Fashionista

Addy loves hamming it up for the camera. Rachel's a camera buff so Addy has had flashes exploding around her since she was born. I stood her up in the family room and by the time I had the camera turned on and ready to go, Addy had already started 'posing'. * We did a quick costume change and she was ready to go again. First she tried to find grandma inside the camera - and then she got down to business. This is Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket, knit with Plymouth Encore in two colors. It's also my very first knitted garment. I love the kitty and puppy buttons (from my LYS). I improvised the seaming. My first attempts at mattress stitch seams looked like sheeeet. So I grabbed a crochet hook and slip stitched the sides together. It may not be traditional, but I like it. Or as Addy says, it's a Touchdown!
* The dress is Baby Blues Dress from Crochet Today! July/August 2007 edition. I used 4.5 skeins of Classic Elite's Flash in 6126 (multi-color white, pink and green) and 1 skein of Flash in 6189 (multi-color pinks) for the trim. The stitches called for in the pattern didn't show well in the multi-color yarn of the skirt, so I changed to a (sc, ch, 2 hdc) shell that looked much better. To tie the trim and skirt together, I also changed the trim to a 5-hdc shell on the bottom edge and a 3-hdc shell on the sleeves. Very easy, very cute pattern.

Zoo-Bee-Do-Bee-Do

John had never been to Santa Barbara and Addy wanted to take her first train ride, so we drove north and had lunch on the S.B. Pier before heading to the Santa Barbara Zoo. Addy was fascinated by the ocean from the minute we got out of the car. She kept pointing and laughing. During lunch, she insisted on sitting where she could see out the window, totally captivated by the birds and boats.I've always thought Santa Barbara's is the perfect zoo for kids; not too small and not too big.

Addy made quite the fashion statement.

There's plenty of room to run around but it's small enough to see everything in couple of hours. It's just across the street from the ocean and on a clear day (like today) you can see the Channel Islands off the coast. It's the ultimate So. California destination - palm trees, cool ocean breezes, and lots of wildlife.

One of our first stops was the elephant area. Addy couldn't figure out what those big things were but she thought they were pretty cool. We also got to see lots of monkeys - and giraffes. Sadly, Gemina the crooked-neck giraffe, who'd been a favorite of ours for years, died in January at the age of 20.

Addy got her first ride on the little train that circles the zoo, including behind the scenes vet and "off exhibit" areas. Grandma couldn't resist the stuffed animals - Addy chose the purple panda over the green elephant - and the 'things that go' picture book. I voted to name the panda "Barbara", but we'll see what Addy decides when she's a little older.

Addy missed her morning nap; we vainly hoped that she'd sleep in the car on the way to Santa Barbara but she was much too interested in everything that was going on. She was in a good mood all day, but by 2:30 you could tell that she was exhausted. Mom held her until she finally gave in and went to sleep, then we very gingerly put her in her stroller. There's not much that's cuter than a sleeping baby. Tomorrow - Addy models her new clothes!

Excitement

Addy's excited - Can you read her shirt to see why?

"I'm gonna be a Big Sister . . . but I'd still rather have a pony."

Baby's due Nov. 8. Excitement!

Construction Update

First up, dress construction. Addy's dress is about 5 rows further along than when I took this photo last night. I'm concerned that the neck and armholes are too small - so I've come up with a 'fix'. If I need it bigger, I'm going to take out the shoulder seams, lengthen the front shoulder pieces, add a button hole and button on each side, and voila! Adjustable, custom dress. Last night I found the yarn I bought for trim. I think the dark pink will look pretty at the shoulders and hem.

Dick's been working like crazy to get things done around the house. The floor leading to the Harry Potter closet is finished and grouted. I love how he set the tiles on the diagonal. The tile is also down in the living room and dining room. Doing the center of each room is a piece of cake compared to the edges, where each tile has to be custom cut to make sure it fits correctly. Kind of like quilting, or stained glass work. Making all those half-diamonds and little wedges would drive me crazy. Dick seems to thrive on that kind of precision work. Once the tiles are cut and cemented down, Dick slaps on the grout- looks like he's playing with mud pies, doesn't it? - which has to be carefully cleaned off without taking it out from between the tiles. Painstaking and back-tiring work. Tomorrow the baseboards go on and the furniture gets moved back into place. Can't wait!

Pottery Update

Remember the ceramic painting Marie, Nai'a and I did about a month ago? I can't believe the difference firing the pieces made. This was my baby dish - and this is the dish now. So shiny and bright. And yellow.

Here's my gecko soap dish- The 'tummy' is deep purple - couldn't get the color right in the photo. Don't you love the eyelashes? We all enjoyed painting so I expect we'll do it again. Maybe when Rachel comes out for this weekend's wedding . . .

