My new knitting stash

I have not really had much time or enthusiasm for knitting  recently. I was finishing up some projects here and there, but nothing too exciting. Then I decided to finally go redeem my $50 gift certificate at the Lion Brand Studio on 15th Street. I had gotten the gift certificate when AY was born but never seemed to make it to that  part of town. Did I mention that he is already 9 months old?
But I finally got my act together and ta-da, here are my new knitting projects for the next few months:

I have 10 skeins of yarn and have my patterns all picked out. I already started on a hat, which you can see at the top of the pile. Of course, I am not quite sure when I will be knitting all this, being that I am busy with studying for the GRE, filling out applications, getting the kids ready for school, life, etc. Somehow it will all get done. I hope to be posting pictures of finished projects soon!

Knitting pic

This is what I do when my husband is away-stay up too late finishing knitting projects I have been procrastinating.
This cardigan is meant as a light spring layer for baby AY but truthfully he may have outgrown it already. any nephews or nieces want to claim it?

The Babywearing Knitting Solution

As I mentioned in previous posts, I have been getting a lot of use out of my baby carriers but as the weather is getting colder, I am struggling with not being able to close my coats. I feel that both AY and I could use a bit more warmth. I briefly considered buying a babywearing coat, but at a cost of 150-300 dollars, I felt they were too pricey for my budget.
But today I found a solution in an unusual way. We got a lot of presents for Baby AY. I thought it was so nice of people but the truth is I really don't need that much clothing for him and some of it is not the right size. So I have slowly started the process of exchanging things that came with gift receipts. Note to self and others- always include a gift receipt.
This morning, I decided to brave the cold and to head downtown to Buy Buy Baby. I was returning a snowsuit that was too big (size 9 months- by the time it will fit him, it will hopefully be summer!) and in exchange getting these great swaddle cloths/blankets by aden and anais that I have wanted for a while but could not justify spending 40 dollars on. Somehow, when it's someone else's money it is more palatable :)

Anyway, in the store I saw a woman wearing her baby in a regular coat with a great attachment that buttoned over the baby carrier. I asked her where she bought it and she told me she had knit it herself. After looking it over again, determined that I could definitely knit that. I came home, googled baby carrier covers and voila, my next knitting project

The original pattern is called seaweed and is  from an now defunct blog called Das Leben und so. As a bonus, the writer of the blog is German-speaking.
My only problem is that my coat has a zipper and does not have buttons but I am thinking of attaching snaps or hooks to it. This should be a relatively easy and quick project. I will post pictures when I am done and (hopefully) nice and toasty!

On a completely unrelated note- check out this article on raising half a dozen kids. Always nice to read positive thoughts about large families.

Knitting- Mismatched or Funky?

One thing I haven't had a chance to do much since AY has been born is knitting. My hands are literally and figuratively always full- holding the baby, helping the other kids, catching up on chores, etc.
But I do miss it. There is something very calming about knitting and we all know I could use some more calm and sanity in our chaotic loving home. So I am slowly trying to get back to it,
A few days before AY was born, I had finished one glove out of a set of finger-less gloves. I thought it looked really cool and was looking forward to starting on the second one. I thought they were useful too because they could keep me warm and I would be able to help out the kids- wipe noses, button coats, etc. without constantly taking my gloves on and off.

Then AY was born and my knitting obviously got put on the back burner. But this past week, I really got the knitting itch and in between the baby's naps and other gaps in time, I managed to finish the other one.

Except they don't match. This was all knit from the same skein of yarn. The yarn is self-striping and the colors keep changing.  I noticed this as I was knitting but I was hoping there was enough commonality in them for it to look like a set.

 Um not so much. So now I am not sure...knit another one and hope it matches better? Or maybe just wear them like that and hope people think it's cool and funky rather than mismatched and weird. It's all a matter of perspective I guess. What do you think? Shabbat Shalom!

Knitting Pics/ Kids Update

My self-imposed resting at night has left me with a lot of time to knit and so I do...here are my latest projects, all obviously baby-related. The booties are supposed to look like mini-uggs and I still have to add some trim to the sides and front to make it look like the seam on Ugg boots.
Here is the link to the pattern if anyone is interested, as well as some pictures of how the booty would look with the finished trim.

