wedding prep

     So, I spent the last two weeks turning this:

    Into this...

     Which grew into this:

     I love my Whippoorwill.  It's the first completely finished thing on my project list for a wedding coming up in the spring.  My boys are going to bear rings, my husband is going to ush, my baby girl is going to be adorable (that's generally her job), and this mama is going to wear her Whippoorwill shawl.  And I'll be dancing.  My boys have already asked me...

MST3K

     Being the brilliant woman I am, I planned not to share this post until I had given my brother his birthday hat.  I wrapped it, carried it down to Disney World, and gave it to him as an early present (today's his real birthday).  Brilliant me watched him open it and try it on, and was thrilled that it fit and that he actually liked it.  Brilliant me did all that and didn't think to take his picture which was sort-of the point with handing it to him, as opposed to putting it in the mail.

     So.  No picture of brother in the hat. 

     The awesome & free chart is from SewGeeky on Ravelry.com.  SewGeeky designed it for a baby sweater, and a few people had tried to put it on a hat.  I decided I wanted mine at a smaller guage, so the Mystery Science Theater guys could all sit on the same side of the hat.  That kind of thing is important to me, and I thought it would increase my chances of my brother actually wearing said hat.

 

       My notes are on Ravelry, in case you want one too...

 

      Happy birthday Kevin!  You really are brilliant, and I love you so much. 

 

daffo-down-dilly

     I am soooo happy with this little Darwinia dress I made for Eve.  The pattern is from an Australian designer, the yarn Nana sent was from Australia, and both were AWESOME!  It is cutest by itself, but works well for layers, and it's totally soft and I am thrilled with it.  Keep-it-for-my-grandkids thrilled... 

     I've given up asking her to slow down, in case you were wondering... 

post 654, in which she rambles about knitting. again.

     Warning:  If you don't care two-pence about knitting, scroll down to the bottom of this post for a quick summary.

     Nana, being a grandmother, likes to buy dresses for her granddaughter, and she is cool about the fact that dresses sometimes start out in a big yellow ball.  Plus said ball of yarn, from Bendigo Woollen Mills, gives her daughter a whopping great ball of fun, so it's a win, win, win all around.

     I crossed my fingers for the size and cast on.  Now, if you are out there thinking of taking up knitting, perhaps in the odds of trying to understand why I post about it so "dad-gum" much, I have to throw in a word.  Don't look at the picture and think, oohh, I guess I better run down to the all-night-knitting store and get some metal double point needles.  See, the first time I went to knit something in the round, I went to the store and bought the only ones I saw, which were metal.

     I deplore metal needles.  They are for speed knitters.  That means they are slippery.  That means if you look up to see what's going on around you, stitches disappear.  This is not good for easily distracted people, such as myself.

     Why haven't I replaced them?  Well, I only use that size for certain things (they are only used on the top 8 rows of this dress, and then I can kiss them goodbye).  And while I dispise metal needles, even more is my loathing for the idea of buying another set of something I already have, if you know what I mean.

     This brings me to another thing I've realized lately.  People in the knit-world are crazy about circular needles.  Me?  Not so much.  I am one of those silly people still clinging to my wooden dbpns.  But I tried some Harmony needles, with their really flexy cables, and I can see why people like them.  I am also sitting on the floor with my 5 little sticks (that's 10 pointy ends, thank you), and my baby, who is speeding towards me with that look.  Can we say catastrophe, both in the baby and knitting departments?

     For the non-knitters out there, let me sum up this post for you:  Blah, blah, blah, knitting, blah, blah, blah, knit, knit, knit, blah, blah, blah.  Bubble-wrap.

Sillies and Secrets

First, the Sillies! L totally loves to set things up. He's been going to his room more and more to play this way. He fascinates me, and I like watching him and examining the things he sets up to get a little peek into the way his mind works, and who he is on the inside. I see lots of myself in him, when he does things like this:

And I see lots of myself in M, when he does this!

And some more sillyness...


And L's most recent display of creativity - he's been rearranging the stars on his walls and has discovered that he can use them to display some of the things he loves! I love it - Peter flying through the stars...!


And now for the secrets! Here's some of what I've been working on for the boys' Christmas gifts! We've gotten them a couple things and trying to emphasize giving a couple special gifts, rather than just a bunch of stuff. For L's 4th birthday he received a singing balloon and a firetruck. He was in raptures. I totally see why the Jewish people give one gift a day for Hanukkah. Somehow it's really hard to truly appreciate a big pile of gifts!

Anyways! Off my soap-box! Here are the secrets! I've been making a map of Never Never Land for them to share - super secret! I only work on it at night, when I'm fairly certain of not being walked in on. Tomorrow I'm going to stitch in some lining and attach a back, and then it will be done. There's also the growing bear for M!



Checking the cuddlyness...


Finished Bear! Going to get a cute ribbon to dress his neck for his big Christmas debut!


Can I just say how satisfying it is to have finished Bear? Even though his eyes are so funny?

Oh, and we had a first today, M stuck a Cheerio up his nose. He was not happy at all.

L's Pajama Kitty

When L woke up this morning his pajama kitty was finished and waiting for him, all curled up in Mama's rocker. Here he is checking it out. Right after thanking me for the kitty he went and stuffed it with pajamas! Several pairs. Then he read it a story, prayed with kitty (and told Jesus thank you for his kitty), and tucked it into bed.

I might let him put his clothes in the kitty, if he wants to take it to Uncle Doug's house, but not sure how unstuffing it will go over. We'll see - he might not even ask!

Fun Things

So, this thing is refusing to display my picture properly, and I give up. Anyways, that raspberry fiber I dyed a few weeks ago, well, I spun it all on my little spindle and then made it into a 2-ply and set the twist. I ended up with 170+ yards of this! I love the sixe it turned out, and am knitting a little bag out of it...

This is Penelope Clearwater, our new pet (yes, that's a Potter name). BB is most pleased with our new aquisition - a friend of mine gave her to us. BB helps feed her every morning and evening!

Isn't he cute?!?

He's my little chunky monkey, just checking out the pumpkins we brought back from the festival...

Wrestling already?

I am in for quite the ride, aren't I?

Zoo Day & Mitten Muff

So our post's early, as we will be traveling this weekend and won't have time to deal with this, but here's our trip to the zoo (we've been talking about animals)... Happy Thursday to y'all!

There were horsies to look at, though far away...

And here we are watching the orang utans, out for their daily swing...

Here's when we first arrived, BB saw a great, sleepy black bear and said

"WOW..."

We watched the seals darting around at 25miles per hour,

as the trainers were feeding them...

did you know they can dive hundreds of feet deep! I was most impressed with this

interesting fact! BB just liked to watch them splash!

The flamingoes were worth a stop, BB found them fascinating!

Even LB stared at those for a while...

So we had a grand time at the National Zoo, and it was nice that NZ had the day off of work, so we could pal around and mommy could even be in some of the pictures!

And here, ha ha, is my mitten muff... I was hoping to make mittens for my Aunt with the yarn I used to make mine, but, as you can see, there just wasn't enough! Such a bummer! So now I have a homeless 3rd mitten...

poor little thing...