Knitting in shades of Spring

Stress knitting, or rather knitting to un-stress has been my thing these days. Especially knitting little bitty things that give me quick results and cuteness. And with the seemingly endless waiting that is such a big part of our life right now in the world of domestic adoption. (waiting for "the call" waiting for a match, waiting for the Goober to find us...) I've done quite a bit lately!

First in pictures is this little baby cap the Fixation Newborn Hat from Ravelry. I love this pattern for the simplicity and cuteness factor. And since I was knitting and sitting and listening alot, at a performance my sister-in-law was in, this was the perfect thing.

And then I discovered the Milo!


I know I'll be making many of these little vests. The pattern is so easy once you see how it goes together and it is a total stash buster, using such a small amount of yarn. I love it! The cable variations that the pattern suggests will make for some nice little changes and with different yarns and sizing from 3 months to 4 years, I'll be knitting these for years! This one reminds me of celeriac so that's what I call it.

So, as for the news on the adoption front, there's no baby to report. We have now been officially waiting for over 17 months and trying to keep our spirits up. Our agency is going through some major personnel changes, which is very disconcerting. And it seems that many folks are waiting a very long time, not just at our agency. We did just attend a big Adoption Conference and immersed ourselves in classes and conversations about birth families, open adoption and openness in adoption. We did meet up briefly with the new director of our agency, which was a nice surprise and spent a few minutes catching up with our social worker as well. We'll be meeting with the new director next week to discuss where things stand and talk about opportunities for networking and anything else we can do to ease the waiting.

Luckily, we're heading quickly into planting, harvesting and preserving season. We have plans for garden and season expansions, as well as gaining some new food preserving skills. And maybe starting to plan the chicken coop! So, we'll keep ourselves busy and out of trouble as much as possible...but always ready to drop everything at a moment's notice to go and meet our Goober.

Some longies and the wait gets longer...

I find knitting calming. To me it is a moving meditation. Especially if I'm not working on something too intricate. And these days, I find myself reaching for my knitting frequently, as we've just reached our One Year mark of officially waiting for the Goober. For those not familiar with the adoption process, this significant time span necessitates the renewal of your home study. Which involved new physicals recorded and submitted to our agency, new background checks (to ensure that we are still not felons or abusers) and a renewal fee. We did not meet this date with any enthusiasm, never truly imagining that we would be waiting this long. Yes, we were told that the average wait for our program was about a year and that it could sometimes happen more quickly and sometimes take up to two years...but you tend to think of yourself on the positive side of those statistics. Well, we met a few couples the other night at an adoption lecture, one had their first placement in 5 months and had now been waiting over a year for their second, and another couple was now into their third year of waiting. Hmmm, statistics.

We also attended a local lecture given by physicians from the Floating Hospital for Children. The lecture was about medical issues in domestic adoption. And after two hours I thought my head would explode! More statistics! Some daunting, some encouraging, all sobering.

So, the latest piece off my needles is the above diaper soaker longies. These are not yet felted, but should felt up nicely like the short version below. The yarn is Fisherman's Wool by Lion Brand Yarns and the pattern is my riff on the Spare Rib Shoaker pattern at Ravelry.



We have made some progress in the Goober's future room, clearing off the changing area, and allocating some storage shelves for the room. We're still not planning to go crazy into the whole baby room thing, since the Goob will be cosleeping, we'll have time to create a well suited room before he/she will need it. So for now this is a bit of a baby stuff storage area, but the changing area will be critical, so here it is.





Michael is also finishing up the shelving in our second changing/bathing area in our first floor laundry room. Now if only I can find the time to finish the curtains we can check that area off our list.

First Frost and graham crackers

Well, it came. The first frost of Fall. We've been watching for it and trying to gauge when to clear out the last of the green tomatoes and eggplants. And luckily we got them out and into the kitchen just in time. Our first frost came on Tuesday evening, and we awoke to 29° F at 5:30 on Wednesday morning. Brrr! We're trying to hold off a little longer before turning on the furnace, for both environmental and economical reasons. Time for layers in the house!

Meanwhile, this adoption waiting has been sitting heavily with both of us. We've passed our 11 months of officially waiting and soon we'll need to update our home study. We know that the average wait with our agency is a year, but had hoped (and heard encouraging words from the agency) that it might have been sooner. I know that when you think of all the stories of people waiting years, this doesn't sound like that long...but it sure is feeling long right now.

The blue funk we've both been in called for a little extra attention (chocolate). On my way home from work the other day, Michael let me know that we were critically low on chocolate, and that some was needed. Meanwhile, I'd been fantasizing about lovely english whole wheat biscuits coated with chocolate ( I think they were called Hobnobs or something), or even the dark chocolate dipped graham crackers from Starbucks. Things we try not to eat, since we try to stick with good wholesome foods from home. But we were clearly hankering for a chocolate treat.

