Hello!

So, I haven't posted for a while. I know. Two reasons: we've been keeping busy (which is good) and I haven't been taking pictures (which is unfortunate, but goes hand-in-hand with keeping busy). Two things I have taken pictures of recently though, are the things that have been taking up all my free time (a.k.a., when Evan's sleeping).

This is Evan's quilt that I just finished. It's supposed to be twin size, but I think it's probably full--it's huge! This is my first quilt, and I am quite pleased with the outcome. I used Heather Ross' Mendocino, Lizzy House's Red Letter Day, Kona Cotton backing, and Warm & Natural batting. The Kona Cotton is a pretty heavy weight, and with the size of the quilt, it is heavy! I figured out how to use the free-motion foot on my sewing machine and quilted it myself, which was physically exhausting. I don't think i'll be making a quilt this big again any time soon--but I'm so glad I did. Also, since Mike insists on having the AC on full blast and is always hot--and i'm always cold--it has made a good addition to our couch and i've already gotten some use out of it.

This is my February Lady Sweater (not my name, just the name of the pattern) which I knit on size 8 needles with 5 (i think?) hanks of Cascade 220 wool. I had a hard time getting a good picture, and I haven't gotten a picture of me actually wearing it, but thats all that was really hard about the sweater--i loved knitting it. I've even gotten a chance to wear it (in July! Crazy!) and I couldn't have been more pleased. I knit every day, but I've mostly been knitting small things like socks and scarves, etc., so I don't talk about them much. I'm just so pleased with both of these projects that I thought I would take my chance to be publicly proud of myself for a little bit.

Thank you for indulging me.

As for my lack of photos of Evan--good news! I'm taking him to get pictures taken on Thursday. He never slows down for me to take pictures, so hopefully Sears can do the job for me. Wish us luck!

However, I was just looking at some older pictures of Evan, and thought I would share some of him from last year at this time.

Little guy. And here are the only two pictures I've taken in the last month.

Evan loves to get into my closet and tear everything out--usually he comes out with shoes. I was impressed that he was able to get these on and walk around in them!

Niagara Falls

I have to warn you--Evan has not been interested in having his picture taken lately, so they all will pretty much look like this one.

Bad pictures or not, we had a great time in Niagara Falls. First of all, the weather was beautiful, and there was NO ONE there. We were on the Canadian side, and I could tell by the size of the parking lots and general touristy-ness that they get some major crowds.

There's barely anybody in this picture! Not shown--waterpark, Hard Rock Cafe, Planet Hollywood, 20 other haunted houses, 4 more Ripley's--and then multiply that by 10. It was like being at Disneyworld. But empty. And not as cool.

Now, I've heard people say that the Canadian side is much better than the American side, but it seemed to me that there's just more stuff to do in the surrounding area. (see above picture, haha) The falls were beautiful on both sides, and I even liked visiting the Falls on the American side better--it was more like a state park, with lots of trails and trees and prettiness. I will admit that the surrounding area on the American side was a bit seedy. Kind of depressing, actually. I guess thats why people tell you to stay on the Canadian side. I will agree--but don't skip the trip if you don't have a passport--It is totally worth it to see the falls.

Really, Niagra Falls is so big, that I couldn't get a picture that captured all of it. This is as close as I got, from the "Sky Wheel" (Add that to the list of touristy things--the only one we took advantage of)

Awesome. We had a great time walking around and exploring the area. It's a little scary to stand right next to all that rushing water, and you really do get wet!

Evan had a wonderful time as well, as you can see.

We got to go swimming at our hotel, and we also went to a butterfly garden. It was awesome. This was my favorite butterfly--

--and Evan's favorite thing there was the turtle.

We had a wonderful time, and are really glad we went. Naturally I got almost no knitting done, but I did finish one sock to complete a pair--one more lonely sock left to go. Then I'll start another one. Ha! I started my scarf about 8 times and frogged it just as many--now that I'm home I think I can give it enough concentration to get it going. Hopefully!

Mike has a new toy, which hopefully I will have pictures of soon...stay tuned!

Spring Arrives!

We have been enjoying some warm and wonderful weather here, and the trees finally have leaves and blooms on them. And the bugs are out. I'd forgotten how many bugs there are here, and how hard it is for me to get used to them. God help me if/when we are stationed in the south! Evan has learned what bees are, and we spend a lot of time watching them buzz around from flower to flower. The boy can spot a bumblebee from a mile away! He also likes chocolate covered strawberries.

Naturally, it's supposed to be rainy and cool this week, as we are planning to go to Niagara Falls. We're Oregonians though, so we will enjoy ourselves nonetheless. We like roadtrips, so we figure we'll enjoy the drive, enjoy the sights for a few days, and head back. Stay tuned for updates!

