C Is For Cookie

 I got this scarf in the mail last week, and I've been dying to share it here.  Because I only LOVE it!

I love scarves anyway, and handmade scarves are my very favorite kind.

But knitted?  On one of those looms that remind of making looped pot holders in Girl Scouts?

By one of the people dearest to me in all the world?

Priceless.

 Now, in addition to a sweet reminder of my BFF Tracy, I get to be petted by my kids

(at home and at school!) and, because it's made in super soft homespun yarn in blue with  

I'm not kidding here

variegated blue fur and fringe, I get to giggle and call myself 

THE COOKIE MONSTER.

I can't stop singing "C is for Cookie"!  That's almost as good as getting a beautiful, happy, love-filled scarf...I do declare it.

Handmade Christmas ~ My Brother's Family

 I already wrote about the rag rug I made my brother for Christmas.  We don't actually exchange adult presents in our family (except we all get or do something for my parents, and them for us) so I technically could have given him the rug at anytime.  I was going to give it to him a few weeks ago, when I finished it, but then my mom was all, "No!  Give it to him for Christmas!" and I was all....okay.  Besides, I had found an online sale on good bath towels and got him and my sister-in-law (not through him, through my other brother) a half-dozen towels each.  So there you go.  Together, they made a very practical present.

Anyway, my brother has two of my favorite girls and I like to make them things.

I made Kaziah this totally adorable corduroy skirt that has running horses embroidered on it.  I could die.  I want this so badly in my size!  It could not have been simpler to make, using the Oliver + S Lazy Days skirt tutorial (or, more to the point, what I remember of it from when I made the skirt before) and with no measurements and no pattern at all, I managed to nail it in both length and width.  High fives, all around.  She also loved the skirt, and wore it on Christmas Day after she opened it.  Love!  I also made her this sweet, slouchy, cap which I knitted.  (The pattern is free, if you sign up at their website.) 

 

 She put that one on right away, too, and as I predicted, it looks awesome on her!    It's exhausting being right all the time.

 Her entire prize package also included her own pointy scissors (which may or may not have been immediately confiscated by her mother) and Emily Martin's new paper doll book. 

 

 For my brother's ex-wife, I crocheted this rasta-inspired hat.  I've made this hat for her in several colors, and she loves them and they look adorable on her.  She had asked me for one in these colors, and I'm glad I finally made it.  When I got to my mom's, Monica was already wearing a gray one I had made for her last year!

  

And for sweet-girl Giannah, who is just as sweet and sassy as my brother was when he was growing up, I made this little gnome village.  This was easily my favorite thing to make this holiday season.  It involved a jigsaw and a drill, for one thing.  Plus, I am totally in love with these gnomes and their gnome-y kids from Wee Folk Art.

I also loved making the accessories; sleeping bags and a bushel of apples and a basket of eggs, and I even put in a Christmas tree with presents underneath.  I crocheted a rug for the bottom floor and had little tables and a flower pot with a rose bush.  *swoon*

I can't tell if Giannah actually liked it...I also gave her a Melissa and Doug wooden pizza party play set, and she loved that, but gave no attention at all to the gnome village or anything in it.  It may be something that she re-discovers in the quiet of her home;  I left lots of room for her to be creative, and to find rocks and wood to use as furniture, so she may end up liking it more when she's made it her own.  Or it may have been a (oh-so-fun-to-make) miss.  Either way, it's so cute!

It Dropped 30 Degrees Over Night

 Tonight we had our most successful fire yet.  Our fireplace is a bit of a mystery to us.  When we first moved here, it was one of those gas logs?  I was always afraid to turn it on, mostly due to the fact that a friend of mine screwed up her stove when we lived in San Francisco and it involved an enormous fireball and a long-term lack of eyebrows.  I'm good, thanks.  Crank up the thermostat and put on some socks.  (Michelle, if you're reading this...was it Lindy???  For some reason I think it was!)

 When my dad did our kitchen, we went from an electric stove top to a gas range.  Because we don't bother ourselves with things like permits or codes, he ran the water for the pot filler faucet from the hot water heater, and he ran gas for the stove from the same area.  At that time, he disconnected the gas leading to the log, and we began burning wood in our fireplace.

