Growing

I feel the need to challenge myself, to grow in my knitting abilities. I am inspired by this little tulip growing out front. It has actually been growing since December when thanks to global warming, we all, including the tulip, thought it was spring. But this little tulip has stuck it out through ice, snow, and sleet this past month and keeps growing.
Thus the time has come to tackle a real garment. Not another scarf, hat, blanket or any other large rectangle. (I'm not leaving this genre for good though!) That's right, I am going to knit a sweater. The sweater pictured above on the dashing gentlemen is from Vintage Knits from Rowan. Ryan bought me this book for my birthday last year. Let me remind you folks that last year I was no where near knitting a sweater, but sweet husband found one in it that he liked while shopping for the birthday gift and thought maybe if he bought it he'd receive said sweater. However I was not as confident. It's been about 6 months now of him asking for a sweater, instead he has received a hat, a dread band (which I accidentally felted) and a scarf. But now the time has come. I really do need to stretch and grow myself a bit so here goes.
I will probably be making this with a hemp/wool blend yarn, although I would prefer a lovely tweed wool as shown. But you have to keep the hippie happy, he is the one that funds the yarn stash. We were thinking a chocolate brown would be nice, but may decide to go with a natural.
The only real problem could be global warming, what if next winter it doesn't even get cold enough for Ryan to wear the sweater?! I am confident that he will wear it...with shorts if he has to! So now I will begin my search for the perfect yarn..seems I should have already done this but we have to start somewhere. I'll keep you posted! Have a great day, its going to be a good one here!

Finished Project

This afternoon I finished the blanket for Baby Kirk. It's downstairs blocking right now. This project was a first for me in many ways. First project for a baby, first blanket, first time blocking, first time buying really nice yarn...and I can't wait to wrap the sweet baby up in it!
We had a fun weekend. We awoke Sunday morning to a snow covered town, a bit of a surprise. I had been expected some gross rain/sleet for the day, so the snow was great. I made us some french toast with Brioche Bread from Eileen's. This had come recommended from several customers but I had yet to try it for myself. It was delicious, I will definitely be making it again. Then I began baking some Chocolate Chip Cookies for dessert that night when Ryan called downstairs, "Ashley, what are you doing right now?" "Well," I replied, "baking cookies." "When will they be done?" (I was excited that Ryan was so eager to eat my freshly baked goods so I yelled back, "There are some warm right now, you want one?" To my dismay he did not respond with an excited "yes please!" Instead he said, "How much longer till you're done? We're going sledding!" It would be some time till I was "done", I had doubled the recipe and only the second of who knows how many pans was in the oven. But the thought of playing in fresh snow and anticipating the excitement from Brinks when he learned he'd be coming along was worth more than staying by the oven another hour. I pulled the pan out of the oven, put the rest of the dough in the fridge and got my snow clothes on.
Some time later, after having driven almost to the hill and realizing that if the Camry made it in, it might not make it out, turning around, meeting the rest of the Poe's at 7-11 and stopping to try and help a lady out of the ditch we made it to the hill, a perfect sledding spot.
Honestly, I'm not much of a sledder. I went down the hill twice. I like going down, for the most part, but I really don't like walking back up. So I stayed at the top of the hill, watching Brinks as he ran until we couldn't see him and then he ran back. It was one of the best days of his life I'm sure, he was free and there was snow to be free in...it doesn't get any better for a dog like Brinks.
We headed home and got back to the tasks of the day. I finished the cookies, did some laundry, got the house straightened up for dinner that night, Ryan went back to work on a video project and I found time for a nap which I don't normally take. But it was Sunday afternoon and Ryan had the race on in his office. I was trained well as a young girl to take naps during races...my dad is the best at this.
Tomorrow I plan to work on my t-shirt quilt, we'll see how it goes.
Click here for sledding photos.

It's a Beautiful Morning

What a loving day. Its so nice to feel a slight change in season. Its invigorating, inspiring, encouraging. Brinks and I are back from our walk and about to do a little audio book listening and knitting. Brinks will mostly be sleeping or squeaking his toy. I'm not really for comparing your pet to your own human behaviors but this morning I noticed a uncanny familiarity about Brinks. Parts of the sidewalks are still snow/ice covered and for some reason Brinks feels its necessary to walk on those slippery parts. I don't understand this. I also don't understand why Ryan feels its necessary to drive on the snowy/icy parts of the road. He claims that he needs to break it up, for the other drivers out there....perhaps Brinks has the same philosophy when it comes to the sidewalk...I don't know. I'm sticking to the clear and dry paths.
Today I'll be working on Baby Kirk Blanket, it is still 3/4 of the way done and time is running short. Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone.

*Today's photo is of my orchid in our bedroom. This is my first orchid plant and its doing fairly well in our dry room. There are new blooms on the way! This is so exciting!

Tuesday

Laundry day makes Brinks tired too.

Actually it was probably the long walk we took this morning. It was so nice to go out without 18 layers of clothes on, so we walked for almost an hour. He has spent the rest of the day sleeping. I think he gets frustrated that I won't just sit down in one place for a while. For some reason he does not like to be left in a room alone. So even if he's dead tired he will follow me around the house. I try and tell him that I'm just running downstairs for a minute but he always gets up slowly, like he's inconvenienced and follows me down the steps. He's a funny dog...
Speaking of funny dogs, I just picked up Marley and Me from the library. I got the audio book and I'm looking forward to getting some knitting done while I listen. I've heard good things about this book so I'm very excited about listening to it.
I've got a new sewing project about to get started. I'm making a t-shirt quilt with some of Ryan and my old shirts. They are pretty much all shirts that we've collected together since we've been dating/married. I'll post pictures as I work on it. This is my biggest project yet, which isn't saying much since its only my third project and the first two were napkins...but it should be a great learning experience.

