sistermama gets real

On and Off the Needles

Thanks for all your kind words about my post yesterday.  I really value having a place to share honestly my mothering experiences, and I love getting to know about your's as well.  

Our house is gearing up into craft central. Jack, Lu and I have about three projects going each and we are just getting started.  Knitting is pretty much on hold right now, but I had a productive fall.   Off the needles:


Matching pumpkin hats for Lucy and my niece.  Makes me nostalgic for the first time I knit matching pumpkin hats.




Diaper soaker for a little sweetie.  


A great little pattern that flew off Jack's needles.  Can you tell how proud he is to be giving it as a gift?




Off the sewing machine needle, ruffle pants for my niece's first birthday.  Love the pants, but never making them again!  Unless, maybe I buy a ruffler foot.

A cabled cardigan for Lucy.  I've already had to rip it out once when I was about 70% done.  I realized I had been following the wrong size in the pattern.  Started it all over and promptly lost the pattern.  And of course it is one you can only by in hard copy.  Must send off for it.  Maybe I'll remember to do that at some point?


If I ever get sheep I want these babydoll kind.  How adorable are they???

 

Recent Crafting

Have you seen the movie The Golden Compass?  The books were better, but oh, the knitting!!!  The minute after I finished watching it I was googling "Golden Compass" and knitting patterns, because I knew that other people would have already figured it out for me.  The first thing I found was this great hat.  I used one strand of Lamb's Pride bulky, one strand of worsted Icelandic Lopi and one strand of worsted brown tweed (don't remember what kind).   Once I finished the hat, I decided to make a poncho to match.  I can't remember what poncho pattern I used because I looked for ages, couldn't find one I like, settled for one and then quickly wiped it out of my memory.  Lucy loves the poncho but hates the hat, as you can see.  "Too itchy." 

The only hats that Lucy actually likes to wear are cotton knit.  So I've been making her another from the Little Turtle Knits pilot hat pattern.  I really don't like paying for knitting patterns since there are so many free ones, but this one is totally worth it.  I've knit it with that cheap Peaches and Cream cotton yarn from the evil empire and it actually washes quite well.  Instead of ties, I just make a little i-cord on one side, sew a button to it and just push it through the knit on the other side. 

Thanks to my friend, I actually got around knitting something for myself.  She gave me two skeins of Auraucania Magallanes with the admonition that I was only to knit something for myself.  I decided on a hat, using this pattern "Layla: Classic Knit Tam" on Ravelry.  If you knit, and haven't signed up for Ravelry yet, you can't imagine what you are missing.  I wanted the hat a little slouchier, so I add a few more rows of increases.  I used this as a test model for the pattern, and then made my mom one out of some really nice alpaca for Christmas.

It's super hard trying to be photogenic when you are taking a picture of yourself.  Bah.