The Weekend in Instagram

First of all, I wanted to thank everyone for their kind words on our big announcement. Mr. Cleaver and I appreciate each and every one. It also appears that March is quite the month for blogger babies, from the number of comments I received from ladies with similar due dates!

In the first of what will be many full Fall weekends, Mr. Cleaver and I caught a cozy Sarah Jarosz show at USM. If you're not familiar with this bluegrass musician yet, I'd highly recommend you check her out. She has a fabulous voice and is no slouch on the mandolin/banjo/guitar either. Also, seeing her adorable outfit really confirmed my need for a pair of cowboy boots someday.

I utilized about a third of my massive bag of freshly picked apples in a pair of apple crisps. I'm thinking this coming weekend will be the big pie-making event.

One of the crisps went to Bristol's for our first (massive!) yarn swap. The pile of odd balls in the photo above was already well-picked over by this time, and doesn't include the three other piles of sock yarn, sweater lots, and 3-4 balls. When it comes to yarn, I managed to leave with less than I came, taking only a Zauberball and a sweater's worth of purple Blue Moon BFL DK that I want to be a cardigan yesterday. I did however, also come home with a grocery bag full of jersey fabric and a cut of nice wool. I've been venturing into the land the sewing with knits and free fabric to practice with is always appreciated it.

Lastly, I had hoped to share my first maternity sewing project with you, but I started guessing on the tutorial instructions halfway through, and had to spend to quality time with a seam ripper this morning, so it'll be a bit on that one yet.

How are you enjoying these first days of fall? (or spring, for any southern hemisphere readers?)

Fall is on Its Way

Oh hey there blog. Don't worry, I didn't forget about you. It's just been a long quiet summer. I watched a lot of dvds (The Poseidon Adventure really holds up by the way and my love for the X-Men cartoon survives unabated), but for the past month or so, I didn't really do much of anything I'd call "blog-worthy." But fall is quickly approaching here in Maine and the Cleaver household is getting back into the swing of things.

First stop? Ricker Hill for our annual apple picking adventure.

On our 4th year out, my love for this place is still strong, as the doughnuts are still delicious, the views wonderful, and the apple selection top-notch.  We picked a half-bushel and a peck of MacIntoshes, McIntoshes, Cortlands, and my personal favorites, Jonagolds. I see a pie-making afternoon in my near future.

The weather was sunny and crisp, just like an apple-picking day should be.

Steinbeck was super-helpful.

We came home happy, tired, and full.  Though I might have been a bit more tired than usual, but that's only because gestating a tiny human being is hard work......

Yep - the Cleaver's are expecting!

While I couldn't come up with any cutesy blog announcement photo theme (they are seriously not kidding about that 1st trimester fatigue), both the Mr. and I are super excited. I'm about 12.5 weeks along and am due in late March. So expect many photos of tiny baby sweaters soon. I imagine it's going to be a busy fall!

Decision of Bulky Porportions

The heavy weight of decision becomes even more weighty when it's in bulky. :)

Just Spinning Along

I did get that spinning wheel of my own, and am loving it!

Also, contented pooch:

Be back with more substantial posts soon!

An Afternoon on Peaks

After nearly five combined years of living in Maine, I finally took my first trip out to Peaks Island with Mr. Cleaver on Saturday. It was a beautiful day for a ferry ride. Bright and sunny, with just enough breeze to stay comfortable.

We slathered on sunscreen and walked the 4-mile loop around the island. While I think I'll opt for the bike rental on the next go around - it was a beautiful walk past charming homes, a bit of wildlife, and endless ocean vistas.

After completing the circuit, we sat in the shade of a pier and made sandcastles while we waited for the next ferry, before returning to Portland for a lovely meal at the Olive Cafe.

A wonderful afternoon. I'm definitely planning a return trip.

Introducing: Sakura

Back in February, I set out to design my idea of the perfect spring sweater and the Sakura cardigan is result. Delicate, airy, and sweetly pink without being saccharine, Sakura was inspired by my visit to the Washington D.C. Cherry Blossom Festival in the spring of 2011.

Knit in Quince's springy sport-weight Chickadee yarn, Sakura features elbow-length sleeves, an a-line silhouette and a petal-like lace scallops along the button band and collar.