Amended:  We began trying to burn wood in our fireplace.  I swear to crimeney, I look at the amount of work it takes to ignite and keep burning a few logs right here in the luxury of our home using a fire starting brick and enough newspapers and kindling to choke a horse, and I think to myself....how in the hell do forest fires happen?  Keeping a single log lit is like a full-time job at our house.

 Cold weather hobbies:  knitting....

... and crocheting.  These balls of fabric make rag rugs.

 I love making rag rugs...they're such a fun surprise!  You just never really know how a fabric will work up, and the whole thing sort of reveals itself over time.  So many sheets to prep.

If I ever stop making rag rugs, it will because of this.  The stringy bits and elastic bands that are left when you're done tearing the sheets drive me positively batty.   Oh, I do hope I'm not jinxing myself going on about all these problems I have!  I'm going to completely fall apart when something actually happens to me.

It's Like Saying I Love You, 150,000 Times in a Row

My cousin Kelly shared this on her blog, and Erik and I laughed so hard!

I think it was a special touch when I hovered over him, during a Halo Death Match, until the game ended so he could watch it.  He loved it though!  If you don't live with a knitter, you may not understand how totally true it is.  I'm going to have to knit him an x-box controller cozy, I'm thinking.

I Mean, Really!

 I suppose there is a proper way to share this, which would probably involve waiting for the thank you card to arrive in her actual mailbox (hard pressed to meet this criteria, since the card is sitting, stamped, on the passenger seat of my car....still!) but let's just be honest here and say, you know, I'm not known for being conventional.

I am famous in my own mind, however, for being incredibly lucky.  I'm telling you...it's a party in my mailbox!  Witness:

 How adorable is this knitted pouch?!?  Kelly's mom Carol (who blogs at Sisters Three about all things homey and family), just out of nowhere, sent it with a sweet note and instructions for making my own.  I couldn't resist filling it up already....

 Yes!  With gnomes!  Am I right?  I mean, really!  It is just a situation so overloaded with cute that I can barely stand it.   I think she's a genius.  Wee little gnomes?  Check!  Garden fairies?  Check!  Tiny wooden bucket and pint-sized hope chest?  Check-check!  Good times.

 As I'm slowly adding to our Gnome Village, I'm learning that Scotty pretty much loves the little wooden people in any state.  Flower fairies, gnomes...buck naked.  He loves them!  And I love listening to him and his little Mickey Mouse voice as he takes them through a typical day.

He slept with a pouch full of gnomes, and I have to say...I approve.  Thank you, Carol!  We LOVE our sweet gift and can't wait to make more!

Kings and Queens

So this last weekend, Tommy starts yapping at me about how I need to make him these things, for this idea he has.  This kid can talk.  Did you know I was voted "Most Talkative" in my Junior High School yearbook?  Um.  Yeah.  I now know how everybody else on the planet felt about me yammering nonstop about nothing.  I feel like finding my 7th grade pre-algebra teacher, Mrs. Walker, and sending her a cookie basket. 

People of earth:  I am sorry.  I am so, so, so sorry.  Rest assured that I am suffering for all that I put you through.

Where was I?  Oh, yes, Tommy had this idea, where he rattled off nonstop directions and specifications for this army of knights and peasants that I need to make him and even horses for them to ride because there needs to be a good king and queen and a bad king and queen and there's going to be a war and can the horsesbewearingthosebannersyouknowthatareroyalandthepeasantsneedtobe....OH MY GATO!!!  Zip it, why can't you?

Instead of losing it (or was it in addition to losing it?  I can't remember...) I suggested that he might want to write or draw the details, so I wouldn't forget them all.

(For the record?  How much do I LOVE the way he wrote "random" when he didn't care about the colors?  SO MUCH, that's how much I love it!)

So, in sum:  6 knights, 2 kings, 2 queens, 6 horses (3 brown, 3 black, and "make sure they can stand up and the people can ride them"), 5 boy peasants (green) and 5 girl peasants, plus two horses for the kings. 