Operation Eulatide Ornament 2007

This Christmas my family has the honor of hosting the ?? annual Eulatide. Many of you are asking "What the heck is a Eulatide?" Well allow me to explain. This is a yearly gathering of the descendants of James Webb and Eula Midyette. It began as a celebration of Eula's birthday which is December 20th and became the yearly Christmas reunion after she passed. Eula is my great grandmother. I never met her but her spunky spirit fills each family gathering. Somewhere along the way some crazy member of the family started making ornaments to give each member of the family as a favor.

The ornaments are usually handmade, although this tradition has been slightly fudged on some occasions. Actually one year its was literally fudge...in a cookie cutter ornament. In years past I have helped make ornaments, gluing pasta on little noodle angels and carefully printing the year on the back. But this year, I am embarking on this task on my own, with very little help from my Gran, aunt, uncle, mother or brother. Here is the progress so far.
When I saw these ornaments in Melanie Fallick's Handknit Holidays I knew they'd be the perfect edition to the Eulatide collection. I was very excited to be able to share something I hand knit with each person in my extended and ever growing family. I think I need to make 38 and then there's always the possibility that someone falls in love in the next 10 months and then I'll be making more...but I am very excited about this and can't wait for them all to receive their ornament.
The encouraging part...I can knit one in a hour. This time does not include stuffing, and embroidering the year on it. My goal is one a week...so far I've been playing catch-up.

Brinks helped me work on them this week. He mostly just napped, but you could say he kept the balls of yarn from rolling off the bed.

Sleet Day

This morning we woke up to what I thought was an inch or so of snow but it was actually an inch or so of sleet. From a distance it looks very pretty but its actually quite wet and slippery. But it was a good excuse for Ryan to stay home from work and get somethings done. We enjoyed a good breakfast of homemade granola and bananas and then set off to do some things.

I finally got Ryan to do some work around here...usually I'm the one that shovels the sidewalk. I did a little but then I got to sit back and watch him to the work.

Brinks watched longingly until it was time for him to come out for his walk.
I'm looking forward to the rest of the afternoon. Perhaps I will see if Jamie wants to do some knitting together and then tonight we will watch the new LOST episode...days don't get much better than this!!

Enjoy everyone!

Valentine

Ryan and I exchanged non-Valentines today, Feb 13th. He brought me these lovely tulips and I gave him some organic dark chocolate.
I have had the house to myself the last few days. The Kirks went to Philadelphia to celebrate their third anniversary and Ryan, of course, has been working. I've mostly been cleaning around the house and getting some laundry done. I've accomplished very little knitting...none to be exact. But the house is clean and so are our clothes. Speaking of cleaning...I am very excited to be receiving some samples of Mrs. Meyer's Laundry detergent in the next few days. I could not decide on a scent in the store so I emailed them and asked if they'd send me some to try before I bought a whole thing...and they are! I'll let you know how I like it!

On a sewing note:

Here are some photos of the napkins I made a few weeks back. I tried to set the table like they did in the book and I think the photos turned out pretty good.

knitting in progress

As promised here are my current knitting projects:

Baby Blanket for Baby Kirk


I am knitting this with Kiogu PPPM...but I forget the name of this colorway. But its beautiful and I really love all the colors in it. The pattern is from Stitch N Bitch.

It is 3/4 of the way done and I need to hurry up and finish it!!



Felted New Zealand Bag


This bag is about 9 months in the making. I purchased 3 skiens of Ashford Tekapo yarn when Ryan and I traveled to New Zealand last may. He got a tattoo, I got yarn. Both equally life altering purchases. Anyway, the colors are named aloe, sea green and camel. I decided to make a bag and felt it. This will be my first felted project and I am not following a pattern. I am slightly nervous that I will run out of yarn.

The yarn is 100% pure New Zealand wool. Its great yarn and it was so fun buying yarn in New Zealand. Also it was crazy cheap...as compared to what I would have paid for this here in the US.

About

I thought in an attempt to just post something, I would do a little about me post. I am 23 years old and live in Fredericksburg VA. I have been married to Ryan Poe for almost 4 years (May 24).
We have one overweight dog named Brinks. He is the best dog I've probably ever had even though at times he's annoying.
I work part time at Eileen's at the Chimneys. Its a bakery downtown with some of the best food in town. The owners have taught me so much about food and really expanded my palette. I really like working there and it allows me to do some other things with my time. Lucky for me I have a very sweet husband that, although pokes fun at how little money I make, doesn't seem to mind that I only work a few hours a day...some days.
I spend my time off walking my dog...he's supposed to walk for 20 minutes twice a day...the second walk does not always happen. I like to knit and I am learning to sew...so far I've only made cloth napkins but you've got to start somewhere. I also enjoy learning to bake, gardening when its a bit warmer and I also do a little laundry and house cleaning here and there. I guess you could call me a house wife....maybe.
This summer Ryan and I are planning a trip out west to see his Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and cousins. Our crazy plan consists of flying to San Francisco, purchasing a VW Bus and driving it back across the country. Ryan knows how to keep life interesting. We've joked about trying to get pregnant on this trip...just because it be an awesome story to say that our first born was conceived in the back of a VW Bus...but we'll see...
I'm thinking about making this blog be a craft + baking + life in general blog. However, I don't know how to get pictures on here, which is kind of the fun part of a craft blog. Ryan is supposed to teach me soon I hope.
I think that may be all I have time for right now. Hopefully I can show you some of my knitting projects soon!

Also, Sip n Stitch tonight at Hyperion at 7...come knit with us!!