the gentle art of baby corralling

So many projects, so little time.

My little one is perfecting his crawling technique. He's gone from that comical back foot in the air downward thrust to gain forward momentum to a very practical army crawl that gets him just about everywhere he wants to go.

He's currently on strike from all of his "toys." He'd rather chew on the very durable (and dirty) rubber mat in front of the door, any cord protruding from an electronic device. No teeth yet, but he's sucking on his gums like a little old man with loose dentures.

Yesterday afternoon I wanted to get some quilting done, so I stuck him in a rolling suitcase near the bed as I completed the final spiral quilting segments on my scrappy trip around the world quilt. He loved it. He was playing with all of the zipper and tags.

(As I write this he's scooting towards the very hairy dog bed.)

Time to sign off folks. More to come!

:) :) Jill

blueberry boy

The little guy and I spent Saturday night up at my parent's farm. We squeezed a lot into a twenty four hour period. The best part was the blueberries. My dad took us to a neighbor's blueberry patch where we could pick as many blueberries as we wanted for free.

I filled up two three gallon buckets.

It was a wonderful morning. It had rained the night before, but when we arrived the sun was shining and the raindrops were drying on the berries. I have never seen so many blueberries before - some of the bushes were just blue. They were pretty easy to pick. I got six gallons in about two and a half hours. We cleaned and froze most of them, but I put together a blueberry crisp last night and ate a whole row of it with a fork while it was still cooling in the pan.

What do you think of Logan's crawling technique? He swings the one foot up in the air like a counter pendulum and then digs in the toes on his opposite foot to gain forward momentum. I've got it on video. Super sweet. 

My Bloomsbury sweater is knitting up fast. I hope I can keep up this pace. I've almost got the body complete and then I'll start on the sleeves.

Hope you all have a great week.

:) Jill

bloomsbury sweater

It has been a very busy and full week.

Last Sunday night Logan had a fever - probably because he's teething - but that meant that my husband and I had to keep him out of daycare for twenty-four hours past the time that the fever broke. We both ended up taking time off. My schedule got hit the hardest and to make up for it I had to go into the office today and work a full day.

I'm home now - yay!

Part of the time that I was home with the baby I was knitting on this Bloomsbury sweater that I just started. I have been admiring this sweater for a long long time and I finally cast on. It's been an addicting knit so far. The pattern is well written and the lace and cable repeats are easy to understand - even intuitive. I've been trying this on as I go, really crafting it to fit my body. So, I'm super excited to get it complete and wear it this fall when the weather cools down. This knit is a part of the 2016 sweater challenge that I'm doing with my cousin, Ashley. Basically, we challenged each other to knit one sweater for ourselves this year on top of everything else that we have going on in our lives. We got together for a weekend this spring and dyed the yarn for our prospective projects together. 

Hopefully, we can each add one more hand-knit sweater to our wardrobes.

(Inspiration for my Bloomsbury sweater comes from Froebelina and GreenCamijo on Ravelry.)

:) :) Jill

stripes + stars

events of July 2016 (so far)

Baby's teething - lots of drool

splashing in the lake

stars and stripes everywhere

sock yarn slipping off the knitting needles

crisscrossing the state in our car

trips to the farm to see grandma and grandpa - and the sheep!

a wild patch of raspberries

visits to the north woods to stay in a cabin

sitting around the campfire

looking at the stars

knitting before bed in the warm glow of a single lamp

making jar after jar of raspberry jam

(gallons of berries in the freezer)

weeding the garden and watching the zinnia blossoms grow

chasing the barking dog

piles of paperwork and forms

completing homestudy #3

laughing with baby at his goofy dad

drinking cider and grilling in the backyard

thankful for all of our blessings

:) Jill

P.S. Joining Nicole at Frontier Dreams!

cozy cabin socks

 

Last weekend and for most of the week we went and stayed at a cabin up in the north woods with my husband's large extended family. I started to knit a new pair of socks on the drive up. Now that we're home the colors in the socks remind me of the orange campfires and the crisp blue skies above the north woods.

Logan's starting to rock on all fours for longer periods of time. The determined look in his eyes tells me he won't be staying put where I put him for much longer. My baby is growing so fast! I cheer him on, while part of me feels sad that we're leaving behind his plump baby limbs, frizzy hair and joyous raspberries. His timing is perfect!

We are always moving forward though - into the great, unknown, big kid future. 

xo Jill