FO

I finished Chloe's hat! But she wouldn't keep it on long enough for a good picture. So I'll give you a picture of it on the floor.

Little stinker!







Project Stats
Start Date: September 13th
End Date: September 28th
Yarn: Baby Ull
Pattern: My own, 3x1 rib, petal brim
Needles: US #2
Recipient: Chloe



So I posted these other patterns I've written so that I can link to them and add them to the Ravelry database.... Hope you like them! I really don't know why I haven't done it before...

Baby Ball Rattle

Baby Ball Rattle

By Jessica Gutoski

www.naturallyknitty.blogspot.com

Materials:

Yarn: Soft Cotton by The Viking Trading Company

Needles: US 6 circulars (2 pair) or double points; darning needle

Stuffing: I used Morning Glory Cluster Stuff; rattle element (Kitty toy/plastic ball with a bell inside)

Guage: 5 sts = 1inch

Finished Dimensions:

About 6 inches long and 3 to 4 inches wide, depending on the size you make.

Directions:

Both sizes

- CO 8 sts join in the round

1: Inc (k in front and back) in every st. (16sts)

2: K all sts

3: P all sts

4: K until 3 inches from P round

5: *K2tog K2* repeat from *

6: K all sts

7: P all sts

8: *inc1 K2*

9: K all sts

10: *K1 inc 1 (raise bar increase, k thru back of loop)*(32sts)

11: K all sts

12: *K4 inc 1*

13: K all sts

14: *K5 inc 1*

Larger Rattle only

15: K all sts

16: *K6 inc 1*

17: K7 rnds

Larger rattle only

18: *K5 K2tog*

19: K1 rnd

20: *K4 K2tog*

21: K all sts

22: *K3 K2tog*

23: K all sts

24: *K2 k2tog*

- Stop, turn inside out and weave in the beginning end. Turn right side out and stuff, put the “rattle” part in too!

25: K all sts

26: *K1 K2tog*

27: K all sts

28: *K2tog* (8sts)

- Break yarn and pull through all sts. Weave in end!

- Give to baby and watch the cuteness!

Felted bag

Felted bag
By Jessica Gutoski
www.naturallyknitty.blogspot.com


Materials:
-Cascade 220, 3 skeins total: (MC 2 skeins CC 1 skein )
-US #15 24in circular needle
-4 stitch markers
-1 stitch holder, or waste yarn
-darning needle (Chibi)

Gauge: 10 sts = 4in *holding 2 strands of yarn
together, pre-felting.
Finished measurements: After felting 10 inches from
base to opening. The straps are 26 inches from side to side. (This all depends on what yarn you use!)

Abbreviations:
MC ~ main color
CC ~ contrasting color
CO ~ cast on
K ~ knit
PU ~ pick up
PM ~ place marker
St(s) ~ stitch / stitches
RT ~ Right Twist (K 2nd st on needle without slipping sts off, K 1st st on needle, then slip both
sts off needle.)
BO ~ bind off
St st ~ stockinette stitch

Getting started:
-Holding 2 strands of MC, CO 27 sts. Work 26 rows in garter st ( 13 garter ridges).
-With 27 sts on the needle PM. PU 13 sts and PM. PU 27 sts and PM. PU 13 sts, PM and join in
the round.
-*K to within 2 sts of marker, RT, sl marker* Repeat from* until piece measures 12 inches
from base.
-Switch to CC and K 8 rounds.
-BO 27 sts on one of the long sides, K13 sts. K27 sts and place on a holder. K 13 sts.
-CO 57 sts, K13 sts, CO 57 sts, K 13 sts.
-K 4 rounds. BO all sts, break yarn.
-Pick up the 27 sts on the holder and with the
K side facing join yarn. K 28 rows in Stst. BO all
sts.
Weave in all of your ends and prepare to felt
your bag.

Felting:
Set your washer to the hottest cycle and toss in
your bag, along with an older pair of jeans (for
added agitation). Put a tiny bit of detergent in
and start it up! Take your bag out from time to
time to check on it. (I like to check my felting
every 5 min or so) Be careful!!!! You may want
to wear gloves because the water is HOT!
Once it is the size you would like, let it go thru
the spin cycle. Take it out and shape it: stuff it
with plastic bags or something rectangular to
hold the shape and let it dry. This might take a
day or two. Attach a button or a snap to close
the flap if you desire.
Enjoy!

Ravelry

I got my invite to ravelry just a few days ago... need I say more?!

Wow, it is super crazy cool.... I've been busy!

Fellow ravelrers, come and say hi, I'm naturallyknitty!

Oh I have been working on this:


Hope your all doing well! I will be back to blog land soon, hubby had a week of vacation last week so I wasn't on the computer much.... Take care.







