Off the Needles: Baby Nephew Blanket

When I knit a project, be it a sweater, hat, scarf, or blanket, I definitely do so with a little bit of motivation coming from the fact that I want it to be high quality, and last a long time. Not very often do I really think about my finished knits as heirlooms, though, which is why baby blankets are so incredibly special. My brother and sister-in-law are expecting their first, a baby boy, joining our family next month, and I sincerely hope that this will be a blanket he has forever. I hope he snuggles it, loves it, drools all over it, washes it a hundred times, falls asleep with it, and knows how much love went into it from his auntie. I want it to be an heirloom, yes, a “my aunt made this for me by hand” kind of special thing, but I am also so excited for it to be used by him and his parents until it maybe someday just falls apart.

The pattern is the Llyr Baby Blanket by Nat Raedwulf, knit in O-Wool O-Wash Worsted in the “Cuckoo Flower” colorway. The colors in the photos above are a bit wonky but I would say the top photo is actually most accurate. I knit the pattern exactly as written, only making it a little bit longer than intended, but no wider. I LOVE O-Wash for baby knits because it is soft, natural wool that has been made washable using an organic process, rather than conventional superwash chemicals, and it has a really nice bounciness to it that I think other superwash yarns can lack. It is really lovely and I can attest to its quality having used it for both of my niece’s baby blankets as well, one of which is now three years old and still looking and washing very lovely. (You can see those blankets here and here.) This pattern was chosen with my sister-in-law and was interesting but easy to memorize, and I would highly recommend it for anyone looking for a classic baby blanket pattern.

I can’t wait to meet you and snuggle you, baby boy!

A Walk in the Woods

Recently, B has been re-discovering his love of disc golf as a way to stay active and also safely get out of the house. I am terrible at the game, but absolutely love the long walks in the woods that 18 holes of throwing a frisbee can bring.

I’ve also been using the Picture This app so much to learn more about botany and identifying different species of flowers, trees, and mosses while I’m running in my neighborhood or walking anywhere. It is so simple to use and I am learning so much taking in the scenery around me and snapping a quick picture.

From the archives: First Rhinebeck

I’ve been blogging off and on since about 2012 on this website and others, and occasionally it’s fun for me to go back and re-read some of the posts I wrote when I was first getting really into knitting, spinning, and the world of fiber arts. I loved recently going through my old posts on Rhinebeck, which make me especially nostalgic since I have no real plans to travel much coming up this summer. You can read it too, by clicking here or searching “Rhinebeck” in the search bar to the right.

I hope wherever you are this Saturday you are taking it easy and connecting with those you love! Maybe, like me, you are also daydreaming about future travel and adventures, too.

Friday, Friday 4.1720

This week was a pretty tough one on the motivation front, I felt a real slump in my mood and general feeling going into five weeks of quarantine. Various news sources (with varying reliability, I will admit) have predicted that here in NC we’ll hit our peak for the virus as early as two weeks from now, as late as mid-June, but either way, it is clear that this is not going to be a three or six week situation here. We are in this, and in it for the long haul.

Despite some panic and a decent amount of struggle, here’s what made this week good.

A friend is helping me to become a respectable plant mom and I can slowly see my aloe plant, long neglected, start to perk up.

I’m definitely going to finish my Wool & Honey sweater this weekend.

I looked through all of K & C’s wedding photos and there are some really fantastic ones in there.

We ate a crazy amount of 15 bean soup after Easter courtesy of trying to eat almost a whole ham by ourselves. It was awesome.

I am about eight years late to the washi tape craze but I am all in. Last night I got on Etsy and purchased this one, this one, and this one. So cute and can’t wait to bring some more creativity to my planner and some letters I’m writing during quarantine season.

I organized my desk drawers and it’s really nice to open them up looking for pencils or scissors now.

I went on a run/walk on Wednesday in the cool weather and it felt really good.

I finished The Nightingale. It was ok, some compelling story moments with some, in my opinion, clunky character development, but mostly I just felt happy about crossing that off my goal list to finish. I have heard that The Great Alone by the same author is really good so I may try her newest novel instead.

This weekend I’m looking forward to picking up pastries and a couple of weekly favorites from my favorite bake shop, sewing a few more masks (maybe), and going on a long walk with B while he plays disc golf, if the weather will hold. Happy Friday!

From my stash: Illimani Santi

Since one of my biggest goals I set in January was to knit exclusively from my stash this year and to not purchase any new yarn, I thought it would be fun to share some special skeins that are currently patiently waiting to be knit. I am so lucky to have a really beautiful stash full of yarns that I genuinely cannot wait to work with, and most often I visit my yarn cabinet only when I’m ready to take on the next project or to find yarn for a specific project, because the more I visit the more simultaneous cast-ons I tend to have!

Before this year, I really didn’t do a ton of online yarn shopping. I definitely ordered the occasional indulgence from Purl Soho, or Woolberry Fiber, or from a particularly good IG destash sale, but I would say that most of my skeins are actually ones that I purchased in-person at a festival, event, or local yarn store. This makes my stash even more special because most of the time, I have really specific memories attached to purchasing them, which I love.

