Purls Beyond Price

Who Wants to Be an "It" Girl?

So I have to admit that I got caught up today, watching Miss America Reality Check on TLC. I was intrigued by the notion of giving the pageant an overhaul, updating the image and redefining which qualities the modern Miss America should embody. Has it made a difference? Perhaps a bit. They did make an effort to de-plasticise the girls, but in reality, it's the same skinny, too made up, overly self conscious girls that have always walked that stage. A noble effort, but not anywhere near far enough to do credit to the remarkable, intelligent, wise, compassionate women that I look to as my inspiration. Real women are so much more interesting than pageant contestants.

Honestly, my favorite moment was during the make over section when I spotted my former hair stylist, now stylist to the stars, Peter Van De Velde of B2V in Beverly Hills. So at least the day wasn't a total waste.

Elinor Makes Her Debut

Tammy's visit was the perfect reason to bring Elinor to the shop for the first time. Last night we bundled her up against the fierce cold and rain and headed over. It was wonderful to see Tammy and her beautiful daughter, who has a serious thing for babies. She's quite a good baby holder too! We had to promise that she can come back to visit and hold the baby again before she would relinquish her. We snapped a photo of Tammy with our sweet girl to make the Blue Moon girls jealous.

Emy held her, though we all insisted that she wore pink just to camouflage the baby. We were certain she was intending to make off with her. Ellie was a perfect angel, hardly fussed at all and got passed around from admirer to admirer without a peep.

Jasmin got a turn too, even letting her gorgeous curls down for Ellie to tangle her fingers in. It was a lovely evening and so nice to hang out with my shop family for a while. It'll be at least another week until we are back at the shop on a regular basis.

In knitting news, I've cast on the adult version of the Tulips Cardigan and I'm making stellar progress on it. I'm three stripes in and cruising at every possible moment. Pictures forthcoming. Meanwhile, it's a rainy, dreary day and all my girls and I are planning to spend the afternoon cuddled up, watching Breakfast at Tiffany's, an all-time favorite.

Quickly Flies a Fortnight

Little Ellie is 15 days old today. She just passed the two week mark and gets prettier and more wonderful every day. Kevin has been home with us most of the time and has another week to spend with us. We cuddle and coo at her and generally delight in every charming little thing she does. Can you blame us?

When not feeding or changing or snuggling our girl I've been knitting a bit here and there. I have deadline to hit for Stitches West and several other projects that I want finished sooner rather than later. Chief among the latter is Debbie Bliss' Matinee Coat from the first Baby Cashmerino book. I started this ages and ages ago and had only to do a bit of seaming and the picot trim on the hem to make it an FO. Ellie obliged by trying it on, even though it's a tad too big for her at the moment. Now I'm poring over all my pattern books seeking out more darling little things to knit for her.

I also finished the first sleeve of the Swing boxy jacket from the Colinette Jitterbug book. I am most enamored of the fingering weight yarn in double moss stitch. It creates a beautiful fabric and plays so nicely with all the gorgeous colors in the Castagna colorway. I love that there are little bits of burgundy and mauve interspersed with the olive and chocolate that predominate. The Jitterbug is also lovely to knit with and I enjoy the feel of it in my hands. I'm sure that after a good soaking it'll soften up even more and drape very nicely. My one issue with the project so far is that the sleeve biases a bit. I'm not sure whether that will block out or be a big issue in the final garment. We'll have to wait and see. I cast on the second sleeve right away and hope that after I have the Stitches knitting finished I'll be able to get this jacket finished in fairly short order. It goes with just about everything in my wardrobe and will make a great transitional garment for the variable climes of the Bay Area.

Other knitting I can't show you, but look for a new design to debut at Stitches West!

Visits Near and Far

We've been lucky to have some wonderful visitors in Ellie's first days at home. On Tuesday we were honored to have our good friend Claudia, of Claudia Hand Painted Yarns, over for a few hours. We've developed a lovely friendship in the years we've known each other and after the hustle and bustle of TNNA, she took a quick break to come up our way for a day or two to relax, recharge and to visit. She brought with her the most beautiful feather and fan baby blanket that she, herself, knit for our little Elinor. I was so touched by the love and care that she put into the knitting of that blanket. Every hand knit gift is a blessing, but this one was particularly special and we will cherish it always.

Today Ellie and I took our first long car ride to meet my mom and grandmother in San Mateo for lunch. We timed things just right and she slept in the car both ways! Up to now the car has not been a happy place for our girl. This was the first chance that we'd had to introduce Ellie to her great grandma and it is such a delight to watch my grandmother enjoy her great grandchildren. She is a stoic old gal, but when my other children were born I got to see a whole new side of her. Her tenderness and love began to evince itself in ways I had never experienced. Elinor is great grandchild number eleven, and I can tell that Grandma is very proud.

It's also a joy to see my mom with the baby. It's been an awfully long time since the other girls were babies and she just beams at Ellie when she holds her. We had a lovely lunch at 231 Ellsworth and Ellie was a perfect little angel through the whole meal.

Kevin is taking another week off to stay at home with us. He's really enjoying fatherhood and learning very quickly how to care for her. We're lucky that she's an easygoing little one, rarely crying or fussing for more than a minute or two. The girls are a big help too, changing diapers and holding her. There's not a single person who isn't caught in her spell.

One Week

Seven days may not seem like a long time, but when that's the sum total of your days on the outside, it's an eternity. Every day brings changes and new experiences that she's never had before. We are cherishing every moment. She's now alert for slightly longer periods of time, though awake still pretty much means hungry. I spend most of my time nursing, changing diapers, and trying to catch an extra wink or two of sleep whenever I can.

The big sisters are still smitten. Karin wants to read to her baby sister all the time. She's shared some of her favorite picture books and right now she's reading a chapter book to her at bedtime while Ellie nurses. It's too sweet.

