Hanging out and the Blob

Davey finished pre-k two weeks ago.  He likes to tell everyone:  “I just graduated”.

Right now he’s watching a little tv in his fort.  I found the neatest Little Tikes fort kit yesterday.  He thinks it is great fun.  Unfortunately, I am getting ready to have to maneuver it to the garage as we have a house showing this afternoon.  This picture is a little blurry, but I like the expressions on both David’s faces.

fort

Davey also has been enjoying playing with Buster.  We have just realized though that Buster’s herding instincts are emerging.  Davey often says that “Buster is hurdling him.”  At this moment, Buster only has a tennis ball to hurdle.  He picks it up, moves it a little ways, puts it down and then walks around it.  He has also started nipping at us – well it’s more of a mouthing – not biting – and moving us around.  It’s pretty hilarious.  For now.  Poor dog needs a job.  He’s a herding dog who maybe also feels the urge to mush at the front of a sled.

Finally, I am working on the Regrowth Shawl.  It’s beautiful.  I like to take pictures of my progress, but at this point it is just turning into a bigger and bigger blob.  I can do no justice to photographing the beautiful patterns in the lace.

blob

It is coming right along though!

Knitting with Icelandic Wool

I started a sweater awhile back for my sister-in-law Holly.  The pattern is called Hulda, so I call the sweater the Hulda Holly.  I have been working on it again.  It’s good “tv knitting” –  just straight knitting.

Knitting a sweater with lace weight yarn still seems a little crazy, but I love how the colors are blending (5 shades of gray I think!)

Hulda-Holly-May

 

I’m using this laceweight Icelandic wool called Einband.  It is not soft.  It is the opposite of soft.  So I’ve been worried as to whether a human could comfortably wear this sweater even with a shirt underneath.  However, I was reading about this wool in my new favorite knitting book Knitting with Icelandic Wool by Vedis Jonsdottir (there are accent marks throughout that name.  I am terrible with alternate keyboard strokes and have no clue how to put them in on a Mac).  Anyway, the author talks about this yarn. She says that “it feels abit rough but softens considerably after washing or soaking”.  I like the use of the word considerably.  I need considerably.

So I checked out this new book Knitting with Icelandic Wool from the library.  I am going to have to buy a copy for my very own.  I have had so much fun looking at the different patterns, that I had to share my joy and blog about it as well.

There are several sweater patterns for the traditional lopi type sweater which has the fair isle round yoke – like this:

bulky

 

I have to think that this is a sweater made for practicality because the shape seems like it would make just about any person look like a linebacker.  I love the fair isle work though.  So pretty.

There is a hooded sweater for a little girl that I love.  (the sweater – not the girl although she is a cutie.)

little-girl-hoodie

 

I love the colorwork on this sweater, but here’s my favorite part:

girl-hood

 

There’s colorwork on the hood!  I love that!

Of course when I saw this sweater I loved it immediately.

green-sweater

 

It’s the green.  That’s about my favorite shade of green.  Love the colorwork here too. So pretty, and this sweater is not quite so bulky and “linebackery” looking.

There are several great patterns that have no colorwork at all.  I think I am going to have to make this eventually.  It’s not a shawl.  It’s not a sweater.  It’s a sweater shawl!

shawl-sweater

 

Look at this construction!

pic-sleeves-shawl

 

Sleeves in the shawl.  I’ve just got to try this out and see what happens.

Then there is a pattern for socks where the heel and toe are made using the same method.  I’ve not done this before.  I want to!

socks

 

I love these mittens too.

mittens

 

I’ve not done any stranded knitting in awhile.  It’s tough to keep the tension loose, but I’d love to make these eventually as well.

I’m wondering if David might like this sweater.

for-david

 

I like that there is cabling on the front and on the sleeves as well!  This model makes me laugh too.  So intense.  He doesn’t look too happy.  I’m not that into the next sweater, but it’s the model again.  He scares me a little in this picture.

model

 

I am definitely going to make this scarf soon.  I have some beautiful lace weight cashmere yarn that I bought back at Knit Unto Others.  I’ve been looking for the right project for it, and I think this might be it.

scarf

 

I didn’t think I’d better take pictures of every project but there were several others with additional techniques with which I am unfamiliar and would like to try out.

Ok, I’ve talked myself into it.  Going to go order this book right now!

Showings

We are in the process of selling our house.  We have had the “good” problem of quite a few showings so far.  We love that there is interest in the house, but it’s tough to be in out and out of it pretty frequently. It has been nice though having a constantly very clean uncluttered house – that’s a definite plus (although not easy to maintain!).

