Fin's Sweater

 

I finished knitting Fin's sweater last night. Today I sewed up the seams and wove in the loose ends!!! I need to sew on two bottons (but can't get them now as they are in Fin's room and he is sleeping) then I'll wash and block it!!

What I love about this sweater so far are the colors. I dyed this yarn with Lichen that I gathered in the woods, which made the lovely yellow dye, and with black walnuts gathered from my parents place (another gorgeous color).

I really wanted to make a cardigan but I just don't have the right patern and the right yarn at the moment, and I really can't buy more yarn now as I have to work with what is in my stash!!!!!!!!!! But I am happy that I finally got to use this plant dyed yarn to make something for my own child!!

The sweater will fit him now, though it will be quite big. I imagine it will fit him through the fall and into winter as it is all wool and stretchy.

I used bare Peruvian wool from Knitpicks.

Thrifty Finds

Fin loves his little wooden potty but not for using it as it was meant. He loves to open and shut the lid and play around in the little enamal pot. I made some sweet little felt balls to put in the pot and tries to take them out and put them back in. But he really likes just stirring them around!!


It really is a sweet old potty, I like the little bear on the back and the nice enamel pot underneath, but will have to make some adjustments so the pot fits a bit better. I'm going to give it a good sanding and then a coat of varnish to make it ready for the bathroom.


My next find was the wooden rocking horse. Nothing fancy, just a good ol' horse. It as a pleasant rock, Fin fits it well and it's wooden and second hand!!!! What could be better????


Then I found this very lovely USA made wooden childs chair. It is in really good shape.


As seen by the stamp on the bottom it was made in Keene, NH!!!

I love, love, love going to thrift stores... and it's great finding things that you can really use!!!

Little Red Chair

I bought this little chair at the antique mall a couple of months ago and sanded and painted it!! Now it's waiting for a little bottom to climb up into it!!!
I am keeping my eyes out for more little chairs, a table and a play kitchen! I would love to by them used, vintage would be even better....

More Baby Vests

I am in the middle of making lots of baby vests!!! I know a lot of people having babies and I am lovingly knitting up lots of these sweet Milo vests, by tikki fabric addict. I am using Brown Sheep cotton fleece yarn as these vests will mostly be worn in the summer!

Rhythm

"The rhythm of life
is when you experience
your own body, mind and soul"
-Yogi Tea

When the rhythm of a day goes well and there is flow I know that I have been a bit more present to myself and my child.

I love these kind of days. They are what I love living for!!!

Yesterday Fin and I went to the Wing Watchers trail and Fin sat in the gravel and put rocks in his mouth while I cut branches to make blocks out of!! The sun was shining and it warmed us both. We had a lovely outing (I didn't get any pictures, I have a habit of forgetting my camera) But there was beauty in our day, in our movements of the day, our movements of the moment!
May we all find rhythm and beauty!

Learning about rag rugs

Fin enjoying the rug and the hook!
I started this rug a while back. I cut up some old napkins and dish towels, sewed them together and started to crochet with this giant crochet hook that I bought at a Barn Sale, hand made by one of the ladies husbands! A lovely hook but too big for the job. Luckily I stumbled across a rag rug in progress which led me to a rag rug tutorial and have changed some things. I bought a few sheets from the thrift store and cut them and also got a smaller crochet hook, unfortunately it's plastic, not my ideal too but does the job beautifully!



After I cut up this sheet I started to add it to the rug above and I realized that the rug above, my first attempt, was not right so I took out the whole thing and started over!! I haven't made much progress on the new one but I'll take a picture and post it soon!

So, here's to my Sisters from afar!!!

Sofie, My first sister who is not so far!!I finished Sofie's scarf last week and finally got around to taking a picture of it!!! That's me modeling it!!!:) Here's to warm neck for my first sister!!!


If life had been different I would have been at my Waldorf Handwork teacher training, at the Fiber Craft Studio, this week. But I wasn't ready to fly across the country with my 8 month old son and stay in a strangers house and have said strangers watch Fin. I'm sure they would have been great they came highly recommended! But with that, the cost, and thinking about another child I wasn't sure I should continue at the moment. I feel sad though, missing my handwork sisters and all the laughter and work we shared!!! I really treasured those days spent with them working hard, learning, laughing and discovering myself and exploring more about this beautiful life I live on this amazing planet.
So, here is to my sisters, may you work hard, play often, laugh even more, enjoy the snow and delve deeply into the richness of the day!! I miss you all and am sending my love!!!

Finley's set of felt balls and vest as WIP

I decided to make Fin a set of felted balls for Christmas and with all the projects I had going didn't finish them until some time in January and finally took pictures of them the other day!! So here they are!!


The are knit from Knitting For Baby, they were supper easy to work up and I initially felted them unstuffed but didn't like the way they looked so I stuffed them and felted them some more. They are a little tighter than I wanted, (Fin has a hard time picking them up) so next time I'll stuff them and sew them up then felt them a bit so that they have some give for babies with very chubby hands!!!


My WIP right now is this awesome vest by Georgie Hallam called Milo I love the way this is knitting up!! And it's the first time I've ever done cables!!! And they are so not scary!!! I'm so glad I bought this pattern and challenged myself to make cables!! I love knowing I can do something that I thought would be hard and getting past myself to try new things. I am using Cotton Fleece by Brown Sheep Company. I can't wait to knit another one!!

