a few setbacks but things are still getting done...

Some time to reflect on the last week and share some things that have made me grateful.

 No time to be depressed when you are happy for what you have.

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although I have been bed bound as of late again due to a cold and flare up  I have found massive time to craft and create. 

entering my work into the next wool fiber fair.

 

Koda's memorial tattoo for her uncle Glen. 

 

a successful year end awards ceremony for my Sparkie. Next year will be her last year as a Spark.

 

a successful surgery for Magnar getting fixed. I worried about complications so I am glad all went well. 

 

Giddy learning how to use the electric board with Daddy. 

 

antiques brought back from storage and back into our home. 

KCCO- Spring equinox swap and a sweater for me

 I apologize for being away. Between drowning at work, a sick family and Randy getting into a motorcycle accident I have not had time for creating and crafting. I have missed it terribly and forced some last night which made my heart sing. The Hobbit movies and soundtracks have been on to remind me of a childhood comforting story, something I hope to ingrain in my children on how those stories create such solid memories, or nightmares ( I was always terrified of those dang spiders!).

I signed up a few weeks ago to participate in a spring equinox swap for some new decor as it use to bring me joy and found it hard to get enough approvals. We finally decided on raindrops and clouds as nothing says spring to me more being in Illinois.

 

I have also finally located my missing yarn bag from New Years that had my Wisteria cardigan. As much as I hate using acrylic as of lately I chose Caron Simply Soft as I was too scared to use something nice and expensive for my first "official" clothing endeavor. 

Goldenrod goodness

Over this weekend we went on a nature walk to collect goldenrod flowers for dying yarn. Originally the plan was to make flying stars for Michaelmas however that will not be happening so I may just use this fun yarn for another project.

 

I found this process to be fairly simple however I am unsure of how color fast it is. Only time will tell after the final projects are made.

We chopped off all of the flowers and threw them in a pot of water then let it heat for about an hour or so without boiling.

I then strained the flowers through some muslin fabric and a colander with a toddler underfoot and managed not to spill any of the hot liquid on his newly bald head. Score!

I threw about half of the tiny bottle of Alum powder in and it clouded within the dark brown and turned to a super bright gold. Chemistry is awesome. I threw in about half of a skein of the wool yarn. This dye will not work on acrylic yarn so if you try this at home please don't waste your time!  

Rinse and let dry in the ucky bathtub which is highly overdue for a cleaning but obviously I'm too busy crafting instead.

It is still drying currently from last night but I cant wait to make something from it!

New mittens {KCCO}

I decided to whip up some baby mittens for Gid since putting gloves on him is the biggest royal pain. I don't like the cheap nylon mittens from Wal-Mart for the kids as they get soaked easily in the snow.

I crocheted these up quickly in cascade wool and made my own pattern inspired by many others. There are only so many ways to make a simple tube with a thumb hole. I love this blue and I hope he likes them.

What are you crafting right now?

Adult coloring books {KCCO}

My husband got me one of these "adult coloring books" for my Christmas present this year.  It amazes me what some of these costs for simple pages printed and bound but I guess whatever sells right? I am enjoying having these at my desk at work to slowly go through since it will take me a good long while due to how detailed it is. I am thinking of splurging and bringing my nice colored pencils from home vs dollar store colored pencils that are breaking every pencil stroke.

So excited!

Sewing my first skirt

  

I finally made my first attempt at a skirt for Nanners. I had put it off for YEARS since I was so scared of it looking horrid. Our sewing machine is highly temperamental so I decided to save myself a headache and  just hand stitch all of it.  I purchased 3 bed sheets from Salvation Army and cut all the pieces from this pattern.  

I love how it ended up and am planning on making "matchy match" versions for the bigger girls. 

KCCO: a birthday gift

 My littles have a birthday party coming up for a friend. This friend is the only one that does birthday parties so our kids are always excited. The family is a bit more mainstream than us so we are the oddballs that give handmade gifts. This is going to be a troll/ogre house when completed. I'm still unsure if I will stuff the roof to give it more shape or leave it flopping depending on time constraints. We will be painting a peg guy or 2 to go along with it.

