{wool and sticks}

The Family Blanket

Yesterday I was chatting via Ravelry with French Press Knits and the topic of knitting husbands came up. I mentioned that the only knitting my husband has engaged in was a a square for the family blanket.

It is a tradition in our family to knit a family blanket when there is going to be a new arrival, however this is only done for the first baby in the family.

Yarn is sent out to the respective family members and everyone knits a square and then returns it back to the organizer (usually the grandmother) who then arranges it and seams the squares into a blanket. Each knitter's square is identified and in the past embroidered patches have been used, or embroidery right on the blanket.

Here is our family blanket.

 

 

What are your favorite family traditions?

Busy Week

This week is pretty busy which is nice after a low key weekend. We spent much of the weekend outside and I channeled Martha (Stewart) by cleaning the (inside and) outside of all our downstairs windows. I did the rest of the windows upstairs yesterday. For a few hours of effort there was a huge impact and I am committing to doing this twice a year.

I also spent some time baking various foccocia's this weekend. I was trying to perfect my recipe before a baby shower on Saturday and I think I succeeded. I am baking 3 breads for the shower and making various infused oils and compound butters as toppings. 

I made some relaxing bath salts as shower favors this week and I need to jar them this week. I would like to purchase little scoops to attach to the jars but I am having trouble locating something suitable. Anyone have any suggestions?

Also on the schedule this week is finishing up some UFO's and starting some more projects. I am feeling a bit of knitting pressure as I just added 4 more projects to my holiday queue. They are all small and for Kennedy but they require deadlines nonetheless. I would love to knit this little guy for Thanksgiving but I do not have the proper yarn or the time, maybe next year. I do have another yarn related project this week but since it is part of my gifts, I will say no more. It is a great stash buster, a good way to use scraps and I will give more details when the time is right.

What are you busy doing this week?

Routines

Ever since getting home from NYC, K and I have been slightly under the weather. This was her first major illness, ever, and it was only a cold. I also got her cold but got over it pretty quickly. I took some serious vitamin doses and I think it helped.

Now that everyone is on the mend, I am trying to clean up our neglected house.

I am not great with housework. I try to run the vacuum once a week, I wipe down the kitchen daily and keep up with the bathroom. I do my best to ignore the tumbleweeds of cat hair and the thick dust on the window sills, but I am getting to the point where I cannot ignore it much longer. Not to mention that we have many boxes never opened or unpacked from our move to this house (a year ago.)

This morning I took out the vacuum and attachements and took care of all the tumbleweeds. I set the oven to self clean and cleaned all the radiators. It felt good and I noticed a major improvment in my sneezing.

I would like to take one day a week and really deep clean a room until I have made it through the entire house. I would also like to make an effort to fill 2 bags a week, one with trash and one with donations and get those out of the house. I have been looking at some cleaning routines on Real Simple (I know there is Fly Lady but that is not for me) 

Here is a good Fall cleaning list, and here are some good deep cleaning references for kitchen (and appliances) bathroom, living room, dining room and bedroom. Once you get everything clean, here is a quick routine for keeping it up on a daily basis. 

I am writing myself a schedule for one room a week. I feel like I can fit that in between our other activities. I try to schedule one day a week where Kennedy are home without other plans. I feel like we need that time to catch up and slow down.

Besides, Kennedy likes the hard work!

Scenes from the Weekend

 

 

 

 

A Wonderful Weekend + 1 More Day

great friends

great food

whiskey sours (egg and all) 

the sound of waves at night

the feel of the sand at the beach

an easy drive

family 

peameal bacon, mashed potatoes and corn + heirloom tomato delisicousness

lots of love

Happy Anniversary

4 Years Ago...

 

We broke the glass...

 

We danced the night away...

 

I married the man of my dreams...

Happy Anniversary Jacob, here's to many more!

The One I Love

She is a mama to her own babies

She thinks it is important to keep up with world news

 

She is a whiz in the kitchen too!

 

She gives the best hugs and kisses...

She is my sweet girl...

A Full Weekend

This weekend has been quite busy and I am feeling quite sleepy.

