4.5

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Yesterday Davey turned 4 and 1/2.  We had a small celebration. He’d asked for another addition to his “village”.  He kept asking about it.  So he was pretty happy to come down the stairs and see that he did indeed get what he’d requested. This is not a great picture, but you can see the smile and the “yay! I was hoping for that present” look.

Here he is explaining some of the finer details about his new toy.

Later it was time for cake.  He wanted cupcakes and a cake, so I made a single layer cake.  It’s pretty plain but it was good.  I bought a premade one last year, but I really like home made better.  Well not totally homemade.  I made the icing but used a cake mix.  And I guess that worked out well, because Davey just eats the icing anyway. (The sprinkles were also a specific request!)

This picture of the cake and his superhero “guys” in silhouette appealed to me.  I guess I like the outline of Spiderman’s outstretched hand (I think that’s Spiderman.  I’ll soon be corrected if I am mistaken).

Davey had fun playing with them as well.  I love his focus here.

4.5.

One Step Forward and Two Steps Back

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Well, I was going great guns on my first flap for the convertible mitts that I am knitting.  I thought I had the placement of the flap correctly visualized. I would stop every once in awhile and kind of mock try it on, placing the flap up over my fingers.  Looked great.

Then when I was getting ready to decrease, I tried it on once more.  I don’t know what I was thinking, but I had it totally backwards weird wrong, and so here is where I am now.

Ugh.  I feel like I am a reasonably intelligent person, but trying to picture the way the flap should go causes me quite abit of pain. The last time I made some of these, I had to take a sock and put it over the top to figure out how the flap should be positioned.  That worked well.  I should have done that this time, but I thought I had it all figured out.  David also drew me a picture to help me figure out the whole “hinge” factor.  I should also have sought out his help prior to my poor first attempt.

Oh well good thing I am a process knitter and not a product knitter. 🙂 So I’ll try again.

I did knit a snake yesterday.  I started that Harry Potter Cup on ravelry, and one of the homework options for “Flying” class was to knit something you are afraid of.  So to to make sure I could get at least one homework assignment done this month, I whipped out a snake bookmark. He’s kinda cute I think.

Davey yells quite dramatically and runs for the hills every time I show it to him.  I appreciate his theatrics.

For my next homework assignment, I am attempting entrelac.  It’s going to be a scarf made with Zauberball.  Really fun sock yarn. I’ll take some pictures.

It’s time to get the Wee Tot to bed.  We are starting to read short chapter books together.  Last night we read The Know Nothings.  I think it’s been around for awhile.  Morris, Boris, Dorris and Norris are pretty funny!

Podster, Potter and a photograph

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I’ve not had an alliterative blog title in awhile.  It was time.

I have decided to focus on one knitting project at a time (I doubt anyone will believe this.  I don’t, but I’m going to try).  I started some Podster Gloves for a friend.  I was worried that they were going to be too big for her, so I mailed them off for a “fitting”.  She assures me that they are fine.  I still am worried that they are a little big, but I am moving forward.  These gloves have half fingers and then the optional flap you can pull over to make them a mitten. I am knitting them with Shibui sock yarn.  It’s awesome.  I love knitting with it.

I am a little worried though, and I hope I am not in absolute denial.  I am afraid that I don’t have enough yarn to finish this glove.  I have to finish the flap and then do the thumb (it will also have a flap option).

That doesn’t look like a lot of yarn.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

And while I claim that I am focusing on one project at a time, I decided to participate in the Harry Potter cup on Ravelry.  It’s this massive knitting group.  I was sorted and am in Ravenclaw.   There is a 3 month term. You have to complete one project per month.  The projects have themes based on the course you choose (Potions, Herbology, etc).  I think it is going to be great fun.  I’ve got to decide on a project though!  You can work on more difficult projects – for OWLS and NEWTs. I don’t even quite know how all that works yet.  I’m starting with the basics.

And last, but certainly not least, I want to include a Davey picture.  I have a new very favorite picture that I took with my phone the other day.  It’s of Davey and my grandfather.

Back from a trip

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I think this is the longest I’ve gone without blogging in awhile.  Don’t like it!  I miss it!

We just got home from a week long trip to Arkansas and Oklahoma.  Great trip seeing family and some friends, but we are glad to be home.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was visiting my friends at the knitting shop in Arkansas.  This is where I relearned to knit, got really interested (really really) in it, and made some great friends doing it.

I tried to get a picture of smiling Davey  in front of the store sign.  He was not interested.

Another favorite Davey picture moment – in which he looks rather frightened – but he’s not.  He went for a short boat ride with his Uncle Johnny.  Johnny is right there getting the boat ready.  Davey is not sailing away alone, although it does look kinda like it.

