baby

Indie Design Gift-A-Long 2016!

One of my favorite times of the year is upon us—Gift-A-Long time!

If you’re not familiar with the event, here’s a quick primer. It’s hosted on Ravelry, where hundreds of independent knitting and crochet designers discount a bundle of their patterns for a week to kick things off. Thousands of crafters participate in craftalongs to make things for loved ones (or themselves!) during the busy holiday season. There are all kinds of fun games, lots and lots (and lots!) of friendly chatting, and some amazing prizes. You can get all the details and play along in the Gift-A-Long group on Ravelry.

This year, I aimed for a mix of my most popular patterns and quick gift-type items for the discount bundle. You can see most of the discounted patterns in my collage here:

The rest can be viewed in my discount bundle on Ravelry.

And since this is one of the only times of the year when I give myself permission to knit other people’s patterns, I’m having a great time browsing the bundles of eligible patterns! So far I’ve picked out this adorable Manfred Aviator Hat from designer Kate Agner, which I’m making for my little guy:

I have a stash of super-bulky yarn I was given as a gift last year, so I’m also contemplating some instant gratification projects. These TV Time Socks from designer Shannon Squire look like awesome around-the-house socks:

I’m also eyeing the beautiful Sorrento Hat by Sarah Sundermeyer, although I’m not sure it’ll look as nice as the one pictured with my single-color yarn.

So many possibilities, so little time!

New Pattern Release and FO Friday: Sweet Gemma

Whew, it’s been really dang busy around here (hence the lack of posts recently!). I’m hoping to get back on a regular blogging schedule soon, but in the meantime… I released a new pattern yesterday, woohoo!

Sweet Gemma should look familiar to regular readers of this blog—it’s only been about 6 months coming, haha:

Here are the specs:

Pattern: Sweet Gemma, available here on Ravelry for $5

Yarn: Malabrigo Rios in Aguas, 6 skeins. I was worried while designing/knitting the blanket that I would need 7, but it ended up being perfect with more than enough left over to crochet the blocks together.

To minimize color weirdness with the hand-dyed yarn, I knit one square with one skein, another square with a second skein, and then a third square alternating the leftovers of both of the previous skeins. I think it worked out really well!

Notes: The finished blanket is what I’d consider the perfect crib size, about 3ft square. And although it took me a while to finish, it was actually a very portable project. Each square is worked from the middle out, so it was easy to throw my current square into my purse or knitting bag.

I’m so delighted this pattern is out in the world—I hope you like it as much as I do!

Meet My Newest FO!

Less than a day after my last blog post, I finished a very long-term project:

It’s a boy! (So much for my very girly knit top design, haha. I’m going to have to find another little model, I think.)

Milo Murphy Cahill was born in a wonderful, very peaceful water birth on Saturday morning. He was a very respectable 7 lbs, 11 oz and 20.5″ long despite being over a week before his due date. Big brother has been amazing with him and we’re all completely besotted.

Milo’s having fun testing out all his new facial expressions:

Friday Roundup: Anticipation

What I’m Knitting

I’m still plugging away on the blanket squares! I’m at the tail end of square #8, so there’s just one more to go and then the joining and finishing.

I’ve enjoyed making this blanket, but as with any larger project, I’m impatient to start something else. I’m eyeing up these beauties that have been in my stash for a while with the idea of making a girl’s top of some sort. We aren’t finding out the gender of the baby arriving in about a month, so there’s a 50/50 chance that I’ll get the right variety of model… hey, I like to live on the edge!

What I’m Cooking

My main culinary endeavor this week was a new recipe for veggie burgers! These mostly consist of mashed sweet potato, brown rice, and black beans. They turned out really tasty! Because they were oven baked, they were also just the right consistency—much easier than frying burgers like I’ve done before.

What I’m Reading

On a whim, I grabbed The Face on the Milk Carton off my bookshelf. I hadn’t read the book in probably twenty years, but I devoured it over two days. I forgot how compulsively readable this book is!

Friday Roundup: Catching Up

What I’m Knitting

Whew, it was so busy around here last week that I completely missed the last Friday Roundup post, whoops. Oh well, I’m back at it today! I finished all my commissioned design projects, which means for the first time since December(!), I don’t have anything on a deadline! Let me tell you, it’s a good feeling.

