FO, WIP & Unblogable Knitting

I was taking pics of some unblogable knitting - the Knitty.com submission deadline is closing in!
and I took a pic of Colins stocking completed.

not the best, but not bad for my first go at color work - IN THE ROUND NO LESS!

I used the leftover red and some cream from my stash to whip up a scarf for the Red Scarf Project. Hopefully it'll be done this year!

Sound Tigers!

Check Ryan out! does he look like a Hockey pro or what? Hmmm.. I'm having Halloween ideas..... As you can probably tell, the boys attended their first hockey game tonight - The Bridgeport Sound Tigers! (BTW-I have it on good authority both the arena and the parkign garage are on a sound foundation! pipe piles in case you were wondering ;) )! their friend Schuyler got to play between periods with his team. It was really cute to see all of the little kids on the ice! Kinda reminded me of watching D-league! it was only my second game since RPI and it brought back a lot of fond memories! the smells- the sounds- even the music! Big difference was I was actually sober and I was also breastfeeding... none of the obnoxoious chants ("what's the Color of Shit? BROWN!" or "KFC-KFC-KFC")- nothing red being tossed onto the ice.. but hey.. not every game can be freakout... the coolest part was watching the boys! Andy and Ryan were FAR more interested in the snacks, tho Ryan did get a puck after the game! Daddy took him down by the ice so he could see better and one of the staff gave him a puck! Colin was intently watching the entire first period. He was playing with and chewing on "Baby Po" through the second and nursing through the third. And now he is screaming for his jammies and a tuck-in.

The best gift of all...

I almost forgot to post about the best gift our family recived this Christmas... HOPE! Hope for my Dad's health. see, his Gout has gotten bad.. really bad. I think he had it so long and so bad that he'd given up. He can hardly use his hands and his flare ups just move around the body without a break. We have been buggin him to see a rheumatologist (sp?) but he has been putting it off- probably b/c he gave up. BUT on Christmas eve, se stopped in to visit some friends visiting from out of town. One of which is a Rheumatologist (again ? with the spelling). she offered to take a look at my Dad while she was in town. as it turns out.. things aren't as bad as he thought! surgury can restore MOST of the use of his hands, tho he has had it so long that he will still have some permanent damage. She also wrote down new dosing instructions for the meds he is on and a new med comming out soon will give him even better relief! so Todd gave him the number of his hand surgeon and now he is getting a referral to the rheumatologist. THANKS DOC!!!! I will refrain from naming names out of respect for her. she is a professional. Just for the record. I have a few Dr friends and I would n't think of asking any of them for free medical advice.. but she offered adn there was NO way we could say no since Dad was willing to go.

oh- I also finished Colins stocking.. finally!

Merry Christmas

So. I didn't finish Colin's stocking in time....

GI Joe and his platoon had a covert operation on the tree



All in all a good Christmas here. now.. to finish that stocking....

Christmas came early! - a Photo Essay

Since Todd's parents will be at his brother's for Christmas, we had our celebration a little early! I forgot the diaper bag - which was a problem with cloth, but would have been a CRISIS in disposables! Colin's bumGenius 2.0 (in Grasshopper!) saved the day! He asked Santa for one in Butternut too...

Now we are off to get our tree today.. and some fire wood... and some Christmas wine.. Did you know Jones' has a winery now? still need to make cookies for the teachers and I havent even CO Colin's stocking yet!.. and I'm atempting color work! I've also got a few more diapers to sew for Colin for Christmas. A few other odds-n-ends to pick up and then it is time to WRAP WRAP WRAP! and I HAVE to bake Grandma's bread too.. and of course do all of Dad's wrapping for him. It started b/c my Grandmother used to do it all for him, but then she passed away so I did it - I was still home. but every year his gout is worse and wourse and now I'm not sue he could do it if he tried. but it is part of out family tradition now :)

ETA: Try the Strawberry Splendor! yummy and ON SALE!

Firday is for FOs!

A little while back I was lucky enough to win a yarn contest over at the Steel City Knitter's blog . I was the proud recipient of 4 balls of black fun fur. I know.. you are wondering why I would be so excited to win black fun fur.. aside from teh rush of winning yarn.. I wanted to make a kitty bed and some toys. Initially I was thinking wool - felted with the FF trim. but then I scrapped a sweater I started (homepun + cables = VERY BAD IDEA!) and I used 1 strand homespun and 1 strand fun fur and did the top edge in 2 strands fun fur. I crocheted little circles with 2 strands fun fur for kitty toys. Oddly enough the cats immediatly took them and hid them.. no cat models were available at the time of this photo.. they were playing wiht new toys!



