• June 4, 2010

    Smitten with mittens…

    All I can think about are mittens! Mittens I want to make. I am almost done my second pair in the past few days. The first, which is just drying, is a pair of felted neon-y Noro Kureyon and black stranded mittens in a geometric pattern I made up. The pattern is comprised of rows of leaves and petals that have been distilled from their original inspiration (bright flowers on the cover of Good Housekeeping) into a more South American geometric mitten aesthetic. When I was younger I remember getting mittens and gloves from Global Connections at The Forks that were handmade in South America. The geometric patterns were so simple and pretty, and the colours really made the bold pattern pop. I wanted to use a yarn that was really bright, inspired by both the flowers on the cover and these original mittens I once had (and lost, of course). Anyways. So I bought the brightest Kureyon I could find at Ram Wools. I paired it with a solid black Istex Lett Lopi. I find the Lett Lopi pairs really well with Kureyon, as they both have similar weights and textures, amoung other qualities. It also comes in a decent amount of solid colours to counterpoint the crazy  colour-changes in the Kureyon. Then after spending lots of time with graph paper and pencil, I came to a final pattern. It was a super quick knit, taking only a few hours for each mitten. Then I washed them twice to felt them up a little for extra warmth. If you click on the picture it goes to the corresponding Ravelry page. I am going to update it with the final felted project soon.


    Ben was really excited by the finished mittens. He kept poking one with one of my needles saying “Making holes, fixing holes.” Then he kept stealing them and using them as driving gloves. He told me “Just like a race car (driver).” What a cutie.
    The other pair of mittens that I am still working on, is a pair of recycled sari silk mittens. It’s a little bit of an unconventional mitten yarn, but when I tried to find a good pattern for the ball of Wild Peacock Recycled Silk I got from Darn Good Yarn, all I could find was drop-stitch scarves, and I am just not a fan of them. So I decided, why not make mittens! Because the yarn is so chunky, and the needles so big (8), they are a super super quick knit. I made up the pattern on the fly, and it turned out well. I think the mittens show off all the colours and intricacies of the recycled silk so well. I love all the colours! I can see these giving a lot of hope for warmer days come winter. Again, the picture links to the corresponding Ravelry page.

    Little O is doing so well. He is almost 4 months old.He rolls over both ways, and is trying so hard to move around on his tummy. I brought out B’s old spinning play mat (that is not quite the same one, its a newer model, but the idea is the same), so he could have a bit more fun while wiggling around. I found both of the boys really liked this because it allowed them to spin about really easily just by inadvertent foot or hand movements. Which made them both enjoy tummy time a lot more, because I found they were mostly getting frustrated by not being able to move. O’s little coos sound less screechy and more syllable-ish every day. 

    B is such a funny little guy. He loves his cars. Above is a picture of him with a car mall he asked me to make for him. He loves having places to park them. He calls parking garages “car houses.” Anything an item is stored in is its house, and he loves finding houses for things. Sometimes I will find his Hot Wheels in perfect-sized spots for them in between books in his bookcase. He’s recently started identifying objects by how many there are. He can identify one to four things. Like three cars or two books. Anything over four is four. 

    The next few days will be busy. I have lots of baking to do (buns, cinnamon bread, cookies, cheese crackers, regular crackers, and scones or muffins) and the prepa
    ratory shopping for that. Our library books are due this weekend, and I have some more ideas for mittens I need to work out.

  • March 21, 2010

    On living in a toy box.

    I spend a lot of time in our living room. When I say a lot, I really mean it. This is mostly due to O being so teeny tiny and liking to be awake at strange hours on top of having to be awake all day. Our living room, or rather I should say, living area, is very large, and loosly sectioned off into three areas. In one area, a little nook, is the tv, coffee table, and couch. Adjacent to this is the kid area, probably the largest of the three, and the most infectious, spreading toy cars all over the place. The third is the dining area. One of my biggest pet peeves in our place is that the dining area is carpeted. This sucks with kids. It sucks a little less after buying Ryan a Roomba for Christmas. It’s like a robot dog that does not get sick (This is a cool guide to Roomba “songs”. And it actually works pretty well! B was just warming up to the Roomba after being scared of the vacuum for a long time, when I stupidly brought out the big clunky one, and now we are back at square one and cleaning up is a lot harder. But I digress. The part of this whole paragraph relevant to the rest of this blog post is the second part of the room, the play area.

    The play area drives me bonkers! Because it is such an open area in a main part of our home, I want to keep it clean and organized, which feels like a losing battle. It just feels like there is too much! I put a bunch of toys in storage now, especialy ones that B is too old for and O is too young for, but it was not enough. I really really need to come up with a storage solution that looks a lot neater. I have been wanting this Ikea bookshelf for ever, but I just cannot justify the Ikea shipping. The Trofast system would also be perfect in that area. A lot of things would probably be better than the mishmash of storage I have right now. I wish I could find rolling boxes for under the Thomas table. I like that table, it seems like the perfect height and size for all of B’s car and train play. The play area feels like a work in progress, but I just want it to look better! Maybe that will be my next weekend project.

    Most importantly, I have to try not to buy anymore toys! It’s easier said than done though. Looking at toy cars has become a part of our trips to the mall or Walmart. And B has a face that is hard to say no to, and I like looking at Hot Wheels with him and trying to find the coolest car. I will say that yesterday we went to both a toy store and Walmart, and left without anything or a fuss, so it can be done. I did get some art supplies, but those don’t count, they are more of a consumable product anyways, and they get stored elsewhere. So Ryan and I have declared that we will not buy anymore toys until Christmas. And then it will be good quality stuff, like one or two Plan Toys play sets instead of a lot of smaller stuff.

    B is getting back into books. I think this was spurred by our new nightime routine, in which he gets to pick out any book he wants, and then I read that and two more while he sits in bed right before I turn out the lights. He is really into Bernstein Bear books right now, us having inherited Ryan’s childhood collection. The last book is always I’m Not Scared, about a little owl out in the woods with his stuffed Owlie, whom he claims is the one who is really scared of the dark. It’s a cute book for a little guy just realizing he might be scared of the dark. Later today, time granting, I am going to sew B a toy Owlie so he has a friend in the dark, I think he’d really like it

    My favorite moment of the week was right before I put B to bed last night. He had found my childhood Care Bear (Bedtime Bear) that I slept with every night until I was far to old. B got the same one (but modernized) for his first Christmas, and he sleeps with it every night. When he found mine, he got really excited. He told me they were the same, and showed me all of the things they had in common, like noses, tails, hearts and hair. He then sat them on the bed to read stories with us (and he made sure they saw every page) and then fell asleep with both of them. It was precious.