Back to the Blog

Hi.

It is February 1st and I really haven't "blogged" in a while, but that's ok. It happens.

We have been enjoying, and sometimes not enjoying, the ups and downs of the North Texas winter. 70's one day and 30's the next will drive anyone's nose to drip at an alarming rate. We have chickens. We love them. Really, they are awesome and you should get some too.




Our girls love them. And they lay eggs... giant eggs. Did I mention that the girls love them?




We made cards for Thanksgiving.



I spun some yarn... dyed by the lovely Dawn of Daybreak Dyeworks.



The girls colored pictures of chickens.




I spun some more.... Daybreak :)



And I bought some fiber... from Daybreak Dyeworks!



I cut up a quilt.



The girls busted out their water colors.

And I spun more Daybreak - surprise!



I washed a fleece.



Crocheted one of these crazy hats.





Made Helen cry by trying to take a picture of her new sweater... a Bulle.



And some other stuff... including...

Starting to read a couple books.

The Mission of Motherhood: Touching Your Child's Heart of Eternity by Sally Clarkson

and 

Our Lady of Fatima by William T. Walsh

Ordering a bunch of seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, so that we can pretend to be real farmers.

I also roasted a pretty darn good chicken last week (from the store, not the backyard)!

That is about it, welcome February!

Playing at Home

The school year is back at full swing and that means daddy is back to work and mommy has lots of time with her girls. We have been having a lot of fun with art, and games, and outside time.



Helen has started showing an interest in family portraits in all kinds of mediums... from blocks to chalk! We found most of these blocks at garage sales this past summer. I have always wanted a HUGE wooden block collection!



Don't you just love the "dogs on leashes" detail!

Clare loves to paint, and so does Helen... right now Helen loves to draw a picture with a black marker before she starts to paint.





Spiders!! I found these paint trays at Joann's. They come in packs of 10 or 12 for only a few dollars.

Today's adventure was all about sorting, charting, and counting. Helen liked lining up her beads and counting how many she had!

Cardigans for My Girls

The sleeves of my Tuckernuck cardigan are finally complete! (And sewn in too, but I don't have a photo of that yet...) This sweater is a real beauty. Size 5, in Berroco Vintage Lilacs, less than 3 skeins. I just need to knit the collar and button band and this is done!



After sewing the sleeves on I had Helen try it on and, gulp, it is super-snug. OH NO! All that work. Ok, breathe. Luckily Berroco Vintage has a high wool content (did I tell you that I love this yarn - it is SO reasonably priced, washable, and has A HIGH WOOL content!). So, I am going to block this baby out as much as possible. The style is a vintage "snug" fit. So it is ok it stays close fitting, I just want it to fit all winter.

Then I started Clare's sweater. It was going to be another Tuckernuck, but I really can't do all those cables again... even in a smaller size, ugh. So, I am seriously modifying the pattern.



I cast on a basic raglan cardigan and am knitting the Tuckernuck cables down the front panels only... everything else is plain stockinette and I like it that way, especially now that it is starting to get chilly and I want these done!

Random Wednesday: My little girl

My little girl is growing up.

Quick Knitting and Random Wednesday

After my intense colorwork mitten knitting, I really needed something fast and interesting. The Pembroke Wrap from Interweave Knits Fall 2011 was the perfect answer.



Luckily I was able to pick up some clearance wool at Joann's! This whole wrap is going to end up costing less than $8 in yarn - what a deal! I love this colorway and am a little sad that I never tried this yarn before they decided to discontinue it.



I am adding extra repeats to the pattern as per the instructions of fellow Raveler: TheCalicoLover - Thank you for the notes! I think this pattern is good shawl/lace practice for me before I tackle my Madelinetosh lace weight yarn.



In other news, I have decided to start posting some random items on Wednesdays (whenever possible of course). Today I mopped the kitchen floor - that is quite a random event for me :)



Also, Helen is starting to play independently outside - with the dogs at her side of course - this is great, and I can't wait for cooler weather so that we can all spend more time outdoors.

Flower Girls and Birthday Cakes

The end of June was busy, busy, busy. Helen's birthday followed by my younger sister's wedding all in one week. There was a lot of car-knitting as we drove around Texas for all the festivities, but at home I was busy with celebrating and crafting.