I haven't put the arms on this Evil Queen yet, but you need to see the depths of my commitment to this project.  She has an evil face and a felt crown and she's knitted and stuffed so she can, eventually, ride a royal pony.  I am using (and so thankful for!!!) this free pattern from Wee Folk Art.  And if you have an hour or two to kill, their free pattern section is wonderful and inspiring and, of course, completely free.  Love you, Wee Folk Art!

So far he adores it ("put the arms on!  and i need a horse!"  I can hear, son, I can hear.)  but Erik and I got a big laugh tonight when we decided that, by the time I get around to finishing twenty of these that he will have long forgotten about the idea anyway!  haha  Oh, how we laughed!  So, to hedge my bets, I'm making just enough for a battle to get underway...a good queen, an evil queen, two knights and two horses.  For the horses, I'm going to use the pattern from Alicia Paulson's book because, unbelievably, she has a stuffie horse pattern in it.  You just never know.  We'll see how he gets on with that ensemble, and then we'll make a decision about moving forward!

Freshly preserved blackberry jam...and plenty of prepped and frozen berries for a future batch!

Triple berry crisp...yes, again.

Oliver & S free skirt pattern ~ too easy!  And look at the fabric my sweet friends picked out.  I think it's rad!  One down, one to go.  My friend Dana dropped off her six-year-old daughter Cassidy for a 'play date'....with me!  I helped her sew a skirt, she dug up a Starling purse I had on ice (added a felt star and called it her own) and left with a sewing machine that was in my shed.

A very complicated knitting project for Tommy.  All of his ideas are very complicated, in fact.  He's a big dreamer, a grand schemer, and I'm sure gonna jump through every hoop I can to make it happen.  And that includes knitting with black yarn in July.  Ugh.

And, my interest in my 'bee situation' led me to do some searching for bee's wax candles, resulting in this sweet Etsy find of birthday cake candles in various sizes and colors.  With two (count them!  two!) birthdays in August for these boys, it seemed like just the right way to spend ten dollars.

I hope your weekend was equally (no, even more) wonderful.  I've been waking up feeling instantly grateful for a full and happy life.  I recommend it.

Crochitting Party

Miss Laurie!  Isn't she beautiful?  Such a sweet, gentle, soul.  Confidential to Laurie:  Did I ever tell you that the notecard you gave me when you retired, and you wrote about the fun we had and the things we learned teaching math, is one of my greatest joys?  Yep!  I've saved it and I treasure it.  And you.  :) 

The food she prepared was so delicious!  All of it was so fresh and healthy.  Veggie pizzas on whole wheat dough, green salad, and this other salad of roasted veggies and rice, I think?  Was it rice or wheat?  Well, I'll sort it out and let you know, asap, because she gave me the recipe and I WILL be making it this weekend.

Laurie is working on this beautiful knitted blanket.  Ha!  Funny story:  She had a bit of 'scrap yarn' that she thought would work into a nice lap-afghan.  Wouldn't you know it?  It was nothing like enough yarn, so the stash-busting project suddenly required a wallet-smashing trip back to the yarn shop!  As you do.

A crochitting party is the best place to get help on a new project.  Here, Nak Min makes great progress on her first knitted scarf, after Susan helped her to cast on. 

My dear-sweet-Linda was off and running on a crocheted blanket she is making for her first granddaughter, due in early fall.  I think it may have been her first experience at actually reading and following a pattern, so I was only too happy to help her get started and continue to trouble shoot when she dropped a stitch or got lost in her row.  hmmm...it seems I didn't upload the picture of Laurie's friend knitting her Waldorf-style dolls...perhaps I was making some play at respecting somebody's privacy?  Who am I kidding?  ;)

Anyway, once everybody was well underway (I was working on a crocheted baby dress ~ not for me, I assure you! ~ and it's almost done now), I asked Laurie about her trip to New Mexico.  Laurie is an artist, and soon enough she was sharing some art that came home with her.  It was beautiful, and led us to a small tour of where it might be hanging in the future. 

