Whisper Cardigan : Finished!

I have had so many things lately that I have wanted to blog about, but haven’t got around to, so I still have some catching up to do!  Hopefully I can post a few more things and pictures before the baby comes.

Remember this pattern and yarn I showed you a long time ago?  I FINALLY finished it!  It was a victorious moment once it was knitted, hand-washed, blocked, and all dry and ready to wear.  Especially because a cardigan knit up in fingering weight yarn is not my typical knitting project. I am always more of a project knitter rather than a process knitter- I enjoy the end product more than the whole (sometimes long) process.  I’m just a sucker for more of a quick fix.  But at last, now I have a stylish, lightweight cardigan to wear!

I really like the design and construction of this cardigan.  It’s easy and doesn’t require a lot of counting and thinking, so it would be a great project to have around and work on continually, in between other projects.  Once I started this over the summer though, I was very determined to get it done before the baby comes.  I know this will get a lot of wear, especially next spring and summer, but it’ll even be great to wear indoors this winter.

I am so glad I finished this project, and am now onto making another cute little number for the baby boy on the way.  That little work in progress will show up here soon.  …Both of those works-in-progress, that is!  =)

Whisper Cardigan project page on Ravelry here.

A Few More: The Mommy-Made Collection

Continuing on in sharing a few more little baby knits that are done and waiting around to keep our baby boy warm and cozy, from the ‘made by mommy’ collection.  If this little guy takes after his mama at all, he will love to always have several soft and stylish knitted hats for the cold winter.  He is due to arrive sometime in October, so these little Pumpkin Hats were a Must-Have for his collection and will be so cute on him around Halloween and for the rest of Autumn.

I just love the little stem on top, the leaves, the wide rib, and these colors in Malabrigo Twist.  This yarn is so great for hats as it’s so soft and a great weight that knits up quickly.  I’m thinking this one turned out a perfect newborn size to bring him home in.  Ravelry page here.

I love the pumpkin hat so much I couldn’t make just one, so he has another that is slightly larger.  This set was knit up in Berroco Vintage, with a coordinating pair of my favorite little crocheted loafers.

The little crocheted button loafers are so tiny, definitely newborn size.  I expect they’ll fit him for about a week, maybe two, so hopefully I remember to take some photos of them on his little feet while I can.

Ravelry project page here and here.

The other baby booties made for him are the Oh Baby Baby Booties, also made in Berroco Vintage.  They’re cute, simple, practical, and will no doubt stay on his little feet and keep them warm.

I meant to share these on the blog a while ago, so now I’m almost caught up and can share the current work in progress! =)

Little Coffee Bean

I have been wanting to share some of the little numbers out of the ‘Knitted by Mommy’ collection that our baby boy has waiting for him.  I’ve shared pictures with friends so far but haven’t kept up on the blog… so thought it would be fun to post a picture a day of what I have made thus far.

At the beginning of my pregnancy I had thought I’d have a heaping pile of these cute little baby knits made by now.  But sadly, that is not the case.  I hope to still whip out a few more and catch up a little with my heaping pile of patterns.

Earlier this summer I made this Little Coffee Bean Cardigan.  I just love how little and boyish it is.  Made out of Berroco Vintage, which is a machine-washable worsted weight that I got at my LYS, the cardigan is so practical to keep him warm this winter.  The top-down, raglan style pattern is super easy and fun.

If you click on the picture you can see the cute little polkadot buttons that I think are great with the stripes.

I just love how small and precious it looks in my husband’s hands.

And the cute little baby hat to go with it…

The pattern is Bobbles for the Whole Family, and it’s a great one for a quick, cute hat in all sizes.  I’m going to have to make a few more in some other colors and yarns to keep him warm this winter.  =)

Sweater and hat on Ravelry here, and here.

An Overdue Update

Wow I can’t believe how much I have abandoned my blog during this pregnancy.  I haven’t visited or posted on here in the last 2 1/2 months!  I guess we’ll just call it an unannounced maternity leave.  Time has been going by so quickly this summer, and I guess I have somewhat lost interest and had my mind on other things.  And I must say that since the beginning of the pregnancy, I have sort of lost my creative spark in the kitchen.  I know, it is sad.  In the beginning I had a very picky appetite, although no problems with nausea or morning sickness.  Then my appetite and taste for food got more normal but cooking has just seemed like more work than it ever did before.  Other than my creative spunk in the kitchen, or lack of, there has been plenty of other fun things to post on so I think I have some catching up to do.

