Radiant Twist

There hasn’t been much knitting around here as of late, but I have a good reason!  I’m working on a new project that has been taking up most of my energy.

We’re having a baby!  Morning sickness and the sheer exhaustion that come with the first trimester have pretty much ground my knitting to a halt, though I have a few things in the works.  Lots of baby knitting coming up though!!!!

We spent the last half of April preparing for my husband’s dad and step-mom to visit.  They came for 2 whole weeks!!  It was so fun to see them……it had been a REALLY long time since we had last seen them.  And their visit was SO fun.  Full of fun activities and house projects.  Jared and his dad replaced our front door, fixed our staircase, hung 2 brand new ceiling fans and did various other odds and ends around the house.  It was so nice to be able to cross some of that stuff off our to-do list!  Plus, we never would have been able to replace the door without Wayne’s know-how!

Now, on to the fun stuff!  We spent 3 days on Cape Cod, enjoying the ocean breezes (just not the ocean water….it was chilly!).  We also spent a whole day in Rhode Island touring the old mansions.  The kids loved seeing the big old houses and running on the giant lawns!

Jared, his dad Wayne, Sophia, and Cedric

my son, king of the castle!  LOL

Sophia, at the beach.  She loved the water and we came home with a bunch of shells and rocks.  We also got to watch a pod of whales just off the coast…..we watched them jump in and out of the water for over an hour.

The kids (including Jared), hamming it up in Provincetown.

Cedric, at Sturbridge Village, a working village modeled after a New England village in the early 1800’s.  We saw all sorts of cool stuff….including a tin-smith, tons of animals and a man firing a musket!

Jared and Sophia behind the grain mill on a little bridge.  Sophia was fascinated with how the water turned the wheels!

We also spent two days in Boston-sightseeing, visiting the Aquarium, taking a trolley tour and having some REALLY good seafood!

This is the funniest thing I have seen all day.  Go, look!

It’s snowing.  Again.  Just when the ice had finally all melted from the driveway and I was beginning to think we might escape the cold clutches of winter……….nature plays a cruel trick and we get 14 inches of snow.  Luckily, Jared decided to stay home and shovel, which is good because there is a lot of it.

LOL…check out my van, it’s buried in snow!  Ah, well….at least the road crews are great here and do a pretty good job keeping the roads cleared.  And, we thought the worst was over when I took this picture, but……it’s snowing again now.

Let’s move on to something more fun…….gadgets!

It’s been quite a gadget-laden month for me.  First off, my new cell phone….a t-mobile G1.  My mom started working for t-mobile about a month ago and they get a really amazing phone plan and added me to theirs.  It’s a great phone and I love being able to stay in touch with everyone on text messages.  My other gadget came this weekend…..a kindle!  I’ve been wanting one for a while now, and now that people are buying the Kindle 2, I found a sweet deal on this kindle 1.  I’m totally in love with it!

Oh, and there’s been knitting!

Pattern: Starflower by Jeannie Cartmel

Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Mediumweight Socks that Rock, in Sugarplum

Start: February 3, 2009

Finished: February 28, 2009

and I started this….

A koolhaas just for me!  I’ve been wanting one since I made this pattern for my dad and this yarn is so purty I decided to go for it.  I’m hoping to finish it soon!

Or, as my husband refers to it…..the Month of The Suck.  Seriously, this month hasn’t been that great.  There were the normal things that make winter with two kids hard…..snow, ice, frigid temperatures, the never-ending parade of illness.  Then we had some highlights….

About a week and a half ago, I threw my back out moving our daughters bed.  This landed me on the couch for about 4 days and involved my husband staying home from work, because I couldn’t walk.  (I’m greatly appreciative of this!)  Luckily, I’m up and walking now, though I’m still in a little bit of pain.  Ick.

This Saturday, we were doing housework when my husband discovered that our water heater was leaking.  6 hours later we forked over $975 to have the stupid thing replaced and still ended up being without hot water for almost three days.  While I could still do laundry and wash dishes (we have two water heaters), we couldn’t take showers.  That was very icky.  I’ve never been so happy to see a plumber in my entire life!

And, to round out the week, we have a massive snowstorm coming tomorrow (10+ inches) and Thursday dh is taking the morning off because we have to go have Cedric’s hearing tested.  He failed the hearing tests at the pediatricians and he doesn’t talk much so we need to find out what’s going on.

But, on the bright side January is almost over and being laid up with a bad back has facilitated me getting some knitting done…….

Pattern: Seamless Infant Kimono, by Carina Spencer.

Yarn: 100purewool.com 3-ply Merino in Sophie

This was a relatively simple, quick knit.  It’s for one of Jared’s coworkers, he and his wife had a baby about a week ago.  I just need to add the buttons and it’s ready to go.

