An early FO

Guess who came 3 1/2 weeks early?

Introducing Rowan, my best finished object yet.

So yeah, no knitting lately :)

Finally, a FO

I killed the computer a week or two ago...and we finally got a new power supply in last weekend. Between killing my home computer, killing a work computer twice this year, and being unable to efficiently navigate ITunes, I feel technologically stupid. I sometimes wonder if I was not born in the wrong time period.
I mean farming, canning, knitting, no problem! (As long as time is not a factor :))
But figuring out how to load specific episodes from one of my podcasts onto my Ipod? Not so much...
I finished the sweater for my co-worker a whole solid three days before the shower. I'm pretty pleased with the way it came out, and even though I didn't knit a swatch for gauge, I was pretty close. The sweater should fit somewhere between 2-6 months. And after washing and folding clothes for my little one, I think my sweater is closer in size than the variances between different brands of onsies.

So...now no more excuses to keep plugging away at the Tilted Duster...
The Christmas Cactus I have at work never bloomed last year, so I was pleasantly surprised to see it budding. Aren't the striped petals gorgeous?

One of the buds fell off, so I threw it in a beaker, and it flowered. It is the prettiest thing to ever be in that beaker, I'm sure.

Baby Sweater

I'm knitting this sweater for a friend who is having a little boy. It's going really quickly on size 10 needles. I should be done by now...but you know, life and all. Or to be more specific, the first of three baby showers (baby stuff is sooo cute!), prenatal classes, prenatal yoga, and general nesting seems to be getting in the way of my knitting time. My time seems to be flying by in a blur, not unlike the stitches in the first picture :) I should be able to finish the sweater by next week, when it's done, I'm sure it will resemble a sweater and not a blob.
It's looking more and more like the Tilted Duster might be a winter sweater....

Something Finished, Something Not

I finally got around to taking a picture of the soaker I finished a week ago. It's from the frantic mama pattern.I love the spirally stripes the variegated Purewool turned out. You can see how much more even my stockinette is in the round versus on the bottom where I switched to straight needles. I must purl tighter :)

The leg holes seems a bit small, but then, I suppose the cloth diaper will take up a bunch of room. I can always rip it back and pick up more stitches around the hole when Baby Neff plus diaper fits into it. Coming from my stock, chances are his legs will not be skinny :)
I'm pretty sure he's working diligently on building his muscles now. It amazes me how strong some of those kicks are.

I've finally dusted off my Tilted Duster again (I really couldn't resist the corny pun). Hopefully I can put some serious knitting time into that and can finish before fall ends. One of my co-workers is due for her firstborn 7 weeks after me, and I'd really like to knit her something. I guess its a good thing that its getting dark earlier and the weather is getting colder. Less outdoor distractions = more knitting time.

Picture Heavy Post of Italy

In no particular order:
A rare shot of me and Matt complete with pregnancy belly inside the Colosseum.Ancient marble facade remnants on the outside of the Pantheon.
Monteriggioni, a castle outside of Siena.
Little medieval streets in Orvieto.
View of the Roman Forum from Palantine Hill.
Piazza del Campo, Siena.
Arch of Constantine (my favorite *ahem* Russian Fulbright scholar) in Rome.


Fresco in Monte Oliveto Maggiore Monastery (note the cat and dog fight).

Volterra (Best place in Italy to catch a sighting of a vampire for all the Twilight fans, hehe)
View of the Duomo in Orvieto.
Ponte Vecchio in Florence (The famous Medici family used to use this as their personal commute into the city.)
Trevi Fountain at night, Rome.
Casole d'Elsa, our home base in Tuscany.
Hey look, I even did a little knitting in Italy. Someday this will grow up to be a diaper soaker for the wee one. I love the spiral/stripey thing going on in this yarn.

Poor Neglected Blog

I haven't been knitting.

I've been doing a ton of traveling (from Maine to Oregon to southern New Hampshire) and preparing for baby and I have some great pics, but nothing knitting related.

That elephant I was supposed to finish for my sister's shower and then birth and then baptism?
Never happened.
At this point I guess I'll be hoping to finish for Christmas, when the baby will be 6 months and might actually react to a stuffed animal, so that would be nice.

