Oh the hypocrisy of it all and other random things...

So, I was contemplating cleaning the house, and I was thinking about how I always get onto Rob for leaving his messes everywhere. Then as I was looking around, I realized, I leave messes ALL the time. Of course in my mind it's not really a mess, because it's usually yarn/reading/craft related, but I had to break down and admit IT'S A MESS. To prove my point, I have taken some pictures of my mess to illustrate. These pictures have not been tampered with, they are actual photos of an honest to goodness mess.Click on picture to zoom in on text.

Here are some belly shots so my family can see how big I'm getting. Thank goodness for black and maternity jeans, I finally broke down and bought some this week. A little expensive, but stylish, eh?

Presents for Robby Cubed

So, last night Rob and I were discussing, actually, Rob was listening patiently as I showed off my handspun that I had just wound into a center pull ball and my musings on whether to dye it and what to make of it. A hat..a sweater... I just wasn't inspired. I was a little nervous about knitting up my handspun, it's not very consistent and I was afraid it would look sloppy. Anyway, so this morning, Rob and I had this conversation.... WARNING - if you are allergic to cuteness, you may want to skip the following.

Rob: (out of the blue) i think you should make a bear out of that yarn
Bea: what yarn?
Rob: the stuff you spun
Bea: why a bear?
Rob: what else? a hat that he will grow out of, a sweater, that he will grow out of... but if he had a bear that his mom made from wool fibers with stitching on the eyes :) we can give it to him for his first christmas. and tell him it was his first christmas present ever. we should name the bear... robert pronounced in french...spell it robear

I was so overwhelmed by the thoughtfulness of this suggestion, I informed Rob that i was going to HAVE to blog on this topic and so I'm off on a new project, to make a Robear for Robby Cubed to love on till he has another Robby to the Fourth Power.

And so I begin to turn this
into this

The pattern is from Erika Knight's Simple Knits for Cherished Babies. It's a very lovely book with simple, classic patterns in an easy to read, abbreviation lite format.

First Things First

Before I post Bea's Famous Curry Chicken Salad Recipe, I'm going to force all of you out there in Bloglandia to ogle my lovely BFL roving handspun by yours truly.

Ooooooooo..

Aaaaaahhhh...To dye or not to dye that is the question. The natural color is a very pretty creamy white, and I would like to use the yarn for something for Robby Cubed. What do you guys think?

Ok.. On to Bea's Famous Curry Chicken Salad (OK, maybe not famous outside of my little circle of friends and family, but what the hay.)

First, I like to use the chicken tenders because they cook faster and stay more well, tender because it doesn't take as long to get the middle done. I sprinkle both sides with salt, garlic powder, and black pepper (from a pepper mill). Note: This recipe for the chicken is great by itself, in quesadillas, salad, whatever you can think of.

Heat some butter and olive oil in a pan over medium heat.

Saute chicken in pan 3-5 minutes per side. Food safety first! Always make sure your chicken is no longer pink in the middle.

While chicken is cooking, dice up some celery and onion. I like to add mango to my chicken salad, but Roberto is not a fan of sweet things in his chicken salad. But feel free to add whatever floats your boat.

Put celery, onion, chicken (diced up) into bowl and sprinkle the following spices on it. I don't really measure. I just add a lot of coriander, a medium amount of cumin, a dash of turmeric, a couple pinches of salt, and a healthy sprinkle of black pepper.

Put a few big glops of mayo on top and mix.

Enjoy! Yummy on crackers or on a sandwich.

Spin, Spin, Spin, and Cloth Diapers

This past week, I have been working on spinning up some undyed Blueface Leicester top I got from Hello Yarn. I read on sweet georgia's blog that one of her favorite wools to spin with was BFL, so I thought I would give it a shot. I separated them into strips about the width of my thumb then drafted each strips really well, because I wanted to spin a much thinner yarn.

Not bad, eh? My goal is to spin enough to make a baby sweater. I'm going to ply two singles together to make a worsted weight-ish yarn. I really want to do a laceweight yarn, but I need to wait till my birthday, because I want a Golding spindle. I was thinking that I would die the roving with Kool-Aid, but I decided to spin up different thicknesses, and dye them different colors depending on what I wanted them for.

I'm pretty happy with the consistency of my yarn, I'm a little nervous I may have underspun some sections, but I will make that up and overspin the two-ply. There are so many things I want to do and make. This pregnancy is flying by, only 11 weeks left! I feel like there is so much I have to do. We aren't really doing a nursery or anything like that, but today I got the bug to try and make my own cloth nappies(diapers), and ordered a pattern online, and there is still a bunch of stuff I want to make for little Robby Cubed. Oh to be a housewife and get to stay at home full time and work on all these crafty things I want to do.

I discovered another great crafty blog. SouleMama inspires me with her sewing skills, and I really admire the way she interacts with her children. Her kids are so creative, and really seem to benefit from lack of TV and lots of playtime outside acting out the Wizard of Oz... I'm so ready to be out in the woods with Rob and our brood of kids, spinning, knitting, cooking and enjoying life.

I WON I WON I WON

Ok, I just had to post twice in one day because I won a prize! Every Friday, Veronica over at the a year in stitches blog has fun prizes to give if you comment on her blog. And today, my name got picked for the Knitted Babes book!!

She has a lot of cool stuff for knitters for sale too!

Have a good weekend everyone!

Robby Cubed Knitting Projects

Here is a picture of the hat I knitted up for Robby^3.
I didn't have a model to try the hat on, but Rob was happy to use his hand as a stand in.

Rob and I both have big heads, and in the measurements taken so far, little Robby has a slightly big head. Maybe I'll make an extra hat just in case hat #1 is too small.

I'm also working on this blanket. I was laying out the strips for the blanket when I realized I made a booboo. Do you ever get that feeling when you are knitting something that you are doing something wrong, but you don't know what, and you keep pressing on anyway? Yeah, I had a feeling about the strip I'm working on. Oh well, I'll be taking a visit to the frog pond today. But...the end is in sight. I've totally lost track of how much yarn I've used. Let's just hope this blankie is well used. It's very cushy and soft, and I bet once I wash it, it will be even cushier and softer. I've never blocked anything in my whole knitting career (shame on me!!) but I think I may have to block the strips so they all match up.

Tomorrows post: Rebecca GOA sweater progress

First Spinning Project

I got this great superwash merino roving from Hello Yarn along with a beginners Louet spindle. I was so excited to get started, I didn't take any pictures of everything I got in the mail, and I didn't have a blog then anyway. The spinning went really well, I spun up about 80+ yards total of a slubby single slightly thinner than worsted, then I plyed two strands together to create this....

Isn't it purty? I made a little baby hat for Robby Cubed. More pictures to come. Unfortunately, the first casualty of my weekend of spinning was my Louet spindle. Adrian at Hello Yarn was great and she is sending me a new spindle to replace the defective one.

I think for my next spinning project, I'm going to order a pound of Bluefaced Leicester wool and try my hand at dyeing it with Kool-Aid. Knitty has a great Kool-Aid tutorial . Of course, I also have a ton of other projects I'm currently working on. A baby blanket from Last Minute Knitted gifts done in Mission Falls Wool, AAAHHHHH no more garter stitch!!!!! And a sweater from last year's Summer Issue of Rebecca, done in black GOA.

More knitting goodness to come!

First Post to Bloglandia

Hello everyone! This is my first post... I will be putting up pictures of my first spinning/knitting project soon.