We had to leave today for several hours.  David, Davey, Buster and I piled into the truck and off we went.  There are lots of nice parks around here, so Davey and David went to the playground while I walked Buster up to the dog park.  He has an incredibly fun time there playing with other dogs.

We went to lunch (killing time involves meals, snacks and lots of frozen yogurt visits).

(Also last weekend, we went to the library and one afternoon I stayed outside with Buster while Davey and David went to the indoor waterpark at the rec center.)

After lunch today, we came back to the park by our house to read in the shade for abit.  David, Davey and I have started reading Harry Potter.  It’s our first book together without pictures!  Davey was not too interested in books without pictures yet, but then he started playing Lego Harry Potter on the Wii, and it has gotten him very interested in the story of Harry Potter.

He does not like for me to say Voldemort.  We have to call him “You-Know-Who”.  He frequently refers to Ron Weasly as “Juan Weasley”.  He tells me he prefers “Juan” to “Ron”.  He frequently declares Harry as “The Boy Who Lived!”

While he knows that Dudley Dursley is not very nice, he still did not approve of Hagrid giving Dudley a pig’s tail.  He thought that Hagrid went a little too far.  Davey was worried about the Dursleys not really celebrating Harry’s birthday, and he’s very happy that Harry is getting ready to go to Hogwart’s.

It’s a lot of fun reading it with him. I edit a little as we go, and I’m a little worried that the end might be too intense (I can’t remember exactly how the battle goes), but we can always put it away for awhile.  He’s having a lot of fun with the beginning part of the book, and I know he will enjoy Harry’s arrival to Hogwart’s.

581758_10201330121193750_1426807813_n

 

The nicest part of trying to sell the house is lots of together time!

Vintage Knitted Fairy

I’ve been looking at vintage knitting patterns.  There are quite  a few on the internet, and I enjoy looking at the patterns.  I happened on a little fairy doll pattern the other day, and I thought it would be fun to try out.

This pattern came from a 1952 issue of Needlework Illustrated.  

vintage-doll-1

She’s cute.  I realized that my photos doesn’t give any point of reference as to her size. She’s about 6 inches tall.

The parts of the body are knitted flat.  I enjoyed that.  I would rather knit flat and seam up these relatively short seams then try to maneuver a fairly small number of stitches on double pointed needles in the round.

The little skirt and petticoat were fun.  I love the way they look although they were a little painful on the hands to knit.  I had to increase each stitch all the way down the row and even though I am a loose knitter, the stitches got rather tight and difficult to maneuver.  But I thought it was worth the cute result.

The pattern called for sleeve and neck frills.  It was fun for me to make all these little “costume parts”.

Unfortunately, the hair ruins the whole “vintage notion”, but I am ok with that.  The pattern called for large french knots placed on the head.  I tried that, but I wasn’t thrilled with out it was looking so I went for wild fairy girl hair instead.

She had pretty wings too!

vintage-doll-back

I am on the lookout for more cool vintage patterns.  It’s fun to read the instructions from these patterns and see how they differ from patterns written today.  I imagine I will learn different techniques from them as well!

“Collage” with Davey

Today Davey, Buster and I went on a picnic.  After we ate, I thought we’d draw for a little while.  We tried drawing what we saw around us.  Davey drew Buster, and then he had another idea.

“Mama.  I want to do a collage.  I’ve always wanted to do this!”  I don’t know if this is collage exactly, but it was a pretty cool idea I thought.

He wanted me to draw a tree, and then he added the details.

collage-found-objects

 

We added twigs to the bark. He told me that the dandelions are yellow apples.  The red flower is the sun!  He specified that he wanted leaves falling from the tree.  Then he added grass.  He wanted a “human” in the picture, so he found what he thought was a “human-like” weed.

I loved this.  I wanted to draw pictures, but he wanted to create a completely different type of picture.  Creative kid. 🙂

Pre-K Graduation

We went to Davey’s  Pre-K graduation this morning.

Davey had decorated his hat with fireworks.  He told us exactly how he wanted to paint them.  We helped him, but he did most of the work.

firework-hat

 

 

They held the graduation outdoors at the Broomfield Commons.  It was a beautiful day for it.

decorations

 

Davey and Daddy.

daddy-and-davey

 

Pre-graduation festivities included a bounce slide.  Here Davey was sliding down with his friend.

sophia-and-davey

 

He grinned all the way down.

davey-slide

 

After the children had marched in and were seated, the parents were encouraged to come take pictures.  Unfortunately, the sun was beaming right into the kids’ faces, so there was no avoiding the squint!

pregrad-pic

 

I love watching Davey have conversations with other kids.  When I took the picture, I was wondering what they were talking about.  When I got home and downloaded the pictures, I realized that Davey’s hat was off.  Looks like they were discussing the hat.

hat-discussion

 

Davey walked up and received his diploma from his teachers Ms. Jenny and Ms. Karen. They were awesome.

davey-jenny-karen

 

The diplomas were good for bopping each other.  They had a fun time with this as they waited for their classmates to receive their diplomas.

diploma-bopping

 

Afterwards we had fun post-graduation festivities.

