Knitting for Babies

Posted on February 1, 2015 by cpeezers

This week a friend asked me if I would knit her some baby booties for a friend of hers who is expecting a baby. She gave me the yarn she wanted me to knit with, and I said sure!

I wasn’t sure what pattern I wanted to use, so I started looking around on ravelry and pinterest. This had led to a fun week of knitting. I keep coming across little baby patterns that I want to try out. For the booties, I found a pattern called “Easiest and Fastest Baby Booties Ever!”. These were definitely very quick to knit up. I decided to add some of my own yarn and give them stripes.

I took the picture the other day when it was sunny, so I especially like looking at it since we are under gray skies once again.

These booties are knit flat and seamed up. They are garter stitch and have just a little bit of increasing and decreasing. They would be a great first project. The seaming can be done with just a whip stitch with the right sides facing. Some people don’t like seaming, but it doesn’t bother me. I prefer it to working with dpns with small numbers of stitches. That’s a little fiddly for me.

In the process of looking for this pattern, I found another sweet little shoe that I just had to make. The idea here is to use up yarn that I already have. I am diligently trying to knit away at my stash. I had some silver metallic yarn and some pink which I thought would be pretty together. The pattern is called “Bows before Bros” and it’s a free one too.

This was also a quick and easy knit. I knit the shoe and then made the bow separately and attached it.

This is another great beginner pattern!

Davey was sick a couple of days this week so I had some downtime with him. We did lots of resting which means I had time for some extra knitting. I came across another pattern that I was fascinated by mainly because it included an interesting schematic.

It was a pattern for an elephant knit all in one piece (except for the ears and tail). It looked tricky to me, so I wanted to try it out. It was a little tricky, but I realized that I needed to just follow the written instructions and not over think it. It was actually all really easy going except the trunk confused me a little.

Here’s a not very great picture of how it looked flat.

This also requires seaming up. I used mattress stitch though and it went quickly.

I think he’s the cutest. If I had it to do again, I’d stuff the trunk a little more to give it a little more curve. I made him with some leftover Kraemer cotton tweed. He was really very fun to knit. I’d happily make him again.

Back to baby knitting!

Broomstick Lace Infinity Cowl: A little “how-to”

Posted on January 26, 2015 by cpeezers

A few weeks ago, I discovered Broomstick Lace.

I had never heard of it before so I had to try it. It involves these two tools:

My “broomstick” was the 35 mm knitting needle, and I used a size I crochet hook. Next, I followed a great free tutorial from craftsy.com: How to Crochet Broomstick Lace. After I played with the stitch a little, I decided it might be a great stitch for infinity cowl.

The tutorial provides very clear instructions, but here’s just a brief introduction: I made a chain and then single crocheted across. Next I pulled up stitches onto the “broomstick”. This is a little awkward and unwieldy at first. I wasn’t sure how to hold the giant knitting needle and the hook, but with some practice I got it. The tutorial has great photos which explain in detail how to do this.

After I put all the loops onto the needle, I got to slide them all off! Then I crocheted them in groups of 5 (at least this is what I did for my pattern). The end result looks like this:

I didn’t have an exact pattern to make a cowl in this stitch, so I had to play with width. I made a chain of 40 stitches for the black cowl, and this made a width of 8 “clusters” (about 9 inches wide). I wanted to try a more narrow cowl, so I made the red one by making a chain of 30 stitches, and this cowl was 6 “clusters” wide (about 7 inches).

I love the way this stitch looks. It made for a very squishy and warm cowl.

I made the cowls about 64 inches long. I used mattress stitch to sew the ends together, but I think whip stitch would work fine as well.

So the basic pattern is:

Supplies: 35mm Knitting needle. Size I Crochet hook. Worsted Weight yarn. I used some Lion’s Brand Heartland that I had in my stash. (You could of course play with different weights too.)

Follow Craftsy.com Broomstick Lace tutorial to learn the stitch.

Wide cowl: Begin with a 40 stitch chain. There will be 8 clusters of 5 stitches. Repeat the row to desired length. I made mine 64 inches long. Sew ends together.

Not Quite as Wide Cowl: Begin with a 30 stitch chain. There will be 6 clusters of 5 stitches. Repeat the row to desired length. I made the red one 64 inches long as well. Sew ends together.

I couldn’t get any great pictures of me modeling the cowl so I asked Davey to help me. He was being silly because I asked him for a big grin. I got it.

I highly recommend trying out broomstick lace. It’s a fun variation of crochet, and I really love the look of the stitch. It works great for an infinity cowl as well!

Crochet Mystery

Posted on January 24, 2015 by cpeezers

A couple of weeks ago I was going through some of my totes of craft things. I confess to having accumulated many abandoned projects throughout the years. I found partially completed counted cross-stitch, embroidery, quilting and crochet. I always think that one of these days I will return to these projects. Maybe I will.