I know, enough excuses already, but I also must say that I always heard about ‘pregnancy brain’ before and thought it was sort of just a joke.  I’m telling you, it is real.  It is very REAL!  I won’t have my husband get on here to tell stories and examples, but will just say it is real, it’s not really funny, and maybe has something to do with neglecting the blog.  =)

I should start with a little update on this season’s gardening.  Honestly, my energy and effort in the garden has been much the same as in the kitchen.  Again, sad.  This summer we have had 90 degree weather all day every day for a while now so I tend to stay out of the heat and go in the garden right when the mosquitos want to come out and run me out of there.

My sunflowers are probably my favorite thing in the garden this year.  They now stand tall and make me happy.  I’ll definitely have to plant a bunch of them from now on!

And then of course the berries!  Processing of them has so far consisted of eating them fresh and sticking the rest in the freezer. =)

Had plenty of strawberries to enjoy too…

Our tomato bed sort of exploded with all the sunny hot days we’ve had, and is now full of green tomatoes..

And we are still enjoying some Chioggia Beets and some carrots.  I don’t think they did as great as we got them the last couple summers, I’m thinking it’s because every day this spring was rainy and then it seemed to switch overnight to being 90 degrees and hot everyday…

The peas did pretty well too.  Oh and my lavender from last year came back, and blew up…

So the garden has not got all the TLC this year that it has deserved and needed, I suppose I should get out there and pick more raspberries and pull some weeds.

I will be back soon to post updates on the progress in the baby’s room.  It’s a work in progress, and slow going, but I have a lovely vision for it and I’ll soon share pictures of the improvements along the way.  =)

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

It’s spring in Montana, so that means there are some yummy treats being made with our rhubarb.  This is our plant’s third season planted here, and I love seeing it come back bigger and better every year.

The leaves and stalks are huge, they took up half of our dining room table.  I froze a lot of berries last summer from our garden and some produce farms in WA that we visited, so with the strawberries I stored away in the freezer I’ve been making Strawberry-Rhubarb Custard Pie lately.  So good, I love the sweet and tart combination.

Just snapped some quick shots with the ol’ iPhone cameras, and this was the last piece of pie so it was kinda falling apart and I didn’t get to take one of it glistening when it was hot out of the oven.

Pie is not usually the first dessert I make at home for me and my hubby, even though I come from a long line of pie-making and pie-eating dutch women!  There usually has to be a good reason for me to make it, like Thanksgiving, or an abundance of rhubarb.  🙂  The fun thing about pies though, is the more you make them the better you get at it, and it’s good to be familiar with how to make a good dough and master pie crust.

You can find the recipe over at my cousin’s blog, Born in the Wrong Century.  🙂

Will-Built DIY Shelving

Our mud room/laundry room has been getting  a lot of attention lately.  We all of a sudden came up with a bunch of ideas on how we want to improve it.  First of all, we got rid of the old baby blue color, that I thought made the mud room look dingy and it just didn’t flow or blend with the rest of the house.  So we painted the room a nice cheery, pale yellow Benjamin Moore paint called Soleil.  We painted our guest room that color last year, and absolutely love it.  Its pale, soft, cheery, and sunshiny.  And it’s not too dark and not too light.  Perfect.  So we thought this room needed a little cheering up too and the Soleil color did just that.

And, the bigger news is that my hubby just finished building, staining, and installing some awesome custom shelving units.  I LOVE these, they are a great use of the space, and they give me so much more storage and pantry space.

He built them with good quality pine, and we used wood conditioner and then a natural stain.  We got the idea from my Aunt Connie who has shelves just like this in her mud room, then found these Williams-Sonoma shelves.  I printed off the picture for Will, we took some measurements and he got to work!

He has turned our garage into a wood-working shop, and he’s pretty happy out there in his man room/work space.  In fact, he’s out there now working on another project we have for the laundry/mud room.  I’ll be showing some more upcoming DIY improvements later.  But for now, I’ll be enjoying the new shelves! 🙂

A Little Spring Break

So I haven’t posted here in so long, I almost forget how.  I have been taking a little unannounced break from blogging lately.  I am in kind of a creative/knitting ‘funk’ these days, and even though I have cooked up some yummy dishes lately that are definitely post-worthy, I’ve been having a bit of a dry spell with blogging and such.  I will start posting again soon, but for now it’s nice to have a little break.

One more little thing to announce and share, there is a fun give-away happening today over on my absolute favorite knitting blog, Tanis Fiber Arts.  Tanis has an amazing blog and her very own line of quality, hand-dyed yarns in the most gorgeous colours.  Her knits and blog posts are always impressive and inspiring too.  So if you are a knitter and love to get your hands on all the beautiful yarn you can, check out her Giveaway today!

Hope you’re having a great week!