Sakura is knit in one-piece from the top down and utilizes round yoke shaping.

Sakura is written for sizes 31 ½ (33 ¼, 35, 37 ½, 39 ½, 40 ½, 43, 44 ½, 47, 48 ¾, 51, 53 ¼)”  and uses 905 - 1810 yards  of Quince & Co. Chickadee in Dogwood or another sport-weight yarn.

Sakura is available for download on Quince & Co. for $6 USD or you can queue it up on Ravelry.

 PS – Did you know about my mailing list? You’ll receive notification about all new patterns as well as special discount codes and offers.  Sign up Now!

All modeled photos © Carrie Bostick Hoge courtesy of Quince & Co.

Skirting Party

This weekend Lynn held a skirting party at her place to process a lovely fleece she had purchased at the Maine Fiber Frolic about a month ago.

As usual Bristol was our resident expert on this kind of thing, but the fleece was clean there was about 2 minutes worth of "skirting" or picking off the icky bits, so we instead turned our attentions to Tour de Fleece spinning and eating the fabulous potluck lunch. Lynn's dog Porter, turned his attention to rolling in the yummy smelling sheep water.

It was such a hot day that the washed fleece dried super quickly, and we were able to spin up a sample, and boy is it going to be a beauty!

The 4th in Four

I finished up so many projects in the past week, but haven't had the time to really photograph them. It's been a full week: Monday was Steinbeck's "Gotcha Day" - one year since we first brought him home, Tuesday was Mr. Cleaver's birthday and we enjoyed stuffed deep dish pizza straight from Giordano's in Chicago. On the fourth, Mother Nature outdid any fireworks with an intense thunderstorm, so we stayed inside and watched the last three episodes of Freaks and Geeks instead.

Yesterday, we took the day off and ran errands, bought a Johnny Cash CD, and checked out a bunch of comic books (the Runaways, where have you been all my life?) and the first season of Arrested Development from the library. In the interim, I've been chugging away at my tour de fleece spinning including the yellow lace-weight, which Mr. Cleaver termed "a lot of yarn." I finished my cookie-monster cardigan and I've been swatching like crazy for new projects. I even managed to sew on the bias binding on my second sorbetto.

I'm back to work today, but it's been a fun few days off. Even better, I'm just hours away from the weekend!

Can I keep it*??

Look what followed me home this weekend:

A nice little Lendrum wheel.

Now, I didn't buy it, it's a rental, but we've already had a very productive relationship in the five days we've known each other.

I think I may be in love.

*As this particular wheel belongs to someone, I can't actually keep it, but I'd happily take another in the same "breed"

The Dr. Faye Lady Suit

I'm a big Mad Men fan, but don't tell me anything about the current season, because I only get to watch it when the dvds come out, so we can chat about it in 4 months or so. In that vein, this post is appropriately a bit overdue. Back in Season 4, I grew very fond of the Dr. Faye character and I also fell in love with this skirted suit from the "Hand and Knees" episode.

In some ways it seems more Banana Republic than 1960s, but then I found Simplicity 2154, a 1960's reproduction pattern and though, it's both!

Recently finding myself in need of a warm-weather appropriate suit for my DC trip, I pulled out the pattern and several yards of heavyweight linen from Z Fabrics and put this together over a weekend.

The coat is a fairly boxy design, which I decided was maybe not the most flattering on me, so it's belted in all these photos. Even if it's not the best cut for me, I believe the fit is spot on. If you wanted to slim it up some, I recommend narrowing the side gusset over choosing an allover smaller size.

The jacket has a fun construction, with the  front/back body and sleeve cut in a single piece, and an underarm gusset panel. Not counting the facings, the pattern in a total of 6 pieces. Attaching the top of the gusset to the underarm of the sleeve was a bit fiddly, but otherwise the jacket was very easy to sew. I actually had more issues with the pencil skirt (fitting ugh!).

Because the jacket is unlined, I finished all the seams with either purchased bias tape (about 2 packages) or by self-hemming after I ran out of bias tape for the facings and underarm.

I don't often need to wear a suit, but with a lady suit like this in my wardrobe, I might find a few more excuses!