So, after stopping to replenish our supply of organic dark chocolate from Trader Joe's, I found a recipe for honey graham crackers in the MaryJane's Ideabook, Cookbook, Lifebook changed the brown sugar to sucanat, and commenced to baking. I used a jar as a cutter, since I had round cookies in my head. The outcome, crispy, wheaty, delicious and so I took the next step. Melting a few organic chocolate chips on each round at the end of the baking and then quickly sandwiching two together. Oh, glory be! They totally scratched my itch. And made for a delicious and only moderately decadent treat. Good for what ailed us.

I highly recommend this book for inspiration and recipes for a homestead kind of life. The photography is beautiful and the recipes I've made, delicious!

And the humble graham cracker has been elevated in status at our house to a new fav.

Shades of late summer greens and yellows...

...and a bit of belated catching up!

A dragonfly resting on a bean leaf

A lazy bee on the native sunflowers

The surprising polka dots of Tansy flowers waving over the drying Yarrow

Many many jars of refrigerator pickles...with my honey herb recipe...yum!

The first of the Fall crop of Mizuna.

Well, between the incredibly busy work-life right now, gearing up for singing at the Harvest Fair, a big birthday bash for Michael and just the everyday busy-ness of home...with (truth be told) a little bit of the waiting-for-baby-blues; I've been sadly remiss in keeping up with the blog. My apologies! Above are a few pictures of what's going on in the garden...and the kitchen.

And as far as at least 3 weeks of the Independence Days Challenge:

Plant Something:
buckwheat, clover, transplanted Calendula and Mint

Harvest Something:
Eggplants, cucumbers, dill, calendula, beans, radishes, radish pods, carrots, tomatoes, onions

Preserve Something:
Calendula oil, apple cordial (Calvados), yogurt, sourdough pizza dough, refrigerator bread & butter pickles, pumpkin and apricot breads for the deep freeze

Waste Not:
Using up all the whey from the yogurt for various lacto-fermented breads and pancakes, used up oddments of veggies in a huge mexican casserole, used all compostable paper goods at our party and topped up the compost piles with them, Sent off 75 used books to Powell's for credit towards our Christmas shopping.

Want Not:
Reading "Gardening When It Counts" by Steve Solomon, Topped up the pantry with this month's "big shop", Organized more jar storage and hung the garlic braids for winter storage, found some Patagonia organic canvas pants on a good sale for Michael's birthday

Build Community:
Preparing to sing at New Entry Sustainable Farming Project , working as a volunteer "farmer" at work on the organic raised bed project, donating food to an emergency center in Quincy, MA.

Eat the Food:
Sourdough pizza dough for our weekly za, yogurt, radish green fritatta, garlic green beans, mexican casserole with all the bits of beans, cabbage, etc.

Meanwhile, Michael and I are working our way through the list of late Summer into Fall projects around the house, and trying to focus a little attention each week on preparing for the baby. Things like, putting up shelves in the kitchen to hold pots and pans and make room for a little energy star dishwasher, improve drainage around house foundation, replace a few rotted shingles, look into getting the woodstove brought up to code so that we can use it, create more storage in the Goobers room for clothes and diapers, move bookshelves, build a cold frame for cold weather veggies, etc.

I'll be back again soon!

A little crafting for the little goober or babywearing diy

In my on-going quest to remain (some what) sane amidst the angst of waiting for a call from the agency. And with an incredible urge to research and prepare for all manner of parenting...I found some great baby sling/baby carrier patterns and whipped up a few to start us out.

Please forgive the overly warm photos... a little digital camera challenge.

Above Michael and our pal Teddy are modeling the lined pocket sling I made to Michael's dimension from Handmade-Adelaide-Baby. I made one for each of us. Michael's is a brown stripe (with orange and teal) on one side and a teal and indigo ikat fabric on the other. Mine is a poppy, persimmon and turquoise stripe on one side and a blue and poppy print on the other. And since all the fabric either came from my stash or from the sale table at the local fabric store we've really saved some money over the designer slings found at most baby boutiques. They are truly comfy and feel very secure. We'll see how we do with a real little one inside. We suspect a learning curve will be involved.

And below we are modeling our "minou-wraps" my interpretation of a very simple set of online instructions for a moby-type wrap.


I can no longer find the link but there are many sites with the basics for a baby-wrap style carrier. I bought 3 yards of an all cotton light weight t-shirt knit. Which is about 54" wide. I folded it in half down the length making a 3 yd by 27" panel. And cut the length of the fabric along the fold. Then I sewed the two pieces back together down one short side with a flat-felled seam using a short zig-zag stitch on my grandmother's old Singer. This leaves a lovely structured center seam which gives a little extra support and helps you to know where the center is when wrapping yourself in yards of stretchy fabric. On both wraps I tapered the tails for easier tying. Since these are t-shirt knits, they don't need to be finished along the cut edges. They roll themselves up a little and won't unravel. We've printed out some directions for different wrap style for various carries and have been trying them out. Check out the babywearer site for lots of great information on buying, making, trouble-shooting and the benefits of babywearing.

