i know it's been a while! it feels like ages to me. last week was a total blur but i did get a lot of knitting done while being blindsided by other things around here. first off, do i have any readers in sunset park, brooklyn? we're thinking about moving there and i would love to hear more about it.

so i've been knitting, doing freelance, answering popknits questions, and being a mom these past couple of weeks and it's been stressful but rewarding. rewarding for you all as well because i have two (actually 2+!) FOs to show you.

first, the long awaited peanut pants are done! why do gauge swatches lie? i swear that my gauge swatch told me that these would shrink a lot more than they did. oh well, better too big than too small right? she can wear them in the fall or even next year!

peanut modeling her pants

the pattern was very easy to follow. (ravelry) it's one of those plug-in-the-numbers type deal which means you can use it with any yarn. the only thing that i messed up was that i read the short-row bottom directions wrong. in the end, i made a much more roomy bottom than i would have liked but it wasn't a deal breaker.

the pants were great for traveling. i knit on them during the few times that i've been on the subway in the last few months. it was a here and there project and did the job well.

two weeks ago, my dear friend kaitlyn gave birth to her second daughter (congrats kaitlyn!) so i decided to cast-on for something for little cassie.

elijah was a great stash-busting project! (ravelry) i used some leftover bubblegum pink cotton-ease and i think that he's just perfect.

close-up

big thanks to ysolda for making this pattern SO easy to follow. i did it all with two circular needles and even then it was easy to change the pattern from dpns. i can't wait to give it to cassie.

now what? i'm going to pick flair back up tonight and then i'm going to cast-on for another quickie project. i bought a swiffer mop last week (in violation of my proctor and gamble boycott) and want to make some knit covers for it. i'm hoping to keep the floors a little cleaner over the next few months. i mopped the floors last week and was a little disgusted with myself. i should be better about that seeing as the peanut is always picking food off the floor!

later this week i'll bring you the last bit of FO goodness, a spidery baby blanket and a new skirt! (peek over at flickr if you want a preview.)

comment on: two FOs for the price of one

thanks to everyone for your warm wishes and support for the launch of popknits. it's been a labor of love for some time now and i'm really excited and especially nervous to see it live online and getting pattern proposals already! haven't seen any sock proposals yet, hint hint, but you never know what's going to come in the door in june.

anyway, let's get back to blog business. i have a small amount of progress to report.

mmmm, i love this fabric

flair is coming along nicely. i had one hiccup and had to frog back a little but not much. i did end up putting short row bust shaping in...

and i think it was a good idea! it fits well and will be even better once it's blocked (everything's a little tight right now.) i'm feeling positive about it.

one leg done, the other started

the peanut pants are creeping along slowly. i was on leg island there for a while, but i feel a renewed energy to knit them. they seem HUGE right now but according to the swatch they will shrink considerably.

garter stitch cuff

i opted for an easy peasy garter stitch cuff. nothing big here.

in other crafty news, i hope to sew this weekend! i've been meaning to drag out my sewing machine for over a week now but it just hasn't happened yet. i got some great fabric for skirts at brooklyn general.

new fabric

and i also have one from the stash that i'm using (sorry no pic.) tonight, i'm casting on for elijah (ravelry) as well. there's a certain baby being born right now that will be lonely without it. hopefully i'll have some pics later this week.

here are a few peanut pics to end the post.. i love shots of her eating!

cheesy!

this is what she looks like after eating mac & cheese. the hair! yuck. i can never give her mac & cheese for lunch. it always has to be dinner so that she can be bathed afterward.

messy

i gave her lentils recently. she sorta liked them but they ended up everywhere. next time, they will be mashed.

books!

and she could spend hours looking at her books. it's one of her favorite activities!

comment on: regularly scheduled program

i'm nervous about it so let's just come right to the point. i've decided to start my own online knitting magazine, Popknits. it's a little different than some of the other knitting mags in that it will specialize in vintage knitting, vintage knitting revived, so to speak.

i've been looking longingly at the vintage vogue knitting magazines i've had lying around for years now. so many ideas have been swirling through my mind on how to update some of the styles i see in them that i just couldn't get them out. then with the popularity of nancy bush, elizabeth zimmerman, and the amazing thrift store finds (cool and fun pattern books and magazines) i've been seeing on other blogs, an idea started to brew. sarah pope pushed me in the right direction and i found focus.

you can read more details over on the site but i'd like to mention a few things here.

