SUN!!

It has been nice here for the past 3 days! Today it's warming up nicely. Perhaps we'll have a late summer, but better late than never.

proof that it broke 65 degrees

My hubby and I, well mostly my hubby, have been taking advantage of the sunny weather to finish painting the exterior of our house. This is what it looked like when we bought it.

um, pink, I don't care for pink

The door is new. We started painting it 3 summers ago, got it mostly done, but haven't had the weather or the time or the incentive to get it done. Currently we have all 3 of those and have been making the push to finish. The fence we put in last summer and the roof will hopefully be replaced soon, but here's what it looks like today from the street:

blue with dark grey trim, much better methinks

and a closer picture from our front yard, that door is also new and will be painted

There is still some blue paint that needs to be done on one side of the house and some trim work to be painted in the back and on the rental side, but then it'll be done. Yeah! Please pray that God will keep the weather nice and in the 60's or warmer to get this done, and praise Him for the nice weather we're currently having so that this can be done.

In preparation for the cooler weather I finished the yoke sweater for Hannah. It's not perfect, but it is functional.

It's a finished sweater,

and a close-up of the detail.

I sort of made up the design myself, following EZ's instructions for a yoke sweater, and her percentage system. I probably should have made the yoke deeper, because it doesn't fit as well as I'd like it to. Oh well, this was definitely a learning experience. I would definitely use the pattern again. I used Lamb's Pride worsted from my stash, on size 8 addi turbos.

Picked some Nagoonberries yesterday on a rather long walk. What does a person do with a cup of Nagoonberries? I'm hoping to go pick some thimbleberries today after Hannah wakes up from her nap and gets some lunch. Perhaps thimbleberries will go well with Nagoonberries in some jam/jelly. That is, if I get enough. We'll just have to see now won't we.

Discovered: Dirt!

This last week, on our one somewhat sunny and warm day, Hannah discovered dirt. After playing with it for a while, she decided she wanted to taste it.

mmm, dirt

Then she examined it for a while, wondering what in the world this stuff on her hand is.

huh, how did that get there?

Hannah wasn't too dirty at first, but she proceeded to get the dirt all over herself. She had to make sure that I was watching, of course.

see mommy?

She also spent a great deal of time trying to get the stuff off of her hands, without much success.

see the sun?

Then she tasted it again, while standing I might add. So with the help of the pot of dirt, I finally got a picture of Hannah standing.


She stands for longer and longer stretches, but isn't ready to walk yet.

In other news:

I'm almost finished with my sweater for Hannah, just need to cast off and finish sewing in the ends.

Also, over the next few months you'll be hearing more about a big adventure that will be happening in March. This is going to take a lot of preparation and we're thankful that this is going to occur in March rather than earlier like it should have. No, I'm not pregnant.

Quick update

I guess it's been a few weeks so thought I should make a quick update. Went to Anchorage the first weekend of August to surprise my MIL for her birthday that was the week before. She was quite surprised. While up there we went and visited my mom and Leela and T-rex and their girls. Unfortunately the older of the Giessel girls was asleep, but that's okay; I got to hold the baby!! During our visit Hannah decided that she wanted to try standing. She did this successfully for brief moments. Since then she has tried many more times and stands for increasingly longer periods of time. Sadly, every time I try to take a picture she plops down and just gives me a strange look, "what, were you trying to take a picture or something?" Totally uncooperative. One of these days I will be successful and post a picture. Possibly in Hannah's sweater that I am trying to finish. I had to frog the neck and redo it because it was too tight.

Anyways, I'm hoping the weather will be decent on Thursday so I can go pick a load of blueberries.

Fibery Fun

It's been a rather rainy July. We've had a few nice days, but not many, so I've had some time to pursue some knitting and spinning. But first, here's a picture of Hannah in her new sweater. It looks much better on her than off I must say.

No, I don't feel like smiling for the camera.

I also recently caught the spinning bug. I got some lovely roving as gifts this last December and have been working on some lovely Mountain Colors Roving (in the background) off and on for the last few months, but recently pulled out some Corriedale pencil roving given to me by T-rex (who recently gave birth to her second little girl! Way to go T-rex!)

pencil roving Andean plied on my new Ashford drop spindle

It was a quick bit of spinning and quite fun. After spinning that up I did spin up a little more of the Mountain Colors onto my other spindle, which is slightly broken but still functional. Perhaps I'll do more today, but first I really should set the twist of this corriedale and some other yarns I've spun and plied but haven't washed yet.

the corridale on my lovely Niddy Noddy, poor thing doesn't get used often enough

In addition to doing some spinning I have also started a little sweater for Hannah. I'm knitting from the stash for this one. I'm also using Elizabeth Zimmerman instructions for a seamless yoke sweater, percentage system and all, from The Knitting Workshop. However, I am making up my own details. I've started the second sleeve and hopefully will get to the yoke today. Woohoo!

yoke sweater for Hannah using Lamb's Pride from the stash

In other news, I've been picking some blueberries off our bush every day or so. A couple of evenings ago there was a little black bear in our backyard, I suspect it was getting into our compost and not the blueberries because there were still LOTS of berries on the bush. Then yesterday there were quite a lot of robins in the bushes eating berries, but they must not have eaten many because there were still many berries on the bush when I went out in the rain, while Hannah was sleeping, to pick about a cup of berries. Hmm, I feel as though I'm rambling. Hannah is still very active, I suspect that this will be the norm from now on unless she's sick. Tim made some venison stew in the crock pot the other day and she just loved that. Perhaps someday her Grandpa Kritchen will take her deer hunting, or maybe her Uncle. Hannah's room has also experienced a bit of rearranging and decorating. It's very cute. It is my plan to get the room well organized so she can actually play in there more, instead of the living room all the time.

Now I think I will go pray for some nicer weather so that we can go do something outside, like pick some berries, if there are any ripe besides blueberries, or gather some Alum root, and maybe some mushrooms.

Blueberries

We have a rather large blueberry bush in our backyard. Nearly every year it is so laden with berries that the branches droop. This year is no exception.

However, the last couple of summers something has been eating nearly all the blueberries before we have had a chance to get to them. Darn those birds. This year we will not be thwarted by those little feathery thieves. Our berries are ripening in stages, some are blue while others are still very green. Just the other day I picked a handful and gave some to Hannah.

At first she wasn't quite sure what they were, but after a few bites she was hooked!

Give me more please!!

Of course the blueberries had an interesting effect on her diapers. It was very interesting to find her BMs to be not only blue, but smelling of blueberry syrup as well. Strange it was.
I have also finished a sweater for her. This has been a year in the making. It is a back-zippered sweater from Fiber Trends. Knit in Lorna's Laces worsted in the colors Devon and uh, a red color (I seem to have lost the tag). The colors are bright. Hmm, that may be a bit of an understatement. It knit up a bit large, washing and blocking might help some, but the yarn is superwash, so we'll see. It should fit Hannah through the fall though which will be great. It does look a lot better in person.

Fire and Ice Sweater

can we say contrast?

The weather is crummy today, windy and rainy. Hopefully it will be nicer tomorrow because we will be going to a picnic. Poor Hubby, work will probably be very interesting today. Either that or it will be very boring. Oh, and I couldn't sleep this morning so am up earlier than usual. Yeah.