Twisted and Sublime

I just went into Twisted in NE Portland, and wow! The store is so beautiful and so are the yarns. They have organized the yarn so well and their selection is so diverse. I fell in love with Sublime, which is the luxury line from Sirdar. The colorways are so beautiful and the baby pattern book is darling. It is too bad that they are so faraway, I would be spending a lot more time there.

Keziah's Baby Shower

This is Keziah modeling the Bouton dress I made over a year ago, before she was even a thought. This was taken at her baby shower and the glasses were a gift. I thought it was pretty cute.

Baby Blanket

This is a picture of a blanket made with Rowan All Seasons Cotton. The pattern comes from 100 Aghan Squares. I love all the textures and patterns.

Fourth of July

We had a great Fourth of July out on the river. My parents took the boat up to Hayden Island for the night and we got to tag along. The weather was so hot! This was Keziah's first outing on the boat and she did really well.

Bronson was also very

brave on the water this week. Richard and I have birthday's within two days of each other, so we often celebrate together. My mom an sister made a lovely birthday brunch on Saturday and the kids were ready to play in the water. My parents live on the river, so there is a nice "swimming pool" off the back deck. Last year Bronson was very timid to get in the water, but this time he was ready to go. He was even "surfing" on the pontoons of the hobie cat. Swimming lessons start next week and I know he will do great!

Finally some sleep!

Keziah is one week old today! For a birthday present she slept well last night. For the past few nights she had been marathon feeding. She ate non stop for hours, which made it impossible for me to sleep. Last night she allowed us to sleep for 3 1/2 hours before waking up. I feel like a normal person and not a zombie anymore. I know it will only get better from here. This picture is of her nursery and some knitted items. Soon she will be sleeping in this beautiful crib.

The birth story

At long last Keziah Adelaide Revilla has joined the world. I was scheduled to be induced on June 21st, but she had other ideas. On Tuesday night I started having contractions every 7 minutes apart and by 3pm they were 5 minutes. We headed off to the hospital and after being checked and walking around I was only at 3 cm, so they sent me home. We were told to come back in the morning for our scheduled induction

I took a very long bath at home to ease the pain of the contractions which was a big relief. After having dinner we settled in to watch a movie. Throughout the night I would jump up off the couch to breath through a contraction. My husband went to bed and I stayed up knowing that this was going to be a long night. Another bath to deal with the contractions and listening to knitting podcasts was in order. I kept telling myself to make in until 6 am before calling the hospital. By 6 I woke up my husband and told him that we needed to get going pretty soon. We took showers and headed off. I called the hospital to let them know we were on our way. I was told to call them an hour before the scheduled induction to get it ready. I was told they didn't have any beds and that someone would call me back in the afternoon to come in. I said I was coming in because my contractions were on top of each other. I didn't care where I delivered, it was time!

Once we got there they checked me and I was at 8 cm. There was a flurry of activity to get me ready to deliver. I think the nurses thought there wouldn't be enough time to even get me down the hallway. I asked for an epidural because I was exhausted. I was able to get one, but they gave me such a low dose of medicine that I still felt everything. After getting blood drawn and settled in bed I was already at 9cm and feeling like pushing. My water still had not broken. By 7:30 am it was time to push and the doctors thought it would be very quick. Well, Keziah had other plans.

During the 2 hours of pushing she had somehow tilted her head and was coming out forehead first. No matter how much or how long I pushed she was not coming down. I was so exhausted. The doctor told me I had three options: Keep pushing (no thanks!), vacuum extraction (this was risky because of how she was positioned), or a C-Section. Very enthusiastically I opted for the c-section. Once they got me in the O/R she was born just 30 minutes later. It was quite a chore to keep pushing through all the contractions while I was being prepped for surgery.

I am so glad she is finally here! She is an incredible little girl and in my opinion, beautiful. What a great addition to our family.

Dress Pattern

I had quite a few requests for the dress pattern, and since it is out of print I thought I would post it here.

Hooray for Pitocin!

I just had a doctor's appointment and I am going to be induced on Thursday! Ideally I would like to have had labor go naturally, but whatever it takes to get Keziah here I am all for it. Once she is here I will post a bunch of pictures.