Since we can't have only one project at once I am practicing me knit and purl stiches for washcloths with some cheapo rainbow cotton from Walmart.

 

What's on your hooks/needles today? 

Granny Stitch Fingerless Gloves

So I finished crocheting a granny style shawl a few weeks ago from this pattern and felt that I needed some gloves to go with them. I used this pattern as an inspiration however modified it heavily to make it into a granny squares vs the lacier look. Below is the pattern I created so I can make them again for gifts.

Yarn: Worsted weight

Hook: 4.5mm/U.S. G

Abbreviations

Ch: chain

Sc: single crochet

Dc: double crochet

Sl st: slip stitch

Cuff

Ch 28, join with sl st, being careful not to twist the chain,

Round 1: Ch 1, sc in every stitch around, join to ch 1 with sl st

Round 2-4: Ch 1, DC in each around

Glove

Round 5: Ch 3, 2 dc in same stitch, *skip 2 stitches, 3 dc in third stitch, repeat from * around until there are only 2 stitches left, join to ch 2

Round 6-10: Sl st in middle dc of dc cluster, ch 1, 3 dc in same stitch, *3 dc in every open space*

Thumb space

Round 11: Repeat Round 6 until the last dc cluster, skip the last dc cluster, and join to 3rd chain of ch 4 with sl st

Round 12-14: Repeat Round 7

Round 15: Ch 1, sc in every stitch around, join to ch 1, fasten off.

Weave in all ends

Learning to knit

 As you may start to notice a keyboard, pens and notebooks are normally in the background of most of my crafting photos. I spend a good amount of time crafting at work as I work in a call center so there is some down time in between calls. I am not slacking I promise and crafting is AWESOME stress relief  from the yelling and crabby people I speak to daily. I have had a few coworkers ask me to teach them to crochet so there will be more of that on another day as I am teaching macho men to create crochets bunnies and scarfs.

Well during some free time I was checking out Wee Folk Art which is one of my favorite blogs to visit. If you have never been... You need to. Tons of crafty fun goodness.

For the last 3 years I have wanted to learn how to knit. I would sit down with directions from here and get a good cast on and end up with a knotted mess. Several swears later it would be in a ball and I would pick up my crochet hook for something more comforting. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't figure out: In, Around, Under, Off. Until now.

I figured I would Youtube it as Google and Youtube can teach you how to do ANYTHING. Ask my husband. He has learned how to fix nursemaids elbow, completely rebuild computers with motherboards and hard drives and rewire our vans.  The internet is wonderful, but back to knitting.

So I ended up here which had a wonderful step by step video. I finally figured out it was the wrong prepositions for me to understand it. For myself I have to go: In, Under, Around ( wrap) and (push) off. The story I tell myself in my head is quite a morbid one pushing someone off a cliff but whatever works right?

The final result. 

It is not straight or even but it is beautiful as it is the furthest I have ever gotten before.  I am very proud of myself and am looking forward to making my first scarf. Knit on!

Bit o' Spring- Grateful Sunday

Finally finished a bit o spring to go on our fireplace. Kool-aid dyed yarn for the flowers and some Patton's blue wool for the chain. I've had it sitting for weeks so glad to be done.

Here is the flower pattern in case anyone else would love to make it too!

Other things I'm grateful for:

Nanner's having learned and respected our rules for dressing and remembering to apply them at all times, even when its her dance costume.

Finding a breast milk donor for Giddy so that although I am not producing as much as I use to that he can still get breast milk.

Koda finally turning 18 and getting the ambition to take her driver's test soon. *crossing fingers*

Ryguy finally talking more.

Randy is able to go riding a few times with his cousin and enjoying having a motorcycle buddy again.

What are you grateful for?

Mandala

The value of life does not depend upon the place we occupy.

It depends upon the way we occupy that place.