Look What I found! Enjoy!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Fall?!

Well we've had a few days of it anyways... Its been cold and then hot like every other day for the past week or so... Just pick a season and stick with it already! I hate having two season of clothing out, it makes for a messy kids room. Today was one of the icky hot days.




On Monday the girls and I went to the local children's museum. we didn't stay too long, G needed to be picked up at 11:30 ish. I try to do fun things for L because of her being sad that her brother is gone, plus it helps me stay on top of things and not just have lazy days :O)















I really like this picture of C. I have a similar one G when he was about that age looking in a mirror at me, too cute!













On Wednesday we went out to friends of my in laws and picked apples(they have a huge tree). That was something I've been wanting to do for a couple of years now. I remember going apple picking every year with my family as a kid. Such fond memories! I want it to be a tradition with my family now. I think my kids will love it when they are older too.





It was rather warm out that day, but the kids had fun and now we need to start canning some apples! We have so many apples, hubby has eaten about 10 a day, seriously! He is weird like that, he'll get on a kick and eat a lot of something for a while. Plus it helps that they were free! I cooked down a bunch of apples for C, she loves them! But then again she loves all food so far ;O) She is such a social eater, what a girl!







C is starting to sleep through the night! I'm so happy! I'm not nursing in the night at all so we decided to move her out of out room! Doing that means moving her into G & L's room.... So we bunked them up! They were so excited about it! Unfortunately they didn't get that good of a nap today because of it... But because of that they are zonked out now! Wish us luck with C's first night with the big kids (and without mommy) ! I hope all goes well and if she does cry that the other two are deep sleepers. The cool thing was that this was my and my brothers old bunk beds, it brought back the memories! I think I want to get some tooling and make L's part a bit girly, she keeps wanting to go on top...






After our non nap today we took some not so nice apples to the llamas out at the shop. They loved them!

baby socks

I've been working on a few things and didn't think I could finish my pomatomus socks by the end of September(for the SAM4). So I made some socks for C. I know I took the easy way out but they went sooo fast! Just 2 days of here and there knitting! I followed this basic baby sock pattern.






The other reason I knit them is that I'm going to be teaching a class on baby socks& hats at my LYS and decided to brush up on it ;O) I got both the yarn and needles from my LYS, both were very nice to work with! The needles even have the shops name and number on them, very cool touch!

Start date: Sep 14th
End date: Sep 16th
Yarn: Baby Ull Dalegarn
Pattern: Just your basic baby socks
Needles: ChiaoGoo bamboo needles(dpns)
Recipient: Chloe


On a side note, I've kind of taken a step back from blogging. While I love it, sometimes it takes over my day. That, I don't like. I do like recording what I knit and how my family is and what the kids have been up to. But sometimes I feel obligated to comment on all of the other blogs I read. And doing that sometimes takes up quite a bit of time. Time that is taken away from other things I value. Don't get me wrong I love reading other's blogs and still will but if i don't comment don't feel like I'm not there reading. I will be, just not on a daily basis. I want to stay on top of my house hold duties and more importantly I want to spend time on my relationship with God. I know I neglect that a lot more than I should. But I'm taking a stand for whats important to me and I'm finally doing something about it! Sorry if that's too much info for you, but hey, that's me and who I am. And this is my blog, my computerised scrapbook(as I like to think of it).

So I hope you still come to visit, I love hearing from all of you and love catching up with you on your blogs :O) I do promise to keep you posted on the kids, my knitting and spinning. Oh and my little C is starting to "walk" along the furniture...

hunting tote

So here is the tote all finished(the ends are weaved in too). I threw some apples in to show how nicely it accommodates things! I really like it and will use it when hubby isn't! I still chuckle that I made him a purse :O) heehee. I mean... Its a hunting tote!

I need to get rocking on my socks...(for the sam kal4) the month is almost half way done and I don't even have half a sock let alone a pair. Ahhhh!

Maybe I'll whip out some socks for C, that's the easy way out! Hmmm decisions decisions.

butterfly & sunflowers

While in the misdt of finishing my market tote I saw this right outside my front window.





Don't mind the bluryness of the screen ;O)


These things are really tall, I'm guessing about 10 feet, at least! What a beautiful butterfly!

I've got a whole other post (about my weekend) but am waiting for a call to have premission to post a picture of my friend... She is a busy one!

soon very soon :O)

Beautiful

I think that about sums up my weekend! Just plain beautiful.


Ok Ok, Isn't our creator awesome for making this world, so beautiful?! I was in awe this weekend and tried to just to take it all in. It was pretty relaxing, besides all the pumping I had to do...

