A Pug to be and a glove to be

Posted on July 17, 2012 by cpeezers

I’m back to working on some convertible mittens that I started earlier in the year. I’ve finished one, and now I’m finally getting to the second one. Trying to figure out how that flap works was quite taxing on my brain the first time around. Unfortunately, I’ve waited so long to get to the second glove, that I think it will likely be very taxing on my brain once again. That’s ok. Good for my brain and all.

I’m also going to knit a pug next. I have a friend (and actually distant cousin by marriage) who made this request. He had the book, in which he’d seen the pattern, sent to me. It’s called Knit Your Own Dog. There are some really cool patterns in this book. I’m going to take on the pug first, and then there just happens to be a Siberian Husky pattern, so I’m hoping to knit one in memory of Timber woo! I’ve read about the pug pattern on ravelry, and it looks a little tricky so we’ll see how it goes. I think I can do it; I just hope the end result is recognizable as a pug!

I’ve got the yarn all ready!

While I was taking a couple of pictures this morning for the blog, Davey decided he wanted to water. He enjoys watering very much especially since we just bought a new hose. We’d had an old one that was left behind by the previous owners. It kinked up something awful. Instead of buying a new one though, I just kept complaining about it. So finally we got a new hose. And a sprayer! Small pleasures. Davey is certainly enjoying it. Even though we actually had quite a downpour last night, Davey wanted to water this morning. He gave the “concrete” a little bath.

And finally, my niece was kind enough to take and send a picture of the penguin wearing his red scarf. Thanks Mikayla!

Happy Tuesday!

A Pony and a Penguin

Posted on July 15, 2012 by cpeezers

I have a niece who just loves horses. I have another niece (they are sisters) who just loves penguins. So not too long ago, I found the cutest pattern on Ravelry, and I knew right away that I had to make it for Jadyn. It’s called Patty the Pillow Pony. This was a really fun pattern to knit. I loved the cabling and loved the striping. The striping was done randomly. I just changed colors when I felt the urge.

I did not get the best photos because I was knitting the last leg for this pony on the way to Oklahoma. Once I got there, I just hurriedly took some pictures in the hotel room.

I used an acrylic for the gray and then I had several skeins of Cascade 220 leftover from another project that I used for the stripes. I used buttons for the eyes and some smaller safety “eyes” for the nose.

This is a really well written pattern and it was a lot of fun to knit. I had a couple of questions along the way, and the designer immediately emailed me back to help me out. (I just needed some yarn and “eye” advice. The pattern was clearly written.)

He’s really very huggable, and as you might imagine, Davey wanted him for his very own.

So then I wanted to make Mikayla something penguin related. I found this Penguin Pillow Kit on Knit picks. I ordered the kit and downloaded the pattern. It was my first time to purchase a kit from Knitpicks. It worked out great. This designer also wrote great instructions. It’s a very easy knit. The trickiest part are the feet, but they are not difficult – just fun.

The penguin pillow had a 12 inch by 12 inch pillow square that I inserted. The pony was stuffed.

The penguin is actually supposed to have a long red scarf on. Again, I was knitting this as we crossed Kansas, and after we arrived in Oklahoma. I kept working on it even after I gave the penguin to Mikayla, so while I finished the scarf, I forgot to take a picture of it on the penguin.

Both very fun patterns. I think the recipients liked them as well!

A Galette and a Splash Party

Posted on July 14, 2012 by cpeezers

So the Galette first. A friend told me about a food blog that his friend has. It’s called Ezra Pound Cake. Love the name! Here’s a great poem by Ezra Pound:

In a Station of the Metro

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

Petals on a wet, black bough.

— Ezra Pound

This is a fun food blog! The blog entry on her page the day that I first visited was about a recipe for a Galette. I’d never heard of a Galette. So I wanted to make one. It is kind of like a pizza. I used puff pastry (which I’d only used once before), herbed goat cheese (which I’d never bought before) and zucchini, tomatoes and vidalia onions. Oh and parmesan and olive oil. It was delicious. Here’s my attempt at a food shot.

Here’s the recipe and a better food shot: Tomato, Zucchini and Vidalia Onion Galette. It’s also a great way to use the abundance of zucchini that people seem to have in the summer!

Davey has wanted to have a splash party for his friends from across the street. He’s been talking about it for weeks. He’d added cupcakes as a requirement because his class had made cupcakes as part of a splash day at prek camp. Before our “party”, Davey and I went to the store. He asked that I buy baby carrots and that I cook them for the adults at the party (The adults were David, me and the girls’ mom). I decided we’d stick with the cupcakes. We made some mighty cupcakes with major sprinklage.

The girls came over and they had a big time!

A Nice Evening (Rocket Launching)

Posted on July 13, 2012 by cpeezers

When we were in Oklahoma, we spent a couple of nights in Tulsa. Davey got to spend some time with his aunts and uncle and cousins. It was great. We spent one evening outside playing with a rocket launcher (of the nerf variety) which Davey received as a gift. (Thanks Uncle Kev!)

