Bib-o-rama

Bibs! In anticipation of lots of drooling, spilling and spitting up, I sewed up a whole bunch of little bibs, modeled here by Mr. Bear.

The bib pattern is a free one from Chickpea Sewing Studio, and you can find it right here. There isn't as wide a fabric selection around these parts, but I did manage to find some prints that I liked at Joann's. The pattern recommends making the backing piece with flannel, terrycloth or something a little bit thicker for absorbency, but since I didn't have any, I made the backing with muslin, and sandwiched a piece of cut-up bed sheet (leftover from this project) in between to lessen the seepage factor.

If you look closely, there are mini Gatsbys marching across the bib...

It's been so long since I've done any sewing, I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed it until I started these projects last week, so I feel like I'm on a bit of a roll. There's that quilt I started way back when that is mostly stitched up, but lacking a border, backing and the actual quilting part. That will be next. And I've got some curtains to make for the bathroom, which I have procrastinated on until now (fabric which I bought in September)

Duh, I cut the print out upside down and of course put it at the top of the pile to photograph.

We had a quiet Halloween weekend and gave out candy on Friday night (the city decided that trick-or-treating should intuitively NOT be on the 31st).

Gatsby and I spend a lot of time together these days, and he sat on the couch helping me take pictures of the bibs. He is looking very healthy as usual, and has been in a major showing-off mode for our guest...racing up and down the stairs, roughing with the catnip toys, and being a generally quite rambunctious.

Is that a pumpkin under there?

It's been four weeks since my last growth chart! Here are a few more photos of my middle since then:


Last Sunday we went to a pumpkin patch and I wondered if I would be accused of stealing a fat, round pumpkin under my shirt...There have been bibs galore over here. I pulled out the sewing machine and have been stitch stitch stitching away.

We will be giving out candy on Friday night (it's a Lehigh Valley thing, not scheduling trick-or-treating on the actual holiday - weird) and then Chris is visiting us this weekend! Yay!

Happy Halloween!

A Nice Apple Pie

Fall brings out a different kind of sweet tooth in me. Canadian thanksgiving was a couple weeks back and we didn't have the usual treats, so I made a pumpkin cranberry bread to satisfy that pumpkin craving. Um, it was all gone before the evidence could be photographed for blogging.

But I did save some pie for you. A double-crust traditional apple pie!

I'd been talking about making pie for ages, but every time I got too lazy and decided that making the crust was way too much work and opted for apple crumble or apple tarts on pre-made puff pastry. However, D just returned from a conference and I was in the right kind of mood, so I made this as a (large) treat for us.

The recipe is from Gourmet magazine, which sadly announced that is was shutting down this week. Boo! I was thinking of getting a subscription, too. So sad. Anyhow, here's the recipe for the pastry, and here's the recipe for the filling. I subbed a half cup of whole wheat flour in the crust, and used Macs and Galas for the filling. Since I didn't have any vegetable shortening on hand, I just put in all butter. My crust was flaky and tasty, but not super light, which is probably because of the WW flour and lack of shortening, although I kind of liked the texture. Macs release a lot of juice, so beware of hot sputtering apple goo if you cut into the pie before it's had a chance to cool!

After it came out of the oven, we each had a slice. I woke up at 4am needing another piece (the baby convinced me to have it). It is taking everything in me not to substitute the pie for regular meals, but as a result there is still some left. Oh, and this makes a very big pie - I used a 9.5 inch plate and we've had about 9 slices out of it so far, and there's still two left for a midnight snack.

Booties, Beanie, and Stuffed Buddies

Lots to show you today! I have one item on backlog, the blocked Amelia, but I'll get to that eventually (she turned out really well, and I have been wearing her quite a bit). First, some baby knitting. I was thinking that winter babies will need some warm things to wear, so I found this cute garter stitch booty pattern on Ravelry and made a few pairs... Aren't they super cute?!

The little hat is made from the Freshly Picked Baby Hat pattern also available on Ravelry...yes, I know it's not garter stitch to match, but whatever. What I didn't realize is that babies heads are shockingly large. Maybe that's why they're so cute. But man, their heads are BIG. I cast on 96 stitches for this on US4 dns, which is pretty huge! I just cast on 96 stitches on US6 for a hat for myself, as a comparison...


I also made a blue pair for baby Audrey (which I forgot to photo), and her mother says that they should stay on well (apparently socks can fall right off newborns, chilly feet being a bad thing). It takes about 4 hours to knit these up, which isn't too long, and I've got lots more DK superwash merino to make a couple more pairs.

Then we have: more animals! You might recognize these from a few (?) months ago, and sadly it has taken me this long to get around to putting faces on them now, and making a little bandana for bunny. I love, love, love this pattern (last minute knitted gifts)...I've probably made 6 or 7 of these toys by now!


That's about all for knitting. Now for some ultrasound pictures! Meet Jenny Junior, who is, in fact, 90% likely to be a girl:

Waving her fist at us...stop scanning me!

