Little Red Riding Hood and Willy Wonka

A few weeks ago, I finished knitting a little red cape for my sweet little niece.  redhood1

 

It’s a free pattern from Petite Purls.  This was really fun to knit.  I used Cascade 220 Superwash and held two strands together.  I always enjoy knitting with that wool.

It required one button at the front, and I was able to find the perfect button (well thanks to the help of a good knitting friend).

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Pictures on a hanger just don’t do this cute little cape justice, and so this is a picture from the pattern designer.  It’s just the most fun little pattern.  I would happily knit it again.

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I have no smooth segue to my Willy Wonka story, so I will just jump right in.

David, Davey and I are reading Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  At the beginning of the story, Charlie Bucket and his family keep hoping that by some chance they will find a golden ticket for Charlie.  There are a couple of opportunities for him to find the ticket, but he has no luck.  Then we read about the other children who do get a ticket.  The grandmas in the story describe them as “beastly little children”.

At this point, Davey really really really wants Charlie to get a ticket.

Just when he thought all hope was lost, Charlie gets a ticket.  This resulted in what was probably one of the most memorable reading moments of my life.  Davey about came unglued. He started yelling, “He got a ticket!!! He got a ticket!!! Mama! He got a ticket!”.  He was jumping up and down and rejoicing for Charlie Bucket.

That’s the power of a story for this imaginative kid, and we are having so much fun reading it together!

Quite a week

It’s been the week of the sick kid here.  I usually just write about fun stuff, and I thought I should write about the more un-fun parts sometimes too!  This was definitely an un-fun week (for the most part – there were still some happy moments).

Davey got sick on Tuesday.  First he had just a mild fever and cold symptoms, but then his fever kept climbing.  He’d never had a temp of over 102, so when it hit 103.6, I was a nervous wreck.  I know I shouldn’t have been.  The pediatrician said she doesn’t really get concerned until it hits 105!  I know the fever was helping his body battle whatever viral thing had him, but he was so lethargic and felt just terrible.

Wednesday he didn’t move, and all he wanted was for us to read Holes to him.  So David and I took turns all day long and read it to him.  We finished it Wednesday evening.  That was a pretty nice way to spend the day, but it of course would have been better had he not been so sick.  It took his mind off feeling bad though I think. That evening we watched the movie Holes.  I have always thought it was one of the better movie adaptations of a book.  There were a couple of parts where he covered his eyes and ears, but for the most part it was a great movie which he enjoyed.

We took him to the doctor Wednesday, and he didn’t even want to walk.  I carried him in and held him on my lap while we waited for the doctor.  He was so lethargic and feeling so lousy, but he said “Thanks for taking such good care of me”.  Such a sweet kid.

Thank goodness that on Thursday, Davey was back!  He spoke more words in the first 10 minutes after he woke up then he’d probably spoken the entire day on Wednesday.  He still had some fever and wasn’t eating, but he was so much better.

Then I got the bug.  I had my turn of not moving for most of the afternoon and night, but today thankfully, I am feeling better as well.

We went and picked up some school work.  He told me that he was missing Math.  That kid loves math.  Now we are in his room, and he is playing with his pokemon guys.  He is eating a little today.  Thank goodness he is feeling better!

He’s not real thrilled about a picture here.  He was totally in imagination/pretend mode.

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Buster is 2!

Buster’s second birthday was last Saturday.  It was very important to Davey that we get Buster presents, and that we make him a cake.  So after his soccer games, he went with me to buy Buster some presents.

We somewhat hastily wrapped them.  I kinda draw the line at over the top wrapping for a dog no matter how awesome he is (not to mention that my wrapping skills are never over the top for anyone as I am fairly terrible at it).

Davey “unwrapped” the presents for Buster.

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He highly enjoyed showing Buster his gifts.

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Buster wanted to grab them and go play, but Davey wanted to explain each gift to him first.

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Buster was so patient and sweet with Davey.

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Finally!

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Buster will play chase until he falls over so he was happy for some chase time with Davey and his new toys.

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I made cupcakes for Buster’s birthday.  I found a new recipe for a mocha chocolate buttercream.  It was way too delicious.  Of course Buster couldn’t eat that, so I also made vanilla buttercream.

We had friends over for dinner who were kind enough to sing “Happy Birthday” to Buster with us.  Davey also highly enjoyed this.  I wanted to get a picture of Buster eating his cupcake, but I don’t think there is a camera fast enough to capture that.

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I just could not ask for a sweeter more loyal dog than Bust-ears.