This was a great hit, and I took some fun pictures.

We started in the hotel hallway.

Holly was the “goal”.

Jadyn, Davey and Mikayla had great fun aiming the rockets in order to make a “goal”. I love the expressions in this shot.

We realized that the noise we were making in the hallway might not be appreciated, so we headed outside.

It was a perfect time to go out. I love this time of day right before the sun sets.

Michael and Karen

Rocket Launch!

We all took turns launching them.

They ran and ran chasing the rockets.

Finally, it was starting to get dark and we had to head in.

Great evening.

Knitting Knitting and a Baby Shower

Posted on July 12, 2012 by cpeezers

While we were in Oklahoma, we had a baby shower for my brother and sister-in-law, and my cousin and her husband (my cousin-in-law?) They are due on the same day! It was a great time. I’d knitted several gifts for the shower.

I found a pattern on knitpicks for a cute little cabled cardigan. It was very fun to knit. It’s pretty darn small though. It is not going to fit anyone for long, but I just loved it anyway. I made it for my beautiful cousin. (I babysat her when she was an infant. Crazy!)

I also found some pictures of the Maile cardigan that I had made for Holly. I couldn’t find the pictures the other day, but I just knew I’d taken some. I had.

Like I’d mentioned, the Maile Cardigan is a great pattern. I used Kertzer On Your Toes Bamboo. This yarn is just wonderful to knit with. I made a shawl with it last summer, and I bought enough that I can still knit something else. There’s actually a little dress that I’m hoping to make with it. It’s another pattern from the Sock Yarn One Skein Wonder Book.

Anyway, this will look so much sweeter on a baby (or 1 year old perhaps given my sizing).

Some knitters mentioned that they found it difficult to add the sleeves to the body and then begin knitting in the round. The stitches are crowded at first and it’s hard to maneuver around “the corners” (this would make sense if you had it in front of you!). However, I used really long circular needles, and I just kept scooting the stitches around. I didn’t find it to be that big of a deal. I think the construction is well worth it. I definitely want to make this again sometime.

Here’s Mommy to be with the sweater. The color looks so different in this light!

I have to share too the entrelac baby blanket that my sister made for Holly. It turned out so pretty!

Totally unrelated, but I wanted to write this conversation down. Davey was helping me water this morning. I told him that when we lived in Arkansas we didn’t have to water so much because we got so much more rain. He likes to talk about us feeding the plants, and what they need to “eat and drink” to live. (sun and water). He was watering with the hose and he said, “Well I know they sell garden hoses in Arkansas, but I sure don’t know why they need to!. I always enjoy his observations.

Here he is when he was helping me take pictures of the baby socks and hat I’d made.

Home Again!

Posted on July 10, 2012 by cpeezers

We had a really nice trip to Oklahoma, but it is good to be home. We took some pictures, but I think I left my camera charger in a hotel in Tulsa. I think. And the extra battery. I found a universal charger though today, and I am charging up the battery that was in the camera.

I’d been looking forward to posting about the things I have been knitting. For example, I made this baby hat and matching socks.

This pattern came from the Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders book. It’s got a ton of neat patterns in it. I’ve not done much with it yet. The yarn is awesome colorful superwash Wollmeise. I made a cowl with it, this hat and socks, and I have enough left to make something else as well. I love that yarn.

I made the prettiest little green baby sweater too. It has a lace pattern at the shoulders. It was an interesting construction in which you knit the body and the sleeves, and then you put them all onto one circular needle to knit them together. This was a little tricky at first, but it looks really nice. You can find the pattern and some pics here: Maile Sweater. Somehow, I forgot to take pictures of it, although I could have sworn that I had. I’ll try to get some pictures soon.

The beauty of baby knitting (for me at least) is that I don’t fret over swatching much, because I figure at some point, this little sweater will fit. This sweater, a little unfortunately, won’t fit until Baby L is about a year old. I really should swatch more.

On our return trip home, I had about 3 skeins of sock yarn so that I’d have plenty of knitting. I wasn’t sure which yarn I’d want to get going on. Unfortunately, about an hour into the trip, this happened.

My needle snapped into at least 4 pieces. I am still not quite sure what happened. Maybe they were getting a little brittle? I am not sure, but while I had tons of yarn, I’d only brought one set of sock needles. I didn’t have much hope that Walmart would have any needles (this was my only realistic possibility on the road in Kansas on a Sunday), but then they had size 2!

I really didn’t think I’d be too thrilled about knitting with metal dpns, but I’m actually liking them pretty darn well. I’ve gotten a good start on these socks that I’m knitting with Zauberball.

I’m looking forward to posting more pictures from our trip!

Knitting as fast as I can & a little about Davey

Posted on June 29, 2012 by cpeezers

I’m knitting as fast as I can. I have a couple of things that I really want to finish before we go to Oklahoma next week. I can’t wait to put up pictures once I finish. One of the things I am working on is all stockinette so I can read and easily watch tv while I knit. I’m even trying to combine grading and knitting although that doesn’t go quite as well.

