capturing september

Another sweater for the baby.

I spun some triple-ply yarn a few weeks ago and decided to try out a new pattern.  I've seen so many great versions of this sweater - all with hand spun yarn.

October starts tomorrow. Happy autumn, everyone!

xo Jill

some finishing touches

The weekend is here! It feels so good to take the time to relax and move slowly. Both my husband and I had a busy work week, so it was nice to snuggle in bed for an extra hour. Look who jumped into bed with my husband after I got up to make the coffee this morning. Bree usually sticks pretty close to me, but she took advantage of this open spot as soon as I vacated it.

August is for tomatoes, this I know. I've been making bruschetta, salsa, BLTs and omelets. This week I tried my hand as some homemade tomato and basil soup. It was good, but I definitely have some ideas about how I can improve my recipe next time. I think I need a sieve to get the tomato seeds out. That was my only complaint. It sure smelled good as it simmered on the stove.

Lots of caps and booties flying off the needles. I think it's because I have so many bits and odds and ends of yarn. I love that none of it is going to waste - the yardage is perfect for baby-sized hand knits. 

Hope you are all enjoying the weekend.

Jill

handspun yarn

Here are a few of the projects that I've been working on with the assortment of hand spun yarn that I've been saving over the years. I got the cap pattern here. I got the bootie pattern from a friend at work. She said they're good because they stay on. We'll have to wait and see.

Hope you all are having a good weekend.

Jill

wool + zinnias

Lots of wool around here - and flowers. 

I picked up a hank of some hand spun yarn that I made a few years ago and knit a pair of ankle socks. I Navajo plied this yarn so it was a bit twisty in some places. I also noticed that the size of the yarn changed from sport weight on the first sock to worsted/chunky on the second. The extra twist in this yarn should make the socks I made more durable, that's why I chose to make socks with this yarn. I only had a few yards left over when I cast off the last stitches. I will enjoy wearing these socks this winter.

You will be seeing a lot of blue yarn in my upcoming posts because we found out we're having a boy. I couldn't be more excited and I've already got a small mountain of boy appropriate yarn in my knitting basket. The little sweater I posted above has been a real stash buster. I need to find the perfect buttons.

This summer has been a dream come true. I feel so grateful to get the chance to knit a sweater for the baby that I'm carrying. I really didn't know if I would ever get this opportunity. I may be going a bit overboard, but I don't care. There has been a lot of wool piling up around here over the years, also a lot of hopes that have finally been answered.

Thanks for reading.

Jill

hiatus

Hello Dear Friends:

I have been on hiatus from the blog - a first in the six years that I have been posting, but the break was much needed. Over the past few months I've resumed my crafting, cooking and creative explorations, so the need for outreach and sharing - this blog - was an inevitable conclusion.

How else would I be able to keep track of how the garden looked, what the goofy dog was doing and what had found it's way on and off my knitting needles?

Life has been very good to my husband and I in the months that I have been quiet. We are pregnant and I'm 20 weeks along! It feels like a fairytale and a dream - something I don't quite think we ever believed could happen after all that we had been through. 

My knitting projects are now geared very much toward baby. I've finally got the chance to try out all of those patterns that I'd been collecting. This little pattern is called sweet baby cap. I'm making it out of some 2 ply hand spun that I made in 2013. I only had about 150 yards left over from a pair of socks I knit at that time and I was waiting for a very special project.

I will try to catch up with you all now that I am back in form (though it is expanding day by day!)

God has truly taught me how to hope and blessed us beyond belief!

Ever hopeful, 

Jill xo

rainy days

It's gray and rainy today - but that's a lot better than wind and snow.  I was out poking around in my garden, but all of my perennial beds are still quiet. I expect I'll see some green buds poking through the soil in the upcoming weeks. We have to devise some sort of barrier to keep Bree out of our garden beds until the plants have been able to assert themselves. She didn't do much damage to the garden last year, but we adopted her in June and everything for the most part was established.

We got a bunch of bulbs from my husband's cousin last fall and I can't wait to see how they do. We planted them in such a rush, that I can't really remember what we planted where. It should be a surprising spring.

Socks on the knitting needles again. I've made this pattern three or four times. Easy and fun. I have a backlog of knitting projects that are "waiting in the wings" that I want to make this spring. I think that's how all we knitters are though - the next project is usually started before the current is cast off the needles. Never a dull moment.

What's cooking? I'm making another batch of beef bone broth this weekend. I'm going to make Pho soup later this week and the other dish is a new recipe that I started making this winter: chicken tartiflette. It's so good!

Jillian xoxo

faith on our journey

We have been busy these past weeks, traveling to make some connections for our adoption and then scrambling to catch up with work when we returned. Our journey took us to the eastern United States and I'm feeling very hopeful that it is where we may finally catch a break and find the baby that we have been earnestly hoping and praying for - for three long years.

It's been a difficult journey. Hope and faith are lifelines. But sometimes it really is hard to keep the faith alive. I think I read somewhere that faith kicks in when hope has started to fade. Faith takes a lot of strength. Some days I'm good at it, other days I stumble.

Faith is enduring.

Before our trip I made a big batch of chicken noodle soup. I think this recipe has kept me from falling ill all winter (knock on wood) I hope my immune system holds out as it seems that a new batch of the flu bug has broken out at work. Seriously, I don't know why some people won't just stay home when they are oozing symptoms, but such was the state of my office last week.

I will be traveling for work again this week. This is the third of four travel sessions that I will have to take for this particular project. I can't wait for this phase to be over. The days are grueling and it really wears you out.

Finished the little sweater. I'm tucking this one away in a drawer scented with lavender that holds other precious baby things. (Faith and hope again.)

I hope you are all well and starting to thaw after this grueling winter we experienced in the Northern Hemisphere.

Jillian xoxo