novamade

second day of novakkah (2012)

There are some people out there who don't buy into the whole celebrating birthdays bit.  I do not understand you people.  That being said, my birthday celebration this year is going great!  I spent half the day in the car driving back from Richmond, VA today, but since I slept for most of it...it was a clear win. 

I had a great time at MDSW by the way, I didn't buy much to be honest, it was fun to just be there (and meet blog readers!).

You are probably wondering what I am giving away today.  Oh, I am so glad you were wondering!  Today I am giving away a stitchie kit.  A while ago, I made two patterns based on the Littles, and I think they are pretty cute (I am biased, obviously).  The beautiful thing is this: you can alter the pattern as you see fit.  Making this for someone with blonde hair and blue eyes?  I am sure there is floss for that...and I probably have it!  in any case, stitchie kit.  Today's winner will get a sizable square of Kona cotton upon which to stitch your little heart out, embroidery floss, a needle and a pattern. Either Flying or Floating, you pick.

To get this prize of utter cuteness (again, bias...and maybe a little self-promotion, but whatever) please tell me: what is the best birthday gift you have ever gifted to another person?

I will take comments for this post, and all Novakkah posts, until 11:59 EST (or2359, should you prefer that), Saturday, May 12th. Please leave your responses on the appropriate post. One entry per post/person. I will show you what I have to gift each day and let you know what you need to tell me to try to get it. Giftees will be selected on the 13th and gifts sent out shortly thereafter.

happy easter!

happy st.patrick's day!

mittens are not sweaters

 

While it might appear that I am expertly avoiding the task of sweater knitting or quilt-making, do not be fooled. I am going to wow you with brilliance shortly (I am not kidding about this, prepare for a craft attack of shock and awe); but, for now you can be underwhelmed (or at least average-whelmed) by some mittens.

Little Mister loses mittens like it's his job. He is down to one store bought pair for the rest of the season (which has actually been pretty mild, if we are being honest); and, everyday we pick him up from school, the big question is always, "where are the mittens?" It's taken me a awhile to realize the stupidity of this conundrum, because here are the facts:

• I know how to knit (I know, shocking),
• mittens are actually pretty easy to knit (I am speaking of basic mittens without bells, whistles and accoutrement),
• mittens, particularly those for a child, are a pretty quick knit.

So yes, I knit a pair of mittens. I had to do something with the extra skein of handspun that I wound up for the Valentine's Day hats. The yarn was supposed to be Little Mister's hat, but the gauge was off, the yarn weight was more of a dk-light worsted yarn, and the hats were for heavy worsted, or aran weight yarn. In any case, I did a gauge swatch (I know, I do gauge swatches all the time now, I am just as surprised as you, really), and just knit based on a hand tracing of Little Mister's hand (which leads me to believe that Little Mister has big hands for a three year old; but, there you are).

So, while a pair of mittens do not a sweater (or a quilt) make, I made something pretty functional for Little Mister. And lets be honest, they are pretty fabulous (she says humbly, ahem).  He is a little annoyed that they are red and not green or some other color that he loves right now (like brown, or white--I have no idea), but really, he is just going to lose them anyway, so I suppose I will get around to a green pair eventually.

a presidential kind of halloween

"...please, step away from the President."

2011 will always be remembered as the year we went presidential for Halloween.  The extent of my craftiness this year was hijacking a campaign button and fashioning it into a button for Little Sir.  When asked what he was supposed to be for Halloween, his reply: "the President of the United States running for re-election in 2012".  In a true spirit of non-partisanship, he opted to be a member of the Independent Party...or, as he says, "the thinking party."  Okay.  And a President obviously can not get by without a security detail, so Little Mister was the lead agent on his team. 

The verdict is still out on whether I will don a suit and sunglasses tonight to take them trick-treating, but there you are.

I have been busy lately.  Because I am a glutton for punishment, I am taking two classes again (in addition to working full time and doing the wife thing, the mom thing and trying to do the sleep thing (only occasionally).  I have been doing a slew of crafting in spare moments here and there and I actually have something to show for my efforts, but more on that later.  I am heading out to Houston in a few days to go to the International Quilt Festival, so I will probably want to talk about quilts when I get back.  You can be excited, I am.

In the mean time, how about some studio shots from my photographic lighting class?

wool (& celebration) is in the air

 
I really love this time of year.  The weather starts to warm up, flowers start to grow, birthdays are celebrated, and wool and sheep festivals start happening. 

As we have done for the past few years, the Littles and I packed up for a day in Vernon Rockville, Connecticut to spend a day with sheep (and sundry other animals).

We also did some (not alot, just a little) shopping.

How can you not when there are, among other things, vendors with so much awesome?

We had fun.              

So much fun.

We had so much fun that we think we will head down to Maryland for that big wool and sheep festival this weekend, you know the one.  Anyone else going?  I will be there on Satruday with K and the Littles.  I will be the woman wearing nary a handknit (but possibly a party hat) chasing her children all over the fairgrounds.  Good times!

Also, tomorrow starts a celebration, you know the one.  It's a fun party, I think; and, of course, you are invited.

egg-static weekend report

 
I don't mean to brag (who am I kidding?), but I had a weekend that can best be described as "stellar", you know, like my name?  Oh, never mind.  It was a good weekend.  I got some quilting done; and, by "some" I mean quite a lot, actually.  Five quilts quilted.  That's not bad, all things considered. 
And of course there were the Easter doings. 