I picked out this beautiful handful of yarn today because I wanted to share about my AMAZING local yarn store, Freeman’s Creative. Amelia has been running the store for just over 2.5 years here in Durham and it has been such a privilege to watch her business grow. She stocks a wide and beautiful range fabric and yarn, is incredible at bringing in teachers to teach fun and modern patterns, engaging with community through weekly craft clubs, and is generally just a super cool gal. She just transitioned all of her yarn and notions to her online store in the wake of the pandemic so if you are able, please go check her out! I think she is still working on getting all of her fabrics online as well, but rest assured, if you email in need of something specific, she will hook you up. She’s a fabric pairing genius. One of my favorite memories in Amelia’s store is walking in with a smattering of prints I wanted to turn into...something - and walking out after she pulled 15 bolts of fabric to try out with them with a plan for a full quilt. So, so fun.

Anyways, I digress. This is Illimani Santi, which I purchased at Freeman’s Creative a few months ago. I wasn’t familiar with this company before purchasing this yarn, but one squish and I was in love. It is a luxurious blend of ultra fine merino, baby alpaca, yak, and mulberry silk. Swoon. And their label doodles are so sweet.

This colorway is called “Sunset” and I actually think the color is most accurate in the first photo. It is slightly more berry-hued than pure rust which I love. The project that keeps coming back to me over and over with these skeins is some sort of half-circle shawl, with a little bit of lace, lots of garter, maybe some eyelets...something I want to just completely wrap up in as the weather cools or during these spring mornings. The squish factor is just so good. Occasionally I’ll just leave some yarn out on top of my cabinet because I can’t bear to put them away yet, and so I may be casting on with this sooner than I had originally thought. No complaints here.

Hexagon Coasters

Saw it, was inspired by it, made it! That is the story of these hexie coasters and I love them!

As I shared in my April sewing plans post I used this tutorial using a small pack of fabric I have had in my stash for at least three years called “Sleeping Porch” by Heather Ross. The only modification I made was to print the hexagon template at 50% so that it would fit on my pre-cut squares of fabric and would be mug or soda-can sized rather than trivet or Chemex-sized (although I love that and will totally do a larger one later!) and otherwise followed the tutorial as written. I did find it helpful to sew with my needle beginning and ending in the “down” position so that I could make clean turns while quilting each side of the hexagon and while sewing all of the layers together. I also used a chopstick to turn all of the corners out once the layers had been flipped right side out to get those cleaner points.

Highly recommend this for anyone who is looking for a easy, cute, and quick sewing project. Hooray for one project crossed off the list!

Summer Knits Roundup

1/2/3/4

As I’m sure comes as a surprise to absolutely no one except for me, I’m looking forward to summer in a way that I never have before this year. I always joke with folks who always say, “You grew up in Florida! Shouldn’t you love summer?” In fact, I left Florida because I was over the heat. The older I get, the more I love to visit my home state, but in general, summers even here in NC are too long and too hot for my taste. But this year? This year I cannot wait for all of the tomatoes, all of the heat, days on the lake, and also hiding in the AC at our new downtown library because hopefully summer will also mean more mobility and freedom after quarantine.

I’m also really picky about summer knits because I live in such a hot climate. Ours is not the locale of the evening sweater, but rather the evening sweat. No ocean breezes require a cardigan but rather a full-on embrace of a gust of wind that breaks up the humidity. The only reason that knitting has ever happened over the summer for me is due to one thing: air conditioning. I tend to knit a lot of socks in the summer also because it is generally a season with more travel, and socks are extremely portable and fun. However, I’m super interested in potentially, MAYBE making my way into the world of linen/cotton yarns this year after I have enjoyed working with the Cattail Silk for my Terrace Wrap and if I do, these three tops will be at the top of my “to knit” list. In the past couple of years I have also seen a decent number of new patterns for bralettes and cami tops that are knitted that are very cute, but I’m not sure work with my wardrobe or what I like to wear.

I included this incredibly sweet summer veggies garland from Susan B. Anderson because I just cannot with how cute it is. I knit her Fall Charms mini-set last fall and it was my absolute favorite so you know I’m going to be digging through my scrap bin to find the right yarns to work up some little carrots and corn on the cob this summer.

Are you looking forward to any summer knitting this year? Or projects for Me Made May?

Looking forward to this week!

Attempting to get some long-neglected plant babies some sun

It’s Monday, and there are some things I’m choosing to focus on and be excited about as I’m feeling stressed. Here’s what I am really looking forward to this week:

• Finishing my first Wren Dress! After our at-home Easter festivities yesterday I found a few hours to watch The Office and crank out most of the construction of this dress. It looks great and the fabric is really soft. I made a few modifications to the pattern and am looking forward to sharing that.
• Sending off a very special gift to a family member!
• Starting the sleeves on my Wool & Honey sweater! Planning to finish the sleeves and do a first try-on before deciding how long to make the body and make sure I have enough yarn.
• The rainy start to this week. We were awoken at 5 AM by a monster wind/rain storm that lasted about 15 minutes but there’s more weather on the horizon and that always makes it feel better to stay inside and be cozy even though its getting hotter.
• Getting back on my “moving every day” challenge for myself with consistency.
• Sewing B a fabric mask and hoping that neither of us needs to use them. (AKA: not planning on going to any public places.)
• Eating more fruits and veggies. This quarantine is long enough that I’m coming to terms with leaving the house once a week for food and trying to keep lots of fresh things in our diet.

Also, just wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone who has commented on here or my IG about blogging and loving it too! I am thinking about how to add more features and organize the blog a little better so it is easier to find content as this progresses and potentially add a “subscribe” feature to get these posts straight to you. For now, I am registered on Bloglovin’ (what I personally use for following blogs) and you can follow me there to see new posts as they arrive too.