For Helen, she requested a "Magical Pony" Birthday Cake and I tried my best.  I am not a fancy cake decorator, but it is fun to try! I looked up "My Little Pony" cakes online then, after being overwhelmed by the awesomeness made by other people, decided to simplify with a sheet cake and colored icing. I printed this my little pony picture and drew it onto the white iced cake with purple and pink icing in Ziploc baggies that had a bottom tip snipped off.



We also bought clearance birthday hats as Helen is obsessed with "party hats". I wasn't too happy with the design, so I did some more printing, a little coloring and cutting, and tada - customized magic pony hats!




My beautiful birthday girl!

For the wedding, I needed to finish the restyled flower girl dress with a few ribbon roses. I looked up a few tutorials online, but they all seemed overly complicated and not what I was looking for. So, I just took needle and thread (and lots of fray-check) and winged it... I think they turned out pretty nice:

My beautiful flower girls waiting for the wedding to begin. 

Restyling a Flower Girl Dress

Yesterday, I turned the flower girl dress used in my wedding into a new flower girl dress for my sister's wedding! It was fun! Though, I learned a few things in the process I would like to share:

1. If you are working with tulle you need lots of patience and LOTS of safety pins. It is also good to not work with tulle in the presence of two year olds.

2. If you are adding a waistband to a dress, pin it on before you sew it (and mark where the two  ends should meet in the back. Otherwise, when you zip the dress back up one side may be a full inch lower than the other - and that looks funny.

The dress before (lovely for my Christmas wedding, but wrong for my sister's summer wedding):

The dress after (tulle!):

The happy model wearing her "White Princess Dress":

A motion shot:

A happy flower girl!:

I think she likes it :)

The Christmas Dresses

I felt a little crazy last November when I decided to knit my sweet girls matching dresses for Christmas. But, after shopping around a little bit, I just couldn't find anything that felt special enough (and for the right price!) for my girls first Christmas together.

I searched all over Ravelry for the perfect pattern and really found exactly what I was looking for in the Principessa Dress Pattern from Alligator Knits. I loved that it was simple, seamless, and customizable! I had the  perfect light green yarn - the Cascade Sierra I ripped from my first attempt at making myself a sweater.

Helen's Dress

I started the larger dress in the van on the way to Iowa for Thanksgiving, and cast it off my needles in the van on our way to Houston the week before Christmas (Don't you just love travel-knitting!). The baby's dress had to be completed pronto, so every extra moment I had that week before Christmas was put into that sweet little dress. I finished with a whole day to spare!

Clare's Dress

I loved knitting with the Cascade Sierra and I will definitely be using it again. The combination of cotton and wool makes for a lovely knitted piece and it is perfect for Texas! The girls looked lovely (and comfortable - one of my top priorities from children's wear) and wore the dresses all Christmas Day first to morning Mass, through nap time, and then to Nana and Pa's house for Christmas dinner. I even let my two-year-old EAT in her hand-knit Christmas Dress. Oh, My!

Helen demonstrates her dress in action!

No worries though, I threw those dresses in the washer with the rest of those sweet kiddos clothes and they washed up beautifully! However, the next time I knit with this yarn, I will remember to add an inch or so for every twelve because they did shrink in length a bit in the wash.

I am so happy to be able to share these dresses, and soon I will be sharing #1 of my 12 sweaters I am busy knitting... that long awaited sweater (actually a vest) for which my dear husband has been patiently waiting for over six years.

Toddler Water Play, Part II

As I said before in my post about Helen washing dishes, my little toddler loves to play in the water! As do almost all toddlers I expect. My challenge is to find ways for her to have water play fun that do not A. involve her shaking her sippy cup empty all over the house, B. involve her spilling my glasses of water when my back is turned, or C. anything involving misuse of the toilet!

This week we tried outdoor water play, and while we do not have a fancy "Water Play Table" she had a perfectly happy time with a bucket of water and some miscellaneous outdoor toys and cups.

It was nice to just put everything down in the grass and let her play while baby Clare and I sat nearby and watched.

And the really nice thing about "Bucket Water Play" is that when the water is all gone (She had the most fun spilling the water on herself and the grass!), playtime is up. It has a nice natural end that doesn't involve mean mommy taking the fun water toy away.

We will be doing this activity again! I saw over at PreKinders (a resource website for pre-K teachers) that pouring water from one container to another is an important fine motor skill for toddlers to practice. They have a whole list of other fine motor skill activities that we will have try out soon!