hockey boy

We went out to the lake on Sunday to watch my husband and his buddies slip around on the ice playing boot hockey. Logan liked being pulled around on the sled and holding a hockey stick.

He's been really keen on putting his boots on in the house and tromping around. He can finally keep his balance and thinks he's a big boy.

Not sure if we're going to have a hockey kid here, but it sure is fun watching him grow up!

xo Jill

P.S. those are the sweet little hand spun mittens I knit him this fall.

hope

"Hope is one of the most important virtues that can be instilled in our soul. Many people think that hope has to do with the future, when in reality it has to do with the past. We develop hope as we experience pain transformed into comfort. When this happens enough, we begin to have faith that our pain will not do us in and that comfort is on its way." 

Cloud & Townsend

 

 Busy mornings and afternoons run into jamb-packed evenings spent with baby and husband. The kitchen sink is overflowing with pots and pans and weeds are peeking up beneath the straw in the garden - but all is well!

 

 Strawberries are appearing too, and tiny bean sprouts that the bunnies like to nibble on. Ten percent of all my garden plants either get trampled by the dog as she gallops for her frisbee or munched on by rabbits in the wee morning hours. That's a pretty good harvest. 

The peonies have blown, but they were gorgeous and fragrant for a stretch of ten days as May turned into June. Pretty rings of colorful fabric are appearing on bed in my studio. Now I need to find a backing and pick out the binding for this little quilt. 

I started a new little sweater made from my mom's yarn. The pattern is: Little Coffee Bean, so far it's an easy and fun knit. The aqua stripes really pop. 

I read this quote on hope earlier this week and it really struck me. It's so very true. 

xo Jill

sweater love

My flax sweater for the little guy is done and I loved knitting every minute of it. I soaked it in some cold water with lavender scented soap yesterday afternoon and then blocked it. This morning is was waiting for me on the bed up stairs. The light was perfect so I started to snap some photos.

Then I remembered all of the other sweaters I've knit so far for baby. There are a lot of them and I'm sure the pile will continue to grow :) :)

Hope the little guy likes wool.

One of the things that I love about this post today is that all of these sweaters are made from fiber from my parents' sheep. The fiber has been processed in different ways to get different results. The top three sweaters in the final picture of this post feature our mill-spun yarn in two different weights - fingering and worsted that we hand painted. The green/yellow sweater at the bottom is handspun from our combed top and triple plied in worsted weight yarn. The bottom sweater is our undyed wool that I hand spun and double plied in chunky weight yarn.

A lot of loving work and countless relaxing hours creating something for my baby to wear that comes from my parents' farm.

And the quilt in the background comes from the creative mind of my sister - some of the pieces of fabric come from pieces of clothing we wore and shared (haha! fought over) in our early twenties. Lots of memories!

Sending warm woolly baby hugs your way!

xo Jill

P.S. Joining Amanda Jean for Finish it up Friday!

handspun hat

The baby is sleeping in his little monkey bed as I write this. We ran some errands today, to the grocery store and to the fabric shop. I found a background for the star quilt that I'm working on. Now I have to sew it all together. I hope it goes well, quilting isn't my forte, but I really love doing it. Some of my blocks for this quilt are misaligned, but I think only an experienced quilter would notice that sort of thing, so I'm not going to worry about it too much.

As long as there are no large holes we're good.

Logan's wearing a hat that I spun and knit for him this past July, when he was just a little flutter in my belly. I can't believe his head has grown enough for him to fit into it. I pulled it out of the drawer today as we were getting ready to dash out to the store, I didn't think it would fit, but it was almost a little too tight.

Is this how fast a baby grows? Faster than their mamas think they should? Too fast.

I finished two books this week and already started another. I wrapped up "A Curious Beginning" which I wrote about last week. Then I sped through "Red Queen" which reminded me of "The Hunger Games" and "Divergent." The book I'm reading now has already had me laughing out loud. I know a lot of people who have liked it. It's fun because part of it is set in my home state and it's about home grown food and cooking. I'm already craving fresh tomatoes from the garden.

Have a good week everyone.

Jill

handspun baby

We've hit that January cold stretch that seems to come every year. Temperatures way below zero. I haven't set foot outside for a few days, not since the weekend grocery run. Baby and I have been snuggled in under wool and warm flannel, chattering to each other and watching the light change through the branches of the trees out the windows.

I just remembered this little vest the other day. It's almost too small - he's growing so fast. This is knit from some handspun that I've had for years. If I can remember correctly it's 100% merino wool. I double-plied it to get worsted weight yarn. There was enough of it for this project. Perfect colors for a little boy.

The blood oranges have been great this season. After our bout with the sniffles I made sure we stocked up on citrus. Pretty in pictures!

I'm going to cast on for another - bigger - one of these soon!

xo Jill

woods

Busy this weekend, running errands and crossing items off our fall to-do list. Sunday afternoon we were both beat, but the weather was so beautiful Bree and I both begged Garrett for one more visit to the dog park before it closes its gates for winter. This off leash dog park is right on the Mississippi and dogs can chase each other to their heart's content along the sandy shore. The leaves in this place have turned yellow and gold.

Bree's not much on socializing with other dogs. She's friendly and curious, but she's always more interested in other people. She'll let all the dogs sniff her, but she'll approach most people on the trail with kind eyes and a curious nose. Garrett and I looked back a few times to find her trailing along another group of people. As soon as we called her she turned round and raced back to us. Silly girl!

Here's my September hand spun sweater. Love every bit of this little number. I really made myself think as I was spinning this yarn and I spun it loose with as much loft as I could. Triple ply! It took ages to spin. Then, when I plied it back, I was careful to keep my tension in check and not over-spin it. The results were a soft, glossy, pliable yarn. Not too heavy. This is a CVM wool and romeldale blend from my parent's farm. We pot-dyed it ourselves a few years ago now. My mom had it in her etsy shop for ages and when no one was snagging it up, I snagged it myself.

Love the golds and the russets. If I could have changed anything about this project, I would have added more contrasting color to the top, I like it when it stripes a bit. Always room for experimentation and improvement!

xo Jill

nesting

I knit this little cap in a few days. It's a modified version of this pattern. I just added some stripes and purled each first row of new color.  I like how at each color join there's a thin strip of contrasting color. The hat looks good inside out too, but the i-cord and tassel don't show.

The nest above was built by a cardinal couple that we watched all summer. They hatched some baby cardinals a flew away late in the summer, leaving their handiwork behind.

I've been nesting lately as well - only six more weeks until baby arrives! We set up the nursery last weekend, but we still have piles of baby things to organize before we can call it complete. Last night I made a double batch of enchiladas and froze one pan for later.

I'm happy we're waking up to Friday tomorrow :)

xo Jill

socks

Socks socks socks and a sweater.

I found the sock pattern here - and I've already knit three pairs of these socks.  They're really easy, fast and intuitive - if you're familiar with knitting socks. I can finish one sock in an evening. My husband and I are huge Survivor fans and I knit half a sock each episode.

The sweater is a special project that used up all of a skein of hand spun that I'd been saving for over three years. It's a bit bulky, but it should keep our little guy nice and warm.

Well, I hope you are all surviving the work week. Steady as she goes, I'm plowing through. This weekend I have my first baby shower and my husband has promised to help set up the nursery and put the crib together.

Should be fun.

Hang in there everyone!

xo Jill