bellevett

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.

 

discoveries

so much knitting was finished this past weekend.

 

so  so much.

and guess what, wouldnt you know that my camera is dead dead dead.

 

moving on

*********************

the discovery basket.

you know that as a former montessori teacher i would have several of these baskets.  i have rotated new items in and out weekly, as i see his interest dwindle with one item or another.

children do in fact know what they need to explore. and for crosby, that item has always been a tape measure. 

this one in particular, which was my grandmothers.  he typically crawls around with that tape measure.  banging it around on the carpet, on the hardwood, against the couch.

right now in the basket is:

a mason jar lid

plastic spoon (i know, plastic, but it is bpa free?)

measuring cups

tape measure

stuffed creature

ball of yarn

wooden spoon

metal spoon

small wooden bowl

he usually sits (on the ground, cody and i were sitting with him on the couch on this fine saturday morning after some serious baby snuggles) and picks out the items one by one, examining, tasting, examining, banging, tasting, repeat. 

lots of items need further exploring in the form of banging onto the hardwood floor, which he crawls over too, with his little hand clutching the item, and slowly army crawls to the edge of the rug.  and then, let the banging commence.

when i see that his interest in this activity is over, i pack it all back up in the basket and tuck it away for tomorrow. 

the only way to tell if the object is any good is if you shake it and there is a bell inside.  then you know you are in business.

un-toys really are the best toys.

 

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.

taking a breath.

this is a post from a little place called honesty.  beware.

yesterday was one of those days that i couldnt get enough fresh air in my lungs to keep me calm and sane and all of those things you need to be.

if i am correct in reading into my senses of being a insightful, calm, and thoughtful mother, (which judging by yesterday that description could be a long shot) then i would say that crosby is hitting a major developmental growth spurt and that explains his current frustrations.

being inside a house with nothing but cold rain going on outside and a babe who is currently occupying a major pair of fussy pants (fussy being an understatement) can bring out the worst in any personality, and it did for me. 

once i got through the day and put on my going out of the house clothes and got into the car, i took a big deep breath of fall air and made my way to my weekly knitting group while happily listening to trashy pop music on the radio. yes, trash pop music at its finest.

yes, it took me about 6 months after crosby was born to attend my weekly knitting group, but once i was ready, it was like a little breath of fresh air for me.  i am only gone for 3 hours at the very most, but it is 3 hours of perfectly perfect knitting, chatting, coffee drinking, sometimes wine drinking, and most importantly relaxation.

on my way home, i remembered the way prior to my re-entry into my knitting group that i would take a breath.  i remembered how i would nurse 2 month old crosby in our bed while reading my newest issue of the new yorker, slowly making my way to the fiction section, which of course was the crowning jewel in my advanced new yorker reading.  after crosby was alseep i would slowly creep out of the bedroom and cody and i would go sit outside and stare at the garden with an ice cream cone or a cold delicious beer.

so last night, i took a lot of breaths:

on a dark, gloomy, rainy, cool night, we sat chatting, knitting, cross stitching, and enjoying a very appropriate hot toddy and cured olives at a local bar.

i worked on my new baby sock pattern, and also on cody's secret but not so secret birthday sweater that is inches away from being finished.

and there was also a finished object to be seen.  my friend emma is responsible for this fine embroidery.

all in all, i came home, chatted with cody, made a plan for the rest of the week, and took another breath.

throughout these last 8 months, i have had several ways of taking a breath.  all of these little moments have soothed my soul when the soul needed soothin if you know what i mean.

 

to inquiring minds: i never really outwardly "lost my cool".  its possible that i had a major temper tantrum in my imagination, but that is neither here nor there. so yeah.