Lately, I've been into the instant gratification knitting. Thereby knitting small objects on large needles with bulky yarns. It has been so much fun.
Here are some examples:
Sweet little warm beanies for these fall and winter babies.
A little cocoon that will hold about a 7-8lb baby for a photo shoot.
Party hats in all shapes, colors and sizes, from newborn to elementary age.
Funky square hats that look absolutely daring on. I don't have a model at the time, but Camille's bear didn't mind.
While being in Creative Yarns, our local yarn shop (or YSL) is the equivalent of a being in the best bakery on earth, I couldn't help but notice some Montana undyed bulky yarn hiding in the sale section. It was such a good deal, especially since I had just read an article on how to dye yarn using a crock pot and Wilson's food coloring on Craft Gossip. One of my other favorite hobbies is baking, so I have a rainbow of Wilson's food coloring gels. I have a crock pot, so all I needed was this $8 skein of yarn.
I dipped one half the hank into hot water with coloring and vinegar. I turned the crock pot to hot and let the water evaporate as it seeped up the yarn. I turned it around and did the same with another color. The directions were vague, but the results were great. I am making Camille a watermelon colored hexagon blanket and I thought a green and red skein of thick wool would blend nicely. It did.
Here is the dyed yarn.
And here is the yarn incorporated in the blanket.
Pretty good match, if I do say so myself.
This is the hand-dyed yarn.
This is Heidi. Don't let her name fool you, this child is brilliant, decisive, outspoken, a leader and sometimes just a trial of her mother's nerves. I love her, though. I appreciate the outspoken honesty and unlimited curiosity which combined with her lack of patience often get her in trouble from simple disobeying to climbing up to a zip line and lacking the ability to dismount she does what any Heidi would do, she let's it rip. She was wearing a helmet I recall. So you can see where I get my drift.
Anyway, after my surgery, I spent two weeks recovering at my sisters and Heidi saw a party hat I knitted. She asked for one right away, you know the way kids ask for a candy bar or an icee, never thinking of the money and time that goes into buying those things or knitting a hat. Their lack of currency knowledge is refreshing to me. So, of course I knitted her a party hat and while she was slow to warm up, she was quite the model toward the end. She was very proud of it, which warmed my heart and she insisting on wearing it every where she went in the 100 plus degree weather of South Mississippi in August.
I've got lots of yarn left over, so if you want a party hat for a special little (or big one) just let me know. I'm going to put a few on etsy, but I love taking special orders from those I know.
Thanks Heidi for making me laugh, and from one short gut to another, we gals gotta stick together.
Love you,
Aunt Becki
Camille's teacher suggested she keep a journal over the summer. So we took a paperback journal and decorated it. She chose the colors, papers, the rounded corners, the sticker letters, the ribbon and tags. I tied the ribbon and wrote "summer 2011" but that was about it. Needless to say, I was very proud.
It is HOT outside. H. O. T. Africa Hot!! So I decided to stay inside and make something.
I've been following http://craftgossip.com/ which is like crack for artists of all kinds. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't see something I'd like to make.
This at MADE, particularly caught my eye. http://www.dana-made-it.com/2010/06/beach-towel-dress.html
So, despite being a novice at sewing, I attempted this, because well, the supplies were cheap and the product, if it turned out, would be very useful on my vacation.
It took me a while to get the shirring down. I had to send Anna back to Hellmart to get more elastic thread. I had bought some last week, but the worker in the sewing department for allegedly 20 years, told Anna today they had never carried the stuff. Thanks to the iPhone, I was able to pinpoint the item and Anna got it. (Steve rocks again.)
So, with new supplies in hand and a few ruined pieces under my belt, I poured a glass of wine, put on Bob Marley and all of sudden, all my shirring was even and straight.
I completed one for me.
And a matching one for Camille.
So, now I'm relaxing even more...and knitting, something I'm much better at than sewing. And I'm still inside, until it cools off. Which ought to be...well, November.
I'm so excited! I finally have chickens! As someone said to me recently, "You've wanted chickens longer than you've wanted children." How true!
Meet the girls
There's Alice, Eartha, Mary and Hazel. Two Araucanas and two Rhode Island Reds. Here they are a few days old, maybe a week.
I bought plans for a coop online at Catawba Coops.
Here is the finished product. Chez Poulet. (More photos in the album labeled Chickens.)
Here they are checking out the roost, or attic as Camille calls it. They are now about 4-5 weeks old.
We have a huge backyard for a city lot. I chose the movable chicken coop, commonly called a chicken tractor because I didn't want to build a permanent structure. I thought this would provide a better way to protect them in the winter and eliminate the need to "shovel chicken poop." There were in a brooder box, and they love being in the back yard so much more.
Our favorite activity so far is chicken football. We throw an earthworm in the coop and one takes it and the others try and get it away from her. They run like crazy until they realize they've fumbled and lost the ball...er, worm.
