Knitting
Celebrating Colleen
Colleen was a friend I met on an online forum. She was an incredibly sweet woman who had a wealth of knowledge. She was a knitter, spinner, and yarn dyer. She had her own little yarn business called Spiffy Knits. I’ve only had the privilege of knitting her yarn a couple of times, but it’s always been a delight to knit with.
She was diagnosed with a rapidly spreading liver cancer and died peacefully at home on October 17th, 2008. She leaves behind a loving husband, a five year old daughter, a two year old son, and a memory that won’t be forgotten.
Many of us have banded together to create beautiful items. We’ve put them up for sale to raise money for her children’s college funds. This was one of her last requests.
Please join us tomorrow as we Celebrate Colleen and raise money for her children. You’ll find many beautiful items as well as a set I knit myself.
I’m nesting…
That would be the reason for the silence on this blog, at least that’s what I’m claiming. I recently had to shut down my business to customs. It was a hard decision, because I have major issues telling people no and I enjoy the knitting. But I realized that time was going much quicker than my fingers. I have this long list of stuff to do for the Little Dude who will be here in 3 weeks (!) and I couldn’t work on all of it, unless I give up something, like sleeping.
So I shut down my store to customs and hope to open it again by Halloween. I woke up one morning with the incredible urge to either knit every yarn I have in my stash, or to sell it. So I sold a BUNCH of stuff and started knitting a bunch of stuff. If you frequent my Flickr account, you probably see how much stuff is coming off of my needles.
I also decided that I needed to work on a homeschooling room. It turned out really nice and Magdalena is very excited about it. I have plans to order the rest of her books for this quarter of her curriculum on the next payday.
We are also excitedly anticipating the local Pork Festival. Magdalena has been talking about going to parades since the festival ended last year. It’s also the last thing on her calendar before her baby brother is scheduled to make his appearance. She’s a very experienced and excited big sister you know.
Carmina is also seems to be understanding that their is a baby in my belly. And I think she gets that he will want to nurse and that she will have to share. Of course, telling her that the baby will nurse, just makes her want to nurse right away.
Anyway, a busy month. Hopefully I’ll get better about posting. And Erich will be posting here and there and will also update when the Dude makes his arrival. 
Birthday Beauties
Suzanne has been hard at work hand knitting wool pants, hats, and sweaters. Her latest and biggest project was just completed last night, a baby blanket for our up and coming son. Its the first time she’s knitted in blue. I jokingly gave her an approved color list after she came to me with some wild oranges. I told her that if Eddie Bauer didn’t have it in their product line for men, then she wasn’t allowed to let my son wear it. You may have heard that our oldest daughter wanted to buy her brother a pink towel. Suzanne talked her out of it, but despite my forementioned rules I would have allowed it. I guess you could say I value my daughter’s pride over my own. I am looking forward to the birth of our first son and will probably be posting more during and after the delivery, so I wanted to sort of “warm up the crowd” to my presence by posting now and again before the big day.
PS. Suzanne is doing good. She is making t-shirts for all three birthday beauties today.
Another Busy Month Here at the Castle ;)
As always, I always have a long list of crafty projects. Obviously there is knitting for my little business, but there are other things I like to do. Once in a while I like to actually knit for my family. LOL And I get little urges to do things. Currently I have the urge to sew up diapers, especially some night diapers for Carmina. But I’m running into some roadblocks, a) I can’t find my favorite pattern and b) I don’t have any hemp fabric. I hate ordering that stuff online because I find it to be a PITA to ship. Also coming up I need to sew up the girls Easter dresses. I’m also going to knit little boleros to go with them since Easter is in March so it will most likely be chilly. So I should probably get those going and ready while I have a lull in custom orders. I’m also working on a 16″ limbed waldorf doll for Magdalena’s birthday. I really can’t believe she’ll be FOUR in about a week! Crazy stuff.
Click below to see some pictures of my latest creations.
Magdalena’s Blanket Closeup
Magdalena’s Blanket
Originally uploaded by Mommy2StaufferBabies
Magdalena’s Blanket
Magdalena’s Blanket
Originally uploaded by Mommy2StaufferBabies
Finally finished! I’ve been working on this off and on now for, well let’s just say a long time! Glad to have it off the needles!
Anne Carson
Anne Carson
Originally uploaded by Mommy2StaufferBabies
20″ waist
23″ hips
21″ rise
12.5 thigh
12″ inseam
seed stitch cuff
elastic waistband
Knit with “Good Earth” on Beaverslide- dyed by A Time To Dye
atimetodye.wordpress.com/
A Gift for Baby Alex
A gift for a sweet sweet Mama who has had a very rough pregnancy and will be bringing her little boy into this world on Tuesday.
Yarn donated by another sweet Mama, Lamar.
First set of Pajammies. Two more pairs of pants and one more shirt to go. She likes them a lot. I like that they are nice and roomy. The sleeves and pant legs do have a bit of growing room cause she seems to be on a length spurt recently. But her hands actually come out of the arms, she’s holding them up for some silly reason.
Custom Pilot Cap
Another hat made for another customer. I liked this hat a lot.
Pinwheel Sweater
I just finished up this sweater for Carmina. It’s super cute and was relatively quick to knit. (Started Monday evening, worked a bit on Tuesday and finished up this morning.) I added a button to help close it.
It’s also neat because if you flip it around, Magdalena can wear it “bolero” style. You can see pictures of that startig here:
http://flickr.com/photos/esfamily/1269626597/
Rag Quilt
Christmas gift for MIL. It could use a bit more “ragging” but I’m not going to do it. I’m gonna put it in a box, wrap it up, and let it wait for Christmas. I feel so on top of things since I’ve finished a Christmas gift in August. 
Linus Finished!
yay! I do need to add elastic in the waistband, wash them, and sew a size tag in, but other than that FINISHED! (Those things won’t take long!)
This Book Could be Addicting…
I left the girls with Erich and took off to the library for a few minutes this evening. WOW. I forgot how wonderful it is to browse through the books without someone going through and ripping all the books off the shelf while the other one screams “MOOOOM! She’s taking all the books OFF!”
Anyway, I picked up this book today and wow, I could knit a lot of the stuff in here! Economical and fast! I’ve already seen several things that I like and will probably be doing. The only problem is that my to do list is already so long with knitting for work and for pleasure! We’re trying to scale back Christmas and do only hand made stuff, which I did a lot of last year. THIS year though I’m getting smart and mixing it up. I’m not just doing knit stuff because, while knit is incredibly beautiful, it takes longer. I’ve got a mix of sewing, knitting, and crocheting on my list. I should really nail down the list and stop looking at books though and just stick to the plan! Only 3 months you know!
Knitting to Fund My Knitting Habit
I have a waiting list! After these I have to knit some dust mop pads, a hat, and 5 more pairs of pants!
Linus
Custom knit pants from my very own pattern. I’m knitting to fund my knitting habit. 