St. Therese de Lisieux

Craftin

I have found a newfound love of the Waldorf swaps. Basically in a nutshell a bunch of moms pick a theme, do some major crafting and then swap and share! This months theme was "Play Kitchen" so I was very excited seeing I just finished making the kids their own bigger kitchen out of a repurposed coffee table. I hope it isn't just me but I get frustrated when I look at some of the toy kitchens and it seems only 1-2 children can fit over there at a time. With 7 total its just not an option so the coffee table was a much better fit.

 My contribution for the swap is sushi so I journaled a bit for inspiration.  

and then Beanie and Koda helped paint all the pieces I had cut out from my new scroll saw I received from my dad for my birthday.

Aren't they sweet?!

Crafty Christmas

I'll let you all know a little secret.  As crafty as I am I HATE crafting with my kids. Between the huge age gap, 2 sensory defensive kids and different interest level it turns something I love into something I dread. Nothing is worse than a huge mess with a crying kid due to it being sticky and others frusterated that they cant get it just right like mine. 

I had an extra day off this weekend and had an extra nap so I got ultra courageous. And remembered that my attitude is most important and keep it simple. Here are the great ugly holiday sweaters they decorated.

Pure beauty

I ordered a mystery box of yarn and was so excited to see this inside. This will be used as a special treat for me!

New Crochet stuff

Well one of my old friends from highschool just had a beautiful baby boy. She asked if I could come up with a small blanket for him.  She gave me free reign and said blue,green, yellow and make it cute. I can totally live with that.

Enter the pattern from here - totally cute and adorable

I have also been making some toys for our little Booger for when He/She/It arrives in October. 

this cute rattle from here

I cant wait to get everything finished!

DIY texture letters

Well I have wanted to get Nanners some sandpaper letters for awhile now. However being frugal (read: super poor) I decided to make some so she can use. I did not have sandpaper and I did not want to buy ANYTHING. I had seen some Chinese letters done in glitter glue before so I figured I could take the idea and morph it into my own.

 

 Our finished product. 

First I traced out our template.We used manilla folders cut into 8ths (4 from each side of the folder). I did not feel like buying cardstock. 

I got my outline for cursive letters from here. Find Cursive letter template I figured I would try cursive with her first as more and more I see children have an easier time with cursive than print. I did not bother printing these templates. I placed the manilla folder DIRECTLY on my laptop with the screen laying flat so I could trace it.

 

Then we colored everything in. Blue for the consonants and red for the vowels.  It matches the set of movable letters I have downloaded for when she is ready. (We have noncolor coded letters for her older brother to practice his reading/writing)

 

Then I took my hot glue gun and filled in all the letters. They are stringy and blobby which gives it a weird texture. You have to go over them slowly which makes more emphasis on the letter. 

And that's it! Simple as that! The other kids got to help me do all of the coloring and ironically our 9 year old, Beanie colored better than my 14 year old, Kota. Go figure. 

 

Plus a picture of Nanners and Beanie working together on our snaps electric board. We got it for free at the homeschool conference in Chicago and it gets used often. Nanners loves watching the older kids make fans and making things go flying! 

I am linking up to Montessori Monday!

Thankful Thursday- Crochet

Well now you know my 3rd love. It involves a hook and big balls of colorful yarn. I had always wanted to learn how to crochet or knit. Well this summer I decided it was about time I figured it out since I had found my Gama's and Mother's old hooks. I didnt really want to try knitting as it looked more complex. Plus no one needs to see me with 2 big pointy sticks. (It would be like the movie Bless the Child all over... not a kid friendly movie)

Also I'm not into looking like this.

So sometimes Nanners helps me crochet too!

All the kids have hats and such so I began working yet again on a blanket. Im using this pattern
this is my blanket

I am about a quarter of the way done. Still a lot to do since it needs to fit our king sized bed. Its a good time killer though!

Crocheting a big blanket is on my 101 in 1001 so its yet another one I can mark as started!!