First Day of School and Some Sample Knitting

Today was Oliver's first day of the first grade and he was on the bus at 7:05 this morning.

He looked so cute in his uniform with his little tie on and his new backpack, I got a little teary eyed watching him get on the bus. But now the twins are down for a nap and it is so quiet around here, I can actually hear myself think. It is awesome!

The new BT Fall 12 Lookbook hit yesterday and it is amazing! I want to knit almost everything in it. Damn you Brooklyn Tweed - my knitting queue is already miles long!! The Driftwood Pullover, Burr Jacket, and Breton Shirt are at the top of my list and I would love to knit up the Guilder Scarf for my husband. I was lucky enough to knit up a sample for this beautiful collection. This summer I worked on the Turnagain cowl. I was super excited when all of this yarn arrived in my mailbox:

It is a reversible cowl worked up in stockinette stripes. On one side are thin stripes and then very thick stripes on the reverse side. It is worked in one piece then folded over and the stitches are grafted together.

It was pretty easy knit but it is a sizable cowl so it did take me a while to get this done. When I came to the part of the pattern where it said to graft together 242 stitches I was paralyzed with fear. I was a terrible grafter - I usually had to rip out my grafting stitches like 20 times before I could get it right and then it still didn't look right. But don't they say to get over your fears to face them head on? Well, there's nothing like grafting together 242 stitches to get over that. Now I can graft anything together!

It is a wonderful design and it comes in 4 different color ways for your liking.

Summer Catch Up

It is still officially summer, right? These days I just can't tell. My blogging seems to have taken a backseat to the kiddos and our various summer activities - but I am still knitting away here and there. My oldest son returns to school on Thursday (is it bad if I am excited about this?) and I am hoping to have a tiny bit more downtime to get this blog going again. I love my boys but there are 3 of them and only 1 of me - you do the math. Most of the time I feel like a hot mess and I constantly have to tell myself to keep it together. Anyway, let's catch up with the knitting - that is way more fun to talk about. I have quite a few projects that need their own blog post which I am hoping to eventually get to. I finished a few as far back as the spring - including Aidez but it has been waaaay too hot for me to model that for pictures. It turned out beautifully so I can't wait to wear it as soon as the weather turns chilly. The owl sweaters I was knitting for the twins birthday are done and they are awaiting the button eyes. I turned out another sample for Brooklyn Tweed - Yay Me! (I am congratulating myself because it is really hard for me to get any deadline knitting done these days but I did it!!! I know I am completely crazy for taking these projects on but I cannot help myself. When Brooklyn Tweed comes calling I just can't say no.) I have a sweater on the needles for my oldest son's Birthday, I am halfway done with a pair of socks, and started little stuffed toys for the twins. I know this seems like a lot but these are projects that have been ignored on this blog for months. Trust me, sometimes days go by and I can't squeeze in enough time to knit a stitch. It took me 2 days to write this blog post. Seriously.

So these are the maniacs that are keeping me on my toes these days. Knitting content will be coming up soon.

Knitting and Sleeping Babies

My little Hayden, little Baby B, has had a little trouble taking naps lately. I will put him down in his crib, he will sleep for about 20 minutes and then he is up crying. I quickly run into his room and scoop him up because Nolan is asleep in the crib next to him and I don't want him to wake up because he can sleep for a marathon 2 1/2 - 3 hours. My little guys have started crawling. Nolan, the sleeper, scoots around all over the place, but Hayden will always crawl over to me and want to be picked up. I think my little Hayden wants a little more mommy time. It is hard being a twin - they don't get all the attention a single baby gets. Today, as Hayden fell asleep for a nap, instead of putting him in his crib, I let him sleep on the couch next to me while I knit. I usually don't knit when the boys are taking a nap. There are usually about 10 loads of laundry that need to be folded or sheets that need to be washed or dirty dishes in the sink or about 50 stray Cheerios under 2 high chairs that need to swept up. But today I have let all that go and have been knitting quietly right by my sleeping baby and I'm pretty sure that he knows that I'm here - he's been sleeping peacefully under the blanket I knit for him for a long time now. And I am sure Nolan appreciates it too - he's been asleep in his crib without getting a wake up call from his twin brother.

W.I.P Wednesday: Birthday Owls

Now that I have three boys with birthdays within five days of each other in October, I started knitting for them now. Given the fact that my knitting has slowed down a little bit, I still wanted to make sure that all of my boys get a special wooly knitted gift from me for their birthdays. I have knit my son, Oliver, something every year since he was born and I didn't want to break the tradition. I started with this little sweater for one of the twins.

I couldn't resist knitting the popular owl sweater. It is just too cute. It is going surprisingly fast too. I love watching the little owls form as I knit around!

F.O.: Baby Booties

Well, we made it through the first six months with the twins. Phew! There are things that are getting easier and then new challenges pop up. They are going to bed at 8 on the dot every night (Yay!) and sleeping through the night (Yay! Yay!) but now that they are getting all that sleep at night they are taking shorter naps during the day and they are a lot more active! They are this close to crawling and I am not sure if that is going to make my life easier because they can get around or harder because I will have to chase two of them around and make sure that they don't get into anything that they shouldn't. We shall see. I am still waiting for the day that they will play with each other - that will be so cute! Right now they smile at each other and tug at each other's clothes and arms and legs but that is about it. They also tend to tug these cute little baby booties that I knit for them right off of their feet!

Pattern: Booties by Debbie Bliss Yarn: Quince & Co. Chickadee in the color Egret Needles: size US 2

I am a sucker for baby shoes. When my first son was born, I went a little overboard - I bought him tiny little New Balances, Pumas, Robies - to name just a few. On the upside, these little guys got to wear them too. I love these little booties. They are like little shoes but soft like socks too. Now if they would just keep them on their feet.....

Look - they are holding hands! Too cute!

W.I.P. Wednesday: Silk Shrug

A textured shrug in blue silk for springtime.

F.O.: Starr

I finished this lovely cotton slouchy hat about a year ago, so this post is long overdue. I couldn't resist knitting it after I found the pattern in the Kim Hargreaves' book Misty.

Pattern: Starr by Kim Hargreaves
Yarn: Rowan Handknit Cotton in the color Mist
Needles: Size US 2 and US 6

I love the mixture of cables and lace in this pattern. Between the lace and the cotton yarn, this is a great, stylish hat to wear on chilly spring days. I also love the light color of the yarn. This has been getting a lot of wear this spring - even though the weather has been warm, there have been some colder days that this hat has been perfect for!