Grandma's Dress

It is finally finished! This pattern is one from my grandmother's collection and is over 50 years old. She knit this for me in pink 32 years ago and I wanted to make one for my daughter. The yarn is Louet Gems sock yarn which is a beautiful yarn. Great for baby items since it is machine washable. The lace pattern was pretty easy and it is so nice to have this connection to another knitter in the family

I'm Still Pregnant

We had to adjust the baby pool dates because we all thought the baby would be coming earlier. My sister had the farthest out date, which was yesterday. I had a doctor's appointment today and am only dilated to 2. This just gives me more time to knit!

Orange Shrug

This is the latest sweater I finished. It is made out of Rowan DK Cashsoft. The pattern is Sidar. This was a fun and quick knit. The picot edging was the most time consuming part, but I love how it turned out.

Waiting and Waiting

The time is getting closer to my due date and I am impatient! We have decided on Keziah Adelaide for a name. My husband found her name out of the book of Job and her middle name was my grandmother's.
I was two weeks early with my son, so I anticipated the same thing this time. I guess she has some more growing to do. When I was at the knitting store yesterday buying more yarn (a girl can't have enough), they were kidding me about being optimistic about being able to knit. During my last labor I knitted and it really calmed me. I haven't packed my hospital bag yet, but I have planned what I will be knitting. Hats, hats and more hats. Knitting in the round takes no brain power, and that is what I will need.

Intarsia/Double Knit Sweater

I started this sweater a long time ago, but since I have a big aversion to sewing I just finally finished it. One of my co-workers is due the same time as I am and I made this for her little boy. I used Jo Sharp cotton yarn. It was on sale at my LYS and I understand why. It is so splitty and not very easy to work with. Cotton yarn is one of my favorite things to work with, so this yarn was a disappointment.

It's A Girl

I have been pretty bad about posting lately. My store finally opened, so I have been pretty busy with that.

After 3 sonograms, it is official. We are having a little girl! A very active one at that. The job of picking a name has been very difficult. I search name books daily.

On the knitting scene, I have been knitting for others. I finished a darling sweater for my friend Stephanie and pictures will be up soon. I am very excited to start knitting from Itty Bitty Baby Hats. Could they be any cuter?!?!

I will post some more pictures when I finish the sleeves on another cute sweater.

Blue Moon Bambu

This is my first lace wrap I have finished. It was made with Blue Moon Fiber Arts Bambu yarn. The lace pattern is from Vogue Knitting. The yarn was incredibly soft and the hand dying was beautiful. This is for my friend's mother-in-law who has breast cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy. After making this I am not sure if I will make any more lace wraps. As nicely as it turned out, it did get tedious at the end.

School Picture

Here is my son's cute new preschool picture. He is wearing a sweater I made for him that I am pretty proud of. I used Korall from Laines d'Nord and a pattern from Annie Blatt Baby and Layette. The yarn was on sale and I didn't have enough green, so the hem is in red and the v-neck in off white. This was a great pattern and I would love to do this again.

Duplicate Stitching

So little sweater I am knitting has duplicate stitching for a cute little star detail in the back. After 2 hours of undoing and redoing it is finally done. For a person who used to love cross stitch you would think this wouldn't be hard, but I am not sure if I will ever attempt that again. There is a reason I knit and not sew. The sweater is done, but is waiting to be pieced together. Hopefully pictures will be up tomorrow.
This is a cute picture of my son at the pumpkin patch this year, still in the hat.

Knitters ADD

So, like most knitters I have way too many projects going. I have four projects on the needles currently. I have two lace projects on tiny needles and a sweater in the round with a 32 stitch to 4" guage. Needing some instant gratification this week I have been working on baby things. I knit two hats and a baby sweater last week. This week I started in on another baby sweater (the picture is of the back). When will I ever finish the "hard" projects?!?

Heirloom Dress

This is my progress on a little dress. The pattern is from my grandmother's collection and must be almost 40 years old. She made this dress for me when I was a baby and I wanted to make one too. It is a beautiful lace dress with a very full skirt. As I finish more I will put more pictures up.

Pumpkin Patch

It is that time of year again to bring out the pumpkin hats. I have made so many of these fruit/vegetable hats that it became my trademark. People started to expect them at baby showers and got disappointed if I made/bought something else for them. I guess I need to learn to stick with the tried and true. This is my son last year wearing his hat and "driving" the tractor on the pumpkin patch.