The anatomy scan was totally fascinating, and I pestered the technician endlessly about what we were seeing. Prior to this experience I had no idea you could see things like brain ventricles, heart chambers, kidneys, diaphragm and bones! From what we could tell, she wasn't missing any important bits and things looked just fine.

This one is my favourite b/c you can see the profile so clearly...along with the spine and heart too. Cool, eh?

Almost Amelia

Amelia is nearly done! I can't believe I actually weaved in ends and did all the finishing. Now I just need to block her and sew some buttons on.


First impressions: it's warm, but very lumpy. The sleeves also seem a bit loose around the underarms and the collar doesn't sit in a round shape right now...blocking should help all of these problems. I'm a little scared to submerse this in water because I'm sure the dye is just going to bleed everywhere - gotta find a sink or bucket it that won't stain. Will let you know how it turns out. I think I'll be able to wear it for a couple months undone at the bottom, although my belly is protruding even more at this point.

Here are some growth pictures to entertain you with:


I still occasionally forget that there's a little person in there, but I'm starting to feel wiggles and gurgles. The other day I even felt some crazy purring, as if Gatsby were trapped in my tummy. It just occurred to me that the baby is arriving in February, and will need some warm winter things, so I am planning on making a couple more little hats, booties, and sweaters....so much fun!

Last Saturday we went to the Celtic Festival (surprisingly huge!) here in Bethlehem and saw hundreds of bagpipers, a haggis toss, and ate some fish and chips. Yesterday, we wandered along Third street during Friday First night in South Bethlehem. Today we are going to Babies R Us to scope out some nursery furniture and learn a thing or two about cribs, strollers and the like. It's shocking how much baby gear exists. See you soon!

Fruit Tart with Pastry Cream and Chocolate

The colours are a bit wonky in this one, but there's only so much I could try using my primitive editing program...the kiwis looked much better than above.

I made this fruit tart a couple weeks ago when D's parents came to visit, and it turned out well - tasty and pretty. The recipe is from the Bouchon cookbook, which I can't post, but it's easy enough to make something very similar. Martha Stewart lists this pate sucree recipe that is practically identical to the one I used. For a thick pastry cream, try this recipe, which uses cornstarch instead of flour (you may want to increase the cornstarch - if it is too thick after cooking, you can always loosen it slightly by adding a little milk).

After your tart crust has cooled, brush the bottom with melted chocolate before topping with pastry cream and fruit. This was how they made all the tartlets at my old bakery, which I thought was pretty common to prevent sogginess, but everyone I served it to commented how much they liked the chocolate, so it's worth mentioning I suppose.

Off to my volunteer shift - see you later!

Wee Update

The Knitticrafty household is seeing some big changes this year. First a house...

...and now Gatsby is getting a sibling!

I've been sitting on our happy news for a while, and now seems as good a time as any to share it. We'll get to meet the wee one in February, and in the meantime I've got lots of little baby projects in mind to keep me busy. I figure that once baby arrives, my crafting life will be put on hold indefinitely. Must fit in as much as possible between now and then!

Today was a good finishing morning - I finally sewed in loose ends, kitchener-stitched toes together, and blocked. Here is my first FO for baby, the placket neck pullover from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I know, I've already made it four other times, but it's just so cute. And you can't beat the minimal seaming - it's all knit in the round! The yarn is Kraemer Tatamy Tweed DK, an acrylic cotton blend that should be easy to machine wash. It's made right here in Nazareth, PA too!

Yarn: Kraemer Tatamy Tweed DK in Birch
Needles: US 7 dpns and circulars
Pattern: Placket Neck Pullover (Last Minute Knitted Gifts by Hoverson)

Next up, my mom's socks are done!! Yippee! I don't think she'll mind the fact that one is slightly taller than the other - can you tell in the photo? I guess I over-enthusiastically added half a pattern repeat. Not sure how that happened since I was trying to follow the chart...

Yarn: 2 skeins of Plymouth Happy Feet (from Conversational Threads in Emmaus),
with enough leftover for a pair of baby socks
Needles: US2 dpns
Pattern: Pomotamus Socks

Amelia is coming along as well...I've got the sleeves pretty much done, minus a couple more increases on one arm, and I've got about 4 inches to go on the body. Sadly, this cardigan is not going to fit around the girth of my ever-expanding middle - I should be able to button it up at the top for now. I've made a few mods so far: cast on for size 34" sleeves, but for the body I cast on 191 stitches to get approximately a 36" size (the pattern jumps from 34" to 38") and I played around with the positioning of the stitch markers to get more or less the right ribbing placement. I'm a little worried about washing this yarn...I touched it with a wet hand a few weeks ago and ended up with deep teal streaks across my palm. There's probably something I can wash it with to help set the colour or remove the excess dye.



Have a great week! I'm off to knit night tonight for a piece of chocolate cake...mmm.