, we realized we could swing it. Once that dream became a real possibility, though, I got nervous. Having two paychecks means less scrimping and saving and more money for extras like traveling and eating out. Ultimately, K and I decided that fewer monetary worries would mean more emotional worries, and that trade-off wasn't worth it to us. So I traded in my office job, where I knew what the heck I was doing each day, for one that I'm still trying to figure out.

My mom recently asked me how it felt to no longer be working outside the home. And even though I hesitated to leave my job, I've thought about work only a handful of times since I turned in my resignation. Don't get me wrong, I sometimes miss the daily interaction with other adults and having conversations that don't revolve around bodily functions, but my days are so full now that I don't think about the office.

I hope your days are full too, and I hope I'll get to spend much more time visiting with you in the future.

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backyard strawberries

Nearly every evening for the past couple weeks, I've been visiting our little strawberry patch, a raised bed of 14 plants in our backyard. I planted maybe six or so last year and have happily let them take over the raised bed. Who needs carrots or lettuce? Bring on the berries.

All in all, I've gathered maybe a quart and a half or two of strawberries, some large and many tiny ones, all shot straight through with deep red color. They're sweet right out of the garden, but I haven't been able to resist tucking them into baked goods. I look forward to strawberry season every year because I love strawberry desserts. This year I made a strawberry cake and my annual strawberry cupcakes, along with the messiest strawberry galette, which broke free from its crust and flooded the baking sheet with sticky strawberry syrup that we ate up with spoons.

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What are your favorite strawberry recipes? I'd love to try them out!

yarn along: rosa and taproot

taproot + handspun rosa

My number of works in progress has gotten out of hand recently, so I hesitated to cast on anything new. But I needed a project that allows me to work without a pattern because my two-month old permits only short bursts of activity that don't involve him. Soulemama's Rosa hat fills this need perfectly; I guess she's figured out what works after five children. I've been toting this hat from room to room, knitting a few stitches here and there when the baby falls asleep on my shoulder. And this morning I knitted two rounds during a 15-minute car ride. Two rounds in one sitting! Some of the previous rounds have taken me days to complete.

The yarn is a plump handspun Shetland and alpaca blend that feels soft in hand. It's a thick and thin two-ply in blue and gray, colors that remind me of our trip to Maine.

I'm slowly reading the latest issue of Taproot at bedtime, although sometimes my eyes close after only a sentence or two. My days have been so full lately and a few sentences of Taproot are a wonderful nightcap.

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What are you up to this week? 

Are you yarning along too?

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P.S. See my previous Rosa here.

old man baby pants

 

Old man baby pants make me smile. I hope they do the same for you.