I'm going to Italy in a few days and I'm hoping to take some knitting for the plane, but I have so much to do for the next few days I don't even know if I'll have time to gather patterns/materials, and I'm not taking the Tilted Duster with me. Trying not to panic about all I need to get done in the next 24 hours!

On the non-panicked side, I turned this:Into this:
And then I found that the seeds of Queen Anne's Lace were used as a contraceptive...so I won't even get to see if it tastes good. The flowers, which were used for the jelly, might be safe, but I couldn't find info that they definitely were.
But it's pretty anyways :)

Rest in Peace Dear Canon Powershot S50

For 5 long years you served me.

You took some pretty pictures.


You took some fun pictures.

You even took some knitting pictures.


Your service has been greatly appreciated, but you have become:

sad
and bulky and
slightly broken...

I think it best if we put you to rest and let the Nikon Coolpix take it from here.

Yay for early birthday presents! :)

Sweater Progress

There's not been much progress to show, but enough to take a picture of:

The yarn is gorgeous, heathered with pinks and blues. If only I could get myself to cast that piece off and start on the next piece...
Less picture worthy is the elephant that I have yet to sew together. My sister's baby is hovering on a month old....hopefully I'll get around to it by the christening next month.

It's been a busy month. (Excuses, excuses...) We went to the Finger Lakes with friends for the Fourth of July and got to stay at an awesome house right on Lake Canandaigua. Our friends got their very own designated driver for a day of wine touring. The vineyards out there have gorgeous gardens, gorgeous landscaping, gorgeous lake views, gorgeous swans...yup, gorgeous swans :) Perhaps when I am not so pregnant, I'll be able to do some tasting myself.
And no month without blogging would do without at least one weekend of trucking down to Western MA. We had a lovely hike up Monument Mountain in the Berkshires, complete with some wild blueberry foraging. I must be getting a bit spoiled on the Green Mountains though, because we go to the top....and I was hoping for a bit more mountain to hike up.
Last weekend we had people up for Brew Fest. Yet another event that made me really miss the occasional imbibing of alcoholic beverages. Not to complain too much. They put on the festival on the Burlington waterfront and it's a gorgeous place to hang out.

Yesterday we also spent our energy volunteering for the Mozart Festival. Beautiful classical music in some of the most gorgeous settings in the area. But parking and un-parking hundreds of cars is exhausting, and I still have some sleep to catch up on. Hopefully next time, I'll have more knitting to show in less time. That's the dream anyways :)

Tilted Duster Prep

Ready to start my first sweater project. I finally got to put the skein winder and ball winder to good use. Husband was amused by how amused the whole setup made me.
So easy!
No resulting yarn tangles!
I heart my ball winder :)Matt really wanted to know why yarn was not sold in yarn balls, if skeins were so difficult to knit from.
I really wanted a logical answer but all I could come up with was,
"Because skeins are pretty, Matthew."
Am I missing something?
My pretty purple yarn balls.
Prettier than skeins?
You be the judge.I've decided to limit the baby knitting until we find out the gender. If Baby is cooperating, that might in just 3 weeks.
I really love gender specific baby patterns :)


In other news, I finally made it to my second Red Sox game. It only took 17 years. (Seriously, the last game I went to was with my DARE class in elementary school.)
Luckily, it was hugely more entertaining than the one I went to back in the '90s during their less awesome years. For starters, I actually kind of follow the team now. They were playing the Marlins and between Big Papi's homerun, and then not striking out at all (it's the small stuff), Ellsbury stealing bases left and right, some excellent knuckleballs from Wakefield, and you know, actually winning the game (a great change from my last game) , I just wish Boston was a little closer so we could go more often.

Perhaps I Should Start Knitting My Own Baby Items...

..seeing as in 6 short months I will have a baby of my own! I guess I'll have to get on that now that I'm past the nauseous/tired stage.

I have no new knitting to show you (I never even finished sewing the elephant together) . The blanket was well received, though someone in the audience, and yes, the shower was so large (30+ guests) that it was as if there were an audience watching my sister and her husband unwrap guests...
Tangent! Anyways, some guest asked if the blanket were crocheted or quilted. I still don't know if they really didn't know the difference between sewn material and yarn...but then again, maybe they were sitting that far away...

How about some pretty flowers instead? These pictures are of the peony gardens in Shelburne Farms, definitely worth a visit if you find yourself in the Burlington, VT area.