On my needles

Today I was inspired by Soule Moma's "On the Needles" post. I love seeing other people's projects, particularly the things that are still being worked on. I love seeing the creative process midstream, and not just the end result. So, I decided to do my own little "On the Needles" post.

In the past, I have been a fairly monogamous knitter, finishing one item before starting the next. Recently, though, I have have been working on more and more projects at once. I do this because I try to match my knitting to what I am doing. For example:

This lace scarf requires quite a bit of concentration. I have to work on it only when there are minimal distractions, like when Lily is asleep. The pattern is a little too intricate for me to remember, so I have to read a chart as I make the stitches. Does this yarn look familiar? I spun it from Stew. It is his her first and only baby coat. The softest yarn ever.



If I need something a little simpler, I can work on Lily's second sock. Here is the first one I completed earlier this week. I started knitting these for her because, as I was knitting a pair for myself, she kept wanting to try them on. She'd try the huge sock on her foot over and over as I knit it up. How can I deny knitting her a pair of her own since she so obviously appreciates hand knits?



When I need something easier still, I grab a washcloth. I have the Ballband washcloth pattern memorized and since it is knit out of thicker yarn, I can knit it more easily without looking. Washcloths are my playground or "chasing Lily around the yard" knitting. I can throw my yarn in a bag and walk around knitting. Today the lady at the park gate commented how funny it is to see me walking around while knitting.



I knit while Lily talks to airplanes...



or gets into other forms of trouble.



In the last month I have done a lot of baby knitting for photo props and gifts since I had a couple newborn shoots. I made 2 newborn stocking caps, 3 newborn nest/pods, a cute little knit frog toy and finished up a pair of booties that had been sitting for 2 years. I started those booties for my niece, Grace and finally finished them in time for her little sister's arrival. More pics of the pods and my cute new niece on my Business blog. There are also some new pictures of Lily on there, unrelated to knitting.

The frog being blocked



The booties



One of the hats



And finally, another non-knitting related picture of Lil.



For the knitters out there, patterns and additional project information can be found on my Ravelry projects page. Look for me there as SpringPeeper. If you are a fellow Raveler, please friend me!

Lily-isms

I've been meaning to post about the cute little things lily says at 2 and a half. She's starting pronounce them better, so I need to hurry up and document the Lily-isms so we don't forget.

Here are a few of my favorites:

She calls a pacifier "Shassy-pire" or just "shaspire", for short.

In Twinkle Twinkle Little Star she sings "Like a vitamin in the sky."

In Row Row Row Your Boat, she sings "Merray, Murray, Murray, Murray, Life is but a dream". (Murray is my mom's donkey).

In the ABC Song, she sings "Now I know my ABCs, nuck nuck, nuck nuck, nuck nuck nuck".

The Sesame Street song where they sing "Sunny Days" she sings "Doe doe day".

I took the photo above with my cell phone at the Library. She absolutle loves the big stone bears. She kept, hugging, kissing and talking to the mama and baby bear. She was explaining to the mama bear what was going by on the street and even gave her some high-fives and fist bumps. I had trouble getting her to leave them when it was time to go.

Buddies

I've known Chloe's mom, Lex, since I was 14, I think. Now we are lucky enough to have girls who are just a month apart in age. It is so fun to watch Chloe and Lily hanging out and having fun when Lex and I get together. I'm not sure who has more fun together, us or them. I only wish we lived closer and were able to see each other more often.

Here they are this afternoon, sharing a snack while watching "Shaun the Sheep".

Wheeeew!

I am finally ready to sit down and catch up on my summer blogging. I can't believe it has been a month and a half since I posted anything. There has been so much going on this summer and, unfortunately, blogging fell pretty far down on the "to do" list.

Lets see. Back in June, we were busy packing and getting ready for the big move to Monroe Reservoir. It is really unbelievable how much stuff we have accumulated over the years. Packing it all up makes you realize just how much useless crap you actually have. I donated and threw out what seemed like a ton of stuff, but we still pretty much filled up the moving trailer. We packed all of the boxes into the trailer in late June. We then locked it all up and headed out for a long planned vacation with Corey's family to Dale Hollow, in Tennessee. We stayed in a cozy cabin where Corey got to do quite a bit of fishing and I enjoyed some extra knitting and spinning time. Directly from Tennessee, we headed to our yearly family reunion with my mom's side of the family in Kentucky. As always, we had a lot of fun hanging out, swimming, setting off fireworks, etc. Lily especially loved petting and talking to my aunt's horses. She is getting to be quite the horse lover.

It was in Kentucky that the trajectory of our summer started to get a bit off kilter. Corey was playing basketball with my cousins and BAM! He tore his ACL. Mind you, we were planning to drive home from KY and move the very next day. In the end, my mom agreed to come home with us and help out so that I wouldn't have to move all by myself with a 2 year old. We were able to get everything packed up and cleaned and pushed the move date back by a day. Then, the week after our move, Corey went in for surgery. And just for good measure, someone backed into my car. Because, you know, I needed one more thing to juggle (car repair). In the end, we survived. Corey healed. Lily was taken care of. I didn't go bonkers (okay, maybe just a little). We are pretty much settled in at this point. Which I am very, very happy about.

We are really enjoying the new house. We have made it our own and it is quite cozy and bright. It is set back from the road, which gives Lily plenty of room to play without being close to the road. We have taken full advantage of the beach, spending many a happy day splashing in the water and eating sandy PB&Js.

I thought I'd share a few photos of the house.



Notice Stew in the playpen out front in the photo below. She likes hopping around in there, eating leaves. Yes. I said "She". I took "him" in to get neutered and they spayed "her" instead.



We have a pretty driveway...



Between the house and garage is a large raised bed area that we are using for a garden.



Now that I'm semi caught up, maybe it won't take me so long to post again. I hope.