So as I was digging through my totes, I came across this crocheted afghan that was nearly finished.

It is a beautiful stitch that has resulted in a really warm afghan. Here’s the problem. I have no idea when I made it. I don’t know why I stopped. I don’t know where the pattern came from (maybe one of the Vanna White crochet books I had in the ’90s). I don’t know where the rest of the yarn is. Maybe I ran out? Is that why I stopped in the middle of a row?

I put it away and never looked back. I wish I could remember why.

I am so happy to have it now though. Yesterday, I weaved in the ends and put it to use. It is missing the border on one side, but that’s ok. It is really warm, and I have been really cold so it’s perfect.

I took advantage of the fact that Davey was willing to model the blanket for me this morning, and I got some fun pictures of him.

He is King Crazy Hair right now. I’ve got to take him to get a haircut.

He was laughing at Buster who gets all crazy when he gets into the yard. He doesn’t look particularly crazy here, but he’d paused for a moment.

Davey found him to be quite the clown.

I’m glad to have found this mystery blanket. I want to research a little to see if I can figure what the stitch is. I have no idea how I did it. I am trying to estimate when it was that I made it as well. It was definitely before Davey was born. I am thinking I made it when we were in Texas (and we were there 15 years), but I am just not sure.

Regardless, I think I can look at these unfinished projects in two ways. Either I have trouble sticking with something and just abandon projects when the whim hits me, OR I am all about the process, and when the creating process is not making me happy, then I move on. I choose the second. 🙂

Conversations with Davey

Posted on January 22, 2015 by cpeezers

Davey and I have lots of good conversations before he goes to sleep at night.

He likes to ask me: “Mama, how were the second graders today?” He loves any stories I tell him about what we did at school.

He likes to hear about the 8th graders I work with as well. The other day I was telling him about how some of the 8th graders don’t always do their work like they are supposed to. I told him that I didn’t really understand why some of them don’t want to work. Of course, I know that there are many factors that go into this, and I am sympathetic to that, but I also like to talk about it with Davey, because I’m always trying to emphasize the importance of doing your best in school.

He said, “Well Mama, maybe they don’t love learning like you do. Not all kids love to learn.”

I really hadn’t thought about it in that way.

Davey does love to chat, and it often takes him quite awhile to fall asleep. I decided to try something called “Square Breathing” with him. It is a deep breathing technique and I thought it might relax him. I actually think it worked pretty well. We will have to continue practicing it and see how we do.

I explained to him that you think about your breathing and you breathe in for 4 counts, hold for 4 counts, and then breathe out for 4 counts. He thought about this for awhile and said, “That seems like triangle breathing to me.” I thought this was a good point. However, I just googled it and turns out that I had it a little wrong. After you breathe out for 4 counts, you are supposed to hold your breath for 4 counts before you start again. Can’t wait to tell him this. He will think that makes much more sense!

I recommend it though. I recommend it for myself as well. We could all use a little slow deep breathing on most days.

Martin Luther King, Jr. and Davey

Posted on January 15, 2015 by cpeezers

I work with second graders, and today they went on a field trip to CWU to learn about Martin Luther King, Jr. Their teachers kindly invited me to bring Davey, and I am so glad that I did. He learned so much. The college students talked to the kids about Martin Luther King, Jr. The kids shared what they knew about him, and they asked many great questions. This was followed by three break-out activities where Davey made a poster, wrote about his own dreams, and talked about respect for others.

This all made quite an impression on Davey. We talked about MLK on the way to the presentation, and I tried to explain the idea of segregation. I gave him some examples like Black people had to use separate water fountains, had to sit separately at the movies, and had to go to different schools. He couldn’t really understand it, but he definitely decided that it was not right.

The students were asked to write about their own dreams as well. Davey wrote about his dream of being an oceanographer. He wrote that “When I grow up, I will help coral reefs heal”.

Then today when he got back to school, he checked out a wonderful book written by MLK’s sister called My Brother Martin. After we read the book, he had to write about it in his reading journal.

Davey usually does not like to spend too much time writing, but tonight he was inspired to write quite abit. He wrote:

“We are all the same. They shouldn’t have been treated that way.”

He was also inspired by an excerpt of King’s speech, and he wanted to copy it down:

“I have a dream that one day little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today.”

It’s pretty special to hear that sweet 7 year old voice read Martin Luther King’s speech and to see what an impression these words made on him.

Knitting: Sometimes it’s all good and then there’s Grandpa Davey

Posted on January 9, 2015 by cpeezers

I had a chance to knit quite a bit over the break. I came across a fair isle pattern for a Seahawk hat, and I knew I had to make it for a friend who is a major devoted fan.

It was so fun to knit, and it turned out nice. The pattern is called the ‘Hawks Hat, and it is a free pattern on Ravelry.

