Hanukkah 2009

We have been busy celebrating Hanukkah in between all the other everyday goings on. Here our candles from last night. As you can see we only have two more nights to go. I was holding off posting pictures of all the things that I made and not that almost all the gifts have been given I have no excuse to not show you all those things.

Sale yarn and gratuitous chick photos

I picked up this yarn the other day when I made a run to the South Bay yarn shops. Yarn shops in my area have been closing right an left, leaving me without a local yarn shop. I was looking for yarn to make the newsgirl cap for Lena and happened upon this yarn on sale.
I don't usually by blue yarn (especially blue yarn with flecks of pink and gray) and honestly I know why this yarn was 35% off. In the skein it really doesn't look that great, but I'd like to think that I saw past the outer skein into it's inner beauty. Maybe I was just blinded my the sale price, it had happended before. I put down my money and left the store with three skeins of this merino and silk bluenessWound into a ball it is looking more promising.
And knit up it looks even better. Lucky for me, I have someone in my life who loves the color blue and will be quite happy to take it off my hands when it it done. And that should be soon since I am already into the second skein of yarn. I'll show you it when it is done.

Okay, how is the time for all the chicken-phobic to look away.







Here is one of the new additions to our flock.
Isn't she cute. It was sure hard to get a good picture of her all by myself hopefully tomorrow one of the kids can help me chick rangle so that I can get some good shots of all of them outside in the daylight.

Newsgirl

Ever since Lena had seen a picture of this hat she wanted one. It is from the book Stitch and Bitch Nation. Here she is showing off the finished product. It really was one of those quick knit projects. Two evenings of knitting and I was done. No time to get tired of the pattern. The best part is that she totally loves it.
I knit it out of 1.5 skeins of Blue Sky Alpacas Worsted Hand Dyes. Which is such a lovely yarn for showing off stitch definition.


And one more picture to show off the real Lena. That's my girl!

Halloween wrap-up

Our Halloween was a busy one this year. A good kind of busy, but busy is still busy.

This year Lena designed her own costume. She wanted to be a bird, which some how required getting glue and green feathers everywhere. Oh, did I mention the green glitter.
Actually, costume turned out really well. She was pleased with it so that is all that really matters. She has already started talking about what she wants to be next year.

Lena also participated in our friends Haunted House. Every year Lisa and her husband turn a whole room of their house to make a haunted house. Lena loves to act in it. This year she was a guard to the dungeon. Here she is with all her fellow ghouls and goblins.

I didn't act in the house, but I did get to be in charge to food. Unfortunately I was so busy making that I only got one photo. Here are the eyeballs in process. They are really doughnut holes covered in white chocolate. I forgot to take a picture of them when they were all done.
Oh, and I even managed to do a little yarn stash busting. Here is the Halloween felted bowl I gave to our lovely host Lisa.

Okay, stash this means war

Okay, most knitters have a love/hate relationships with their yarn stash. I, however, am not one of those knitters. I really don't like my stash very much. I find having all that yarn around worries me a bit. I guess I just feel pressured to use it up. Don't get me wrong I like having yarn with a purpose around. I have this lovely skein of almost black lace weight yarn that makes me happy every time I see it. I dont' have time to knit it up right now, but I know that I will get around to it sometime in the future. No, the kind of yarn that drives me crazy it the skeins or half skeins that are leftover when you finish a project.

So, with that in mind I am now trying to get rid of as many of those little orphan yarns as I can. I am going to either knit them or drop them off at the local senior center by April of 2010.*

*I reserve the right to keep a few of these orphans around, but only if I really, really love them or if I think that one of my girls will knit with them.

In that spirit I made an iPod cozy the other day. I only had a tiny bit of this yarn left and it was too pretty to throw out. Now I can toss the iPod in my bag and it will be safe. This is a great way to use up bit of sock yarn.

The Monkey who started it all

Carmen Banana is finally done. Well, except she needs some clothes now. I am pretty happy with how she turned out and so is her new owner Lena.

Flowers, flowers, everywhere

Twice recently I have been given flowers. I have to say that it delights me every time.
The first was this mini-orchid from my daughter. Lena walked down to the grocery store and purchased this orchid and balloon that said "Thanks." She just wanted to thank me for all I do. I am sometimes shocked at what a thoughtful kid she is.

