While I recuperate...

from having a pair of wisdom teeth pulled on Wednesday ( thank gawd Mister Vonkysmeed can stay home to help with the ankle-biters!) why don't you enjoy some yarn p*rn!  This was a pleasant surprise from The Momster who won it at her Bible study group last week and gifted it to me.  Thanks Momster!

This is a skein by Fleece Artist of hand dyed baby alpaca, in the wine colorway I do believe, it is a 50/50 blend of alpaca and merino wool fibers.  Now what to do with 360 yards of bulky weight boucle yarn?!  Hmmm...

On the needles

What am I currently working on?  Well, not losing my mind mostly!  Knitting-wise I currently have two projects going on, a Central Park Hoodie for me, and a Woodland shawl for me, notice a trend here?  I really should start something for someone else soon so I don't feel guilty about all the me me me me me that's going on!

The fronts and back knit in one piece

The second right sleeve

I am really enjoying knitting the hoodie, it is my first time making a larger, long sleeve sweater like this I have only made a short sleeve cardigan and a short sleeve pullover before, Hey Teach! and Silken Scabbard.  I can't wait to get it done, especially with the weather going the way it is!  With it being August and still chilly in the morning half the time I actually could wear it in the mornings and possibly in the evening despite it being summer, and this in spite of the fact that it is made out of Wool of the Andes!  The only problem I have had so far is having to knit 3 sleeves, yes 3.  I decided to do them in the round so I don't have to seam and my first attempt was both too tight and too short so I frogged that sleeve and tried again.  Luckily the second time seems to be working well so far, and the yarn has held up really well to being knit, ripped, and then knit again. 

The shawl is my first attempt at beading, I am using a bloody tiny crochet hook to get the beads onto each stitch which is extraordinarily time consuming, but well worth the effort in my opinion.  I hadn't know what I was going to do with this yarn, I ordered it on a whim just to try out the Palette yarn you see.  Then on one of my crafting get-together days with friends Chatty-Cathy brought her beads and she had some that perfectly matched the color of the yarn, so she insisted I take them and use them with the yarn (they had been purchased by her on a whim as well while she was shopping in Little India).  I had to order a third skein of the Palette yarn as I think just the 2 won't be quite long enough and at $1.99 per skein I'd rather have too much than not enough!  Now of course I envision wearing this with the perfect summery white/ivory dress so will have another project of sewing a dress for myself next...

Talk to me already!

Destructo-boy won't talk, or can't, not really sure which.  Maybe he just isn't being given enough impetus to need to talk since pointing and going 'uh, uh!' seems to be working just fine.  Well, it works fine for him at least, I for one am getting heartily tired of it.  It just gets so frustrating, I know he wants something but he won't say what it is that he wants, we have to play an elaborate game of Charades to figure out his wants and needs half the time.

He is going to be two in October so he should have started saying some words by now, and we know he is capable of speech as he occasionally will let loose a single word never to be spoken again, no matter how much he is prompted.  Unfortunately if my history is anything to go by we may be in for a bit of a wait before he start to talk to us.  Apparently I was almost 3 before I started to talk, I also did the grunting and pointing thing for quite awhile myself (sorry Momster!).  That said, once I started talking it was in full and complete sentences, my first being "Jennifer get in the backseat of the car!" (apparently my cousin really didn't want to sit in the back and both my aunt and the Momster were instructing her to do so when I piped in). 

Lil' Miss tries to help translate his grunting, maybe another reason he really doesn't make much of an effort at human speech.  Oh, and the topper was this morning, his talking dog toy, Scout, (which we normally lurve by the way) was singing some stupid song and sang 'dog', so what did the boy do, he said 'dog' back to the damn toy, clear as a bell.  He talks to the bloody damn dog toy but won't talk to me!  Do you begin to sense my frustration level here!!!  All I can do is hope that he starts talking soon, I mean, he'll be talking by the time he needs to start preschool, right?!  Right?

I have officially lost my mind...

Because I have decided to finally start on a long planned project, a Hawaiian applique quilt for my bed.  (shout out to Paige from Paper Starfish, whose lovely quilting projects have finally given me the inspiration I needed!)  I have previously made a fall duvet set and a winter duvet set for my bed including dust skirt, duvet cover, pillow shams for standard and european pillows, all without the use of a pattern, yea me!  Our current spring set is a purchased one that will be replaced, eventually.  I have wanted to make something cool for summertime for awhile now and I do believe a Hawaiian quilt would be perfect during the heat, it's just such a overwhelming, scary, freaking massive big project to take on!


Mister Vonkysmeed and I have been to Hawaii several times, and love the place.  We even bought a print of an antique map of Maui during our first anniversary visit that currently hangs over our bed (yes, I know, not a terribly bright idea in earthquake prone So Cal but I do have it on earthquake hooks so hopefully we won't get brained by it some night!).  We have admired from afar the lovely quilts for sale while there, but really couldn't afford the astronomical pricetags.  I have made a smaller lap quilt of 9 squares to use during the holidays that took 2 years to finish, so I certainly can understand why the prices are quite that high (since it's currently packed away with the Christmas decorations unable to post a pic, bummer!)!

First I will need to pick out my designs, I have two lovely books of patterns, Hawaiian Quilting: Instructions and Full-Size Patterns for 20 Blocks by Elizabeth Root and Poakalani Hawaiian Quilt Cushion Patterns & Designs, Vol. 4 by Poakalani & John Serrao provided by Mom-in-Law that I have to pick from.  I am currently debating if I want to make it a true sampler quilt with each square different or choose 2-3 patterns and just use those.  The quilt will be for a queen size bed so I'll need to make it 4 squares x 4 squares with a solid border all around the sides... I think.

For the fabric I want to stay somewhat true to Hawaiian tradition and use solid colored fabric, probably an ecru background with a coffee or cookie dough colored fabric for the pattern to go with the colors in our room.  I want to use good quality cloth for the quilt so will be Kona cotton that I will purchase with some lovely 40% off coupons that come out from Jo-Anns every week, that will definitely help with the cost!  Now to figure out how many yard I really need to get so I can get moving on this!

Office with a view...

Yes, this is where I get to work everyday.  Aren't you insanely jealous, well, at least a little?  I am incredibly lucky in that I am able to work part-time from home, with flexible hours to fit into my parenting schedule.  It all started a few months after I quit my full time job to be a stay at home mom when I got a call from my old employer asking me if I'd like to do some research work from home on my own schedule, 'why of course!' I answered (I'd be kind of dense to pass up an offer like that!).  It's now going on three years and I feel so fortunate to have a job where I am not on a specific schedule and can actually get some work done while keeping an eye on my ankle-biters at the same time.

With the onset of some actual heat the ankle-biters really want to play outside instead of staying inside where it gets pretty warm while mommy works on the computer (no A/C except for the portable unit we use for about a month).  So after a quick request I actually have power at the patio table in the backyard due to Mister Vonkysmeeds' engineering skills (I have learned to not refer to him as crafty, but to use more 'technical' terms) hooray!  I'd rely on battery power but I get about 20 minutes before my laptop craps out, sigh.  But now I can set up in the backyard to do my play, ravelry cruising, facebook checking work during the hot months of summer and keep an eye on Lil' Miss and Destructo boy while they play in the pool and on the waterslide.  Yes, life is good, so nice you asked and I do hope your summer is going just as well too!