A friend is having a baby and I have not had any energy/motivation to knit her something. So I actually bought a gift. I couldn’t let it go without something homemade, so I whipped together a couple of bibs.

They were super easy and fun to make. The pattern is from Bend the Rules Sewing. And I can guarantee they are completely 100% lead-free.

My only complaint is that I have is with the Dritz snaps I used. I have only used Snap Source ones before, and those are foolproof. The Dritz snaps are junk. I broke 3 snaps trying to get them set. Then one went in crooked and I have to pry it out (you can’t really tell in the picture). I guess it’s a good thing I made her two bibs, because depending on how it is getting that snap out, I may end up ruining one of them.

I am on a sewing kick lately (well, a cutting-out and planning kick, this is the only thing that has actually gotten sewn yet). So expect to see some more sewing in the future.

It’s been a long time since I posted. There’s been a lot going on here… end of school (lots of homework help with French), trying to start redoing B’s room before the end of the month, and other (good) things I can’t blog about right now. I have been knitting, but not that much, and I haven’t taken any in-progress pictures.

The wild black raspberries near my house are in season. You can’t really tell from the picture because we already picked all the ripe ones.

Usually, only a handful are ripe at a time, but this time B and I picked a huge bowl of them. So we decided to make jam.

Four cups of berries made three jars of jam, although one is already in the fridge.

Last night, I took B to a soccer game (semifinals for the US Open Cup). The game was delayed because of rain and thunder and lightning, so after a few hours the game finally started, and the New England team won 3-0. We were back really late.

We went for a drive today for Ingi’s birthday, and went to a park called Devil’s Hopyard.

On the way back, we saw a yarn shop and stopped in. They were having a sale on their locally raised and dyed yarn where if you bought a certain amount of regular-priced yarn, you could fill a bag with sale yarn. So… I ended up with a whole lot of nice sale yarn.

I have actually been knitting, but I haven’t been blogging because I have been working in the garden, working at work, and my Safari browser keeps crashing when I try to post. So now I am trying Firefox.

Last weekend we went to Massachusetts Sheep & Wool. I was hoping to find a bunny, because last year I noticed that some of the bunnies for sale at festivals already have a really friendly personality. No such luck, although one breeder had tiny babies so I may go visit her when they are bigger. We did see a very cute black Shetland sheep for sale, but somehow I couldn’t talk K into riding with it in the back seat. I bought lots of gifts for people in my birthday game, but I bought no fiber-related anything for myself (since I don’t need anymore yarn), I just bought some really nice handmade soap. And then we stopped at a gift store in Northampton on the way home and I found a Moomin kitchen towel.

I have been reading about Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day on Amy Karol’s blog, and I finally borrowed it from the library. This is The Best Bread Cookbook Ever, if you are a working mom. I used to make sourdough bread every week (I don’t even know how I found the time), and I have made all kinds of various fancy breads, some of which take 2 days of prep time. I just don’t have time for that. And I have been less than thrilled with supermarket bakery bread lately (and especially their prices). The way this cookbook works is you make a big batch of bread dough (I made mine this morning) without even needing to knead it. You let it rise 2 hours, and then put it (covered) in the refrigerator. In 3 hours (or longer, but I was impatient to try it), you cut off a piece of dough and shape it and leave it out to rise for about an hour. Then you bake it for a half hour. You can keep doing this rise/baking thing throughout the week (if your husband doesn’t eat almost the entire first loaf of bread on you. ;)). And the getting the dough ready part is really easy too. So as long as you plan ahead, you get REALLY NICE bread in a very short time frame (sure, a little longer than 5 minutes, but an hour and a half is totally doable on a weeknight). I have been using a breadmachine that my mom gave me 6 years ago for my birthday, but we don’t really like the texture of breadmachine bread.

Some of the Amazon reviews of this book have less than favourable things to say about the quality of the bread, but it must have been the ingredients the person was using or something. Our bread was wonderful. I can’t wait to try some of the other bread recipes in the book.

I finished both fronts of the wrap sweater. Now I need to make the sleeves and puzzle through the instructions to understand how to make the ties.

The sweater is modeled on my wisteria bush. I love the purple blossoms and the scent of them. Beth has posted about her struggles with her wisteria bush (which she finally eradicated). This one was there when I moved in like hers. It vines up along the side of the house and into the front garden, and we are constantly cutting it back. Ingi hates it, and I understand why, but when it blooms it is just so wonderful. I wish there were an easier way to keep it controlled.

This weekend I put in a whole lot of bushes and an apple tree. I planted redcurrants, aronia berries (which I read about on Hilde’s blog), blueberries, and rhubarb.

I have been doing some reading on biointensive gardening so I wanted to try out the double digging technique out in my vegetable garden (since my soil is so heavy and rocky and I can never properly grow root crops). My wonderful husband helped me dig out a big section today (even though it’s my hobby, not his), we must have dug out about 40 rocks.

