Pixie Purls

Oh the sweet relief of being done knitting all my "samples" of "Fruit Loop". Someone is knitting the very last sample/test but *I* don't have to knit it so I feel so very much like a great weight has been lifted. I still have to finish the sizing information but at-least now I know this week I'll be able to take the final photographs for the pattern (and in the new backyard too!).

Today I went with some knitting friends to the Knitch Annual Lucky Duck Sale. I saw lots of familiar faces. The Atlanta knitting community is still going strong and Knitch has certainly had a hand in keeping it that way. Today's event was a *must* to attend if you want a truly good yarn sale. Most sale bins at knitting stores depress me. Novelty yarn, multicolored and not very attractive (to my eyes). Knitch had some grabs bags that where anything but depressing. I was there later in the afternoon when they slashed the prices on the grab bags.

That's 5 skeins of Alchemy. Yummy. I actually first had gotten some orange/red of the same yarn and swapped with Lou (big thanks to Lou!) I don't think he was too sad to let go of the pink yarn. I think for what I paid I could have bought a skein and a half for the original price. SWEEET.

When I pulled a duck I got 15%. Basically when you check out you can pick a duck and it can be up to 30% off, (and one lucky person got 100%!!!!). So I got this red Alpaca Silk, it's going to be BG's Halloween Costume.

Speaking of stash enhancement, this is what I got from the Ravelry Book Swap I'm participating in.

I love the baby knits book, and it included some pretty little spring theme stitch markers which I promptly used. Surprises in the mail are always so fun and it's been a while sense I did a swap.

Here is a sneak-peak of the Pinnapple Fruit Loop;

I have a huge outline for a new podcast and now that I am done with the Fruit Loop knitting, I just need to be in the proper mood and I am all set.

Posted by pixie at 07:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Joss Whedon, you need to answer this call. Lets just call it targeted marketing. Seriously.

For anyone reading this who is not Joss Whedon, you can join the ravelry group devoted to him.

Posted by pixie at 07:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I was so exhausted from spending about 4 hours every morning watering stuff, that I had the husbeast watch the baby for a 2 hours saturday while I took a nap. I feel like all I do is water stuff. 15 butterfly bushes, 3 tree's, several other plants and about 1/4th of an acre of grass.

BG mostly whines like crazy if I step outside to quickly move the sprinkler. Her 8th tooth is coming in. We had two lovely weeks of a very happy baby, but now that the tooth is popping through well... the word "whine" is an understatement. I am not allowed to walk more then 2 feet away from her or I am met with a barrage of cries and frustration. Ignoring her doesn't really work. I've tried and gave up.

In the mean time, I am working on the Pineapple version of the Fruit Loop, and also working on the various sizes for the pattern (I love math, not).

Sorry for the photo quality, I took them on my phone and I'm too lazy and tired to break out the digital this weekend. I still have another week and a half of heavy watering to do, after that I can relax again in the mornings and also have fun playing on the grass.

Posted by pixie at 11:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I haven't had any time to knit, I've had all sorts of evening activities which is very rare for me. Good news on the pattern front. The first version of the pattern has been tech edited and what mostly is left is sizing (my least favorite part). I still have to knit 2 more version, but one test knit is finished and the wonderful and amazing fast knitting claudia has offered to knit another. Mostly it's myself at the moment who is behind. Next week is free and clear and I plan to make up for lost time.

The backyard work was certainly a distraction this week, as I was running back and forth making sure everything was as we wanted it. I adore it, adore it. Nothing makes me happier then to go look out the window at all the clean splendor. Of course the dogs already christened it (damn it!) and got yelled at but the poor things aren't used to having to wait so long once outside to get to go potty. I spend each morning trying to water everything which includes two sides of the house, the length of the back AND the 15 bushes on the hill (oh yeah and the 3 tree's out front), it's a bit daunting but well worth the effort.

Just 2 weeks of the watering and then I can go roll around in the grass like a crazy person.