On the kids front:
-We went back to the doctor to check on Y's finger today. He did much better this time with the change of bandage. There was much less crying and struggling. It seems he may have a localized infection, so the doctor put him on antibiotics. He did not seem overly concerned about it though, just told us to keep an eye out if we notice any redness or fever.
-A. has a Thanksgiving parade at school tomorrow. They will march around the block. Because of the forecasted rain they may actually just march around their gym, but she is super enthusiastic about it. Growing up in Europe, my family never really celebrated Thanksgiving but it is cute to watch her get excited about it and to listen to her tell the story of the Mayflower and the pilgrims. I should pay attention because I am a bit fuzzy on the historical details myself.
-M. is in the cute phase of trying to figure out who everyone is and if he knows them. He likes to point out his friends at school and will often ask me who people on the street are. It is part of the process of making sense of the world and you can almost see his brain working, trying to process where every person fits in, whether it is a neighbor, a child playing next to him at the park or a substitute doorman he does not know.
It's a good reminder to stop and try to see the world through kid's eyes...how everything is exciting and new.  Especially on dreary rainy days like today.

Baby Blanket

Tonight, after a fairly quiet and restful Shabbos I finally had a chance to weave in some loose ends and finish up the baby blanket I had posted about a few weeks ago.
Now it is bigger, but I am not sure I like it better this way

Before

After

As you can see, I added four panels but I am wondering if it is just too many colors. Plus I was lazy and used stockinette stitch and now the sides are curling under. I can try steaming or ironing it to even it out but that might be too much of a hassle already. Am seriously considering removing the extra panels.
Would love some feedback/comments on this one.

In other news, there has been a lot of blogging and news online this past week about an ad campaign in Milwaukee that compares co-sleeping with your baby to allowing your baby to sleep next to a knife.

A bit much, no?

For some factual information about safe co-sleeping or bed sharing as well as safe and unsafe practices, here are two good articles. The first is from the Birth without Fear Blog, the second one from the website of Dr. Sears, a trusted pediatrician for over 40 years.
I like to have my babies close by, it facilitates breastfeeding at night. That doesn't necessarily mean in my bed but it does happen on occasion. I think everyone needs to make the decision of what works for them without being unnecessarily influenced by misleading scare tactics such as these ad campaigns

It's Shabbos Now

Posting on short Fridays is going to be a challenge, especially once we turn our clocks back this coming Saturday night. Although today was not such a hectic day. I decided not to make Challah today, which freed up some time in the morning. I spent some time shopping- buying a dress for one niece and the cutest little fake Uggs for another one.

Then I also picked up some yarn to finally finish the baby blanket I have been working on for a while. I thought I was done but then I decided it's too small so I want to add some panels.
This is what it looks like now. I'll post another picture once I have finished the panels. Hopefully I'll finish before the baby comes!

Speaking of, I have now officially entered my 9th month and am feeling it in the form of lots of Braxton Hicks contractions, especially when I do a lot of walking. Yet another reason to take it easy and slow down.
As it says "Ba Shabbos, Ba Menucha"- when shabbos arrives, rest comes with it. Although for Rabbis and Rabbi's wives, that may not be as true. Shabbos may just be the day my husband and I work the hardest.
Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend and hoping the weather has no nasty surprises in store for us!

Knitting Projects

I figured it's time to show off some recent projects.
 Here is a sweater for another new niece that I knit while my husband was stuck in Los Angeles

I love the raglan sleeves. Gender neutral colors bec we didnt know what she was having

Here is a sweater I started while he was stuck but thank G'd by the time it was finished a few weeks later, he was home. and there had been plenty more snow.





I'm not sure who I am giving this too yet, but I'm thinking gold is girly

Next up some new hats for the boys because they both decided to lose and or/ throw their hand-knit creations. I have to admit I did not invest much time in these because I know the likelihood is great that they will end up thrown out of a bus window again..yes, Y actually threw his hat out the window while riding an MTA bus. These kids never cease to amaze me.  