I am obviously a little further along than in the above picture.

I have never knitted a pair of toe up socks on 2 circulars before, and now I am STUCK. I finished turning the heel and am supposed to be picking gusset stitches up from the instep needle onto the sole needle. However, I can only seem to get one side, since the configuration of needles doesn’t let me get at the stitches from the other side. I’m not sure what to do, short of pulling the socks off the needles onto stitch holders and then getting them put onto the needles the right way.

Any suggestions?

(English below)
Ég fékk þetta æðislega Fritidsgarn frá Sigrúnu J. Hún kom seint inn í afmælisleikinn. Það er gaman að fá aðra gjöf.

Hlakka til að gera eitthvað þæft. Hugmyndir, takk?

Mamma mín gaf mér gjafakort fyrir Fluevog. Við fórum til Boston og ég keypti þessa yndislegu skó.
————————————————————
I received this great Fritidsgarn from Sigrún J. She joined the birthday game a little later, it’s fun to get another gift.
I look forward to making something felted. Any ideas?
My mother gave me a gift certificate for Fluevog. We went to Boston and I bought these great shoes

This morning I was able to snap a photo of Ingi in the finished Cobblestone pullover.

We are listening to the Juno soundtrack. That was a really fun movie, and the soundtrack is great, it’s worth it just for the Sonic Youth Superstar cover.

I’ve been using the 1001 Books list as a way to help me pick out used books when I see them at library sales and so on. I realised one of the books was a comic book that I read years ago (The Watchmen). I’ve read a few more from the list Never Let Me Go, Cat’s Eye, City Of God, The Summer Book, and The Devil and Miss Prym (which was a really fun read), bringing my total up to 70 books from the list. Part of the reason I have been reading so many books is I have been upgrading my bookshelf with PaperbackSwap.com. I have been swapping read-once books for classics and other interesting books. Sadly, this is a US-only site, but Bookcrossing.com is another good site, and international.

I finished the Cobblestone Pullover, but between Ingi and I both working late and the weather turning warm (I am very proud at bringing this nice warm weather by finishing that sweater ;)), I have not been able to photograph the finished sweater on. Hopefully this weekend we will have a chance.

It’s amazing what Google can tell you. I picked up an old project when I finished Ingi’s sweater, the wrap sweater from an old Rebecca magazine (I forget which number, 20-something).

I decided to Google my old blog to see if I could remember when I started it. I remember working on it on the plane to Iceland at some point. So I found an entry from August 2005 where I finished the back of the sweater, which I started on the plane to Iceland earlier in the month. Then I found another entry from June 2006 where I took said project on the plane to Iceland (but I ended up knitting Jaywalkers instead).

So yeah, it’s pretty sad that this quick and easy project has just been hanging out waited to be knit for almost 3 years. I think my excuse is that the mohair yarn is kind of a pain if you make a mistake and need to take out stitches. In fact, I ripped out the entire front piece I was working on, thinking I did it wrong, and then as I cast it on again, I realised I had indeed done it right in the first place. Arg. I guess it was annoying enough 2 years ago that it traumatized me from wanting to work on the project. And the fuzzy yarn seems to make my eyes itch… I think little fuzzy bits float off into my eyes. (Or maybe it’s just dusty because it’s been sitting for SO LONG!)

Now that I have all this fun yarn, I have to figure out what to do with it.

I actually started using the Hjertegarn, I am making the last round’s socks (Big Basin Socks) from Six Sox Knitalong. I was going to show a picture of the socks in progress, but it’s too cloudy and the purple yarn just comes out looking like mud. I’ll take a picture when there is more sun.

I am trying to figure out something for that cool Lorna’s Laces Shepherd’s Worsted yarn. There is a kind of cute little bag here from 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders, so I borrowed the book from the library. I could also make the Broken Rib socks on p.138 of the book.

With the 2 skeins of Drops Alpaca, I could make Guilty Pleasures Socks (from p.88 of the book), or I could make socks from Garnstudio’s site, or crocheted Mary Jane slippers if I am feeling very daring.

With the 3 skeins of Rowan Kid Classic, I could make the Simple Mistake Rib Vest (from p.103 of the book).

With the 2 skeins of Sandesgarn Kitty, I could make the Garter Stitch Loop scarf (p. 90) and the Lacy Beanie (p. 94), or I could make Tiers-of-Waves Beaded Scarf (p. 118), which would let me play with beaded knitting. Or I could make Helleboros

And of course, the yarn from Sonja, I think I will just use her siggestion of Branching Out, since it’s the exact yarn from the pattern and everything.

Any other ideas? Votes? Although I am going to finish something in process before starting something new, but it’s fun to plan.