Posted by pixie at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I'm so pleased with the grape version of my new "fruit loop" design, but even more pleased with my adorable little girl. Can I "awe!" for a moment??

Soooo cute!

Posted by pixie at 10:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)

I owe the blog a 10 months entry and want to do it before to long has passed. I don't have any super fab photos as I haven't taken to many of her the last 2 weeks. I'm done with my second Fruit Loop top and will be ready for a nice photoshoot in a few days but wanted to just go ahead and do this. So she has her paci in for all these photos which is funny because she doesn't have it in that often but we went out this weekend and I sometimes keep it with her so she doesn't drool all over everything.

(oh look, it's the husbeast!)

10 Months! Wow already so close to a year. This month has been lots of fun as BG stops looking and acting so much like a baby and seeming more like a toddler or as we say "a little girl". It's thundering out right now and I am hoping she won't wake up so I can finish writing this.

There are some days, or weeks or hours with BG when I say to myself "this is the life". I remember there was a time at 2 months when I spoke those words to my husband and not a few days later things got pretty rough and I couldn't even remember what that day had been like or why it had been so blissful.

Just this Saturday we woke up bright and early to get in line to get an ipone. It reminded me a lot of waiting in line for the last Harry Potter book. Some people might think it's silly to wait inline but sometimes it's like being a part of an event. Something bigger so many people are involved in. So we sat in that line for nearly 3 hours, and she was perfect. It was nearly 90 degrees and I was not a happy camper, but she just laughed and had fun as Jesse and I took turns holding her. We brought out her pack'n'play and put her in that for a while. I should have taken photos. She was perfect. We came home, she napped for 2 hours and I got ready to go to a friends celebration.

So off we went once she woke up and again, she was perfect. 4 hours over my friends house with about 30 or more people walking around and she was great. I moved her around from bouncy chairs to highchair etc and she just bounced and played and people watched. I set her in the center of the carpet and she sat in the middle and played with a toy and watched everyone talk. It was one of those days I said to Jesse "This is the life". Today she made up for it by screaming hysterically for half an hour before napping. It comes and goes :)

She stands all the time now though I am still not sure she realizes she is doing it, she loves to play and run away from me and squeal in delight, and point at things. The new funny thing is she can break out of any of our "baby jails". She has figured out how to push something, pull something, or go down to the other end and push that end to open up the other end. We have a baby gate type deal surounding our couch and we have had to baracade it with all sorts of furniture on the outside to keep her from pushing open a tiny spot to sneak out of. She looks like a secret spy in some of the positions we have found her in and once she "breaks free" she giggles and runs so fast all excited she has broken out.

Also if you laugh really hard and point at her she starts having a hyper fit and runs from one end of the floor to the other and seeks out something to crawl under, up or over. Like she has to get away from you and your chasing her even though you aren't. It's fairly hysterical and I go horse most mornings from laughing really loud which is what seems to trigger her reaction. She loves to eat banana's each morning, a turkey sandwich for lunch and maybe some puree sweet potato's for dinner. We haven't figured dinner out just yet, not a favorite anyway. I still breast-feed her 4 times a day, and she can drink whole milk out of a sippy cup but hasn't mastered holding it herself just yet. She can for a few seconds but still needs help to get a good amount.

Posted by pixie at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

My back yard is gross. It has loads of potential, LOADS. It could look so beautiful. For the last 4 years I have had on average 2 to 3 people come out and look at it (a year) and come up with some ideas and give me some prices. Something has always not settled well with me about each person. Maybe because they said we didn't need top soil if we put down sod, or maybe because I asked about the water-flow and they brushed it off or never truly answered my question about if they had permits.

We had poison Ivy, evil spiders, loads of dog poop, thorns, weeds and flies from the dog poop. I never go out there. I always look out the back window longingly wishing I could go sit in a clean pallet of grass and sit with the dogs and BG and read a book while she crawled around. So I had told my beighbor I thought whoever did his backyard (grading and soding) did a really good job, so when he had them out last week to take a look at his hill, he had them come over and speak to me. I liked them a lot and as the neighbors water never sits in his back yard because it was graded properly I felt pretty good about them.

