Baby Sweaters!

So many babies lately! Baby Caleb (Troy+Becky) was born right before Christmas and Baby Dominick (Andrea+Ricky) was born just before New Year's.

   

It was a good thing I was trying to get all my knitting projects before the New Year (new, bigger, non-knitting project on the horizon!), because one of these babies came early!

For baby Caleb, I nixed the idea of combining Packers and Vikings (a little too complicated) and went with a simple Notre Dame jacket. The special touch is the shamrock applique, which is SO CUTE!!! They also got a simpler Golden Dome hat ... I didn't have the patience to do the brim fanciness.









Baby Dominick got the real prize. Ricky is a huge LSU fan, and his nursery is completely decked out.








Of course I went with a Letterman Jacket (I can practically do this pattern in my sleep now).



Oh, it looks like an ordinary sweater in the LSU colors, right?


Wait WHAT!?!?!?!

I took the LSU logo and gridded it up!




This was so complicated, but I came out so good!







I had to have so many balls of the same color, or else the back would have been even crazier! Also, this was a great time to learn to weave in ends correctly!

I really liked doing this more complicated pattern, and there MAY be another Domer baby headed someone's way soon (not me, keep your panties on people). Maybe a little leprechaun?

I grew that from nothin'!

I feel like everyone I know has been on this whole "eat locally", gardening thing lately. They're all "Hey! I grew green beans!" I'm jealous for several reasons:

1) I hate paying for things I can just do myself (I really should have named this blog, "Hey! I can just make that myself!").

2) I am all for vegetables and herbs and stuff. We've been good about cooking at home and having veggies at every meal.

However, there are some very serious challenges to the whole "growing things" goal:

1) I kill everything. Like, everything. I've had one plant survive my attempts at cultivation, but even that one is looking pretty sad.

2) I live in an apartment in New York City, so gardening is tricky.

However, the internets abound with ways to have pretty, indoor, useful gardens.

I got a window box from Home Depot and some seeds from Amazon (the lady at Home Depot gave me a snide "Um, no, it's a little late in the season for herbs" ... yeah, that's why I'm doing them inside my sauna of an apartment). 

For my first attempt I used old plastic cutting boards to divide up the window box into 10 sections and planted a different kind of seed (in alphabetical order of course ... Basil, Chives, Cilantro, Dill, Lavender  Oregano, Parsley, Rosemary, Stevia, Thyme). 

The internet told me it could take WEEKS to sprout anything, but probably within 5 days I had my first sprouts! They were so cute!

I think that's the basil 

I let those grow, and after a few weeks I had sprouts for basil, chives, cilantro, dill and parsley. The rest had nothing. I transferred the growing ones into their own pots, which did NOT go well. Everything except the cilantro and dill died, almost instantly. 

For my second attempt, I replanted the basil, oregano, and parsley seeds straight into their own pots; I didn't want to deal with replanting them. It worked much better.

The parsley and basil sprouted immediately, and the oregano is weak but growing. I replanted the others in the window box again, and again, nothing. I have to do a little more reading and see what I'm doing wrong.

Then Chris surprised me with Pepper seeds! I planted those in the window box, and look what was waiting for me after we got back from Christmas?!

On New Year's Day I always have to eat beans (thanks to Nana, who gives everyone baked beans for Christmas, even though my mom is the only one who eats them) -- Eat like a Pauper on the first of the year, and you'll eat like a King for the rest. This year we made fajitas (chicken for Chris, black beans for me), and tried to make them taste as close to Chipotle as possible. And for the Cilantro Lime Rice, I used the cilantro from my window!!! I was so proud!!!

Problem:
The clay pots really dry out the soil, so the ones in clay pots are bone try but the ones in the plastic pots are getting moldy! I read here about soaking the pots in water from the bottom instead of watering them from the  top (which could flush the nutrients down and out the bottom).



They look so much better! The internet said I wouldn't have to water then again for weeks ... I don't quite buy that, but we'll see.

Green ... ish

I spent the morning stashing some yarn. It's been a while (shakes fist at baby!), and after a few big projects our bookshelf was covered with about 30 partial skeins of every color I have.

Then I realized I didn't know which yarn was which. Is this White the Vanna or the RedHeart? And these two white don't look like the same white. 

And then I came across this ...

How many greens does one person need? And mind you, these were only the greens that sort of looked similar (in my dimly-lit living room) ... there are WAY more on the shelf.

I realized I had to do a better job keeping track. But how to do track a little ball of yarn?

With little scraps of paper of course.

Now my yarn shelf is all pretty.

Reds, Oranges, Yellows, Pinks, and Purples

Greens and Blues

Whites, Browns (which still need a little organizational love), Blacks, and Grays

Odd Sizes, Weights, and Textures

The husband is much happier now.

A Day (Off) in the Life ... sewing

Today I took the day off from work without ANY responsibilities. Lately I've taken days off only to have them fill up with ugly grown-up things like Doctor's appointments, Life Insurance meetings, and general ickiness. But today was about only three things: 1) birthday yummies (coffee, cupcakes, etc.); 2) Buffy the Vampire Slayer (I've never seen it, and apparently that's a seriously blow to my street cred with my friends); and 3) working on my sewing.

I cleared out all my "fabric" over the weekend -- and by fabric I mean old T-shirts, clothes, and hunks of curtain that I can't bear to throw away. Well, it was time to get rid of some of it. I have these grand plans ("I'm going to turn these random pieces of linen into ... something!"). Yeah, no. So I any non-Notre Dame piece of clothing went in the donate pile (I have a plan for the ND stuff); real fabric (fabric, not curtains or old jeans) went in a (newly decorated) box; all clothes that hope to be turned into kids' clothes went in another box; and my clothes that needed to be altered were pulled out for today.

