bellevett

weekending x 2

 

 

 

so the past few weekends have been just the sort of weekends i have needed most.

both were made up of relaxation and productivity.

truth be told, i have been a bit preoccupied with a project here in my little land.  and that project is a new quilt for my boy for his first birthday.  which is coming up next week. on valentines day.  also known as my baby boys first birthday.  so, i deemed it fit to begin sewing him a quilt 2 weeks before, cause that's just what i do.  so, the knitting has been put down and all other interests have been put on hold until this quilt is finished.

except.........

we did find our way out doors 2 weekends ago when the weather got to a point where it should have been considered a sin to stay indoors.  it was still a bit cold, but the sun.  oh the sun.  it was quite nice.  seeing as though this winter has been unseasonably weird and totally unpredictable, seeing sun after months of overcast and rain and 50 degrees with no snowflake to be found, the sun was a welcomed player.

i dug up my beets and one lone carrot, just to see how it was doing.  i planted some arugula and some french breakfast radishes, just for kicks.  who knows, we may not get below 40 degrees at all this winter.  i am proceeding forward with my plans.  after all, the farmers almanac does seem to back up the claim that we will most likely not have any substantial winter here in the valley. 

i pulled up some spinach and re-mulched the kale. 

i turned all of our cover crops on our other two beds.

crosby took the whole garden bed terminology to heart and took up residence laying and rolling in the bed like it was his personal space. 

sourdough bread was made.  and....... meeeh. it needs some work i tell you.  i wont give up yet..

last night i made a giant salad and i used some pickled beets that i canned last summer.  they were by far one of the tastiest things i have canned ever.  and i now remember why i always plant so many beets.  also, the miniature beet eater in the family had some fresh beets last night roasted in the oven with salt, pepper and olive oil.  yes. they were Tasty.  capital t.

the truth is, i have begun my new pinboard on pinterest for my future farm. and i am seriously craving some fresh foods right now.

but, before i get into all that, i have a few days left to finish a quilt that i spent all last night seem ripping out the border after i saw a mistake that i just couldn't ignore.  so, the farm talk will have to wait for a few more days. 

happy tuesday.

some knits. and gifts.

 

a few simple gifts for christmas.

the pear and hat were knitted by me.

pear was knitted from itty bitty toys book, and i added some bells inside so that it would be appealing to such a rattle lover.  the hat was made from this aviatrix pattern. 

a wooden knob puzzle and a book from us.

abc blocks from a family friend.

a few small wooden trains from a cousin.

a wooden xylophone and a tambourine for this music maker lover boy was perhaps his favorite gift.

another favorite? this walker wagon from nova naturals. which he is crawling with.  this boy is such a fast crawler, why would he have any reason to actually walk? 

we intend on keeping holidays small, always, just a few simple gifts and lots of merry making.  this season was perfectly that.

 

thankful five- day five: handmade

 

 

 

 

 

 

sewing.

dyeing.

and most importantly handknits.

i will be forever grateful.

stress relief in the form of wool.

 

five days of thankfulness links:

day one

day two

day three

day four

 

tons and tons of yarn.

this post will come to you with very few words.

 

it is the last post in my series of things that have been knit lately but i am just not getting to remember to share.

 

the handsome man in the handsome sweater.

finished BEFORE his birthday, in an unlikely manner....

buttons from the mystic orb store on etsy.

i love this sweater and this pattern. 

it was actually a pretty quick knit. 

so handsome.

one problem: i may have created a situation for myself in that now, cody will know the power of a handknit merino wool sweater....  i fear (hope) that more requests will come soon for another handknit.

raveled.

 

more little things.

into the woods- and baby needs another warm item, what do you do?

 

pull out last minute knitted gifts and start knitting.

 

finished this sweater a few weeks ago before we went camping and just now blocked it- it has been a well worn item already just like the pebble vest.  this yarn seems to hold up very well- but it has been discontinued unfortunately.  it is knitpicks shamrock.

