Knitting In The North

Little Baker

We've become friendly with a family whose daughter goes to preschool with Gwenyth.  When the little girl's birthday arrived, they invited the whole clan of us over to celebrate (the bonus:  we make a whole party, just with us!), and I knew she needed something special for her special day.

 

The girl in question loves to help in the kitchen, and is already a dab hand at muffin baking, so I thought this set would be just the thing.  I used these tutorials to help me along, and am quite pleased with how they turned out.   

 

The response was one to warm any crafter's heart - "I want to make muffins NOW!". 

 

 

Realities & Blessings

Another Friday is here - it's amazing how quickly they are arriving these days!  I've missed the last couple of weeks, but am ready to get some closure on this week, by joining in with Madeline Bea!

 

 

 

 

 

Reality:  Our washing machine has been on it's last legs for a good long while.  We were hoping it would hang in there until Christmas (when we could score an awesome Boxing Day Sale), but it gave up the ghost this week.  It blew a seal, and leaked grease all over a load (even more annoying - the load in the machine at the time held our white shower curtain, a pair of shoes and Liam's crib sheets.  Groan.). 

 

Blessing:  Even though it wasn't in the plan, we were still able to get a new washing machine.  It's an efficient, front loading one (with a wool setting - very important), which makes my crunchy heart happy.  Even better, it's Bahama Blue - oh so pretty.  Maybe I should paint the laundry room to match?  

 

 

 

 

 

Reality:  We're busy getting ready for our Williams Family Adventure this July - a road trip to Ontario, to see Stuart's family, with a stop in Manitoba to see mine, too.  While I'm excited at the idea, the reality of 8 long travelling days with the kids was a little less thrilling. 

 

Blessing:  Enter Stuart, the Wonder Husband!  He noticed that there was an airline seat sale, and booked tickets for me, Katie, Gwenyth & Liam to fly to Winnipeg a few days before we were scheduled to leave.  (Brian can't come, because he has Squirt camp at our local Bible Camp.  He doesn't mind that he's being left behind, since he gets to go to camp, and then have two days of "guy time" with Stuart while they drive to Winnipeg together.)  We'll hang out with my mom for a long weekend, and the boys will pick us up to head on to Ontario.  I'm sooo happy - I haven't had any quality time with my mom for a couple of years, and I miss her terribly.  I can hardly wait - extra days with my mom, and two less driving days with the kids?  Priceless!

 

 

8

 

 

Brian has been waiting for a long time, it seems, but his big day finally arrived on Monday!  We have tried, in past years, to make birthdays more about family celebrations, and not so much about The Party, but this year, the actual Birthday arrived on a holiday, so we decided to throw him a little bash. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The beauty of eight year olds is that a party can still be pretty simple - water balloons, face painting, temporary tattoos, lots of running and screaming and chasing.  Then hot dogs on the BBQ, and a water-themed cake to finish it off.

 

Brian can be a sensitive little guy, and as a true middle child, tends to really feel it if there's a lack of attention or focus on him.  In the same way, a party for him, with his friends and family around him, is really appreciated - which makes it all the more wonderful to do for him.  (Even for me, the mama who finds throwing parties and being surrounded by other people's noisy children stressful and exhausting.)

 

 

 I may not love throwing birthday parties, but I sure do enjoy filling up that little love tank!

 

  

Making Stuff

 

 

 

I have been working hard to change my thought processes this year - to ask myself, when I feel a need for something, if I can make it myself, before I run out to the store (or even the thrift store) looking for it. 

 

When Brian decided he needed a shield, then, it made me so happy to see that he wanted to make it himself.  Since he's the most like me in personality of all the kids, he started by making a plan.  To keep it official, it went down on paper (in List Form, naturally - there's nothing so satisfying as a good list), and then supplies were gathered.  This particular project is a collaboration between Brian & his dad, and it's so fun to see them working on it together. 

 

It's moving slowly - a little more every weekend, when the boys have time together to get it done, and I can't wait to see it finished, and out there helping Brian in all his adventures!

 

 

Summer Knitting

I borrowed this book from the library, and immediately put poor Buttercup on the back burner to cast on this little clutch.  I had some nice cotton yarn sitting in my stash, and after growing a bit weary of the soothing sea of stocking stitch, felt a little lace project was just the ticket.    (I think a pair of summer slippers are in order, too, if I can keep the book from the library long enough.)  Mmmm.... Veronik Avery sure knows her way around a ball of yarn! 