So the issue with clothes lately ... my shape has become very different than 2 year ago. Before the baby, I was about 155-160 lbs, with a 36DD chest. By the end of the pregnancy I was 185 pounds with a 38G chest (yes, G, as in Good-God)!). By the summer after baby was born, I was back at 160, still wearing the 38G bra (though actually just wearing nursing tanks and cardigans). I was wearing size 12 jeans.

Then 2012 hit and all hell broke loose. Everyone in the family (except the baby, but including Gramma and Grampy) got the stomach flu. I lost 11 pounds ... and it didn't come back. I was still nursing and pumping, and R had just learned to crawl and "cruise", so I figured I was just running around lot. February brought another bout of Mastitis, and I was in bed for 2 days. Another 5 pounds. March saw the first of FOUR throat infections in FIVE months. By the summer, I was down THIRTY POUNDS from the top of the year. I went shopping and bought size 8 jeans. WTF? (also, I felt really bad because the MIL had bought me some really nice dress pants for Christmas, all size 12, and they still have the tags on them :P).

(I've recently learned that I have Grave's Disease, which has lead to an over-active thyroid, which is part of the reason I lost so much weight -- or else why it didn't come back after those illnesses. We'll see, now that it's being treated, whether the following alterations were a waste of time.)

So, the Captain Obvious statement of the year: a lot of my clothes don't fit. I had put a few shirts away last summer, as they didn't contain my boobs or cover my belly. I pulled them out again this weekend, and while they cover the (no longer as prominent) belly, they still don't contain the boobs (I'm now wearing a 32E -- thinner, but still va-va-voomy). For example, a nice fitted knit sleeveless shirt finally reaches down to my belt, but my bra pops out the side. (oh, and don't get me started on the 1) hideousness and 2) monstrosities of nursing bras -- why do they have to be so big? Just cause I have to whip out the boob doesn't mean I am also wearing Turtle Necks, because I can't wear V-necks without everyone seeing the bra.). Anyway ... something needed to be done, and now that I've figured out how to turn the sewing machine on, I gave it a whirl.

#1 - The totally office-appropriate and adorable fitted knit sleeveless shirt



Not too bad, but take a look at the side view.



So much side-bra. Not classy.

The plan:



Just need to pull the cup back and up to the original side seam and boom, fitted bust and no side boob.




(hard to see with the black-on-black, but basically stitched that top seam together, and sewed a new taken-in side seam).




What WHAT?! Who's the sexy lady wearing a shirt that fits?!


It also comes in blue :)


#2 - The also totally adorable casual blousey tank top.

I was so sad about this one. It's adorable. It has this great asymmetrical shape, which looks great when it fits. When it's too big, it just looks like you don't know how to dress yourself.


Not to mention the notorious side-bra. Seriously, I'm going to get kicked off social media for being obscene. Or get a lot of attention from creeps.

The Plan: second verse, same as the first.



A cameo from the trusty sewing machine. I should give it a name. Something loyal like Sparky or Fido. Or Heidi, because it's a Project Runway brand! Yes, I like Heidi ... or Tim Gun. Gunner? Make it work!


So much better!

The tricky part with this one was the straps. They were still a little loose, and more loose on the inside than on the outside.


You can see it's pushed up a little there in the back when I adjust the straps where I want them.


Also a little bra strap showing. (oh! Also, ask me about my underwire nursing bra. "WHAT?!" you say? Aren't those illegal? Another post, another blog.)


So you can see here how I adjusted the straps. Also it's really hard to take a picture of your back. And it's sort of unnerving to discover you're 30 and still have backne. God bless photoshop.


Here it is with the extra fabric removed. It may look a little tight on the back, but it's SO cute now.


#3 - The most adorable Target dress ever that I only got to wear once.

I got this the summer after baby, at my heaviest (post baby). It was perfect. However, I was so fitted and adorable that I couldn't wear it if I was going to 1) nurse the baby or 2) pump at work. I tried -- I basically had to take the whole thing off and be naked in the pumping room. Joy. And then I lost 30 pounds, and this is what it looked like.





O. M. G. That's awful. There was so much work to do.

Plan:
So I pinned the straps tighter, pinned the bust in the middle, pinned the sides, and pinned the side "flare", because there was a little too much flare for the smaller waste. It was tricky because there is a built-in slip, and around the zipper they are sewn together. But I have to pat myself on the back for this one.




The flare is still a little weird, especially around the side zipper, but I'm not good enough to know how to fix that. But I can wear this dress again, and I am SO PSYCHED!!!

So, to summarize:

These clothes seriously look like I bought them this way. That's probably $80 of clothing right there that has been saved from the donation bin.

I'd rather be knitting

also, wtf is this? and where can I get one?

It's that time of year again ...

... to plan too many projects with not enough time to finish them.

As we've seen, there are a lot of babies coming, and I'm realizing that many may have to settle for practical gifts and store-bought clothes, because I really don't have time to make things for everyone.

I've been seeing some amazing crochet gifts on Pinterest, and I want to do something for the Moms like crochet market bags or slippers or something.







I made Baby's stocking last year, but it didn't finish the way I wanted -- the pattern at the stop was very tight, so when I switched to a regular stockinet stitch for the heel, it stretched out a lot and looked really weird.

Now because I was doing this up until the moment Santa arrived, I didn't have time to fix it. So that's on the list to do before December 24. I also don't love how the name embroidery came out, so I want to fix that too.

Someday I'd also like to make a Tree Skirt, but that may have to wait until a summer without babies.