Magical closet makeover. After sifting through disorganized clumps of sheets and towels one too many times, I finally asked my DH to help me put a shelving system into our linen closet. Here is the before picture.

I am not sure what the builder thought this tiny shelf would hold - certainly not much that is useful for humans. The gaping lack of shelving in the bottom section is also inexplicable, but since most of these vinyl smackeroo houses seem to be built in 24 hours, there probably isn't time to pense on such tiny details.

So DH ripped out little shelf and then much spackle was needed to help repair the wall. The pink stuff that turns white when it is dry is definitely helpful for those with children or other time-consuming life elements that don't allow time for you to sit and watch it dry.


I wanted the closet to match the hallway, and fortunately we had leftover paint, so I gave it a beautious new coat.


Then DH came in with the Closet Maid Shelf Track. We couldn't use one of the prepackaged kits like we had used in the boys rooms since this closet is a unique size and shape. Shelf Track is a flexible system though, and our Lowe's has a free shelf cutting service that we used to make the shelves accomodate our closet. So he found the studs, with some false positives, but ended up hanging the hang tracks with a mix of screws and toggle bolts and not too much trouble. Once the tracks were up, everything else went in easily, and the finished product makes the closet so much more useful!

We went raspberry picking today at Westmoreland Berry Farm. There is something so delectable about picking ripe fruit that practically jumps into your hand when you go to pluck it from the vine. You just know it is going to be delicious. The boys had fun too. Bran was trying to learn how to spot the ripe berries. Abe also did some picking, and enjoyed tasting the berries in all stages of development, even the white ones. I got some knitting done during the car ride. The right front of Tailored Scallops, which I began a few nights ago, but ended up ripping because the needles were too big, has been started again on smaller needles, and here it is. The pattern is fun so far, and I think I have it memorized now, so it should go even faster.

Here are the finished serf booties, laced up and ready to go. I like the way they turned out. Hopefully they will fit the recipient at some point. I am getting close to finishing the back of the Classic Camel Vest. It is a sea of stockinette stitch which was perfect work for tonight's Knitting Night.

Here is my sister in her new Arwen. She said she loves it, and I am happy with the way it looks on her. She surprised me and gave me these Noro lovelies. I am thinking of using them to make a Midwest Moonlight for myself if the variegation in the Kureyon doesn't hide the pattern too much. I'll definitely need to take off a pattern repeat or 2 in order to give the scarf some length, since I only have the two skeins. I finished the other Midwest Moonlight, but am waiting to put up pics since I don't want the recipient to see it before she receives it. I also felted the serf booties, but still need to add holes and laces. The back of the vest for my father-in-law is about half way done. The gold Cascade 220 Heather I am using for it is knitting up beautifully.

Projects are in the works. The serf booties are all knit up, ready to be seamed and felted. I got sidetracked and started a Midwest Moonlight scarf which has been very enjoyable and quick to knit. I have only 6 pattern repeats to go unless I decide to make it longer than 60". I am using Cascade 220 Superwash #847, aka Caribbean, and it is a soothing color to work with. We'll see how much the superwash grows when it is blocked. I have had Scarf Style for over a year, but for some reason this is the first pattern that I have started from the book.

I also have some magenta non-superwash Cascade waiting to be turned into a Tailored Scallops Jacket for my mother-in-law if the gauge works out. She has Lewy Body Disease, so it is impossible to know how many more Christmases she will be able to appreciate, so I would like to make her something special for this year.

A friend of my neighbor's is going to Bulgaria in September to work with women and children who live in horrible conditions. She would like to bring 150 scarves and pairs of socks to give to the people there. These two scarves are my contribution so far. The beige one is made with Goddess yarns Frederique, a lovely blend of superfine alpaca, baby alpaca and silk that I used to make a hat for my mother a few years ago. It is only 38" long, but hopefully it will make a cozy neck wrap for a woman, or a scarf for a child. The other one is made from Encore Worsted Colorspun, and it knit up so quickly and turned out so cute and that I just may need to make another one for the cause. I have been so caught up with following patterns that I had forgotten how satisfying it can be to make something with simple garter stitch or ribbing. Maybe it is all the yoga I have been doing lately, but I would like to start keeping at least one "zen" project in my diet along with the face glued to pattern more complex ones.

My DH thought that I needed to put up a photo of Arwen. I am hoping to get a pic of my sister wearing it when I give it to her in a few weeks. If it doesn't fit her, or if she decides she doesn't like it for some reason, I'm next in line.

