21 Months

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Allegra and I were on the YarnThing podcast, you can listen here. It was a lot of fun!

Wow okay 21 months, I totally flaked out on the 20 month blog post, I've been super busy working on Petitepurls.com and trying to get the baby's room ready. It's been a weird last couple of months with BG. A few months ago when she was running around like crazy it was very hard to take her out places, she wanted to be "down" and she would run. We've stopped taking her grocery shopping or on any long shopping trips to avoid it turning into a habit. Just yesterday I took her to the mail store near our house for the first time in a long time and she behaved perfectly wonderful. She stayed next to me and told me all about everything in the room (lots of pictures of cows). So while we still have our moments (like a tantrum in the grass outside the sushi place on a day she skipped her nap) she seems to be getting used to walking and being with us, and it's so adorable because when we put her down now she's sort of been trained to hold our hands. She will demand we each give her one of our hands and we all walk together.

It's been a hard adjustment for her with my being pregnant but she's been so great. At night now the husbeast gives her the bath and dresses her. I come in and read her a few books. She's decided not to go to bed for me, so after I'm done reading for about 10 minutes, DH comes in and reads her 1 or 2 more and she goes to bed without any issue. I keep trying but she won't let me, and today for nap time was the first nap she wouldn't let me put her down for. I could of course pop her in the crib and let her scream but I don't like to create those sort of "habits" or whatever. If it happens more then 3 days in a row it's going to turn into a "thing" so we just adjust our routine, try something different until she gets over the phase and it works wonderfully.

First Pony Tail!
Wearing her first official ponytail, as it stayed in all day long at daycare.

Speaking of the husbeast he has stepped up so wonderfully and been so helpful with BG. He does a lot more then he used to, and even this morning surprised me by waking up with BG, I normally am the one who wakes up when she does. We stayed up until 1am painting half of the new baby's room so he knew I was tired. I normally don't mind at all waking with her as I am more of a morning person anyway. 

First Pony Tail!

We gave the dog one of his old toys yesterday, once she was born we removed all the dog toys from the house (except our bedroom) because he kept mixing up the toys. He has bad gums and I don't like the nasty on her toys let alone his ripping them up. She cried a bit and we had to really watch her, she wanted the toy he was playing with of course but it was interesting to see how she reacted to the concept up "That's Toby's toy, not yours, do not take it from him" and good practice for the new baby.

Blue Room

We've been busy painting the baby's room, I'm very excited to finally be getting something done. I spray painted the bird cage a pretty pink and I'm very please with how it came out.

Blue Room

At daycare BG knows the name of all the other kids in the class, and the teachers. She can count as high as 14 (most of the time without missing any numbers) and she is great with her letters. She now likes to "sing" songs which is fun and she giggles at so many more things then she used to. My favorite thing she does now is when she says "Momma, yabber yabber" but it's the way she says "Momma" as though she is about to tell me something very important and has a very particular inflection to it. She also loves to say "Thank you mama, welcome" which is incredibly sweet and she is way more clever then I give her credit for. Just this morning I was trying to get her to say "I love you dada" for one of those recordable fathers day cards. She wouldn't say it but she didn't seem to 'get' what I was asking. Oh she got it alright, she just didn't want to say it because about 10 minutes later I hit record and in a more flustered voice said "Say something" and she goes "I love you dada, I love you!". Hah! She knew exactly what I was asking earlier but just decided not to do it. Little stinker!

This is such a fun age, I am enjoying every minute of it. She's still far more whiney for me then when she is alone with DH but that's okay. I certainly feel loved and wanted as she will fuss if I walk down the hallway to the other rooms. She's had to adjust to DH taking her to daycare 2 days a week and she is non-to-pleased when she leaves and sees I am not the one taking her. We've also noticed that as much as we know she does well and enjoys daycare it doesn't seem to be as desirable as it had been in the past. She doesn't give us any huge problems about dropping her off but you can just tell she would rather be home with us which is something new as before she didn't seem to care so much. In 4 to 6 more weeks and I can be home with her, I can't wait!

Them Apples

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My latest FO and pattern (free!) availible at www.petitepurls.com is "Them Apples" a sweet and simple cardigan inspired by my daughters love of apples. When I was a little girl I remember in pre-school playing with a giant apple toy, I even have a photo of it someplace. Apple was one of BG's first words (her first word was "uh oh" but apple wasn't far behind). Allegra and I both wanted to design something for the premier issue of petite purls as our goal was to make available as many cute baby patterns as possible so we both wanted to contribute. I wanted to create something that was super affordable and accessible to knit (Lion Brand Cotton-Ease) as well as easy and quick to knit (hence the nice fat gauge). I went for cute little belled, half-sleeves because kids don't really need long sleeves in summer. It's perfect for popping on your tot when you go into a restaurant that is sub-zero even though your child is dressed for the 90 degree weather outside. Or on a cool summer night when your out at the park or by the lake and it's nice and roomy so it should last into early fall.