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Soccer begins – 2014

Davey started soccer yesterday.  A year ago, we’d just moved here and we didn’t know anyone when we took Davey to his first soccer game.  What a difference a year makes!  I love our littlish town.  Davey knew at least two kids on each team he played.  I chatted with friends we’ve made over the last year.  It was beautiful outside – cool and sunny.  What a fun day.

Davey’s team decided that they were going to be the glowworms.  I think it’s apparent why after looking at the pictures.

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This year they have goalies for the first time, so he got his turn at goalie.

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Not much came his way, but he was ready when he needed to be.

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Davey ran hard and tried his best.  We told him that he’d have scored at least a couple of goals if that darn goalie woudn’t have been in the way!

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At one point, I saw him running with his hands clasped behind his back.  I asked him later what he was doing.  He explained that this was a technique meant to confuse his opponent.  “Mama, I was softening them up.”  I don’t know where he got that; I don’t think anyone noticed his strategy, but who knows, maybe it will work for him in the future.

Here is how I really like to see him on the field.

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Happy kid having a fun time.

Fair 2014

We had a big busy long weekend. Ellensburg Fair! My mom also came to visit and she experienced it with us.

Davey had a great time. We entered things in the fair and so received our exhibitors’ passes which gave us entry all five days.

Davey won a blue ribbon with his “Love” painting.  He was very proud.

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He really embraced the rides this year, and he fearlessly rode just about every ride he could.

However, he and David did ride something called “The Orbitor” with not the greatest of results.  David wrote about it on facebook:

“Davey and I just rode something at the fair called The “Orbitor” – a spinning, high-flying, brain-searing rattletrap, that he wasn’t really big enough to be on, even with me. Davey was screaming that he couldn’t breathe all the way through it. I was trying not to let go of him, while at the same time not hurt him from holding on so tight. We were both about in tears when it was over. I don’t remember how we got off the thing, but we did end up out in the grass, stumbling around, with me carrying Davey. We both said, “let’s go home” at the same time. One ride completely finished us off, maybe for the day.

They did end up going back later in the evening and riding more rides although they did not go anywhere near “The Orbitor”.

I was nervous just watching him on the swings, although I love this picture (Davey is the 4th kid back).

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Davey got so lucky in that he found a friend to ride rides with every time he was there.  My favorite story is that one evening he rode rides with a little girl who was in a different kindergarten class.  Davey had not met or seen her dad before so he was surprised that this man was following him and the little girl to the next ride. Davey turned around to the dad and asked, “Why are you following us?”  The little girl’s dad told me the story later in the evening, and he told me that he told Davey, “because I am keeping my eye on you!”  I loved Davey’s directness though. (Davey’s friend straightened things out by saying:  “Davey, he’s my daddy!”)

When we were able to get him away from the rides, he enjoyed the Frontier Village where he got to “pan for gold”.  It’s actually fool’s gold, but it turns out it is always harder to get David and me to stop panning for it then it is for Davey.  David and I get the “fever”.

There was also an old schoolhouse, and he loved learning about what it was like to go to school in a one-room school  in the early 20th century.

In this picture, he is watching a man who had tried on the very tall dunce cap and who was sitting in the corner.  Davey didn’t know quite what to think about this.

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We also went to see the animals one evening, and Davey really enjoyed the baby goat.

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Now the fair is over for another year, and it’s time to start school. It’s kinda sad to see the summer end, but Davey is also excited to start first grade!

 

Davey’s sweater

I’ve been working on Davey’s sweater.  It’s going slowly, but it’s really fun to knit.

Today I decided I’d better try it on him to make sure that it’s not way small.  I didn’t think it would be, but better to find out now.

It’s going to be plenty big (assuming I finish it in the next month or so!).  It’s a size 8, and I was careful about gauge so hopefully it will fit him for a minute or two!  There is ribbing on the bottom, but it’s just tucked under here.  It’s also not quite arranged on him correctly, but I just wanted to get an idea as to how it was going.  So far, so good.

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Davey was a really good sport about helping me out with some pictures.

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And I am always looking for an excuse to get some pictures of this growing little guy.

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Sunday Stroll

Sunday afternoon we went for a little stroll.

Turns out, we went back in time!

Sunday-StrollWas pretty cool.  Davey loves time travel.

(ok no time travel.  They were setting up for our county fair which begins in a couple of weeks.)

Of course I always have to get my picture of David and Davey walking together.

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We were walking down the John Wayne trail looking for the apples David had seen during his run.

I love taking pictures of fruit in trees as well.

