There was a lot going on this weekend, here in our little neck of the woods. Saturday was a huge milestone for our family- we started Jakob on solid foods!
 Here he is having NO idea what he's about to get into.
 ...here comes the airplane...open the hangar...
...and the verdict is...
 ...he likes it! Ok, he really didn't express any form of like or dislike over the strange mushy stuff we were repeatedly spooning into his mouth. He did, however, avoid crying or fussing, and kept breaking out in his usual grins, so we're counting this as a success!
 We've been giving him a sippy cup with some purified water after each meal to help wash down the cereal, and he has yet to refuse the cup. If he continues to take it we'll see if we can get him to take breastmilk or formula in it, and since he's still refusing bottles, this might be a way to be able to leave him for longer than 2-3 hours. (Of course, I'm not going to try to get him to take bottles any more, because there is no sense in getting him started on them just to have to wean him. I'd rather him go straight to the sippy cup).
 Here's another photo of him, just because. :) I can't stop taking photos of him and I can't stop staring at them, so now you all get to see what I get to see every day. My gosh I love this boy!
 Does anyone remember the Froggy Hat and Socks set? I finally found the bag of handknits I made while pregnant. Just in time too...the socks are too big still but the hat barely fits! I think he will have worn it just for this photo, and it is now going to go into the "grown out" bin.
Sunday was another exciting day- I attended an all-day Fiona Ellis workshop! She is so nice and warm, so genuine, and I am really, really happy I took the course and got to meet her. In the morning I took a class on short rows, and in the afternoon it was about slipped stitches. I felt bad because Yannick had to bring Jakob to me twice so I could feed him, but it was remarkably non-disruptive. The first time he brought him in was during the morning class, but they came in silently, I fed Jakob on my lap and then they left, all within about 10 minutes and all without causing any interruptions to the class. The second time we called a bit more attention to ourselves, but that was because it was during lunch hour and we played with him for a bit. It might also have had something to do with the fact that he wore his Superman costume. (I had been asked to bring it in).
 This is my short row swatch. The pink section uses the "wrap and turn" method, which I usually tend to use in garments (like the bum area of the Superman costume). It works well, but if you look closely you can see the 3 turning points. The blue area uses a "yarn over, slip first stitch" method, which I enjoy. I find it shows less than the wrapped one, and I tend to use it a lot on short-rowed sock heels (and toes). The yellow sections use what I think she called the "Japanese or catch method" where you grab the back of the stitch in the row below to close the gap. I didn't mind it, but it was fiddly. I was knitting fast on Sunday so I had enough time to make a second "catch" swatch and do the short row/3-ndl bind off shoulder method. I didn't really need practice on that, however, as I almost always adapt patterns to enable that bind off on the shoulders. I really, really like the professional look it gives.
 Before the short row class was over we were given the time to work on a creative swatch. The assignment was to work the short rows while interrupting a pattern, and the examples given were lace and cables. I decided to see what would happen if I worked short rows while working a striped pattern. This was the first time I used 2 different colors to cast on (I did the long tail method) and I was able to practice my Fair Isle. I tend to pull too tight when switching colors (probably because I do a lot of intarsia) so I was trying hard to keep things loose. I was also holding the green with my left hand and practicing the two-handed technique. I was able to knit pretty fast using both hands, but I had to remember to knit that color through the back loop on the following rows because the stitches I knit from my left hand wound up mounted the wrong way on the needle.
 This is my swatch from the slipped stitch class. There are 6 different techniques shown, I did the first 4 twice each for practice. I never before realized how much fun slipped stitches are, and how much I enjoyed working them and how much I like the look of them. I think this is something I will definately have to play around with some more!
Two last things. First of all, I tried a new recipe tonight. I found this on Caroline's blog not too long ago, and remembered that I had some apples in the fridge about to go bad, so I made it for dessert tonight. The only modification I made was to bake it in individual dishes instead of one larger pie plate. 
It was delicious! Thanks Caroline! Next time I would probably try adding just a dash of lemon juice (I like how it brings out the flavor of the apples) and I would put less sugar, because I found it sweet. I would also probably make up for the less sugar by serving it warm, with vanilla ice cream. :) What I also found cool was that I'd sprayed the dishes with Pam first and the resulting dessert was able to pop out and still hold its shape...so I would try making it in smaller ramekins next time I entertain and each person could get their own little one for dessert, maybe with some melted chocolate drizzled across the top...
The other last thing is my current knitting. I have been working on something but I can't show photos of it here. I can tell you it's a hat, but I can't say much more because it is one of my Knitty.com submissions. My mom's manicurist saw a photo of it and wants me to make her some to give as gifts, but before I can figure out how much to charge I need to make a second one and record how long it took, the exact yardage it took, etc. So I've been working on that for about a week now, but today I decided to put it aside temporarily. We have a family event to attend this coming weekend and I wanted to dress Jakob up a little. I decided to knit him a little vest to wear with a white button-down shirt and dress pants. After rooting through what little of my stash is unpacked, I found some gray Patons yarn left over from the Glam Coat. I have two balls left, which I'm sure is more than enough for a baby's vest. I didn't feel like hunting down a pattern at the right gauge, so I spent today writing one up. I was able to knit the ribbing too, and hopefully I will have a vest in time for this weekend.
Here's my swatch, before I unravelled it. I wasn't sure if I wanted to use a garter or ribbed edging for the cuffs, so I swatched it with both. That's regular garter on the bottom, sideways knit-on-as-you-go garter on the top left, and ribbing on the top right. I like the look of the regular garter the best but the swatch kept flipping up really badly along the first stocking stitch row, so traditional ribbing it is. Tomorrow I get to go knitting with Robyn, Tara and the blogless Kate, so I hope to have some vest progress photos by night time. Labels: Fiona Ellis, FO, Froggy Hat and Socks, WIP, workshop |
The pie looks good, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
You asked me how I liked the fair isle on the Endpaper mitts: I found it surprisingly easy. The first time I tried fair isle (for socks), I pulled way too tight and I ended up frogging. For the mitts, I just remembered to relax and not pull too tight and it was a breeze.