Gifts...

It's 10pm. The house is quiet. Everyone else is asleep. So after finishing up some other things, I decided to catch up on the blog. It's been a month almost, but this time I have valid excuses. Many of these items are for other people, so I couldn't blog about them before giving them... well, one of them I will, but as it's for my nephew and he won't see if unless my sister shows him I think we can all survive.


First up was a baby shower gift. I finished these with plenty of time (more than 26 if I remember correctly) to spare. I took photos and even took the time to place them in a nice gift bag.





As you can see, I normally try to match my teddy bear outfit (if they have one) to another part of the gift (if there is one), unfortunately, in an effort to make the blanket as big as possible, I only had enough yarn left for a rascally little hat.


I made the vest out of other yarn in my stash.


Hopefully the little boy won't be as much of a scamp as his bear is.


...speaking of rascally little boys (like that segue?) I finished a sweater for my nephew. He's about a year older than my little guy, so I thought it'd be funny to put the sweater on him.


He didn't agree...

So here's a bad picture of the sweater...


...hopefully after I mail it out I can get a good picture of him wearing it.


I hope it fits him well, after all the measuring he endured for it (custom fit, except it should be baggy). I want a picture especially if it doesn't fit well - he just can't have the same expression in it as my guy!


I also finished the swap sweater. In the end it took 50 hours (dk weight, lots of little cables and lace... fun, but long). Isn't it a pretty color and stitch though?



I'm hoping that she won't have to block it all out every time it's washed, but I wanted to in order to make sure the fit was larger than needed.


I saw it on her on Sunday (without ribbon still - hopefully a pic of that when it's in too!?) It was loose and hanging just right and very pretty.

If it won't just dry flat and work then I will show her a quicker way of blocking than with all of these pins! I'm glad she likes it and it fits well, I hope she still likes it so much after many hours of sewing for me!


...and last for now, but certainly not least, is the sweater I finished for Curly. This is the reason my nephew got the above sweater. I needed/wanted to knit one from pattern before I tried to adapt for handspun yarn.



This is fiber she chose back in May at the MA sheep and wool (Fantom Farms). It was fun to work with when I spun it in July during the Tour de Fleece. I wanted something a little bulkier than what I normally knit with, but not as bulky as when you buy 'bulky' yarn in stores. I knit a swatch to see what size needle would work best, and then figured out how long around the sweater needed to be, and then cast on for the size that would give me that many stitches around her body. (It ended up being the 2T size, so I followed that around, and just made sure to knit to the right lengths for her). Having made the sweater once already really helped me know where I could adapt and where I should follow.



I think it worked out great - unfortunately, I was about 12 rows short in the hood (and only had about 10 inches wasted yarn - in 4 pieces), so she got a couple stripes of Cascade (violet) and then to tie that in I put the flowers on the pouch. If I had known it was going to be that close I would have spread it out and put random stripes throughout the whole thing, but I'm not about to rip out the whole thing to change that when this works fine. She loves it, and has even worn it out a couple of these chilly mornings.

I am working on a couple of knits for my nephew's family, but I've also started swatching for a couple of projects for me - and then I still have a sock started for my husband, and various spinning things - both started and planned. We started homeschooling again this past week - so I'm purposefully giving my projects a backseat for another week or so (still working on them when I can, I still need to knit/weave/spin a bit, right?) to give us time to adjust back to school schedule instead of summer schedule, but then I'm hoping to find more time again and finish a couple!

Post-Christmas Post

Christmas is now very much over and I can finally post the finished projects (sorry for the interesting photos, I remembered to take them right before wrapping them up and shipping them off.)

First, was for my almost 2 year old nephew


I made up a couple of these yarn balls and also wrapped up a collapsable laundry hamper for throwing fun.

I also got foot measurements for my brother and his wife. He got these:



Just plain socks with ribbing on the instep and cuff.

...and she got these:


they are not that pinky/red - they are a much deeper wine color. (both the ink and the wine are knit picks kettle dyed, I really liked how they looked once they were worked up.)

The sock almost looks normal on the foot, but the reason I made them is I fell in love with how they look off the foot (in their restive state)


Aren't those just cool?


I also finished a hat that was swapped to a friend. She got a cool hat, I'll get the use of her photography skills for my kids. I, of course, forgot to take a picture of it, so I'll have to see if she can take one for me.


I told my girls that AFTER christmas we could make gingerbread houses (they kept seeing the kits at every store we went to) so last week, while my sweet husband was out of town for business we spent several days to that end. We made the dough one day, cut and cooked the pieces the next day, and then put it together the third morning and decorated it that same afternoon with a friend.


I think this is my first time making royal icing as an adult - what fun! ...especially using meringue power so it is quick and edible. After all the pieces were firmly attached we made up another batch, added the chimneys and then thinned it down to use the rest for gluing the candy in place.



We might use a slightly smaller pattern next time, but I think the kids could talk me into this again, especially if you consider all the time it used that can be considered different schooling areas.


I am almost done with what was supposed to be a birthday present (early December), and then a Christmas present... and now it's just a present for my sweet husband. Pictures of that next time...

