All This By Hand

Lego Party

Knitting.  Umm, yeah.  This summer has been really busy and I'm working on a baby blanket that shows no signs of growing despite working on it regularly.  But I did just have an awesome Lego birthday party for John.  These things all took much longer to make than I'd planned, but he was so excited about them that it was worth it.

This is what started the whole party idea -- a Lego pinata filled with Legos.  I liked the idea so much that when John insisted he wanted a Kung Fu Panda party I stonewalled on buying anything until he changed his mind.  It's a mega box of diapers with cylinders cut from cornmeal boxes on top, all covered in blue tissue paper.  I made it a pull string pinata since breaking corrugated cardboard with a bat probably wouldn't have worked.  I did add one bag of candy, since it is a birthday party after all.

The kids all really liked it.  They probably spent five minutes picking up all the little pieces and everyone got enough to build a small project.  (Ignore my messy bookshelves.  The kids did.)

Because I love them so much it's not a birthday without a bunting.  Although lego fabric apparently does exist, I didn't feel like buying it off ebay, so we went with a paper bunting this year.  My knit group thought I was just a bit nuts for working on this all of Thursday night.

The John-as-Lego-logo sign completed the mantle, as did John's prized Lego AT-AT. 

I like to do little projects with the kids, so I had them make their own mini figures from a blank one I made.  Pete is of the Rothko school with big blocks of color.  John is more traditional.

Then came the Lego cake.  I followed these directions, which did say that it would take 3 hours to make, which should have been fair warning to start before 9 p.m. the night before the party.  Add to that the hot kitchen which gave me some frosting consistency issues and you get a so-so result.  I went to bed triumphant at 1 a.m. with eight completed Lego brick cakes in my refrigerator.  The kids quite liked them even with the incredibly uneven frosting job.

The party went so well I couldn't believe it.  Last year was sort of crazy, but I'm wondering if kids just grow up a lot from four to five.  After everyone went home, the boys hit the leftovers and Pete finished off one of the party trays I'd made.  Hey, who needs a separate plate?

Blueberry Focaccia

I have been knitting for Kate, but I haven't finished anything.  Seaming and sewing on buttons just don't compare to casting on something new.  One of these days I'll have a finishing frenzy, but for now I'll distract you with this.

Apparently it's a dessert recipe, but it made an incredible Sunday morning breakfast.

Teacher Presents

There's something soothing about seeing multiples of projects all laid out when the somewhat monotonous knitting is done.  First up, John's teacher and assistant teacher's scarves.  I love these so much that I'm thinking of making another for myself.

It never fails to amaze me how wonderfully crisp lace looks after it's blocked.

The little stitches stretch out so nicely.

Then I wrapped them up with matching ribbons.  Can you tell I love these scarves?

For all the other teachers and some staff, I made facecloths and wrapped them up with these sweet little soaps.

And one of his teachers just had a baby, too.  So of course the baby needs a present. 

Now, onto knitting baby girl clothes.  Prepare for the summer of pink!

Collaboration

Since we're both slightly pink obsessed after two boys, my mom and I are collaborating on a baby dress.  I saw this dress before I even knew what we were having this time around and filed it under "if I ever have a girl."  So off we go...

Step 1: Have a former engineer cut obsessively exact hexagons and create a piecing diagram.  Hand off to Mom.

Stunned!

I am kicking myself for not getting teacher presents done earlier.  See, I need to finish a scarf and a few more facecloths before I can start knitting

BABY GIRL CLOTHES!

That is all.

I'm So Pro

I knit samples for two businesses now.  Catherine of Mama Llama bribed me with semi-solid handpainted yarn to knit a sample for her.  Umm, yes.  I know that there are voracious sample knitters out there, but for me this is about as big time as it's going to get with two kids and one on the way.  Since I'm not entirely sure where this design is headed, I'll show you this for now.