I got Davey to model it for me.

Unfortunately, now I notice that the above picture shows the end of the round part of the hat so that the nice jog line is visible where I made the color changes.

I also got the chance to catch some different Davey expressions. It’s funny how varied they are.

It’s pretty obvious that Davey’s eyes are brown, but I swear that I didn’t know what color they were for the first four years of his life. They were a mix of blue and brown and sometimes green. I think they are done changing now.

I am also in the midst of knitting some socks. I went through a phase where I knitted a whole bunch of socks, and I grew weary of them. About three years ago, I got some awesome Signature needles. I love them, but for some reason the sock project I’d started with them languished in the basement. I’m kind of on a mission to finish some of these projects (I say kinda because my knitting moods change like the wind, and because of that, I don’t want to commit too strongly) so I got the socks going again. I think this yarn is a wool nylon mix that I bought at some point somewhere. I can’t remember.

The yarn is fun, and the needles are a joy.

So then I was working on another project. It began with mini-me. I thought she turned out pretty nice.

So I decided to make a mini – Davey next. It was all going well. I even made him some little cargo pants, because Davey pretty much lives in cargo pants.

But then I finished knitting his head, and I started working on the face and hair. That’s when it all went wrong.

Davey took one look at the eyebrows and said, “Mama, those eyebrows are for an old person. Not for me!” I disregarded his advice, because they really pretty closely matched the color of his eyebrows.

But then, I didn’t stuff the head enough which left him with a rather shrunken appearance. I could also not get Davey hair going to save my life. The way I did his eyes also contributed to him having a rather elderly appearance.

He’s a cute little guy, but he is definitely not too youthful. I have kinda lost my gumption to continue with this project, so I am moving on for awhile. Maybe I will come back and redo his head, and then maybe make David. But if I don’t, that’s ok too. I hold myself to no rules in my knitting world. 🙂

Celebrations

Posted on December 28, 2014 by cpeezers

We’ve done a lot of fun celebrating in the last week. It began with my birthday. David and Davey celebrated me well with cupcakes, time together, and gifts.

We continued our celebration (my sister-in-law supports the idea of a birthday week, and I like that idea!) with a short trip to Seattle.

We had dinner at the Crabpot. Davey tried everything, and he declared it to be the best meal of his life. He even tried the steamed mussels and clams, and I have to admit those freak me out a little (I didn’t tell him that. I also don’t tell him that I think celery tastes like dirty feet, because he really likes it!).

We spent one night near downtown Seattle. That Davey loves to stay in hotels. This time he wanted to write a note to the housekeeping staff in order to properly show his appreciation. I thought this was a pretty nice idea; I have to admit I’d not thought of doing this before, and I stayed in way too many hotels in the 90s! The picture doesn’t show it, but the top of the page says “From the Pepl” (people). I liked that salutation. I wanted to keep the note as a memento, but that kinda defeated the purpose of writing it. I am glad to have the picture.

We took Davey to West Seattle to Alki Beach too. We’d never been there before. It’s not exactly a huge sandy beach but that didn’t phase Davey.

He got right in there. We have got to get that kid to a nice white sand beach.

Apparently you also can watch for whales and other sea life from there. We looked for awhile, but we didn’t see anything. It was probably the wrong part of the day (or year!). So I took a picture of David and Davey instead.

When we got back home, we finished getting ready for Christmas. We’d already made these cookies. It’s an annual tradition that goes back to my grandmother when she was a little girl. Maybe farther? We just made one batch this year, because it is too easy to eat too many of these almond flavored delights.

Christmas with Davey is always very fun. He doesn’t do anything halfway, and this includes his mighty reactions. Here he is when he saw his first toy on Christmas Day morning.

He was overcome. 🙂

Happy New Year!

Knitting: Too Pink!

Posted on December 21, 2014 by cpeezers

I have been working on my mini Davey. Starting these little guys out is very fiddly. I am not a fan of balancing 12 stitches on four needles, but I have actually gotten better at it over time.

I had ordered Knit Picks Palette yarn because it is very reasonably priced and comes in a variety of colors. I was trying to find some good “skin” colors, but it can be hard to tell on the computer screen what the actual color will be.

I knitted these legs.

Davey told me they were too pink. I looked at David, and he agreed. I guess they are pretty pink especially in comparison to the more olive-toned mini cp.

I tried to make the argument that people come in many different colors, tones or hues, but they weren’t convinced.

So I decided to order the yarn that Arne and Carlos use to make their dolls. David and Davey are much happier with these colors. Fortunately, I can still use the “pink” legs because I will put pants and socks over them.

Now I can finish up little Davey. Except that yesterday I decided that I just had to knit some lace, and that I needed to start a new project immediately. I kinda don’t like this about myself – the tendency to start new things so impulsively, but I just go with it. It takes me in interesting directions sometimes.