We went to LLBC for our yearly ladies retreat. I love it there.

Such a great time to reflect and collect your thoughts. This is what I saw on Saturday morning... I sat on a swing and took it all in.

Besides me was a chipmunk running around and up a tree. I saw a fish, plunk, then the beautiful peaceful lake rippled... Next was the two goldfinches (I think) hopping around the tree right above me. I can't believe I didn't have my camera with me at the time otherwise I would have pics of all the animals! I love all the nature.

The night before was so clear and the stars were out and gorgeous. I could have stayed out there all night. But being that I was kid free I opted to get a good nights sleep:O)

Speaking of sleep, we are in the middle of trying to get C sleeping through the night. She has been getting worse the past month or so, waking up every hour or two and wanting to nurse... So while I was gone Hubby started the no eating at night thing. He said it went well and my first night back she didn't eat until 5am... which was good. But I was up to give her her nuk a few times. I'm still happy with the progress though, I'm hopeful that in a week or so she'll be sleeping through the night with no help. Then she can be moved out of our room and into the kids room. (we only have two bedrooms, and I didn't want to put her in there if she was going to be up all night, especially with G in school now, he needs his sleep)

So back to my weekend. There was a talented speaker who touched some points in my life, it was good to here. I only hope I can remember all she said and put into practice what I learned. I also learned from others this weekend, not just the speaker, but my friends. I'm so thankful for all the friendships I have and have made, new and old. Its really nice to have some deep conversations with people you love and trust! That always seems to happen here. Maybe that is why I like it so much, I actually have time to dig deeper than the hey how are you and what did you do this week... Its great to get to know the other ladies of my church and find out that we have more in common than I thought.

This is where I spent most of it knitting. These lovely benches were in the perfect spot. Slightly shady yet still sunny to keep you warm! When I looked up I saw this. I love looking up under trees, so pretty! I worked on the tote bag and my cherry tree hill socks, but mostly the tote. When others were around and talking it was hard to concentrate on the socks. I'll post progress pics later in the week.







I also went out in a paddle boat with a good friend of mine. I have to admit that we knit more than we paddled! We spent more than an hour out there, so peaceful and relaxing!

All in all It was a good weekend!

Gabe's first day!

So here he is, on his first day of school, ever.


I couldn't believe this day had come. Those 4 years went by so quickly. Notice his semi happy nervous smile. Hubby had off and we all took him to school together.

He asked "daddy, are you going to stay at school with me?!"

Hubby/Daddy "No, we are going to take you to your class and then leave, but we'll come back when school is done!"

G "OK I'll be brave"

It was too cute! Of course L had to have her backpack too. I had to draw on hers too, you know name and address and all. So now she had hers written in her backpack too :O)

We made the mistake of asking what he wanted for breakfast on his first day of school. He replied, bacon, bacon and eggs, bacon, eggs and pancakes! So that's what we had. Luckily I had some bacon in the freezer. Its not a normal thing in our house. The once a year BLT's from the garden but that pretty much it. Its a little too good if you know what I mean ;O)


Here they are on our way too school, notice L's happy face.



He went in just fine, he was excited! His teacher said he had a great day!








This is L after we dropped him off. She loves her big brother. I think this year is going to be a hard one for her.






I wanted to post about this on Friday, when it happened. Things got a little crazy getting him off to school and then trying to pack and get to my churches parking lot by 1pm... so here I am a few days late... More on my weekend to come... It was good and relaxing...

WIP wednesday

Yep these are my WIPs.



Well sort of. One is just a swatch of my handspun. I really had no idea of what size needle to use. I tried a US size 10 1/2 I think it looks pretty good.

I just love seeing my own handspun yarn in a nice little cake. It makes me smile!

I've started another market tote. Actually this one is for hubby when hunting and needs to cary things(gadgets, lunch and whatnot), so he asked for one in camo... this is the best I could come up with, I haven't seen a camo cotton yet ;O) And yes, that is the pomatomus sock by Cookie A. I like it so far! But I knit on 2 circulars and its written for dbpts... we'll see how that goes, I'm sure it wont be hard to figure out, the glass is always half full!

So I totaly forgot to show you all the pictures of the kids milking a cow... well a fake one! They loved it and got a sticker saying "I milked a cow today!" Its always nice to show them where things really come from... not just the store.




We had quite the hauling today from the garden! I made C some baby food, in the way of green beans and broccoli. I'm starting to stock up, she's a healthy eater! She loves food veggies and fruit alike! Also I'm going away for the weekend and I want to make it easy on hubby. He isn't use to being with them 24/7 and I want to make it as stress free as possible for them. I want them to have a fun daddy filled weekend! So I'm making a bunch of food and freezing it so all he has to do is throw it in the microwave.

