Gift Idea

One great thing to look forward to while expecting...other than baby of course....is a baby shower! My sweet friends threw one for me about a week ago and loaded me up with all of the necessary things I never knew I needed to prepare for Baby Girl...butt paste, rattles, blankets, pajamas, a boppy?? (which I love and is the only pillow that helps me finally sleep comfortably) I wanted to do something special for the hostesses and decided to make each of them an apron! These were so much fun to do and as I went along with each one I tried not to think about topping my last one...I ended up spending 30 minutes just trying to figure out how I wanted them to look.

These are super easy and would be great presents for the holidays for homemakers you know. Or if they're not homey..they can just hang them in their kitchen to look cute. All of these were made out of Mimi material (found at grandmother's house) and each takes about 1/2 a yard I guess..but not exactly sure. I measured them all on myself before cutting. This ended up being not such a good idea on the last apron since I'm a little over 7 months pregnant now and it ended up being huge, but one of the hostesses was pregnant too so it fit her perfectly!

Another group of my girlfriends are giving me a shower next week and I wish I could do this for them too...but there are 12 of them. I think I'm going to cook them something fun instead. They're all young, beautiful, single and buck wild....so maybe something with alcohol? I'll let yall know what I come up with.

My mom was the perfect model for my aprons! (they look a little wrinkly in the pics but I ironed them right after pictures)

"Knitting Progress Report"

I thought that some of you new knitters our there could relate to this poem. One of my dearest friends, whom we'll call Rice Cakes, has always been crafty and lately has decided to give the needles a try. This was actually an email she sent to me which I don't think she meant to be a poem..but she's a great writer and her emails usually come out sounding like perfect poems that describe exactly what she's feeling. I loved it. Enjoy!

Knitting progress report.

Watched videos. Repeatedly.

Watched videos the next day. Repeatedly.

Purchased "practice yarn" for $1.

Watched videos.

Begin knitting. Did pretty okay. Several do-overs.

Can't figure out the cast off.

So bought new big long needles. The kind that Oedipus used to poke out his eyes. I'm convinced.

Began to cast on. Sucked.

Watched video. Repeatedly.

Cast on like a freaking pro!

Knit two, purl two, knit two, purl two.

Listen to Terry & children chatter in the car. And Dave Matthews.

Knit two, purl two…stretch it out to check progress…

Notice 3 "button holes" where there should be no "button holes"

Cuss. Quietly. Children are present. Shove in purse.

Ride home. Slightly pouty.

Get home. Cut the pretty "for real" yarn. Light a fire.

Sacramentally or shall I say sacraficially toss that durn thing in the fire.

Big sigh. Cast on again….

Yarn is quite unforgiving, isn't it?

Pope Cap

I finished the most beautiful hat ever the other day. I was knitting it for my girlfriend who lives in New York for her birthday and was so excited about it. You know how when you're making something for somebody you think about them and if they'll like it or wear it pretty much the whole time you're making it? Well I just KNEW she would loooove this one. It's the Natty Cap from Knit and Tonic and comes with a great scarf pattern to match.

I finished it in one day while watching a football game. Tweedy and I were sitting on the couch and I close off the top, give it my best TAH DAHHHHHHHHH and put it on my head only to find out that it doesn't even go past my hairline. NOOOOOOOO! I'm so mad. Tweedy looks over and starts laughing histerically and said what a beautiful pope cap I had created.

I know it's my own fault though and here's the formula: not using the right yarn + not using the right needles + not making a gauge = pope cap

Anybody know any 6 year olds with a cold head??



I just woke up so I'm not showing my face :)

Seasonal Obsession

Every year when it starts getting colder I start to...

1. knit random hats for everyone i know
2. try to wear flannel pajamas (always end up being too hot and changing to a t-shirt)
3. drink Russian tea!!

The Russian tea is my favorite favorite favorite. My mom usually makes it in bulk and adds a jar of it to her holiday goody basket that she delivers around to people along with her homemade bread, cinnamon rolls and pepper jelly. She sent the recipe to me the other day and I've been drinking it like crazy every since. Below is the recipe. I left it just as my mom emailed it to me because I love how she explains things to me in recipes like I'm 10.