Unfortunately, there was not enough fun fur left for another one to be donated to the shelter, but I have plenty of homespun for more beds and enough fun fur for toys. I want to drop off some toys before christmas, but I know if I try to dothe beds then too, I'll make myself CRAZY if I try. I am working on a pair of custom longies and I need to make a felted bowl for Sunday and then there is also Colin's Christmas Stocking.

I had to take a break from the longies to knit a scarf for Andy. he went outside for recess the other day and had an asthma attack. he coughted so hard he vomited... so I ran out and picked up more wool east T&Q and made a simple GS scarf to match his hat.



what else....

we saw SANTA!



and Ryan turned 4!

HO! HO HO!

Merry Christmas! this may be out Christmas card picture

Look what I made!

Click to enlarge images:









these were a LOT of fun! I embroidered some PUL and sewed them in to pockets.

the red PUL was from www.wazoodle.com and I thought the laminate was flimsy. I think these will be sprayed with a waterproofing spray.

I did a practice piece on the red and that will be a wetbag once I sew the zipper on. the inserts are 2 layers hemp french terry and 1 microfiber. I think I will make some thicker ones for nighttime -tho he is wearing one now. I also plan on making some fitteds with the hemp too.

back to knitting...

God Bless Colin

Looking like a china doll in the family christening gown. this was HAND SEWN by my great-grandmother from her wedding gown. it is 106 years old. he is the last of the 4th generation to wear this gown.


bundled up for church. the hat/sweater set I bought for Ryan before I could really knit. the blanket I started to knit for Andy, gave up and added a really wide crochet border! you can't see them, but he also wearing a pair of booties that Todd's grandma Berger made. she crocheted a pair for each of her grandchildren so that they would each have a pair for their children. she passed before Todd adn I met, so it was pretty cool to have them.


pouring the water


saying "hi" to Grandma in church


Colin with Mommy, Daddy and Godparents (and a zonked out Jason! - one of these days I'll post a picture of that kid awake!)

Catching up

Been busy around here!
we had a great Halloween...




















Andy lost another tooth...

Kathy came for a visit...

Kim came over too. ...

There was knitting..

Tea.. wine .. and LOTS of chocolate! Andy made Kathy Breakfast both days she was here. Friday was a grapes and cheese sandwich and saturday was peanut butter, margarine and graham gracker sandwich. He's never made ME breakfast...

I sewed some Baby Legs.
I really like them and I need to get some more socks to hack up. I knew this was a simple project, but it really was a complete no-brainer. great beginner project.

I'm back at work just as Colin is getting interesting....

I'm still trying to figure out the best pumping schedule. I'm NAK now... I've got more diapers to sew and I need to get some microfleece and flannel to make some more fitteds to go with all of this wool! I've also ordered some hemp fleece to make inserts. the microfiber absorbs fast and the hemp absorbs a LOT so I'll top some layers of hemp with m/f. I may just sew the ends to speed up drying time.

HEIGH HO....

yup.. back to work for me. good news and bad news I suppose. I'd forgotten what a PITA pumping is, but it is SO worth it! I'm loving the new pump. It is a Medela PIS Advance. I had the classic before, but this one is SO much more efficient with the let-down cycles. I'm also really loving the Lily Padz. they are a bit cumbersome fore nusing at home, not at all condusive to BFIP, but they are GREAT for work! I'm not having any leaking issues and it isn't a big deal to get them on and off for pumping, b/c I'm behind closed doors and
I don't have to juggle a hungry/sleepy baby to use them.

I'm taking a note from others and generally avoid discussing work here. i like my job. I want to keep it. one reason being the boss himself. hes gone out of his way to make my transition back easy. instead of dumping a pile of projects on me, he gave me a few things to start out and is slowly adding to my workload. there have been some personnel changes while I was gone. I knew they were comming, but just getting used to the dynamic.. It'll be interesting to see how this affects my job description..

We took the boys to a halloween party yesterday. We've got some great pics of hte boys in their costumes. I'll have to post those when I am not pumping, typing and having a cup of tea... I also made soem Halloween diapers and some baby legs I'll have to post pics of those later too.