The pink is lovely on him isn’t it!  We didn’t have a lifejacket for him but we were fortunately able to borrow one.  He had a great time.

He also got to mow with his great uncle.  It appears that he might be headed straight into a tree or something from the looks of his expression in this photo.

Gotta get this thing turned! (He was steering and was taking it very seriously!)

And there were laughing pictures too like this one. He was having much fun with his cousin Adilyn while David pushed them on the swing.

And then sometimes Davey had just had enough of the pictures already!

 

 

Knitting again!

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My semester is over and except for finishing up some grading and posting my grades, I am pretty much free for a few weeks.  Yay.  I’ve been getting a chance to knit more again.

I actually finished something yesterday.  Back in November I’d started a pattern called “198 Yards of Heaven”.  It’s a lace shawlette.  I’m happy to have finished it because this is one of those projects that I’d failed on a few times when I was still trying to figure out lace.

I used some Plymouth Happy Feet that I had purchased from Knit Unto Others in Arkadelphia.  I love this yarn, but it’s dk and ideally the shawl should have been done in worsted.  Not necessarily, ideally on the yarn weight – I guess ideally I would have done one more pattern repeat to have made it a little larger.

It will be a great kerchief though I think.

It’s a great pattern created by Christy Verity.  It’s been knit almost 3,900 times on ravelry!

I knit Davey a little bunny “nugget” the other day.  I put it in his Easter basket.  It’s a free pattern by Rebecca Danger.

He’s a cute little fellow and was a quick knit.  Davey likes him, but he is worried because the Bunny Nugget doesn’t have any legs.  He wants legs for him.

And finally – as a reward to me for being just about finished with the semester, I’m finally getting to play with the Mawata (Silk Hankies) that I got for Christmas.

This is a stack of layers and layers of silk.  You take each layer and draft it.  I’m still figuring this out and will post some pictures when I get it a little more mastered.  It’s fun though.  You draft it into yarn (basically put a hole in the middle of the square and then you slowly start pulling and pulling until you get a length of yarn the thickness you want.  The hard part is achieving an even consistency).

We shall see how it goes.

Fishing and C3PO Dance Party!

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Today David took Davey fishing.  I was not able to go because I had class, but David took lots of pictures. They met Davey’s friend up there (and her mom). They had a great time and caught a bunch of fish.

Davey reeled them in all by himself!

He also enjoyed watching Olivia reel in her fish.

Serious kid proudly holding up his fish.

Davey told David, “There is NO way that I am touching a worm.  I don’t want to touch a worm.  No Way, I am not touching a worm!”

So after they began fishing, after awhile David turned around and saw this:

Olivia got right in there with him.

I’m looking forward to joining them next time (well maybe I will pass on playing with the worms).

I also had to post this picture.  Davey arranges all his little guys into different scenes.  For example last night, he had a big party in the Millenium Flacon.  Apparently C3PO was the life of the party!

 

Easter 2012!

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Great Easter weekend!

Saturday we had soccer.  Before soccer, Davey and David went to do the monthly Home Depot craft.  They made a really cute bird feeder.  After soccer we went to the community Easter egg hunt.  We won’t do that again.  It was really chaotic.  People ran out before they were supposed to.  The parents were not supposed to run out into the field at all,  but off they went anyway.  David and I were trying to keep our eyes on Davey which was not easy at all.

Apparently these children and I guess their parents had never had candy before.  The smarties and twizzlers must have been a rare treat!  It was an experience.

A pre-hunt picture!

Once we got home, we dyed Easter eggs.  I think this was the first time, we’d dyed eggs with Davey.  It was a lot of fun. It had been a lonnngggg time since I’d dyed an egg.

David had a fun time too (as you can see above, he had fun with the wax crayon!).

Sunday morning, Davey opened up his Easter basket, and then it was time to hunt eggs.  And hunt them again.  And hunt them again.  Today, he hid them all and hunted them again.  Then David hid them once more.

It was chilly early Sunday though.

Fascinated by an egg.

After he hunted in the backyard, he became convinced that the Easter Bunny must have hid some in the front yard as well.  So David bounded off to the front yard and quickly hid them again.

Davey was sure that there was an egg in the mailbox (there was not).

He did recognize some of the eggs that he’d already found in the backyard.  He thought about this for a minute, but then just went with it.  He definitely has the imagination to work this out.

We also got to hunt with the little girls across the street.  This was Davey’s typical pose as he made his way from egg to egg.

Something was very exciting here.

