summer

I took the boys to the turtle fountain at the Spectrum last week. It was a prefect little excursion on a really hot day.

Check out Little Man in the background of the video- he was getting the hang of 'levitating' his cup on the streams of water.

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pirates, part 2

pirates
Originally uploaded by shizzknits.

The boys found the stash of leftover party favors and look what happened.

Monkey Boy's quilt

I've been wanting to make a quilt out of the boys' baby clothes for a while now. I recent finished a log cabin class at a local quilt shop and although I haven't finished my class quilt, I did manage to complete a small patchwork quilt made from Monkey Boy's baby clothes:

I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out- I just wish I had made it a little bigger. Each of the striped/printed squares is cut out from one of MB's baby shirts. The squares had to be ironed onto interfacing to hold them together (they wanted to stretch out because they are made of t-shirt material). It was a learning experience trying to get the squares to match up evenly with the cotton material since the t-shirt squares were much thicker than the plain cotton.

Now onto a quilt for Little Man!

hottttt

It was 106F today. Holy-moley!

Some thunderclouds drifted in around 6pm and we went outside to talk to the neighbors and enjoy the cooler air.

Then we were treated to this lovely sunset:

troublemaker

I think the looks says it all.

Krista completed

Ok, I took like 20 photos and this is the only one that turned out halfway decent. Even a professional photog has a difficult time taking flattering/nice photos when it involves balancing the camera on the stairs, setting the focus and running to the correct spot before the self-timer clicks.



FO Report:
Krista from White Lies Designs.
Started/finished: June 19th, 2006/ July 16, 2006
Size: 42inch finished bust
Needles: Knitpicks' Options circs, sizes US5 and US7

Yarn: Subbed stash yarn- Rowan All Seasons Cotton in the discontinued Orkney color. Yarn purchased from Jannette on Ebay last year. The pattern calls for approx 600ish yds and I used every last inch of the 6 balls of ASC that I had. I was really sweating it at the end- I barely had enough yarn to seam the sweater!

My changes: Subbed the yarn. Added about 1 inch to the body of the sweater. Other than that, I followed the instructions pretty much to the letter. The pattern is well written...it only got confusing when it came to the front neck and arm shaping, which happens at the same time as a change in the lace pattern. I did have to rip that part out once, but had no problems at all the second time. Added single crochet around the front neckline to prevent rolling/looseness. Added 4 rows of garter stitch around the bottom because my first version rolled terribly and I was afraid that it wouldn't block out. The directions don't call for a border.

Comments: I love the way the ASC knitted up. I've never been a fan of knitting with cotton, but ASC has just enough give in it that my hands don't get worn out. The sweater was originally started on some bamboo (Clover?) circs, but they weren't sharp enough so I switched to the Knitpicks circs with their lovely sharp points. They were perfect for digging into all the SSK and K2Tog.

The sweater fits me pretty well overall; the sleeves are a little puffy at the shoulder and I"m not sure why. I *think* it might be because the sleeve cap is too short so when I raise my arms it rides up. I'm very likely to knit the sweater again and will increase the length of the sleeve cap next time. Though the next incarnation of the sweater may be a tank top instead.

Even tho ASC is a heavy yarn, the lacework makes this a fairly cool sweater. It's quite wearable and The Dearest says it's flattering, so I'm quite happy with how it turned out!

***ETA a couple more photos. Flickr took a dump while I was trying to upload some pics earlier. Now that it's working again, here are they are:

The neck lace and my single crochet

the lace pattern on the body; the added garter stitch edge

Krista blocking

As promised, a shot of Krista- lounging in the tub and attempting to dry out in our extra high humidity today.

If she ever does get dry, I'll do a modeling shoot with her.

They multiplied

Little Man's crocs spawned another pair.

I got my Mary Jane Crocs today and love them. They are sooooo comfy!

Now I've gone and done it...

I've sold my soul.

Witness my new ride:


It's not as sexy as an SUV, but my cheap-ass-ness won out over any self-esteem issues. Our new van was about $10k less than the comparable SUV, safer, and more fuel efficient. Plus Little Man proclaimed the self closing side doors "Too cool!".

I said the same thing when we returned to the parking structure after dinner tonight. The moron next to me on the driver's side was parked thisclose to the van. Even with sliding doors, it was an effort to get Monkey Boy into his carseat. I couldn't open my driver door- I had to climb in thru the passenger side and slide into the driver's seat. Much easier to do in the van than it would have been in my old car.

