Noro Love

Knitting with Noro makes me happy. The colors of the yarn have helped brighten these dull winter days. I recently tried out their sock yarn. It is a little rougher than I like for sock yarn but I know it will soften up with washing. Plus Noro always has amazing colors.

I just finished a scarf in Noro Silk Garden Lite . This yarn is a blend of 45% silk, 45% kid mohair, 10% lambswool it is so soft and it just slid of my needles. I was a little sad to finish knitting with it.


Pattern:Argosy
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden Lite 2 skeins
Needles:US 4/3.5mm

Knitting and Tea

Those have been my two favorite things lately. I have been enjoying them both immenseley. Lately our favorite tea has been coming from Cooks Shop Here. It is a local shop in Northampton. I highly recommend tea from here, it is so good and fresh. We love their Earl Grey they blend it right in their shop.
We are a little behind in our knitting updates. Ethan made a sweater for his brother as a Christmas gift. He used Valley Yarns Northampton from Webs

He used the Top Down Raglan Sweater Generator . It work out really well and the sweater was a great fit.
I knit up some mittens for Ethan's mom

the pattern is Bird In Hand. I loved knitting these mittens. The pattern was well written and easy to follow. Kate Gilbert's designs are some of my favorite.

Let It Snow

It has been a really snowy winter here in Massachusetts. I am ready for it to be over! But today we are getting a few more inches and Ethan came home from work early so that makes it all good! We get to snuggle with the girls on the couch and drink hot chocolate (hacoco to Adah) and tea.
A bunch of things have happened since I last posted. We had an awesome Christmas. Lots of toys lots of candy. Adah's two favorite things were her Winnie the Pooh ball and her "Big Girl" underwear. Here she is with both:

Ethan went to Australia for work. He was gone for about 10 days, and got a nice break from the cold. He was there for Australia day, which is like our 4th of July. I survived without him but was really happy when he came home! Here's a picture of one of the street performers he saw during the festivities in downtown Sydney.

The girls are both growing. Adah is talking a lot, and saying words like "dangerous" She must hear it from us a lot, like when Ethan woke up to see her jumping up and down in the 2nd-to-top drawer of our dresser, looking in the mirror and yelling "Bounce! Bounce! Bounce!"
Ethan told her to get down because it was dangerous.
Chloe is sitting up by herself, babbling a lot and rotating around when she's on her belly. She also does a great impression of a boiling tea kettle when she gets excited. It has been fun to watch them play with each other. The girls love to snuggle in bed with us in the morning; Adah creeps into the room when she wakes up, and plays with Chloe quietly or climbs into bed with us. If it's the weekend and we try to sleep through, Adah starts doing more adventurous things like climbing into the dresser drawers and doing her best Tigger impression.

A Quick Update

Ethan and I have been busy knitting these past few weeks. I have a few finished things to share. The monkey socks are done!

They were really a fun pair of socks to knit. The pattern has made me want to experiment more with knitting lace.
Adah was in need of new slippers. I found this really cute pattern and had to make her a pair.

We have been getting a lot of snow here. So I have been baking. Adah has been interested in "helping" me bake.

Chloe is starting to scoot around, it has been fun to watch her explore.

What Happened To November?

November has flown by. I am having a hard time believing it is December and Christmas is just a few short weeks away. I have noticed that since Chloe was born my life has been in extreme fast foward mode. So here is a little recap of the past month...Adah was a ladybug for Halloween. We went to my sisters house to trick-or-treat. Adah had a great time and wanted to eat all her candy when we got home.

I have done some knitting. I made a berry hat for Chloe.

I have been spending a ton of time on Ravelry . Ravelry is a website that you can organize all your completed knitting projects, works in progress (wip) and things you want to knit. Plus it allows you to keep track of all your yarn, needles, patterns and books. It is also super cool because you can meet other local knitters and see how others have knit a project that you have completed or want to do. It truly is an amazing thing.
We were able to spend Thanksgiving in Pennsylvania with Ethan's family. We had a really fun time. So much fun we didn't take any pictures!! Ethan's brother Hiram just released a Christmas album, Word>>>Flesh. Everyone needs to check it out it's really worth it! Here is an article written about him and the album. The album is avalible on itunes, just search Word>>>Flesh.
Ethan has been on a plant kick. I don't really mind; I think it makes the place look really nice especially since winter has kicked in. He recently made hanging window shelves for the plants.

It has been so nice to look at them with the mid afernoon sun coming through the windows.
We have joined the local YMCA. I have been really enjoying it. They offer a wide variety of classes. I have been taking spinning and yoga classes. Adah took a swim class and loved it. She practices blowing bubbles, kicking and "reaching and pulling" in the bath tub.
The girls keep us entertained on a regular basis. Adah was showing us how she "knits".

Adah loves being a big sister and Chloe watches Adah's every move. Having them has been an amazing learning experience, it is challenging at times but it is totally worth it.

Yum!

I love trying new recipes. I tried this buttercup squash and apple recipe yesterday. It is so good and easy. I wanted to share this recipe with everyone to enjoy!
I have been trying to get back into bread making. Since our recent move and Chloe being born I haven't found much time (or I should really say energy) to bake bread. This is my favorite bread recipe book. Tonight I made pita bread and a whole wheat honey bread. While baking the pita bread I was doing laundry and I realized that the oven temp dropped dramatically - about 150 degrees too low. I discovered if I'm using hot water in the washer and the stove is on there is less gas going to the stove. Not a good situation when trying to bake bread. So the pita bread became naan which is ok. Moving two times in the past year has made finding all the quirks in each place amusing.

We are preparing for Holloween here; Ethan carved a pumpkin, I think it looks really cool.


This is going to be Adah's first year trick-or-treating, She is going to be a ladybug.

Isn't she cute!

Chloe

It is amazing how fast time is flying. Chloe is already 5 months. She has been growing and surprising us everyday. It has been really amazing to see Adah and Chloe interact. Chloe is watching Adah's every move and Adah wants to hug and kiss Chloe every chance she can get. Here are a few recent pics of Chloe, she is such a happy baby.