Squee! I got a package!

I have been waiting on the mail delivery each day - I am expecting yarn for a sample knit and I am really looking forward to it. Frequently the mail truck can be heard idling at my mailbox and I assume that they must be getting out a package for me, even though most of the time it turns out that the mail-person is really just getting the street together. Anyway, each day this week there was something interesting in there, just not exactly what I was hoping for. On Monday it was potatoes, Tuesday it was a creatively packaged sample from vocalpoint, yesterday there were some catalogs and today the yarn for the sample knit (which I can't share just yet! New colorways!).

My mom brought me a package from my grandmother that was an unexpected surprise. My Gram's friend Ellie is a knitter, but is sorting out some of her things - she sent a bunch of pattern pamphlets to my gram and gram gave them to me because she doesn't knit anymore. There was a HUGE box of goodies - pattern pamphlets and books! Now I want to spend my afternoon on ravelry looking up these things!

I'm kind of intrigued by that Afghan Stitch book - tunisian stitch.


The Fleisher's Baby Book is from 1957!


See the shell sweater pattern in the upper left corner? That had a note attached to it - "Do not substitute any other yarn. I made 4 - sold one for $100 - they were absolutely beautiful." It's a 1986 pattern from Bernat - I think this is it on Ravelry! The yarn of course is discontinued. Sorry Ellie!


Love the hair do's. I am also now kicking myself for not picking up that bag of Blarney Spun Irish Yarn when I was in Ireland a few years ago - now I have a pattern book!!


Books, including an Alice Starmore one! Ooooh, challenge project!!!

And now that the new yarn is here I should get back to work on my other sample knit so I can get on to the winding and swatching for the next one!

And it is quiet again.

We had family over yesterday to celebrate Easter - "a big party" according to Lorelai. All in all it went really well - there was a lot of really good food, good times with family, and Lorelai - well, she's just so excited about all of it. My brother and his girlfriend set up an egg hunt for her and she really enjoyed it - the weather turned out so nice - we were all able to get outside for a bit before it started to rain again. I managed to not take enough photos, but there are two I wanted to share - here's Lorelai in the midst of the egg hunt:

And here is me, 1981, same dress! Check out those chipmunk cheeks!

That green inflatable bunny was a favorite decoration - it was not a Sketchy Bunny. These days I tend to stick to peep bunnies :)


A few links to share that were used in some way for our Easter event.
The peep bunting I made was inspired by this tutorial from V and Co.
My brother and his girlfriend made these Cadbury "Deviled" Eggs - OMG, my new favorite way to eat a Cadbury egg (and I'm quite happy to have these leftovers!)
Lorelai has been interested in the worms in the garden lately, so I made a dirt cake - she didn't eat a bite of it, but I think she liked the way it looked. My husband had never had dirt cake, and I think he was pleasantly surprised at how good it is! Of course it's good - you can't go wrong with oreos, pudding, cream cheese, sugar and cool whip!
This honey-lime fruit salad was fantastic - so simple - I will be making this again and again (why didn't I think to use canned pineapple / mandarin oranges before?)
These lemon roasted potatoes were light and delicious - I would make them again for a family event (or even a weeknight dinner! Dan's not big into potatoes - me I love them baked, mashed, smashed, fried, whatever... but he's coming around on the roasted method - so easy to switch out seasoning!)
I tried this broccoli-bacon salad for something different - it was ok.

Today is a total down day. The house is still rather clean, the laundry is running. I'm indulging the lorax in some tv and I'm knitting. Nice and quiet.

A little of this and that

It's been something like 2 weeks since I posted! What's been going on?
Well, the Lorax started driving...

Ok, not really.

I finished a sweater, for real - for me! Iced by Carol Feller (one of my favorite designers). I wanted something cozy that I could wear around the house - something that I could toss on and not worry about any manner of baby / kid / dog / my own klutzyness goop getting on it. Also, I wanted something that I could wear now with a growing belly as well as in the fall while nursing. I am quite pleased with the result and have gotten in a lot of wear already.


For now I am going without buttons because it just doesn't make sense. The yarn is an acrylic yarn that I really really like, "Jarbo Duo" - it's squishy and warm and light. Love the shades of blue that showed up in this. This is probably not the most flattering sweater I could have made for my body type, but I wasn't looking for that.

I have also been sewing! I could not resist the kitchy call of a Peeps Bunting -



What have you been up to?

Two done!

Last week I professed my love of Malabrigo. The picture I had included:

grew up into this:

Pattern: Chandra by Caryl Pierre
Yarn: Malabrigo Silky, "Cloudy Sky" - 2.7 skeins used to make the Large size.
I LOVE this shawl! When the knitting was done I immediately wrapped myself up under it and was smitten. Lightweight and warm. Almost makes me glad that there is a chill in the spring air so that I have a reason to wear this.

I stumbled across this little sun hat pattern last week too. A little stash diving led me to some Blue Sky Alpaca Dyed Cotton (bought when I was pregnant with the Lorax, originally intended to become a hat for her). I really am pleased with the end result - it worked up quick, is really soft and should be quite cute for a summer baby of unknown gender. Picture a cute baby under the hat instead of an antsy dachshund only giving me blurry photos.


Maybe Jackson needs a refresher in how to be a hat model.