Archive for October, 2008

Happy Halloween!

31 October, 2008 | Amy | 4 Comments

boo

Happy Halloween, everyone!

It’s been a crazy busy morning over here. My son decided, just before bedtime last night, that he wanted to take one of his Star Wars Lego ships to school for show-and-tell. Naturally, it was in pieces–hundreds of tiny, hard-to-find pieces–when he came up with this idea. So, he got up at the crack of dawn to assemble the darn thing. I have to give him credit. He finished the ship with time to spare, and, while waiting for mommy to crawl out of bed, he wrote an essay on Saturn.

Saturn

My younger child had a party at her pre-school, so there were some frantic moments cramming her into her furry costume (she’s a cat), trying to free the zipper from tufts of fur, preparing lunches and snacks, then hauling everyone to their respective schools.

I’m glad to be sitting down in the quiet of an empty home and watching the rain fall. This won’t last long. The minute both kids are home, they’ll be wired from too much sugar consumed at class parties and revved up for trick-or-treating.

Mommy wants to hide in the closet and dream about knitting. I’ve started a few things (and am trying to restrain myself from starting more).

I cast on for Cassidy using some Cascade 220 from my stash. I’m really enjoying the cables.

Cassidy

I strung 1300 beads on some Rowand tweed for a gaudy-but-wonderful beret.

beads

I’m also knitting a tote, which I’ll felt later on. It’s going to be a gift for one of the great teachers my kids are lucky to have this year. I’m planning on needle-felting a design onto the body of the bag, but haven’t quite figured out what that will be yet. I need to sit down with a pad of paper, a pencil and a giant eraser to work out some ideas.

Flowers on the Go Tote

I’d really like to start some socks and some mitts…but this seems like a lot already :)

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Posted in Beading, Knitting | 4 Comments »

Gifts for my Guys

29 October, 2008 | Amy | 4 Comments

I make a lot of things for my daughter, because there are thousands upon thousands of cute patterns for girls’ outfits. For me, it’s often less tempting to make something for two of the important guys in my life, simply because there just aren’t that many exciting patterns for guy things (especially when you get to the XXL sizes my husband requires). Periodically, I think about how sad that is and how much I want to show them that I love them, so I immediately start creating something–anything–for them, whether or not they’re projects that rate high on my entertainment and satisfaction scales.

I definitely owed my son a mama-made gift. He never did get to wear that funky striped tank top I started for him years ago. Instead, his sister wears it. Stencilling a t-shirt seemed like a good idea, because I was fairly certain he’d wear it and because it wouldn’t take more than a couple of days.

Robot Parade

Mission accomplished. It turned out pretty cute and Sam’s very happy with it. My design was inspired by a favorite song of the whole family’s: Robot Parade by They Might Be Giants. (I’m not as crazy about the version I linked to here as I am about the one that came on our TMBG Here Come the ABC’s video. That version is far livelier.)

Take Me to Your Leader

Since I recently shrunk my husband’s favorite hat in the washing machine, I needed to make him a new one pronto.

spiral rib hat

This was a very easy and very quick project, especially since I doubled up some yarn and used big needles. The yarn’s pretty scratchy and I was uncertain whether or not Robert would like it, but he assures me that it’s fine and is relieved that I didn’t make something too girly for him. I don’t think it would be possible to make anything that looked less girly than this hat…I mean, it’s charcoal grey and ribbed. Nothing frilly to it at all.

Robert

This is the Spiral Rib Hat by Song Palmese, published in Ann Norling #54.

Posted in General | 4 Comments »

Fair Juliet

26 October, 2008 | Amy | 4 Comments

Like its namesake, the heroine of Shakespeare’s tragic romance, my Juliet exhibited suicidal tendencies. It tried to end its life on two occasions.

juliet

The first attempt occurred one night, when I was heading out to knit with some friends. I packed up my yarn and needles, walked out the front door and across the yard to where the car was parked. As I was unlocking the door, I caught a glimpse of something magenta shimmering in the dim illumination cast by our porch light. At first, I thought it was an interesting optical effect created by a smudge on my glasses and a beam of light. Unfortunately, it turned out to be the yarn from my sweater, caught in the front door and trailing across the yard to where I stood by the car.

Luckily, it hadn’t unraveled…much.

The second attempt happened only yesterday. I was just a few rows away from casting off, but decided I couldn’t wait any longer to vaccuum the living room. The carpet looked atrocious. Little feet had tracked in bits of leaves and grass from an earlier expedition through the back yard. Someone–and I’m not naming names, had eaten cookies and let the crumbs fall hither and thither. I just had to do something about the mess, so I put Juliet carefully down on the ottoman, and fired up the vaccuum. Yes, you guessed it, yards and yards of yarn ended up inside the vaccuum cleaner. Luckily, the yarn broke off before my sweater ended up inside the greedy machine as well.

So, now Juliet is finished and I’m happy with the way it turned out. It’s a cute, swingy little top. (My husband isn’t all that enamored with it though. He suggested I give it away to a pregnant friend. Umm…thanks, Robert!)

dandelion
This photo is here just for the heck of it.

Juliet is a great stash-busting project. It doesn’t require a lot of yarn, and since it’s knit from the top-down, you can just knit until you run out. Also, it works up very quickly…unless it attempts to unravel itself by getting caught in doors or gobbled up by vaccuum cleaners!

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Posted in Knitting | 4 Comments »

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