M's hat- blue to match his coat

Y's hat- whose coat is brown with a grey lining

Last but not least is this cute purple sweater I made...not sure for who and why I have been making so many girl's sweaters. In part it was just because I wanted to try out some patterns and these were the colors I had in my stash. So voila- a purple wrap cardigan.

As usual, I have some other projects I am planning but that is all for now. So- what do you all think?

Vogue Knitting

Although I have been home for several hours, I am still psyched from my afternoon at the Vogue Knitting Live conference. I know most of you are thinking- knitting conference, what's that? But trust me when I say it was fabulous!
There were sessions on topics like cabling, finishing techniques and lots of other knitting terminology you probably don't want to hear about. My friend and went to a session focused on knitting a beaded handbag. And while we are never going to knit a beaded handbag because the process is amazingly tedious, we did learn some great new techniques like provisionary cast-ons, adding beading to knitted projects and the three-needle bind-off.  Me being a nerd, I had read about all these techniques before but after seeing them demonstrated, all of  a sudden they made sense!
They also had a huge marketplace of yarnstores selling any kind of yarn you can imagine, as well as knitting needles, books and anything else a knitter could want. Walking through there, my friend and I were like kids in a candy store, fingering and feeling different skeins of yarn and thinking what we could make with them. My favorite items were the knitting kits different stores were selling. These are pre-assembled bags, which contain all the yarn and instructions necessary to make a specific project. The kits range in price from 30 dollars for a scarf or a simple child's sweater to $250 and up for high quality sweaters and blankets. Needless to say, I did not buy any of those high-end kits, though I did get some great superwash merino wool that is amazingly soft.
My friend and I were definitely amongst the younger people there. While everyone claims that knitting has become chic and trendy, it still does seem to be a field populated mostly by older people.
My husband often jokes around that when we got married, he would have never guessed that I would turn into a birth-obsessed knitter/ a knitting doula. Either way, neither of those things were on my radar screen almost seven years ago when I got married.
To be fair, though, I am only 27 now so it's not like I discovered these interests so late in life. And I hope to add lots of new interests and experiences to my repertoire over the next few years. After all, isn't life all about growing and changing in unexpected ways?
Do you knit or have any other crafty hobbies? Please share!

Lots of pictures

Over the long weekend, I managed to knit/complete quite a few projects and want to proudly display them. I just want to add as a disclaimer that taking good pictures of inatimate objects is harder than you think.
First off, Baby M's hat. I finished it a few weeks ago but finally got him to pose for a picture today.

Isn't he cute?

The hat



And my cutie again. Love how he crinkles his nose!

Next up is a hat I knit for my newest niece, born Sunday morning 5: 32 am in Jerusalem.


Purple bec. it's a girl!

I also knit myself yet another hat, but I am not sure if I will wear it because A informed me this morning that "you don't look like Ima when you are wearing a hat."



The old hat- A. doesn't like it

 


The new hat- maybe this one will be better?



And last but not least, here is the sweater for Melissa's baby. Melissa, I only recently read on your blog that you have bigger babies, so I hope this fits him or her. Tada!

 I think I may have overdosed on knitting for a while.  Might be time for a break, what do you think?