Which found us in this hallway.  Aren't these trees beautiful?!?  The one on the right was a gift from her son.

Here, see if we can get closer.  I think you can't really get a feel for the beautiful blue here, but I think the tree itself can be appreciated.  I thought it looked like a person!  Doesn't the trunk look incredibly human?  I was quite taken with this piece.

From here, I managed to finagle a tour of her reclaimed studio.  (Previously functioning as her daughter's bedroom!)  Linda gave these plain letters to Laurie as a gift for her studio, and Laurie decorated them by collaging inspiring and colorful images.

Right here on the R is a scrap of paper that reads:  May all your dreams come true.  (Note to self:  Start saving your pennies for a nice macro lens.  You won't regret it.)

Her inspiration boards!  I love inspiration boards!  I would have one, except I have no place to put one...for now I'll live through my friends.  You can't see it very well in these pictures, but one of the greatest things about this room is that every wall is painted a different color!  This was her daughter's choice when this was her bedroom, but I love that she kept it.  Pale green, lavender, pale yellow...it's a really beautiful effect. 

When I say that Laurie's an artist, I'm not kidding.  Her talent astounds me.  I guess there's a whole school of thought that would say we're all artists, and shouldn't we claim the artist label, and take ourselves seriously as artists when, say, we're crocheting baby dresses or making shirts out of sheets or repurposing material into quilts?  And, in fact, each of those activities can be elevated to an art.  Look at this baby dress, or these quilts, and you will never doubt that it's true.  Still... I can't look at these pictures and not know, there's a huge difference between what I do and what she does!  I can do everything I do, make everything I make, and really, it requires not talent so much as tenacity.  And don't imagine I'm downplaying or pishawing the importance of tenacity, either, as having it and using it is definitely it's own kind of talent, but I am just saying...there's a difference.  A huge, undeniable, awe-inspiring difference.

Next stop was her 'private retreat', but you need to know that, should you invite me to sit in your living room and enjoy some ice cream with fresh strawberries, I am totally the kind of person that will end up taking pictures of your bedroom and plastering them over the internet.  Prepare accordingly for my arrival.  Do you see what she has there, instead of a headboard?

It's all painted on!  The fern and flower leaves are a mix of stencils and freehand work.  The photo is from Hawaii, one of her favorite destinations.  Who could blame her?  I smile now, seeing the wooden "Dream" letters on the shelf... a theme, perhaps?  One of Laurie's dreams was to sell her art, and she's making that happen even as we speak!  She takes her drawings and watercolors and prints them on notecards and they are beautiful ~ I've purchased a set and, in fact, I need a refresher set.  She doesn't have an online site, but I'm encouraging her to get an Etsy shop or something, ASAP. 

One last picture, from her bedroom.  This trio of pressed leaves was her mother's.  Her mom collected the leaves and pressed them onto cloth herself, I believe Laurie said in the 1930s!  The display is one of the most beautiful objects I've ever seen in person.  I'm thinking I might do the same thing, though I can only hope that in 80 years, somebody could appreciate it as much as I do this one.  It's so old that the leaves and the cloth they lay on have actually begun to sort of 'meld' into one entity.  I love it!

Thank you, Laurie, for letting me share these pictures!  It was such a fun night; the hours flew by with great food, amazing friends, both deep and silly conversations that I love so much, and a little uninterrupted crafting time.  Savored!

Heartfelt (Tiny) Gifts

Tommy gave these presents to his teachers for Teacher Appreciation Day a couple of weeks ago.  Each little satchel contained a single hand-knitted 100% cotton dish rag, and a package of Honey-Oatmeal soap.  I've always crocheted dish rags, but Miss Pippa sent me several of these knitted waffle-weave version, and I have been so smitten with them that I switched over!   The downside is that, for me, crocheting takes but a moment, whereas as knitting is an eternity.

This is exactly the reason why I haven't been able to make any for myself!  Spending most of two little league games knitting up a dish rag for somebody else seems like the right thing to do; doing the same for myself seems ridiculous.  (Yes.  Two games.  I'm a slow knitter!  Plus, I get sort of distracted by the game!  Then I have to undo some of my rows....like, all of them, sometimes!)