The cat has lost interest, but the dogs who ignored the chicks inside the house, have now deemed them fair game since their move to the outside. Sadie especially pants at the coop as if to quote the shark on Nemo, "I'm having chicken tonight!!" I took one out and let her sniff it. She did well until she got the tail and then she tried to nibble as if to say, "Just a bite!" We'll keep working on that. Good thing is, she's just as interested in the raccoons that come around so maybe we won't lose a chicken to them either. Besides, I keep reminding her that I'll share the eggs with her soon.
Anna was disappointed to know that the hens won't lay for another 5-6 months. I'm not sure what she was expecting, but it will be exciting to get those first eggs this fall. For now, we got the coop finished and I'll be working on a chicken run later.
I'm a chicken novice, so I welcome any comments or advice.
This is Camille’s Russell Hat.
She loves Russell the Sheep by Rob Scotton. “What’s a sheep to do!?” she always says.
She asked for a hat like Russell’s, so I went on Ravelry and just knew that someone had done this before and would have a pattern. No such luck. What? No knitters with little children who love Russell the Sheep and want a very long blue and white striped hat? I find that hard to believe, but yet again, here I am looking for something that does not exist. Story of my life. So I went to Creative Yarns, our local yarn store, which by the way, rivals any yarn store in Atlanta or DC, and with their help, developed a pattern and bought the yarn. Several tries and weeks later...The Russell Hat. Not perfect, but just right. Camille took it to school for show and tell along with samples of wool in the different stages from right off the sheep, to dyed, to spun, to knitted, of course. Overall, one of the more enjoyable projects I have done.
My head is exploding with projects for the new house and the holidays coming up. I did manage to complete a few things, and I'm busy working on others.
Here is one I finished: a bath mat. The idea came from a book I picked up at Lowe's Home Improvement...my second home, it seems, whenever I move. The book is Handmade Home by Amanda Blake Soule. I altered the pattern to match my new shower curtain.
My other time consuming quest came with my new kitchen island from IKEA.
I have loved this piece since I first saw it, but it has been kind of a pain. First, I put it together in the dining room, only to realize that I couldn't fit it through any of the doors. It seems I should have realized that, but in the midst of a move, even simple things slip past you. It came with two booklets, assembly instructions and care instructions. I threw the assembly book away after getting it together in the kitchen and threw the other one on the dining room table. After two days of use, the top was covered in little marks from even the slightest of moisture. Finally, I read the care instructions which tell you that the oak top is dried out for shipping and you have to apply oil to finish it. Of course they recommend you use the IKEA brand of oil, and of course, I would, if IKEA were local, but it seemed a long way to go for a small can of oil. So I just got linseed oil and tried that. The top was so dry it soaked up a generous application of oil in just minutes. All the marks disappeared, but even a day later, the smell didn't. Now if you not aware, I have a keen sense of smell that debuted with my first pregnancy and never went away. I will be preparing food and eating at this table, so I had to find something else to use. After hours of researching the internet, I went to Lowe's, again, to browse. I was staring at the products available when a Lowe's worker asked me if she could help.
"Not unless you can tell me what this smells like," I said jokingly. To my absolute surprise, she said, "We'll see," and opened the can. It smelled worse than the linseed oil. We opened at least five cans. They all smelled too strong. She was the most helpful person I have come across in years. We discussed a recipe I found online...beeswax and mineral oil, and I decided to give that a try.
I bought beeswax from Michael's (in the candle making section) and mineral oil from Walgreen's (in the laxative section.) I had read instructions with ratios of 1:5 to 1:1, but being that one was liquid and one was solid, I just experimented. I started with 200mL of oil and 2 ounces (weight) of beeswax. Beeswax is very hard to chop up. I heated the oil in a double boiler and added the chopped beeswax. It took quite a while to melt. Once completely melted and combined, I let it cool and applied it with a soft cloth while still liquid.
First of all, it smelled divine, like honey. That problem solved! Second, the top absorbed it within a couple of hours and I buffed off what little was left very easily. It resulted in a beautiful finish! But most importantly, the next day, a three year old left a fast food drink cup on the island, you know, the kind that sweats like crazy and leaves a puddle around the bottom. When I picked up the cup, the water had barely penetrated the wood. You couldn't even see a ring. Problem SOLVED! Now I have a beautiful finish that still leaves me with the raw wood look and feel, but the finished wood protection. It's safe and it smells good. The leftover mixture was poured into a jar and I have since applied it in paste form to other wood pieces with just as much success.
I'm building open shelving for the kitchen. So more photos coming soon.
Here is an idea from Simply Handmade which I picked up at Michael's the other day.
First you sew a ribbon down the middle so that the sides are loose. Then cut a scallop and a heart from contrasting fabric. Back each one with fusible interfacing. Sew the heart to the scallop and then the scallop to the t-shirt. Lastly sew a button on with embroidery floss. The book called for using die cuts but since I never invested a couple hundred dollars in that, I just made a Heart Template in Photoshop Elements. It took no time, really and I was very pleased with the results.
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