They mostly moved as a trio (I didn’t want to put pictures of the girls’ faces as I didn’t have permission from their parents, but I loved this picture of what must have been the spotting of an egg!).

The Easter Egg Hunt(s) were a great success!

 

Lotus Stitch and a Bunny (of the knitted variety)

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I follow a page on facebook called “New Stitch a Day”.  Last week there was a stitch tutorial on creating the “Lotus Flower Stitch“.  I thought this looked like the neatest stitch.  It looked a little tricky and unlike any knitting stitch I’d ever tried.

The tutorial is a video and it’s very clear and detailed. So I’m making a scarf with this stitch (I think a scarf.  I’m not sure how much yarn I have, and this stitch seems to gobble up the yarn).

It’s really a fun stitch.  It is a little tricky but not too difficult after awhile.  You have to purl 5 together but then leave them on the left needle.  You yarn over, purl through again – repeat this 5 times so it is almost like wrapping those first 5 stitches still sitting on the left needle.

It’s a four row repeat and very easy to memorize.  It really is.  Seems like I always read about people saying “Oh this lace stitch is so easy to memorize”.  To me it looks like a 50 row repeat with 18 jillion things going on.  That is, not at all easy to memorize.  But this really is.

You have to think loose when you do this stitch.  If you tend to knit tightly, don’t with this stitch.  I am also using bamboo needles. It’s become kind of a quest now – will I or will I not snap the needle in half at some point?  It might be easier with metal, but I wonder if it wouldn’t be harder on my hands.

That’s another thing.  I don’t think I could make anything really large with this stitch as I have had to take a couple of breaks due to a slightly sore wrist.  I think that’s the source.  It might be a combination of lotus flower stitch and sitting at my computer grading pain.

I am using a sock yarn.  I think it is Cascade Heritage.

I also made Davey a bunny this week .  I saw a cute free pattern from Lion Brand.

You know, I always forget that the knitting of the pieces is pretty much the easy part.  This bunny required seaming, and it was hard for me to get it to look nice.  I was kind of getting the hang of it again (finally remembered how to do mattress stitch) by the time I got to the legs (I’d done the body and arms and tail at this point already).

Davey loves him though.

and that’s all that matters!

I had to go for a fun close-up of Davey and the bunny as well.

The Pioneer Woman and Davey (kinda)

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Last Saturday Ree Drummond (the Pioneer Woman) was in Denver for a book signing.  Davey really enjoys watching her cooking show with me so he was excited to go meet her.  Davey and I had picked up a ticket earlier in the week.  This put us in group 1 so we had high hopes of not having to wait for too long.

When we arrived we received a number:  293.  We were in group 1, but then within that group we were 293.

Alas, this is as close as we got to the Pioneer Woman.

We waited for quite awhile to see how quickly the line would move.  We still had hope.

The Pioneer Woman began signing books.  She’s so warm and friendly.  She took pictures with people and she took a moment to chat.  David was doing math to try to calculate how long it would take us to get to her.  I didn’t really want to hear the cold hard facts, but as we watched, I realized that he was right.  Basically, it was going to be  long while.   We had 293, so this was better than what we could have had.  There were people who had numbers 600 +!   She started signing at 4:30, and I don’t know how she left before 10.

David held Davey up for a picture in front and above Ree Drummond.  She’s in the picture, but she’s behind the bookcase so that’s why you don’t see her.

So we handed off our number to someone who had number of 500+, and off we went.  It was fun though.  We’d not been to a book signing before, and this was a really neat huge bookstore with all kinds of stuff.  Davey and David spent quite abit of time with comic books and action figures.

And, we found and got Davey his first camera.  He was very excited.  The photo quality is not great, but it’s sturdy and he’s having a lot of fun taking pics of everything.

Boomerang!

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It’s a beautiful Spring day here in Colorado.  We headed outside.

We threw a frisbee around for a little bit, and then we remembered that we’d been wanting to try out the boomerang that David’s parents had brought back from Australia for us.

Davey wasn’t quite sure what to do with it.

So we let Daddy take over.  If I remember correctly, he’d tossed around a boomerang some as a kid.

It took some practice before David got the hang of it again.

He started to really get the “form”.

At one point, the boomerang spent a little time in a tree.

Davey found David’s efforts hilarious.

And exciting.  There was a moment when the boomerang was coming right at Davey  and me (instead of back to David), and we were scurrying around like crazy.

Fortunately Davey found a sword with which he promised to protect us.

Next Davey decided that Daddy needed his help.

Davey tried not to get bonked on the nose while staying as close to David as he could.

They were starting to get the hang of it.  Here was a mighty effort to meet the boomerang on its return.

So close and one of my favorite pictures of David ever!