The Gauge

Last week I started a temporary job with the state.  Will it lead to something permanent?  Heavens to Betsy, I hope so. 

I have to drive about 100 miles each day to get to work and back, which really isn't so bad.  The driving, I mean.  Being away from my family for 12 hours each day?  Not so great.  And by the time I get home I really just throw dinner together so we can eat as a family at the table each day, and then it's off to bed for Elinor.  I miss her.

After that, I usually use up the rest of my awake time knitting.  On (ahem) THREE sweaters!  I'm loving knitting right now - it really relaxes me at the end of the day, and sends me right to sleep by 9:30.  Yep, I knit myself to sleep by 9:30 every night.  HOT.

So, I'm working on two Penny Straker sweaters and Jared Flood's Cobblestone Pullover (which, I understand, everyone in the world is knitting).

First up is this little owl sweater for Elinor:

 

Cute, huh?  It's really fun to knit, too.  I have both fronts and the back done, and I'm working on the sleeves.  I'm using Bartlett (yarn of the gods) in sport weight.  The yarn is showing the little owls beautifully:

The other P. Straker design I'm working on is this doozy:

Lots of details = lots of room for mistakes!  It's a blast though, and never boring.  I'm using Ella Rae for this and loving it.  It's a little splitty, but so soft a smooth for a 100% wool worsted.

Here's a close-up of the ribbing.  I love the little cables.

In other news, Elinor is suddenly a giant toddler.

(That's her smile for the camera face.)

That Almost Worked. Even Without Help.

Well, the posts from the other blog are on here, but a little backwards and somewhat out of order.  We're in Vermont now, so any Portland posts are old.  There's 700 feet of snow outside, so any pictures with grass, short-sleeved shirts, or iced drinks are plain old dated.  As soon as Ashley is operating I'll ask him to sort everything out for me.

Lots and lots to share...I'll get a post together that'll knock your hand-knit socks off.

I'm Back, In Full Effect

Oh, Hi!!

Okay, okay.  So, I started this other little blog, and I just didn't love it like this one.  So as soon as I remember how to move all the junk from that blog over here, you'll have lots of fresh new posts to read!

Then?  Well, then I'm just going to try with this one again.  I'll just keep trying.

Pam's House

We got a call from Pam last Tuesday offering up her house to us for a few weeks. The deal was that we'd get to stay in this incredible, beautiful house in exchange for keeping the mice away.

We said "you betcha!"

The house is just a couple of miles from our little house. Pam is mom to one of my best friends from high-school, so I've spent lots of time in this place over the last 20 years or so. It is on my top five list of favorite places of all times. One of the best parts is that it really doesn't change. Same books, same rugs, same place mats....everything is just like it is in memory.

We've already spread ourselves out over the house. It's so big compared to ours! Elinor is loving it...so much space to jump, dance, run, bounce, and brush teeth (a current favorite.)

She also loves this big desk that she can spread loads of paper on and color to her heart's delight. She's quite an artist, I can just tell.

LOVE the wood stove. It keeps the kitchen so toasty, and smells like heaven.

I'm at our house now, waiting to hear about a job interview. I was worried that our house would feel cramped and cluttered after being at Pam's for a few days, but it really just feels cozy and like it's ours.

January Everywhere

Another stunning Vermont day! Ashley and I were able to leave Elinor with my mom for a couple of hours and we went snowshoeing all through East St. Johnsbury and into Waterford. Since we're new to the whole snowshoe thing, we generally stayed on the VAST (snowmobiling) trail. It was really fun and felt like good exercise. Yeah...exercise. It's easy to ignore when you have a nice chair by the window and new projects underway.

I've been teaching myself how to hook rugs. I got a kit at Northeast Kingdom Artisans Guild on Christmas Eve and I've been working on it daily ever since. I LOVE it. The day I bought the kit, the woman who put the kit together, and whose rugs I have been admiring since the Guild started displaying them, was there working. She was lovely, and even invited me over for tea and rug-hooking. This is why I moved to Vermont!

My first attempt is a little uneven, and I really haven't a clue how to shade/fill in the empty spaces. It's coming along, though. More socks, of course. Always socks.

And the most popped over popovers of all time! Mom and Ron gave me this tin for Christmas, and then brought the mix home for me yesterday after they visited the King Arthur Flour store. I put some extra sharp cheddar in them, and they were mighty good.