A picture from December

A picture from December
These little gnomes went to the houses of some of my friends. We did a hand made ornament exchange. Very simple, each person make 10 of their ornament and send to the nine people in the group and you will receive an ornament from each of the other people in the group. The ornament must be hand made, and it should be smallish, to fit in an egg carton. This was so much fun!! Everyone really enjoyed it. I didn't get any pictures of all of the ornaments together and I've put them away, so next winter I'll have to photograph them and post a picture!!!

Hope everyone is having a lovely day!!!

A few odds and ends

Sofie's Christmas present on the needles and being worked a little each day!!! This is Malabrigo silky merino. I'm using Everybody's favorite scarf pattern found on Ravelry!! Love the yarn, love the pattern, love the scarf!!! Love Sofie too!!!!




This picture (of a bald eagle) was taken just after the new year when John, Jill, Lina, Fin and I went across the border to California to see the eagles there in the Bird refuge. It was amazing! We saw so many eagles! It was a very white day, a hore frost covered everything and it was beautiful!!!
And to wrap up the adventure we had lunch in Merril and Jill and I went to the fabric shop The Cowgirl Stitchery. I chose out a few of Anna Marie Horner's flannels, some owls and some beautiful stripes... I'm thinking of pajama pants and pants for Fin.



Someone loves his bath!!!

Winter days by the wood cook stove

Here is picture from my winter vacation at my parents house!!! I love pulling a chair up to the wood cook stove and drinking tea and knitting the occasional stitch!! So warm and cozy! That is Fin's diaper cover on the needles which is now finished and tread with lanolin too, but still too big for him, he must wait a bit longer!!!

Playscape finished and sold...

I started this playscape when I was pregnant but never quite completed it. I decided to finish it for a craft sale that I participated in December. So I added a tree and touched it up a bit and made two gnomes, a mouse and a rabbit for it. A kindergarten teacher who teaches hispanic children bought it!!! I was delighted to hear that it would be played with in a school!!! Part of me was sad it sold as it was my first one, but I can always make another (and will too one day)

Work in progress

I have one leg warmer left to make for Fin. This yarn was given to me a long time ago and I'm not sure what it is. I do know that it is at least part Alpaca, very soft!! Should be comfy against Fin's legs.


Some Christmas presents in the making....


Another Fin baby item!! Diaper cover #1. Pattern by Vanilla from Raverly!! I love this pattern! It is well written and super easy to follow!!!

The dye!!

The skein on the left (the darker one) had been previously dyed with yellow dock, but I found the color to be a bit drab. (I don't think I did it quite right because I have seen nice yellow dock color before) The skein on the right was white when it went into the dye pot.


The littlest piece of fleece was done as a tester while I was cooking the lichen and it came out supper bright!!! I was kind of expecting it all to be this bright but I guess I need more dye stuff for that to happen. All in all I am happy with the colors.
Note: I mordanted the yarn with Alum and cream of tartar, the fleece is unmordanted.

My camera doesn't do the colors justice....:(

While the baby sleeps...

...Mama rummages through her dye stuff and finds a bag of lichen that she harvested when they first moved to Klamath Falls, not knowing if it had any dye in it...

Mama cooks the lichen on the stove stirring it occasionally and filling the house with the smell of the woods!!! Yummy!!!

and the results I'll show tomorrow!!!!

Emelina Models a Crown

Last week when my little niece was here visiting I tried on these crowns I had made. She wasn't the stillest model out there but she was about the cutest!!! The crowns fit her well and I could tell that they would stretch to fit bigger children!! I am excited at how beautiful they turned out.

A knitting project complete

I started this hat before Fin was born and am so excited to have it finished. I had to get some help figuring out how to sew it up in back. I couldn't make heads or tails of the directions. I got the pattern from Raverly and it was one of the hardest patterns I have ever done, and it's not perfect... I would like to do another one out of wool. I just purchased some lovely Merino wool that I might try out. I used 100% silk dyed which I dyed with onion skins!! I really like the color, I deep yellow with hints of green and brown!

I am hoping to take up a more consistent approach to my blog entries.... so stay posted for more updates!

Fourmile Lake

 

Brandon, Finley and I went up to Fourmile Lake with a friend and his two dogs plus the one he was watching for the week! It was a gorgeous afternoon! This was Fin's first trip up to the mountains!

Finley's first bath

Here is a picture of Finley having his first real water bath. He loved it!!!
We are loving being parents! Fin is doing great and now that we are over a bout of thrush things are a lot better!


Here is a little sweater that I knit up before Fin was born, he should be able to wear it soon. (plus it is way too hot to be wearing sweaters these days! I knit it out of a nice soft organic cotton by Sublime. I lovely yarn.

Needle Felted Play Scape

One evening last week while Brandon was working late I got inspired to do some needle felting. I have never made anything this big before. It was so much fun!!! I don't think that it is quite done yet but close. I played with it with a four year old and she loved it, so at least I know it "works". Now I need to make some animals and gnomes to go with it. Maybe a fire pit would be nice too. I originally wanted to make a tree or stump of some sort so that may be added as well. Needle felting is so much fun. I love the freedom of creating a piece like this, you can let your imagination and intuition take you!