On that note I'm a bit sad at leaving her... she is 7 months today. So little, yet so big. On the other hand its is an awesome ladies retreat and most of my friends from church are going. Its great to get away and have some time for myself and God. Uninterrupted by the kids and the chaos that comes with them. I'm a little hesitant but I know I need a break, life has been crazy lately, hence all the knitting. Knitting is my relaxing me time. We leave on Friday at 1pm. I'm excited!

Friday is also G's first day at pre-k. We got to meet his teacher and see his class room today, he was a little shy but pretty excited. I can't believe he'll be going to school... Wow, they grow so so fast.

Yesterday hubby brought some heirloom tomatoes home from work. We are going to save/dry out the seeds so we can plant them next year!




OK so I know this blog is more than predictable these days... sorry for that. But that is just how my life is right now. I feel like all I blog about is the kids, the garden, and some knitting and yarn every now and then...


With that said, C ventured off of the blanked today... she loves grass. The only problem, she rips it out and eats it, well tries to anyways.

I'll probably get another post in before I leave on Friday, but if not, have a wonderful weekend! I know I will!

Yarn!

Yes people we have yarn!

Its 100% merino roving.... so yummy and soft!






Remember that big pink ball of roving I got for my birthday back in June?! well I finished spinning it on Sunday night, plyed it(navajo), and gave it a bath to work out all the kinks. Now I have some beautiful yarn. I put it outside yesterday to dry but that was one of the days that it really wasn't too warm, so it finished drying last night, inside.







I love it! (except for the fact that on part of it I over supn the singles and there are some twisty harder parts. I blame it on me trying to spin it while on a float for a parade) Now I just need to figure out what to do with it. Its rather bulky, thought I haven't figured out what needles to use yet. There are approximately 283 yards. I figured out how much went around the niddy noddy and then counted my wraps... voila, yardage!





I'm thinking I'll make a hat and mittens? or maybe a little shrug?! I'm really not sure, What would you make with this? This is the first dyed roving I've used, I can't wait to get some more!!! Next time I think I'll get some superwash and try my hand at spinning sock yarn, I've been wanting to for a while now.





Last night while waiting for this to dry I started a sock with my cherry tree hill yarn. I love the colors, so pretty! I'm doing a pattern off of knitty, can you tell what pattern it is?! Its fun watching the pattern emerge and seeing the colors play out.









We hit another milestone yesterday, pulling herself up to a stand. Please don't mind the mess behind her ;O)









And this one just because, I really really like this picture. I took it while I was spinning on Sunday. She loves watching the wheel go round and round!

FO and the Fair!

So can I technically call it a FO if I didn't weave in the ends yet?!

Assuming I can because its mine and I say what goes I finished my elisa nest tote today while driving (actually hubby drove) to and from the fair!

I was so excited and wanted to try it out I didn't have time to weave the ends in before going out to the garden and picking the latest and greatest veggies! I promise I'll weave them in tonight when the kids go to bed!





OK back to the tote, it holds a lot of veggies! I mean a lot! Inside are the following: 4 cucumbers, 3 yellow squash, 1 big orange pepper, a whole bunch of little red and orange tomatoes, a big handful of green beans, a large zucchini(about as big as my forearm), a few Roma tomatoes and a few larger variety tomatoes. That's a lot of stuff if you ask me. I was surprised how much fit in there. Now having made one I want to go buy some fun colored cotton and make a few more! Actually I like how this cotton knit up for this pattern. I had originally bought it back when I was making a bunch of baby bibs and burp cloths (from Mason Dixon Knitting) for a friend. I didn't like how the yellow pooled, it looked like a dog peed on the bib. I'm glad it worked for this tote! I think it looks quite summerie(is that a word?!).





It can also hold other things, like books from the library!

He was happy holding it but it started getting heavy...




See his head?! Hubby had me shave off his hair and G had to be like daddy, so off his hair went. I should have done it a month ago, when it was sooo hot out.




Yes we went to the fair, L wanted to go see the pigs first, she's been in a Charlotte's web phase lately. Well not really we haven't been watching much of anything lately but last week when we were at the library they cleaned up so well and listened, I rewarded them with picking out a few movies. One of them was Charlotte's web 2, hence the pigs.







Of course I wanted to go and see the sheep, but most of them were sleeping, it was hot and icky out! I don't blame them! I was surprised to see these with their wool still on their little bodies... Romney lambs I think?!






Then there were a bunch of these guys, all naked, tee hee ;O)











We ended the trip with a bag of cotton candy. I love the stuff and only get to eat it once a year! As expected L made a mess of herself. Notice the cotton candy all over her and the water bottle :O)