I'm particularly looking forward to the drive up to Canada because hopefully I can get some knitting done. I have two (different) lonely socks that need mates, and silk/alpaca yarn that wants to be knit into a lacy scarf. yum.

By the way, this is Mrs. Stripey Chicken.

I loved making her, and Evan seems to have taken her on as his own, so I see many more hens in our future.
See you after our trip!

Long Overdue

I have neglecting my blog, so to cut down on bulk lets post in bullet form, shall we? Ok.

We bought a pair of clippers this weekend and gave Evan his first at-home haircut. It went about as well as expected. Mike fed him cookies and kept him entertained while I cut. I was only able to get the back, (squirmy-wormy) but that's all he really needed and it turned out quite well. No more rat's nest hair!

Mike also vacuumed him.

On Sunday it snowed. Quite a bit. I took an unavoidable trip to the commissary in the snow and tried to avoid other crazy people--it went pretty well.

On Monday, a bird flew out of our basement. Into the living room. I screamed and hid with Evan in the bedroom. Mike calmly shooed it out the window. It was a giant bird, I swear... terrifying...It's still a mystery how that came about, as we couldn't find any obvious points of entry and we're still coming up with theories.

Evan yanked the "g" key off of the keyboard and I'm having a hard time typing.

Evan also has recently started to refer to his binky as "num-num", which I think is adorable. He also has been shaking his finger and saying "no no no" which is also adorable but kind of sad. And he likes to dump Cody's water dish on the floor. Sometimes he does those last two at the same time.

Doesn't he look naughty? He's cute though, so it's ok.

Also, I finally finished a case for my knitting needles, which I started two (or three?) weeks ago and didn't pick up again until yesterday.

It turned out perfectly, and now my needles are no longer a jumbled mess in the bottom of my knitting bag. I wish I had thought this up a long time ago.

For a knitting update--I started my boot socks on two circular needles and have been working on them intermittently. I had to start over a few times, and casting on made me physically ill--knitting with two circular needles was at first for me just knitting a tangled mess of pain and frustration--but now they are coming along quite nicely. And it turns out it's not so hard once you get the hang of it...

Believe it or not there's a budding pair of socks in there.

Once I summon up a serious amount of knitting energy I'm planning on making this:
The cardigan, in case you were unsure. It's name is Mr. Greenjeans, and one of these days I will be wearing it.

knit-errific!

Warning! This post will have absolutely nothing to do with Evan or anything else but knitting. continue if you dare!

I've been knitting. Constantly. It's nothing short of an obsession, but a wonderful, fun and productive obsession nonetheless. Therefore, I feel compelled to tell you ALL about it.

First of all, I've recently learned how to wind a ball of yarn. You'd think I might have figured that out prior to any knitting, but I was under the impression that it was difficult, so I never did it. Typical. It's easy peasy, and actually kind of soothing. And it makes my knitting oh so portable.


Beyond winding yarn balls , I've recently been excited about socks and slippers. They're so satisfying because they're relatively quick to finish, and I love warm cozy things!

This is my first sock. I don't like it because it's made of acrylic and feels weird, so alas, there is only one. But it was a good learning experience and I'm moving on to bigger and better things.

I'm planning on casting on a new pair of socks (wool, two at once!) tonight, but in the meantime I've been knitting slippers.

These are mine:

Don't worry--I actually made two--I just took a picture of one. They were knitted VERY large and felted, so they're very thick and warm. I don't know if they're done though, I might want to felt them again to make them a bit more snug...we'll see.

And these are Evan's:

(note: these aren't actually as huge as they look--just a close-up)
Actually, there's only one of these. (haha!) I got bored with the pattern and had to move onto something else, but it only took me a couple of hours, so he'll have two slippers soon. I think I'll felt these to fit as well. I wish I had used pretty colors, but he probably won't even wear them, so I just used what I had on hand. Maybe if he likes them, I'll make interesting ones.

Mike doesn't really wear slippers, so I haven't made him any. I might have to force some on him soon...

For Christmas, I made some catnip mousies. I'm not really a cat person, but I thought these were adorable, so I made them for my kitty friends. I had fun.


Also, I lied before--this post will have a picture of Evan. This is one of the pictures I ended up with while taking pictures of the mousie...he's so grabby!


You'd be amazed at how many pictures I have that look just like this. In fact, I took this one yesterday:
I was trying to take a picture of this coffee k-cup for our Keurig because I thought it was awesome. Most of them are pretty boring--not Donut Shop coffee! Unfortunately, the coffee was not so awesome. To Coffee People's credit, their Cowboy Coffee is my absolute favorite.
And that's what I've been up to. And will continue to be up to for the foreseeable future. In fact, this post has taken way too much time, and my socks are calling.