Our social worker and most of the books and sites we've perused for parenting tips and adoption tips, encourage baby wearing as an important step in forming healthy early attachment. We're looking forward to giving our baby carriers a try for real.

Now I'm off to finish up another pair of booties.

An update and some knitted goodness

Well, I'm sorry to see that it has been so long since I last posted here. Lots going on in our world and in fact in the big wide world as well.

We've officially completed our Home Study and have the papers to prove it. Which is a nice but slightly surreal feeling because now it's just down to the waiting...and waiting. And I know we haven't even waited that long yet!

So, for me that means assembling fabric and thread and patterns for some baby clothes, that you'll hopefully be seeing in posts in the coming weeks. And more time spent with my knitting.

My wonderful Mother-in-law, Nancy, saw a beautiful skein of sock yarn while she was shopping in Western, MA one day and she bought it for me. It is a skein of Dumbledore from the Harry Potter line by Opal, and it makes a lovely little tulip hat for the wee one.



The photo doesn't really do justice to the rich color-way and I'd hoped to show you a better view of the shape and construction of this little chapeau but neither Farley nor Zeke was a willing model. The pattern is from here the Drops site is FULL to bursting with projects I can't wait to try. Right now I'm half way through this bunting for the baby in a soft gray blue color with cocoa blanket stitch trim. And I recently whipped up this little number with some alpaca/silk blend that I had in my stash. It looks a little big for a newbie, but we'll soon see...the pattern is a free one I found here at Ravelry for those of you who are hooked into that mighty world of online knitters.




For now, I'm off to answer the call of the bamboo needles and that bunting.

Birthday Happy Feet and other knitting goodness

I finished the birthday socks for Michael in the nick of time (read 2 hours holed-up in the bedroom knitting fiercely to get these puppies off the needles and ends woven in. The pattern is Thuja. They knit up quickly to make a nice cushy, chunky sock, great for hanging around the house in slippers or clogs, not necessarily scrunched into work shoes. I knit them in a silk/alpaca blend and they are yummy! Michael loved them and wore them immediately. (Thankfully, the cold snap in the air that morning made it all that much more appealing.)

We celebrated the day with an official "Do Nothing Day" followed by a delicious and decadent dinner at the awesome Lumiere Restaurant. Well worth the price for locally and sustainably procured deliciousness. We left happily sated from corn fritters, fabulous mesclun salad, grass-fed steak and an incredible chocolate torte. Wonderful! And a fitting way to celebrate an auspicious birthday event for the most awesome and inspiring man I know. (Sorry, for the gushing, but I can't hide the fact. I adore him) Happy birthday, Michael. You are da bomb!

In other knitting news, meet Tito, the elefantito that I just finished for my little friend Mariana who just turned two. He is a spanish elephant (a very unusual breed) knit from this Safari Friends pattern. He is unaccustomed to this strange New England weather, and immediately requested a scarf. I hope Mariana will approve. The pattern is from Knitting at Knoon which has great patterns and wonderful tutorials. This is a perfect pattern to use for gifts for little ones.






And a little something for me...



No, despite the slightly sinister look. This is the first of a pair of Maine Morning Mitts (scroll down to the bottom of the link to download the free pattern), knit it Noro Kureyon. Now if only the cold snap would return, I'd have a chance to give the completed pair a run.

And in non-knitting news, we had our first Home Study visit today. We scurried around all weekend, madly organizing, and bringing the house to a new level of order and cleanliness, not seen since we moved in last year. Neither of us had a great night of sleep, what with the stress of not knowing exactly what sort of meeting lay in store today. Happily, all went well and our social worker really put us at ease. She did leave us with homework (a letter to write to the Expectant Mother and a photo album to assemble). After today and 3 more scheduled meetings, she'll write up the home study report and we'll become "waiting parents" gulp... Another check on the adoption to-do-list and on we go!

Another project for the lil' goober

Finished my first Baby Surprise Jacket designed by Elizabeth Zimmerman. I used a nice bright colorway in Plymouth Yarn Outback Wool. It feels like it'll be nice and comfy and the wool has a great hand to work on. A fun project once you decode it! Now I'm on the hunt for some appropriate buttons.

Baby Steps

Today we made an appointment with the agency that we hope to have handle our domestic infant adoption. This is big—SUPER BIG. And I'm kind of alternating between giddy hyper-excitement and stomach-flipping overwhelm.

Because knitting generally has a calming effect on me, when we really got down to making this step I picked up my needles and cast on a first pair of booties for the lil' goober. Christine's Stay-on Baby Booties from Fuzzy Galore is an incredibly fun and easy way to use up odd bits of yarn. I can't wait until there is a little one to wear them.

Now that they're off the needles, I've cast on a Baby Surprise Jacket which I'll photograph once it looks like more than a hodgepodge of stitches. I realize that there are a zillion more hurdles to jump through before we are actual, official parents. But we have made that first step and we are on our way. Whoohoo!