Then I found this lovely pot of flowers on my front porch. I was so surprised and couldn't imagine who had left them. I turns out they were a thank you gift from my lovely friend Hilary for the quilt I gave her.

I also decided to press the blossoms that were falling off another orchid that I have. Even in death they were too pretty to compost. So, I got out the kids flower press to press them and I'll let you know how they turn out.

In the flower press I found these lovelies from who know when.

Going a little bananas

I all started with this. As soon as Lena saw what I was working on she insisted it was exactingly what she had always needed.

It soon progressed to this.

Here is how she looked just a little bit ago. She now has her ears but I will haven't finished the tail. You can now tell that is is a sock monkey. When I saw this knit from KnitPicks I knew that had to knit it even thought I didn't know what I would do with it.

Seeing Carmen progress Lena decided that she wanted to make a sock monkey as a birthday gift for her friend. So, to the internet I went to find the proper sock to make a monkey out of.
We sewed him together yesterday evening. Much faster than knitting one!
This afternoon he got his heart.
His super hip vest that Lena made a designed her self.
Lena decided that he also needed a jaunty little scarf to complete the ensemble. Actually, she wanted to add pants, but I told her. "Don't be silly sock monkeys don't wear pants." I may have just wanted to be done with the project;)

I have a feeling that this blog is not done with monkeys yet!

Fresh from the pumpkin patch

I needed a quick little Halloween gift for someone and I thought of this project that I had done in the past with a group of kids. It really is a nice simple hand sewing project for both kids and adults.


I started with a 7in diameter circle of orange felt (this felt is a wool blend so it is a bit easier to work with than). Stitch all the way around the circle with a strong thread and using a gathering stitch (just up and down).

Tug on both ends of the thread to gather the stitches, but don't tie it off yet.

Fill with some type of grain. I used buckwheat, but rice would also work well. Just use what ever you have. I filled mine about halfway but use less or more depending on your taste.

Add a small bit if some type of stuffing and tighten and tie off the threads.
The Pumpkin top is made my cutting a 2in or so circle out green felt with pinking shears. I then add a loop of felt through a slit in the middle of the circle. This own was hot glued because I pre-made a bunch of tops to do with a group of kids and in that case hot gluing was the most quickest way to do it. If you are just making one it would be easy enough to just hand stitch it and not heat up the glue gun.
The last step is to whip-stitch the top to the pumpkin bottom and enjoy.

Check out this giveaway

In my blog travels today I ran across this wonderful yarn giveaway. You should really check it out.

Getting the hubby ready for Fall

I finally finished my take on the Cambridge Jacket by Ann Budd it only took a year and a half to do. I had read from other people that the sleeves on this sweater were too wide. When everyone is having the same problem with a pattern you should assume that you will have the same problems. I started out with the best of intentions and reduced the arm stitches right from the start. Oh, well I still had to re-knit those sleeves and armhole shaping at least three time. This sweater spent more time in time-out than another sweater that I have ever knit.
This is the hubby modeling the sweater for me and when I complained about his modeling job this is what I got.



Ummm, thanks honey that is very nice (the sound of me rolling my eyes)


Oh, and the lucky man also got a new pair of toe-up socks. He isn't any better at modeling socks than he is at modeling sweaters. Oh, well.

Deepening Skies Cowl

I picked up this yarn (I think that is called Terra, but I can't find it on-line) intending to make a scarf out of it for my sister-in-law Lauren for her birthday. After much swatching and not a little swearing I decided to cal it quits and stop trying to make this loosely spun yarn do what is didn't want to do. The only problem is that at his point I was almost out of time and needed to make something, and did not have time for do-overs. So I used my Calming Waves pattern and whipped up a cowl for her birthday. I think is turned out well, but I don't think that I would buy this yarn again. I just really don't like working with thick and thin yarn.

In the sukkah

This is a totally craft-free post, so if you are not a family member you may just want to pass on by. Tonight was the second night of Sukkot and we celebrated with a family party. Unfortunalty it was windy enough to make it unpleasant in the Sukkah, but we all were able to spend a little time in the sukkah tonight. Lena and her friend decided to sleep in the Sukkah tonight and the wind seems to have died down for them at least.

Lena and a friend decorating the Sukkah.
In the Sukkah shaking the lulav.

Some little people braved the cold and ate ouside.
Even gamely took a turn with the lulav and etrog.

And some headed for warmer pastures.