It also occured to me that I haven't yet taken one picture of my rapidly expanding pregnant belly.  Poor Moochie, being the third kid and all.  I'm about three and a half months pregnant and I am already frightening strangers when I tell them I'm due in October.  Apparently I have the largest pregnant belly in the world.  I can't wait for the "are you sure it's not twins" line of questioning to begin.  :)

 

Ellie Krieger is my new hero

My husband came home the other day and announced he wanted to eat better to be healthier and lose a bit of weight.  Although I don't think we eat that badly, I returned my Nigella cookbook to the library (it was mostly browsing, really, just a few risottos and my husband didn't even eat any) and got The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger.  I'd watched her show once before, but she didn't make me have dreams about what she'd cooked like Ina and Nigella do, so I sort of wrote it off.  Oh, do I love her cookbook now.  Nothing is ever as good as the real deal when it comes to cooking, but apparently we have to admit we're in our thirties and not exactly going for day-long mountain bike rides any more.  So improved diet it is!   So far I've made pancakes and some salad, but I am so looking forward to tomorrow morning.  I have everything all ready to make apple pecan muffins. 

They're not the healthiest muffins in the world, but I enjoy making fun breakfasts on the weekends and this fits the bill without going overboard.  Besides, I'm pretty sure it never hurt to eat well when you're growing a baby.  A glucose-stealing, sudden-intense-hunger-inducing baby who'd better be adorable when he/she is born to make up for all this pregnancy nonsense.

By the way, look what's blocking.  This is my favorite yarn, EVER.  I so wish I had bought more since I'm pretty sure it was only dyed for that one show...

Second trimester!

I knit four shop samples during my first trimester.  The first two were easy peasy because Moochie's need for a hormonally regulated growth environment that makes me feel exhausted and miserable hadn't kicked in.  I finished two short sleeve sweaters in two weeks.  Feeling chipper, I picked up two more samples to knit for the shop.  I foolishly started both of them, making it sort of difficult for me to return one for someone else to knit.  Then the baby hit me.  Despite my best efforts, I could not find time to knit, namely because I was falling asleep at 7:30 every night and just barely keeping up with my husband and children's needs for food and clean clothing.  Amazingly enough we've all pulled through and two months later, they're both finished.  Amy and Sheryl were very, very patient.  

This yarn feels so good to knit with.  The colors remind me of watermelon.  The pattern is knit on the bias which was slightly frustrating to my engineering brain.  (I don't normally measure as I knit, I calculate instead and that was impossible with this sweater.)

 

Pattern: Sandstorm by Black Purl Designs

Yarn: Noro Chirimen (cotton/silk/wool)

At first this sweater made me wonder why anyone should bother knitting it.  It's a white t-shirt.  I slogged through the whole thing and it wasn't until I knit the collar that it all came together for me. The shape is quite nice and makes more of a polished outfit than a t-shirt would.  I will definitely be buying this yarn to make some baby clothes.

Pattern: Sublime Shell with Sleeves (Sublime book 611)

Yarn: Sublime Baby Cotton Kapok DK

Now that those are done, I should have time to knit some things, but now it seems that all I want to do is cook and eat.  I am by no means a fantasy fan, but I do remember seeing snippets of the Lord of the Rings movies in the background when some friends were over.  As I sat down to eat pasta at 9:30 this morning, I wondered if there was a hobbit meal between breakfast and elevenses.  There is.  It is second breakfast.  Apparently I turn into a hobbit when pregnant.

Easter Egg Yarn

Although it's really bright, I actually like the way the Easter egg yarn turned out.

I think this may become booties for the new baby.  Or a hat for very dreary days.

Easter Eggs

Although I had a lot of Easter egg dyeing tablets lying around from previous clearance sales, none of them were Star Wars themed with stickers! and egg wraps! and egg stands! and a glow-in-the-dark poster!  So I spent the $3 and made John very, very happy.

I'd intended to do all white eggs, but found several had broken en route so we had to substitute in some brown.

 

I'm really glad I did -- see that third from the right in the top row?  Gorgeous turkey red egg, amazingly made from the screaming pink dye.  I will be sad to see that color go, since the Easter Bunny will be taking all those eggs in trade tonight.

As I'm sure happened in countless fiber-y households this past week, all that dye couldn't just sit there after being used for a few eggs.  I was thinking about trying to mix some teal dye and kettle dyeing some yarn, but John wanted to make rainbow yarn.  One off-white skein of Dale Baby Ull later and we had this.

See where I messed up?  I think I actually did pretty well considering I was applying the dye with a spoon.  I wrapped everything up in the plastic wrap and into the dye-only pot it went to steam.

Note the very fancy crumpled foil steam contraption.  Nothing but the best here.  John thinks that this will be perfect to make something for the new baby.  Something really, really bright...