Russian Tea

1 Jar Tang (l lb. 2oz)
1 Jar dry lemonade dry mix (Country Time only)
3/4 cup Lipton instant tea (or 1 cup if you want stronger. I usually like a lot more of the tea)
3/4 cup sugar (or you could use tea with nutrasweet above and you dont have to put the sugar in)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves

Mix up in a big bowl and then you can put in small jars and give for Christmas presents. You really cant mess this up. If you like more cinnamon taste put in more cinnamon. Don't put a wet spoon back into your jar when you are dipping out your tea or it will make your mixture get lumpy. (I used to always catch you doing that when you were little) Happy Holidays!!! Love Mom

HA! What she doesn't know is that I wasn't using a spoon...I would lick my finger and stick it in the mix and just eat it out of the jar like fun dip.

So I send Tweedy to the store to get the goods and of course he gets all the wrong stuff and I had to go back...he came back with those little plastic packets of instant tea that you would put in a water bottle and a 12 oz jar of Tang. Errr!! But he is sweet for trying!!

Nappies and Greens

This weekend went by wayyy to fast...but both Tweedy and I were pretty productive. I made the "Nappy Bag," an Amy Butler pattern, and it will be our diaper bag for Baby Girl...in case anyone doesn't know what a nappy is. lol. I was a teeny bit annoyed but overall happy with this pattern and am super happy with the outcome! The material is Amy Butler too and is so pretty!! She has some amazing fabrics to choose from. The only complaint I have about the pattern is that part of the strap I had to cut out was missing and I had to make my own. I was so confused that it was left out and when I was packing up I finally found it...of course after I'm finished. It was on a separate directions page with the second project that came with the pattern....a changing pad. But it didn't tell you it was on a different page completely!



All of the fun "bottle pockets" and other pockets on the inside are my favorite part... but I had to stuff it full of random bathroom stuff since we don't have any baby stuff yet though. HA!




One other pattern complaint is that I had to buy A LOT of fabric and had a ton left over! But the extra went to good use...My friend Marianne showed me how to make a roll up knitting bag for all of my equipment. Pics to come.

On to Tweedy's weekend of productfulness...the greenhouse has greens in it! Lots and lots of them....lettuce, kale, collards, swiss chard, broccoli etc etc.. I love love going in there now. The air feels so clean and crisp. It's getting cooler here now but the sun coming through the greenhouse warming everything is amazing.





One of our tasks yesterday was digging up worms from our backyard and transplanting them into the greenhouse to put air into the soil and make it rich....all I found were some baby snakes, which Tweedy said were harmless garden snakes but I was convinced they were rattlers and was ready to chop their heads off when he wasn't looking. They were brown and black!! I'm about to go do some research on snakes in wikipedia.

Mitten You Some?

OK that doesn't work very well. HA! But these do! I found a mitten pattern somewhere online and I can't remember where...but I know it came out of this book:



It's a free pattern for the basic mittens shown below...I'll post it later when I think of it. They had them in wrist length and fingerless too! Anyway....one of those patterns that I printed, forgot about and then my friend Marianne showed me the ones she made and they were great!! So I fished out my pattern, got some Lamb's Pride Bulky and casted on. I was going to give them to my mom for her birthday but somehow when attaching the thumb...I made a little hole. I was telling my mom about them over the phone and she was like "Well if you make some for me make sure mine don't have a hole!! That would drive me cra-zay!!" Boo...so now I have to make another pair minus the hole. I like these though..I'll keep the faulty ones. She also said "Can't you just pull it out and start over?" um.....NO you can't Mom! I'd have to pull out the whole thing!



I also just finished this little hat for Girl Baby. It's the same basket weave hat that I did in blue a while ago. Click here for pattern. It's so quick and easy! I love it...Jayber loved it too. HA! (Even this fuzzy pic took multiple attempts!)




Errr I'm so ready for the weekend!! Tweedy has been doing night shift so the weekends are our hang out time. We have big plans to watch the Alabama game and are hoping our crafty couple friends will come over so Marianne and I can knit and the boys will brew the beer from the kit I gave Tweedy for his Bday. It's called No. 8 and is a dark dark beer from Belgium created by monks! mmmmmm too bad I can't have any.

In more news...Tweedy finished his green house and it looks great! I'll post pics soon. He planted a ton of greens in it so I think we're set on lettuce and such for the winter. If anyone who lives around us wants any...lemme know! Mia (our little yard cat) has decided the greenhouse is her new home, which is stressing Tweedy. Apparently cat poop is not good for plants so our job this weekend is to find ways to keep her out. But she's so feisty!! Don't let this sweet little cross eyed face fool you...so far she's left a somewhat dead bird and a half eaten snake on our doorstep along with headless roaches and grasshoppers! Yowza!!!