They played on the playground.

postgradparty

 

Next we had a picnic.

picnic

 

So pretty outside, and we had a nice view.

picnic-view

 

Here’s a picture of me with the little graduate.

me-and-davey

 

Davey finished things up by rolling down a hill with two of his friends.  They found this to be the greatest of fun.

rolling

 

Happy Pre-K graduation Davey!

davey-balloon

 

Muffins for Moms

On Thursday, I went to Davey’s pre-k to go to “Muffins with Moms”.  It was a lot of fun. They had worked on several songs which they sang to the moms.

muffins-mom1

 

They were a little shy singing in front of everyone.  They were very proud of their songs though.

muffins2

 

They decorated the tabletops with pictures they made.  Davey drew this lovely flower.

flower-for-mom

 

Then they brought us muffins and juice.  Davey was very careful transporting my muffin and then he brought me some tea.

muffinfor-mama

 

They made us great little gifts too.  One of the gifts was a portfolio of their work.  It included artwork from the year, but it also had a page where they had written their name and had drawn a picture of themselves on the first day of the school.  Then their teachers had them repeat this on the last day of school.  It was really neat to see how his handwriting progressed and how his self portrait was drawn differently too.  It’s a treasure.

I took a picture of Davey with his gift, but he was more interested in getting back to his chocolate chip muffin!

muffin-present

 

Special day at pre-k.

I also had a couple of pictures from his half-birthday party.  He had had a lot of fun decorating the cookies.

halfbday-cookie

 

I love this one of him blowing out his candle.

blowing-out-candle

“Regrowth” is growing

I have been working on my “Regrowth” shawl.  It’s really hard to see how lace is going to look when it is still on the needles and unblocked, but here’s an idea. 

regrowthprogress

It’s really a fun pattern.  I am finally beginning to learn how to “read lace”.  I am no expert by any means, but I am learning to see patterns in the stitches.  This is proving to be invaluable so far on this project because it’s not a pattern where I can set stitch markers every so many stitches to keep track of where I am.  Each chart is different, and it is even different from row to row in a chart.  It makes for fun knitting because I really have to pay attention to what is coming next. Typically it would make for stressful knitting because I do have to pay such close attention, but because I can now better “see” where I am, it’s been ok.

For example, I am working on the “blossom chart” right now (which not only looks like flower blossoms, but the number of increases in this chart is making the shawl also “blossom” greatly!).  I have to take 3 stitches and increase them into 9.  The subsequent rows involve adding yarnovers to these 9 stitches, and then doing different decreases to form the blossom shapes.  So I can “read” to know where I am most of the time.  It makes for engaging knitting.  However, when I finish this chart, I am going to add a lifeline just to be safe.  I may not be able to “read” the next chart quite so successfully.

Lace was always really frustrating for me.  I’d get lost and I never thought I was going to progress.  Turns out, just like anything else, I needed practice.  And lots of it.  And I still need lots more practice!

 

5.5

Davey had his half birthday yesterday.  We don’t celebrate hugely, but we did get him a couple of things and we made some cookies.  Our day got away from us so we didn’t get to decorate the cookies yesterday.  That’s the plan for this afternoon.

Davey has been majorly into Batman Lego so we got him some batman lego things.  He also likes the game on the Wii and has been playing that some.  Just set the timer to bring an end to this play session!

Here’s the 5 and 1/2 year old!

davey-bday

 

This morning we had soccer.  He had a great day.  He’d been a little discouraged with soccer because several of the other boys have gotten really into it and have become pretty competitive.  He really wasn’t ready to charge in after the ball.  He likes to check on his friends and follow along.  He always hustled, but he didn’t want to jump into the fray.  Today though, he really began to focus and was all of a sudden ready to jump in and get the ball.  He made a beautiful goal where he ran the ball down the field and did a great kick!  He was so proud, and David might have been even more excited than Davey.  🙂

Fun day with the 5.5 year old.  Now to close out of Batman Lego, and we are off to decorate his birthday cookies!