Yesterday when I paid them for the first bit of work they did, the owner told me he has sheep (as he saw my Shetland Sheepdog and remarked he had some sheep he thought me might like to chase) I then said "Oh I knit, how neat you have wool" he responded "oh thats to bad I just had the sheep and our 2 alpaca's sheared and didn't have anyone to give the wool to so I had to get rid of it". DANG! Then I mentioned I spin and he was all guffawed as he has never met a spinner before. I lent my wheel out so didn't have it to show him. What a small world it is indeed.

So anyway back to the yard. I have some before and after pics for stage 1. Next wednesday they will lay down sod, plant 15 tree's on our hill and install 4x20 steps going up the hill. The dogs will NOT be allowed to go on the new grass, I'll be taking them up the hill (exercise!) and possibly buying a small dog pen for when I don't have time to stay out there with them so they go. I am so flipping excited about this I can not tell you.

The front before:

The front after:

(I am in love with my new skinny tree's)

The hill before:

The hill after:

Back of the house, the most covered window is our bedroom:

After:

I need ideas for this area. when they sod it and all that they will create a nice even bed there. I want to plant Herbs and roses. Suggestions? Low maintenance stuff would be best. I can't wait to create a sort of container garden on the patio and have a topiary of some sort. I've killed a few, but mainly because I never go outside to mind them.

Left side before:

Left side after:

The left he butterfly bushes and those iris things I think they are called. There will also be some beds here for me to have fun with. The one neat thing about our Jungle was that we had all sorts of birds and bugs around because everything was so wild. Loads of blackberries I never tried because the husbeast feared I would keil over if I ate any. Now it's all gone. Now maybe I can plant blueberries! I would also love a willow tree. But for now we are tapped out and have hopefully upped our property value! I'll show more pix next week when part 2 is finished.

I owe my blog a "10 months" entry on BG as she is indeed 10 months old now. Here is something fun and related. It's me at I think about 5 years old, maybe 4. I've had glasses sense I was 18 months old.

Posted by pixie at 04:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yes, my goodness you read that correctly. I just recorded Episode 18, I think the audio is a bit wobbly, it might take me an episode or two to get it back to how it was before.

Posted by pixie at 08:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

I did a cute photoshoot to send out photos to the grandparents of Sydney for the 4th. I thought they turned out really cute and couldn't show them until I knew everyone got theirs in the mail.

Here is Sydney in the Original Country Kiddie that inpsired me to start pattern writting:

I got it back from Knots of Yarn in Cumming today so she could wear it tomorrow.

I've got lots of knitting going on here, I finished the little top that is my next design, and named it.

That's the template/prototype. I've decided to call it "Fruit Loop" and I am going to offer them together in one pattern with an assortment of colors/options. For Strawberry there will be a cute seed-like lace pattern, for grape I will have a grape like bobble, and then I am going to have a pineapple one with a lace pattern as well. I'm very excited about it.

Here are my two current knits, the purple fruit loop (grape) and a pretty purple scarf. Purple is apparently the color of the day.

Right now I just have to find a good tech editor to help me with it. I think I just totally overloaded you all with BG photos :) heh.

Posted by pixie at 05:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

I wanted to show off some of the fantastic mods that knitters have been making to my Country Kiddie pattern. I've been tracking people's progress on Ravelry.

When I created the design I wanted to keep it super simple, so it could be a quick knit or an easy knit for the inexperienced. With simple knits it's not usually a big deal to add some mods of your own. Maybe some lace, maybe some shaping, maybe some sleeves. Check out these clever and creative modifications by some very talented knitters:

Oxfordkitchen Blue Sky Country Kiddie

Craftyminx Ruffled Country Kiddie

Jjongsma Lace Country Kiddie

I love them all, in particular when I get to see them on cute babies (bonus!). It's just a thrill to see my design being knit up by all these talented knitters! Keep 'em coming!

Posted by pixie at 10:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)