I have wanted to knit a pi shawl for awhile so I have started a pattern by Donna Druchunas called Diamond Rings. Unfortunately, I started it 3 times. This was a little frustrating! It was my own dumb fault. I tried to transfer to circular needles too early. Twice! My favorite dumb mistake was that after I transferred, I had too much circular needle for the number of stitches I had so I was having to kind of move the stitches around. Somehow I took off knitting in the wrong direction. Hadn’t done that for awhile. So I ripped it out again.

Now, I am off to a decent start.

I may have gotten carried away with the stitch markers, but I am trying to protect myself from more dumb errors!

It’s almost Christmas!

Posted on December 19, 2014 by cpeezers

It’s been a busy few weeks! Today was our last day of school (for Davey and me). We are all excited to have a couple of weeks off.

We’ve had a fun month with lots of fun activities. This included a CWU craft day. CWU students had at least 40 craft stations set up in the Student Union. We could have done crafts all day long if Davey would have wanted to. He didn’t. He enjoyed it for a little while, and then he was ready to go. I think his favorite craft was making a wreath with this nice CWU student.

One of his favorite activities for the month was preparing for his Christmas program. He loves to sing, and I loved to listen to him practicing his songs. One morning he was telling me about a jazzy type song they were preparing. “Mama, we are supposed to snap. This is terrible, but not a single first grader can snap!”

He was happy to have a special part for the program. During one song he got to pretend to play a trumpet at the front of the stage, and he liked this. There were about 8 million people at his Christmas program. It was really neat to see so many people there, but David and I were nearly at the back. Next year we need to get in line about 1/2 hour early. I was so happy when a very nice friend told me she’d taken a few pictures of Davey.

We’ve also been busy with Winkie the Elf on the Shelf. We don’t pretend that Winkie is here to keep an eye on Davey for Santa. He’s just here to hang out and get into mischief every night. Every single night. So every night at about 11 pm, David and I come up with our daily Elf adventure. So far I am proud to say that I have not resorted to pinterest, but I have a feeling I am going to be going there for the last week. One night Winkie got confused and thought he could do “kung fu” if he put on Davey’s yellow belt. Another night, he wanted to get in shape and was doing pull ups on David’s pull up bar. Davey nudges us in the direction he wants to go with Winkie. “Mama, I want Winkie to write me notes,” but then from his reaction you’d never guess that he didn’t completely believe that Winkie was getting into trouble all on his own.

One night Winkie got into the candy!

Winkie is just trouble!

Davey has had a lot of fun at school as well. They spent the month learning about Christmas traditions in countries all around the world. Davey shared all that he learned, so it was fun for all three of us.

Yesterday, Santa Claus came to visit the kindergarteners. While he was there, he stopped by Davey’s first grade class. It just so happens that Santa knew Davey by name, and he declared that he knew Davey had been a good boy. After Santa left, Davey’s friends and his teacher asked him if he’d been surprised, and Davey said something like, “Nope, he’s my neighbor”. We are fortunate to have a great neighbor who is also Santa Claus!

Davey makes celebrating so fun. My birthday is coming up, and Davey wanted to pick something out for me. He wants it to be big surprise, so he keeps talking about it “in code” with David. “Daddy, uh, Daddy, it’s time to go look at the bread at Fred Meyer. Yeah. The bread. Let’s go get some bread.” He thinks this is great fun.

Finally, there were tears the other night after I told Davey the forecast for next week. He is just beside himself because he does not want what he calls a “Green Christmas”. “Mama, why won’t it snow? It’s not fair! It should snow on Christmas.” It’s not looking like there is much of a chance of snow right now for Christmas, but I will keep my fingers crossed!

Miniature socks and Davey

Posted on December 16, 2014 by cpeezers

I’ve been knitting some miniature sock ornaments for a few little Christmas gifts.

There are a bunch of free patterns to choose from. I even found one that is knit flat and then sewn up, but I went with dpns in the round even though it’s a little fiddly at first. Overall, they were fun to knit and went pretty quickly.

After I was done, I wanted to make pretty cords so that they can be hung on the tree. I wasn’t sure what the best way was to do this. I found one technique where you cast on 36 stitches and then cast them off. This worked pretty well. I did some that way, and then I did the rest with a 3 stitch i-cord. I’m not sure which one I like knitting better. They look pretty similar, and I think they took about the same time to knit.

I wanted to take some pictures, and I enlisted the help of Davey. I always enjoy getting some new pictures of Davey.

What is great about these little socks is that I was able to use leftover yarn to make them. I had some fun leftovers to choose from too. I had some Zauberball wool, some Wollmeise, and best of all, I had some cashmere as well. I have not knit with cashmere that much (not nearly enough). It worked well for these little socks.

Thanks to my cooperative little Davey!

Cpeezers

Family, School and Yarn