Please pardon the sporradic posts as I get used to working and pumping again. DO keep an eye out fo rhte return of FREE PATTERN FRIDAY! for those of you new to my blog, I used to post a free pattern of my design or a link to a free pattern on another site that I like. any requests or wnat to pimp your own pattern, drop me an email.

The gospel according to Andy

Not to get all religous today, but.... we were painting our paper mache pumpkin pinatas today and they asked what we are doing tomorrow. I told them that tomorrow is Sunday and they have Sunday School. Andy proceedes to tell me that we celebrate Easter b/c Jesus died. so I thought I'd ask him if hw knew why we celebrate Christmas. his answer...... "because we're not Jewish." what a smart ass! he's right tho... I'll have to work on the details.

so then we start looking at a craft magazine as the paint dries and we saw a neat thanksgiving project. It is a tree shape cut out of foam and a bunch of fall leaves to write what you are thankful for on them and gklue them to the tree. so I asked Andy what he is thankful for.. once I explained what thankful means, he told me he was thankful for TV and candy....

Teeth and Temple

Andy came home from school yesterday and told us that he had a loose tooth, but he was too young to have a loose tooth... Somehow he fot the idea that he had to be 6 to have a loose tooth. At least we still have the tooth fairy box still handy from Ryan's dental adventure....

and while I'm still on the topic of teeth, I noticed last night while we were at temple, that Colin is sprouting his firt 2 teeth! Can't feel them yet, but they are visiblr through the gums. So, my oldest and youngest are getting teeth!

Yes, you read that right! We went to Temple last night. It was my first time since I am Catholic and all. I was still amazed at the similarity between the Jewish service and a Catholic mass. Hard wooden pews, incense, a lot of standing, sitting and singing (no kneeling.. BONUS!!) there was even bread and wine. I should seem obvious that the two are so similar, as Christianity has is roots Judaism. I've been to other Christian services that are nothing like the RC mass. Quite honestly, one of the things I enjoy most about being Catholic, is the comfort of the ritual of mass. Whatever else is spiraling out of control in my life, I know when to sit, stand, kneel and sing. I can recite the appropriate responses without really processing. So, while it was still quite different and I didn't understand the language of most of the service, I did feel quite comfortable.

Why were we there? Good question! It was a baby naming for Mike and Nicole's daughter, Rachel. We were halfway there when we realized that neither of us remembered the camera, so no pics of the guest of honor. She is very cute tho! Mazeltov Rachel!

BTW- what is the appropriate response to Mazeltov???? I know there are some Jews reading this.. (Heather, Mike, Mike...) so please chime in! Educate the Gentile...

UPDATE: Andy just yanked his tooth out!!!! looks like the tooth fairy will be paying us another visit tonight!

A moment of Silence...

for my Mets.....

At least they made it further than the Yankees!

May the Force be With You

The Light at the End of the Tunnel..

..is just a freight train comming my way. to quote Metallica!

let's just say when it rains it pours. thst's th good news and the bad news.

back to knitting. and no, I can't show pics. I'm aimimg to publish this one...

Colin McTartanpants

I FINALLY finished the cabled cardi. I was going to have him model it for a picture, but it wasn't worth waking a baby over. below it is the tartan wrap soaker to go under his kilt. again.. sleeping baby... I'm casting on another little secret project, but I will say that it goes with the picture.. BTW I hate working cables in homespun!

Colin had his first "Mommy-in-a-bottle" last night. guess who gave it to him? Ryan!!!! of course there's no picture.. sigh..

Cable on....

FINALLY after stiing in m y bag for a while, I'm back to working on Colin's Cables. I ran out of yarn after I got the cable strips and ribbed cuffs done. I finally got to Janet Kemp's today and picked up another skein of wool. If I knew who the patron saint of fiber was, I'd be praying for her ('casue you KNOW it's a her!) help matching dye lots! turns out I didnt' need to! she had another 5 skeins in back- SAME DYE LOT!

I came home (late thanks to crappy traffic on 110!) and found a yarn sale flyer in the mailbox! local yarn from local sheep spun locally.. I'm there! God knows I needed some knitting zen today!

comming soon... a tartan soaker to go with a wee little kilt. anyone know where I can find a good pattern for baby kilt hose?

time to clean the poop off of Ryan's NEW sneekers.. don't even ask!