On the knitting front

So, I have finally completed the three baby blankets I have been working on, crochet edgings and all. I knit a cute hat for Meir with earflaps, which he refuses to wear. I have been trying to snap a picture of him wearing the hat, but he won't keep it on at all. So much for that. I knit myself a hat too and am now finally working on Melissa's gift- a sweater for her baby, due in February. Gender-neutral of course, because she doesn't know what she is having.
I am always on the look out for a new project, preferably something I can knit with the yarn I already have. I remember, when I was first learning how to knit, going over to a friend's house for lessons. When she brought out her knitting basket overflowing with yarn in all different colors, I was surprised at how much yarn she had accumulated. I remember asking her what she was going to do with all of it. Now, I am embaressed to say, I have so much yarn, it does not fit into a basket anymore. It is in bags, on top of my bed, next to my bed, hiding in Baby M's closet. In my defense, some of the yarn is not mine, it is for the Charity Knitting Club and I am just storing it. But still, I admit to having a yarn problem.
I think when you walk into a yarn store and you see so many different colors and textures you can just get carried away. You hold the skeins and think of all the cool things you could make. I think it's the promise of perfection, the possiblity of creating are endless. Then you start knitting, you make mistakes and all of a sudden that color that seemed perfect in the yarn store is just not doing it for you anymore. And it doesn't look like the picture or anything you had pictured in your mind. So you add it to the stash and go pick a new project.
I think, in our imagination, things are always better- our relationships, children, spouses, careers are all perfect in our minds. Then we come face to face with reality and we may be tempted to just put whatever it is aside and start over. But if we stick with it, we would see that what we have created may not be perfect, but it is valuable and real because we have put in genuine effort. So my new project is to take all the orphaned skeins of yarn in my stash and to put them to good use. Instead of always looking for new things, I will try and appreciate what I already have. Shavua tov.

Finishing Touches

As much as I love knitting, I really don't like finishing my projects. Finishing refers to all the work required on a knitted item once the actual knitting has been completed. This could mean sewing different pieces together and always involves weaving in bits of yarn. I find this process tedious and boring and, in the case of assembling, stress inducing, because if I don't sew my sweater together nicely, no matter how well it was knitted, it will look awful.
 Don't ask me how this happened but I am currently in the process of finishing three different baby blankets, two of which are for the "Knitting for Charity" club that I am part of. When I was faced with lots of different squares that need to be organized, sewn together and their ends tucked in, I did what most people would do- I stalled and procrastinated. I knit a quick hat. I read a few books. Every night, I would eye the growing pile next to my bed and choose to ignore it. But this week I decided to bite the bullet. I am anxious to start some new knitting projects and cannot do so in good conscience until I have finally finished with all these blankets. So I started: Monday night I assembled one blanket, Tuesday night I worked on the second and last night I wove in over 50 bits of yarn on the third blanket, as I was waiting for my children to fall asleep.
It's funny that I was dreading all that weaving,when really it only took about 40 minutes and was actually pretty painless.
I started thinking how life is funny that way. I often start projects with a lot of motivation and enthusiasm. I am sure I will complete it successfully in no time. But then I get to the nitty-gritty or the parts that I don't enjoy as much. All of a sudden it doesn't seem like so much fun anymore and I am not sure I want to continue. This could be dieting, writing an article, networking and building up my doula practice, exercising or even just my evening dishes.  But if I give up mid-way, all the work I put in until that point will be meaningless and will have been a big waste of time. Sticking it out and pushing yourself to finish will be much more gratifying and often the work that we are fearing is not as bad as we are imagining it to be.
When the adrenaline of newness has worn off you need to find something else to keep you going. Maybe a vision of the completed project or anything else that does the trick. I am sure I am not alone in this attitude. Please share what works for you.
Speaking of knitting, I registered for a class at the Vogue Knitting Conference and am sooo excited. I am planning a fun day off with my knitting buddy S. First brunch, then browsing the yarn at the conference and then a class on how to knit a beaded handbag. Too bad it's not till January...
So here is to new beginnings and their successful completions!

My knitting adventures

Today it was cold enough to wear sweaters, so I decided to take my recently completed sweater out for a spin. It was my husband's birthday ( Happy Birthday!!!) so we went on a date this afternoon. Then he humored me and took a picture of me in my new digs:

What do you think? I  am actually really proud of this sweater because it required a lot of different steps. There were all the different parts of the sweater as well as the belts, straps, sewing it all together and adding the buttons.
If someone would have told me two years ago that I could knit and assemble a whole sweater that actually looks nice enough to wear, I would have laughed. It sounds cliche but it actually took a lot of practice and determination, basic trial and error. I just kept knitting and becoming more comfortable with techniques. I challenged myself with harder and harder projects and here I am. By no means an expert knitter, but not quite a newbie anymore either. Just for fun, a few more shots of my cardigan.

the back



The front

I recently discovered that they actually have knitting conferences, the next one- Vogue Knitting Live is being held in New York in January. A friend and I are considering taking a workshop there. Haven't decided yet if that is cool or nerdy.
Wishing everyone an easy transition back into "normal" life after all the holidays. After 2 loads of dishes and 6 loads of laundry, things are looking up over here. Hooray for the first full week of school!


