welcome 2012

Happy New Year and welcome to 2012!

We had a lovely end to 2011, but it went altogether much too fast. The holiday season came and went so quickly, as it always seems too.

Our family spent New Year's Eve playing Scrabble and listening to holiday music by the Christmas tree. As for calling in the new year, the children crashed out early on the couch, but at midnight, my husband and I shared a clink and a kiss. Neighbors rang bells, clanked pots and pans with spoons, and shot off a few fire crackers. It was a sweet and romantic start to 2012.

I am hoping 2012 will generously give all of us much joy and happiness! Happy New Year to you and yours!

Turkey Awareness Dye

It's that time again--holiday craft season has begun! I started my annual elving about a month ago, but I have only finished one project so far. It only took a day plus a few hours to finish, most of which was drying time, which took up Thanksgiving Day. Most people cook a turkey, but me? I cook yarn.

Using nine envelopes of Kool-Aid powder and 200 yards of wool, I made a very colorful skein of hand-dyed yarn for a friend's Christmas gift. My inspiration for this yarn came from the following image, which is a photograph taken during the Leonids:

 I took the better part of a skein of natural colored Cascade 220 and soaked it in a vinegar-water solution then laid it out in a casserole dish. I separately prepared the three blends of Kool-Aid in three individual jars.

In order to get the colors of the dye to replicate those I observed in the meteor shower, I experimented with flavor combinations. I used three packets for each third of the yarn dyed to get good color saturation. For the green, I used Lemon-Lime exclusively, and for the darker blue, I used Berry Blue. For the blue-green in the center, I combined two envelopes of berry blue and one envelope of lemon-lime.

Once the dyes were mixed in their jars, I poured them individually over the yarn, the green on the top third, the blue-green over the middle third, and the blue over the bottom third of the casserole dish.

 I put the casserole dish, yarn and all, in the oven and baked it for over an hour at 250 degrees. When I rinsed the yarn, some color bled out still, which makes me think it could have baked longer, though there is still a natural color definition between much of the color changes. Finally, I hung it to dry, and made a lovely skein.

Pattern: Quidditch Scarf

Now you can create your very own knit Quidditch Scarf to wear and support your favorite Quidditch team (or sport of any other sort, for that matter) in Hogwarts style! This reversible ribbed scarf is simple to knit. With a long, skinny design, this scarf can easily be made wider, longer, shorter, and can be worn long or wrapped around the neck.

This scarf pattern was primarily inspired to mimic the clean lines and blunt color changes of the Quidditch sweaters worn by the Gryffindor Quidditch team in the film Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (below is an image of Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley modeling the sweater for us).

In order to knit a scarf to fulfill your own personal team pride, you need to know the appropriate colors of each of the houses. Hogwarts House Colors are as follows:

• Gryffindor -- Red and gold
• Hufflepuff -- Yellow and black
• Ravenclaw -- Blue and bronze (blue and gray in the films)
• Slytherin -- Green and silver

Pattern: Quidditch Scarf


Supplies
US 10 (6.0 mm) needles
Two skeins worsted weight wool, one dark color, one light color [recommended: Cascade Yarns 220 Wool]
Yarn needle for sewing in ends

Instructions
Cast on 24 stitches in Main Color [MC]
Row 1: Knit 2, Purl 2
Repeat Row 1 for 23 more rows (24 rows total).

After initial 24 rows, switch to the Contrast Color [CC]
Repeat Row 1 for another 24 rows.
Continue alternating 24 rows of MC and 24 rows of CC until scarf reaches desired length.
End in MC.
Cast off.

Finishing
Using yarn needle, sew yarn tails from cast-on, cast-off, and color changes.

yoda, baby!

Star Wars. Well it has a following, right? Maybe just a little one. My dear husband loves Star Wars. Everything about it. He saw Return of the Jedi for the first time in the cinema when he was a boy. 

He does not know it yet, but for his birthday this year, I made him this fabulous knit Yoda hat.

I took Sunshyne Leland's pattern, Felted Baby Yoda Hat, and edited it in order to fit an adult head. Next year, I hope to sew David a Jedi robe so that he can go all out as Yoda for various costuming events. David also has this idea of making lightsaber whips, which are weapons that Sith warriors use during the Clone Wars and in some of the Star Wars novels. If he made one in green (Yoda's lightsaber is green), it would give the perfect touch.

Here is what I did to make the pattern fit an adult (see full notes on my Ravelry project page):

With US 11, CO 90. Begin decreases after 11 inches.
Ears: With US 13, CO 23 with two strands held together. Follow St st for 3.5 in inches/12 rows
  decrease row
  cont 3 rows
  decrease row
  cont 3 rows
  decrease row
  cont 3 rows
  k2tog
Decrease every other row until 13 sts left.
Follow pattern from here until end.
Flaps: Pick up 24 and continue in St st, decreasing every 4th row.

unplugged... and plugging into the family

This month, I have been focusing much of my time on family life. We have done everything together, from visiting the amusement park, the beach, to traveling to Wisconsin to enjoy the company of family there, thrifting and stopping in local restaurants and specialty shops, from re-purposing much of our living space to re-purposing our time to focus more on things that matter most to us.

I have had a good solid 10 days off work, during which we took a four-day vacation, reorganized (and scrubbed down) the kitchen to make it an eat-in space, re-purposed the dining room to hold all of our paints and family art and craft supplies, and built movable displays for David's artwork. I am tired from all the hard work and long days, but encouraged by the progress we have made and the time we have spent together.

There are several things that I really wanted to get done during my time off that will have to wait, but I am happy with how everything has turned out so far. The house is beautiful and comfortable, and is in good shape for moving our lives back indoors as summer comes to a close.

a day at the farm

Much of the way we measure and talk about the passage of time with our little ones is by seasons--it seems so much more tangible to them than calendar months and years. They are fully aware of how humid it feels, or how the tomatoes are turning red on the vine, or how the evenings offer a wonderful cool relief from the hot, long days. It does not matter that July is over and August is nearly upon us or that school is in session again soon.

One beautiful summer day when the sun was not quite so hot, Evelyn, Esme and I took some time to visit Learning Tree Farm, which is a lovely educational, fully functional farm run by volunteers. We met all sorts of creatures, from the barn cats to chickens, from donkeys to ponies, sheep, and goats. We observed the vegetables, nearly ready to be picked, the sweet scent of the flowers, the tang of the herbs and spices on the air. There is nothing quite like the sound, smell, and fell of life at the farm.

 

 

 

There are very few outings (for me, anyway) that are easy with the two girls and just one adult. The zoo, the woods, and the farm--those are easy, and fun, and wonderful. The hardest part is always the leaving. No one ever wants to leave.

this moment

{this moment} - from SouleMama - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.