 
I dyed eggs (which made me want to dye fiber).  I had help of course (and all things are improved by the accoutrement of bunny ears).

I made an unseemly number of cupcakes for an Easter lunch with friends. 
I helped the Easter Bunny hide Easter eggs, apparently that's what one does when one has small children.

 
I watched egg hunting activities unfold.  The shenanigans of which were royally entertaining.

 

And yes, the Littles were all dressed up in their Easter finery. 

 
I think it only fitting to tell you that Little Sir picked their Easter outfits this year.  No, really.

"the children need hats"

 
Little Sir has taken to referring to himself and his brother as, "the children."  I am not sure why.  While it sounds cute in theory, waking up to a child yelling, "the children are awake" or "the children are hungry!" a few mornings in a row has killed any sort fondness I had for the phrase when it first became part of the vernacular of our house.  The one thing I have learned of late, my "the children" are very needy.  But what they were most in need of, apparently, were hats.

 
Little Sir mentioned on several occasions that he "could really use a a hat, maybe one that was handknit."  He further piqued my interest by appealing to the fiber-crafter in me by saying that "it would be nice if it was made from handspun yarn, too." So obviously, he was going to get what he wanted, at least in this regard . 
I let him go through all of my handspun and he picked out his favorite.  I really nice blue-sy superwash merino dyed by Traveling Rhinos in the Baron colorway that I spun up ages ago (you remember back when I decided to spin a rainbow ? I know it was a really long time ago).  I did want to start doing something with my handspun, afterall, so this worked out well. 

 
And you can't knit a hat for one child and not the other, well, you could, I guess, but that would be mean.  So I picked some of the Ashland Bay merino (in English Garden) that I spun to knit a hat for Little Mister.

 
While he normally eschews anything that covers his head, Little Mister has taken a shine (I have no idea where this phrase come from, but I think it's funny) to wearing this hat.  He loves it.  Which I, of course, think is awesome.

 
The best thing about these hats are the fact that I just cast on and knit.  Okay, reverse that, I took the measurements for the circumference of their heads (they're both huge) and did a small swatch (I know, it was an OMG moment for me, too).  I ripped out the swatch (I wanted to make sure I had enough yarn--I did), I did a little bit of math and cast on and knit.  Knitting on the fly.  I know, it's just a hat (or two, actually), but it was the first time I had this thought of "pattern?  I don't need no stinkin' pattern," and was, well, right!  Yes, I do feel terribly clever.

 
So now "the children"  have hats. Knit with handspun, no less.

love, twue love

 
Did you celebrate Valentine's Day?  The day itself, for me, was uneventful, but the days leading up to it were very celebratory.  Children sort of force the issue of ridiculous holiday observance (says she who considers her birthday a holiday, ahem) because they get interested in anything Hallmark chooses to hype up, and really, hoping to be a contender for the Mother of the Year award sort of obligates one to play up the interests of one's children, and etcetera.

Special K wants nothing to do with Valentine's Day, but even he felt inclined to cave in because the Littles wanted to get me flowers (which was sweet, really). 
So mostly, I guess you could say we celebrated Valentine's Day this year by catering to Little Sir and Little Mister.  I made red velvet cupcakes because Little Sir wondered what they were (he decided that he "didn't like them, actually." 
I made cupcakes for other people, and let Little Sir decorate them with those teeth-achingly sweet tiny hearts (he was obsessed with them this year). 
I read books with Little Mister all weekend, because it's his thing right now (please excuse his Robert Pattinson 'do, he is loathe do let anyone touch his hair post naptime). 
And the thing I did that really demonstrates maternal sacrifice...I sat down and patiently watched Little Sir write out all of his Valentines this year.  He was adamant about doing them himself (with me watching him do it).  It was cute for the first three minutes. 

 

After two hours, I wanted to gouge my eyes out; but, I smiled the whole time and told him what a great job he was doing --even though many names ended up two lines long, and I had to listen to him complain about parents--including his own--giving their children names with so many letters.  I just smiled and nodded, because I am pretty sure that's what you are supposed to do when a four year old, basically, tells you--the parent--that while you thought the name you were bestowing on him was so terribly clever, it wasn't and you, in fact, are a moron.  Smiled and nodded. That is true love, no?

soul men

 
Did you have good Halloweens?  Ours was pretty rockin', or blues-y, as it were.  I mean, seriously, with Jake and Elwood leading the trick-or-treating train, you know it's going to have a certain amount of awesome.
Little Sir, or, Jake, has been obsessed with the Blues Brothers for the last two months.  We have watched YouTube videos, we have listened to Blues Brothers tracks from various albums; and, of course, we have been singing "I'm a Soul Man" at the top of our lungs with the music blaring from the speakers.  We are cool like that.

 

In case you were wondering; no, I did not make these suits (they were actually  purchased quite inexpensively from a third party vendor through Amazon--for less than the cost of making the suits would have run, it must be said), I was going to and then I realized that would not only be crazypants, but, you know, stupid considering... I don't sew clothes.  Yeah.  And that, boys and girls, is how (or why) the Littles, Sir and Mister, found themselves outfitted in two different costumes during 2010.