lulubeans

2009, you were pretty damn good to this family.


wishing you and yours much sweetness and joy in the year ahead.

big yarn, big needles, big happy

should you happen to have last minute gift knitting on your mind, i heartily suggest giving the golden compass inspired hat  a whirl.  it took me about 100 yards of bulky handspun and not a lot of of time. (seriously, it took, like, more time to just type those two sentences.  it was fast.)  the hat was supposed to wait for christmas morning, but the kid's eight. there are going to be enough other things that will, in her 8 yr old mind, completely outshine a hat that her mother hand dyed, handspun, handknit. and besides, her ears were cold.  (it's freaking COLD out there.)

here's a ravelry project link here should you be interested in the details. 

i am all about the low-stress, quick knit-up knits for gift giving this year.  i also want to give projects made with handspun yarn as much as i can, and so i am getting together a list of answers to the eternal "what could i make with this?" question that so often accompanies a hundred yards or so of bulky, one-of-a-kind yarn. i'm thinking that my mom will be getting a wham bam thank you lamb.  i'm a big fan of the edgar too.  and there are always hats!  i see a handspun foliage at some point in my future.

how about you? any favorite instant gratification patterns?

the shop has been restocked...

...with yarn and some goodies for spinners and my solemn oath to ship very quickly for your holiday enjoyment*.  

i have one learn to spin kit left - they were popular at last night's sale. 

(the sale, by the way, was absolutely delightful. my huge thanks to jen for organizing and hosting, and to all the friendly shoppers who braved the winter cold to stop by!  the whole evening was a genuine pleasure.)

*within 2 business days, max. i am usually able to priority ship on the day of an order.

snow day

today:

*knitting a lyra hat for natasha

*baking a million and one little chocolate chip cookies

*watching the snow (and now slush) fall

*sending my big kid down the street for a little playmobil play and pbs watching with her pal

*celebrating the arrival of tooth number 3!

*putting the very final touches on my goodies for tomorrow's sale

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my etsy shop is currently bare, and some of you have asked if i will be updating.  i plan to list both yarn and learn-to-spin kits this friday. thanks!

s is for sale!

hey locals! join me this thursday, december 10th from 5-9 pm at 89 clinton st here in portland for festive cheer and holiday shopping. i will be selling my handspun yarn as well as a bunch of learn to spin kits and i'll be joined by a bunch of very talented friends:
Swallowfield: affordable art by Jennifer Judd-McGee
Pixiegenne: thrifty crafty handmades by Meg Rooks
Little Pink House: wool felt lovelies by Melissa Crowe
Bobbin: handmade bags, clothes + more by Betsy Scheintaub
Betsy Thompson: mixed media collage
Designs by Elnel: silver jewelry by Elnel Browder
Milo in Maine: stitched and screen printed shirts by Liz Woodbury and Mark High
Passion of the Hausfrau: signed books and zines by Nicole Chaison
i should mention too- yummy treats! easy parking! i hope to see you there!

natasha turned 8 on saturday!   i knit her some fingerless gloves and something about them seems so big girl.  i love that she's still never without an animal friend though. 
the pattern is fetching from knitty.com. they could use some blocking, but i literally finished these during a quiet (ish) moment during the big birthday party, and they haven't been off her hands much since. details (including mods for 8 yr old sizing) on ravelry.

november-y

huh. in my mind it hadn't been a whole month since i updated here. i guess my mind was wrong. this time of year always starts to feel nuts for me and so i've been trying my best to take it slowly.  (the  long and beautiful fall we've been having has been a big help!)

i've been knitting small things.  simple and easy stuff that's good for gift giving, good for (sort of) instant gratification, and good for keeping my family warm.  

these are mitered dish towels from mason-dixon knitting outside the lines.

this little monkey is in the off-with-the-hat and wriggle-like-crazy-out-of-the-mittens phase, but it's not going to stop me from making more for her! she's wearing these fast baby mittens when we can manage to get her into them.

maybe not new to you, but i could probably waste a whole day looking at this website.

i am reading eating animals and consequently, and i am not eating animals. (this after taking a two year break from vegetarianism.)   (spoiler alert? gross out alert!) it was the feces soup that got me. (i am guessing that a lot of the book isn't new news to most people, or at least to most people who will read it, but it's a good refresher for someone like me who had sadly lapsed into wendy's cheeseburgers and bacon.)  

here's some lazy halloween decorating.  they are pretty self-explanatory.

natasha and i raided the recycling yesterday and started a spooky village, as inspired by this family.  we called it quits, however, after one of our apartment buildings suffered a devastating collapse under the weight of glitter glue AND after discovering that the chocolate milk carton that N had carefully pilfered from the school cafeteria hadn't exactly been as carefully washed out as well as it should have been.  soggy cereal boxes and the smell of rancid milk do not make for a fun family crafting adventure.   pinning plastic skeletons to embroidery hoops?  now that we can handle.