November 26

Knitting-wise I got about an inch and a half done on each leg of my husband's socks. I've got it worked out so that I am working on both sock legs at once, so I don't have to do any counting or measuring. Because of that I feel like I'm crawling along - I just keep reminding myself that when I am done, I will really be DONE with the pair... so it will be worth it.

Other-wise I didn't get much done today. I thought I was supposed to be full of energy now? Nope, not really. ...or maybe I used it up ummm - sometime? That's okay I guess. I had enough energy to help the girls get their work done (each day - piano practicing, school workbooks, and cleaning chores). I also planned for joy school tomorrow (the preschool co-op, it's my turn to teach two days this week). Unfortunately my laptop is having issues, so I feel a little disconnected, but I am lucky to live with my own computer guru, so the desktop is fine for now and hopefully the laptop will be great again soon. (right sweetie??)

Each day is its own adventure.

November 15

With this post I am half way through the month. I think this blogging daily thing will not continue into December - I don't want to feel like I have to every day - but it is good practice, and almost a habit now!

Today I did manage to knit half a pattern on the lace scarf during Lily's ice skating. She reached her goal (10 times across the width of the rink and back - my little marcher, she only fell umm.. 4 times?) so instead of re-casting on the toe to my husband's sock we made ginger snap cookies. Want to see? Not the cookies from today, but almost the same... yummy.

Tonight was the church craft night - with the help of some people, we managed to cut out pieces for 6 complete costumes (mary, joseph, 2 shepherds and 2 wisemen) for a still nativity that the children will do for our Christmas party. Now I just need to make sure each packet has everything it needs and then hand them out to the willing victims to sew. They do look fairly simple, but they still need to be done, and I don't want to do them all! No way that's happening. I think I'll keep Mary to do.

Now I can go watch a bit of Les Miserables and zone for a bit before sleep.

oh right, I did find some safe sick meds. I got some vicks and some similar shower steams. ...and I did sleep last night and feel much better today. Amazing what some sleep will do.

...and don't worry. I didn't forget that I mentioned a one year blog-anniversary contest. It will just happen a bit later in the month than my actual anniversary, but it will happen. (I know you were all just so worried - right jbb?)

November 13

This is the first time I've felt like I've had nothing to blog about during this November daily blogging thing. I skipped a couple days of vitamin C drops, and am now paying for it. I worked on my current projects today, but nothing much. That did include washing all the fabric for the big quilt though.


Today was a big deal however, Lily had finished the majority of her workbooks that we use to supplement homeschool over the past couple of weeks, so today she started a bunch of new ones. We also watched The Court Jester, which was very enjoyable.


Ok, that's enough babbling. Go do some more free rice, and tune back in tomorrow for more entertainment (well, hopefully it will be more entertaining than today!)

November 2

If I'm going to keep this post-a-day thing up through at least some of November, then I am going to cut myself some slack on the alphabet and creative title thing. I'll save those for when I'm feeling... ummm... creative?

Today was not one of those days.

This morning I took the girls (well, we had a ride) to the symphony. It was a lunch time performance, so it was selections rather than full pieces. The full performance will be tomorrow night - of this. I enjoyed it. The girls seemed to enjoy it, but have differing opinions when asked tonight. The selections were of three pieces (Smetana, The Moldau; Bernstein, Serenade (After Plato’s Symposium) and Beethoven, Symphony No. 6, Op. 68, in F Major, (Pastoral)). I really enjoyed all of them, and especially liked the way the conductor spoke of each and the way he walked us through each selection so we understood it.

My hand is feeling better, and is healing fine. I even knit a bit today. I have a large bear (made of lion brand homespun) and blanket for my neighbor who had a little girl. I was planning to do a small sweater that would fit on the baby now and the bear later, but the sweater I finished was a bit bigger than I thought it would be.



Since it didn't take too long and I have plenty of yarn left I decided to try again. The first one was done on US6, the second attempt is being done with US3. I am almost done with the body of the second sweater (about 9 rows left). If all goes well this one will be the size I wanted, and fit the baby now. Later it can go on the bear and when she's a bit older she can fit into the bigger sweater and have a matching bear.

I couldn't work on that much during the day today, but I was able to get a lot done during Spiderman 3 tonight. Wow. Not a great movie. Not as bad as I thought it would be from all I heard, just a lot of surface rather than depth (but hey, it's spiderman!)

N is for...

November!

I realized that if I wanted to challenge myself to write *more* during the month of November, I should kind of start on the first day. I'm not committed to any specific amount, I am going to aim for daily this month - we'll see. I would just like to break the almost week between posts habit again.



N is also for... Neosporine!

Lily has been going ice skating every Thursday for the last month. (today was actually her third time going). Today, however, was my first time having to go help supervise (one of the moms always goes and is on the ice, and the rest of us rotate helping and watching). I of course, 5 minutes after getting there, gouge myself with a pocket knife (cutting one of the plastic tags off of my daughter's new skates). Bleeding stopped relatively soon and bandaids are on. I am fine, but my hand is a bit sore. I tried knitting tonight, and I could knit without pain, but purling is out for another day or two. (I won't be attempting to do the wire knitting until next week, which is sad, as I was looking forward to playing with my new pretty wires).



