Green day!

Is it really already the end of May? How did that happen? So I guess today's the last day to get in all of the Project Spectrum Green shots in. So here we go...

Julian got to experience grass for the first time on the weekend at his grandparents' house. It was so cute. He kept trying to pull out individual blades of grass. Of course he had never sat in grass before because our own house sits in a sandbox! So imagine our delight on Monday morning when our landscaper showed up to lay the grass. It's so exciting!!! Here's what our front yard looks like now...

And part of the back:

Any thoughts on what this is?

It's a leaf canopy above Julian's crib ($10 each at Ikea).

I thought I'd show you Julian's nursery since it is green. The colour is called "limelight" from Behr and we all love it. It is very light but has and enveloping presence in there especially in the morning glow.

Here is a picture of Julian's future big boy bed. It is actually Stephen's childhood bed so it has an extra sentimental quality to it. You might recognise the quilt as the background for all my FO pictures. Like I said, the light is amazing in there ;0)

And for the grand finale: the official colour of the month book shot:

Goodbye green. Hello blue...

An annypurls original

I've been dreaming about having a knitting related business for sometime, but it's been one of those dreams that seems so big and so out there that I feel silly even mentioning it. But there. I said it. I'd love to have an annypurls label someday. I'd knit beautiful baby garments and blankies and toys of my own design and sell them in a beautiful swanky online shop programmed by my dear husband. And all while staying at home and raising my family (I'm destined to have 6 kids, y'know!). I wouldn't be looking to make a living this way to be sure, but perhaps a few hundred dollars here and there to help my husband support our family.

The first step in making this dream come true is to design my own babywear. It just wouldn't feel right to be making money off of somebody elses' creative work (it is perhaps even illegal?). This is why this little kimono and cap, which may look like not much to some, means a lot to me. You see, it is my first original design! I worked it out all by myself. From scratch. I sketched. I swatched. I whipped out the calculator. I winged parts of it. And I learned so many new techniques to make sure that it would live up to everything I would hope annypurls to be: cute, classic, simple, thoughtful, and impecably finished. It's a glimmer of hope about what's possible...someday.

In the process, my husband and I learned to hem. All the edges (sleeves, neck band, and bottom edge) have all been hemmed. Above is a picture of the inside finishing and a close-up of the raglan detail on the front for which I learned a new increase (knitting into the back of the stitch below the next one). Oh, and did I mention the whole thing is seamless? I even learned to weave in ends invisibly for this one (I've been doing it wrong this whole time). I learned how to do a tubular cast-on for the cap (see below) which is wonderfully stretchy and impecable. I learned how to do it from Amelia Raitte's brilliant tutorial.

Perhaps the most terrifying thing I learned (and also the most genius thing I've ever heard of) is Elizabeth Zimmerman's afterthought buttonhole. I didn't know how I would fasten this baby as I was knitting it up and when it was done I got the idea for the toggle button (plus I had just one left over from Julian's paletot jacket so I think it was meant to be) but I had not inserted a button hole anywhere to accomodate it. Elizabeth's technique (from her Knitting Without Tears book - if you don't have it yet, you simply MUST get it!) saved the day.

The idea is to snip the middle stitch of where you want the buttonhole to be (very scary), unravel about 3 loops on the top and 3 on the bottom (I ended up unravelling 4 on each side to accomodate my oversized button), cast them off and weave in the super tiny 'ends'. Above is a photo of the front post-snip and below is a photo of the reverse side with the teeny ends I speak of. Scary, eh? It's like open knit surgery!

I even think I improved on the technique - I just pulled the loops over each other in order all the way around the 'buttonhole' picking up a stitch on either end to finish it off, pull one of the tiny snipped ends through the last loop to secure it and then wove up the teeny tiny ends by inserting the needle in and out before threading it (the ends were about an inch and a half long!). The resulting buttonhole is very sturdy and pretty...definately doesn't look like and afterthought! Neat, eh?

Can you tell I'm proud of this one? Now if only I can remember the pattern ;0) I didn't take any notes while actually knitting the kimono so all I have are rough sketches and tension figures! So my next challenge is to actually write it up. And of course, I'll share it with you when I do.

Cheers!

He's taken, ladies!

A very smart lady* once said "If you find a non-knitter who thinks what you do is clever, beautiful, and artistic; who never asks for knitted stuff but wears it with pride when you give it to him; and will help you carry home a whole fleece or a stack of stitch dictionaries without once implying that you might want to get a grip -- marry that person."

Well, I did! Even without prior knowledge I might add since I started to knit like a crazy person after we said our vows. He also reads Harlot, knows what all my knitterly blog friends are working on at any one time, enables pure Olympic craziness and has memorised grafting instructions which he recites as I graft my socks closed! But yesterday, he did something even more astonishing.

Yup, he's sewing up a knitted hem! I was lamenting that it was taking forever, showed him what I was doing and he volunteered to finish it for me. And he did. And he did a really neat job too! Astonishing, eh? Back off ladies, he's spoken for ;0) I watched in awe for a little while, but had to go feed the little guy who was starting to literally eat my skirt! What a cutie! When Julian and I were done, so was the finishing on the baby kimono! What a great trick.

I finished knitting up the sleeves during Conan O'Brian late last night and hemmed them. Then this morning as I got ready to photograph it for you all I noticed this:

Darn photos! Notice the shorty sleeve? Of course I noticed it after sewing it up hem and all and super neatly weaving in all the ends. Argh! I took a little break from it and was able to fix it during Julian's afternoon nap. It wasn't as frustrating as I expected it to be. Now all I need to do is think of a way to finish up the neck band and to fasten it. I need to "cute-ify" it. Maybe a bunny ear hat?

I'm on it ;0)

*The Yarn Harlot herself on page 8 of her latest book, Knitting Rules!

Upside down!

It's like my boss used to say: "If your nose runs and your feet smell, you must be built upside down" ;0) I have a cold. Boo. Julian woke up with congestion in his chest on Saturday and was all better yesterday...after passing it on to me of course. He's really getting good at sharing! I'm usually a very laid back, easy going, happy go lucky person. Except when I have a cold: then I become very whiny and complainy. It's a good thing I don't get sick very often. Daddy was marvelous (as always) and really pampered me yesterday and I'm starting to feel better. So I started working on this last night.

It's my first original pattern and I have no idea if it is going to work yet. I've been looking for a top-down, seamless pattern for a baby kimono and haven't found one to my liking yet. Oh, and I also want to knit it in worsted weight. And I want it to be cute (of course) and gender-neutral for baby shower gift-giving. Since I couldn't find it anywhere, I decided to try to figure it out on my own and so far so good! Well except that I just ran out of white yarn (maybe daddy'll pick some up for me on his way home). Did you notice my new stitch markers? They arrived all the way from Scotland this morning and I love them. They're so cute and very cherry. Here's a close-up:

Since I'm out of yarn, perhaps I'll start a new pair of socks. Is it wrong to buy shoes because you think they match some of your stash sock yarn? Well they also match Julian's stroller ;0) Plus after some diliberation, Stephen and I both thought that they were "good" weird!

They're so nice and comfy and are actually legit sports shoes by Ecco. I've never heard of that brand before so just figured they were sporty looking street shoes but apparantly not. They actually offer the right support for athletics. Wow! That's pretty cool. Of course I don't exercise anyway but now that I have Mary Jane runners...

Cheers!