And there's so. much. room! The interior is cavernous....I'm almost afraid that the boys will get lost in there. I still haven't figured out how to store everything due to all the cubbyholes and storage lockers. Just give me some time, tho and I'm sure I'll be able to fill it up with junk.

I do miss my old PT....she had the most gorgeous paint. This is the best image I could find of the paint job (look at the background, not the cute kiddos in the front). Little Man almost started crying when I explained that we would be leaving the 'cwuiser' at the dealership today. He insisted on saying goodbye to the car, which made the sales guys grin. He cheered up considerably when he realized that the windows on the van rolled almost all the way down, and he could get in and out all by himself ("like big people!"). But tonight he did tell me that we need to paint the new car purple to match the old one.

On the knitting front, I've *finished* my Krista sweater!!! After publishing this post, I'm going to weave in the rest of the ends and press the sweater lightly. If it's not 10000 degrees tomorrow, I'll put it on and get a pic for a FO report.

acquisition

Buying stuff on the Internet is too easy.
Yarn, books, toys, etc..

Look what I have coming to my house any day now:















Aren't they cute? I found a pair at Journeys and had to have them.

I also got my new Mommy Tags in the mail (finally!). I'll try to post a pic shortly.

a day at the beach

Sometimes it's cool to have a hubby who is self-employed. The Dearest took the whole day off so we had a lovely day at the beach, as evidenced by the photos above. Monkey Boy was obsessed with the water and kept signing for "more" whenever the Dearest took him out of the ocean. MB's teeth were chattering and he was practically turning blue, but he cried when we wouldn't let him back into the water.

Everyone had a little rest when we got home except for Little Man. He probably should have taken a nap, though, as this happened:

on the way home from dinner tonight.

my little helper

This is why nothing stays tidy at our house

I was cleaning in the kitchen today and turned around to see this:

Sailing, sailing, over the open sea....

Be forewared:
Lots of pictures of cake, cutie pie kids and a video. No knitting content herein.

So, wanna see my version of the Pirate Ship cake? I baked two 9x13 inch yellow cakes last night and let them cool overnight on the counter. This morning I got busy cutting and icing....
Step 1: cut 2.5 inches out of one of the 9x13 layers and stack it on top


Step 2: cut the remaining cake in half, stack 1/2 on top:


Step 3: cut into the shape of a boat


Step 4: spread on icing


The finished product- I used licorice for the cannon and scored the icing with a fork to make it look like wood.


And LM blowing out the candles:

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(note the use of a serving platter as a shield, since a breeze started up AS SOON AS we tried to light the candles. Of course.)

The party went great. Every self-respecting pirate needs a sword, so I gave out inflatable swords, bandanas, eye patches and self-stick moustaches to every party goer. The inflatable swords turned out to be the right choice (as opposed to hard plastic swords); the kids had a ball using them to whack slow moving adults as well as each other. I didn't get a chance to catch any of the kids in the whole get-up, except for LM....hopefully one of the neighbors will have a pic to share.

My to-do list from last night included making a pair of shorts for Monkey Boy that matched LM's pirate pants. I was actually able to finish the shorts and here they are:


I also have pictures galore from the party. See them here if you're interested.

The next post should have some knitting content, I promise!

Happy Birthday, Little Man!

Today is LM's birthday. It's hard to believe that my 'baby' is now four years old! We are planning a Pirate Party for him tomorrow, at the local park. He's so excited that he could barely go to sleep tonight.

I'm probably not going to get much sleep tonight either, as I still have to finish the following before his party starts at 10:00am:
-prepare cold cut platters
-slice all the rolls and croissants for sandwiches
-fill the treasure chest pinata
-finish making his pirate ship cake (hopefully it will look something like the pic above)
-make a freezer paper T shirt with a skull and crossbones on it to match his pirate pants.
-finish matching pirate pants for Monkey Boy
What else am I forgetting? Probably alot, but I really should get back to work and finish up this post!

Since I'm addicted to the mosaic maker at FD toys, here's a little mosaic of LM's first few weeks.

(from top left: 20minutes old; 5 days; 1 week; bottom left- 4 weeks, 6 weeks, 5 mos)

We Celebrate the 4th

(the set is here)