That means I get to go back to my Malabrigo lace and cable blanket—and not too soon, either, since I just hit 32 weeks of pregnancy and really don’t have a ton of time to get this thing done before baby arrives.

Although I only have six squares of the planned nine done, I decided to go ahead and try sewing together the four squares that are blocked. After much trial and error, I decided on a slip-stitch crochet seam:

I think that’ll work nicely, and as a bonus, it’s not terribly annoying to work. I’ve cast on for the seventh square, so hopefully I can get at least that done by next Friday!

What I’m Cooking

I’ve been trying to incorporate more dark leafy greens into my diet recently, since they’re so good for baby. My go-to quinoa, lentil, and kale soup was extra delicious this week. I’m pretty sure I didn’t do anything differently than usual though—maybe I just really needed the nutrition?

For my weekly meal-for-a-crowd, I took another stab at a recipe that didn’t come out perfectly the last time I made it, a vegan lasagna with spaghetti squash in place of the noodles. This time I nailed it. I had several people checking to make sure it didn’t have dairy or gluten, because it was that tasty.

What I’m Reading

I got started on The Morrigan’s Curse… and then realized I’d read the previous book in the series so quickly (and at a time when I had so much going on) that I didn’t remember a lot of what came before! So I’m going back to the previous book and re-reading that one before continuing on.

Friday Roundup: FO Fail

What I’m Knitting

I wanted to do a quick project this week, so I whipped up this cute little owl hat for my son.

He loves owls and loves wearing hats, so it should have been a surefire hit, right? But it turns out he HATES it. That picture was taken right before he ripped the hat off his head and refused to put it on ever again. He even went so far as to throw it violently across the room while yelling, “No hat! No hat!”

Toddlers, man.

Anyway, here are the general specs on the FO:

Pattern: Chouette by Ekaterina Blanchard (Ravelry link)

Yarn: This is a lovely rustic wool my sister-in-law bought me as a gift in England a few years back. It’s labeled “Pure Lleyn Lambswool” and says “Knit as Chunky” on the label, although I found that it knit up much better at an Aran gauge (and had to adjust the pattern accordingly).

Notes: A well-written, easy to follow pattern. It’s definitely not the designer’s fault that my son took an immediate dislike to it. :-P

I also got a picture of my current progress on the baby blanket. I have three squares knit up, although only two of them are blocked:

I was happy to find that I was able to get these three squares out of two skeins of Malabrigo Rios. That means I should have enough to do my originally planned nine squares with the six skeins I have. Yay for not having to buy more yarn!

What I’m Cooking

This potato casserole is one of my favorite easy vegan dishes. We ate all the leftovers within two days—yummy!

And I also made a chickpea/veggie curry, served over rice. The sauce for this is SO GOOD. You could almost just eat it with a spoon.

What I’m Reading

So I was contemplating going back to young adult books after I finished the third book in the Thrawn trilogy… but I couldn’t help myself, so I started the first of the duology that follows those books. I promise, I’ll go back to other things when I’m done with these two books!

Friday Roundup: Eye Candy

What I’m Knitting

The yarn I’m waiting for still hasn’t arrived, so I’m plugging away at more squares for my lace/cable baby blanket. I finished and blocked the second square and am nearly done with the third… but it looks pretty much exactly like the crumpled, pre-blocked mess I showed off last week, so I’ll spare you.

I do have some yarny goodness to show off, though! Way back in January, I found out that I’d been randomly selected to win a spectacular prize in the Indie Design Gift-A-Long on Ravelry. Designer Casapinka on Ravelry donated a prize pack for her gorgeous Purpleplexy Shawl that included a gradient skein pack and a single skein base color of luscious Miss Babs Yummy 2-Ply. I picked out the Gemstones gradient and Slate as the base color.

Here’s what it looked like in the package:

And since I couldn’t go another second without seeing the pretty colors properly (despite the fact that I’m pretty sure I’m never getting those little skeins squished back into their package), here they are in all their glory!

I am in looooove. Thanks so much, Casapinka!

What I’m Cooking

I made some oven-baked falafel and homemade vegan tzatziki this week. When I’ve made falafel before, it’s used canned chickpeas, but this recipe called for dried beans, soaked for at least an hour. I soaked them for two hours, but they were still as hard as rocks when I tried to process them together with the rest of the ingredients. I had to soak them for another couple of hours before I could get anywhere with them. The finished product was really tasty, though!