FO: little sister's dress

i made greta a dress.  she  wore it to our friends' wedding last weekend.  she is at a life phase where dresses make absolutely no sense whatsoever.  she crawls.  she gets picked up a lot.  dresses aren't super compatible with either of these realities.  luckily, this dress will make a nice vest for her, once she's a little taller and she toddling about on her own two feet. 

the pattern is tora froseth's little sister's dress.

more info here on rav.

i am really happy about the buttons i dug out of my button drawer. they were harvested from this old mrs. roper style dressing gown some years ago and i think that they are pretty perfect here.

hope you are having a great monday!  the little and i are going to try to get out and enjoy some sun today.  hurray for warm october days.

this made me so happy

i try to send out little sample skeins with all of my yarn orders.  i don't often know what becomes of these mini skeins, and so i was really, really excited to hear from stacey last night.  she has been saving up sample skeins that i have sent to her, and she made her daughter this incredible hat!  i love, love, love it!

thanks so much for sharing your beautiful knitting, stacey!  you really made my day!

FO: milkweed shawl, + other stuff

pattern: milkweed shawl by laura chau (ravelry link)

yarn: lulubeans handpainted sock

needle: US 4

totally embarrassing confession: while i was knitting this, i kept getting kelis' milkshake stuck in my head, only i replaced "shake" with "weed" (i know, there's some stonerific word play there, har, har).  and it's NOT that my milkweed is better than yours, or anyone's, it's totally NOT, and yet, it was impossible to keep that song out of my head.  impossible!

i was really happy to: a) finish something that required a little bit of concentration (not a TON, but enough that i had to start it over a few times.  my days have been so incredibly baby-centric as of late, and it feels really nice to say that i made something other than a mad dash for the toilet before miss speedy crawler puts her mouth on it.)  and b) give this to a friend who makes me feel really lucky and happy and normal and sane and thankful and all that awesome stuff that a good friend can make you feel. 

other stuff:

-a little yoga in the morning, even if it's completely half-assed yoga, with a baby crawling all over me and sticking her fingers in my nose, makes a lot of things a lot better.   i am so glad that amy karol blogged about yoga today's free stuff on youtube; it's totally upped my quality of life, honestly!

-i am hoping to lacto-ferment turnips + beets today.  yesterday i made yogurt cheese and saved the whey.  i hoping that adding more probiotic foods to our repertoire will help keep us healthy through the winter, and this is where my flu worries have led me.  there's a great article about food and immunity building here and while a lot of the weston price/nourishing traditions stuff makes me kind of squeamish + uncomfortable (ie, the enthusiasm for organ meats, homemade liver formula for babies, the use of the phrase politically correct as a slur) i can totally get on board for all the fermented stuff.  

-our downstairs neighbors left a giant pumpkin, a jar of homemade wild blackberry jam and a cool bowl for greta on our landing last night. our next door neighbors took natasha down to her bus stop so that greta could sleep in this morning after a hard, restless night.  (she's sloooowly working on her first tooth.)  our neighbors all around us look out for each other's kids and i know it sounds awfully corny, but they all extend so many small kindnesses and make me feel so thankful for the sense of community we share here.  thank you, neighbors!

we are starting to feel a little bit halloween-y around here.

how about you?

FO: another pixie hat

it's starting to really feel like fall.  the good kind of fall, the kind where the sun reaches the earth with a special kind of sparkle and clarity and the mornings give us reason to bring out new woolly things.  (this as opposed to the oh-crap-we-need-to-order-heating-oil-NOW type of fall.  but let's just look at this baby and pretend that kind isn't right around the corner.)

pattern: my pixie hat recipe (you can rav it here)

yarn: pippikneesocks handspun

needles: US 13

baby: 8 months old, very mobile, extremely impish

three episodes of glee later, and this little speck of knitting is all i have to show for it.  musical numbers?  teen angst? jane lynch?  i'm in.  (i'm hoping that some of the stereotypes get complicated as time goes on, but i'm in.)  there really should be more knitting to show, but all that singing and dancing had me distracted.   mistakes were made.  there was a lot of frogging + restarting. (i know, i know, lifelines were invented for a reason! i am a slow and stubborn learner, but i will be adding them this time.)  

somehow, i don't think there's much knitting progress on my horizon today.

it's an update

i got up bright and early this morning to try to update my etsy stop before the baby woke up.  i almost got everything done before she opened her eyes!  luckily, she is all smiles in the morning and has been very cooperative. 

i have some hand dyed top for spinners, and some new handspun yarns.  i am also excited to be offering a great discount (30% off!) on some handspun yarns that i'd like to move out of the shop and onto your needles!

ok, the cooperative segment of greta's morning seems to be nearing its end. 
one more quick thing- i am trying to update my mailing list.  if you'd like to be added, drop me an email at aprillnewman at gmail.com.  just send a blank email with "mailing list" as your header, if you'd like. (you are also welcome to reply in a comment here, if you prefer.)   i promise to email very sparingly, and only to give you a first peek at shop updates.  thanks!

