The Kitchen Table

kids' clothes week spring 2012

It's back. Elsie Marley's kids' clothes week challenge. I've looked. I've wanted. I've lurked.

This year, I'm in.

 

via www.elsiemarley.com

OMG. An hour a day, that's all she asks for the clothing challenge. Given it took me three weeks to make two wee pairs of pants and a twirly skirt, am I crazy?
What's on my side: I know I can sew and get quite a bit done in an hour.
Bama no longer naps, but she rests AND she can sew buttons on to her fabric while I'm sewing.
Rabbit naps.
I have morning time while she's in school.
I'm desperate to get more pants and skirts done before spring and summer are really here.
I'm in. I signed my name to the comment board. No one will know except me if I flake ... okay, make that no one would have known if I hadn't slapped this post together. And tweeted it.

Playdough!

We've been talking about making playdough for months, but Bama and I hit a focused creative project skid that lasted until this week. 

Playdough. There are recipes everywhere online, but I used this one from Nurturestore, a UK blog I follow on twitter. It took all of 10 minutes. The only downside to home projects is the crazy amount of salt and flour you need to have around. Otherwise, so fun. 

I mixed the hot water into the dry ingredients and oil that she'd stirred together. 

We made blue, yellow, red, and green. Then we added some extra blue to change the green, and a little more yellow to lighten the red. Bama's art teacher (we love Miss Elizabeth!!) has been teaching color blending to the class, so support at home is helpful. 

And so fun.

Off the Needles

Since I'm all kerfuffled about posting these days, it seems, here is a quicky to show what's cast-off, woven in, and done.

An Irish hiking hat for Grandpa who's chemo-d head needs a bit of soft warmth this winter. Nice, don't you think? I modified the pattern a bit (one change was deliberate, one was accidental). More info on ravelry in my projects.

A tasty scarf for the wife of a high school friend. Six plus feet long, about 9 inches wide. I'm happy with how it turned out. Rumor is, she is, too. Two people from my NY knitting group gave me scraps to liven it up. Sweet.

Rabbit, a blur in his new Milo. Note to self: mark the right side of your projects so that you remember where you are. You have two small children, after all. It will eliminate the need to frog. 

Officially, Milo will be one of his birthday presents. It's a rich, dark burgundy brown color. The yarn is, wait for it, Lion Brand. Yep. Superwash Merino. Natch.

Pumpkin 101

This year was the 32nd annual pumpkin carving hosted by my stepmother. For years, she and my father had people over to show off their Halloween costumes and carve up pumpkins into some pretty amazing jack-o-lanterns. My dad did a UPC bar code once, my grandfather used a salad bowl of veggies to embellish his. Grandpa Hans' were almost always the most amazing. He had an incredible gift for creating with his hands.

Because we're in New York, we last year and now this year's party. To keep us in the loop, Nana sent us a care package of Halloween awesomeness that included carving tools, a pumpkin candle, and some embarrassingly funny Halloween visors that Bama resolutely wants to keep forever. I've been doling out glow sticks, but I put the chocolate foil ghosts and ghouls into our fall window. (She didn't know they were candy but the neighbor's daughter did.)

We needed to get crack-a-lacking on our pumpkin, so after Cici and I met for coffee, she came back to visit and chronicle our pumpkin carving extravaganza. 

Bama's class had cut open pumpkins, lemons, avocados, and some other foods to see what colors and seeds were inside. Once is not enough. We pulled the top off our first, and immediate oohs and aahs!

What kind of eyes do we want? I asked. I drew samples on the paper and she chose.

The visors! 

Seeds, pumpkins, silly jack-o-lantern.

We also cut open a pie pumpkin. The inside isn't really scoopable. After a few minutes tug of war with the top, we got inside and looked ...

Hmmm. Mama, what could you be doing?  

Cici and Bama took some photos of me lounging ...

 ... and coming in for a smooch.

Ha! I see you!

Preparing the Monster

By now, you might have seen Bama practicing her scary. She learned how to Aarh like a monster from The Backyardigans (what, don't judge).

She wanted to be a monster, furry, blue. I lucked out and found the costume. But it needed tweaking. She needed bell peppers, for one thing.

Because she was a monster who eats bell peppers, after all.

She needed a tail, she said. She suggested stuffing tights, I offered to attach pom poms. In  the end, I watched a couple of episodes of Game of Thrones and whipped up a dozen pom poms and an i-cord.

 The monster has a sidekick. The garden gnome who grows bell peppers. I used a tutorial from here to whip up a hat the night before. (She used this tutorial to create her pattern. The sizing, to be clear, is for a toddler. It fits Bama perfectly. I can wear it, but would probably make it an inch bigger all around if I did.)

