sweater of many colors

My dear friend Maija from college (we met freshman year in the dorms, studied abroad in London together and were roommates throughout college) just had her second child, a sweet boy named Ryker. When I visited Maija after her first son, Marshall, was born I was struck by how all his clothes were in bright, fun colors. So when I found out she was having another baby I just had to make this new babe a bright, colorful sweater. My sweet Silas, 5 months old, begged to model it before we wrapped it up and sent it to Ryker. If you want the FREE pattern or knitting notes, check out my Ravelry page here.

As part of Ginny's Yarn Along we're also supposed to note what we're currently reading. I'm usually reading 3-4 books at a time. Which book I pick up depends on the time of day, where I'm reading (at the gym, home with kids, home after kids are in bed, etc.). This week I'm reading a sweet book from the 1930's called Down the Garden Path thanks to the idea from Lori, Montessori From the Start which has so many excellent ideas for how to foster independence and self esteem in children babies-age 3, and The Paleo Diet Cookbook. I'm also browsing through all my gardening books like The New Self Sufficient Gardener, Mini Farming and the Backyard Homestead to get inspired and help plan the changes we're making to our garden and yard this year. Did I tell you we're raising 30 meat chickens with friends (on their property- not our backyard!)? We'll be butchering them in a few weeks. I bet you can't wait for that blog post!

finger knitting and fabric play

For this week's Yarn Along with Ginny, my girls wanted to get in on it and show how they like to knit. In the above photos Annah demonstrates oh-so-easy finger knitting. Simply weave the yarn back and forth through four fingers and back again so each side of each finger is wrapped. Then lay the yarn across the fingers about half way up the finger above the loops and pull the loops on the fingers up and over the working yarn that is laid across the fingers. It's that easy! It's a great way to teach the basics of how knitting works.

This week the girls also pulled out their fabric paper doll set that my mom made them. These darling cloth paper dolls are made from a yard of this fabric. Simply cut out the dolls, back with iron on interfacing and flannel and create a play mat with flannel or chenille.

As far as my own knitting, I'm still working on my Annabel sweater in quince & co. mustard yellow, but in the meantime I needed a quick and easy project because the rows of garter stitch on the sweater is pretty monotonous. This domesticated wrap skirt was just the thing. It took me about 30 minutes to make and I love the fabric - the yellow even matches the Annabel. The great thing about this skirt is that when one side gets dirty (or covered in spit-up as happens to me way too many times a day) you simply untie, twist the skirt around and retie (see the two photos above). And you have an entirely new skirt! I made this with two 3/4 yard pieces of fabric and I bought bias tape instead of making my own. You can find the directions to make your own here.

on the needles

It's been hard finding time for knitting the past couple weeks. Parties, family visiting from out of town and other Christmas crafts have been pulling me in different directions. But it's just hitting me that Christmas is just a couple weeks away and I have lots of little gifts I wanted to knit. I did manage to start this cozy Tuesday Night Cowl for my mom (I don't know why it's called that, anyone know?) pictured above and a sweet little pink and white cupcake. My sister, who is visiting for a few weeks, works in a tea shop in England and wanted to learn to knit cupcakes for the window display. I was playing around with it and making up my own pattern to see if I could come up with something easier for her than all the dpn patterns out there. I also whipped out some more acorns and a cute little red and white toadstool (not pictured) to go with the forest critters.

For more knitting inspiration, head on over to  Ginny at Small Things.

yarn along: a little hedgehog

Joining today with Small Things to share my latest knitting project and book on my nightstand.

This week school books have made way for glitter, felt, yarn, beads and fabric scarps at our school table while the girls whisper plans and busily create Christmas gifts. And I've started knitting some secret Christmas gifts of my own in the late evenings. Here is my first little stuffie, a hedgehog,, for my 10 year old Mira who loves hedgehogs. I'm not totally happy with it because I think it looks more like a man's head than a hedghog, but I think she'll like it. I have plans to knit all the animals in the forest scene from the book, Little Knitted Creatures. I've just started reading Driving Over Lemons: An Optimist in Spain by Chris Stewart, a funny non-fiction read about the author and his wife leaving England to live on a dilapidated farm in Spain.

yarn along: a man hat

Once again I'm joining in on the yarn along with Ginny from Small Things. This week I took a four day break from my Shalom sweater to knit this Man Hat for Shane. Shane has been bugging me for a basic, no frills or fancy cables, winter hat for a couple months and since I was getting bored of working on the sweater I took a break to knit this for him. Doesn't he look great? Oh and I'm reading this book by Amanda Soule. The photos and project ideas are inspiring.

yarn along: a shalom sweater

I've been following the yarn along group at Small Things for almost a year now and decided to finally join in since I'm obsessed with knitting these days. For about a week now I've been working on this Shalom sweater for me. My hope is it will be a warm everyday sweater for home and camping trips. And I'm reading this inspiring blogging book. Can you tell I've been inspired to update the look of my blog? I started this blog originally as a site to showcase our home for a home exchange to Europe, then it became a place to update family far away with photos of what we've been up to but given that most of our family aren't really the blog reading types, I've decided to let it go ahead and be more of my crafting and life journal.