FO: stay-put booties

not too long ago, i actually thought that booties were totally archaic.  no more.

i'm not sure what spurned this sea change, but here we are and i have booties on the brain.  and once i decided to become a knitter of booties, a classic pattern like this one seemed like the perfect place to start.

it took me a week to make these booties, but you could probably churn them out in a few hours, without interruptions.   these were a gift for our neighbor friends who are having a baby in october.

pattern: christine's stay put baby booties (ravelry link).  i'll have to report back on how well these actually do stay put, but my sense is that they should stay on wriggly little feet pretty well.  i am making a pair for greta now, and she will put them to the test.  she has become an exceptional puller-offer of all foot coverings.

yarn:  my own handpainted sock (merino superwash)

needle:  US 1

i followed the pattern with no modifications, except for the ties, which are i-cords instead of crochet or ribbon.  this pattern was fun and easy but with just enough going on to keep me interested- my favorite kind of easy.  i liked it so much that i cast on for greta's pair pretty much immediately after finishing these.  i'm tossing around a few ideas for modifying her pair. 

so hooray for booties!  (although i kind of wish there was another word for booties.  booties needs a synonym.  "baby slippers" doesn't cut it and you can only say the word "booties" so many times before it starts to sound really silly.)

we went to the farmer's market together. when my mom asked me if she could buy me flowers, i did that oh, no, you don't have to do that thing that i usually do when someone offers to do something nice for me.   i'm glad that she didn't listen.

i think i'm getting my spinning groove back, after my 7 month baby break. it feels really good.

this set of yarn looks like a wild romp through some wonka-esque candy shop to me. i'm not letting summer go until it's obvious that there's no other option.

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i am not sure if i can manage a photo a day, but i think that i am going to give it an honest try.

things we do for love

sometimes, as a knitter, it's nice to just make something that totally wasn't my idea.  the girl's squeals of delight made it more than worthwhile.

the pattern: ridiculously easy mary jane slippers (here on rav or here on craftster.)

to make these for kid-sized feet, i cast on 20 stitches instead of the pattern's 30 stitch cast on.

yarn: berroco plush, held double stranded.  it's nylon.  it's fun fur-ish.  it's kind of one of the last things i would instinctively reach for.  in other word's, it's a 7 year old's yarn dream come true.  and really, as far as fuzzy, unnatural yarns go, this one is actually not half bad.

 best for:  some awesome ice skating moves around the dining room.

speaking of love, i borrowed the up series from the library and i'm kind of obsessed.  have you seen it?   i have only watched to 28 and i can't wait to see the rest. 

new fiber in my shop

i have been attempting to dye a little something here and there.  for the conditions to be just right, the stars must align properly,  the bigger girl must have her nose buried in a book, and the baby girl has to napping, all on her own.  when it all happens, it's great, and i am thrilled to be back at it, even if it's just a little here and there.  i have added a few new squish-i-licious merino braids to my etsy store, and i'm hoping to add more soon as time permits.

click on the mosiac to visit my shop

finished object: spare ribs shoaker

i knit another wool diaper cover for greta using this pattern. (rav link)
it was fun + easy to make, and i love the way it fits . 

this was my first time putting elastic into the waistband of anything, and i was a little intimidated by it.   i have no idea why- it was really no big deal!
sorry if this is baby photo overload.  it's kind of impossible for me to resist.

some specifics:

yarn:  elann peruvian sierra aran

needle:  US 7

plus: a little of elastic.  the pattern calls for buttonhole elastic, but i just sewed in a strip of some plain elastic and it seems to be working well. 

also, to lanolize, i use tubed lanolin, and a squirt of baby shampoo (to help the lanolin disperse, nice too because we were gifted lots of excellently smelly stuff, and its not as though much of its getting used up on greta's head).  i shake some lanolin and the shampoo together in a small ball jar w/hot water and then stir this mixture into the sink where the soakers are already sitting in warm water.  (i've already washed them in eucalan.) i stir and allow them to sit for a good two hours, at least.  i am new to wool covers and was a little mystifyed by the process of caring them when i first looked into it, but it's been really easy. 

soakers are a gratifying, quick knit, and great for stash busting or, as in this case, using up yarn from a project that didn't quite go as planned. 
without getting into too much detail about the cloth diapering (there is a wealth of info out there) i will just say that i am pleased with how our soakers are working.  yet one more reason to love the power of wool! 

oh, sweet summer

please don't go away anytime soon.
i am loving you, lots.

also:
there is a very nice post about spinning with a drop spindle on sew green.

and also, i dyed some wool for the first time since late last fall, pre-greta. have you ever not done something for a long time, even if it's something you really love doing, and then found that the longer you stayed away, the more you lacked confidence, and the more you felt like your return had to be grand and exceptional and well worth all the time away and so it started to feel more like a lot of pressure than anything else? that's kind of where i am.
honestly, i'm not overly in love with the way this came out, but i'm willing to call it a good start.

on the bright side

at least all this gray + rainy weather has given us lots of time for some things we really love.
there's been lots of reading.

and lots of knitting.


i'm working on a buttercup for myself, and she's made her way through all of pippi longstocking today.
i am trying to look on the upside, because between all this crud weather and the head colds we're all fighting off, i've been getting kind of cranky.
luckily, greta is fairly immune to sinus pressure, bad weather + bad moods.
hello, little sunshine. i think it's time to bundle you into your sling, drag your bookworm sister out the door and muddle our way through the fog to the coffee shop. mama needs a little extra boost today.