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Sunday, February 27, 2011

Not a Forever Pom-Pom? We'll Have to Wait and See

Sean's birthday is on Monday and he's turning the big 3-0, so we decided to have a family whoop-di-do for him Saturday night.  We ate our faces off and had a great time eating Chinese food, two kinds of cake, and of course, opening presents.

I've always thought that knit and crocheted items naturally look more girly, so when trying to think of something to make for my 6'5" brother, I really had to scour the internet for something he would actually wear.  I made him a cool tuque using this pattern for a Reversible Strands Hat that I found on Ravelry.  The hat is reversible with one side being ribbed and the other side being flat.


I changed the pattern slightly because I wanted to use Lion Brand's Wool-Ease Thick & Quick yarn, which is super-bulky.  I crocheted his hat using a 10mm hook, started with 8 double-crochet, and did two extra partial rounds of increases (if you'd like to know exactly what I did, feel free to message me).

The pom-pom was Dave's idea and done strictly as a joke.  I originally told Dave that while I thought it would be hilarious, I didn't want to do it because, knowing Sean, he would leave the pom-pom on.  So when Sean opened his present and saw the massive pom-pom, I made sure to tell him "This is NOT a forever pom-pom.  Just so you know, I didn't attach it to stay on forever.  Let's take a picture and then we can cut it off."  And Sean's answer, predictably, "No way!  That thing's never coming off."

He went to see our cousin play basketball later that night, so if you don't believe that he would wear the tuque out in public with the pom-pom, check out this picture Kelly sent me live from the game.  My poor Nanny sitting behind him actually couldn't see the game through the pom-pom!


Who knows how long a purposely poorly attached pom-pom will stay attached to a hat, but I have a feeling it will be longer than a well-attached pom-pom would.  Murphy's Law gets me every time!
Happy Birthday Sean!  xo

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Daddy's Little Peach, and the Apple of His Eye

Our kids have all been "spitter" babies, and thus we have gone through our fair share of bibs.  Trust me on this, bibs are not all created equal.  My sister-in-law Krista made two beautiful bibs for Naomi that we use even now for Miss Alicia.  I love the shape and size and they are super absorbent.  I wanted to recreate these bibs so we could have more of them, but they are sewn, and I am a horrible seamstress.  I scoured the internet for weeks trying to find a suitable knit or crochet pattern without any luck, so I came up with this very simple single-crochet bib with a girly double-crochet ruffle in the general size and shape of the ones that Krista had made.  Dave is always calling Alicia his "little peach" and he really wanted the bib to have a peach on it, but I couldn't find a pattern for that either, so I made one up (the stem and leaf were done from this pattern I found for an apple coaster, but using a 6mm hook).  It came out looking exactly like an apple, and of course I know it's red, but it was scrap yarn and for some reason I thought it might look like that deep blush a really ripe peach has.  Oops!  Anyway, who will even notice a bib when Alicia is wearing it?!  Such a cutie-pie, and she was gracious enough to pose for a photo.  :)

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Who Gets a Blog for Their Birthday?

So here is Jill's actual birthday present.  It's a shawl that I knit based on a Lion Brand pattern called the Shawl of Gratitude.

This simple pattern creates a fabric with two distinctly different but equally beautiful sides, and the name of the pattern could not have been more appropriate.  I really am so grateful to have Jill as not only my sister, but also my friend.

The yarn is Bernat Cottontots in Sweet Cream.  Jill is on the taller side, so I made this quite a bit longer than the pattern called for...  It's actually taller than I am!  I kept asking Dave what he thought, "Is it long enough NOW?".  I just kept going until I got his stamp of approval.  I think at the end of it, he might have been just toying with me to see how long I would keep knitting.  :)

Thanks to Jill for taking this picture for me.  MWAH!

A Very Good Place to Start...

Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start...  I can't say it any better than the problematic Maria did in "The Sound of Music".  Every blog starts with an idea, and this one came from my sister.  It's her birthday, and she was determined that I should have a blog that documents my bouts of creative escapism.  I say "escapism", if that even is a word, because that's exactly what it is.  Escaping.  We all have things going on in our lives that are all too real, and sometimes it's nice to step back, flake out, and pretend as though life is normal, or maybe not even happening at all.  Like a real life "pause" button.  Yes, that's it.  A "pause" button.  Of course, anyone with children knows that "pause" does not exist between the hours of 7am - 7pm.  Ok, more like 6am - 8pm.  Ok, more like anytime when they aren't sleeping.  Children have this beautiful ability to keep us going, like tiny little precious motors installed into the very core of our being.  My children and my husband are my life, but they all go to sleep long before I do.  So what does a sorta-kinda obsessive-compulsive insomniac with a hint of ADD do when her motors are all sleeping?  The answer is simple.  Keep busy.  I know that sounds crazy.  Keep busy does not equal pause, right?  Well, if my mind is so busy that it can't contemplate reality, that is a beautiful kind of pause.  When my family is awake, that happens organically.  But while the kids are sleeping, I occupy my somewhat dysfunctional mind by doing needle-crafts, cooking, baking, exercising, watching tv, and sometimes various combinations of the above.  Yes, the laundry sometimes creeps in there, and (bleck!) house work, but no one wants to read about that.  I think.  Well, I wouldn't want to read about that and I'm pretty sure my sister doesn't either, so I won't write about it.
I already gave my sister her birthday present, but presents are always better in multiples, so here it is.  Present #2.  Happy Birthday Sis!  xo