Drop Dead Gorgeous

Ok maybe not, but even Dick said this was beautiful. This is the pound of wool I dyed yesterday. I love the colors (yeah, yeah, it's purple; what else is new?) and couldn't resist 'fluffing' a little of the still-wet fibers to see what it would be like to spin.Nice and fluffy.

And this is the roving I dyed - it's about 10 oz. of a denim-y gray-blue. It isn't something I'd normally choose, but I love it.

The top-down knit sweater is progressing. I'm through with the yoke and ready to divide for the sleeves. Excitement!

Witch's Brew

Today's dye workshop was wonderful. Jeane deCoster of Elemental Affects - an excellent instructor - taught us using Mother Mackenzie's Miracle Dye for protein fiber (wools, silk, alpaca). The early morning math and dye formula session was a bit intimidating, but once we got our hands on the dyes, time just flew.

We started by picking a color and developing a 'formula' from the 9 dye colors to test dye 5 gram samples of yarn. The mason jar dye baths were mixed, cooked and cooled. It was amazing to compare the colors in the jars vs. the color of the finished yarn sample. Several of us were not satisfied with the colors in our first try, and mixed up second test batches that were more to our liking. Next came the actual fiber dyeing; same formula, just in bigger quantities. I used a mix of 50% cyan, 30% magenta and 20% black to get colors that shaded from lavender to blue to deep purple on a previously white fleece. The cooling pot looks pretty gross (the magenta doesn't 'exhaust' completely; most of the other dye colors are absorbed into the fiber, leaving the water clear.) I'm really pleased with the colors I got.

I also dyed some BFL roving, using a 50% cyan/ 50% orange solution that yielded a boring gray. Nice, but nothing special. Jeane 'doctored' the pot with blue and violet to get an almost denim blue. I'll try to get a photo of it in the sunlight tomorrow. Jeane is teaching a dye workshop for the guild later this year. Can't wait to learn more!

UFO's To Go

I've got a bunch of UFO's that need finishing in the next 10 days. Tomorrow I'm going to a dye workshop at a friend's house (hi, Laura!); I'm taking the Addy dress to work on while waiting for the dye pots but don't know how much I'll actually get done on it. The front bodice is complete and I've started the back; since there are no sleeves, that only leaves the skirt and trim. Piece of cake.

Saturday is my knit top-down sweater class and I need to have the yoke done to where the sleeves divide.Progress was good and I wasn't particularly worried until it dawned on me - I'm slow - that each row increases so the further I go, the longer each row takes. Fourteen rows to go by Saturday at noon. Cross your fingers for me.

I don't have any more of the pink yarn to use in seaming Addy's jacket, so I've decided to pick up stitches in the variegated yarn beginning at the front, around the end of the sleeves, and across the top of the back, then knit a row or two before binding off and seaming it up. I think it will be cute and tie the whole thing together. A couple of hours work (yes, I'm slow - are you seeing a theme here?) will see this one done.

What else, you say? Lois, my local yarn pusher, got in a new batch of Blue Heron Rayon Metallic yarn and one of the colorways is Chocolate . . . which is the exact brown Chris chose as one of her wedding colors. Soooooo, I'm going to make myself a shawl to wear to the wedding. Which is next Sunday. In 9 days. The good news is I've done this pattern a bunch of times, so it should go fast. The bad news? Crocheting still hurts my arm and shoulder, so I can't power through all of this like I normally would. Knitting doesn't hurt. Go figure.

And I'm still working my way to the finish line on Anna Michelle's baby blanket. She came early so I hope Meg will forgive me that it isn't quite done yet. But progress is being made and it becomes Project #1 as soon as the wedding is over. Promise.

I'm Nuts

But then, you already knew that, right? I decided yesterday that Addy needed a new dress to go with her new jacket. I found the perfect pattern (on Ravelry, of course) and the perfect yarn in my stash (yeah, stash shopping!) It's supposed to be a fast project. We'll see. Addy arrives in 9 days . . . .

FO and Start O

This - is now this - a Baby Surprise Jacket for Addy. I still need to add buttons and sew the top (and only) seam, but it actually looks like a jacket now. So what did I do to celebrate the completion of my very first knit garment? Started a knit sweater (the red one in the top row, #9725) for me! This swatch is the start of a top-down cardigan in Cascade 220. I'm taking a 3-session class, over 4 weeks, at my LYS, so there's a good chance I'll actually finish this. I'm excited!

And I also started a pair of socks - in Trekking XXL - as a demo in the 2-week crocheted sock class I'm teaching. I love teaching this class. Not least because I get a new pair of socks out of it.