Update on Contest

I am really serious about this contest, by the way and I do hope more of you will participate. I know you are all shy but do it for me, make my day :)
I am giving you all till Sunday to comment and am making it easier- you do not even have to comment on a specific post. Just comment to say hi and/or something nice.
As an incentive and to prove to you all that I actually do knit, here are some pics of my recent projects
This is a sweater I knit for myself, although I obviously will not be wearing it in this weather




Sweater for my newest niece in Israel. Again, for colder weather



Ok, now do you believe me?

Happy 100th Post

Blogger has informed me that this past Friday I posted my 100th post on this blog. Not sure if that is a real milestone but it feels like one. What started as a mini-experiment has turned into something I really enjoy and I hope that those of you who read semi-regularly enjoy what I have to say too.
In that spirit, I am asking all of you readers (and I know you are there bec. I have a device that tracks my traffic on this site!!) to share a specific post that you particularly enjoyed and why. You can check the archives for inspiration.
I am even offering a prize for the most original comment- winner gets a hand knit small item of your choosing- think hat, scarf, bookmark, booties, etc. I know it's too hot to be thinking of hats and scarves but trust me, I knit cute things. Just ask my husband and kids. Now go ahead and post!

The Monday Night Knitting Club

I think I have mentioned previously that I have been knitting for the past year and a half. I find it incredibly relaxing as well as satisfying to actually produce something that does not get undone within a span of a few minutes likes all my other daily activities ie laundry, dishes, food.
Our synagogue started a charity knitting club right around the time that I began to knit and so I am an active and enthusiastic member. We meet once a month to knit and chat. We discuss future projects and divvy up yarn.
Mostly we knit hats for IDF soldiers in Israel as well as baby blankets and afghans for the families of the former Gush Katif. I am working on a cute baby blanket with my friend S and it is almost done. I have to admit that I been a bit lax on the knitting for charity front because I have been busy knitting for myself- a fabulous hat in purple and a light blue hooded sweater that is almost done. But I'm digressing.
Last night the ladies convened at our apartment. It was an interesting group of women who span all age groups and different stages of life, from singles to grandmothers. We had chocolate chip cookies and melon and a fun time was had by all. It is really nice to just sit around and talk to people without distractions. If we are honest with ourselves, how often do we really do that? Sit still for longer than 10 minutes at a time and carry on a real conversation? Most of us, including me, could stand to do that more often.
Oh and just for fun- honorable mention to whoever figures out the literary reference in the title of my post.
PS: I am really skeptical about this whole snow storm thing? Usually when there is all this hype and hysteria, nothing happens. I guess we'll see.

More about me...I started knitting about 8 months ago and have become a bit obsessed. I'm still a beginner or maybe intermediate but I find it very relaxing to knit at night after a long day of running after the kids. It's also nice to actually be creating something. So much of what I do gets undone within minutes- the food I cook is eaten, the clothes I washed get dirty again, etc. It's nice to have something with some permanence to it. My only issue is that once I start a project I want to finish it ASAP and I find myself knitting all the time, or thinking abt when I will have time to knit, calculating how long it will take to finish my project...a little OCD, I know. I'm like that with books too. Once I start one I have to finish it.
Right now I'm working on a baby blanket for my almost 3 year old daughter. Why does she need a blanket, you ask? She doesn't but I made one for her baby brother and she asked me if I can make her one too. Being that she is the middle child and we are always trying to give her more attention, I figured it might be nice for her to have something made special for her. Plus I had a pattern I wanted to try :) It's 25 squares plus 4 large panels around it. Once I finished sewing the squares together I gave it to her. Her reaction was totally worth the effort. She loves it and sleeps with it every night. Mission accomplished!