Step Into My Thimble

If I could find it anymore, I would model my finished Kepler for you today. Here is a picture of it on the table…

Unfortunately I can not wear this now. It fits the rest of the body just fine, but that cable band around the belly is just not flattering! It happens to go right around the thickest part of me, and leave a bit of belly hanging out underneath. So it has to wait until next fall. Sigh.

Besides that I am sure the fit is perfect and I can’t wait to wear it eventually. I just love the pattern!

Now I’m doing Lickety-Split, a bulky little kid sweater from the Yarn Girls’ kids’ book. I saw this as a “shop model” at the Briar Rose Farms open house a while ago, and I had to make one of my own! It’s using Briar Rose’s “Sonoma” double-stranded, and one 487-yard skein makes a one-year or two-year toddler size sweater. I did all of what you see here in less than a day, and if I can find the motivation, I’ll have the sleeves and sides all done tonight. Here’s a close-up of the lovely color mix:

There are more blues, greens and browns than you see here, and I’m hoping if Mitten turns out to be a boy, he’ll forgive me for the magenta blobs that appear every now and then. At age one or less, I guess it really doesn’t matter, though my kid will be photographed more while wearing my handknits than while wearing a Hanes Toddler wifebeater (yes, I got some of those at Kmart yesterday just in case; who can resist?) or some other name-brand mass-produced apparel.

Speaking of cute little-kid wear, Carolyn sent this for Mitten. Adorable!

This one is from dear Andrea so of course I must indulge. It is knitting related, and since there’s been such an abundance of text on this site lately I’m putting it behind a “more” link…

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Today’s subjects in a nutshell: Kepler progress (very close to done); a finished sweater for Mitten (using local handspun); snow; new furniture made from salvaged woodwork; Thanksgiving dinner; midwife stuff.

1. Kepler

I will be able to finish this sweater without doing anything weird. I have enough yarn! Yay! Right now the front and sleeves are done, and the back is about 2/3 done. The goal is to have it sewn up and wearable by this Sunday. I can do it.

2. Baby sweater

This is a modified version of a simple pullover (Itchy Fingers?) from the Yarn Girls’ kids’ book. I had to reconfigure it a bit to suit the gauge of this super-sturdy handspun wool I bought a local fiber fest a week ago. It’s already pretty soft, but I think once I wash it it will be even softer. For Mitten!

3. Snow

We got a ton of snow in the last 48 hours. This is a key difference between the other side of Lake Michigan, or the other side of the state: lake effect weather. Kalamazoo notoriously gets mountains more than a lot of other areas. And as a homeowner, guess what, you get to shovel it all yourself!

I took a couple pictures, but decided to put them on Flickr since this post is cluttered enough. This is our front light, which looked kind of like a skull in the streetlight behind it. And this is the frost on one of our dining room windows. My little camera did not quite catch the glittery beauty of the frost, but you get the idea.

4. Furniture

We went to an antiques show at the county fairgrounds last weekend in search of a cabinet to organize our bathroom junk and linens. Instead of buying a true antique, we decided on a piece that was made from salvaged woodwork. I really like this idea and I think it won’t be long before it gets very popular so you’ve been warned. The beauty of it is threefold: you get the kind of historic charm you might find in a real antique (plus the scratch-n-dent worn factor if you like that), the cost is typically less than a real antique, and also you know you’ve helped prevent more usable materials from ending up in a landfill somewhere.

Basically the two guys who run the business (in Sturgis, Mich. for you locals) find old windows, doors, hardware, trim, etc. and just make up stuff out of it. They even do custom pieces, which we might consider later on for a kind of large problem area in the kitchen.

5. Thanksgiving dinner

Rodney’s dad and his mountain of dinner. This could not be captured in a photo. It was seriously as high as a bundt cake at one point, and he ate it all. He was rocking a sort of hybrid Englishman (which he is) meets Amish look yesterday.

More on the dinner including our menu, and…

6. Midwife stuff
are both in the continued part below.

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View out my window this morning:

So timely on this first real snowy day of the season: I got my Blogging By Mail 3 box today! (It was a food swap, for you non-food-bloggers.)

This is from Beth of St. Louis, Missouri. Go midwest! Should we be surprised that a family tradition of hers involves a can of spray cheese, or those little boxes of Life Savers? Holy 5th grade memories! Also included: some Easter candy! What luck to find it at this time of year! And the food section of her local paper. And a very nice letter explaining family traditions. And recipe cards.

But best of all, a tin of homemade Coconut Rum Diamonds! These are so great, I tell you. For someone who is off the booze due to growing a Mitten for another 5 months, anything vaguely rummy is always appreciated, plus I love coconut and so does Rodney. I doubt this tin of cookies will last long. They’re like Shortbreads 2.0–just add rum, coconut, and powdered-sugar glaze. Yum!!!

And now for my next trick:

This I learned from my brother’s wife last weekend. I’m not really ready to post blatant belly shots (Mitten is shy) but regular pants don’t fit, and this is a handy trick. You need one heavy-duty rubber band like the kind that comes on a bunch of broccoli, and you’ll get yourself at least an extra month out of your regular jeans this way!

Because guess what? Shopping for maternity jeans sucks.

Today’s most pressing issue in the Kalamazoo area: How come, on two separate occasions, approximately two weeks apart, but in two different locations within a couple blocks of our house, have I found a whole pile of school-cafeteria-sized containers of chocolate milk dumped on the side of the street? Who would do that? I can see chucking one empty out a window, if you’re a teenager lucky enough to get a ride home after school with your pot-head buddies, but who in their right mind would dump like 25 containers (most still full) on the side of the road? TWICE?

Look, I made some holiday ornaments!

These are wool felt with vintage buttons. They have dried lavender inside. I really cheated and used fabric glue instead of sewing them up by hand (though I did sew on the buttons). And now I am afraid I might be hooked on the fabric glue! It’s just so easy…but it doesn’t look as cute.

This weekend has kind of sucked. I did too much on Friday and Saturday then I felt sick and depressed for the rest of it. And this morning I ran over a squirrel. I have to think of something to make up for my guilt.

On those busy days though, I did get to go to an open house at Briar Rose Farms in Caledonia, and I visited the Threadbender yarn shop in Wyoming (near Grand Rapids). I bought a skein of Briar Rose “Sonoma” in a more purple/blue/green colorway than the one I used for this scarf and this hat. It is for a little kid sweater from the Yarn Girls’ kids book–Briar Rose had a sample on display that was too cute.

At Threadbender I bought some nice pale green yarn for an aran pullover and cap for Mitten. My sister also gave me a Filatura di Crosa baby pattern book, so I bought some other yarn to make a funny fluffy hooded bunting. And I also found a nice sale yarn to make my own Trellis. Though the store had All Seasons Cotton I decided to go with a wool blend instead, because of costs of course. But also the yarn is this interesting off-blue color that I think will be good especially if Mitten gets his/her daddy’s eyes.

I am done with the front, and halfway through the first sleeve of Kepler right now. So far, my kitchen scale tells me I’m going to have enough yarn for front, sleeves, AND back, which is good.

It’s Monday, things can only improve from here. Right?