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These were little bitty apples.  Crab apples maybe?  There were trees just loaded with fruit all along the trail.  There was also so much fruit rotting on the ground.  We picked some (out of the trees not the rotting fruit on the ground), and I am thinking of making one more batch of apple jelly.

And of course a picture of little (not so little) Davey.

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A Knitting Discovery: How to fix a dropped purl stitch

My Rock Island shawl is in timeout after I had to frog a bunch of rows of the edging.

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So I started this

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I haven’t gotten too far yet.

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A few things:

1.  Tubular cast on.  I cast on using the long-tail cast on approach every chance I get.  I had the option to do that here, but the suggested cast on was the tubular cast on.  I think it’s supposed to have a nice finished look.  I am always intimidated by a new cast on. I balked at first, but then I decided to go for it.

It was no big deal.  At all.  Pretty fun actually, and it does look very nice.

2.  The sweater is navy blue, so when I knit at night, it’s like knitting with my eyes closed.  I should admit to myself that I need to put some reading glasses on and work under a spotlight. The fact that  I can’t see what I am doing half the time when I knit in the evening leads to number 3.

3.  I keep making mistakes despite the fact that this is an easy pattern.  No lace to be found.  It’s a welt stitch (knit two rows, purl two rows, repeat) and a double moss stitch.

So I knitted part of a round that I should have purled.  I figured this out on the next round, so I had to unravel down and fix the stitch to make a purl.  I can not wrap my poor brain around how to fix the unraveled stitch and make it a purl.  I maneuver and re-maneuver, and I just don’t get it.  I always end up making a knit stitch.  Makes me feel like a dummy.

I went to youtube for help and learned one of the most awesome things I have learned in my knitting career:

Turn the knitting to the opposite side and fix it as if it is a knit stitch.  It will then be a purl stitch on the other side.

That’s just pure genius.  It was an exciting and happy moment.  I feel like I should have figured this out on my own.  I really should have.  In any case, it worked and yay!

 

 

Upcyling: worn out t-shirts to rug

I’ve been seeing all sorts of posts on pinterest about making t-shirt yarn (also known as “tarn”).  I’m always up for new yarn, and I wanted to see how this worked.

What I wanted to learn was how to make a continuous length of yarn from a t-shirt. There are numerous tutorials that describe how to do this. I looked at a few including this one:  Making t-shirt yarn.

I went through our t-shirts and found about six that were getting pretty ragged.  David said, “you are going to do what?  This is another project?  Don’t you have some other projects you are working on?”  But then he helped me find some t-shirts as he also loves to clear out stuff.  He is the opposite of hoarder.  I watched the video, followed the instructions, and cut up my t-shirts. It was really an easy process.

Here’s the result.  Most of the t-shirts are pretty neutral in color since they came from David’s closet.  I added the red one for some variety.

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Cutting the t-shirts up and making the yarn was interesting, but a little tedious and not my favorite activity in the world.  However, it was worth it (and worth it to do again) because I had so much fun crocheting with it.  I used a big ole 15 mm crochet hook.

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There are lots of patterns out there.  I am using this one: Free Rug Crochet Pattern.  It’s great fun, but next time I will try this one from Purl Bee.  It’s just written a little more simply, and I think the results would be similar.

Unfortunately, I am out of t-shirts and have an unfinished rug.  I may check out some yard sales and pick up some more.  So far I have this little rug.  I can stand on it – it’s about 16 inches wide.

It’s going to be the gradual build rug.  I don’t want it to be huge, but it needs a little more work.

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I really like it although I kinda wish the center color wasn’t so big.  I wasn’t sure how much of each tarn I had, and I wasn’t sure how it was going to look crocheted.  It’s an experiment, and a very fun one.

Just a few pictures from soccer camp

Davey went to soccer camp this week at CWU.

For a last day celebration, the kids teamed up into two groups and played some fun games.  They called it the Wacky Olympics.  Some of the games were very wacky like the one where they had to use their mouths to dig out gum which was buried in a pile of whipped cream, and then they had chew the gum and blow a bubble.  Davey wanted no part of that game or any other of the games involving food.

There were other parts of the games that he enjoyed very much like when his team did their “super-sonic” run around the bleachers.

That gap-toothed grin!

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He got a medal and a ball both of which he liked very much.

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He was quite interested in that ball as he looked at it for awhile.  Or, he was daydreaming which is equally possible.

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They did a group photo, and I like how he was trying to give his best attention and smile.

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Even though he had fun, he was not feeling really great so he sat on my lap for a little while.

davey-and-meHe’s getting to be such a big kid, so I take these moments when I can get them!