 

 

FO: February Girl Sweater

This sweater was an experiment of sorts - Gwenyth was asking for a sweater, we had recently seen this little one completed online, and I had some leftover yarn floating around in the stash.  As we have heard before, Miss Gwen is a bit... particular... about her clothing.  It has to be the right style, the right shape, the right pattern, the right yarn, the right level of itchiness...  All things seemed to come together in this pairing of pattern and yarn, though (until today, when she refused to wear it because it isn't pink).   

 

Particulars:

Pattern: Baby Sweater on Two Needles, The Knitter's Almanac, Elizabeth Zimmerman

Yarn: Estelle Silk, Green, 2 1/2 balls

Needles: 5mm Denise Interchangeables

Notes/Modifications:  I used the numbers for the baby sweater almost exactly - because of the difference in gauge, when I did the math, it was so close I decided to just follow along as I was told.  I knit the sleeves in the round, as I did on the last sweater I knit from this pattern.  I majorly screwed up the length of the yoke, and should have divided the sleeve stitches off the body at least one full pattern repeat earlier than I did, but I wasn't interested in ripping it back to fix it.  I suppose Gwenyth will have a green silk shrug that will last her for years to come!  I ran out of yarn, as I knew I would (this is the beauty of this pattern - if you finish up your sleeves first, you can just keep going on the body until your yarn ends) and I had literally 3" of yarn hanging after I bound off - just enough to carefully weave in the ends and breathe a sigh of relief!  It's more bolero length, but looks sweet over a sundress, and the silk makes a lovely fabric.

 

 

 

 

Can you believe this girl is almost the Big 5?  We have a whirl of birthdays in the next few months, and I'm not ready for any of them.  I keep asking the kids if they'll skip a year, and we can pick up with the birthdays next year, but so far I have no takers.  I can't figure out why... I think I would be okay with skipping a birthday myself  - as long as I still get to eat cake!

 

  

Mother's Day Crafting

I like to plan some kind of crafty activity for the days when I do daycare - it keeps the preschoolers quiet during nap time, gives me a tiny bit of creative outlet, and is generally a good, low-key activity for all of us.

 

I had planned to make some polymer clay pendants with the kids the week before Mother's Day, but the clay went missing the day of our project, and I was in a bit of a bind.  There were expectant little faces in front of me, waiting to do a project - what was I going to do?  I remembered seeing this post, and the day was saved.  A useful gift, made of nothing but some rocks (special ones, obviously, brought home from our lake visit) and wire?  That sounds like my kind of crafting!  

 

 

Mother's Day

Mother's Day tends to be a special day around here - we all love to give gifts, and treat each other special on our special days, and the crew did a great job this year showing me that love.  Katie kindly had a "sleepover" with Gwenyth & Brian so that they could get up early and make me breakfast.  I got to lay in bed and read, while the kids made a strawberry smoothie, bacon & eggs & sliced cantaloupe for their mama. 

 

So sweet, and then they showered me with all these lovelies (one of my favourites: a book of Katie's poetry, dedicated to me.  So sweet).  I had to work during the day, but after I finished Stuart took me out for a bit of shopping, and then we all had dinner out.  A peaceful day. 

 

There are other days that I wonder what on earth I'm doing here.  Days that I feel like no one really appreciates the sacrifice and the work and the effort.  I know that if you're a mom, you probably do, too.  And I sincerely hope that you get a day, whether it's Mother's Day or any other one on the calendar, when your family lets you know not just that they love you, but that they actually do appreciate you.  Really.

Realities & Blessings (On Saturday)

Reality: It's been yet another long week.  Yesterday, when I finally had a chance to sit down at the computer to write this post, I was too tired to think straight, and gave it a miss.

 

Blessing:  Because I wasn't at work, I had the freedom to give myself some space last night.  I read to the kids, fooled around on the computer for a bit, and went to bed early with a new book.  I'm feeling much better today; sometimes, a little "me" time is all it takes!

 

 

 

 

Reality:  One of the kids, who prefers to remain nameless (meaning, No One did it again), cleaned up our back door area by tossing all the shoes there out onto the deck.  Unfortunately, it then rained for two days, at which point I realized my favourite old brown shoes were missing.  You know where I found them, right?  Sigh.  They're ruined, (although since I've been wearing them since I was pregnant with Brian, they've had a decent run) and I was really upset.

 

Blessing:  What's not to like about new shoes?  I took a quick stop into one of those discount name brand stores, and found these!  They're just my style, they're leather, and comfy on top of it.  I suppose I can't be too annoyed now, eh?

 

 

Would you like to play along, too? 
 

The More Things Change...

... The More They Stay the Same.  Remember this?

 

 

 

Now, he's moved on to this:

 

 

 

 

Although if he wants, now he can get a better look.