On Friday we went to the monthly Tot Shabbat service we attend at "our" synagogue. We have not joined (yet) hence the quotes. Services are always fun and there is a potluck with all the congregants outside. One of K's friends began walking this week and it really gave K some motivation to walk. That night she came home and took a few more steps on her own. K has also been into coloring. On a whim I bought some crayons and sketchbook for her and she has been coloring a bit.

The farmers market is getting fuller week by week. We bought strawberries and flowers, some muffins, and granola. I love seeing it fill in week by week and I have an even better time now that K is older and can taste and enjoy things.

We had a brunch this morning to have an early celebration for my grandmother's 91 birthday. Some of my family was in from out of town and catching up is always nice.

For brunch I decided to make a pound cake and since I did not have the right pan (a bundt) I improvised, planning to use 2 loaf pans. Rather than properly divide up the batter, I put it all in one pan and let it back for an hour. When I went to turn the cake out to cut it, the entire center which was still liquid dumped on the cutting board. I put the remnants back in the oven and let that bake. It was delicious even though it was baked to 2 different degrees of doneness. Oh well, next time I need to use the proper pans.

I gifted my grandma the slippers I knit her and she loved them. I am glad I chose cotton to knit them in since the yarn is washer and dryer safe. I don't think 91 year old grandma's want to deal with fussy yarn.

I have delicious smells coming from the oven, a BBQ brisket for dinner with warm spinach and corn salad.

I knocked out a few projects today, finished Ronnie's birthday hat, sewed buttons (well 1 button but it is a start) on Cindy's birthday present and cast on a new pattern I am helping to test. The week ahead is crazy but I think it will be a fun one.

I hope your weekend was great!

For friends and family

As I mentioned earlier, 3 of my friends have just given birth. I spent a good portion of today getting their special post partum gifts ready.


Lactation cookie mix


Knit hats


Post partum bath salts

Yesterday, Kennedy and I spent some time getting ready for Jacob's upcoming birthday. He requested homemade sauce for his birthday dinner (and fresh sauce rather than jarred was a promise made to him in our wedding vows) so we spent the afternoon letting our sauce simmer.



And what good would homemade sauce be without fresh pasta?

20

I have been talking a lot about cooking lately, and not much about knitting. I have many in progress projects and I am trying to hard to finish them so I can get to work on the incredible Botanica Medallion Cardi from Blue Sky Alpaca. Anne Hanson also just published her Trevi shawl knit with seasilk which I have plenty of. I still need to finish my first lace project before tackling a massive one like the Trevi.

So what am I working on? This Danica scarf is taking up an insane amount of time. It is not knitting up quickly like the pattern says. I like the complex look of it but as soon as I get into a good rhythm, it is time to change yarns, pick up new stitches and start all over. I also have this silly Socktopus in the works. I have 1 leg finished but it is on hold until the Danica is complete. Next up is the Hamsa, my first lace. I love how it is knitting up and I am starting to enjoy the laceweight yarn. As a longer term project (done for the fall) I have the Imogen sweater. The first sweater I am knitting myself. I am almost halfway done with the main body. It knits very fast but I only pick it up when laying in bed at night. It is so straight forward that it is easy to do half asleep. Lastly I have this sweater for Miss K. I am knitting it in a cream colored summer weight organic cotton. The yarn feels incredible in my hands and it is easy to alter the length to fit my girl. The chest will only be a bit large on her.

So I chug along.

I have some serious project ambitions for this weekend. I'd like to make serious progress on the building of my garden and I am hoping to get outside and dig in the dirt this afternoon. I also have some serious cooking going on. 3 of the mama's in my playgroup have given birth in the past 2 weeks and I am bringing them all a meal. I am putting together a meal of fresh pasta, sauce, bread and banana bread with ginger and chocolate. So I need to make, well...everything. All this labor for a simple meal has another purpose...Jacob's birthday dinner. He has requested fresh pasta and making pasta for many is as easy as making pasta for a few. He has also requested a serious chocolate cake and I am happy to oblige.

Congratulations to Andrea, Gittel and Marcela!