I made this other special package using different cotton and it had two dish rags instead of just one, but the same lovely soap.  It's going out today, and I've been wanting to do this, or a little something like this, for so long....sometimes, I just need a little bit of time (*cough*) to get my act together, you know what I mean?

Makes Me Want to Wag My Tail!

Oh dear. Can I tell you what came in the mail? This absolutely heavenly scarf and hat set made from handspun cashmere.

Oh, stop it.

Forgive me, but I have to suggest that you check out my friend Pamela's etsy shop. (Michelle, I think this one screams for you, and Maia, this is the one I think of for you!)

I've been wearing the scarf every day to work, and I can't tell you how many people have complimented me...especially on the color. I had originally thought I wanted a 'true baby pink', but Pamela wrote to let me know it was more 'coral', and not only was she right, but virtually every person I pass pauses just long enough to tell me how flattering the color is on me. They also insist on rubbing the scarf, which, whether they're trying to feel my boob or admire the cashmere, really, who could blame them either way? Go on, then.

It's funny, because you would think, being a 'maker' and all, that I would never purchase a hat and scarf set! I mean, look at this: three scarves I am making as we speak! The turquoise and purple were crocheted in lion brand chenille (poorman's cashmere, I suppose, since it's also soft! haha) for my nieces (matching hats to come!). Simple pattern below ** The red is knitted in a 2x2 ribbed pattern, for my cousin. Size 9 needles with a basic Bernat afghan yarn.

But, as a maker, I appreciate this scarf and cap even more than the average consumer, would be my guess. Handspun cashmere from Scotland? I do not doubt that I would not be able to purchase the fiber for what I paid for the set. Let alone that Pamela's husband is able to create these with machine knitting...seriously, 8 inches wide, 6 feet long, with cables, on what appears to be size 2 needles (picture knitting with toothpicks, my friend, and you'll be getting close)? It would be impossible for me to estimate how long it would take me to make this set, but what I can tell you is that I am sure I'm getting close when I say that there would be no few than 6 dropped stitches and at least a half dozen other mistakes visible to the naked eye.

I LOVE this scarf and hat!

I bought it to 'treat myself' to a little birthday present last week, and, perfectly so, my dear friend Monica made this quilted carry-all bag for me too. It's now a complete matching set, and while I admit that these aren't the most wintery colors I've ever seen, they are just the bright bit of sunshine that gets me through the dreary days of December.

Happy sigh!

** To make a simple scarf with this nice 'pebbly' effect, similar to seed stitch in knitting, it was easy to alternate single and double crochet stitches all the way across. These are started with 11 chains and a P hook. SC in second chain from hook, DC in next chain, SC in next chain, all the way across (ends with DC). Chain one, turn. (Chain one counts as first SC for the row, so skip the DC that ended the previous row and begin working in the next stitch, which is a SC). DC into each SC, SC into each DC, all the way across. Repeat! Can of corn. The general rule of thumb, by the way, when making a scarf, is to make the length the same as the height of the wearer. For my nieces (2nd grade and kindergarten) the scarves are each around 4 feet long. Each took one skein of Chenille "thick and quick" yarn.

Cold

(Pond with a sheet of ice!)






This morning, I broke off a sheet of ice that had formed on the koi pond.






It was thick enough to bring a piece into the house, where I made Erik poke his head out of the shower to look at it before I photographed it on the counter. It's a sickness.





After de-icing my car, I drove to work...wearing tights, two pairs of socks, jeans, a thermal undershirt, a long sleeved shirt, a fleece jacket, a hat, scarf, and both fingerless mitts and mittens. I walked in to find my partner, similarly bundled, typing on her laptop. And yet. And yet my kids are in short sleeves and barefeet. These kids just have a totally different internal thermostat!

Despite their inability to feel cold (or pain...or fear....ai ai ai...being mama to boys is exhausting!) it is cold here! And you know what that means..a basketful of yarn has been my constant companion, with three projects on the needles and two with the hook, too!

Did I mention the cold?