I threw together a quick tofu stir fry for dinner one night:

And a quiet morning with the toddler gave me the opportunity to make one of his favorite breakfasts—pancakes!

I attempted a Mickey Mouse pancake, but clearly there’s some class at parent-qualifying school I missed, because it came out pretty sad looking. The toddler scarfed it down anyway. :-)

What I’m Reading

I’m nearly done with the third book in the Thrawn trilogy and am at the point where I start to read slower/less so it will last longer. Does anyone else do that with really good multi-book series when you’re sorry to see them end?

Friday Roundup: Square Deal

What I’m Knitting

I finished the blanket square from last week and blocked it! I love, love, love the way it turned out. (Side note: I can’t get an accurate picture of this yarn’s color to save my life, even with post-processing fiddling. It’s actually more blue than green, although it looks the other way around here.)

The pattern was really fun to knit, although I guess I might be singing a different tune after I knit at least five more of them…

I have a couple of commissioned deadline projects coming up, so knitting pics might be thin on the ground here for a while. But I’ll try to get some sneak peeks!

What I’m Cooking

I made some lemon-blueberry muffins this week. My son and his little friend weren’t huge fans (maybe the lemon flavor is more of an acquired taste), but the adults DEVOURED them.

I also finally made homemade fried rice! It was so incredibly easy that I can’t believe I haven’t been doing it this whole time. Just stir fry some veggies, pop in some cooked rice, and pour a little soy sauce on top while you stir it for a few minutes. I served it with some vegetable gyoza from Trader Joes—mmmm.

What I’m Reading

I’m still working on Heir to the Empire (forgot how much I love this book!), but I should be wrapping it up today or tomorrow. The book I had on hold at the library is in, so I’ll have to decide whether to start that one or book 2 of the Thrawn trilogy next, hmmm.

And just because it’s Friday and we’ve been having such nice warm weather this week, here’s a bonus shot of a little boy who was really, really happy to finally get back out on the swings:

“Friday” Roundup: Big News!

So as you may have noticed, it’s not actually Friday anymore (oops).

I figured it was time to let you in on the reason I’ve been so flaky about blog posts, cooking, knitting, and other things over the past few months: we’re expecting another baby this August! Morning sickness (which is really inappropriately named, if you ask me, since I’ve had it all day, every day) has been kicking my butt for the past few months. Cooking was completely out of the question for a solid month. I’m just starting to feel a little more like myself, so hopefully I can get back on track!

Now, on to the regularly scheduled roundup post!

What I’m Knitting

While I wait for yarn for a commissioned design, I’ve been doing some swatching. I picked up a blanket’s worth of gorgeous Malabrigo Rios for the new babe, and I’ve been playing with some ideas for modular cable/lace panels. Here’s my current swatch—doesn’t look like much right now, but I’m going to wait until I get a few more inches to make a decision on whether I like it or not.

What I’m Cooking

Hey, I made something this week! Here’s some tasty tortilla soup. We’re still enjoying the leftovers a few days later:

What I’m Reading

After finishing the most recent book in The Naturals series, I haven’t picked up anything new yet. A trip to the library is in my immediate future!

“Friday” Roundup: Brain Break

(I know it’s Saturday, but the day got away from me yesterday! So if everyone reading this would just pretend it’s still Friday for a minute, that’d be great.)

What I’m Knitting

Hey look, something I can show you! I mailed off the big commissioned sample (yay!) and immediately got to work on a little neckwarmer for my son.

It’s just a super-simple 2×2 rib in the round in a skein of soft Knit Picks Swish Worsted I had lying around, but it’s already gotten a lot of use! I tuck it under his jacket and pull it up around his ears to block wind. We went to the zoo a few days ago in 25 degree weather (I know, I know), and he was snug and warm with his handknit mittens, hat, and neckwarmer.

I have to say, too, that it was really nice to knit such a simple item after lots and lots of more complicated knits. Everyone needs a brain break now and then!

What I’m Cooking

I actually cooked something fancy this week! Homemade vegan alfredo sauce with spring peas and asparagus over pasta, which was really tasty. But… I forgot to take pictures. I used this recipe from Minimalist Baker (one of my favorite recipe sources). I’ve tried a lot of vegan “cream” sauce recipes, and this was definitely one of the best!

What I’m Reading

Um, a potty training book. Ah, parenthood.