Day Gowns

Baby clothes time! These little dresses were so fun to make. I told yall about how the smocking is pretty mindless and super addicting. The dress construction part is the complete opposite. I almost pulled my hair out on the first one trying to line up seams, attach lace, hand sew the hem and neck and put in the #$#@%^ placket strip...but when it was finished, I was so proud of it! I immediately started on the green one. I love green and little girls in green are so sweet...a nice change from pink pink pink everything. We're not going to do a lot of pink around our house. I'm sick of pink already and she's not even here yet.

Some pics...






The great thing about this bishop dress pattern is that you can change it around to a couple of different styles - bubbles, dress with angel sleeves, bigger dresses or smaller for babies, long sleeves, short sleeves, nice clothes, play clothes...etc. The next one I'm doing is the angel sleeve style and is more of a play dress for when she's a toddler.

Tie It On

And the first aprons are finished! When I got the "A is for Apron" book I was telling yall about how I knew that I was going to like making them...but I didn't know I'd like it this much! They're so fun and girlie, which is pretty coincidental since we found out this weekend that we're having a GIRL! Woohoo!! (I was secretly hoping it was a girl.)

These first FOs were pretty simple, quick and painless. Just how I like it. I did get pretty annoyed with the rick rack on the pink one and would swear off rick rack forever if it didn't look so cute. The other great thing about these is that the amount of fabric it takes to make one is barely a yard of the main color and 1/2 a yard for the coordinating color! Woohoo = cheap! I found this material at our Local Sewing Store on the sale rack since there was only a tiny bit of it left. This is also a great thing to use extra material for from clothes made! (I'm one of those that likes to use every last shred of material.) I think next time I'll try one of the more complicated ones that goes across the chest and around the neck since when I cook/clean...that's usually where I get the messiest.

I really wish I had an embroidery machine though...I think the pockets need something. Maybe a big curly initial of the first name of whoever I give them to. I dug through the Mimi box of old timey sewing stuff from my grandmother's house and found some appliqués but they were all pretty corny...apples, daisies, bananas, eyeballs with one winking?? mushrooms? Definitely too 70's for these flirty aprons. I'm sure I'll find something to use them on. My favorite part is the pink apron has long ties that tie into a big pretty bow, but you can't tell from the pics!

New Projects On the Horizon

Good News! I've finally started feeling better lately and have been trying to get back into the swing of things. The cooking is slowly starting again, clothes are getting washed and our house doesn't look like a train wreck with Jayber hairball, tumbleweeds all over the place anymore. Tweedy is so thankful.

So! With all of that comes new projects for me. Woohoo! I've really been into sewing lately and with that have learned how to smock. Smock You Some! It's pretty fun...kind of like knitting in that it's very addicting/portable and I think children in smocked clothes are so cute! But for some reason I feel like more of a grandma when I take my smocking places rather than my knitting. Not sure why. Maybe it's because it's obvious that I'm pregnant and I'm making baby clothes...too cliche? I don't know. I usually just do it at home since I've been embarrassed by it for some reason. But here's one little day gown I did. It's not quite finished in this picture. I lost my camera cord and can't upload a recent one. It's also not put together yet. Learning how to construct it is another class I'm signed up to take in Sept.


Sweet little baby day gown


I just bought this book on my lunch break. I loooove girlie frilly aprons and this book is packed with them. I thought making them for friends would be a good birthday/shower present or something like that. Some of the patterns in here are sooo old timey and perfect. I haven't tried one yet but I'll let yall know if the directions are good/bad.



The Jenny Cloche from Julia is my current knitting project. I'm working on it like a crazy woman trying to get it finished for my friend's birthday this weekend. I'm doing mine in a creme Jiffy yarn color and will post some pictures of it when finished. I thought it was cute and not your typical beanie with fluff ball on top knitted hat. I think she's going to love it.



Also...because Tweedy and I are so environmental lately, we're joining the bandwagon on the bring your own bags to the grocery store thing. But I keep losing/not bringing enough bags to the store! So I want to whip out a couple of these knitted ones but I can't decide which one I want to to do. Right now it's between these:

Elisa's Nest Tote (no i did not pick this one because the girl and i have something in common)


String Bag


"I want, I want, I want, I want, me, me, me, me, mine, mine, mine, mine, now, now, now ,now"......this pattern. (10 points to whoever knows where that quote is from. HA!) Not crazy about the girlie goo fabric used in this picture but I found some material this weekend at a hole in the wall fabric store that's going to be soooo cute. First I have to purchase the pattern. More updates on this one later.



