love, friday

• Love that Jackson sings now. He has a repertoire of about eight songs, including "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," "The ABC's," and "Wheels on The Bus" to name a few. He wakes up singing, he sings in the car, he asks to call people on the phone so he can sing to them and our house is filled with new music daily. Love it. (He refuses to be captured on video singing, so this clip is purely audio - excuse the boring stealth shot of our chair! Oh yeah, and "kikle kar" = twinkle star.)


• Love "Battlestar Galactica." Love Rebecca for getting us hooked and loaning us all of the old seasons on DVD and love watching it with Dan each night. (It's odd that we don't have a TV but are hooked on a TV show, but what can I say, we love this kind of stuff!)

• Love finding a package of Reese's Peanut Butter Hearts on my pillow on Valentine's Day morning - even though we don't celebrate the holiday and these treats are totally contraband in our peanut-free household. Yes, they're gone.

::: and finally :::

• Love my new sweater. Love, love, love it.

Yarn: The Softest Yarn in the World - Cottage Industry Pure Luxury 100% Organic Alpaca in charcoal gray - exactly 10 99-yard skeins; Blue Sky Alpacas Suri Merino (60% baby suri, 40% merino) in color #415 (light chartreuse), held two strands together for crochet trim - less than 1 skein

Pattern: "The Go-Everywhere, Go-With-Everything Cardigan" from "Stitch 'n Bitch"

Needles: US 6 + a random crochet hook

Size: I didn't write it down...the middle one I guess? It turned out right, in any case...see notes.

Buttons: Very special dragonfly buttons that my husband bought for me as a birthday present in 2006 because he thought that I had knit enough things for other people and needed to knit a sweater for myself. He went to my LYS to pick them out on his own AND remembered that I love cardigans. What a sweetie.

Notes: A very, very easy - if not incredibly boring - knit, with no problems and no pattern changes (for once). The severe blocking worked out and it turned out to be a perfect length for me. The crochet trim actually did block out beautifully and is holding the curling Stockinette edges down (much to the surprise of this non-believer). I won't be able to tell if it fits fully-buttoned until next year, but since it's a cardigan, it is still fitting perfectly over my almost-5-month baby belly now. I have vowed to not wear it this weekend and instead keep it perfectly clean and presentable for The Martha Show next week in New York. I absolutely adore the crochet trim!

Start-to-finish: August 2007 to February 2008...with very, very long breaks in between!
Excuse the bad hair...I have an appointment tomorrow to fix this mess! I am showing you a partial side-view so you all can also get a first glimpse at the baby belly. I was much more vigilant about taking belly photos with Jackson, but haven't had the time to think about it this time around! You also can't tell in this photo, but my knitting gauge necklace that Dan gave me for my birthday this past year sits perfectly in the "V" of this sweater. I will, of course, be wearing this necklace to The Martha Show too! (I also don't really have red eyes, but my iPhoto program can never turn them back to hazel for me...I can do it for others' eyes but never my own...I'm cursed.)
love, friday