 

i love this sweater. it is from more last minute knitted gifts and is the perfect gift for someone who is having a new babe- and would be perfect with a hat in the same yarn.

next up for warm weather items for crosby is a tomten.  anyone else get the elizabeth zimmerman bug when it turns cold????

outdoor goodness.

exactly 2 months ago, 2 weeks before our first almost frost, we dug up our sweet potatoes and planted our garlic.

on this day, it was unseasonably warm, think 80's. thus, the baby in the onesie.

we thinned our beets, lettuce, and our kale.

yesterday, we spent the day corralling leaves. mixing them into the composter with the last of any fresh grass clippings until next year, and layering them over our garlic.  we gave all of our ridiculously out of control kale and beets a good composting layer and then topped it with leaves. 

i picked a rediculously large amount of kale to eat this week and freeze, and covered our spinach up with compost and leaves, it will come back in the spring.

i thinned our baby carrots with the intent of bringing the thinned carrots in and steaming them for crosby.  they never actually made it that far.  actually.

i made plans to move a random shaded blueberry bush to the front where it will get sun and most likely produce blueberries, but i guess that is a project for the spring- no need to shock the roots now, with the cold moving in.

i also moved my collection of rubber gardening shoes to the basement instead of right outside of our door, which produced a fake protest: "awww, why did you move our rubber shoe collection out of eyesight??" insert sarcasm.

in one month, garlic is sprouting, the cover crop is growing good, the beets are standing tall, the kale is pretty much out of control, all of our carrots are growing straight, and the weather is about 30 degrees cooler.  if i could be a farmer, it would be a cold weather crop farmer, because somehow, i have the magic with cold weather crops.

you may be asking yourself why there are no pictures of yesterday.  well, in one month, we have a baby that crawls. no more sitting him with a bucket of potatoes to let him gnaw on while we slowly finish the garden chores, while casually snapping a few cute photos.

if you read what was accomplished above- maybe read it again in your fastest speed reader voice, and that would have been more of the pace that i kept yesterday.

as the keeper of the crawling baby, we spend a lot of outdoor time doing multiple mouth sweeps to clear various species of leaves and branches and dirt from actually being ingested. 

also, he is now obsessed with crawling after the dogs, and i have visions of the dogs leading him down the road and away from the house to rid themselves of the constant hair pulling and general dog obsession shenanigans.

this all may sound crazy to you, or normal to you, depending on your situation.

but the truth is, no matter what the pace of our outside time, it is always extra enjoyable.  crosby is an outdoor baby.  he would live, sleep, play outside if that was an option.  he can be at his fussiest, and when we leave the inside, no matter the temperature, it calms him.  the outdoors are like a drug for him.  comforting, soothing, and entertaining.

 

 

on top of old smoky, all covered in wool.

that explains our weekend.

 

(above: second 6 hour sweater from more last minute gifts, quick scarf for myself, and infinity scarf)

this past weekend, i pulled off an epic surprise for cody.  we had plans to go camping for the weekend with two friends of ours and their baby.  what he didnt know, is that for months now, i had planned on several more people joining us in the mountains for the weekend for a camping birthday bash complete with chocolate cupcakes with salted caramel icing. 

it was a lazy daisy weekend with lots of cast iron dutch oven cooking (new for his birthday) and delicious micro brews. 

it was a weekend of big fires, short hikes turned long by multiple treacherous creek crossings that claimed the life of a pair of sunglasses, and wool..... lots and lots of wool.  especially for the baby. 

and leaf eating in the sun of course.

 

finally i am in a place in my knitting life where most of my warmest clothes were made by me.  of course, as i have camped for years and years, i have loads of "name brand" warm outdoor gear from all the best outdoor stores.  but there is no warmth like wool warmth that was made yourself. 

heck, even the above shirt that crosby is wearing is an old merino wool icebreakers shirt of mine that i downsized to make into a long sleeve merino shirt for him.  it was the perfect next to skin wool layer for him, along with some merino wool nappy pants. 

i actually took no pictures the entire weekend. all of these pictures were thankfully taken by my good friend carah. 

 

 

the above hat is a new little hat that i made with some leftover spud and chloe outer that i had laying around.  it was the shroom hat pattern and it was free free and free.

oh!  and did i tell you i finally put some buttons on the adorable and awesomely warm levenwick??

i promise myself i will photograph those buttons.  vintage.  glass.  multi colored.  need i say more?

 

what a good weekend with good memories.  and good people.  and good food.  and good beer.  and most importantly good wool.

 

reading between the lines.

after a long week of a sick baby, i then became very sick with a downright mean cold for an entire week.

 (read: home with a baby who just came off of a week of sickness and had a weeks worth of pinned up energy waiting in the wings, therefore feeling like worst mom in the land for wanting to lay on couch and not move a muscle.)

that means 2 weeks of sickness.