Woo...I have a lot of stuff I want to do!! So why do I have to sit here at work in front of the computer all day and respond to emails? Boo! It has been raining all day today too..perfect project weather!

Christmas in July!

So...my mom came in town this weekend and after 4 hours of going through my grandmother's house brought me all kinds of goodies!! You have to know that my grandmother, who has 5 children...all with children, doesn't like to throw away anything!! They have lived in the same house for over 50 years so you can imagine all the fun stuff there is to find there. She still has all clothes from her lifetime (prom dress), her mothers clothes, old hats, shoes, my mom and all of her sibling's clothes and of course of all her grandchildren's clothes. Needless to say she likes to be the keeper of things. My mom went on a hunt through the rooms full of boxes in search of any salvageable baby clothes she could find...and boy did she ever find some good stuff.

These are a couple of my favorites that I've already hung in the closet:







My great grandmother was a very accomplished "Do it yourselfer" and she made most of my grandmother and mother's clothes all the way until they were adults! She was a knitter too! And while going through the baby clothes we found some of her FOs that I can't wait to use on our baby. They're in great shape too!

these are the tiniest little sweaters...


i love this baby blanket...


AND...even more fun stuff that mom found in the Mimi museum were all of my great grandmother's old patterns!! I had the best time going through these and making my own box with the ones that were still in style that I would like to try. Most of them were for adult clothes and luckily in my size, but there were some baby day gown patterns and toddler clothes too!!

thats' my keeper box on the left..woohoo!!


just a couple of my favorites...

The Word Is OUT!!

And we're back! Again sorry for the delay but I promise I have a good excuse this time. Tweedy and I are expecting a baby due Feb. 5th!! We weren't quite planning on babies this soon but it's such a welcome surprise and we're pretty excited. The bad news...I've been super sick from all this pregnant stuff. I haven't been able to do anything fun without getting sick...can't cook, take Jayber on walks and haven't felt like knitting or sewing in a while. All I want to do is take naps, drink milk shakes and go to work (don't always want to do the last one..but you gotta do what you gotta do). Smells are killing me...yesterday I got sick in the shower after smelling my shampoo while I was washing my hair. It doesn't help that I can smell every little thing now like a superhero or something with my super powerful smellers.

But the good news is that I'm almost finished with my first trimester now...so 12 weeks along and it's getting better slowly but surely. Supposedly it should end early into week 14. So how did this happen you say?!? Well....Tweedy's family took us on a trip to France and Italy for 2 weeks at the end of May and it was such a great vacation and just so damn romantic over there that....as Tweedy says "We went over there with two of us and came back with three of us." (That's what he said to his parents to tell them our news...so embarrassing!)

We all know where this picture was taken...


Notre Dame was one of my favorite things...


Lake Como, Italy - Where George Clooney and Brad Pitt have villas. I looked for them everywhere but unfortunately they came the week after we left. Boo.


So now that I'm finally feeling a little better I'm gearing up my crafting into overdrive. Especially the baby stuff as you can imagine. I've signed up for a smocking class and am into week two with it. It's pretty fun! Kind of like knitting in that it's county, portable and incredibly addicting. My first project is going to be a baby blue day gown with a geometric smocking pattern at the top. I'll put up some pictures one I finish it. On the knitting front...I've been working on a top secret project for one of my friends who's also having a baby but I can't talk about it until I give it to her since she reads Knit You Some...so more on that later.

We've also been super busy after moving into our new house doing yard stuff. Tweedy has made an amazing garden and now we have eggplants, tons of cantelope, tomatoes, basil and other fun veggies all over the place.

This is from a couple of weeks ago so now the plants are overflowing the raised beds..but Tweedy made these raised beds all by himself!


Also...my dad came to visit a couple of weeks ago with plans to put a storage house in our backyard for Tweedy's yard tools and stuff. So I'm thinking a tiny little 6 ft. tall house big enough for maybe a lawn mower and some shovels, but oh no...3 days later...it turns out this "storage shed" has a front porch and is looking more like a guest house with a greenhouse attached to the side of it. Errr I was tricked!! But Tweedy's pretty pumped about it and our backyard is big so oh well. His office may have to be moved out there now that there's a baby on the way.

What a proud helper...haha!


Almost finished product...