I have to blog about a few things Davey has said lately so that I’ll have them recorded.

Our neighbors brought him some salt water taffy back from California. And let me say it is the best salt water taffy I’ve ever eaten. It’s from a place called Balboa Candy. I’ve never been that excited about salt water taffy, but you can taste the ocean (in a totally good way) in this stuff. Ok. I’m off topic abit, and you can guess who the primary consumer of the taffy has been. Davey tried it, but it was not his favorite. The little girls wanted to know how he liked it. Davey told me, “I didn’t really like it that much, but I don’t want to hurt their feelings.” This had him concerned.

He’s also been talking about what he wants to be when he grows up. “Mommy, maybe a doctor. Or a construction worker. Or yeah! I want to own a Walmart. That way I can go look at the toys whenever I want to! (I imagine he would be equally happy to own a Target or Toys R Us)”.

He finished up a pre-k camp today. It was 3 days a week for 4 weeks. He loved it. His teacher told me today that he was such a pleasure to have in class, and that he was a leader in the class. Apparently, he (as David put it) likes management and organization.

David asked him the other day whom he played with at school. Davey said, “Well I play with the boys. But I like playing with the girls too. They are just sooo cute!”

I think I posted this picture the other day, but it seemed like a good picture with which to end this post!

Splash Party and Barefoot Sandals

Posted on June 24, 2012 by cpeezers

Davey has been enjoying his “splash party” this weekend. It certainly has been a hot weekend to break his water toys in. 102 here today. Apparently a record for Denver. So we have been covering ourselves with sunscreen and venturing out for part of the afternoons.

As requested, he now has his kiddie pool, water table and gecko sprinkler. He has been having a good time.

He becomes very immersed in his play. Total focus.

I took a close up shot of him, and I noticed he’s collecting more freckles every day. They are cute on his little nose. I was kind of hoping that he would have David’s darker tannable skin over my pale freckly skin, but maybe he has some nice combination.

He and David played more this afternoon. I like this shot of the two of them.

And a Davey grin.

I also brushed up on my crochet skills today. My sister in law saw some “barefoot baby sandals” the other day on etsy. I’d never seen them before, but they are pretty darn cute. I found a pattern on ravelry, and I made a couple of pairs today. Thank goodness for google, as I’d forgotten exactly how to do a couple of stitches.

They are so much cuter being modeled on a chubby baby foot.

So they just go on the top of the foot. The front loop goes around the second toe, and then the back goes around the back of the foot. I guess that might be self-explanatory. I was tempted to knock on our neighbor’s door to request their 6 month old as a model, but I don’t know them well and figured they’d think I was nuts.

I used cotton to make these. There is a sparkle in them too although you can’t see it in this majorly sunny photo.

I tried a different type of flower on this pair.

Pretty cute. Holly, if you read this, feel free to tell me if you want a different color or flower style!

Loki Friday

Posted on June 22, 2012 by cpeezers

We’re having a quiet day. Poor Davey woke up throwing up last night. “Spitting” as he calls it. So he’s not feeling too well today.

He’s sad too though because today was “Splash Day” at his pre-k summer camp. He was looking forward to it all week. He was to wear his swimsuit to class, and then they were going to play outside in the water. He keeps asking me if his class is still at splash day. He knows he doesn’t feel well, but he sure hated to miss.

I promised him that we would do a “Splash Day” here. We’d already bought the little sprinkler. It’s a “goofy gecko”, and it turns out they’d played with that same sprinkler at their first splash day. But he said we also need a water table, a pool and lemonade. And we have to make the lemonade ourselves with lemons, water and sugar. This is what they did at school. So that’s what we will do. A water table should be fun for him since it looks like we are going to have a hot summer. He’ll like getting his “guys” out and playing with them on the table.

This cheered him up.

And hopefully this weekend, he will be doing this.

So he’s resting. He’s feeling a little green I think, but he’s not had to “spit” anymore. He threw up at about 4am. I thought he might throw up again, so I had a hard time going back to sleep. He was lying next to me, and it was like trying to sleep next to a little potential “spit” bomb. Fortunately, he’d gotten it out of his system I think.

I’m working on a project which involves a turkish cast on. I found an awesome video to demonstrate it. No talking, no fiddling, just straight into the demonstration, and I was able to follow right along. You can find the video here: Turkish Cast on.

Ione and the magician

Posted on June 19, 2012 by cpeezers

I finished “Ione” the other day. It was a crescent shawlette pattern, and I knitted with a great yarn that I’d not tried out before. It’s called Prism Saki and I got it when I was visiting my friends at Knit Unto Others in Arkadelphia. It was so nice to knit with. This pattern was great too. It has a lace edging and then garter stitch. The garter stitch is done in many short rows for the shaping.