Things I Love

(Welcome back back to blogging, me! I missed this.)

In no specific order:

• New guinea pigs: Cinnamon and Biscuit
• Knitting this dress for a baby girl on the way (not mine.) Pattern here.
• This doily (in Noro Silk Garden Sock) that I made for my mom for Christmas. I hated to give it up… I need to knit one for me.
• My first Pi shawl. The second is already on the needles.
• Edda is four… How??
• Walter is learning to help in the kitchen.
• Testing countless granola bar recipes.
• Decorating cakes.
• Embroidery. (Pattern here.)
• Cold-weather walks. (Picture from last month. We’re already getting some spring temperatures now!)

Basically, I just needed to catch up. It’s been forever. Well, almost six months. It’s hard to pack all that into one post. I hope to get back to blogging more often. (Maybe even with more relevant posts! I know you love hearing about my kids and all… but still…) I’m considering a name-change for the blog. Six years ago this was a knitting blog, but it has grown into more like a crafting/cooking/life/knitting/everything blog. What’s a good name for one of those? Give me suggestions.

my first wollmeise + some sewing

My camera was very opposed to this exact color of red. I had to mess around with the saturation a little; hopefully it looks close to right. Anyway… Yay! I have finally seen for myself what this Wollmeise craze is all about. I have to say, I don’t really understand it. It’s nice yarn, but I definitely still like Cherry Tree Hill Supersock the best. It’s been my favorite sock yarn for a very long time.

There is also a new nightgown for Edda. I used this pattern, but left out the sleeve elastic. The fabric was some kind of stretch knit material that I found in my mom’s fabric bin. She’s wearing a 5T in this dress now! That’s the largest size. She has had so many of these dresses in the last 3 and a half years… It’s sad that we’ll have to move on to a more “big girl” style.

*sniff*

She had to take a milk break halfway through our photo shoot.

Maybe a new purse is in order. You know, now that she’s a big girl and all.

I’ve also been working on a new winter sweater for Walter. It’s almost done!

 

 

 

(Edited to add: I found out that there are more sizes for the “sweet little dress” patttern now! That makes things a little emotionally easier for me.)

a summer of

Plum chopping, kitchen play, cake with peaches and blueberries, canning (and canning and canning), naps on the sofa, knitting, baking, knitting, puddle stomping.

I hope you have enjoyed your summer as much as I have enjoyed mine. I am usually a summer-hater, but I’ve found that having kids has changed my perspective quite a bit.

(I’m back thanks to my computer-genius husband. What a nice guy.)

at last!

We started homeschooling today! I’m a homeschooling mom. Book-loving Edda is super excited.

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

Edda’s first reading lesson went amazingly well. This is the same reading book my mom used for all six of her kids and it is the best and easiest way to teach reading. It’s intended for preschool through age five and the kids really do learn to read in 100 days. (Most can actually read even earlier than that! I was done at lesson 60, according to my mom.)

We did have a quick break mid-lesson to take the dog out… and to find a turtle. Good times.

Spring is here!

I’m not so upset about spring this year. Usually, I dread spring because my body goes nuts in the presence of pollen. But I am so very tired of being cooped up inside with these stir-crazy kids… so… YAY (maybe?) for spring.

The Rae Scarf is still in progress. Except it’s not progressing currently because Edda accidentally broke one of the needles in half. Guess it’s time for a Knit Picks order! Haha. Here are some random photos:

I made a spring wreath that will die tomorrow. But it’s pretty today!

Lunch of peanut butter and pretzel sticks? Go for it.

My sweet, snuggly boy. He’s a big fan of homemade bread.

Now feel like I should go straighten the pictures on my wall…

the triumphant return

A humble bathmat; simple but very satisfying. I have been very frantic and sporadic with my knitting lately. It has been a difficult time with kids’ ages, the weather, sickness and family stuff (nothing bad, just busyness) and my crafting has just been falling through the cracks. I think we are coming out of it now, thanks goodness, and I’m so glad.