Them Apples

I was so happy when I found the yarn at the store, it was the perfect green and red, the green was that super pale color of one of her favorite varieties of apple, it was perfect! I have a few cute out-takes from the photo shoot that made me laugh.

Them Apples

Them Apples

She was being so goofy for the photo-shoot. My husband kept having her do silly stuff with the apples so it was a bit hard to capture her.

Them Apples

I tried a different method for knitting the top down raglan, the increases stop a few rows before you pop the sleeves off, and I really liked how the spaced increases looked (there is a stitch in between them instead of just increasing on either side of a marker). This was my first time trying duplicate stitch and it was way easier then I thought it would be! Not nearly as scary as I thought, and way easier then intarsia if you ask me. 

I hope your little one enjoys wearing it as much as mine did, she actually got mad when I tried to take it off and she was very pleased with the little apple buttons I found.

Petite Purls .com

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I've been working on a big project over here for the past 7 or so months, and I'm not talking about the new baby! It's been brewing and hatching for a while, but I wanted to keep mum on it as it was dependent on so many outside factors. I have to say, I've been shocked at the ease within which this sometimes-little, sometimes-big project came to be. All the credit for that ease goes to Allegra and Joan, my partners in crime.

The project is Petite Purls, a brand new online knitting magazine, served up seasonally with loads of free patterns. Not just any sort of knitting patterns though! Allegra and I had our little girls just 2 days apart nearly two years ago now. We struck up a friendship built on both mommy-hood and knitting and spoke often to each other through email. We always lamented the fact there was not any true, one-source online for free knitting patterns for babies and children. 

I have to thank first and foremost Allegra and Joan without whom this website could not exist, and then with just as much love and gratitude, I must thank the designers and authors who contributed to this first issue. I was overwhelmed and amazed by the quality of each submission. When we received the photo for Jacques Crusteau by Katie Park I just about fainted. Not only is the adorable lobster plush beyond adorable and perfect for any little tot to play with, but the photo that we used as the cover was beyond perfect, down to the faded blue-hued background and the perfectly colored hearts on the child's shirt (matching our style and brand perfectly). It seemed as if the stars aligned and this issue was simply meant to be. Something for baby, toddler and young child. Something for mom, something for girls and something for boys

Please go check out the site, and give those designers lots of love!

More Crochet

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I am enjoying myself with the crochet stuff, it's fairly mindless, but the increase/decrease bit makes it a bit less then boring.

Ripple Afghan Progress

Lots going on here related to knitting stuff, more news early next week :)

The garage is now cleaned out, the dumpster is about 100% full, and the husbeasts former office is half emptied. It was a very productive weekend. Now I have to rest a bit and take it easy, more crochet!

Ripple Afghan

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So I didn't like how the baby wrap was knitting up, the neckline was not like I imagined and even though it was very close to done I just couldn't take it anymore and had to rip it. So now I need something relaxing to work on that doesn't stress me out or depress me. I have major Gauge issues you guys. MAJOR, anyone else? I will knit a swatch, get 4.25 stitches per inch going down TWO needle sizes then the ball band recommends to get gauge. Then when I am done knitting the object, it will somehow grow to be 4 stitches per inch despite all my work ahead of time to make sure my math was right. So then said knit item winds up 2" too wide or more. It is depressing.

I wind up knitting everything twice. This should be something I learn to accept when designing (the whole knitting something twice to get it right) but the Gauge issues, that plague me, and they make me angry.

So to ease my pain and try something new I began the Ripple Afghan last night. I am amazed how far my crochet skills have finally come. I can actually cont my stitches now (it's easier in DC I think anyway) and I've even caught myself making mistakes by being able to tell that my increase or decrease is happening one stitch too soon (I am very proud of the fact I was able to *see* that and fix it!).

Ripple Baby Afghan

Let me tell you, Malabrigo is a dream to crochet with. I am using worsted with a size I hook. I am enjoying it but my left hand seems a little annoyed, which is odd because I am holding the yarn the same way as when I knit.

Here is Tala our kitty (Tah-lah) whom I don't think I have updated you all on here at the blog, but I have on twitter. My darling little cat went mental after I moved the sewing cabinet into the garage, she loved to sleep in it but we don't have room for it anymore. So she got OCD and licked all the fur off her stomach and legs. She looked really weird and sick (she's only barely 5 pounds to begin with and it showed how tiny she was). So the vet had us give her some Paxil (anti-depressant) to "break the cycle" and it was only going to be for a month, but I took her off it within 5 days because I didn't like the effect it had on her. She was hiding all the time, wouldn't come out to eat or potty very often and her pee stunk something awful.

Tala

Here she is feeling better (because she's not hiding in the closet) and now she likes to stay in our room. I got her that toy, moved her scratching post tree thing into our room, and she also has a little basket house/hut she could sleep in but I've only caught her in it like 3 times when it had fresh catnip in it. So for now we are saying a big N-O to paxil, her fur seems to be growing back so maybe it did its job, and I think getting her the toys and making an effort to set up a space for her and give her extra attention has helped. She's not a super affectionate cat as it is. I do hope she is feeling better, as she seems to be.