Our little windows have been frosty, but we've been nice and warm in our small nest. The furnace gave up the ghost for an hour or so last night, but Bruce came over and righted it. I like knowing he's right next door, and that he knows this little house like the back of his hand.

Afternoon winter light. It makes you want to make coffee and read for the rest of the day.

Afternoon Walk With My Sweetie

The road where we live. For real.

Top of the hill - huddled together in the COLD cold.

My hiding place when I was a teen.

House at the top of the hill.

Our little corner of the world.

Some nice things.

Sock progress! I hope to start decreasing for the toe tonight.

A nice smelling candle surrounded by Oregon gourds, and....

A little bunny family! And last, but not least, a little sneak peak of our new home.

Millie's

Today Mom sent pictures of Millie's house...the little house that we will be calling home for (likely) the next few years.

Such a sweet little house. Millie was a good friend of mine the whole time I lived in E. St. Johnsbury. She is about 55 years my senior, but she treated me like an equal and we whiled many an afternoon away in her living room talking about very important things. I adored her. She lives in a nursing home a few miles from her little house now, so I will be able to visit her and tell her stories about how we spend the days on East Village Road. We're honored to have the opportunity to raise Elinor in this house for these next few very formative years.

A screened-in porch! And there's a deck out back overlooking a huge yard. My mom's house is right across the street, and Millie's wonderful extended family live right next door. I can already feel the embrace of our new little community! This tree in mom's yard let's us know when the season's have truly changed:

What a thrill that this will be outside our window in the not too distant future! I can hardly let myself believe it's true!

Things here in Portland are challenging. Ashley and I can't seem to say the right thing to each other. We both have very profound feelings about this move -- what's awaiting us and what we're leaving behind. Neither of us are all that good at being neutral about our (strong verging on obnoxious...at least on my part) feelings. It all feels very overwhelming and scary right now. I had a migraine in the night, and though I did make it to work, I wasn't able to stay long. I gave notice yesterday (more on that later, if I can manage) and cried hysterically throughout the entire thing (and several times after) and that is a surefire way for me to get a raging headache. I felt it coming on again today and just had to call it quits and come home.

I've gotten a little knitting in today. What would I do without knitting? I'm happy it's reappeared in my life in the last few weeks. Here's the progress on Elinor's garter stitch jacket:

And look! Brooke gave my some gorgeous Noro sock yarn, and I cast n right away to make the same pair of socks she was wearing on her feet:

I love working with this yarn. So Mom? I still want some for my birthday, please and thank you! Right now I'm going to hide under the quilt some more. So good-bye!

What we could muster.

Today felt like a lot of work. So much unexpected planning/packing/goodbye-ing in our near future. Elinor and I shuffled around the apartment all day watching corny TV, eating pie, napping, and drinking lots of the good stuff (me, not her):

We probably should have gone for a walk, trotted over to the park, made soup....but everything just seemed too overwhelming today. I did a little knitting:

Hopefully this will someday turn into this cute little Sarah Dallas number:

I'm pretty sure Elinor would be the cutest little so-and-so on earth in this jacket.

Staying Busy

I went on a freezer paper stencil kick this week. FUN! I did a few onesies for Elinor (above) and a few for a couple of new babies in our midst (below). This project is so satisfying, I tell you what. It's a little bit of a struggle for me to not stencil everything in our apartment right now. I followed the simple instructions in Amanda's book and everything went swell.

I used paper punches for the little designs (saw this on All Buttoned Up -- BRILLIANT!) and for a couple of the larger designs I made my own stencils from tracings I made from these awesome old Flash Cards I found at work:

I also finished the first sock and started the second.

I may well have finished the pair, but I cast on for the Feather and Fan Comfort Shawl after seeing a completed one at a local yarn shop. I don't love the pictures/examples that the link leads to, but the one I saw was lovely. I'm using my very favorite yarn of all times, Bartlett Fisherman Wool in Dark Sheep's Gray.

Elinor and I met up with a couple of moms and babies from my mom's group at the pumpkin patch this morning. Here's Elinor with her buddy, Calvin:

She was...umm...challenging. We didn't get to go on the hay ride or see the animals because she was too busy pulling my hair and kicking me in the ribs. There's only so much time in the day!