1. i'll probably end up extending the pattern submission deadline for the first issue because it's closing in on us so fast, but the sooner you submit the better! i have to tech edit most of the patterns myself so i need as much time as i can get. that and i still have to develop the patterns and articles templates in my CMS so i have a lot of work to do.
2. yes, i did the design and build all on my own (which is why i seem to get nothing else done.)
3. seems like my timing is good with the demise of magknits (though i swear [and you can ask the spiders] i've been working on this for close to two years now!] i just want you to know that i read all the forums on ravelry concerning magknits and have hopefully learned from them.
4. i'm timing my issue launches a little late for a reason. i don't want to interfere with the launches of my big sisters, knitty and knotions. hopefully by staggering my launches a little later we can all get good traffic.

i'm sure i'll think of more to say in the next few weeks but i'll save it for the Popknits News blog. if you subscribe to the feed you'll get all the information as fast as i can post it!

comment on: why all the silence?

bath puff

looks cute, right? it's already been trashed. i finished it on sunday night and tried to put it to use monday morning. soap refused to lather on it so i was glad that i hadn't thrown away my old puff. then 8 hours later, it was still frakkin' wet! ugh. dishcloth cotton is really only good for dishclothes. maybe this puff would have been good in some acrylic blend? i have no idea. i'm certainly not going to make another one.

to distract you from the utter failure of the puff, i bring you food and peanut.

potato dinner rolls

i saw this recipe for potato dinner rolls in the veganomicon and HAD to make them. they were so good! i'll definitely make them again but next time i'll wait until we have mashed potatoes on hand instead of cooking some up especially for them.

standing!

the peanut is pulling herself up on pretty much everything now. walking is not too far off in the future, methinks. i was loading the dishwasher yesterday (she loves the dishwasher and the refrigerator) and i caught her standing up using the open door as a prop. then she lifted up one of her legs and tried to crawl in! had to put a stop to that quick!

here are two videos that we've shot in the past two months or so. the first one is of the two of us. i pointed the camera at us but flipped out the screen so that she could see herself on camera. her reaction is priceless. the second one is of her crawling. she's pretty good at it now!

p.s. i'm almost through the raglan section of flair so i'll post something about it later this week, i think.

the peanut sees herself on video from gleek on Vimeo.

peanut crawling from gleek on Vimeo.

comment on: distractions

started two new projects last weekend. one i'm crazy about. the other i think that i was crazy to start.

first, the love:

the ming is lovely

started flair by knitandtonic wendy. full details on ravelry. the good things? the yarn. ming from artfibers is just luscious in every way possible. soft and shiny, and the colors are amazing! i'm enjoying knitting with it so far. the drape is going to be very serious so i decided not to do buttons/buttonholes. i'm going to do snaps instead. i have some large sew-on ones from joann.com and i'm going to back them with felt before putting them on. should work. we'll see.

sorry about the overexposure

looks good in seed stitch too! happy day.

the not-so-in-love:

cotton hell

a bath puff (ravelry). boring and hard on my hand. i can't believe that there are several people on ravelry who have made SEVERAL of these. i want to claw my eyes out and it's only the second row. i'm going to finish it though and move on. i need a bath puff. if it turns out to be a horrible bath puff, i'll chuck it and buy a new one for $3 at the pharmacy. no biggie.

i have good video of the peanut crawling but that will take me at least 15 minutes to upload. in the meantime, look who's trying to stand?! good lord.

comment on: blogging and running

as you know, saturday was her birthday and we had a nice big party for her.

sarah, camille, and KP

we distracted her from all the people by putting her in a corner and giving her lots of books to play with.

most of our families and good friends were there to celebrate. it was a lot of fun!

thirsty nut

we sang happy birthday to her and she got a little freaked out but didn't cry. i was so proud! actually she barely shed a tear until someone she didn't know tried to pick her up. oh well. we're still working on that.

birthday cake

i wanted to show off two of the handmade gifts that she got. first, my aunt cyndy knit her a baby surprise jacket!

this jacket will be great in the spring

it's got a little 3/4 sleeve action going on it and will be a good little coat for the spring. she made it using berroco love it colors which is nice and squishy and stretchy. i really like the colors! i may have to get some of this yarn for myself.

and cathy whipped up this very cute munkee.

chillin'

we all love him to death and he's chilling on the couch next to me each night. thanks cathy! more pics from the party can be found here on flickr.

so now what? hhmmm, good question. still working on the peanut pants. i'm through to the first leg so we're making progress there. i also started a bath puff (check out the pics at ravelry) which i hope to have done in the next day or so. i'm putting in a call to artfibers later today to see if they have more of some yarn that i have. i really didn't buy enough zodiac (which is now called zoe) so i'd like to purchase at least two more balls and get started on something.

man, i am waffling about starting a project for myself. i've been thinking about it for months now! what is my deal?

comment on: showing the love