Our First Week Of Summer

Ok. One week of summer down....how many to go.... I have been making my lists and loving the Internet. There are so many crafty and creative parents out there and I am trying to ensure that we have a fun filled summer. Crafting, playing, beach fun, friend fun, barbecue's, cooking and such.

The kids I and made these silhouettes for Father's Day. They really turned out cute and were inexpensive and priceless all at the same time :)

The tutorial is here. This was fun, easy, the kids did all the painting which they always enjoy and I just handled the ummm technical aspect.

I also finished up the skull hat for my little boy. I modified it down by leaving out some skulls to fit his noggin and it fits beautifully. Unfortunately he wasn't really all that hip on wearing a wool beanie in 85 degree weather for a photo shoot so this shot will have to do. I used Cascade 220 superwash for the yarn and went one size down on the needles. Pattern is We Call Them Pirates (ravelry), super easy to follow, fast, and fun. I am still working steadily on my hedgerow coat but I think all of these small knits are making me too used to instant gratification because I want to be done already. I think I'll get one more hat in before the month is up....

Make sure to check out Chris's topographie & Gretel

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Please don't get bored yet.

So at the risk of boring you with two boring hats here goes.....I am still on my crusade to root out all random skeins of yarn and anything not big enough for a sweater or tagged for another project is fair game. I already made some mitts out of the yarn below and had just enough for a hat. My son was not very willing to participate in this photo shoot.

We are having one of those fabulous "phases" my son doesn't want to do anything without me firmly by his side. Unfortunately the reverse is also true....no taking pictures without him right by my side or preferably holding him. Ah the joys of toddler hood :)

Thankfully the hat is a 1x1 rib and quite stretchy so my daughter subbed in.

I got our old pop tent out for the kids to play in outback in the hopes to distract him enough to give me a moment to myself.

It worked just long enough for me to get in a few photos of this stripe hat I whipped up with some scraps. I'm sorry but I just made these on the fly with no pattern to share and I don't have the faintest idea what yarn I used.

I hope your week is going well.

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Home

Thank you so much for all the good wishes for my trip....it was a blast!! I stayed at Palm's Place in Las Vegas. The theme of the trip was 'do whatever you want'. It consisted of laying by the pool, reading this book, napping, more lounging, and then going out at night for nice dinners in non-kid friendly restaurants :). A much needed restorative trip to get me in the right mind-set for summer. When I got home late Friday afternoon there wasn't much time for me to acclimate back into mommy mode. I did some quick hellos we had dinner and then went off to a baseball game. Saturday morning I woke up and my daughter, my sister, and my mother, met up with my aunt and three cousins to go see The Lion King on stage. WOW! If you have a chance to go I highly recommend it. My daughter was not a fan of the packed theater and all the "strangers" around her but the minute the lights went down and the animals came down the aisle next to us she didn't make another sound. After a 2 1/2 hour drive to the theater and then a turn around home that evening I haven't done much the last two days. Today has been a lot of laundry and kind of gearing up for the week. Getting back into the groove. I didn't do much knitting on my trip but I have a few things to share and hopefully I'll get some pictures in the next day or two. Now I'm off to do some much needed catching up on all your blogs!

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Braid Hat

Another hat finished. This one is for my daughter. She has been asking and asking for a purple hat and when I found this pattern I knew we had the right one.

I used Cascade 220 superwash, because I don't relish hand washing my childrens knits. Her favorite part is the long braids.

The pattern is Meghan's Braids from One-Skein Wonders and is a great pattern book for stash busting. The book is broken up into sections by yarn weight which makes it very handy when you have a stray skein or two.

She is actually standing still in these photos. Surprised? Well when you are picking fresh strawberries from the yard and eating them it is better to stand still :)

I will be gone from this space for the next week. Tomorrow I am heading to Las Vegas with Miss D. We don't come home till Friday. No kids, no husbands, no responsibilities!! Jealous? I get back Friday but I will be leaving again Saturday morning for a ladies only trip to see the Lion King on stage. My mother, my sister, my daughter, and myself will be meeting up with other female members of our family and having lunch and watching the show. I will check in with you all next week. Hope you are having a glorious start to your summer!!

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Okay, I'll reconsider my position on hats

OK you guys. I knit up a hat. I decided after reading your comments that maybe I should knit something up quickly and reconsider my hat opinion. I grabbed the leftover skein of yarn from my axel mitts and hunted around ravelry. I found this pattern and love the blog so I thought why not?

Light not so great, we are in the middle of a ten day thunderstorm forecast and if I wait for good light then I might miss June completely. It was really fast and oh my it is super super warm. I was sweating like crazy after trying to take some pictures. There were quite a few shots of either the top of the hat or the bottom of my chin. This was the only one that turned out halfway decent. I like it a lot, except there is a little puckering at the top and after looking at the pictures I think I am going to go fix that, maybe add a row or two between decreases to smooth it out. Total instant gratification knit. Now where are all your hats :)?

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June EZ Knit-a-long

For June Elizabeth Zimmerman recommends hats. Another small knit that is quite portable. It will fit into a small bag and can be taken on the airplane and worked on, car trips, or if you go to a lot of baseball games (as I do), this fits nicely into my carryall bag I tote to each game.

The unfortunate part of this? I don't wear hats. They don't look good on me and I usually find them itchy, not to mention that I suffer serious bouts of hat hair when I take them off. I will be knitting a few kid hats this month as gifts to give away this fall and maybe a beret for my mother. She is allergic to wool so I will have to find a suitable alternative. But what about me? :) I need a selfish knit too.....I still have my hedgerow coat, the back is finished and I am working on one side but I need a hat. Until I find one for myself I'll just work on the kids and I put a few links below in case anyone else needed a jump start. Happy Knitting.


Here are some free patterns that are another great way to stash bust and if your stash is low you won't have to break the bank if you need to buy some yarn.



Cross country chullo for adults, for the little Daniel Boone in your life an animal friendly coonskin cap, a fun Halloween inspired balaclava, a delicate lace beanie, an english driving cap, topi if you want a brim on your hat, the duchess starfish hat, the princess beret, a daisy hat for little girls, a slouchy hat for her, summery floppy brimmed hat, cables and bobbles baby hat, we call them pirates hat, and on the left sidebar I have a pattern for a small child's hat. All of these patterns are free and available outside Ravelry for any of you who aren't members (although I highly recommend becoming one ASAP) :)




Perhaps you don't like wearing hats but want to keep your ears warm...why not try Calorimetry a head band of sorts, I think I might make one for myself.

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Kid Mitts

I am a day late on posting the last of my mitt wips. I am going to blame the company I had over the weekend and my son's second birthday party. It was your typical crazy toddler birthday party complete with food, drinks, tears, cake, cupcakes, ice cream, tears, a cookie monster pinata, tears, and then clean up. I helped him gather candy from the pinata.

Here are my kids mitts I finished up at the end of the month. I used this fantastic pattern (it is for all sizes). I scrounged up scrap yarn and cast on, two pairs for each child. They fit great and are very warm. If you want to make your own I highly recommend this little basic pattern and then add/change as you want.

Check out Thea's mitts more of her mitts here, they are beautiful! Chris has also been busy, check out here mitten. I hope I didn't miss any of your mitts from May, if I did drop me a comment and I'll post a link! Wednesday I'll have the June knit-a-long stuff.

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