(read: now you know why i havent posted or written a single word to signify my existence.)

while hosting last weeks visitors: aches, chills, and no sleep, i found myself with a 7 1/2 month old who decided to start only taking one nap a day.......

(read: i was looking forward to those two naps to catch a little snuggle and shut eye myself.)

and then i found myself with a baby who decided that now would be the perfect time to start crawling!

(read: snot dripping from nose, but trying to enthusiastically find the video camera or any device that might capture the moment.)

and of course it is the type of crawling that could be described as human dust mop.  it is full on army crawl.

(read: totally stressed about how dirty my house is. and therefore how dirty crosby's whole front side is because of it.)

this week, we will have an 8 month old.  an 8 month old who loves to eat food, dirt, sticks, leaves, dog hair, tiny bits of who knows what from the ground.

(read: i am becoming busier than i ever thought i could be with one little tiny human.)

this past weekend, as i felt happily recovered, i started happily preparing for winter.

(read: our house was built in the early 1900's and is always cold.  very cold.  we thankfully have a woodstove.  but we still dress extremely warm around the house.  like thermals people.)

i started on some baby socks THAT STAY ON to go with these new woolies.

(read: where do people find socks that stay on babies? scratch that. where do people find WARM socks that stay on babies???)

 

here is my best attempt to get a picture of these on the baby in question.

it turns out that baby feet move faster than the camera lens can focus even in the best situations.

i finished these socks in about 2 hours while sitting outside watching cody stack firewood.

(read: a fast knit considering the multiple stops to clean out the mouth of a baby who *might* have found a stray stick outside to chew on)

i immediately casted on another pair with more modifications for fat little baby feet.

  i used alchemy temple yarn.  the best washable yarn around. totally worth the money, since you can get 2  pairs of machine washable merino wool socks out of it.

this week, i am writing up this pattern for you. 

this week, i will host no visitors of the sick kind.

amen and the end.

 

ps.  could i have chosen better colors for the mums i planted outside? i think not.

pebbles

a large majority of our recent camping trips have been spent by crosby's side assisting him in his rock explorations. 

read: clearing his mouth of any and all pebbles and leaves.

(he does enjoy a good mouth full of tiny pebbles and sand, that is for sure. he is that age.)

knowing that it was going to be fairly chilly on our nc trip, i cast on henry's pebble vest.  It seemed a quick knit and i knew i was going to be able to finish it on the drive there or at least the first day.  i had also planned on crosby wearing his 6 hour cardigan and his little cotton cardigan that i had knit for him before he was born.  that however turned incredibly laughable when i tried them on him and the looked like 3 quarter length sleeve bolero's.  luckily i had a few fleece jackets in his closet and the almost finished pebble.

 

 

as i neared the end of this little pebble on our first day, and after a long day of cody and i taking turns making sure he didn't ingest an entire tree, we resigned to playing an incredibly intense card game of phase 10 in the tent.

 

the buttons ended up getting sewed on, and he has been wearing it every time i feel a chill in the air, or even just a small breeze, cause i love it that much.  

i might make a few more of these.  so adorable.

ravelry link.

 

the trip formerly known as beeryarnhikingfoodpalooza-part 2

the handknits.

i lived in handknits.  what is nicer than going on a camping trip and staying warm as a result of your own two hands.  really.

winner of most worn handknit:

the february lady sweater. 

any sweater that looks and fits equally well when pregnant, 5 days postpartum, and a back to normal body deserves an award.  this sweater is a true fav. 

 

2nd place:

 the rhubarb and custard sweater/vest. 

this is by far one of my favorite projects.  it was quick and easy.  super cute on.  snuggly warm. etc. etc.

i sewed up the sides a bit, making it a bit more fitted.  true love.

 

third place:

the unfinished levenwick.

i hastily sewed some buttons on this and threw it in my bag unblocked.  it is so warm and comfy that i knew i needed to bring it.  i just ordered some vintage glass buttons to go on this baby, and i will be extra extra pleased.  i am going to move the buttons over a bit to make it a bit more fitted and help the collar stand up a bit better. 

ravelry links:

february lady

first february lady

rhubarb and custard

levenwick

i obviously trust my handknits.  did you know that i most definitely did not bring a single jacket to wear?  i was supremely warm by way of my merino wool long sleeve undershirts, worn over my dress, and under a wool handknit.