Pantshead

What happens when you ask a two year old to put on his shorts.


Nice one, N. Nice one.

Progress

This is the beginning of my Minimalist Cardigan. I'm modifying the pattern by knitting it as one piece up to the armpit shaping. I need to get to 13 inches (about 2 inches to go) before I have to start thinking/paying attention to the pattern again. I thought I would hate the seed stitch, but it's actually pretty relaxing.

In other progress news, N peed in the potty once yesterday and twice today. Woo hoo! Of course, both times he called it poop. Hey, nobody's perfect.

Progress. I like progress.

A Lovely Lace Scarf

Over a year ago, I got the yarn and book to make the Peacock Tail and Leaf Scarf. I was excited to try something new and stretch myself as a knitter. I've done some lace, but nothing this fancy before. I loved the color and texture of the yarn.


But because I thought it would be a challenging and time consuming project and because I live in Texas where it is generally warm, I kept putting it off. Anyway, I finally just started it and I'm so glad I did. This lace project ended up being much easier than I expected. The "nupps" were challenging at first, but got much easier with practice. The lace pattern was easy to pick up and I quickly figured out the "rhythm" of it and only had to look back at the chart for reassurance at the beginning of some rows. The yarn seemed to be easier to work with in a lace pattern than it was in the stockinette of the Ripple Cardigan. This was still a somewhat lengthy project, but it was a fun one.

I finished knitting it about a week ago, but put off weaving in ends and blocking until yesterday. It is amazing what a difference blocking makes with lace. The scarf is much longer and wider now and the scalloped edges on the sides are totally due to blocking.
It was a beautiful sunny morning so I decided to go take pictures outside. I had lots of fun playing with my scarf in our little tree--with lots of sunshine and shadows to complement the lace.


And since I wasn't feel very photogenic, Pepper was kind enough to model for me.


Pattern: Peacock Tail and Leaf Scarf from Knitted Lace of Estonia by Nancy Bush
Yarn: 2 skeins of Rowan Kidsilk Haze in Shade 597 (70% Super Kid Mohair/ 30% Silk/ 25g/ 229 yd)
Needles: Size 3
Modifications: None. I had some yarn leftover. If I knit this again, I'd probably add a repeat or two of the middle lace pattern for a little extra length.

Turn A Square, and Another and Another

For a while now I've been kind of wanting to knit Turn A Square by Jared Flood of BrooklynTweed. I just liked the simplicity of it and the fun way the Noro stripes worked out. However, living in Texas, I didn't have much use for one. However, I recently heard of an opportunity to do some charity knitting by knitting some men's hats...and, of course, I thought of the the Turn A Square. I had about a skein and a half of gray Wool-Ease leftover from my Berry and Bramble Cardigan and a little bit of Noro leftover from the Entrelac Scarf. However, I was afraid the colors were a bit girly so when I saw Amazing at Michael's a decided to pick up a skein of that instead. Anyway, I knit one hat and really liked it and decided to keep going. I've now completed three and I think I might have enough yarn to make one more.

Pepper decided she needed to check out these things in her backyard.

This hat is truly a pleasure to knit. The pattern is clearly written and simple to knit. I learned how to do jogless stripes which was really easy and very rewarding. The fun of watching the Amazing stripes change was motivating and kept the hats interesting.

This photo shows the progression of the yarn color changes. The hat on the left is the first hat and the hat on the right is the third hat.

I highly recommend this pattern. I never make three (or four) of anything. These were so relaxing to make and used up very little yarn.

And, of course, I have three boys and three hats so they had to model them for me.

Pattern: Turn A Square by Jared Flood (BrooklynTweed)
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease in gray (about 1 1/2 skeins makes 3-4 hats)[80% Acrylic/20% Wool/ 3 oz/ 197 yd]; Lion Brand Amazing in Arcadia (1 skein makes 3-4 hats) [53% Wool/47% Acrylic/ 1.75oz/ 147 yd]
Needles: Size 7 16" Circular and Doublepoints
Modifications: None



So fun! Now I'm pondering a nice Turn A Square sweater. Can't you see these stripes on a simple raglan pullover?

Two!

My little N turned 2 today! Two years old. I just can't believe it. He was so excited about his cake. He chose chocolate with purple icing. He blew out his candle like a pro.


Happy Birthday, Littlest Man! You're growing up so quickly!

Happy Mother's Day

Hope you are all having a lovely Mother's Day! Despite the fact that the boys were pretty rotten all morning, I have had a lovely Mother's Day. The boys made me a bird feeder at Lowe's a few weeks ago and then came home and decorated it with paint and glitter glue. It is LOVELY and B has already hung it on the front porch for us to enjoy. I hope the birds find it soon.

At school, J painted me a lovely kitchen towel complete with handprint frogs and thumbprint flies. Very cute. He also filled out the following questionnaire about me. J's answers are the bold words.

My Mom is the most wonderful in the world! Her name is Haley. She is 33 years old. Her favorite color is red. Mommy looks pretty when she puts on shirts. Her favorite food is Mac n' Cheese. My mom's favorite household chore is vacuuming. Mommy always tells me "It's time to go to the pet store." I like to go to the Pet Store with my Mom. I think my Mom is funny when she makes a funny face, but I know when she is angry when she puts me in Time Out.

I think he mainly decided his favorites (red, mac n' cheese, vacuuming, going to the pet store) are my favorites. I noticed he was only one of three in his class who seemed to know their mom's age. I thought it was funny that he thinks I look pretty when I put on shirts. I guess that means he thinks I look pretty every day!

As I did last year, I asked B to take a few pics of me with the boys as part of my Mother's Day gift. The weather was kind of cold and yucky, my new shirt shrunk in the dryer, and J kept making silly faces so this is what we got:

A Two "Woo Hoo!" Night

Tonight was a big night at our house.

Two red letter moments.

First, J ate fish sticks for the first time. Anyone who knows J and his eating habits knows this is a huge deal. He didn't like them at first, but decided to try them again later in the night (because he was hungry) and ate three. He ate fish sticks VOLUNTARILY with NO DRAMA! Woo hoo!

Then at bedtime N decided to try and use the potty again and peed in the potty for the first time! He was trying to poop, but whatever, he peed IN THE POTTY! Woo hoo!

Yes, I woo hoo'd twice tonight.

It's the little things that make this Mama happy.

A For Effort

He's not being successful with it yet, but N is getting interested in the potty. Last night he decided he wanted to try and poop in the potty.


Nothing happened, but he had fun trying. As you can see, we turned it into a family event. Motherhood is SO glamorous!

Sorry for the lack of posts around here, I'm trying (keyword: trying) to work out some and clean and cook some and it's taking away from my blog time :). I'm also re-obsessed with knitting and am trying to finish up my lace scarf so I can knit up a little cardigan (or two) for myself.