It’s Oliver-approved!

I hope to be posting more soon because…

This is about to become this.

December 4, 2011

Happy birthday, Walter! I love you more than words can say.

(And I’m sorry that since you are the second child, I forgot post pictures of your birthday until three weeks later.)

(Oh, and happy 150th blog post to me! haha.)

walter’s new hat

Sorry for the long absence. I have been trying to get some serious knitting done. The computer seems to hinder knitting in a big way, so I have been trying to limit the computing as much as possible. (Emphasis on “trying”… Pinterest, you will be my undoing!)

So, on to Walter’s hat. I unpacked all the winter/fall clothes this week and discovered that Walter did not have anything from last winter to fit him. This should not have been surprising, considering that he was just born in December and therefore he was very tiny last winter. Of course, I had to drop all the Christmas knitting projects and immediately cast on a little hat with earflaps. It’s from Susan B. Anderson’s Itty Bitty Hats. I used the “simple baby cap 2” pattern and knitted the 12 month size. I worked it flat in garter stitch for a while, then joined in the round and finished according to the directions, adding a little i-cord at the top and tying it in a little knot. And seaming the garter stitch portion. Then I added the earflaps according to the directions in the techniques section of the book. Obviously, those are worked in garter stitch as well. The yarn is Plymouth Jeannee, one of my favorite baby yarns. (It’s not a “baby” yarn, though. Just a yarn I like to make baby things out of… not that shiny, acrylic stuff.)

And now some gratuitous Walter photos. He just turned ten months old! I am in shock.

a diaper box “horsie barn”

I made a “horsie barn” for Edda out of another old diaper box. It was a huge hit, much like the diaper box dollhouse was in its day. (It’s getting a bit ragged these days.) I noticed that a lot of people have been arriving at my blog by using search terms like “what to do with an empty diaper box,” so I thought I would oblige them with another project.

It’s not very polished or fancy. Mostly because you have to hurry when you have a two-year-old helper that wants to play with her new horse barn ASAP. But you get the general idea.

Materials: diaper box, scissors, glue, tape, construction paper, black sharpie, yarn or string, darning needle (or any needle with a big, fat eye.)

Cut off the flaps.

Tape the short flaps in as seen in the photo and glue along the seams. (I put them against the edges of the box’s bottom flaps– now the back of the barn– to give a sort of ledge to help them stand up.) Stalls are created!

Poke some holes in the side of the barn and the short edge of one long flap as seen in the picture. Make sure they line up.

Use the darning needle to make some yarn or string “hinges.”

et voila.

Glue/tape on some construction paper “siding” and add details in sharpie marker.

Let the glue dry (or not) and start filling your barn up with horsies and all their friends.

The diaper box dollhouse was brought in as a second story of the barn.

And much playing ensued.

Happy times.

finally some knitting

I finally have some knitting to show you. I keep forgetting to photograph the knitting that I’ve been doing! (sorry about the grainy photos, it’s been very dim inside.)

I have finally come up with a bib design that meets my rather picky requirements. In my opinion, a knitted bib must be:

• garter stitch or some other thick stitch… not stockinette and definitely not lace (lace=holes and who wants holes in their bibs?)
• dense but not stiff
• easy to make because I don’t want to spend hours on something that’s intended to get nasty
• long enough to cover the baby’s chest because short bibs just don’t cut it
• cute, but not fussy… and nothing chunky appliqued to the front to get gunked up with food
• tied (not buttoned) so as to be adjustable

This bib meets all of those requirements, so I will probably be making many of them. It seems that many people are concerned about putting ties on baby things, but I feel that if your baby is being supervised properly it is highly unlikely that he will strangle himself on his bib.

I am writing up a pattern for this bib that I hope to put up on my “free patterns” page today or tomorrow. It depends on how long my babies sleep for me this afternoon!