After two months of doing very little knitting, I have made a comeback. The Cardigan for Arwen, which had been waiting to be seamed since March, is now seamed, washed and ready to be given to my sister as a much belated birthday gift. I have to say, I am a bit disappointed with the way the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran fuzzed after machine washing it. It also stretched immensely, and after reading the experiences of other knitters, I decided to put it in the dryer. My sister is teeny tiny, so I could not risk the sweater turning into a Cardigan for Bigfoot. The yarn still feels very soft, but is surprisingly worn looking considering it has never been worn, only washed once. Hopefully a little sweater stoning will make it better, but I am not sure I would use this yarn for anything large again, even if it is on sale.

Two of my friends recently had baby boys, so I also started the serf booties from Knitting Daily. If you plan to make them, be sure to check out the errata here to avoid potential annoyance. I also finally broke out the monster stash of Cascade 220 from WEBS Anniversary sale, and started the Classic Camel Vest from Men in Knits, which I purchased from Interweave's hurt book sale a few weeks ago.

This lovely bag is the second item created for the secret birthday gift exchange that my knitting group started back in January. Maureen used 2 strands of Lambs Pride Worsted held together and a pattern from Felted Knits. She presented the bag to Sheila at Knitting Night at Starbucks last week. When Sheila arrived, Maureen was still attaching the button to the bag, but Sheila didn't suspect anything because Maureen had been pretending that the bag was going to be for her sister. When she finished sewing, she passed the bag around for all of us to see, making sure that Sheila would get it last, and then she said "It's yours!" The next birthday is in September, and I look forward to seeing what the gifter comes up with.

Bran's last day of preschool is this week, so I decided to make felted purses for his teachers. They are both made out of variegated Patons Classic Merino. The pattern is based on the Booga Bag with some minor additions/changes. You can't tell in these photos, but both of the bags have a magnetic snap inside. I hope they like the bags!

My son's school held an arts and crafts auction, so I donated these.

The pet bed started out as a giant tote, but I didn't have enough of the Nature Wool to make it as big as I intended. I bound off and felted it anyway, and it came out of the washer a wide and short rectangle-like thing. Inspiration struck, I stretched the heck out of it, and voila.

The bag is based on Sophie from Magknits. I used leftover Lamb's Pride which came from various projects, so I wasn't sure about the colors at first. I do like the way it turned out though. The bottom of the bag is also hot pink, but it is hard to tell in the picture.

Happy Valentine's Day!! Bran helped me to make these cards for his preschool class. I got the idea from here. Baking the first batch was a little exciting because it dripped more than I expected, and the tray I had placed underneath was not sufficient to catch all the drippings. Long story short, I needed to clean the oven that night.

Bran gave them to his class yesterday, and it turned out that they were the only handmade cards of the group. I don't regret making them, since he enjoyed it, and it gave us a fun activity to do together.

In knitting news, I managed to finish the left front of Arwen. I left the shoulder sts on a holder instead of binding off so that I could use 3-needle bind off when the back is done. I also cast the stitches for the sleeve and the hood directly onto the front using knitted cast-on, instead of doing backward loop cast-on on the empty needle. Hopefully it will all work out in the end.

My knitting must be getting looser as I get older. After trying a gauge with 8's and getting 16 sts/26 rows, I tried it with 7's and was able to get close enough for jazz - 18 sts/23 rows. The pattern calls for 18/26, but I figured that width is more important since I can easily adjust length by doing fewer or more rows.

I decided to save the stockinette back for easy Knitting Night knitting, and went ahead with the left front. Stockinette isn't my favorite, but having the 24 stitch reversible cable pattern at the beginning or end of each row has kept it interesting so far.

Six of the women in my knitting group agreed to take part in a secret birthday gift swap. At the first meeting of the year we put our names in a basket and secretly chose our recipients. Today is the first birthday, and this beautiful Booga Bag is the gift. Two more photos can be seen here. The next recipient's b-day isn't until June, so it will be a while before we see the next creation.

And here is the front cable cardigan. The ends are not sewn in, and the side seams need to be steamed, and maybe even resewn, but it is basically finished. I actually was able to use the same yarn for the seaming, but all I have left are scraps now, so I'll try not to get it stuck on a grocery cart so I have a gaping hole to mend and no matching yarn to use. All in all, a simple, satisfactory project, finished in less than 2 weeks, and a very wearable product. I took 2 1/2 inches off the length in the pattern and used 3 needle bind off on the shoulder seams. I would like to try this pattern again, but make it more seamless.