The gnome doesn't have eyebrows or a beard. Maybe next year when he's walking around. He did score a belt (felt) and gardening tools -- the turquoise is a trowel and rake. They are  stitched together and velcroed to the belt, which is also velcroed. The belt buckle is another piece of felt I cut into a square, then cut two smaller rectangles out of and slid onto the belt.

The gnome takes a break. I sewed his pieces up in the morning. A more ambitious and organized mama would have been on it earlier, and would have used this velvet to make a snail shell. Planning for next year!

Slouch

Aunty Zobot stopped by with double guacamole, chips, and a chicken burrito from Dos Toros for Bama and me to share.

Zobot moved to New York a couple of weeks after we did, and neither of us came with a proper East Coast winter coat. I worried she'd be cold most of hte winter. She said I didn't own enough socks. I gave her a pair of Toast last year, and now I'm thinking she needs a hat.

She'll probably get this one, my second take on the Felicity pattern. The first wasn't slouchy enough, almost, but not quite there. I had enough of the delicious blue yarn I'd bought in Vermont last fall to knock out another one, so I did. With more slouch.

Maybe too much slouch. Zobot looks pretty good in it, don't you think?

 

Then, because I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing (having a new baby will do that), I was close to running out of delicious blue before I could bring the darn hat to a close. 

Classic Elite Inca Alpaca in London to the rescue!

Check out that slouch. Zobot could fit her new niece in that pouch.

I have the hat because she convinced me it looks good on me. Hah. Happy Christmas, Zobot! ;)

Nova.

It's done, in time for fall if it ever arrives. Orange tights? Gray tights? She needs new wellies, to boot. ;)

Maybe not the most amazing photo ever, but she stood still long enough for me to take this photo. The others, she was a blur, sweaty despite the air conditioning in the humid fall.

I'm happy with the fit. I knit the four-year-old size of Nova and my row gauge was on, necessary for the body and sleeve stripes to line up, but my stitch count was tight so it might wear a little snugger down the line. We'll have to see how she grows. 

Regarding the pattern. ....

I have comments on Ravelry, some of which are duplicated below regarding the pattern. Overall, it was easy and relatively quick. I think I'd recommend it to other people. Do follow the row counts as that's what matters for the stripes to correspond.

I carried the yarns up the side to reduce the number of strands for weaving in. Still, I had about 20 or so at the top to manage from the flap and various pick-ups around the neckline. 

It might be the way I read dirctions, but I found some of the pattern details unclear and posted in the Petite Purls forum and emailed the designer. I did not not follow the instructions for the front flap and neckline, in part because size 4 has a four extra rows (and I don't know exactly why that is), and because it uses the "pick up from the right" kind of language that I never understand in knitting patterns, even if I read aloud. My pick-ups seem to be going the wrong way, so in this case, I picked up with double pointeds as you'll see below.

• Frustrating directions when it came to the "front flap" and pick up for the finish. 
• There are no stitch counts, so keep track of your decreases, adding them up before you begin.
• What I did, after several false starts, pickign up stitches along the right and left sides, across the middle, decreasing ... I decide to go my own way. I used double pointed needles to pick up the 20 stitches (for the size four) on the left (facing right) side of the pattern, skipped the first marker, knit one, PM, then knit across the top, didn't K2TOG, knit on, PM, k1. Third DPN, picked up the last 20 sts, which meant I picked up 21 because the attempts to pick up the initial stitches bolloxed the right (facing left) side of the "flap."
• Flap done. Onto the back and shoulders. Not sure how many stitches I should have (yes, i could go back and count through the pattern, but I won't), but I'm going for it. Directions say "purl row," but don't forget to pick up the yarn. I'm hoping I'm supposed to have only two markers on the back. Fingers crossed. 
• FYI, all of this, I find a little tight on the circulars, so if you have two sets, you might use them.

 

We said good bye, I love you. She was engrossed. I cried.

When Mister and I moved to NYC last summer, we refused to be sucked into the preschool, elementary school, test your child, where's your child going to go to school? What? YOU DONT' KNOW? craze.

We shrugged. We sniffed. We looked up schools. We looked up the tuitions. We rolled our eyes. We said, "But we probably won't be here," and "It's cheaper in California!" We buried our heads in the sand. 

We also weren't convinced we wanted to put Bama in preschool. We hadn't, or at least, I hadn't, thought it through before we moved, so landing here wasn't making my thinking any clearer.