N is also for... Newborn (sometime in March/April).

The pregnancy hasn't been awful (just don't ask the rest of the family), I'm just tired a lot.
We are happy and excited though. Thank you for all the good wishes.

K is for...

Kompleted! :)




Yeah, I know it's a stretch, but I finished the yarn pirate socks! I've loved the yarn, loved it so much I cast on the day it arrived from my SP10, Chelle. It made an early appearance when the Yarn Harlot was in Northampton. It then got set aside through the summer - I wasn't knitting much, and when I was, it wasn't on these! I finished them Wednesday night and look forward to wearing them! ...plus, I believe I am winning the second part of the contest with my husband.


Of course, to win the contest I also had to plan our quilt. (the contest was clarified in the comments to the above entry).



There's the sketch of the quilt - and I measured our old one. It was 105 by 92.5 inches (the back of it is a king size flat sheet). Since we purchased 7 different materials (one middle square, three lights, three darks). The finished width for the strips should be just under 1.5" - so now we just need to figure out seam allowance and wash the fabrics before we can cut and start to sew.


K is also for Keen. As in, I'm keen to find out what I win. (when we were discussing what the winner would get, I said if I win I'd get some great yarn and fiber, he said I'd get those either way - I suggested socks, but he said I also get that either way...) So, what happens? I win the contest and start a pair of socks for him.




This is yarn that I finished back in June. I originally purchased the fiber from Leah at Yarn or a Tale. I did a pretty standard toe, but for the rest of the sock I am looking through Cat Bordhi's new book (New Pathways for Sock Knitters), which my husband finally let me touch last night.

...and finally, K is for Kids:



A couple weeks ago, my daughter Lily made a knotted necklace as part of her homeschool enrichment group. They were taught (by me) some simple knots and then they each made their own unique necklaces. She finished it very quickly and was quite impressed with herself. She told me I could put the picture on my blog, or on Ravelry (sheesh, she refered it by name, talk about crafts much?). She also wants to make more soon.


On another note, I am still looking for one specific spinning tool. It's a card that has different thicknesses of black lines, each of them labeled with the correct wpi number, so you could hold up a strand of yarn and get an idea by comparing the yarn with the lines... I know that probably doesn't make much sense, but I think it'd be useful and I have seen them, somewhere. Anyone know where (online) I can get one?

H is for...

Hope!

Knitting Content: Yes, the contest could be considered unfair - except for the fact that my husband does have larger than normal feet, and not as much knitting time as I do. He just finished the first heel (toe-up) and I'm almost done with the pattern from knitting in lingerie style. That would also count as a win (The yarn pirate socks are still moving along, just trying to finish one of them before he finishes, although depending on tall or short he makes the socks we might have to consider it a tie instead of a win). I'll have to do current pictures on all projects within the next post or two.


H is also for Homeschool.

Lily is loving school most days. Mondays we spend catching up on reading and math and have piano lessons. Tuesdays she does history while Curly has joyschool. Wednesdays we have book club (which rotates between a kid picked book with fun activity and a Beatrix Potter story with grammar and writing). Thursday she has an enrichment group (same kids as the history group) where she does science, art, music, math games, crafts, etc on a rotating basis. Friday we do some more math and writing and clean up from the week. So far this schedule has been working.


H is also for Holidays.

A couple weeks away (the first weekend in October) is the beginning of my holidays. That's the weekend that I send out the Christmas assignments in my family (we each send gifts to one family rather than to everyone). I also start the girls Halloween costumes, which bleeds right into Thansgiving, Christmas, New Years.... So I'm going to try to enjoy the next couple of weeks before that cycle starts.

D is for...

...Done!

no, I'm not done with anything yet, but I am done planning for the homeschool co-op we seem to have started. Everything started today. Curly had her first day of Joyschool and even though it was a bit chaotic, she seems to have enjoyed it and was very excited to find out she'll have it again on Thursday (yes, every Tuesday and Thursday... it hasn't quite sunk in to her yet). Lily had her first organized school experience. She'd normally be starting kindergarten this year, but since she is reading and wants to learn we set up a group to do homeschooling with the big kids while the siblings are attending Joyschool. Tuesdays will be history, Thursdays will be different rotating enrichments - all done by the moms. We've been planning for a while, and it went well (with many tweaks needed of course) I think. I don't have to teach until next week for the older kids, and the end of October (or maybe the end of September) for the younger ones, so I get to watch and help (and provide a house) until then.


D is also for Delighted!

My Knitters Virtual Vacation Swap package has arrived. At least I assume it's that - it's time for my vacation, it's from the UK, and I don't think my SP has sent off something that would arrive this quickly. My family was so great about being local tourists (and very excited about the whole swap) that I'm waiting until everyone is home before I open it... pictures next time!


D is also for Duh!

Thanks to everyone who's already entered the contest - and yes, family are welcome to enter - but my sweet sweet knitting husband will be excluded if he doesn't get an entry in soon, as he can see my current up to the minute progress. The contest is still open - and probably will be for another week or more, but you never know when the planets will align and the knitting mojo will kick in and something will be done, so get those entries in!