Several weeks ago I came upon these lovelies in the clearance bins at AC Moore. $2.97 a pop for 70% merino wool, 20% alpaca,10% silk. There were only 10 balls left, so I grabbed them all and hoped to find a suitable project.

Ater doing a gauge swatch, I decided to make the simple Front Cable Cardigan from Vogue Knitting Holiday 2004. I just finished knitting all the pieces, and am anxious to see how it all comes together. It is a miracle that I was able to finish the knitting with just 10 balls, but there was some finagling towards the end, and I may need to use a different yarn for some of the sewing. Hopefully I'll have a picture soon.

I am also still working on the FBS that I started months ago, and am now on the 10th pattern repeat. I have only been knitting 2-4 rows in a sitting, and each row keeps getting wider and wider. I am excited to see the finished product, but finishing it isn't a first priority, since I no longer have a recipient in mind, and I'm not exactly in dire need of a lacy shawl.

In other news, I bought some beautiful orange Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran at a great price from Little Knits with A Cardigan for Arwen in mind for either me or my sister (depending on the fate of the Front Cable Cardigan).

Felted bags galore based on Kureyon-Chan from Magknits. Each one took just a couple of hours to knit, and all were well received by the recipients.

What now? My sons both liked carrying legos and other small toys in the felted bags, so I may need to make them their own more masculine versions. I would also like to destash a bit, so I need to go through the mess in the craft closet and come up with good projects to go along with the yarn.

I finally finished Clapotis and here it is.

I am not sure if I am going to block it or not. The Silky Wool was nice to work with and I love the color. I may need to keep this one for myself.

So it seems I am not so good at keeping up with this blogging thing. But I'll keep trying.

We took a little trip last week to the Lexington VA area and went to the Virginia Safari Park in Natural Bridge.

Here's Bran laughing hysterically as an emu puts its head into the car and plunges its beak over and over into the bucket of animal food that he is holding.

Among the various animals, there were numerous eager llamas, all types of deer, zebras, camels, emus and similar flightless birds, pot-bellied pigs, wildebeasts and even giganormous watusis. We were told not to feed the zebras because they bite, but this did not stop one in particular from chasing our car along with the other packs of animals, and chewing on our side-view-mirror when we denied him food. We also hand fed a giraffe with such a sweet face that I now understand why Toys-R-Us uses one as their mascot. Lots of fun for those who don't mind getting very close to very large animals. But I only recommend the drive-thru for those who are not anal retentive about the cleanliness of their cars - I think ours still smells like camel a week later. And they do have a wagon ride if you would prefer not to take your car through the jungle.

I haven't been knitting very much this past week, but I have been reading. On Beauty and Life of Pi - two very different books both worth reading.

I have two knitted items to show that are from a few weeks ago.

I gifted this potholder/trivet to a friend for her birthday along with this awesome cookbook. The pattern is from Felted Knits and I used Patons Classic Merino.

The pattern for this jacket, also a gift, is from Minnowknits. I used Patons Shetland Tweed. Hopefully it will fit the newborn recipient well in about 2 years.

Other than that, I have been working a row here and there on Clapotis and also on the FBS, but neither is compelling me to sit down and finish for once and for all. I would like to make something special for my sister since she is turning 30 in January. This cardigan from Vogue Holiday 2006 is a real possibility.

This is another gift diaper bag using the pattern from Knitting For Baby. Like last time, everyone in my knitting group (except the recipient) knit a piece or two. We used Lamb's Pride Bulky and size 13 needles, so it knit up fast. Unlike the last time, the front pocket design was planned from the beginning, not an afterthought. The flowers and vine were loosely based on the Nicky Epstein Felted Floral Capelet pattern from IK, and all the pieces were sewn to the bag prior to felting. Although it was tricky to tack and sew the i-cord vine in the desired spots, I definitely preferred the sewing process pre-felting rather than post, since it is much easier to get a needle through unfelted knitting.

I haven't been knitting a ton, because I am suddenly obsessed with cleaning out my kitchen cabinets, so that has taken up much of the boy's nap time. Plus, this weekend I have a concert of Czech music which I have performed before, but need to review.

Hopefully I'll be able to finish either the FBS or Clapotis in time for cooler weather.

This is a coat for Bran, pattern from Zoe Mellor's Double Knitting with a collar instead of a hood. It just fits him, so hopefully he can wear it this fall and it will be Abe's next year. I originally bought the yarn to make another Hoodwinked for Bran to match Abe's, but I always find it difficult to repeat a project so soon after finishing the first.

And here he is, wearing it over his pj's.

I also started a Clapotis about a week ago in EL Silky Wool which I got during WEBS Anniversary sale.