Mid-March, the mamas in our music class were all discussing where their kids got in, where they were going. Hmmm, I thought. We did another round of websites, Mister signed us up for an open house. We didn't go.

The music house offered an extended program for kids like Bama, who won't be three in time for the cut-off at most preschools (so she'd be in with the twos), or parents like us, and not really keen on spending $8,000-$15,000 for preschool. 

We committed. We signed her up. We put down a deposit. Our friends talked about their schools. I tried not to panic or feel jealous.

The main teacher broke her foot, making it impossible for her to start the year. The music teacher was unsettled. I started to panic. Were we selling Bama short? 

Maybe we are, but I took our girl to class this morning in a place she's familiar with to see people she knows. Hello! she said to Margaret, the registrar. Hello! to Miss Crystal, the teacher's assistant who is gallantly leading class for two weeks while Miss Elizabeth is out. 

We were a little late, but still had time to take in the "Welcome!" balloon poster with everyone's name. I put Bama's favorite book, fresh clothes, snacks, and dinosaur bag in her cubby. (The bag is a separate post.)

We caught the second half of the story time, which was about a chameleon learning about colors. Then, painting! Familiar smocks and her spot at the art table.

Watching Miss Crystal combine colors. Books like Mouse Paint are helpful, but seeing it in action is mind-blowing!

 

Focus!

 

Papa picked our girl up just before lunch. The first part of class is all art, then the music time (they played instruments today!), then play. The back garden is a beautiful play area with an incredible cherry blossom tree that coats the garden in spring. Lots of shade year round. 

Bama is holding her family necklace, which I put together last night. Thanks to Mister for giving me the suggestion (directions from Moomah).

She picked five photos from a stack of 15 or so that I'd printed and mounted on cards. I put those on her necklace, which is floss tied off with beads. The rest are in a small "book" that I tied with yarn and attached to her dinosaur bag. Her necklace has photos of her and Rabbit, her and me, Mister with her and Rabbit, and Rabbit. Uncle Jay, Bird, Bryan, and others are in the larger collection. She wore the necklace the whole morning, I think. It was worth staying up and creating to give her an extra bit of love from us to last her on her new adventure.

My tweet from this morning: We said good bye, I love you. She was engrossed. I cried.

We went to Bar Pitti for dinner to celebrate, and then Mister took her to get a cupcake, to really celebrate being a big girl. Wow. Big steps.

Hands

 

Bama and I mixed up some salt-dough to make hand and foot impressions, one each for her and one each for Rabbit. We looked at pcitures online to see what other people had done, cobbling together the recipe from a couple of different places, but I really liked the giant recipe card Anna Ranson at The Imagination Tree used with her daughter. I made our own, which I finally recycled the other day. Oops. It needed refining. ;)

Rabbit looked close to tipping out of his Bumbo, which is why we no longer own it. That boy loves to lean into things. He seemed inspired by Bama's expert mixing and tasting of all ingredients: flour, salt, water. I gave her a lump to roll around (she made a worm) while I rolled four balls, two for each of them. 

Imprints challenged me in different ways. With Bama, it was making sure she didn't press through the dough. With Rabbit, it was keeping him in my arms mid-squish. But, we did it. The giant holes are for string. 

 

After drying, which wasn't enough, by the way, we painted our pieces. This is, by the way, a great two-day project, each day is fun and creative and interesting and different from the other. 

During painting

Me: Would you like some water?

Bama: No, thank you. I just want to paint.

Later ... Bama: Blue and yellow make green!!

 

A word about paints

I used acrylic paints for the hands and Rabbit's foot. Bama painted her foot with watercolors. I'm not keen on letting Bama use acrylics because they are difficult to clean off a toddler, the table, the floor, anywhere even a tidy girl might get some paint. But, the watercolors ate away at her foot print. So much so that we'll probably make another batch this month and replace it. 

 

 

The final results are pretty nice. It's difficult to see the details, but they are there. Check out that fine scaffolding in the background!

 

Log Cabin. Ka-bam!

It's hard to understand how something uncomplicated could take more than a month to finish, but here it is: Pickle's own blanket (with a drool-spot of approval in the top dark blue strip). I'm pleased with the result. Colorful, just enough baby to keep it baby, and just enough sass to keep it interesting. 

It's about 26" x 26", not terribly big, but a good size for strollers and naps. Plus, it's cotton (Blue Sky Alpaca Dyed Cotton), so guaranteed to stretch out a bit. It's nice and spongy. Great for my boy who's sucking on anything within reach and rolling around the floor like he's a Rumba.