We're still homebodies, only venturing out for doctor appointments, quick errands and on Friday we attended Karin's class play about California Missions. I know lots of you are dying to meet our sweet baby girl. Perhaps we'll make it into the shop for a visit some time next week.

Welcome Home

The big sisters took a couple of days off of school to spend some time with the newest addition to the family. They both love to hold her, kiss her sweet little head, and help with  changing diapers and such. Kevin's Grandma Ruth made shirts for Kaelyn and Karin. See Karin rockin' her "I'm the middle sister" swag?

After two days in the hospital, we were anxious to bring our little Ellie home. All the poking and prodding, testing and monitoring of both me and the baby was less than relaxing. They discharged us just after noon and we headed home.

In the evening Robin had arranged a special "Welcome Home, Elinor" gathering with the nearest and dearest of our friends. Chief amongst the attendees were Elinor's four godparents, pictured here: Fairy Godfather Ben, Ask Uncle Jack, Robin the Cosmic Auntie and Earth Mama Juanita. Britta, Meg, Johnathon, Cyd, and Charles rounded out the evening. Sandi, Kaye and Chloe all stopped by early in the evening. It was wonderful to have Ellie's first evening at home be full of the love and laughter of our family of friends. May her life be always full of the same.

Boo Is Here!

Nathania and Kevin are proud to announce the birth of their daughter

Elinor Marjorie Schieberl
Date: January 6, 2008
Time: 10:13 PM
Weight: 7 lbs. 3 oz.
Length: 20 3/4 inches
At Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford

Mother and baby are both well. Big sisters Kaelyn and Karin are delighted.

Updates will be forthcoming as we have time.

First FO of the Year

Nope, it's not the baby. Instead, all this quiet time is making for good knitting progress. I wasn't going to post again until after the baby, but I was so excited to actually have something substantive to show you that I couldn't help myself. These are Kevin's Tigger Socks, cast on just before Christmas and completed on Thursday. The pattern is pretty much completely improvised, given that Kev has great legs - nice calves, tapering to slender ankles. I cast on 72 sts for the 2x2 rib at the top, knit for a while and then began decreasing. I ended up with 68 sts at the ankle and kept that st count for the rest of the sock. The STR in Rocky Horror is the perfect Tigger orange and black and made some fabulous tiger stripes. Kev is well pleased and didn't take them off for at least 36 hours after I gave them to him.

I also cast on Robin's Clapotis. This is the picture from a few days ago and I've added quite a bit of length and width since then. I'm opting to add several repeats (I think the pattern calls for 7 additional sections to be added after the set up and I've added at least another 4). Trouble is the pattern is so easily memorized that I just keep going without consulting the instructions until I have the width I desire, so telling you exactly what I did requires referring to the pattern and figuring out what I did by the pattern standard. I'm using my standard modification, forgoing stitch markers in favor of purling the stitches that will be dropped on the stockinette side, and knitting them on the reverse. I decided with this one to twist the stitch on either side of the to-be-dropped stitch on every row (requiring a ptbl on the reverse stockinette side), and I'm very well pleased with the result. I can't wait to drop the first ladder to see how neat and tidy those edges look! The yarn is BMFA Twisted in the Rook-y colorway, one of the marvelous Raven series that we can't get enough of. It's hard to get an adequate representation of the color, the flashes of violet, blue violet and teal that run through it. It's quite gorgeous and I can hardly put it down, even though I have until next Christmas to complete it!

As mentioned in my last post, I've been working on some of my stalled WIPs as well. After finishing the K & K Cap for Karin, I pulled out Mr. Greenjeans and worked several repeats of the cable pattern at the waist. It took me a few minutes to reorient myself to the alterations I had made to the pattern - I haven't touched it in months, after all - and had an interesting moment when I realized that I had to try it on to make sure the length was right. It certainly doesn't fit the way it did months ago. Can't wait to have my body back so I can finally wear my hand knit sweaters again and try things on for a reliable fit!

I've also been doing a little bit of quilting - in limited spurts, while I can sit at the sewing machine. Karin has a favorite blankie that is seriously falling apart. This isn't a replacement for her old stand-by, but an addition to the collection, one to snuggle up with on the sofa while watching movies. It's far larger than the original, cut from a yard and a half of fabric, while the old one was crib size, made for her when she was a baby. I chose a deep red flannel to back it and a chocolatey brown Moda Marbles semi-solid to coordinate with the focal print. These are the easiest kinds of quilts to make: a layer of focal fabric, one of batting, and one of flannel, all straight line machine quilted, then bound like a traditional quilt. I take great pride in hand stitching the bindings. I find they last longer and look far neater than machine stitching. I just finished one for Kaelyn as well, a very similar cowgirl/cowboy and horses theme in clearer colors, but which also coordinate with the same red and brown fabrics. I haven't had a chance to photograph it yet. I'll have to wait until the girls are home next, and snap a pic of the two of them with their new blankies.

Visiting blogs in recent days I have read a lot about New Year's Resolutions. I rarely make them, and it seems folly to do so this year, what with a newborn on the way and the requirements of the shop. Instead here are my hopes for this crafting year:

1. Knit more sweaters. More precisely: finish more sweaters. I have lots and lots in progress that only need a little time and attention to finish.
2. Spin. Spin. Spin. My poor little Victoria needs more of a workout than I gave her this year.
3. Pick up my cross stitch again.
4. Finish the quilts I currently have in progress. The current total stands at 5, I think.
5. Learn new rubber stamping skills and make all the cards I need for birthdays and other occasions.
6. Organize my crafting supplies and more efficiently store them.

Hope that you have had a wonderful start to your New Year. Baby news soon, I hope.