I know, it looks like a black-and-white blob.  It’s not.  I’m hiding the identity of this knitting project to protect the innocent…..or in this case, my swap partner!  This is what I’m working on for my Loopy Ewe Swap 3 partner.  Once it is off to it’s new owner I’ll show a better picture…..but I love it so far!!!

And last, but not least, I have a design project on the needles.  It’s going to be a baby hat, but first I have to make some decisions about the pattern.  It’s in time out while I finish the swap project.

I’m so excited to announce the release of this pattern.  I made this all the way back in August for my daughter, wrote up the pattern fairly quickly and then……sat on it!  I have been wanting to do the release for a while, but things kept getting in the way.

I just want to say a little thank you to everyone who helped me!  I’m a little nervous about doing my first “sweater” pattern and needed a lot of support to get here.  A special thanks to my husband who helped do the layout and the chart, to Tanya for pushing me to do this and to my great tech editor, Alana.

The pattern is available in the pattern shop, on Ravelry and in the Etsy Shop.

Yeah!  I’m so excited to have these done.  Not only because the boy needed them so badly, but because I didn’t really want to knit them in the first place.  (bad mommy!)

Damn, isn’t he the cutest boy you ever saw?  LOL….I might be a little bias. Do you know how hard it is to take a picture of this kid??

Pattern: Itchy Fingers Longies, by Jessica Jensen

Yarn:  Mosaic Moon Blue-Faced Leicester in Goblin

Start: December 29, 2008

Finished: January 11, 2009

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One final thing, I’m trying to clear out some inventory so all yarn and fiber in the etsy shop will be 20% off for the next week.

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Ahhhh, vacation is over.  The Christmas tree has been put away.  Hubby has gone back to work, Sophia back to school and mommy back to the gym!  LOL  We had an exceptionally good Christmas break.  Hubby gets about 2 weeks off at Christmas because his company closes.

We headed to Maine to visit my parents for Christmas the day before Christmas Eve…..that night we took advantage of one of the perks of staying with the grandparents and went out for date night!  We had dinner with my brother and his girlfriend and then went to see the movie “Seven Pounds”.  It was a rather slow moving movie, but fascinating and we all enjoyed it.  The next day was full of wrapping presents, keeping Sophia and Cedric from eating their body weight in Christmas cookies and preparing for the next day.  My cousin left some “magic dust” with my mom for the kids (a mix of oatmeal and glitter!) for them to spread out on the snow so that Santa could find them.  They had so much fun going out in the snow to do this!  (All the Christmas photos are courtesy of my dad, I didn’t take my camera up with me…..his is much nicer than mine!  LOL)

And then, of course, Christmas morning……

Christmas was a huge success with the kids:)  They got a brand new kid-sized table from mimi and papa, which has been great.  It has a roll of paper on the bottom that you pull up and they can color on, plus they love eating at it.  Sophia got a Leapster game player and has LOVED it.  Cedric got many many cars and dinosaurs.  All in all, it was a great Christmas.

And of course, we can’t stop without showing off a few Christmas knit goodies….

Koolhaas for my Dad.  He shaved his head earlier this year and requested a hat to keep his head warm.  I made this from Malabrigo so there wouldn’t be any itchiness.  He likes it!

Sophia’s Blankie……I never thought I would finish this thing!  But, it was worth it because she has really loved it:)

The only thing I don’t have pictures of I think are my mom’s hat and cowl……I finished them right at the last minute and didn’t get to take photos.  The next time she comes I will!  I love the way they came out.

Anyway, Christmas is over and we had a nice break from regular life.  I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday too!

This weekend my baby boy turned 2!  It’s so hard to believe that he is two.  He’s still a baby to me in so many ways (funny, Sophia seemed SO big at this age….perspective, I guess!).

He’s always been a snuggler, ever since he was born.  Still is.  Loves to sit and cuddle in my lap.  So different from his sister who never loved to cuddle.  It amazes me everyday to see how different they are from each other.

In his mama-made blessing outfit.

At the Santa Monica Pier on our trip to California.  He was 8 months old!  His personality is so laid back he was the perfect baby for this trip.  He was happy to be along for the ride.  I always feel like Cedric gets short-changed since he is the second child and doesn’t get to have one on one time with us as much.  This trip was fun for me to be able to spend time with just him.  I enjoy that now too with Sophia in preschool….the mornings we get to spend together playing and running errands are fun.

His first Halloween….I’m sure someday he will want to shoot me for these pictures and that costume.  It was SO cute though:)

first steps…..

He’s so silly.  He loves to be funny and knows that he’s funny.  He will do things and then get a sly smile on his face and give us a big grin, knowing that he’s being cute and funny.  He cracks me up everyday with his facial expressions.

Honestly, I think I have the world’s cutest children.  But Cedric is adorable in a totally different way from Sophia.

and mischievous.  Oh my, mischievous.

Happy Birthday, baby boy.  It’s hard to imagine that you will love another child as much as you love your first, but I love you baby boy:)