little hands

It's been a colorful week around here. I snapped those pictures of the sunset last night. The prettiest one we've had in a while.

I'm working on a new project called Inspira Cowl. It's a free download on Ravelry. I'm using an assortment of Lion Brand Amazing yarn. It shifts colors like Noro yarn, but it doesn't cost as much. I got each skein for around four dollars with a coupon at JoAnn Fabric. It's fun to start an inexpensive project and get good results. If you're on Ravelry there are a ton of projects using this yarn, so it's got a good track record. I made mittens with it last winter. They've gotten a bit knobby, but I still like them.

If I have extra yarn I'm going to make a hat for my son based on this same pattern. I think the hat pattern actually came before the cowl pattern.

Have a good rest of the week.

Jill

nap time

During his nap time I hurry to pick up whatever project is utmost on my mind. This morning it was my bloomsbury sweater and I finished a sleeve. Then after he woke up I took him upstairs and he played in his suitcase while I sewed together the four large blocks that make up my single girl quilt top.

We zipped around town after lunch, from Minneapolis to St. Paul to look at potential rental houses for my brother and his family when they move back to Minnesota this September. Fingers crossed that I might have found something in one of the historic neighborhoods of Minneapolis with a wood burning fireplace and a park across the street for their little one. Hope that all pans out. (And we find the gold nugget.) Is that where the phrase "pans out" comes from?

Let's go with that :) :)

It's nap time again, that's why I'm blogging. When he wakes up my arms and heart will be full with one energetic nine month old.

Hope you have a great weekend.

xo 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

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

knits in progress

I went digging through my basket of unfinished projects last week and documented some things that have been sitting unfinished for way too long.

1.    Flashy striped socks
2.    Geometric mittens
3.    Swiss cheese scarf

Now I have to find the discipline to finish these projects before my attention wanders and I dive into something else.

What projects have been lingering in your knitting basket for way too long?

:) Jill